The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

It's especially weird watching the episode, since the first scene where Apophis "inspects" the Air Force guard from the beginning of the episode before she's rejected is shot in a very TV-friendly way, with the camera moving behind her when her clothes are pulled off, and everything kept implied, and the scene where he does it to Sha're is initially shot very similarly until, bam, full-frontal nudity. If you didn't know it was coming, you'd absolutely be caught be surprise.

 

Bloodlines

I'm a little confused as to what the Goua'ld parasites do. I keep thinking they are like the Keepers from Babylon 5, where the parasites are used as insurance of loyalty to Apophis, yet Teal'c has one and has turned against the false gods. I'm assuming we will get more on them as the series goes on, but can anyone clarify, based on the first 11 episodes, what they are? I guess with this storyline I'm getting a lot of it but there is some of it I'm still a little confused by, but again I anticipate things will clear up as we go. Overall, I liked this episode, even though I really liked episode 10 more. I loved learning about the origins of the Stargate and the first guy who went through in 1945. Bloodlines was a nice Teal'c episode to give him some backstory and the consequences of escaping Chulak in the premiere.

I loved the Jaffa mentor, Bray’tec.

 

Putting it in spoilers just in case I am revealing something that is not in the first 11 eps:

Spoiler: Goauld

The Goauld larva are just baby Goauld snakes. All Jaffa like Tealc are just incubators for the Goauld larva. In exchange for holding the larva in their stomach pouch, the larva give the Jaffa an almost invincible immune system against illness and super fast healing but they don't control the Jaffa directly. But once the larva mature into fully grown Goauld snakes, they have to be removed from the Jaffa and take a host.

He is great. In fact, he becomes a major recurring character for the entire series.

 

In the case of the Jaffa, the Jaffa are basically incubators for the larval Goa'uld. The Jaffa themselves have no immune system and must rely on the symbiote to remain functional and healthy.

 

Ok that makes sense. That also explains the significance of what Teal'c did and showing how he was a traitor, from the perspective of the others. It does make me wonder since Teal'c did turn against their gods, what will happen to the larve inside him when it's fully grown.

 

This plot point is addressed in future episodes. It actually becomes a pretty big deal later on.

 

Hathor

There were things I liked about this episode but I think my overall feeling is I'm surprised there are not many psychological problems at Stargate Command. There have been many portrayals of rape, sexual assault, and drugs so far in 13 episodes. It was fun watching Carter finally get to be a captain though, and her and Fraiser work really well together. Still, this episode did have quite a few problems, like how Hathor was never wet, or when we see her actually walking from the tub out the door while the Tub was being incinerated. Weird episode.

 

Yeah, I think Hathor is one of the weak episodes of Season 1.

Also, if this episode were airing today, it would definitely be attacked for its "SJW agenda". LOL since it portrays the men as all weak and susceptible to the charms of a sexy woman, with the women taking charge and able to save the men.

 

IIRC, when it was pointed out years later that an episode from a later season contradicts Hathor, one of the producers responded "we don't consider Hathor canon anymore."

 

What was the contradiction? Please spoiler-tag it for the benefit of the OP and others.

 

Spoiler

The later revelation that Goa'uld Queens are basically gigantic symbiotes, as revealed season 6's Cure is much different than this episode's depiction of Hathor being a Goa'uld Queen.

 

^Good point! I never really thought of that before.

Spoiler

Maybe the queen grows inside a human first? Like Remmick in "Conspiracy"? But now I'm just being silly.

 

That plus the way she seemed able to instantaneously convert normal humans to Jaffa (that could be converted back again!) also didn't quite line up with later seasons.
This is what happens when you get loosey goosey with the world building. The rules of this kind of thing need to be nailed down very early and in more depth than you strictly need, otherwise you get weirdness like this.

All that said, it's fun how open Stargate was later on at poking fun at it's own retcons and past plot weirdness.

 

When I started this on Sunday I watched the premiere episode and then I wanted to see episode 2, but because of Amazon's bad user interface, it ended up being episode 2 of the second season. I'm planning to watch that episode again, but we saw Cassandra in that episode recognize that it wasn't Sam but rather a Goua'ld infecting her. Well, right now I'm watching Singularity and this is the episode we meet Cassandra. That's pretty cool.

 

So this little girl is about to go boom, falls into a coma when she is near the stargate, they take her to an underground bunker and then nothing happens? Is this an example of the Deus ex machina ending, where you rely on the miracle? I liked Carter the Mother and I had actually seen Cassandra before, but this episode could have been much better. It was a little on the slow side.

 

I agree. That episode could have been faster and have more logic to it. It was obviously intended to be one of the more emotionally touching episodes, and I understand a lot of people liked it, but I didn't see the appeal.

 

I don't recall that episode doing much for me either.

 

Enigma

We got our first episode follow up of the series and that was amazing. I didn't think we'd see the Nox again so soon, but here we are. I have to say the last two episodes (Episode 14 and 15) were kinda on the boring side, and this episode the Tallon's were some of the most arrogant people I've seen so far, but I absolutely loved that ending. I also love Jack's "I love those people" line.

 

This is an example of what I was talking about earlier when I said that Stargate uses the Nox effectively. The Tollan looked down on humans so they would not really take Stargate Comand's help in relocating them. But the Tollan will respect and listen to the Nox since they are very advanced too. So it made perfect sense for SG1 to call the Nox and have the Nox help the Tollan.

And yes, Omoc is a super arrogant prick. Although not all Tollan are like that, as we see Narim is much more sympathetic to SG1. He also showed a personal interest in Carter.

 

Omoc does turn out to be a bit of a pivotal character later. After a fashion.