My copy of Titan's book "Stargate SG-1 The Illustrated Companion Season 9" has arrived earlier today 
I really like Amanda's take on the Ori:
"One of the major new threads added by the writers in season nine, was, of cours, a new evil for SG-1 to battle in the form of the Ori. As far as Tapping is concerned, the religious overtones used by the writers to form this new danger to the galaxy is very closely - and cleverly - connected to the current larger world view. "Not to get too hyper-political about it, but I think it's really an interesting mirror of our society," says Tapping, "what happens when fundamentalism takes over, and how fundamentalist religion of any bent rules by fear and intimidation. We're seeing it in society, close to home and far afield, and it's interesting that we're paralleling it with the Ori. It's all fear and intimidation, it's bullying. [The] aggressor comes in, takes over, makes people scared, puts them in a position where they have no choice but to follow or they die. It's an interesting geo-political pointing it up, I think. I don't know if our writers intended for it to be [that], or whether they had conceptualised this storyline and suddenly the world's global political scene mirrored it. We're in a position where it makes a lot of sense [to be] doing this kind of storyline. It's not just an over-the-top Goa'uld, which is the same thing. Here, they're doing it on the basis of a very specific religious ideology that the people have to follow. I think it's very well done, and I think for us, too - once we've defeated the Goa'uld, where do you go? Something bigger, better, scarrier and more potent. And people do believe in it. There's a god quality to [the Ori]. But are they really Ascended beings, or have they just found a way to have all the smoke and mirrors and bells and whistles, without actually having properly Ascended? Is Ascension really what we think it is? It raises a whole bunch of questions that could keep us going for years!"
I really like Amanda's take on the Ori:"One of the major new threads added by the writers in season nine, was, of cours, a new evil for SG-1 to battle in the form of the Ori. As far as Tapping is concerned, the religious overtones used by the writers to form this new danger to the galaxy is very closely - and cleverly - connected to the current larger world view. "Not to get too hyper-political about it, but I think it's really an interesting mirror of our society," says Tapping, "what happens when fundamentalism takes over, and how fundamentalist religion of any bent rules by fear and intimidation. We're seeing it in society, close to home and far afield, and it's interesting that we're paralleling it with the Ori. It's all fear and intimidation, it's bullying. [The] aggressor comes in, takes over, makes people scared, puts them in a position where they have no choice but to follow or they die. It's an interesting geo-political pointing it up, I think. I don't know if our writers intended for it to be [that], or whether they had conceptualised this storyline and suddenly the world's global political scene mirrored it. We're in a position where it makes a lot of sense [to be] doing this kind of storyline. It's not just an over-the-top Goa'uld, which is the same thing. Here, they're doing it on the basis of a very specific religious ideology that the people have to follow. I think it's very well done, and I think for us, too - once we've defeated the Goa'uld, where do you go? Something bigger, better, scarrier and more potent. And people do believe in it. There's a god quality to [the Ori]. But are they really Ascended beings, or have they just found a way to have all the smoke and mirrors and bells and whistles, without actually having properly Ascended? Is Ascension really what we think it is? It raises a whole bunch of questions that could keep us going for years!"
)
Comment