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**Hyperspace** · 22 January 2005, 01:24 AM

I agree Sam was hot, and it was an entertaining ep..

**astrogeologist** · 22 January 2005, 12:50 PM

Originally posted by Hyperspace

I agree Sam was hot, and it was an entertaining ep..

Warning: Gemini spoilers below
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Originally posted by Tok'Ra Hostess

I think Gemini was faithful to Sam's character.

I am an avid Carter-fan (oooo surprise, there, right!

)... and I saw Gemini for the first time last night - and I thought it was a great episode and I thought it was true to the humanity of Sam's character.

This episode was similar to Entity in that Sam's curiosity, heart and willingness to trust were at the forefront. I could easily imagine this episode playing out the same way with Daniel in Sam's role.

I remember so vividly in the episode 'Entity' when Daniel was talking to Jack and Teal'c just after the Entity had taken over Sam.

DANIEL (to Jack): So basically you're saying if we had just listened to you in the first place and blown it up. No seriously, I'm asking, is that what you're saying?

TEAL'C: If we had destroyed the entity Daniel Jackson, Major Carter would not have been adversely affected.

DANIEL: Okay, I know your first instinct is to protect, both of you, that's your job, that's what you do but no matter what happens, no matter how this turns out, Sam wasn't wrong to try to communicate with it.

I could easily see 'Gemini' splitting SG-1 with Jack and Teal'c on one side of the discussion and Sam and Daniel on the other.

How or where do we want humanity to develop? Shoot first and don't take any chances? Or are the potential chances worth the risk of extending trust? Of course, the answer is sometimes yes, and sometimes no. So how do we tell the difference?

In Gemini, there was no way to tell which was the correct path (unless you'd read spoilers... which Jack, Sam and Teal'c didn't get to do!). Sam could have been right... Replicarter could have been telling the truth - and cooperation and trust may have been their only way to stay ahead of Fifth.

Jack may have seemed to want to take the hardline path and simply destroy Replicarter, but he's no longer the hard, cold Black Ops O'Neill as portrayed by Kurt Russell in the original movie - that character would never have survived 8 years on the TV series - the character had to soften a bit... have some positive hopefullness (get beyond the suicidal O'Neill). In Entity, Jack had to allow Sam to try and communicate with the Entity and in Gemini, they had to take the chance with Replicarter.

And even Teal'c didn't stay resolute on destroying the Replicarter. He had the opportunity - Replicarter asked him to do it when the two of them were alone in that interrogation room... but he faltered. His humanity swayed him when there was no one else in the room to do so. Even Teal'c doesn't have a heart that allows the world to be painted in black and whites.

The question of who and when to trust was also featured in the episode 'Forsaken'. The aliens that they first meet turn out to be the escaped prisoners... and the ones that 'attack' them turn out to be the 'good guys'... In particular, the conversation between Carter and Corso applies directly to the theme of trust:

CORSO: Colonel O’Neill doesn’t trust us, does he?

CARTER: [...] Colonel O’Neill is less concerned with showing distrust.

CORSO: So why are you helping us?

CARTER: Well it’s the only way you make new friends. Take a chance on someone and hope they don’t make you regret it.

This very same question was tackled in the original movie... Daniel was the voice of hope and trust who opened himself to the experience of meeting new people... contrasted against those who intended to solve the problem with a suicide mission and a nuclear bomb. The Abydossians were considered acceptable collateral damage. Daniel and Skaara reached the humanity in O'Neill's soul and they didn't annihilate the Abydossians or their 'Gate. And this seems right, doesn't it? Isn't that what we should want to see? O'Neill still has a heart and he can't condemn the Abydossians to death?

But then what happens? The Children of the Gods. And the Air Force is dumbfounded to find out that the Abydossians and their Gate are still around... hmmm... and some poor female air force officer is snatched by Apophis and SGC personnel die in the Gateroom firefight. And then so Sha're and Skaara are Goa'ulded. So does the blame lay with O'Neill? Was he too weak in the original movie? Should he have blown up the Abydossian gate site? What about his lies in his report when he got back? If he hadn't lied would that female officer have been abducted - and what about those soldiers who died in that gateroom firefight - could that have been prevented if O'Neill hadn't allowed his humanity and heart to control his actions? You can bet that there were 'higher ups' in the US Air Force who were definitely pissed at one Jack O'Neill! (Good thing Hammond was reasonable and had a heart of his own).

At any rate, I think that Gemini re-opened questions that the show has visited before. How much should we trust? How conservative should we be? If we don't extend trust, then we will lose so many opportunities to learn, to grow, to share, to possibly advance or save humanity. But each time we trust, we lay ourselves open to attack.

It's not surprising that the life experiences of O'Neill and Teal'c would make them more likely to distrust and less likely to take the chance of trusting new people and new situations. Sam and Daniel do not have the same backgrounds that O'Neill and Teal'c do... Sam and Daniel are still willing to extend that trust - to take the chance of being hurt. And neither O'Neill or Teal'c are as closed-off (or hard) as they were 8 years ago.

RepliCarter took full advantage of this.
Now that *was* scary.
RepliCarter had analysed this situation thoroughly - and correctly... very scary. O'Neill and Teal'c may not trust Replicaters... but who would expect that RepliCarter would so astutely predict their emotions? Carter doesn't show that side of herself... in fact, Carter is generally portrayed as *not* being extremely confident (or arrogant) in the personal relations arena.

Overall, as an episode in the Stargate saga, I thought that Gemini was true to the series characters, true to previous episodes and dilemmas... and it brought the Replicators back to Supreme Threat status by taking away the usefulness of the weapon invented in 'New Order'. Sci Fi series ratings are almost higher when the 'good guys' are struggling against an enemy that appears to be overwhelming and/or unstoppable. In 'New Order' they took away and reduced some of the menace from the Replicators by inventing that gun... so 'Gemini' took the gun away and restored the Replicators back to the highest threat level.

Originally posted by ChopinGal

...trust that [the episode Gemini] will produce even more interesting episodes in the future.

As far as the portrayal of Carter's character in Gemini, I think it was pretty well done - and it's how I want to see Carter - still willing to take the chance. Hope still resides. Because if that hope is ever quashed... if she were to evolve toward something like one of the 'inhuman killing machines' in that other Kurt Russell movie 'Soldiers', then the real Sam Carter would have died.

Sam Carter is on SG-1, a special operations team. SG-1 is not Black Ops. SG-1 is not an assassination team. SG-1 is a first contact and exploration team. Their mission is to meet new civilizations and to establish relations... to hopefully assist in the protection of Earth with both new technologies and new alliances.

Sam Carter joined the Air Force with the original goal of becoming an astronaut. She put her heart into becoming a good soldier, but she would never volunteer for the Black Ops career track. And that's OK. Most soldier don't opt for Black Ops. Most soldiers are not hard-hearted killing machines. Most soldier have heart and kill because it's what they are ordered to do, or forced to do.
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TV Guide Online - The Hot List = "Gemini"

TV Guide Online - The Hot List = "Gemini"

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