Stargate SG-1 Minicaps / Season 2, Eps. 13-16

The Stargate SG-1 Season Two Minicaps only used that extra Gate once, and it was for business purposes only.

Stewart here…

So previously, SG-1 managed to secure an alliance with some good Goa’ulds in the fight against Apophis and the System Lords. Of course, Carter’s dad is now a host for one of these Tok’ra, but considering he was dying, it’s not the worst alternative. Also, we ran into the actual Asgardians, who look like little gray aliens. So, let’s see where the next jump through the gate is going to take us…

“Spirits”

SG-1 is off to find a missing team who was tasked with mining some rare minerals. There, they find the populace believes in spirits that protect them, and want the mining stopped. When SG-1 gets back their missing sister team, they find out these “spirit Gods” aren’t quite as mystical as they seem. Spoilers: they’re aliens, and they are really protective of the planet’s people.

You got something on your nostril, buddy. No, the other one. No no, the other one. No, I mean, the other…

–A small bit of continuity with Conner, one of the only survivors of that SG team from last season’s “The First Commandment”, reappearing here in charge of another SG team.

–Look, when you deal with Native Americans who have grown a culture on another planet and who have a resource a more powerful force wants, it’s kind of hard not to see the historical argument O’Neill makes.

–Carter’s first command (thanks to O’Neill getting shot with an arrow) is her retrieving a team which turns out to be highly protective aliens that almost zap away everyone in the SGC. So, it goes about as well as if O’Neill was in charge.

–The only downside of having the gate shut down on that planet is not seeing more of Tonane, who added a lot of fun to the proceedings.

–“My, what big eyes you have.”

“Touchstone”

The team arrives on a planet that is being ravaged by storms, caused by the taking of a weather-controlling device. The population is suspicious because a team like SG-1 took the device…only no other SG team has been there! So the team has to find the device, and reveals a secret operation behind the NID’s back that is using another Stargate. And this is why inter-agency conversations are important, especially when some secret group is just lackadaisically bringing back alien devices.

Man, LootCrate is going all out with those monthly boxes!

–Some more continuity callbacks: the second Stargate discovered last season has been covertly replaced and taken for that secret project…from Area 51. Yep, that’s where all of SG-1’s taken alien tech (like the Goa’uld death gliders taken in the season premiere) is ending up.

–So much for Maybourne being the baddie of this episode at first. Turns out he’s been played by this “dark side” group like everyone else.

–I wonder what happened to those poor saps who escaped through the gate?

–You know it’s bad when Hammond gets put on hold calling the president on that red phone.

–So, the second Stargate gets boarded up with a metal iris grafted over it. Well, it’s a good thing they won’t need it in the future…

“A Matter of Time”

While trying to recover SG-10, Stargate Command inadvertently dials into a planet under the threat of a black hole. And things get really weird when the gravity of that black hole is starting to cause time disruptions on Earth, and they can’t shut it off. Somewhere along the way, one of O’Neill’s former commanders comes along to add some tension, along with a desperate gambit to shut down the Stargate before the black hole sucks Earth up.

Wormhole horizontal spelunking…to the EXTREME!

–O’Neill has had a bad time with compatriots this episode. The leader of the doomed SG-10 was someone O’Neill knew, and Cromwell, who he kinda forgave for that mess in the past, gets sucked into the wormhole in that bomb-setting climax.

–So what was a half day experience in SGC turned out to be two weeks outside it. Creepy.

–O’Neill is a bit confused about the “worm” in “wormhole”. Carter at least tries to explain that before he seems to give up.

–“Captain, relativity gives me a headache.”

–“Don’t even pretend you understood that.”

“The Fifth Race”

The team discovers an ancient alien archive, and while exploring, O’Neill has a LOT of information downloaded into his head. While he can design cool gadgets and discover new Stargates, the downside is he’s losing the ability to speak and faces the possibility his brain will just crash with all that knowledge. This is a really good episode overall, besides being an important part of the series’ mythology. We get more about the Ancients, as well as some big reveals about stuff hinted at previously.

“Oh god, no! It’s every episode of Two and a Half Men episode…all at once! AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!”

–So, the alliance of races is as follows: the Asgards (who we see again in this episode), The Nox (who we saw last season), the Ancients, and the Furlings (who we won’t really meet in the flesh in this show, except for a very brief and humorous sequence in the final season). Also, we’re the Fifth race, guys, whatever that means.

–We skipped over O’Neill building a dial out repair kit to save Carter’s team from being charbroiled on a planet with multiple suns. Hopefully they kept the instructions around just for reference later.

–Teal’c has a lot to learn about sparring, although he can throw a good punch just fine standing still.

–Let’s just say this may not be the last time O’Neill has an alien archive shoved into his brain, although I’m trying to remember if the Asgard are helpful there as they are in removing it here.

–“Well apparently I have lost the fallatus to speak properly. (Pause) That wasn’t a joke. I didn’t do that on purpose.”

NEXT TIME: Apophis seeks sanctuary with SG-1 along with a new host body in “Serpent’s Song”, its an alien body swapping as Daniel is trapped in a Goa’uld adversary in “Holiday”, the team must stop a virus they brought from destroying an alien species in “One False Step”, and a young boy holds the key to stopping an alien invasion in “Show and Tell”.