Bane

Plot: Teal'c is infected by the deadly venom of a big, ugly bug while on a mission off-world. Back at the SGC, the venom begins altering Teal'c's DNA, a process that will eventually turn him in to a group of the bugs.


Well, I'm not sure that much more could've gone wrong for SG-1 in this episode. First of all, they find themselves on a planet populated entirely by the aforementioned big, ugly bugs. Their venom turns each person they infect in to around ten of the bugs. Sam calculates that if Teal'c turned in to a group of bugs, they'd have been looking at swarms of millions of them within 8 weeks. Not nice.

After the team returns to the SGC, Colonel Maybourne shows up, much to Jack's annoyance. Maybourne is interested in the venom as an application in biological warfare and escorts Teal'c off base. On the way to Area 51, Teal'c goes all Hulk and smashes out of the van, running through the woods and in to an urban area, where he meets a young girl who looks after him. This is the first time that Teal'c has been out in his own on Earth without a hat. It was great to see him field questions about his brand and place of birth.

The young girl, Ally, is played by Colleen Rennison, who returns in a later series as Cassandra. She is the third actress to play that character.

All in all, this isn't a bad episode, but it's one of those that does little to really enhance the ongoing plot and they're always bound to be a little frustrating. However, that's not to say that there weren't any discoveries. In particular, Dr Frasier and Sam Carter figure out how to accurately simulate the environment of Teal'c's pouch for a Goa'uld. This happens after Teal'c removes his Goa'uld before running off in to the woods. His thinking was that it'd make him die, but it actually made the change come about more quickly, as the Goa'uld was the only thing stopping it. The insect DNA had asserted a new immune system for Teal'c.

It's understandable to have an episode like this at this point, especially as the next episode up is the mid-season finale, 'Tok'ra'.

7 out of 10