The Torment of Tantalus (110)

[Skydiver]

as to Catherine's lack of accent....world war two. Being overtly German got you hate mail at the least, killed at the worst. This is a time when we were sending Japanese Americans to camps and the only real difference between our camps and hte German's camps is that we didn't outright murder Japanese. (not going to start a debate as to which side's treatment of the other was better or worse)

Catherine and her father would have been very motivated to Americanize themselves as much as possible, the easiest of which would be to work to lose any accent.

[SF_and_Coffee]

^ This. ^

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

But she has an accent in the film, that's my point. There was no reason or need to change it.

[SF_and_Coffee]

But she has an accent in the film, that's my point. There was no reason or need to change it.

Except that it makes it more believable for her not to have one. Good grief, given all the things that got retconned in the series as being different from the film, and which made the series work better for having done so, her nationality and accent are small potatoes.

But I'll tell you one thing that never made sense to me about Catherine with a German accent, or her father either: since when is Langford a German surname? It's pretty clearly an English locative, recorded as far back as the Domesday book. Any counterpart to it in German would have a very different spelling and pronunciation in modern usage. (Sorry, medieval historical and cultural study is one of my hobbies).

[fems]

Maybe they changed their last name?

[muziqaz]

or maybe their ancestors were from other country

[Naomi]

Anyway... the thing that sticks out foremost in my mind when thinking about this episode is Sam's reaction upon first seeing Ernest standing in the doorway naked, and then her quickly getting out of the way of a possible hug with said naked man. That cracks me up every time!

I love Sam's reaction to seeing Ernest coming at her, and Teal'c's reaction to Ernest hugging him. Those two scenes make me laugh every time.

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Keene Curtis' portrayal of Ernest is wonderful. All of the information revealed in the episode, especially knowing how the information will come into play in future episodes. An all-around great ep.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Maybe they changed their last name?

or maybe their ancestors were from other country

Both of these pretty much violate the KISS rules of good writing, though. If you're going to make a character a particular nationality that's different from the nationality of most of the other characters in a story/film/show, you give that character a name that is consistent with the nationality you want the character to be, unless there is some pressing reason not to, and then you need to outline why the name is different in the character's story somehow. Otherwise, it makes for audience confusion. "Sure, Moshe Yamaguchi's mother is Israeli and his father is of Japanese descent, but that doesn't change the fact that Moshe himself is actually Swiss, though he's lived in Nigeria since he was eleven years old. Oh, by the way, we're going to make him the token foreigner among a bunch of Americans, and we're not going to explain anything about his background beyond the fact that he's lived some part of his life in Switzerland... y'all are just going to have to figure it out on your own. No, no reason, we just thought it would be fun to do this. Besides, he's only going to appear for a grand total of ten minutes worth of screen time over a decade of the franchise."

[fems]

Same for Nicholas Ballard...

[SF_and_Coffee]

Same for Nicholas Ballard...

Oh, jeez, he's another one...

[DigiFluid]

Watched this as planned last night. Oh what good stuff!

Besides being a great arc story, such lovely character beats all around. Jack's reactions to seeing the old video, to Catherine's arrival at the SGC, and to seeing Ernest for the first time at Heliopolis, all just spot-on. Catherine's anger at being left out of the SGC, Sam's hop to the side to avoid being hugged by naked Ernest, Teal'c's response to Jack trying to determine what they need

Really though, as far as character and acting highlights go you really have to hand it to Ernest. His reactions to seeing people for the first time in 50 years were just perfect, exactly what you'd expect. And that even continues with other great beats, like handing the thing to Daniel but dropping it into his hand and recoiling instead of allowing any human contact. Great stuff.

And of course, the content of the episode itself is terrific. Adding manual dialing to the gate's functions by adding to the Stargate on Earth mythos was really genius and had an impact on the series for pretty much the rest of its run, as well as first introducing the idea of crystal-controlled technology.

In an interesting retrospective thought, the Heliopolis castle looks rather Medieval, doesn't it? Much like the Medieval-style stuff that came from the post-Atlantis Ancients (ie Merlin) later on in the series. Clearly not intentional, the Ori/Merlin/Morgan mythos didn't exist at this point in the series. But an interesting coincidence nonetheless, lends itself to some really easy fanon.

[Traveler Enroute1]

DigiFluid -

Nice review, great points on Ernest (played by Keene Curtis) and intro to crystal technology.

And Happy B'Day a day late! Hope it was sweet!

P.S. Tried to green you but apparently I have to wait in line!

[Noxbait]

In an interesting retrospective thought, the Heliopolis castle looks rather Medieval, doesn't it? Much like the Medieval-style stuff that came from the post-Atlantis Ancients (ie Merlin) later on in the series. Clearly not intentional, the Ori/Merlin/Morgan mythos didn't exist at this point in the series. But an interesting coincidence nonetheless, lends itself to some really easy fanon.

Good point!

Also, I too love Sam getting out of the way! hahahaha! I also love her "Oh boy." her tone of voice and all was spot on. : )

[SG1Member]

This episode is known for introducing the alliance of the Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings and the Ancients. Though we encounter most of these races later on, very little is said about the alliance itself throughout the series, like when did it exist, what did they do together, etc. It just seems like more could have been made of this subject on the show.

Similarly, Catherine Langford was a well drawn character, she could have used more on the show.

[jelgate]

I guess I'm the black sheep for this episode.

I don't find the episode spectactular. Its medicore to me. I just don't care for Daniel's fascination with the device from the alliance and its meaning of life. The reason I call it medicore is because I really did like the Catherine angle and her fascination with Ernest and its background of using the gate in 1945. Also the first manual dialing was interesting.