The Enemy Within (102)

[jlovette]

Two episodes and we already have two "for cryin' out louds" from Jack. I'm curious to see how early Teal'c's "indeed" shows up. On to Emancipation.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

This episode works so much better for me that the pilot. It eschews the epic action of COTG and has a strong character-based focus and setting, and is all the better for it. I always enjoyed Stargate the most with these bottle shows which remained on base and really explored in depth.

It's far less cheesy that COTG (apart from Kawalsky under the influence of the Goa'uld - "release me noooooooow!!!") - Teal'c and General Hammond are still a far cry from what they would become, but O'Neill has a lot more of the humour we are used to. Carter wears far too much makeup!

I always felt this was a strong episode, in no small part due to the fact that Kawalsky dies. I remember being quite shocked when I first saw it air, being used to Star Trek where everyone was always safe, and I knew this show was going to be different.

Some unanswered questions for me:

-It's been brought up before, but I believe this is the first time we see this quite clearly: the Stargate activates with the iris closed, but the wormhole does no damage. I'm always confused why the iris survives every gate activation.
-It's mentioned that the prisoners from Chulak have been sent home, but to where? And how were their gate addresses figured out?

7 out 10.

[muziqaz]

I understand what Sam said about full materialization being impossible because of the iris, but what about the big whoosh thing? that would have had to have engaged fully for the thumpers to have gotten as far as they did. Wouldn't that engaging have encompassed the iris and destroyed it, just like it would destroy anyone who stood in it's path?

No, because Iris is so close the event horizon, it does not have a space to energise. I am like Jack on this, get confused a lot with all that technical stuff
But I think in '100 days' episode Sam explains why they couldn't get malp through for the 1st time and why whooosh thing did not make a cavern for malp to go.

[Girlbot]

Some unanswered questions for me:

-It's been brought up before, but I believe this is the first time we see this quite clearly: the Stargate activates with the iris closed, but the wormhole does no damage. I'm always confused why the iris survives every gate activation.
-It's mentioned that the prisoners from Chulak have been sent home, but to where? And how were their gate addresses figured out?

7 out 10.

I believe it was mentioned that they were returned to Chulak. I remember Teal'c asking Jack

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Ah-ha, good stuff. That would make sense.
I just caught a couple of moments from a season 4 episode on TV, and there's a startling difference between the visual look of the show compared to season 1. They really got a bigger budget as the show went on and put it to really good use. Even the cinematography is different.

[poundpuppy29]

I didn't like this ep to start with but I liked it more this time Jack was great in this ep

[mathpiglet]

I was also wondering about the thumps that were hitting the iris. I wouldn't send Jafa through, probably loyal worshipers or slaves sent through to see what's on the other side and check back. It also could've been nuke type bombs, or some type of bombs with their own version of a malp.

I can imagine the Goa'uld standing there. "Send through a slave." They toss one through. How would they know from that side if he made it or not?

Do they send through a bomb first, hoping to destroy the shield? Then send through a slave or Jaffa? I would assume they send through someone with a communication device to let them know they have made it through.

[juggernaut975]

I like what someone said earlier about this being the third part of a three episode trilogy to kick the series off.

Noticed Teal'c's symbol flipped over from being upside down early on (talking to O'Neill) to right side up (his fight with the possessed Kawalsky). Never noticed it until someone pointed it out, since then it just jumps out at me

Forgot what a brutal episode this was, not only in the very matter of fact way Kawalsky was dealing with the possession and, what he saw, was the only way out of it to the way Teal'c and O'Neill ended the threat by shutting off the gate.

You can tell even at this early stage that this wasn't going to be a rehash of standard TV science fiction.

[Matt G]

A week after I saw the very cool new(to me) show called Stargate SG1 it was another Sunday afternoon and a very good reason to check up the new episode. A couple of years later and I rewatch the ep, this time in German and unedited, freaking out the people in the language lab in the process. A year or two after that and I happened to snap this ep up on DVD as part of a SG1/DVD magazine series I tried out(and quickly ditched as the mag didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from online).

So...

1. Liked the exchanges between Jack and Kawalsky and from the start was gutted for Jack when his friend died. Kawalsky was a familiar name from the movie and I had assumed initially that he was going to be there for the long haul.

2. As a result, I was actually surprised when it had turned out that the surgery had not removed the Goa'uld. OK...call me a naive moron if you want...

3. Jack did start to grow on me though in this ep, way earlier than the others did.

4. Teal'c...well I sympathised with his situation...but still I felt I knew Kawalsky better than him at this point.

5. The amount of times I tried to anticipate when the symbiote would "rear it's butt ugly head" on this viewing was fun.

6. In the Kawalsky vs Sam fight I couldn't help fladhing back to an online feature I first remember watching circa '01(in my Hall of Residence Flat first year of Uni) with AT talking about it and saying "...when you saw Sam crumpled in a heap...that was in fact Amanda crumpled in a heap!".

[Traveler Enroute1]

SG Rewatched episodes: 101, 102.

The things we discover/remember when rewatching episodes!

Enemy At The Gates was a very emotional episode. It crystallized for me early on that this was a well thought out military culture, especially as we note Jack, Hammond and Sam's concern for Kawalsky; the Pentagon's Col. Kennedy and his defensive mindset regarding a soldier's sacrifice, and even the doctor having to follow orders no matter what his doubts were.

At one point I agreed a bit with Kennedy, that Kawalsky's life was already lost and they had at hand an enemy to study. Maybe with time they would be able to find a safe way to remove the symbiote. But then I thought: the symbiote would be maturing during that time and a fully grown one wouldn't increase Kawalsky's chances at all. I do admit to a bit of surprise that the military didn't press this considering the immense new threat to the entire planet, but hey, Hammond's clout apparently goes a long, long way!

I agreed a lot with what Krisz said about losing Kawalsky so soon. His rapport with Jack was great onscreen, with neat banter. And when Kawalsky realized he was infested with the enemy, I had to gulp as his tears ran down his face. A seasoned soldier wouldn't fear death the way he feared his situation. A lot of feeling well depicted here.

Some other thoughts:

• Loved the tension in all of them as the siege continued. We come in on the near end but they've all had it.
• The iris doesn't look so formidable in this episode; thank goodness for later developments.
• The Jack/Teal'c scene showed the bonding of two stoic warrior types. Interesting combination.
• Sam's immediately suspicious of Kawalsky in the gateroom and alerts O'Neill and Hammond. Why?
• The Tau'ri are legend! Thought provoking stuff to consider earth with its technology as the prehistoric race of the galaxy!
• The SGC and American government are now fully aware of the threat to earth as they bear witness to symbiote infestation.
• Trivial spotting: WHAT was that water fountain doing in the hall, where we always see troops high tailing it during red alerts? My mind saw a huge bottleneck if one soldier ran into it and the following ran into him and... OK, maybe it was some side hallway, but it still looked odd there.

I liked the way this episode linked directly with CoTG, giving a sense of continuity even though this is obviously some weeks later. As Jack and Teal'c regard the body of the former soldier, we see a new dynamic emerge; one good man lost, another good man found. And nothing beats the thrill of watching the new SG-1 gather in the Gateroom and then go up that ramp and into the event horizon. Wowzer, indeed!

Rate: 4/5

All righty, then; see ya at Emancipation!

[neoncrazy101]

Its been forever since I've watched these episodes thus I've realized some things that I've never seen before. Like how they used to set the self destruct for every incoming worm hole. One mistake that I've found so far (I'm halfway these this episode) is that when they sent the radiation team in, the gate was off, then in another view of the radiation team up there you can see the blue behind it as if the gate was activated lol.

[SF_and_Coffee]

I liked the way this episode linked directly with CoTG, giving a sense of continuity even though this is obviously some weeks later.

Just a note: I'm pretty sure (as in, 99.99% sure) that this isn't actually supposed to be weeks after COTG at all. It's basically a day or so later, at most. COTG and The Enemy Within are contiguous in timeframe.

[Traveler Enroute1]

Just a note: I'm pretty sure (as in, 99.99% sure) that this isn't actually supposed to be weeks after COTG at all. It's basically a day or so later, at most. COTG and The Enemy Within are contiguous in timeframe.

My bad; the way they talked about the constant dialing in and Daniel's sleeplessness, it sounded like a longer time.

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Kawalsky was really great in this ep. Well done to his actor. I really felt the struggle between him and the symbiote.

Definitely one of my favourite eps this season.

[chaddergate]

Its been forever since I've watched these episodes thus I've realized some things that I've never seen before. Like how they used to set the self destruct for every incoming worm hole. One mistake that I've found so far (I'm halfway these this episode) is that when they sent the radiation team in, the gate was off, then in another view of the radiation team up there you can see the blue behind it as if the gate was activated lol.

I noticed the same thing.
As for the whole episode, I thought it was a good continuation from the pilot, and also thought Kawalsky was superb in this one!