Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Best Angsty Daniel Episode

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Best Angsty Daniel Episode

    This is the penultimate heat. After next week's Daniel & Friends poll we'll put all the winners into the final.

    The episodes already chosen are: Best Loopy Daniel episodes - Legacy, Lifeboat and Absolute Power; the best eps for Daniel the Scholar and Explorer - Torment of Tantalus and The First Ones; the best Daniel the Hero - Meridian and Reckoning pt II; best Whumping eps - Evolution pt II and Prometheus Unbound; and the best Daniel Character Development - Maternal Instinct and Forever in a Day.
    84
    Menace
    19.05%
    16
    The Gamekeeper
    5.95%
    5
    Meridian
    13.10%
    11
    Heroes pt II
    14.29%
    12
    Hathor
    1.19%
    1
    Crystal Skull
    5.95%
    5
    Absolute Power
    4.76%
    4
    Beast of Burden
    0.00%
    0
    There But for the Grace of God
    14.29%
    12
    Secrets
    13.10%
    11
    The Light
    3.57%
    3
    Past and Present
    2.38%
    2
    Fallen
    1.19%
    1
    Into the Fire
    1.19%
    1
    The Other Side
    0.00%
    0

    Madeleine

    #2
    So hard to choose! But I had to go for Heroes, because of the scene where he gives the tape to Bregman. Brilliantly acted, and brilliantly directed. Or at least I thought so.

    Comment


      #3
      To everyone who spotted the mistake - Thanks! It's fixed now, I think

      Madeleine

      Comment


        #4
        I choose MERIDIAN, coz in other episodes Daniel only loose something or a part of his life, but in Meridian he basically leave everything and fully aware of it, gotta full of angsty for doing that.
        sigpic
        sig.by : lilferret

        Comment


          #5
          I went with Crystal Skull for several reasons. One, there's no angst like family angst. Daniel's conflicting feelings for Nick were a treat.

          Two, I think this episode was the beginning of the disillusionment that would lead Daniel away from SG-1. Whatever *did* happen to working through the night? The look on his face when he said 'I'd do it for you...' just broke my heart.

          Throughout Crystal skull Daniel gets pulled from emotional high to low to high over and over. He hears Jack say 'the one we need is Daniel' but then sees Jack call it a day while his team member and friend is still missing.

          He gets to endure his grandfather's scorn again, but then gets the admission from Nick that Nick screwed up not adopting him.

          He sees in Hammond's conversation with his grandaughter the love and attention he was denied as a child. But then he hears Hammond say he can't go see her performance because his "very good friend" is missing. Hammond will miss his grandaughter's play but Jack won't lose a night's sleep? WTF?!

          He finally has a chance to build a relationship with his only remaining family, only to have Nick stay behind...

          This episode was just a total angst-fest from beginning to end, and I LOVE IT!



          Comment


            #6
            I'd have to go with Threads, but that's not an option. :\

            Comment


              #7
              I'd really go with Need, but It wasn't there so ... I went with Absolute Power. Just goes to show beneth the cute/geek lies a dangerous interior of maniacal power lust. Fantabulous!
              TEAM SG1 LIVES

              Comment


                #8
                I went for Menace because for this ep was the episode that finally broke Daniel.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Hm.

                  Not quite sure what to make of this one. Best angst? Things were pretty angsty in some of the loopy episodes, the Daniel-in-distress episodes, the character growth episodes, a few of the heroic episodes and even a handful of the exploration episodes. I’m actually a bit stumped.

                  “Which of these do you like best?”

                  Easy enough: ’There But For The Grace Of God.’

                  Do I think it’s the best Angsty Daniel episode? More angsty than ‘Secrets’?

                  Does it get more angsty than 'Secrets'?

                  Poor lamb: Sha’re is back, she’s within reach, their time is limited, and so much of the time they could have had was lost because Kasuf didn’t unbury the gate until the appointed Abydonian year had passed.

                  And the angst is just getting warmed up: She’s pregnant, for starters, the implications of that are devastating, she’s herself but only as long as she’s carrying the child of the being who kidnapped and enslaved her, and she’s certain Daniel despises her and he’s too shell-shocked at first to show her otherwise. One of the few times Daniel ever takes a moment to feel sorry for himself and there’s Teal’c all over him, asking him to force his wife into captivity above and beyond being taken as host by a Goa’uld and, oh dear, looks like he’ll have to deliver the baby, too. They come so close – so damn close - to getting her home and it falls apart in the dying seconds, Sha’re lost to the parasitical entity inside her, then physically lost again, as Apophis reclaims her, with Daniel trying to hold it together just enough to reassure her that he loves her, hand her child over to its grandfather and try to get himself and Teal’c home in one piece, even if it means getting knocked around by a snakehead on top of everything else.

                  All told, a helluva day at the office.

                  Six years and change later and I’m still haunted by Daniel’s eyes in this episode, the way he managed to do so much while in this daze of pain, as though the only way to get through any of it was to just do it before too much of what was happening sunk in.

                  I should vote for this one - I should - but I like ‘There But For The Grace Of God’ better, darn it.

                  The angst is not as focused as it is in episodes like ‘Menace’ or ‘Heroes,’ and that kind of focus so often translates into a more acute sense of suffering. Smaller pressure points will do that (and an actor that has matured as much as Michael had by that point doesn’t hurt, either).

                  But what I like so much about ‘TBFTGOG’ is the enormous scale of it all, how the weight of the world has fallen on Daniel’s slender shoulders – and no one can see it (or believe it) but him.

                  In this corner, a universe through the looking glass, hostile, disbelieving, doomed and a portent of the horrible devastation to come in his universe, the one he may not live to see again. And in this corner, Daniel Jackson.

                  Little Season One Daniel Jackson, who’s never met an Asgard, hasn’t developed that P-90 bulge, has never travelled to Kheb, hasn’t gone to another plane of existence and back and come to accept that the relative powerlessness of this existence is where he possesses his greatest strength, and who doesn’t have a head full of Ancient knowledge for those especially perilous occasions where it helps to have an edge. It’s Daniel the frustrated, flaky and small - lost, alone and overwhelmed, and all he needs to do is save the world.

                  And the friends he’s counting on to help him do it aren’t “his” friends at all.

                  He moves from the dread of being left behind again, to the relief of thinking he’s made it home, only to be faced with a roomful of strangers wearing the faces of his friends, holding him at gunpoint, restraining him, drugging him and refusing to even believe in his existence. He not only has to find a way to explain himself to these people – when he has no idea himself what’s going on – but convince them, in the middle of the end of their world, to take a moment or two out of meeting their fate to try and send him home.

                  To accept their end, but give him a chance to avert that end for himself and his world (and for Daniel to have to ask that is an incredible, terrible thing).

                  What really sets ‘TBFTGOG’ apart, for me – while I’m trying to make a distinction for myself between just plain “angst” and loopy/whumped/growth angst – is that, far from just feeling so deeply for Daniel, when I watch this episode it’s like I’m sucked, bodily, right into the angst-fest with him.

                  I get frustrated when I watch this episode. I get agitated, impatient, stressed-out, exasperated and anxious, and all these years later I still can’t watch those final few minutes on the “other side” without bouncing in my seat, chanting, “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” (It’s pathetic, but it’s so damn cool.)

                  And most agonising of all, the ordeal isn’t over when it’s over. Daniel’s home, he should be safe, it’s been enough already, and he gets to live the nightmare all over again, only worse: Another imminent attack on Earth, only this time it’s “his” Earth; another staff weapon blast, only this time more deadly; and once again he’s surrounded by familiar faces who won’t believe him, only these familiar faces really are the people he loves (and still they doubt him).

                  *sigh*

                  I do have to give a shout-out to Emmett Bregman, for not only reaching out to a closed-in, grief-stricken Daniel, but offering something that actually helps him, and doing so in a way that is so sympathetic and respectful of the kind of space Daniel needs, not trying to make him feel better, but giving him the tools to make things better for himself. ‘Heroes’ is too deeply flawed an episode to be a real contender for me, but their interaction merits some mention (it’s one of the few perfect notes the episode does hit, and saves the whole thing for me on many levels).

                  And I still feel like my vote should go to ‘Secrets.’

                  But I'm it to ‘There But For The Grace Of God' anyway, even if it's mostly because I can.

                  Tucker

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I'm torn between Secrets and Menace. I love Secrets. I thought the most meaningful moment was when Daniel told Sha're it was a boy. It was the exact tone of a proud father. And, then, he repeated the words and the tone was completely different. The wonderful moment was over, and all the implications of this child, Apophis child, being a boy hit him. And, the poor guy just looked so wiped out and confused when Teal'c came in, disguised as one of Heru'ur (sp) guards. I think the confused look I saw wasn't because he was really confused so much as he was in a daze about everything.

                    I totally fell in love with Daniel in Singularity, but I think this episode really sealed my feeling about MS as an actor. True, it's not as big as Need or the other Daniel goes nuts episodes (which he excels in) but it just connected with me.

                    But, there's also Menace. He connected with Reece. He really started to care for her. And, his reaction when Jack shot her was complete anguish. And, worse, he felt betrayed by someone he loved. I don't think his reaction would have been so fierce if he didn't care about Jack. It wasn't just the words, but his tone of voice. (although I might save this for Daniel and friends, even if isn't a happy friendship episode.)

                    I think I'll go with Secrets.
                    I'm a girl! A girly girly girl!

                    Okay, you got me. I can't accept change. This message may look like it was typed on a computer and posted on the internet, but it is actually cave drawings delivered by smoke signals.

                    Naquada Enhanced Chastity Belts -SG1 edition. On sale now! Heck, I'll give them away

                    Daniel Jackson Appreciation and Discussion -because he's more than pretty

                    http://forum.gateworld.net/showthread.php?t=89


                    Daniel Jackson: The Beacon of Hope and The Man Who Opened the Stargate

                    Comment


                      #11
                      This was a tough call for me. My first inclination was to vote for Secrets, for the obvious reasons already outlined so well above. But I chose Menace instead, mostly for the incredible scene between Jack and Daniel at the very end. Daniel's anguish over the reaffirmation of his and Jack's fundamentally differing life philosophies, including this "what is more important, the 'life' of one being or the safety of all" question, was extremely moving to me and underlined what I see as the basic premise of the entire series. The conflict of these two friends, and the examination of their continual struggle to remain friends despite the differences in their basic natures, has always been the most compelling aspect of the show to me.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I chose There But For The Grace Of God thinking I was near or enough alone in my opinion, but it turns out quite a few others have picked it as well so well done to them!

                        This was actually a really tough choice. Heroes, Secrets, Crystal Skull and Meridian all come close seconds

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I was thinking about Crystal Skull for a moment (first episode I saw, still love it).

                          But then I noticed Menace.

                          Menace tops any other episode in my books.

                          Menace had everything. Replicators, angsty Daniel, great acting, effects.

                          MS did so well in acting in that episode.

                          ... Words cannot express how much I love that episode

                          Edit: Holy crap! 3,000 posts! Whoohoo!

                          Note: User's posts are rarely serious.
                          Member of the F.O.R.D. || Martouf Marty's Webpage || (LJ)

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Had to go with 'There but for the Grace of God'.......Really great ep.and I liked it alot,and I think MS did a awsome job in that ep.!.....But I for seconds I would have to go with Meridian or Heroes(what a tear jerker).....

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by AncientKnowledge
                              Had to go with 'There but for the Grace of God'.......Really great ep.and I liked it alot,and I think MS did a awsome job in that ep.!.....But I for seconds I would have to go with Meridian or Heroes(what a tear jerker).....
                              Meridian was great (even though I just have to make fun of it almost everytime I see it).

                              TBFTGOG was good, but not GREAT... I've seen that episode too many times lol.

                              Note: User's posts are rarely serious.
                              Member of the F.O.R.D. || Martouf Marty's Webpage || (LJ)

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X