Stargate SG-1 Discussion: “Ethon”

News of a new Ori superweapon requires SG-1 to launch a search-and-destry mission.

16 replies on “Stargate SG-1 Discussion: “Ethon””

  1. Yea!
    Yea! A Stargate SG-1 Discussion thread. This time not a bad story but not one of the stronger ones from this season.

    I love Teal’c, but I just don’t see a reason for the character to stick with SG-1 anymore. He has more pressing duties with his people. This is begining to bother me. I would love to see them bring Jonas Quinn back for a while in his stead, mix up the chemistry a bit.

    • Re: Yea!

      Yea! A Stargate SG-1 Discussion thread.

      I for one would like to see the contiuation of this trend (:

    • Re: Yea!

      I would love to see them bring Jonas Quinn back for a while in his stead, mix up the chemistry a bit.

      That would be difficult. Didn’t we leave with him a delegate to the three-way negotiations on his planet? That’s an extremely high level government position that deals with much more than just the stargate.

      On the other hand a Prior visiting his planet would be a good reason for a guest appearance….

  2. Not a bad episode
    I liked it because, really, <i>nothing</i> went right for the good guys, and there wasn’t a HECK of a lot of deus-ex-machina bailing them out. My high point was the satelite weapon’s first shot just SLICING through the Prometheus (sp?).

    Earth suffered a HUGE loss in this episode, and didn’t even get a new ALLY. Absolutely no gains whatsoever. Sucks to be us!

    • Re: Not a bad episode

      Earth suffered a HUGE loss in this episode, and didn’t even get a new ALLY. Absolutely no gains whatsoever. Sucks to be us!

      The episode was indeed incredibly grim. Halfway through, I could barely sit up straight trying to bear the weight of it. I’ve got to wonder who’s taking the blame for the loss of the Prometheus. That thing’s got to cost more than a few aircraft carriers…

      • Re: Not a bad episode

        I’ve got to wonder who’s taking the blame for the loss of the Prometheus. That thing’s got to cost more than a few aircraft carriers…

        And the worst part about it is that it happened because certain people were just plain cocky. No, check that. Incredibly cocky. If this was Babylon 5, there’d be hell to pay. I’m sadly thinking that it’ll get glossed over. Frankly, this was a major screw-up on Sam’s part. Didn’t she pretty much say that it just "makes sense" that the satelite weapon won’t have any defense capabilities? Do we know NOTHING about the Ori? And based on what was openly known to be early designs?

        Earth is in a much, much weaker position now.

        I really didn’t like the ending. It was just… sad. We went through all that, lost people (and a really, REALLY expensive and VITAL ship!) for nothing!

        Though maybe it is good to know that we’re not always going to win them all…

        • SG:A spoiler
          My buddy downloaded the episodes of Stargate Atlantis that aired in Europe, and after seing the season finale of that show the loss of Prometheus really sucks

        • The ending
          "I really didn’t like the ending. It was just… sad. We went through all that, lost people (and a really, REALLY expensive and VITAL ship!) for nothing! "

          I don’t know about that. This was probably one of those episodes that sets things up for later on, we have Sam’s bad call of course, which I doubt that will come to anything, but we also have SGC getting hold of some plans for an Ori superweapon (the latter set from the Caledonians was further along and might be useful). Plus, if you want some Deux ex Machina, what’s the bet that an even bigger and better ship will be along to replace the Prometheus at some point in the next season… say to resolve the series nine cliffhanger?

        • Re: Not a bad episode

          I’ve got to wonder who’s taking the blame for the loss of the Prometheus. That thing’s got to cost more than a few aircraft carriers…

          Well, We can’t forget that the Prometheus was a prototype. And according to the Firday 6PM SG-1, it cost $2 billion. The USS Ronald Reagan (latest & greatest) cost $4.3 billion, so, you are incorrect. The Daedalus is probably around that cost. And I also bring this up in the SG:A thread, but come on, we’ve got some 302s (which haven’t even received an official name yet, the damn patches on the uniforms call them that!), the Prometheus, the Daedalus and that seems to be the sum total of what has actually produced. I guess just getting a war wagon like the Daedalus going has soaked up some incredible resources, but shouldn’t we have some ships running around the solar system by now, and how about something different than attack craft? Search and rescue should surely be in place by now.

          And yeah, I think it’s a good thing to knock ’em down a bit, that we aren’t always going to have things go our way.

          • Re: Not a bad episode

            And according to the Firday 6PM SG-1, it cost $2 billion. The USS Ronald Reagan (latest & greatest) cost $4.3 billion, so, you are incorrect.

            I guess I missed the mention of the cost and I didn’t watch the rerun. Had I paid attention to that, it would have made the show seem even more ridiculous (I like the show but most scifi has at least a whiff of the silly). B2 bombers (at least the first operational planes) were $1 billion per, based on both development and production costs. Maybe the US dollar is worth a lot more in the world of the Stargate. :)

            • Re: Not a bad episode

              I guess I missed the mention of the cost and I didn’t watch the rerun. Had I paid attention to that, it would have made the show seem even more ridiculous (I like the show but most scifi has at least a whiff of the silly). B2 bombers (at least the first operational planes) were $1 billion per, based on both development and production costs. Maybe the US dollar is worth a lot more in the world of the Stargate. :)

              It’s also possible that the cost listed was only how much the government had to directly contribute or pay to subcontractors. I suppose if you factor in the cost of retrieving supplies from other planets via the Stargate (naquadah, trinium, etc) it would be much higher.

              It’s also possible the advanced technologies helped reduce the cost. They also could’ve ignored the R&D costs, who knows… $2B in Area 51 research would probably only figure out how to operate a Goa’uld toothbrush.

              It’s also entirely possible that the writers just pulled the number out of thin air. :)

              • Re: Not a bad episode

                It’s also entirely possible that the writers just pulled the number out of thin air. :)

                Exactly. I figure the only research that the writers probably do is on cool military weapons (the P90 was one nice move they made considering it was created to pierce body armor and, of course, the Jaffa wear armor) and they just decided on a number that sounded big, not even thinking about it in relation to anything else. Not a big deal because any way you slice it, those ships are expensive and any loss, no matter how reasonable, would trigger a huge investigation.

      • Re: Not a bad episode

        I’ve got to wonder who’s taking the blame for the loss of the Prometheus. That thing’s got to cost more than a few aircraft carriers…

        Despite what the tight schedule implied, Mitchell didn’t just hop onto the Prometheus on a whim. It went to an extremely high level, probably the president himself since it was an act of war against the Rand corporation. I mean the Rand confederation (or whatever it is.)

        The rationale for the attack is unimpeachable, and the war was necessary (to the SG-1 universe) in order to close the door on Rand cranking out these suckers.

        The planning was faulty — Carter’s "stand to reason" wouldn’t survive any serious planning. But again we run into the fact that this is a TV show and they had to take shortcuts and make some risky assumptions.

        The aftermath was actually a landmind of intelligence information. It came at a huge cost, but could be turned around in order to save many lives in the future. Specifically, we’ve learned that:

        – the Ori are willing to share extremely high technology. Perhaps the Prior brought some components with him via the stargate, maybe his rod can produce them. It doesn’t matter, you have to plan for the worst now.

        – the Asgard shields are no longer impenetrable. A necessary development from a storytelling perspective — it reopens the doors to many interesting stories.

        – it follows that the Asgard themselves can be threatened by the Ori. This opens the door to a much more active Asgard involvement. If nothing else they need to be warned.

        – the satellite can be retrieved now that the control center has been (presumably) destroyed. This gives humans (and Asgard) a change to examine Ori technology.

        – finally, it shows another mechanism the Ori can use to threaten human worlds unless they bow to their will. Did I mention Quinn’s world is split into three factions? Maybe this story is setting up another.

        • Re: Not a bad episode

          – it follows that the Asgard themselves can be threatened by the Ori. This opens the door to a much more active Asgard involvement. If nothing else they need to be warned.

          As I recall, Asgardians have been seen aboard the Daedelus pretty recently, so I’m sure they’re being kept up to speed on everything involving the SGC and Atlantis.

    • Re: Not a bad episode

      I liked it because, really, <i>nothing</i> went right for the good guys, and there wasn’t a HECK of a lot of deus-ex-machina bailing them out. My high point was the satelite weapon’s first shot just SLICING through the Prometheus (sp?).

      Earth suffered a HUGE loss in this episode, and didn’t even get a new ALLY. Absolutely no gains whatsoever. Sucks to be us!

      I would argue the lack of gains. Other posters mentioned that the characters gained some valuable intel about the Ori, and might even be able to salvage the weapon if the control center was destroyed.

      From a story line perspective, this was very important. After almost 10 years of saving the planet, SG-1 has started to looked rather invincible. To maintain interest in the show, especially in the wake of Anderson’s departure, the writers really need to bring their A-game. They need drama, big time.
      They need a threat, check.
      They need that threat to be different, check.
      They need that threat to be scary, CHECK.
      I don’t know about anybody else, but the Ori are way scarier than anything else we’ve ever seen in the SG-verse.

      Okay, now the writers need to establish that at the Ori and the Priors are a whole new league of bad guy, a la DBZ. Yes, we have the Prior’s Evolved powers, and their Plagues and such. While those are certainly offensive powers, their seemingly magical nature makes them tools of terror.
      In terms of raw power, we’ve seen the super-gate, but I think watching the Prometheus, a ship that was able to hold its own against a sizable Goa’uld fleet get used for a speed-bag is pretty clear message that Earth is outclassed.

      To paraphrase Mark Hammil, "the second act of any great opera should leave the heros defeated." This only makes their victoric climax sweeter.

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