Stargate SG-1, Season 3, Episode 3

"Fair Game"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Excellent

The Asgard, Thor (“Thor’s Chariot”), beams O’Neill to his ship, which is currently orbiting Earth.  Thor has a message: the Goa’uld System Lords intend to throw a mega-beat down on Earth because of Hathor’s death (“Into the Fire”).  An attack “100 times” worse than Apophis’ (“Within the Serpent’s Grasp").  While Stargate Command, and the SG teams, are a nuisance to the Goa’uld, this is the first time they killed a Goa’uld System Lord.  If word gets out through the galaxy that humans successfully defeated a System Lord, subjugated humans might get funny ideas, like insurrection and freedom.

The attack can be stopped by Earth becoming part of the Asgard / Goa’uld protected planets treaty.  In order to avoid all out war with each other, the two alien races divvy up less technologically advanced planets between themselves.  As many indigenous people know, it sucks to not be the one with the most powerful weapons.  The Asgard are stepping up to the plate to protect Earth, sort of.  The treaty works because, a) the Goa’uld System Lords are constantly fighting within their ranks, thus keeping their power base in flux, and b) the Asgard are too busy dealing with a threat in their own galaxy to wipe out the Goa’uld, that is, they bluff the Goa’uld into behaving.  The U. S. government agrees to treaty negotiations.  For the entire planet.  Without most of the Earth’s population having any idea about the situation.

The negotiation happens on Earth.  The Asgard choose O’Neill as Earth’s representative.  Three System Lords -- Cronus, Nirrti, and Yu -- gate to Earth for the summit.  Forced into the position of supplicant, SGC staff strive for a successful meeting with the difficult Goa’uld.  The negotiations are bumpy, but advancing towards finalization.  The Goa’uld demand an exceptional caveat, or they will withdraw from the talks and attack Earth.  With it, Earth can avoid immediate destruction, but only at a great cost.  All parties agree to the terms.  Before the treaty is finalized, one of the Goa’uld suffers a brutal attack by an unknown assailant.  The summit is derailed.  Since the treaty is not ratified, the Asgard will not even pretend to defend Earth.  SG-1 must solve the mystery, or Earth is doomed.

This is an intense, well-written story.  Richard Dean Anderson is stellar as O’Neill.  The entire cast performs very well.  The alien characters are very interesting, and menacing.  Ron Halder’s portrayal of Cronus is a little over-the-top with the villainy, but he does it so well, I can believe Cronus invented the technique and all others copy him.  Usually, I never buy “the Earth will be destroyed” storylines, well, because that would be the end of the series.  This episode makes such good use of the premise, that for a brief time Earth’s peril is believable.

Failures:
None.

Stargate SG-1, Season 3, Episode 2

"Seth"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Good

Jacob Carter/Selmak (“The Tok’ra, Part 2”) journeys to Stargate Command, requesting help on behalf of the Tok’ra.  While tracking the upper echelon of the Goa’uld System Lords -- the most powerful of the Goa’uld -- the Tok’ra determine that one System Lord’s last known location is Earth.  The missing System Lord is Setesh; a.k.a. Set; a.k.a. (wait for it …) Seth.  In ancient times, Seth got on everyone’s bad side.  Ra, the other System Lords, and the Tok’ra, all wanted Seth dead.  He went underground to escape.  At that time, the one stargate known to be on Earth was inaccessible.  Seth was stuck on Earth.

There are over six billion possible human hosts where Seth can hide on Earth, making finding his location impossible.  Until Jackson pulls a rabbit out of his hat.  Goa’uld like posing as deities, so Seth is probably using religion as a method to gain followers.  Presto!  Jackson tracks a three thousand year old trail of cults, all tied to Seth.  For someone in hiding, Seth is remarkably easy to find.  SG-1 heads out to capture, or kill, Seth.  The current cult is in the United States, heavily armed, and dug in at a fortified location, triggering an ATF investigation.  SG-1 must take down a powerful Goa’uld, without alerting anyone to the alien presence of Seth, Jacob/Selmak, or Teal’c.

The basic premise of a Goa’uld System Lord hiding in plain sight on Earth is okay.  The acting keeps the episode from stinking, and sinking.  The brightest spot is when Teal'c tells a Jaffa joke.  There is a sub-plot about fathers and sons involving Jacob, and a man whose son is in Seth’s cult.  An entertaining, but ultimately forgettable, episode. 

Failures:
After three thousand years Seth’s power bid involved 50 disenchanted, then Goa’uld enchanted, people.  How did this guy ever get to be a major System Lord?  As far as he knows, Earth doesn’t have a stargate, and is of no interest to other Goa’ulds.  Why didn’t Seth infest someone with more power?

Stargate SG-1, Season 3, Episode 1

"Into the Fire"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Excellent

Hathor is back (“Out of Mind”).  After being absent from the Goa’uld hierarchy for a few thousand years (“Hathor”), she wants to scope out the status of the Goa’uld's power before she makes a play to dominate the galaxy.  Her plan: fool SG-1 into believing they are on Earth, 77 years in the future.  Then, pluck their knowledge of the current Goa’uld situation using a memory retrieval device.  Go big, or go home, proves not to be the best counter-intelligence strategy.  After SG-1 (minus Teal’c) uncovers the deception, Hathor abandons that method for a simpler one.  She implants a symbiote in O’Neill.  The symbiote will have access to everything O’Neill knows.

Teal’c quit the SGC in “Out of Mind.”  He wants to search for the rest of SG-1, however during the three weeks he was unconscious from the attack that resulted in SG-1’s abduction, Stargate Command had exhausted all leads to SG-1’s location.  Teal’c returns to Chulak, intent on forming an army of Jaffa, and finding his teammates.

Back at SGC, Colonel Makepeace, and his SG team, ran into some Tok’ra on a planet.  The Tok’ra tell Makepeace where SG-1 is located, and that they are prisoners of Hathor.  General Hammond sends all available SG teams (four teams that are not out on missions) to rescue SG-1.  The SG teams rescue Carter and Jackson.  O’Neill is Goa’uld infested, and considered lost.  Alerted by the attack of Makepeace’s SG teams, Hathor puts armed Jaffas around the stargate, blocking escape back to Earth.  Trapped, Makepeace relays the situation to General Hammond via radio contact.  General Hammond intends to mount a rescue of the trapped SG teams.  The Pentagon denies Hammond’s request to send more SG teams to Hathor’s planet.  With five SG teams under his command trapped, General Hammond pursues help from other allies for the rescue attempt.

This episode is split between Hathor’s planet, and Chulak.  There is a lot of action, and special effects, making for an exciting episode.  There is a pitched battle between the SG teams, and Jaffa, and some SG team members are killed.  People dying during pitched battles is inevitable, and I think it is good that the show at least acknowledges that sometimes SG team members are killed in action.  Previously, the only reported off world SG deaths happened by the hand of a crazy SG officer, and a black hole.  The deaths are sad, but I think avoiding such occurrences would make the show cartoon-y.  The status of post-Apophis (“Serpent’s Song”) Chulak is neatly inter-woven with the events on Hathor’s planet.

A nice redemption of the badness that is the season two finale.

Failures:
Hathor’s plan to learn about the current status of the Goa’uld power structure is over-the-top, but then, so is Hathor.

SG-1 Season Three DVD Set - Content

I will rate each season’s DVD set before reviewing the season’s individual episodes.  My rating in this post solely reflects the DVD content, options, & extras (or lack thereof), not episodes.

Overall Rating for the Set: Fair

No commentaries, and no "play all" option.
The only audio language is English.

Subtitles: None

This is a five-disc set, with 22 episodes.
Each episode is approximately 44 minutes long.

All episodes are anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1.

Sound: 5.1 Dolby (Dolby Digital)

The special features are not rated.

Although there are no subtitles, the episodes are close captioned.  You can use the close caption option on your television to view the dialog in English.

The special features are not closed-captioned.

There is not a “play all” option.  Episodes have to be accessed, and viewed, one at a time.

Special Features:

Disc 1:  “Secret Files of the SGC: Colonel Jack O'Neill”
Disc 3:  “Secret Files of the SGC: The Stargate Universe” *
Disc 4:  “Secret Files of the SGC: Personnel Files”

*Note: Refers to Stargate SG-1; not the series Stargate Universe.

I rate this set Fair because it has the required bare minimum -- all of the season’s episodes in their entirety.  Slim cases, and nice artwork, but virtually no frills with this season’s DVD set.

SG-1 Season Two At a Glance

My rating for each episode of season two.

Episode 1: The Serpent's Lair - Excellent
Episode 2: In the Line of Duty - Good
Episode 3: Prisoners - Good
Episode 4: The Gamekeeper - Fair
Episode 5: Need - Good
Episode 6: Thor's Chariot - Excellent
Episode 7: Message in a Bottle - Very Good
Episode 8: Family - Excellent
Episode 9: Secrets - Excellent
Episode 10: Bane - Fair
Episode 11: The Tok'ra: Part 1 - Very Good
Episode 12: The Tok'ra: Part 2 - Very Good
Episode 13: Spirits - Excellent
Episode 14: Touchstone - Very Good
Episode 15: The Fifth Race - Excellent
Episode 16: A Matter of Time - Very Good
Episode 17: Holiday - Fair
Episode 18: Serpent's Song - Excellent
Episode 19: One False Step - Fair
Episode 20: Show and Tell - Very Good
Episode 21: 1969 - Good
Episode 22: Out of Mind - Fair

The season has an exciting beginning, and moves along nicely, with only the occasional misstep, until the end.  The end of the season sputters with few stellar episodes, coming to a grinding halt with the season finale.  Fortunately, season three overcomes the inertia, and the series is re-energized.