Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Bolton, UK
Posts: 95

Reviews: Fail Safe & The Warrior (spoilers)

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Fail Safe (**)

Fail Safe is an episode that on the surface looks to have solid ingredients, the team off Earth and together trying to save the day, unfortunately it doesn't work out. As it quite a few episodes this season Daniel gets nothing to do, he sits through the episode and watches all the other characters contribute and then when he does he comes up with a Carter like solution just so he has a line! Then there is Sam. This episode, as with a couple of others this season, sees her spout to much technobbable, since when has SG-1 been about this, the show is about characters and plot not science, no matter how accurate it may be. However one character that gets a number of great moments is Hammond. Don S. Davies does a great job of portraying his hopes that SG-1 will come through at the last, as they have done before, his moments are full of warmth and character. Onto the plot. Well the lack of any tension is probably the killer here. SG-1 are put at life threatening danger on at least 2/3 occasions yet you know they will not die and none of the events will lead to any character development either. There are however a few nice touches, the continuity is again the strong link, we get to see Anubis's attack on Earth that was mentioned in Last Stand and we also have the team who did the X-301 repairing the cargo ship, leading to some nice lines from Jack.

Onto the SFX and costumes. The effects are decent if not perfect. The asteroid looks far to CGI at times and I defiantly noticed some digital sets being used, however not to the poor effect that they were trailed in during season 3's Crystal Skull. As with Last Stand though the hyperspace effect is again the coolest, jumping that asteroid into hyperspace right infront of Earth was IMO perfectly pulled off, I'd like to see a space based show each week just too see that effect! The main new costume was the spacesuit, now that looked cool and credit again has to go to the shows excellent costume department, those people do a great job.

As with many episodes over the last two years, Fail Safe, for all its faults, isn't terrible its just average. While the quality of the show hasn't dipped that far, certainly during season 2 and 3 most episodes were above average to strong they are now average to good. Cut the technobbale, get proper team episodes and some real tense situations or character episodes that develop or expand our knowledge on these people we have come to know. Lets hope the last batch of episodes this season up the ante a bit.


The Warrior (***)

The Warrior presents us with a pretty decent script from a story idea by Christopher Judge. Your enjoyment of the episode may well hinge on whether you like episodes based on the Jaffa or not. The episode highlighted the differences in the way the Jaffa do things to how we do very strongly, leading to lots of Jack pointing out the differences and how he thinks it should be done. You may now think that would be an excellent place for Daniel to come in and try to point out cultural differences, no. Daniel again has only a small amount to do and so does Sam. I'll also point out with Daniel that Teal'c seems to give him support when he has something to do or needs to get something off his chest yet the writers didn't take this opportunity for Daniel to show much concern for Teal'c, it was as always Jack's place to do that, pity. This episode however belongs to Teal'c and also Brat'ac. The two characters both go along with it but Teal'c embraces it with open arms, and maybe too much so as it doesn't properly track character wise. The decision to dump his friends and everything from the last 5 years happened far to fast, no foreshadowing in previous episodes even though I believe the first scene was meant to show he has been following Katano's progress for a while. Its good to see Teal'c do something but things here were too rushed. Brat'ac's character was perfectly handled though and wonderfully performed by Tony Amendola. It is clear as the episode progresses that he doesn't agree with everything that is happening but is resigned to the fact the Jaffa have no other choice. You can see him telling the young Jaffa that he believes in another way and also watch the facial expressions during particularly the scene where Katano sends off a suicide team, they say everything he is thinking. I thought the actor who played Katano did a decent enough job with the character and I couldn't tell he was the Goa'uld even though others could.

There are a number of things to impress about the episode. I really like the P90 vrs Staff Weapon demo, way to go Tau'ri weapons! The staff has always been rather clumsy, especially up close and this just proves it is exactly as Jack says, a weapon of terror not of killing. The fight sequences, ala The Matrix, were also impressive and again shows the production team and director pushing the boundaries and trying something new for a TV show. The location shoot is also good. On the negative side there seems to be a small continuity error (strange for this show!) as Nyerti is mentioned as a System Lord yet three episodes she was a renegade. Also the planetary bombardment at the end was pathetic, the Gliders cause bigger explosions! Did they run out of money for the large pyrotechnics and bought budget stuff!?!?

On the whole though The Warrior is a solid script with good performances even if some of the character work seems to rushed, we are off Earth and Teal'c gets something to do. Hopefully the quality to the end of the season will not drop below this standard.

Read the full analysis and review at my site.

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Last edited by Paul C on 05-25-2002 at 07:05 PM

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