Paul C
Member
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Bolton, UK
Posts: 95 |
Cure (***1/2)
Cure is the second script written by new writer Damien Kindler, the first being 'The Other Guys'. So far both of his contributions have been good, solid episodes at different ends of the spectrum, one a comedy, the other a serious first contact episode. While the episode at first starts off as an off world standalone it soon develops into an episode dealing with the Tok'ra plot arc. IMO it does this well.
At last! We have an episode dealing with an off world first contact/exploration, something the show hasn't done for a while. It was good to see the team on a new planet and dealing with mythology/archaeology, unfortunately this did highlight that Daniel was missing. So far the writers have done a good job trying to develop a separate route for Jonas, however here they just stuck him straight into a role made for Daniel and they really need to try and keep away from that. It really is too convenient to have him know everything Daniel knew and even be translating stuff before Teal'c. I like Jonas as a character so that?s the negative about him over, hopefully the writers will not do it again. As the episode progresses the focus obviously changes from first contact and exploration to the Tok'ra, a switch that is very well done. When the Tok'ra arrive they are shown to be for the Pangarans, willing to help and even glad that a Goa'uld is being 'used'. Of course when they find out it isn't a Goa'uld, but their Queen, they do a complete 180 and say it is an affront to them. The change was in character for them, especially someone like Malek who had already been shown to have very strong beliefs in his own people in the previous episode. Did the Tok'ra deliberately keep info on an antidote from the Pangarans? I would go with Sam and say no, why would they? The Pangarans offered them Egeria in exchange for a cure so it would be stupid to not give them one.
A number of good moves were made with Cure. First off, the decision to kill Egeria and not give the Tok'ra an easy get out of their problems will hopefully lead to more good stories. I wasn't really expecting this, the scene had been set in 'Allegiance' with the free Jaffa to end the Tok'ra dieing story. The Jaffa could have incubated the Tok'ra young that Egeria produced. However, the best move was made by not portraying the Pangarans as bad guys. It would have been easy to paint them as evil, another alien of the week to offer SG-1 technology/medicine only to deceive them. The Pangarans however did everything for what they saw as being a good cause, they discover a Queen, do some experiments, find out they could make a medicine that would cure all ills and they would deal with any side effects later when they had too. When they find out about Egeria they apologise and ask Egeria for forgiveness for what they have done.
Overall then, Cure isn't a paint by numbers effort and has some solid roots in a good exploration episode and mythology and takes the opportunity well to move the story into a Tok'ra episode. There is solid acting from all the cast, including the guests and the SFX are used well to compliment the story.
Read the full review & synopsis on my site.
__________________
Report this post to a moderator | ? + *
|