Stargate SG-1 Minicaps / Season 4, Eps. 13-16

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 is busy reprogramming a space mine. Please don’t bother it right now, because it needs to concentrate.

Stewart here…

When last we left SG-1, they were still dealing with the renewed threat of Apophis, who now has a bigger army than he had before. What are they going to do to stop their nemesis? And what the devil happened to former colonel Maybourne, last seen involved in a failed Russian Stargate program? Let’s see…

“The Curse”

When Daniel’s archeology teacher dies in a mysterious accident, he goes to pay his respects to that mentor. There, he discovers the professor was investigating a 10,000 year old Egyptian dig and a supposed cursed relic. If you can guess “Goa’uld” will come up in this, after the mention of Osiris (brother of Seth), you know this is bad news. It’s a nice whodunit with a very pivotal and surprising conclusion.

Frasier’s all, “About time I get to go out with the team on a mission!”, and then THIS HAPPENS.

–In another case of Daniel and bad luck with women, Sarah, another former assistant of Daniel’s professor, gets possessed by the Osiris symbiote (which is weird if that an asexual creature thinks itself as a “he”, and now possesses a woman’s body, but details) and escapes in a spaceship. We’ll see her again before long.

–Meanwhile, O’Neill and Teal’c are busy fishing, which leaves Carter and Dr. Frasier as Daniel’s support as we go to Egypt.

–So how to explain this to Steven: “Look, you got hit by Sarah and she’s not coming back anytime soon. Cool, yeah?”

–If we want to get into details, how did Sarah end up with the symbiote inside her? And how did she end up in Egypt anyway?

–“We have caught nothing, we are fishing.”

“The Serpent’s Venom”

Things go from bad to really bad this episode, as Apophis is planning to align forces with an equally lethal Goa’uld, Heru’ur. O’Neill, Carter, Daniel, and Jacob launch a risky operation to sabotage the summit, set above a planet surrounded by orbiting mines. But a massive complication arises when it’s discovered Teal’c has been taken prisoner by Heru’ur as a gift for Apophis! This is not a great day for SG-1.

Welcome back to MTV’s Pimp Out My Pyramid Ship! Let’s how Apophis likes his new super hype pyramid ship…

–So the big turn is not SG-1’s sabotage working in making the two Lords fight each other, but in Apophis bringing more forces to wipe out Heru’ur, and now, building a stronger army from the remains of his enemy. Like I said, its a bad day.

–SG-1 wasn’t having it good before sabotaging the summit as it was, having to beam in a live space mine into that cargo ship, having to reset it to hit one of the ships at the summit, all while maneuvering the cargo ship to stay away from other mines, and keeping the mine inside from going off. Dicey stuff to handle.

–Give it up to Chris Judge as Teal’c this episode, because he spends the majority of it hanging from chains, being prodded and punched as part of that gruesome plan to make him confess his sins in doubting the Goa’uld. And then he has to turn the at first traitorous Rak’nor into the ally he was supposed to be when they first met, and rely on him to escape Heru’ur’s ship when all the craziness starts.

–Apophis loses a good amount of his ships escaping the minefield, but its a calculated loss, seeing as how he’ll absorb Heru’ur’s remaining forces (and gain more ships than he had) now that their leader is dead.

–As to why Daniel has to bring so many books with him on this mine reprogramming mission: “Well, I have one, but I just couldn’t find Beck’s Ancient Phoenecian Symbology on CD at Archaeology.com, so…”

“Chain Reaction”

After a routine mission, General Hammond mysteriously announces he’s leaving command of the SGC. After some investigating, O’Neill discovers the truth behind the sudden retirement: Hammond’s being blackmailed with threats of violence against his family by the the NID! So O’Neill has to team up with someone who knows the NIB well, the former colonel Maybourne, to force the NID to put Hammond back in charge. He better hurry, because the new SGC commander is about to initiate a plan that could endanger Earth!

Jack O’Neill 2016: Like you know a better candidate.

–Welcome back proverbial pain in the ass, Senator Kinsey, who hasn’t been seen since the end of season one. And surprise, he’s the one behind this SGC shake-up because clearly, he hasn’t learned a thing from the last few times the Earth has been saved by SG-1.

–So now we finally learn what happened to the Russian Stargate program in “Watergate” earlier this season. So Maybourne was sent to Russia by the NID to set up that program, and when that went bad, the NID folded it up.

–Also, Maybourne escapes to some tropical island after helping O’Neill. But, please don’t think this is the last we’ll see of him.

–Thank goodness the Stargate wormhole has that 38-minute window, or who knows what would have happened after that planet was destroyed by the Naquadah bomb and started to pump radiation through our gate.

–“On Chulak, when a great warrior retires from the field of battle, it is customary to sing a song of lament. (slight pause) Fortunately, we are not on Chulak.”

“2010”

It’s the year 2010, 10 years after SG-1 made contact with an intelligent alien civilization who has improved life on Earth. The SGC as we know it and no longer exists, and Carter is married to an ambassador to the aliens. But she discovers a disturbing truth about the aliens true intent on Earth, and has to reassemble the team to stop the aliens. Their solution: warn SG-1 in the past about the aliens before its too late!

You can just decline the TSA pat downs, Teal’c!

–So the Aschen’s way of subjugating humanity was through quiet sterilization? And worse, Carter’s hubby knew about it (but not that Carter herself would be sterilized)? Yikes.

–In a not-shocking turn, all of SG-1 in that now unrealized future get killed in the process of sending O’Neill’s warning through the gate into the past.

–Unfortunately for SG-1, despite the effort of their future selves, they will accidentally run into the Aschen again (for the first time) next season.

–A nice bit of continuity between episodes here: Kinsey announces a presidential run in the last episode, and here is this alternate reality future, he’s president (conceivably for a lifetime term, because unless he started his campaign two or three years early…).

–Teal’c explaining away carrying staff weapons to the Stargate: “We carry these for ceremonial purposes only.”

NEXT TIME: a telepathic boy causes Daniel’s personality to make a violent shift in “Absolute Power”, an alien narcotic subdues SG-1 in “The Light”, a intelligent cadet has to help the team escape a swarm of machines in “Prodigy”, and Carter is possessed by an electronic entity in “Entity”.