The Tok'ra, Part 1

Plot: Sam has a vision of Jolinar, which leads SG-1 to the Tok'ra in the hope that they might wish to form an alliance against the Goa'uld.


I think the real problem with this is that all of the action of the story is pushed to the 2nd episode. This results in this first part becoming a rather dry introduction to the Tok'ra. Indeed, it seems the writers really feel that it's important to give the audience plenty of time to get their head around the ways in which the Tok'ra are different from the Goa'uld.

Those differences are pretty clear. Where the Goa'uld take hosts by force, the Tok'ra only take willing hosts. On top of this, they form a symbiotic relationship with the host, in which both entities exist within the body. While this is certainly a better way for the symbiotes to exist, it does cause problems for the Tok'ra, as they are often unable to find a new host when an old host dies, meaning that the symbiote dies along with it.

One such symbiote has this problem at the moment, Selmak's host is very close to death and the Tok'ra offer SG-1 the chance to become Selmak's new host. As expected, they all refuse. Sam is particularly upset as she is still struggling with the after effects of her last blending, including strong feelings towards one of the Tok'ra, Martouf. It transpires that Martouf and Jolinar were mates for over 100 years and Sam feels the love for Martouf that Jolinar did. It's not especially exciting, but it is interesting, even if the scene revolving around this was rather drawn out, even to the point where Martouf asks Sam the exact same question three times.

Finally, this episode revives the plot surrounding Sam's father, Jacob, who is now very seriously ill with cancer. SG-3 are sent to extract Sam so she can be with her father, but the Tok'ra are unwilling to let her go. It seems that SG-1 and their knowledge of the Tok'ra's location presents a security risk and they take SG teams 1 and 3 in to custody until such time as they find another world.

We'll see how this is all concluded in the next episode, which, thankfully, is a bit more exciting. :)

6 out of 10