Stargate SG-1 Minicaps / Season 2, Eps. 1-4

The Stargate SG-1 Season Two Minicaps would like to welcome our new Goa’uld overlords.

Stewart here…

So at the end of season one, we had SG-1 go rogue and end up on one of Apophis’ Goa’uld pyramid ships on its way to Earth. Add to that Skarra is now Apophis’ son, Klorel, and O’Neill having to kill him, the trouble keeps piling up as Apophis and his invasion force are about to start their invasion. So how will this go down for the outmanned and outgunned SG-1? Well, let’s jump into season two and find out…

“The Serpent’s Lair”

So SG-1’s plan to destroy the Goa’uld ship they’re on has a snag when discovering they have a whole other ship that won’t be destroyed in the process. They get some help accomplishing both with a surprise assist from Bra’tac, as Apophis arrives to the party to revive Klorel/Skarra in time to start their attack on Earth. Meanwhile Samuels is convinced his new super-missiles will keep Hammond from evacuating people off-world (spoilers: the missiles don’t, SG-1 does). It’s a jam packed season premiere that keeps the twists and turns coming up to the last act.

This is why you shouldn’t fly your alien ship buzzed.

–Leave it to smug Samuels to turn yellow once the super-missiles didn’t work and request to go off-world. And leave it to Hammond to endear himself to me by denying that request.

–One big turn I skimmed by was Daniel being injured enough to stay behind on the ship, but he was smart enough to use the sarcophagus that revived Klorel and dial the gate to escape at the last minute.

–Another last minute escape was the rest of SG-1 and Bra’Tac’s escape via the death gliders. That a space shuttle happened to be around to retrieve them was a stroke of luck.

–Apophis and Klorel are still kicking, so there’s still some trouble there to contend with.

–When in doubt about complicated plans to disable a shield generator, just dump a few grenades on it. That seems to work as well.

“In The Line Of Duty”

While evacuating the inhabitants of a planet from a Goa’uld attack, Carter gets possessed (via mouth to Goa’uld possessed mouth) by a Goa’uld. They detain her, and find what’s possessing her doesn’t seem to be one of the evil Goa’ulds they all know about, but there’s trust issues as to what it’s true motives are. And then there’s the threat of a Goa’uld bounty hunter looking for its prey, so there’s that to worry about. Good news is Carter survives this episode, but the Goa’uld doesn’t. This is a pretty important setup episode for the series’ mythology to come, so you may want to take notes for later.

That doesn’t look like a pleasant MRI.

–I should mention Cassandra (the alien kid from season one) pops up here and pretty much clues the team in on the possessed Carter. Something to do with all that Naquadah in her body, yadda yadda yadda.

–So Jolinar (the Goa’uld possessing Carter) is part of the Tok’ra, a resistance group against Apophis and the System Lords. They only take over dying bodies, and we also learn, Goa’uld can enter a body through the inside of the mouth (ewwwwwww!). We’ll be coming back to the Tok’ra later on in this season (hint: the episodes with that in the title).

–Give it up for bad security this episode. That doctor being knocked out by the Ashrak in the hospital is one thing, but really, once you realize there’s a hunter looking for Jolinar/Carter, you don’t beef up the security in the cells?

–Jolinar claims to know where Sha’re is as a way to secure his release. Too bad he sacrifices himself to save Carter’s life before Daniel can find out.

–“Are you injured?” “Dumb question.”

“Prisoners”

When running into an injured alien on an expedition, the team gets swiped up by the ruling force there, tried as criminals, and dumped onto a penal colony. While Hammond tries to figure a way to get the team back, they’re planning to escape with the help of a scientist prisoner. The really bad news comes later when the helpful lady prisoner turns out to be a plague-starting scientist, and she escapes Stargate Command. The lesson here: don’t help anyone escape prison.

–The look on O’Neill’s face seeing and tasting the prison slop: priceless.

“EWWWWWW.”

–Hammond gets to go off-world to negotiate the team’s release. At least he gets out of the office this episode.

–The way the Taldor are represented here seems to be barely there. I mean, we never see them in the flesh, let alone throw SG-1 through the gate minus their weapons. It’s a bit underwhelming.

–Well, don’t expect Linea to come back anytime soon, even though you think SG-1 might want to find her before she causes another global catastrophe. Probably a good thing, as the Taldor are sticklers for things like prison breaks.

–Apparently the prisoners haven’t figured out the Stargate opening burst is something you don’t want to be close to, considering the multiple dead who get incinerated by it.

–“Teal’c, look scary and take point.”

“The Gamekeeper”

SG-1 gets captured on an expedition and put into a virtual reality simulator, where they are forced to relive memories of the past. They discover the inhabitants of the planet are there and as trapped as they are by the Keeper, the man who’s running the simulations to preserve the planet from his people. So the team has to run a gambit of simulations to find their way out and back to reality. We get a lot of nods to the past of O’Neil and Jackson (in Daniel’s case, the accidental death of his parents) in this episode as well, so that’s going for it.

I guess you could say SG-1 is trapped in a…holodeck? OK, I’ll stop there.

–Hey it’s Barclay from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Dwight Schultz) as The Keeper. Took me a bit to realize that at first. By the way, The Keeper’s kind of an ass. I’m glad the freed people mess with his garden at the end.

–Kawalsky appears in O’Neill’s simulation of a failed mission, so it’s good to see him again, with all of his head intact, of course.

–Teal’c has a head of hair in one of the simulations? Well, that can’t happen until at least season eight, so right there, its not real.

–A interesting note back to “In The Line of Duty” in the Keeper can’t read Carter’s mind, because of her absorbing the dead Jolinar symbiote. This might explain a few things of her character later down the road.

–“Um, General. Without meaning – this time – to sound like… a smartass… are you cracked?”

NEXT TIME: Daniel’s relationship with a princess brings problems in “Need”, SG-1 returns to Cimmeria to fight a Goa’uld invasion in “Thor’s Chariot”, an alien orb takes control of Stargate Command in “Message In A Bottle”, and the team fight to save Teal’c’s son from Apophis’ brainwashing in “Family”.