"Descent"
Overall Rating: Very Good
Commentary by:
Peter DeLuise -- Director and Co-Producer
Peter F. Woeste -- Director of Photography
Gary Jones -- Actor
The commentary is informative, and interesting. Lots of behind the scene information. The commentary mostly stays on point with what is on screen.
Review:
Taking place not long after the events of "Redemption, Part 2" Anubis’ ship is spotted near Earth. Yikes! But, there’re no signs of life or activity on the ship. Hmm. SG-1 and Jacob/Selmak head out in a Tel’tak (a small space vessel of Goa’uld design) to check on Anubis’ ship. Major Davis and a scientist named Friesen, are also part of the Tel’tak crew.
Jonas Quinn is now a member of SG-1, but O’Neill has not declared bygones about Quinn being slow to come forward with the facts of the accident that lead to Daniel Jackson's death ("Meridian").
Quinn and Teal’c are left on the Tel’tak, while the rest go over to Anubis’ ship. O’Neill is less about forgive and forget, and more about putting aside differences. He treats Quinn like the newbie on the team – SG-1 material, but untested out in the field. Teal’c staying on the ship makes sense because he can fly the Tel’tak, and/or beat Quinn senseless, if either becomes necessary.
Aboard Anubis’ ship, everything seems to be working. The ship is abandoned for no clear reason. There’s an odd sound periodically coming from the ship’s P. A. system. Certain areas have staff weapon damage, but there's no sign of why.
That’s a lot of intrigue. This episode needs something more. Some action! How about a deadly mystery sabotaging Anubis’ ship, sending the ship crashing on Earth. And a deadly mystery damaging the Tel’tak so there’s no escape for O’Neill and the others from Anubis’ ship before the crash. That’ll do it.
Teal’c and Quinn return to SGC to work towards rescuing their comrades stuck in the crashed ship. Aboard the ship, the survivors of the crash try to suss out what happened on Anubis’ ship to lead to it seemingly being abandoned. An interesting episode, with some surprising twists.
Corin Nemec portrays Jonas Quinn. Quinn replaces Jackson in SG-1. Overall, I think Corin Nemec does a fine job as Jonas Quinn. Quinn fills the knowledge gap left by Jackson’s demise, while being a unique character and not a Jackson clone. Quinn has a lot of Jackson’s viewpoints on certain situations, but responds in his own voice without parroting Jackson.
Quinn becoming part of SG-1 is handled well. He didn’t get instantaneous, 100% acceptance from O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c, although he is never mistreated. The long-standing SG-1 team members react to Quinn differently. That rings true for me.
Side note: Christopher Judge does a most excellent menacing stare as Teal’c.
Failures:
None.
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