Overall Rating: 4.4
A very uncomfortable decision by the writers to try to give Daniel a love interest one week after the death of his wife fails to pay off in any positive way. The plot raises an interesting basic philosophical question about the genesis of evil, but, I fear, fails to deliver a particularly believable resulting message.
Plot Synopsis:
A synopsis of this episode can be found here.
Writing: 4.2
OK...c'mere Tor Valenza...I just want to have a little chit chat with ya...I promise I won't hurt you...c'mon! *WHACK* What *WHACK* the hell *WHACK* is wrong with you?! *WHACK* Why on EARTH would you write a love story in which Daniel actually falls for an alien...one single solitary week (!) after the death of his wife (!!) which nearly made him quit the Stargate program (!!!)? REALLY?? Are you THAT thick-headed? Have you never been in love, Tor? I sincerely hope not, because you have no mastery of what it actually MEANS...to be in love! The means by which you have Daniel falling for Ke'ra are hardly convincing. Incidentally, Tor, your dialogue writing sucks too. It's rare that I review a piece with quite as many one-liners of exposition and over-written purple prose at the same time...usually it's one or the other! I think only JMS tops you for purple exposition. The basic plot idea - minus the love story - is sound...and potentially interesting. But someone else with more talent should have written it.
Acting: 6.5
While we're at it...I think I should take this opportunity to speak to you too, Megan Leitch! Don't worry...I won't hit you like I did Tor, I swear! *SLAP* OK...just one good one will do. Could we hear you scream at the bottom of your lungs (not a typo...she screams like a dude getting a prostate exam from the elephant man...boy that's hard on the ears) one more time, please? I need my ears to ring a little louder to drown out the landscaping people tomorrow morning and get some sleep. Sorry Megan...go back to acting college and learn the art of NOT overacting. The rest of the cast...including an obviously uncomfortable Michael Shanks...do their best with a mediocre script, so I can't be too hard on the acting score overall...but we needed Ke'ra to be a convincing character and she just wasn't.
Message: 2.5
The essential argument this episode makes is that evil does not come from an internal failing (either genetic or intellectual/emotion weakness) in response to external temptations and forces, but instead from our experiences. It seems to me that this is the common line of reasoning people use to argue that, for example, we should try to understand the world from the perspective of Islamic terrorists, since their evil deeds come from the harsh conditions in which they live. If our experiences (our memories) define our identity, then why can two different people each undergo the brutal hardships of a Vietnamese prison, and one turns into a drugged out streetwalker while the other runs for President of the United States and nearly wins? If the things that made Linea into a mad scientist (destroyer of worlds) are found in her past, why don't we treat every serial killer convicted of his crimes by conducting ECT and destroying his experiential memory (we now have that technology...it could be done...would anyone reading this blog ever trust Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer?)?
At the VERY least...we must acknowledge the scientific realities derived from every twin study ever conducted. Most personality traits show between a 30 and 60% correlation amongst separated identical twins. It is apparent that things like homosexuality, personality profiling (like the famous Meyers-Briggs test), and social skill are in some part nature and in some part experience (nurture). I would add a third part to this as well...some of our identity may also come from the active process of thinking and learning that we do that is outside of the external forces that govern our experiences. A man's life may change without the benefit of his external circumstances changing...a death row inmate may actually find God and repent for his sins...while still possessing the genetic flaws and experiential memories that led him to his actions and while still trapped behind bars. But the point is...it can't ALL be locked in our memories and trained by those around us.
And then there's the little bugaboo called justice. Usually, Stargate is very strong on the importance of true justice winning whenever possible. Here, however, a known mass murderer is in their grasp and they...absolve her of her crimes by making her forget them? And then release her into the wild to do Lord knows what? Not even so much as a gate call to the Taldor? Be...cause...Daniel thinks she's swell? What is that?? I'm sorry, but it just doesn't make any sense...at least not to me.
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