Serpent's Song

Plot: Apophis escapes from the captivity of a rival System Lord, Sokar, to beg for the aid of the Tau'ri. He's badly injured and the Goa'uld begins to die, leading to SG-1 attempting to get as much information out of him as they can. Meanwhile, in a bid to get Apophis back, Sokar begins attacking the Iris.

This is quite a remarkable episode, as it manages to generate a great deal of tension purely through several lengthy scenes of dialogue. With Apophis in custody, there's plenty of chance for everyone to give him the piece of their mind that they've wanted to for nearly two years now.

Jack goes first and makes it clear that he would rather have left him to die. Indeed, it's clear that Jack is annoyed at himself for not shooting Apophis while off world, especially now he's tangled up in the sticky web of prisoner of war's rights.

Daniel has a much more personal stake in the affair. He taunts Apophis by telling him that he knows where his child is. That he was the one that took the child, not Heru'ur. He rather scarily demands that Apophis tell him where Sha're is, or he'll kill him there and then. It's a kind of viciousness that we rarely see from Daniel, but worked really well. The fact that Apophis is eventually given back to Sokar shows that playing the 'I know where your son is' card will likely be a mistake.

Teal'c's up next. He revels in Apophis' impending death, claiming that the day that he dies will become a holy day for the people of Chulak. You can see the hatred in his eyes, a great scene played by Christopher Judge for sure.

Things are complicated by the fact that Sokar tracks down the Tau'ri. He begins bombarding the Iris with subatomic particles, making it get super hot. The temperature in the gate room rises to over 200 degrees fahrenheit after two full 38 minute activations. Sam is eventually able to dial the Earth gate out after developing a faster dialling sequence. I wonder if they just go on to use it by default from that point on. Certainly it's better than the rather sluggish dialling sequence that they had been using. Though no match for a DHD!

The Tok'ra had arrived a little earlier and advise SG-1 to return Aphophis to Sokar. He's already dead by this point, but Martouf explains that Sokar will still be able to revive Apophis and torture him for as long as he desires. Somehow though, I get the sense that Apophis may still have some fight in him yet. I'm sure we'll see more of him some time soon, eager to seek revenge on SG-1 for their offensive action that resulted in him being weak enough for Sokar to defeat him.

As I mentioned, this episode really did manage to maintain a great deal of tension throughout. The dialogue sequences between SG-1 and Apophis are particularly intense and show how good writing can make an action light episode in to a real triumph.

8 out of 10

The Tok'ra, Part 2

Plot: Jacob Carter accepts an offer to blend with Selmak, thus saving the life of himself and his new symbiote. Following this and SG-1's unveiling of a mole, the Tok'ra accept Earth's offer of an alliance.


Well this was much better. A really fascinating episode in which we see Jacob and Selmak go through the process of blending. It all starts by Jacob being filled in on the details of the Stargate problem. Obviously a lot to take in, but I guess that's nothing compared to being asked to share your body with another person. Jacob and Selmak go through the getting to know you stage. Selmak needs to be sure that she'll like sharing a life with Jacob, while Jacob needs a little convincing that becoming blended with a Tok'ra is better than death. It's probably a good thing that he didn't ask Jack's opinion on that! Once they both decide that they want to go through with it, they lie down next to each other. Selmak jumps from her last host's mouth in to Jacob's and gets to work on curing his cancer. All of this took up most of the episode, but it was a very engrossing process, well produced and well acted, so good work there.

Meanwhile, the Tok'ra discover that their whereabouts has been leaked to the Goa'uld, who are have sent a couple of Ha'tak vessels to destroy them. Now if it was me, I'd immediately have pointed the finger at SG-1, but the Tok'ra don't and instead, Jack is able to smoke out the spy. All of this and the offer of more possible hosts convinces the Tok'ra that the humans might just make a suitable ally.

I'll admit, I can't remember much of how this all plays out, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens over the next couple of seasons. In particular, it should be interesting to see how Jacob grows in to his new role as liaison between Earth and the Tok'ra.

8 out of 10

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