Stargate SG-1 Minicaps / Season 4, Eps. 5-8

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

The Stargate SG-1 Season Four Minicaps has been brainwashed into being a sleeper assassin. So just be on guard for a while.

Stewart here…

SG-1 has been in the need of a breather after stopping the Replicators arriving on Earth (and losing one of the Stargates in the process), helping the Asgards fight the metal bugs, and helping out the Tok’ra on some particularly dicey missions. You think the team will get some down time? Not a chance!

“Divide and Conquer”

After a failed assassination attempt on the Tok’ra by a SGC officer, it becomes clear that the Goa’uld have brainwashed SGC personnel into sleeper agents. The Tok’ra and SGC start screening everyone, and surprisingly, O’Neill and Carter are pegged to be sleepers! While plans are made for the president and the Tok’ra to meet, the team has to figure out how to help their comrades (failure to act on that sleeper programming tends to be fatal for those agents), and the answer comes from a piece of information both O’Neill and Carter have been hiding. And then there’s the discovery of the real sleeper agent in their midst in this tense episode.

Sam’s gonna need a minute or two alone, guys.

–Its revealed that good ol’ Martouk is the brainwashed assassin, but he gets killed before he can accomplish his goal. Well that’s a another Carter boyfriend/potential boyfriend dead.

–Also the matter of potential relationships, that reveal back from “Upgrades” that O’Neill and Carter realized they had feelings for each other turns out to be the lie that throws off their tests. Well, let’s put that on the backburner for now.

–Also, Anise almost hooks up with O’Neill, which sets up some sexual tension that will be followed up in…NEVER, since this is the character’s last appearance.

–As to why Anise is pretty much not on the show again, well she was meant to be kind of what Seven of Nine was for Star Trek: Voyager: adding sex appeal to boost ratings. Of course, ratings weren’t really in danger for SG-1 at this point, and hence, the character’s arc ends here.

–That little finger laser thing is kind of awesome. That is all.

“Window of Opportunity”

A confrontation with an archeologist on an alien planet with some alien tech puts O’Neill and Teal’c six hours back into the past. It becomes clear after it happens again that the two are stuck in a Groundhog Day-esque loop of the same day’s events. Now they have to find a way to escape the time loop, and just like Groundhog Day, it takes a few tries to get that right. After the last few episodes, its nice to have a fun episode like this.

Just get a room, you two! (unless they did in one of those repeat days…)

–So Malaki, the archeologist is ultimately trying to go back in time to see his dead wife again, and gets talked down by O’Neill, because he knows something about losing a loved one.

–Apparently Earth, and who knows how many other worlds affected by that time bubble were stuck in the same day for three months, according to that final scene.

–Teal’c’s increasing grimaces (thermometer in mouth) through the multiple doctor exams are just hilarious. And the reveal that every time Teal’c comes back its to a door accidentally slamming into his face is wonderful.

–O’Neill takes this time loop opportunity to make out with Carter, of course, after handing in his resignation. And yes, guess who only remembers it?

–“But what about Teal’c? Come on, is this the face of a crazy man? (long pause) Bad example.”

–“Colonel O’Neill, what the hell are you doing?” “In the middle of my back swing?”

“Watergate”

Hey, remember when I said the OG Stargate was lost in last season’s finale? Yeah, well it pops up in Siberia under Russian control, and it seems to be stuck at “on” (hence, our Gate can’t activate). The team joins up with a Russian scientist to discover why the gate won’t shut off, and what happened to the team running it. That leads to most of our team stuck in a submersible in a unusual submerged planet, while the rest try to recover them. And then we find out the water itself is alive, so…that’s a problem.

Had the same reaction when tasting those new Mango-ritas.

–In another Star Trek related guest star appearance this season, comes Marina Sirtis (Troi from TNG) as Dr. Markov.

–Just to be clear, somehow after his black ops Gate operation was squashed last season, Maybourne somehow escaped and made his way to Russia to advise them on their own Stargate program? Did I mention we get little to no explanation as to how that happened? And what happened to him afterwards?

–In another nod to the movie that inspired it, the dialing system found in Egypt has been co-opted by the Russians and is used to dial the gate it was attached to over a century ago. Serendipity, I guess.

–A info nugget from the episode commentary: if it seems that the episode ends abruptly after the search team is recovered, its because there was a closing scene explaining the fate of the Russian Stargate program, but was cut out for length and that the issue would be addressed later in the season.

–“Holy frozen bad guys!”

“The First Ones”

Daniel is kidnapped while on an expedition to a Goa’uld breeding planet by an Unas (those big scaly, nigh unkillable monsters) who is part of a society that has evolved without the symbiotes in them. They are extremely primitive though, which is a problem for Daniel and SG-1, who arrives to retrieve their comrade. Add to that the possibility of a symbiote infecting Daniel’s rescue party and this trip gets worse. Let’s hope Daniel being nice to that Unas who kidnapped him and is planning to sacrifice him as a rite of passage pays off.

Goa’uld: its what’s for dinner.

–So we get another murder of a supporting player in this round of minicaps with Rothman, the other SGC archeologist, getting killed while being possessed by a Goa’uld symbiote. And yes, he’s gunned down too.

–Teal’c does something rather smart the second he discovers the lake full of Goa’uld by having the rescue party tie themselves up.

–So, the Unas who Daniel befriends saves him from being sacrificed by finishing off the leader of the primitive Unas and becoming their de facto leader.

–A bit of IMDb trivia here: this is where SGC starts bringing some new standard machine guns in that become a staple of the series & spinoffs going from here on in.

–“Now, don’t say ‘ka’ till you tried it.”

NEXT TIME: a relocation plan goes wrong when the planet a civilization is being relocated to is about to be made home by another race in “Scorched Earth”, SG-1 is unaware slave labor on an ice planet in “Beneath the Surface”, an Earth man with knowledge of the Stargate proves to be more than he appears in “Point of No Return”, and O’Neill and Teal’c are lost in space in “Tangent”.