The Nox (107)

[muziqaz]

But the Fenri weren't a threat to Apophis and if he could somehow get their ability he would be a very lucky Goa'uld. So, why destroy a planet that has a creature on it you can benefit from and that doesn't seem to be harming/threatening you?

But he knows there is Nox people who are doing that disappearing thing. Later in the series those other invisible aliens(forgot their name) got wiped out, because they were invisible and possible danger to Goa'uld. remember this is evil Goa'uld we are talking about. We can understand that The Nox are pacifists and harmless, but Goa'uld will not come to the same conclusion easily. remember they try to exterminate civilizations which have some sort of superior technology which cannot be obtained by Goa'uld and they kill that what they don't understand or fear.
So Apophis now knows that Nox have a technology to make themselves invisible and he got his a** handed to him by The Nox, so being a Goa'uld, he would try to exterminate The Nox people. At least try and fail horribly

[Jae'a]

But they're very friendly and trusting...

Great way to get yourself killed, that...

My LiveJournal post

[Girlbot]

But the Fenri weren't a threat to Apophis and if he could somehow get their ability he would be a very lucky Goa'uld. So, why destroy a planet that has a creature on it you can benefit from and that doesn't seem to be harming/threatening you?

Insanity and logic rarely go together.
Apophis spent a lot of time in that sarcophagus of his. I'm pretty sure he was far from sane. Remember how it affected Daniel.

[fems]

But he knows there is Nox people who are doing that disappearing thing. Later in the series those other invisible aliens(forgot their name) got wiped out, because they were invisible and possible danger to Goa'uld. remember this is evil Goa'uld we are talking about. We can understand that The Nox are pacifists and harmless, but Goa'uld will not come to the same conclusion easily. remember they try to exterminate civilizations which have some sort of superior technology which cannot be obtained by Goa'uld and they kill that what they don't understand or fear.
So Apophis now knows that Nox have a technology to make themselves invisible and he got his a** handed to him by The Nox, so being a Goa'uld, he would try to exterminate The Nox people. At least try and fail horribly

Oh, you meant after he learned of the Nox' existence? Well, we know the Nox took Apophis and sent him somewhere through the gate, it's possible they can do more than simply heal others and become invisible. Perhaps they erased the events from the planet from Apophis' mind. After all, SG-1 killed his Jaffa so Apophis was the only one to be returned through the gate.

[muziqaz]

Great way to get yourself killed, that...

My LiveJournal post

Ok, I like the Nox, they're nice and all, but in some ways they get on my nerves. I can't stand unconditional pacifism. It's a great way to get yourself hurt or killed. Especially on this show! Although in the Nox's case, they have their invisibility defence and a hidden floating island.
But at the end when one of them says to SG-1 "Maybe one day you'll learn that your ways are not the only ways.", we could say the same to them!

And Apophis is back! With the first appearence of his personal shield that bullets and staff-blasts can't get through but slower weapons can. When the team figure this out and Jack fires an arrow at him, I almost threw something a the TV when the Nox make him disappear. I was also rolling my eyes a lot when the Nox refused to let SG-1 do anything about Shak'l.

I'm still not sure I understand a part at the end, when Jack (I think) asks why they didn't say anything about their invisible island before and Daniel says "I think in their way, they did." How's that, Daniel? I guess subtlety is lost on me!

You are looking at them from our closed minded point of view. From later episodes and the whole series we can extrapolate that Nox been in this galaxy longer than any of races, even Asgard. So it is safe to assume that their way is the safest way for them and their way helped them survive for many thousands(10s,100s) of years.
The Nox are so advanced that we as a viewer must open our mind for our imagination on what is possible for The Nox, even though we might think that it is impossible.
regarding the sentence about your way is not the only way, I think they are nearing the time of ascension but not pushing it that much as Ancients did, as they were threatened by plague. being so close to the nature must mean something, as they are so close to their true nature. I suppose they hate seeing violence.
Regarding Daniels line, again read between the lines In many occasions they asked SG1 to leave and not to worry about them. But SG1 being Earthlings from great country of America assumed that they are dealing with some unevolved native tribe. They shut the possibility down that maybe The Nox being capable of making themselves invisible and reviving people can protect themselves. Or did they assume that it was just primitive magic and some primitive medicine?
We are watching people from other planet, and look at them through our point of view, which is extremely primitive compared to The Nox. I don't know if writers of the episode wanted us to see The Nox that way, but for me it seems that showing The Nox as they were in this episode they portrayed Nox as very different and experienced race.

[muziqaz]

Oh, you meant after he learned of the Nox' existence? Well, we know the Nox took Apophis and sent him somewhere through the gate, it's possible they can do more than simply heal others and become invisible. Perhaps they erased the events from the planet from Apophis' mind. After all, SG-1 killed his Jaffa so Apophis was the only one to be returned through the gate.

Yes, I meant 'after he learned about Nox'.
I think Nox healed Apophis guards and sent them through the gate together, it would oppose The Nox 'way' to leave them dead
And yes it is possible that Nox erased the knowledge of the planet and The Nox itself. I never thought of that and I consider myself not the one who thinks that healing and invisibility was the only powers of the Nox
Also The Nox said they will bury the gate. I don't believe they did that. Seeing how they could control the stargate and wormhole from later episodes I think they just locked their gate out of the network or something. And that showed how advanced they are.
Man, when I start thinking about The Nox, my mind starts flying all over the place, possibilities are endless.
I can use Jack's expression here: You have to love those people

[KayLyne]

There was a pivotal point in this episode where I realized that this series was going to be a fun ride, for however long it lasted - when they actually killed the entire team! How many shows are there where their entire main cast of characters dies? And the plausibility factor didn't seem cheesy to me either.

[Krisz]

Nothing is what it seems! The Nox really showed SG-1 that!

I actually forgot the beginning of this episode where the we first meet a government official in a long line of government officials to come, that believe the Stargate is for getting advanced technology for their own uses and advancement. This of course sets up a wonderful contrast to the Nox, who had left that sort of thinking behind long ago in their evolution. We see a peaceful innocence about them. but it hides the peace and contentment with things that comes from having great understanding and knowledge beyond that of the humans and the Goa'uld.

I love this sort of thing, SG-1 gets a lesson in humility, but the Nox have seen that the humans do understand and can accept different approaches to things. They are adaptable and the fact Anteaus showed them the level of their technology and knowledge showed that he believed the humans would take that away with them and understand it takes time to gain the wisdom to get to the level of the Nox. It's this great optimism about the human race I like in Stargate, and here we see the two sides of humanity, the politicians and warmongerers on Earth, and the few in the SGC on the side of human reason that understands taking steps to learn about and earn the trust and respect of those they meet on their travels is more important.

It was good to see this episode again after...wow I can't even remember when I last saw it!

[Brother Freyr]

One more question: Why didn't Goa'uld ever tried to destroy the Nox planet from space? Apophis knew planets location.

Only Apophis, among the goa'uld, knows the truth of the Nox. I see two likely scenarios for what happens next.

1) Apophis dispatches a ship(s) but the Nox can ably protect themselves. We don't ever learn the extent of Nox abilities, however the Nox are an old and powerful species who seem quite unconcerned by the prospect of hostile spaceships. As one of the galaxy's four great races, we can trust that they know what they're doing.

2) Apophis doesn't send a ship simply because he has other priorities. Namely, Earth is an ever growing nuissance. Perhaps Apophis intends to eventually deal with the Nox after Earth is defeated. Even then, he'd probably try to capture some Nox (ha ha) before bombarding the planet from orbit. This scenario feels more likely to me, but either explanation works.

[muziqaz]

What about Anubis? He clearly used his limited knowledge of the Ancient tech, and I suppose he knew about Asgard and Nox.
Though later on Goa'uld did not need invisibility as they had it(One episode when one of the system lords made his fleet invisible).

[fems]

One episode when one of the system lords made his fleet invisible

Ironically, that was Apophis (The Serpent's Venom, 4x14).

It's possible Anubis knows of their existence but probably doesn't know the address of their home world. We don't even know if the other three races knew each other's locations, since they met up on a neutral planet. Not to mention that the Asgard don't seem to drop by the Nox every now and then to keep in touch, but they do visit Earth...

[muziqaz]

We don't know if Asgard don't visit Nox. They might, though I think you are right. They had enough problems of their own.
regarding meeting place, I think Heliopolis was their initial meeting place for 1st meetings, just to get acquainted thus the 'book of knowledge with basic elements'. Later on they added their own writings on the wall to commemorate their meetings.
4 Races as advanced as they were should have managed to learn each other languages eventually and share the locations of their worlds.
Afterall it was happening quite a long time ago and for quite a long time
My imaginary timeline looks like this:
Ancients meet Furlings and Nox then after some time they meet Asgard. In my opinion I think Nox were the 1st to be met by Ancients in the beginning of their interstellar advances. I will leave Furlings out of it, as I have no idea of their tech status. Those two continued to evolve, Nox going their way, Ancients similar to humans exploring and evolving technically and spiritually. Of course they share their knowledge. Then after thousands of years of evolution Ancients invent the Stargate network and they meet Asgard who were in different galaxy as far as I remember. By that time Ancients were reaching their limits. They created an alliance of those 4 races, Asgard being the youngest, but enough advanced to be considered worthy of the place in alliance. After another couple of thousand years, Ancients were forced to ascend, Nox were left alone, Asgard continued pursuing technological advancements.
Though it makes me wonder why didn't Asgard ask for help from Nox about their genetic problems.
When I think of it, I have a limited imagination myself, but when I start to fantasise about Stargate universe, I feel that I would be able to make another 10 seasons of the show. I mean so many uncharted topics still there, even though Stargate series already touched so much
Sorry for OT.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

A great episode for the most part, establishing some interesting setups. The Nox are a pretty cool race, even if they look very silly! The episode also plays with viewer expectations quite well. Killing SG-1 off early on, though not making the stupid mistake of having that moment be the teaser before the credits, because we all know they can't really die. The gorgeous green rainy forests of Canada really are beautiful for this episode.

Some nitpicks from me, though:

- How did Teal'c know the gate address from memory?
- What are the odds that Apophis would be on the planet at the same time?
- It's been a while since I've seen lots of SG-1 episodes, and the later ones are very hazy for me, but don't the Goa'uld have invisiblity tech in later episodes?
- First mention of, "Shol'va!" First mention of 'First Prime'!
- Have the Nox not heard of the Goa'uld before? Given that they are later revealed to be one of the big four races in the universe, it seems a little odd.
- Teal'c talking about Shak'l: "He is very skilled at evading capture." Cut to Shak'l standing and shouting! Idiot!

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

[muziqaz]

I think those 4 Nox people were just simple people not involved in planetary matter I suppose, so it is not like they were some leaders of Nox Even with Nox knowledge I would think every Nox would know everything there is to know

[fems]

Some nitpicks from me, though:

- How did Teal'c know the gate address from memory?

Probably because it was a very important one? It was the planet with the invisible creatures and he'd been sent there (at least once) to capture one and Apophis killed two of his men for failing. I think that would leave an impression. And let's not forget Teal'c is a hundred years old, he probably has remembered a lot of important planets or missions Apophis sent him on.

- What are the odds that Apophis would be on the planet at the same time?

We don't know when Teal'c was sent on his mission to capture the Fenri. It's possible that Apophis sends a team every now and then or maybe he'd decided to accompany his Jaffa to increase the pressure or even do it himself as even his former first prime had failed to succeed.

- It's been a while since I've seen lots of SG-1 episodes, and the later ones are very hazy for me, but don't the Goa'uld have invisiblity tech in later episodes?

Yes, Apophis is capable of cloaking his entire fleet in season four. But that is probably just an upgrade from other cloaking abilities. Nirrti came up with a device to cloak herself. The Sodan warriors had cloaking abilities, etc etc.

- Have the Nox not heard of the Goa'uld before? Given that they are later revealed to be one of the big four races in the universe, it seems a little odd.

Actually, they knew of them just didn't know they went by "Goa'uld". It's possible the four races had a different name for them or they all have their own name in their own language.

LYA
The ones you speak of come to hunt the Fenri.

[...]

DANIEL
How long have the Goa'uld been coming here to hunt?
OPHER
Oh, as long as I can remember.

I think those 4 Nox people were just simple people not involved in planetary matter I suppose, so it is not like they were some leaders of Nox Even with Nox knowledge I would think every Nox would know everything there is to know

Actually, it would seem Opher is of high status.

O'NEILL
All right, look. Um…do you have any…elders…I could speak with? I don't think you're understanding what I'm…
ANTEAUS
Opher is one of the eldest of the Nox.