Stargate SG-1, Season 6, Episode 11

"Prometheus"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Good

Commentary by:
Peter F. Woeste – Director
Andrew D. Wilson – Director of Photography
Rick Dean – Chief Lighting Technician

The commentary is very informative, and interesting.  Lots of behind the scene information.  The commentary stays on point with what is on screen.

Review:
On Earth, a news reporter named Julia Donovan stops Carter on the street asking her about a project named Prometheus, where over two billion dollars of tax payer money is going. No big. Except the money was funneled to the project without Congressional oversight. That reporter is just fishing. Donovan also has a small sample of a shiny metal, saying it’s trinium, and she asks Carter about it. Whoa. Things just got real. Trinium is an off world metal (“Spirits”) obtained through the Stargate program. No way should Donovan know about it.

After blowing off the reporter, Carter meets with General Hammond at SGC to discuss the encounter. Even if the sample Donovan had was not actually trinium, just knowing the name of the material indicates a security breach. The Pentagon begins an investigation of Julia Donovan in an attempt to find out what she knows, and who she learned it from. Donovan’s report will go live in four days. Major Davis (“Descent”) is sent to talk Donovan out of running the story. She is so not intimidated by Major Davis.

Donovan thinks Prometheus is a fusion reactor (it isn’t). The possibility remains that she could find out more about Prometheus, and as a result learns about the Stargate program. The President (of the United States of America) phones the reporter’s boss’ boss’ boss, and the story is dead. SGC allows Donovan and a small news crew to document the Prometheus, with an understanding – and no doubt a ton of paperwork – to not disclose what they’re shown until the U. S. Air Force gives the okay. Which will be on the calendar date of never gonna happen. However, this buys time to find out how Donovan learns about things she shouldn’t know.

Carter and Quinn take Donovan, her editor, and a small tech crew on a tour of Prometheus. Prometheus is a huge space ship, Earth - built but incorporating off world tech. It’s the X-303 (the X-302 is in “Redemption, Part 2”). Unfinished, but flight capable, the Prometheus is the future of space flight for Earth. Everything is going smoothly, until an old adversary makes their presence known. Carter and Quinn use their knowledge and abilities to thwart their old foe, while O’Neill and Teal’c come at the problem from another vantage point.

The actors provide respectable performances. The Prometheus sets and effects look amazing.

Failures:
The end of this episode sets up the beginning of the next episode, “Unnatural Selection,”  but there’s not much else to it. It’s okay for a one time viewing, but if this episode didn’t exist, the beginning of the next episode wouldn't need much of a rewrite.  I rated this episode Good, but it’s a weak Good. The effects and sets are great; the acting is good; but the story is meh.

I like the Major Davis character, but he is terrible at trying to bluff others. He attempted to do this twice, and got owned both times, neither person buying Major Davis’ bluff for a second.