Registered: Oct 2001
Location: City by the Great Shellfish Bay
Posts: 394

It occured to me that the whole situation was Jack's fault.

You're an Air Force Colonel who, along with your team, is on the home turf of people you now know to be completely ruthless and exploitative of their own people. You:

1. Make nice to their leader, get your people home to safety, and then, recommend you don't think diplomatic relations are a good idea because these folks ENSLAVE their own people, or

2. Get on your moral high horse in the Big Bad's office. Start spouting off about how rotten you think they are and how you're just too good to associate with them.

Remember, this is a highly advanced civilization and it's just you and 3 others. You're outnumbered, outarmed, and generally in a position of weakness, not strength.

So naturally Jack picked option 2. This is just another example of the Season 4 lobotomy TPTB gave Jack. IRL he would have been court martialed for egregious stupidity.

Also, the shipper moments were some of the least convincing I've ever seen.

On the positive side, MS looked good in that tunic.

__________________
S&M Forever!

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 414

Well, if Jack hadn't picked option # 2 , there wouldn't be a story line. It wasn't one of the better eps, that's for sure, even if MS and CJ were lookin good.

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: ..?..
Posts: 2619

You're right. If jack had not picked option 2, they wouldn't have been able to fill up another episode slot with a useless plot not relating at all to other episodes in the series, and would have had to do some actual thinking to make a decent episode.

__________________

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: City by the Great Shellfish Bay
Posts: 394

Actually, there could have been a storyline. The team could have been discovered poking around by Calder's men, then captured and 'memory stamped'. Instead we have Jack, alone, unarmed, confronting a man who obviously was capable of very nasty behavior.

Granted, it provided a nice dramatic scene for the actor. But still, I don't believe an experienced, Special Ops Colonel would antagonize someone who was obviously capable of mistreating people, especially, when he was at such a disadvantage.

Btw, you need a Masters degree to make Colonel, and for the last two seasons the writers have made Jack so stupid he wouldn't pass the GED test. It's really getting old.

__________________
S&M Forever!

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: England Elvenname: Ainari?l Telr?nya
Posts: 6157

I disagree to, apart from what Jojo said, altho similar, they coud've simply been caught tryign to get back the SG, cos the in charge guy (forget his name, haven't seen that ep in years) thought they were gonna come back in force to liberate the planet, or s/thing... And then, ya know, memory stamp etc..

__________________
Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you second chances.

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: City by the Great Shellfish Bay
Posts: 394

Venus, I caught the ep in syndication a couple of weeks ago. Jack had a flashback scene where he was in Calder's office telling him that he wouldn't recommend relations and criticised the guy's entire culture. After he finished pissing the guy off, he asked him just how Calder got the slaves to work. Calder's response was "you'll find out". Not too bright of Jack was it? He could have played along, gotten out, and then informed Calder what he thought of him. But of course, that would have assumed Jack's IQ is higher than that of an eggplant's.

My point is, that with a little writing they could have had a fairly plausible ep. Instead, they had Jack acting quite stupidly with the result of putting the team in danger. If it were an isolated incident it wouldn't have irritated me so much, but he's been consistently written as dumb for a long time now. The reason it rubs me the wrong way is because I know the writers can do better, (e.g. The Warrior, where Jack figured out Katano was up to something immediately). I read on another board that TPTB deliberately dumbed Jack down to make him less heroic. Why, I don't know.

__________________
S&M Forever!

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: England Elvenname: Ainari?l Telr?nya
Posts: 6157

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoJo
Jack had a flashback scene where he was in Calder's office telling him that he wouldn't recommend relations and criticised the guy's entire culture. After he finished pissing the guy off, he asked him just how Calder got the slaves to work. He could have played along, gotten out, and then informed Calder what he thought of him.

---

Yeah, I got that, I was just saying that there could've still been an ep plot, cos Jack coulda been caught trying to use the SG to go back offworld, and *then* the whole memory stamp thing could've been applied. If that makes any sense.

__________________
Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you second chances.

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: South, US
Posts: 2379

I understand what your saying Venus. I also have no big problem with this episode. There may be a bad decision that caused something to happen to the team but you have to put yourself in the shoes of the person as it happened. Just telling him he would not recommend trade with people that enslaves it's own people isn't such a bad thing I think though. Anyway...

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Southeastern USA
Posts: 491

Jack is a hothead, always has been. I found it within the limits of plausibility to have him act up in the man's office. And in terms of production costs, it was probably cheaper than doing it the other way (i.e. the team getting caught poking around).

Also, lately it seems they have been making a point of saying Jack only acts dumb. He is aware of more than he lets on.

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: City by the Great Shellfish Bay
Posts: 394

So what you're saying is, even though Jack consistently behaves as if he were a moron, we should still believe he's smart.

In my experience, when people ACT dumb it's because they really ARE dumb. Intelligent people usually act intelligently.

All I'm saying is that they should get new writers.

__________________
S&M Forever!

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Southeastern USA
Posts: 491

What I'm saying is that some people deliberately put up a front, to throw others off the scent. I do it myself on occasion, because sometimes I have neither the time nor the patience. I know how smart I am; I see no need to constantly prove it to those around me.

So if that is the situation with Jack, the theory would then be that we are all assuming he's a moron when it is not the case. Presumably we would then get a nice juicy episode wherein Jack proves us all wrong after all this time.

However, I won't hold my breath. I admit it's a stretch.

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: London.
Posts: 6137

To cut a long story short, his dumbness seems to have reached a level where its just piqued a lot of peoples attention, we seem to have noticed that perhaps its just a little annoying, but understandable, funny, and yet, perhaps, just one too many jack is dumb gags have been shoved into the show, this is something that cant be proven, but rather is something that is felt, like when youve been driving a car along time, and you feel something is just a little off from usual, nothing wrong iwth the car, but you know, something feels just a little off kilter.
The fact its been noticed is testament to this....but, im not that worried about it, just hope he doesnt turn into that land of light fellow by the end of season six

__________________
God, Ive become such a fatty

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: On station at a distant underground nuclear missile silo...
Posts: 1816

quote:

---

Originally posted by president doc
... just hope he doesnt turn into that land of light fellow by the end of season six

---

Which Land of Light fellow do you speak of?
Tuplo, ruler of "The Land that Good Taste Forgot"?
Or the beefy and useless-as-a-brick toothpick holders whom Teal'c walloped in short order to get a blood sample?
Or do you speak of Neanderthal Jack?

__________________

Dogs rock. Shut up.

Last edited by Rhydderch Hael on 01-23-2002 at 10:24 PM

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: South, US
Posts: 2379

I know what Sam K is talking about in their post. I also don't like people that try to prove intelligence to everyone. Some times it gets annoying. But so does someone trying to make it seem their not intelligent at times.

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *

Registered: Oct 2001
Location: in a seat next to my computer
Posts: 3388

i liked the episode.... it was one of my favs!
*puts up a barrier against flames and ties daniel to the outside of it*

__________________
sam and jack


The shipper revoloution is coming you just dont know when or where!

November 24th gaters! Puddy turns 16!!

Report this post to a moderator | ? + *