Solitudes (117)

[jlovette]

No contest. This my favorite episode of season 1 for the simple fact that I never saw a second gate on Earth coming. The first time I saw it I figured it was a standard rescue of team members stuck on another planet episode.

I love the shot of Hammond looking at the gate to close the episode.

[jelgate]

I know a lot of people love this episode. I'm not one of them. Its a boring episode for me. I'm all for exploring character interaction between Jack and Sam but it lacks action for me. Its just about suvival. I find myself more interested of the SGC end as Daniel and Tealc struggle to find their friends and learning new things about the gate.

[SF_and_Coffee]

I love both sides of this episode. Character development is a big thing for me, and there is plenty of it all the way around. Great ep!

[DigiFluid]

One of the best episodes of the entire series IMO. Not just Season 1, the whole series.

[Traveler Enroute1]

Solitudes is one of my favorite season 1 episodes.

<snips>

It was great to see Sam fail, yet succeed at the same time. She failed to get the gate open, yet succeeded by trying long enough that it gave Daniel a clue with the "busy signal" of having the chevrons glow & vibrations in the gate room when she tried dialing that final time.

Wow, great catch, this. Nicely phrased, gives an added dimension to this scene.

However, after watching this episode so many times, I often wonder what would have happened if Sam would have been the one with the broken leg and Jack would have had to be the one to find a way out with only limited help from Sam. Would he have been able to do it? <snips>

Hmm. I sense a plot bunny. Don't think this aspect has been explored in fanfic.

Lovely review.

[Skydiver]

there's a fic

http://naquada.tripod.com/solitudes.htm

rated R for naughty words

[Traveler Enroute1]

SG Rewatch episodes: 101 - 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111,112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118

Solitudes

Yes, a favorite with a gold star.

An explosive opener, with Daniel and Teal'c crashing through the gate and nearly hitting Hammond on the ramp. Then the gate closes. Someone's missing. Teal'c looks around as if the others had overlooked two officers. The colonel and the captain were missing. This after the gate goes through a massive overload, sparks profusely and fries every circuit in sight before fizzling out.

So if not there, then where? Nice cut to concentric circles just the shapes of the Stargate. Visuals of ice layers show that this was below the ground. There we find the missing officers, knocked out. An ominous beginning, well done.

Here we go on the dual story track: the SGC where everyone's working overtime to get the gate back up. The other at the frozen cavern where Sam and Jack ended up. The show seems to do this kind of story well, like Singularity. The episode introduces us face to face with Sgt. Siler (Dan Shea, RDA's stunt stand in) who's very focused and capable. He stands up to Hammond, insisting that things can only go as fast as things can go, and 24 hours was the bare minimum needed to restore the gate. Hammond demurs to his expert.

The team bonds in different pairings this time. Sam and Jack, Daniel and Teal'c. At the SGC, days pass once the gate is up, and rescue teams search nearby gate addresses for the missing members. Daniel is indefatigable in helping plot the search course, with Teal'c often on the away teams. But one too many injuries on fruitless forays prompt Hammond to suspend the search before they lose lives. Sam and Jack are declared MIA until that point.

At the ice cavern, Sam has had to set Jack's broken leg. Ouch. RDA was excellent as the badly injured colonel trying to bear Sam's inexperienced splinting. She realizes her actions are hurting him and tries to keep talking to divert him. It doesn't go well and he finally tells her to stop. She then locates the DHD and they seem home free except she can't get the stubborn thing to work. It winks on then just whines, never generating an event horizon. She tries for 12 hours straight and even with the good ol' reset off and on, can't get it going.

Amanda was sterling here, too, as she tries to tend the colonel and try to get them home. Her frustration is so painful; it's unclear why the perfect DHD and perfectly functional gate aren't clicking. After days using up their sterno and food, it looks grimmer and grimmer. She loses it more than once over her inability to do something to save them. Jack orders her to believe they will make it home but soon that order is moot.

Jack shared a story about his previous broken bones, and when Sam asked what got him through days of pain, he said it was Sarah, his wife. Sam paused at this, for what reason it's unclear. She already knew he had a wife and that they were separated. I think she was awed that anyone could endure such hardship with just the memory of another to support them. When she eventually has to leave him to seek help, she tells him she'll be back, to hold that thought. Almost as if she wanted to provide something for Jack to hang on to as well. All the more harsher is reality when she gets to the surface to find endless ice-capped mountains, no signs of life. Nice visuals here, too; Sam seems to be the only living thing around.

We feel the anguish of final defeat in Sam's voice when she makes her way back down to Jack. When she can't hear his voice, she loses her grip and does a high speed slide and crashes at the bottom. I feared she'd broken something too but apparently she's well padded. Jack isn't dead, just very weak. Sam makes her final act to comfort him and maybe herself; she'd be alone if Jack died. She responds when he calls for Sarah, telling him to sleep now. After pledging how honored they were to serve together, both prepare to die on a lonely planet far from home.

Not so fast. Daniel, unable to sleep over the situation, lingers in the control room. More shout outs to Shanks for his so loyal, driven Daniel portrayal. It's Daniel's refusal to give up that leads him to be the sole observer of the strange glowing chevrons and tremors on the dormant gate. Loved the plotting here, as Sam and Jack face death valiantly, Daniel rouses Hammond and convinces him where the two might be. And halleluja, he's right.

Famous lines:
Sam joins Jack beneath their thermal blanket to share body heat.
Sam: Uh, colonel...
Jack: It's my sidearm, I swear. Even I giggle when I hear this again.

Sam: Sir, if we don't make it, I won't have any regrets. You?
Jack: I'll regret dying.

A science-y episode with more intel on the wonders of the Stargate, a credible story, plot and resolution. The Stargate can activate gates way across the galaxy but only one gate at a time on each planet. The Goa'uld might have brought a second gate to earth if they couldn't use the first, as Teal'c explained, and as we guess from the popsicle Jaffa in the ice cavern.

The earth gate had signal dampeners installed to cut down the vibrations, Hammond informs us when Daniel proposed his theory on the two gates. The shaking was enough to register on earthquake sensors, and methodical Daniel noted the time of the tremors. Gotta love that scientific mind, even a social scientific one.

So, class: Stargates in close proximity seem prone to becoming 'confused' if energy exceeds its capacity. Excess energy will discharge to a nearby superconductor, which fortunately for Sam and Jack, is another Stargate. More fortunately its on earth, near McMurdo. In this activity it takes whatever is in the active wormhole along for the ride. Kudos to the writers and director of this one, a solid sci fi episode.

Rated 4.5/5

Addendum: This episode reminded me of a sci fi novel I read a while back, The Tartarus Incident by William Greenleaf. It involved a transport mechanism that used addresses to send matter (ships) from destination to destination. One transport ends up on an unknown arid planet with no idea how they got there or how to return. Turned out that there was an error - and the techs weren't as diligent as Siler's crew at the SGC. It went unnoticed until the ship disappeared and only one diligent junior tech had any inkling what might have happened. A glitch or miss-placed digit gave one address two locations, and although one address seemed to always work, this time it didn't. The novel was great, straight up sci fi in the beginning and that's the part I thought of when I saw this episode.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Okay, now you've got me wanting to read that novel!

[chaddergate]

Of course, this one's a classic!

[Kunoichi]

This is definitely my favourite episode of Stargate. I love the interaction between the characters, the concern they have for each other and the plot in general.

My only real gripe with it is the fact that the whole team fly down to Antarctica to help with the rescue. I'm assuming this means it took the McMurdo rescue teams a while to locate Sam and Jack in the ice cavern, allowing the others time to fly down from Colorado, rather than them waiting for Hammond and the others to arrive.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Well, the McMurdo people would have had to mobilize a team and then travel to where the ice cavern was. That would take some time, including the time for all requests to go through channels to begin with. Meanwhile, Hammond's a general, probably the highest-ranking or near highest-ranking USAF officer in Colorado Springs, with the ear of the President and direct access to transport craft flying out of Peterson AFB, with all the support availability that entails. Scrambling a transport to take the team to Antarctica probably involved no more than two phone calls and a ride to Peterson, while McMurdo was still getting up to speed on the situation.

At least, that's my take on it.

[Noxbait]

"That's a great splint. STOP!"

So much to love! I like ever faithful Teal'c. When he's talking to the General in the infirmary, it reminds me of Out of mind/Into the Fire where he's so worried and talking to Hammond in the infirmary. I also love the part where Siler stands
up to Hammond and says that he can't do it in under 24 hours. I love how he's helping explain the gate and wormhole physics
to Hammond and he calls Daniel "sir." He's so cool.

Honestly, I just love this episode so much. The parts with Jack and Sam are pure magic (and I'm not talking in a shipper
sense.) I just love their interactions. Sam working hard to take care of her CO, figure out the mystery of what happened and
stay the strong officer she is, even though she's scared to fail her CO and also die. I also love their discussion over the DHD where she's going all hopeless and looking at the astronomical odds against their being found and Jack's trying to be a bit more optimistic. I love how he's never letting her give up hope. It is one of the most poignant and well done episodes, IMHO. They make me feel cold the whole way through!

"I was afraid you'd try to put a splint on it." The lines are just pitch perfect. "what's four?" "There is no four." "It's after three." "Not this time." Amazing! (and of course, "it's my side arm..." and "No giggling." and "i'll regret...dying") hahahaha! some of the funniest and best lines of the whole series.

I love the great showcasing of the team's friendship and individual characters. Hammond has definitely become more toned down and fatherly, but still gonna do it by the book, even if he's pacing the floor all night worrying too. Even if it were just the magic of the scenes with Jack and Sam, it would be one of my favs, but add to that the stuff we learn about wormhole physics, and the total coolness of a 2nd gate and where that whole plot arc goes in the future! This lays the ground work for a lot of cool stuff to come. And of course, I love the part where Daniel and Teal'c are doing everything they can to get back or figure out what happened and never giving up. It's cool that Daniel is wracking his brain at what is really Sam's department. I love the moment when he figures it out.
I also love how excited Hammond gets when Walter tells him about the coordinates and Teal'c and Daniel's reactions and speaking in unison is just hilarious!

Honestly, in a lot of ways this is my absolute favorite episode. There are a LOT of excellent episodes, but something about this one always gets me. It is a raw, pure survival story and everybody does an amazing job! Ok...i'll stop gushing now.

[muziqaz]

<Great post>

Well, if you put it that way ...
But I agree, great episode

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

My only real gripe with it is the fact that the whole team fly down to Antarctica to help with the rescue. I'm assuming this means it took the McMurdo rescue teams a while to locate Sam and Jack in the ice cavern, allowing the others time to fly down from Colorado, rather than them waiting for Hammond and the others to arrive.

I keep thinking about when Hammond orders Sgt. Harriman to call McMurdo to search the coordinates. What the heck is he supposed to say? "I'm passing on orders from Gen'l Hammond for you to search these coordinates for two missing Air Force officers. You won't find any wreckage, we can't tell you how they got there, but they're not equiped for Arctic survival." If I'd been on the listening end of that one, I don't know that my reaction would've been to hop up and go searching.

Then there's "there will be a team arriving from SGC within the hour."

Seaboe

[DigiFluid]

No way they'd be there in an hour. Flight time alone would probably be 12+ hours.