teacake does Stargate: punch it

[teacake]

The Sentinel: Kind of a drawn out jumble but it was a treat to see Henry Gibson:



What happens to Greaves, did he die? Or become the new caretaker?

[The Wormhole]

teacake wrote:

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Menace: Daniel you twat if she looked like a gigantic replicator bug you wouldn't be crying like that.

Now I'm imagining that scene at the end but with a giant Replicator bug laying there instead of the android girl. It's pretty funny.

[gturner]

Unfortunately they didn't recover any newspapers from the android's planet. I'd be curious to know whether the negative press and consumer reactions the android first generated was refering to a product by Google, Microsoft, or Apple, or whether Data's brother Lore ever had an illegitmate daughter.

[Silvercrest]

The Wormhole wrote:

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According to the DVD commentary this was to address what some felt was a plot hole: if every Jaffa has a symbiote, why aren't there more Goa'uld than we see?

gturner wrote:

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Those were great episodes.

Regarding eating the Goa'uld, I recall talk of a paper on evolutionary biology that used computer runs to show that with relative immortals in the breeding population of a species, evolution slows way down, virtually halting. The long-lived members are obviously extremely fit, and their constant input of the same genes into the breeding population makes it much harder for any novel mutations to spread.

The Goa'uld provide an interesting example of this, where the dominant members have been dominating (if not virtually monopolizing) the gene pool for thousands of years, even though their rate of reproduction could be very high.

Getting away from direct biology, we've got the problem that their offspring will posses their knowledge and be every bit as smart and cunning as they are, such as Tannith, Klorrel (sp? Apophis' son) . The most dangerous adversary to any system lord would be his own offspring, who would already know his secrets and any weakness he'd been concealing from the rival system lords. Given how long the Goa'uld live, and that they're fully aware that they all seek power and dominance, there's almost no way that offspring wouldn't find the oppportunity to slay their parents, given a century or two focusing on Goa'uld who most directly blocks their rise to power.

Viewed in that light, by eating their own offspring the system lords are removing the most direct threat to their continued dominance. It has elements of Jerry Pounelle, Steven Barne's and Larry Niven's books "The Legacy of Heorot" and "Beowulf's Children", based on a species of African frog that survives by eating its tadpoles. The tadpoles don't reach maturity until the parent dies (and thus quits eating them).

So in closing a plot hole, they opened up a view into an interesting dynamic. The Goa'uld figured out how not to become King Lear.

Goa'uld reproduction has never made much sense. On multiple occasions we see queens spawning symbiotes without a male. That's unrealistic in the long run. You need an exchange of genes to prevent inbreeding and other problems. At the very least, each queen's line would diverge from the others so that every Goa'uld family becomes a different species!

Anyway, Apophis referred to Klorel as his son by having "seeded" the queen, meaning that symbiote is a direct child of Apophis' symbiote via direct sexual reproduction. How do we reconcile that with the other thing?

On top of that, the thing about eating the next generation to preserve themselves... well, that's plausible, but given the apparent numbers of the Goa'uld and their apparent rate of reproduction, I'm not sure it would be enough!

Mrs. Silvercrest and I discussed this and figured out how it could work. Basically, the Goa'uld have three genders-- male, female, and neuter. The females are the queens, naturally. They can spawn any number of offpring, and (given their apparent level of control) can select the gender-- but only when they have been impregnated by a male. They can spawn without a male-- but the results are always neuter. With a male, they can choose to spawn more males and females for the next generation, but probably most of them are still neuter. This would comprise the vast majority of the Goa'uld we see.

Obviously, breeding females are always queens. But it also seems likely that the breeding males would comprise the body of the System Lords. A neuter might be able to seize power, but he couldn't form a dynasty. Maybe not every breeding male is a System Lord, but every System Lord has to be a breeding male (with the exception of a few queens). With their sons waiting to take their place.

So, with only a limited number of breeding males in existence, and a limited number of breedable offspring, it would be a lot easier to keep their population under control. Instead of chowing down on hundreds/thousands/millions of symbiotes in some sort of massive binging ritual, all they have to do is kill the specific offspring who are a danger to them. Which explains why it appears to be a special ceremony, and why no one else is aware of it.

[teacake]

Meridian: Right. Ascended tentacle Daniel. Does this mean he is going to be appearing and saving the day with koans periodically? If there was anything that could annoy O'Neill more than an ascended koan babbler it's an ascended koan babbler that is Daniel. Too bad O'Neill has never seen Star Wars or he could make some Yoda jokes when this happens.

Also over the last few episodes it seems to me that O'Neill is getting stupider. As in, actually stupid not just putting on the stupid. Perhaps its the delivery? Something seems to have shifted.

I have just looked at the cover of my Season 6 dvds and Daniel is not on it. So I guess this is not temporary.

[Silvercrest]

I don't think O'Neill has recovered from getting zatted, stunned, beaten up, blown up, etc. as well as he'd have us believe.

[gturner]

Silvercrest wrote:

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So, with only a limited number of breeding males in existence, and a limited number of breedable offspring, it would be a lot easier to keep their population under control. Instead of chowing down on hundreds/thousands/millions of symbiotes in some sort of massive binging ritual, all they have to do is kill the specific offspring who are a danger to them. Which explains why it appears to be a special ceremony, and why no one else is aware of it.

That all makes sense. It's also possible that perhaps a queen (breeding sense) has to be trusted to withhold some knowledge from a system lord's offspring so he can have loyal minions instead of rivals, and perhaps some of the female system lords rose to power by fooling their powerful mates, making sure their offspring's loyalties were with the mother and not the father.

One of the best aspects of the whole Goa'uld storyline is the way they are a dysfunctional confederation of ruling dynasties, whose calculating power-grabs, betrayals, ahd shifting alliances could be the subject of its own body of literature, just like the royal dynasties in Earth's history. Shakespeare would've had a field day with them.

On a side-note, they showed the Goa'uld living in wild in lakes on the homeworld of the unas, but they never seemed to follow up on any of the implications of Goa'uld escaping back to the wild on other planets. Since they're small and aquatic it would be almost impossible to eliminate them if they decided to go to ground and hide, especially considering their long life spans. Perhaps the Goa'uld consider returning to such an existence far beneath them, though.

[gturner]

teacake wrote:

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I have just looked at the cover of my Season 6 dvds and Daniel is not on it. So I guess this is not temporary.

I can neither confirm nor deny that I have knowledge of any such changes, nor their duration, nor would I be at liberty to discuss them if I did, in fact, have such knowledge.

However, there is a piece of unclassified information that relates to Meridian.

Demon Core Wiki

Playing with a plutonium pit can be quite lethal.

[teacake]

Revelations: The (continuing) build up to knowing who, how and what Anubis is is excellent. Osiris is excellent. The Asgard clone revelations (which I knew from SG:A) are excellent. Tapping's acting is excellent. Daniel being a breeze is lame but acceptable.

The excellence continues!! Onto Season 6!

[teacake]

Season 6 begins!

Redemption Part 1: I love the new opening. So nice not to see blue pharaoh and the gate dialing is always cool.

Jonas is a weather channel nerd, LOL! He has a certain.. presence. I am going to enjoy him I suspect.

Teal'c is back on the market. I'm thinking this must lead somewhere otherwise why knock off his sorta wife who never caused any trouble or conversation all these seasons?

You know what would be nice.. if the Russian general wasn't such a stereotypical putz dressed in a thick accent. It is kind of embarrassing to watch.

I'm going to make a prediction about "Prepare to meet your Doom" Anubis. He's actually some shrimpy over compensator in souped up alien disguise. Don't tell me if I'm right.

An exciting part one which contained, and this was especially exciting, all the adorableness in the universe in one neat little package.





In this one you can hear SG:A Rodney getting ready to say, "Well be that as it may..":







AND HE'S STILL ON THE BASE!! This means the next ep will have more of him

[teacake]

Redemption Part 2:

Rodney: I always wanted to be a penist.

blathers on..

Carter: You're creeping me out Mckay.

And THEN at the very END she admits to having been attracted to him! No wonder his torch has burned so bright!

Rodney gesturing fetchingly..




Rodney being winsome..




Rodney discussing his penist aspirations..




Rodney intently saving the planet..




Classic worried Rodney look. Could be imminent apocalypse, could be lemons..




Oh yes and little Anakin stole a ship and blew up the weapon, yay. And America pays off the Soviet Union for their stargate which can only be a deal made by the military, but hopefully means no more Russian general spittleing indignantly about the base. And Anubis is still a mystery which is excellent.

[gturner]

I assume we don't get to much of the backstory on Anubis because he was cast out (and presumed dead) before most of the historical records Daniel relies upon were compiled. In this case not even the other system lords or the Tok'ra have any idea where Anubis was or what he was up to.

[teacake]

What is the story behind all this food btw?

[teacake]

Descent: Ninjas. The Titanic. Jonas wet. Looking good!

Though umm... wasn't there a tidal wave?

[The Wormhole]

teacake wrote:

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Teal'c is back on the market. I'm thinking this must lead somewhere otherwise why knock off his sorta wife who never caused any trouble or conversation all these seasons?

It did give him an excue to bond with his son.

teacake wrote:

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Though umm... wasn't there a tidal wave?

Spoilers.