Chain Reaction (415)

[Falcon Horus]

You seem to be expecting this show to accurately reflect how the military actually works.

It doesn't? Wait, are you saying the stargate isn't real?!?

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Not at all. Just that the military at the SGC behave ... differently.

Seaboe

[Falcon Horus]

Not at all. Just that the military at the SGC behave ... differently.

Who needs rules anyway... ... they are more like guidelines than actual rules anyway.

[ajay]

I think this is also the first episode in which we see Siler's genourmous wrench.

It was shown in Scorched Earth. While Hammond and Carter are walking up the stairs to the briefing room, you see Siler and an airman (who I believe was played by Martin Wood) holding and discussing The Wrench.

I didn't see it in this episode though? Gonna have to go back and check. Maybe when they were preparing the bomb.

[enibas5]

Very good episode. But it also shows perfectly well, why I could never really relate to Carter. She is too much military. As a scientist it would have been her duty to disobey. She simply lacks a decent backbone.
There is no point in "knowing it better", if you are to afraid to use that knowledge when it counts. It really sums up to: "Well, I destroyed the world, but I am not responsible, because I was ordered do so". That would also make her a perfect war criminal. Some behaviour as in "Scorched Earth", just on a bigger scale.

[Falcon Horus]

Very good episode. But it also shows perfectly well, why I could never really relate to Carter. She is too much military. As a scientist it would have been her duty to disobey. She simply lacks a decent backbone.
There is no point in "knowing it better", if you are to afraid to use that knowledge when it counts. It really sums up to: "Well, I destroyed the world, but I am not responsible, because I was ordered do so". That would also make her a perfect war criminal. Some behaviour as in "Scorched Earth", just on a bigger scale.

Mmm... never looked at Carter that way. Interesting way of putting it.

Mind you, I never really took to Carter in the first place, though I couldn't for the life me say why.

[enibas5]

Maybe this is also a little bit about me being German. We have grown to become very sensitive about the "i was just following orders" issue - for a very good reason. And being a cop myself, I know that at least German regulations explicitly offer the individual gaps to avoid following orders that completely contradict one owns conscience and knowledge.

I actually believe that those also exist within the US Law and military. This ep. very much reminded me of the tragic accident regarding one of the NASA space missions when one rocket blew up. It was either the one that exploded at start up or the one that blew up while entering earth atomsphere at return. Anyway, I watched a documentary about that. It turned out, that the engineers of the company that constructed some shield devices tried everything to avoid the start of the rocket in the first place. Temperatures had dropped too low, so that according to their simulations the heat shields would loose attachment. Unfortunately their superior did not stand the pressure of the NASA responsibilities who somehow threatend the company to be responsible if there would be another costly delay of the start. Because it was postponed once already.
Finally the company gave the green light regarding the mission, disregarding any protest of the involved engineers.
As it turned out, it was exactly one of those shields that lost contact on start up and caused major damage by digging itself into some essential part of the rocket.
Of course, the NASA put all that pressure on the company to agree to the start up because of financial reasons. The responsible NASA personell was fired after the accident that caused the death of several astronauts. The involved engineers of the construction company left the company and have a hard time to go on with their lives. But they at least tried everything possible to prevent the accident from happening.

Ok, sorry for that excursion. But it is not off-topic, but IMHO exactly what the ep. should be about. Unfortunately the writers did not take up on that. One single line on Carters part would have been enough to give that ep. a way deeper and ethical background. Just have her say something like "I should have risked court martial in the first place".

[jckfan55]

Interesting point. We do see that she is unhappy about it. Maybe she thought she could still have some influence over ultimately using it whereas others wouldn't have even tried. But in the end, you're right. She didn't resign or anything.
This could have been a more complex plot point. But not in 44 minutes with everything else that was in the episode.

[enibas5]

Oh, I don't really think, that it would have taken much to do the twist. I think, giving her 1 oder 2 lines, showing that she is not only angry with the General but also with herself would have done the trick.

[Anja]

Disobeying a command of that kind leads to being court-martialed - doesn't it?
Bauer is disgusting, Maybourne and O'Neill just like Butch and Sundance - hope, no Bolivian army will come one day.

[Falcon Horus]

Not particularly fond of this episode, but I'm averse to it either... probably hanging somewhere in the middle -- between liking and meh.

Anyhoodle, someone's threatening General Hammond to make him step down and they put a hard-ass in his place who cares less about lives and more about making the biggest bomb and making it go boom. To hell with potential casualties. They aren't American lives so not worth his time, even though he also didn't seem to care much about the loss of Major Wade of SG-3. He was more concerned about whether they had gotten their hands on the naquadah.

And then Bauer got burned -- fairly literally you might say, hightailing it out of dodge when it got too hot underneath his feet.

Maybourne and O'Neill going at it together -- kinda funny! Starsky and Hutch -- yeah, I guess they could pull that off.

How would you rate SG-1's "Chain Reaction?"

Excellent
Good
Fair -- which has 1 vote in the poll, mine
Poor
Terrible

****

3-episode quiz: Chain Reaction, 2010 & Absolute Power

Jigsaw puzzle: Chain Reaction

[jelgate]

How can you not love these episodes FH? I love the Starsky and Hutch episodes. Now that Maybourne isn't an antagonist, I think the two play off one another as comedy gold as they infilitrate the dark areas of society. Kinsey hypocrisy isn't surprising but his level of criminality is astounding. I remember when first seeing this episode that I wonder why he wasn't arrested. The naqudah bomb story is just there. I don't feel like it serves a purpose

[jelgate]

Also 9 min 44 sec

[Who Knows]

Not one of my better ones, in fact the worst yet. 16:04
Too much white & off white.

[Falcon Horus]

How can you not love these episodes FH? I love the Starsky and Hutch episodes.

I know, I'm as suprised as you are.

Not one of my better ones, in fact the worst yet. 16:04
Too much white & off white.

Blame it on the dog.