Stargate SG-1 Season 6, Episode 13

 "Sight Unseen"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Fair

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:
This is a filler episode, set on Earth.  You'll lose nothing by watching this episode.  You won't gain anything, either.  The best part of this episode is the commentary.

Having learned nothing from past experience, SG-1 returns to Earth from an off-world mission, bringing back a piece of unknown alien technology.  What could go wrong?

Shortly after stepping through the Stargate back to SGC, Quinn sees a giant alien insect buzzing around the gate room.  No one else sees anything, but General Hammond sensibly sounds an alert.  Nothing is found.  What does the frontline defense against potential alien incursions to Earth do in this situation?  Pretty much blow raspberries at Quinn, dismissing his sighting.  And then, go on to putter around with the unknown alien tech they brought back to Earth.  It hurts my head to type this out.

Eventually, others begin seeing the technicolor big 'ol insectoids around SGC.  And, the cause is ... wait for it ... the alien tech.  Not even Carter understands how the alien machine works, yet she and Quinn work on the machine to fix things, i.e., make the giant bugs go away.  The situation becomes worse, with more people at SGC seeing the bugs, and then people outside of the SGC begin seeing the bugs.  In addition to exposing the Stargate program to the general public, the situation has the potential to become deadly.  SGC must find a way to fix the situation.

I'm bothered by the relatively mild reactions by SGC personnel when seeing the insectoids.  An 18 inch long, brightly colored, flying grub worm with very long fangs rates more than a fairly calm, “Whoa, did you see that?” in my book.  There should be screaming, throwing of things, running from the room, and possibly weapons fire.  Kudos to the person in the SGC mess hall who had an appropriate reaction to the situation.  Now, non-SGC folks have the sort of reactions I'd expect.  Much screaming and yelping.  Jody Racicot's performance as Vernon Sharpe is very good.  The candy color alien insects are a very nicely done effect.

The cast perform fine, my questioning the SGC characters near blase reactions aside.

Failures:

SGC has yet to learn not to bring unknown alien tech to Earth.