Stargate SG-1, Season 3, Episode 22

"Nemesis"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Excellent

SGC is positively bucolic.  Due to Daniel's emergency appendectomy, SG-1 is on leave.  Teal’c is off world, visiting his son.  Carter is working on neglected experiments.  Daniel is on bed rest in the SGC infirmary.  O’Neill is in his civvies, ready to head out and go fishing.  Something has to rescue this episode from all the peace and quiet.  Something like O’Neill being unexpectedly beamed out of SGC, and onto Thor’s ship.  How about he re-integrates on Thor’s ship, named The Belisknor, and there is no Thor in the vicinity, however a hoard of metallic “bugs” move towards O’Neill’s location, with their creepy metal buggy-legs flailing around, and creepy metal tippy-toes making clacking sounds.  That'll get this episode moving.

Thor is injured, and transports O’Neill onto the Belisknor hoping that O’Neill can figure out a way to destroy the ship.  The metal bugs, a.k.a. the Replicators -- the enemy of the Asgard mentioned in "Fair Game", have commandeered Thor’s ship, and thereby gained access to information about Earth.  The Replicators intend to land the ship on Earth, then overwhelm and destroy Earth’s civilizations.  O’Neill requests ordinance from SGC, and orders Carter and Teal’c (who was called back to SGC) not to beam up to the Belisknor.  To delay the Replicators, Thor disabled the outbound aspect of the ship’s transporter device.  Once on the ship, there is no way to beam off of it.  General Hammond overrides O’Neill’s order because Carter devised a plan that will allow everyone to safely escape the ship.

The initial plan to destroy Thor's ship and escape is solid, except for the part about destroying Thor’s ship.  The Asgard invest a lot of their intelligence in creating space ships that are not easily destroyed using explosive devices.  Thor’s ship moves closer to Earth, and closer to the invasion of the Replicators.  SG-1, minus Daniel, races against time, working on a way to keep the Belisknor from reaching Earth, while the Replicators are subverting more of the ship’s systems.

The episode beings with a quiet, amusing interlude.  Before the title and credits role, the show revs into motion.  Suspense and action build consistently throughout.  All of the regular cast is on their “A” game, performing extremely well.  A nice balance of character development, and exciting exploits.  I give a special nod of appreciation for Anderson’s portrayal of O’Neill.  This episode is a great example of director Martin Wood making a small set seem like a vast, unending path of very long corridors.  Kudos to Mr. Wood, the set department, and everyone involved.

An entertaining episode, and an amazing end to season three.

Failures:
None.