Touchstone (214)

[Zaany]

One thing i have always wondered about in this episode, is when they sent the malp from Medrona to the second stargate on earth, did the triangulation of the malps location start automatically right away or only when sam said "starting triangulation" ? They should have started the triangulation right away as the malp arrived through the stargate, then they could have possibly pinned down it's location exactly. It's just something that bugged me a bit lol. Probably just so they could add the other scene where Hammond went to find out more information about something going on in Utah.
The episode itself was great, this was just a little observation i made in my head the first time i saw the episode a long long time ago actually.
And who doesn't love Teal'c saying "In my culture, i would be well within my rights to dismember you"

[Major Clanger]

'meh' ep in terms of storyline (the actual Touchstone story) but
so important in the set-up for what comes later, and any ep with Maybourne is a bonus for me.

What I really liked was when they first got to Area 51 and Major Forgothisname showed them round. It wasn't all hush-hush and he was genuinely awed by what they do and convinced that the work that was going on at Area 51 was useful and necessary (and I agree with him)

Adored he Teal'c / Maybourne interaction, totally realistic. and the Jack / Maybourne thing at the end.

Two observations
1) the chief guy on the planet just reminded me so much of King Julian from Madagascar I now have a "I Like to Move It" as an ear-worm

2) there is absolutely no explanation about who terraformed the planet 900 years ago. Some race of benevolent aliens (Asgard? perhaps) and why they put a civilisation on there. Were they being rescued from the Goa'uld? Enquiring minds want to know.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Major Forgothisname showed them round.

Reynolds. My only regret about him is that as the series progressed, they seemed to forget he was a scientist.

Seaboe

[fems]

Reynolds. My only regret about him is that as the series progressed, they seemed to forget he was a scientist.

Seaboe

Not quite. When he was introduced again in Ascension he seemed to be in charge of a scientific mission. Further down the line he somehow became in charge of SG-3 (which is typically a team of marines) and I think at that time his position was similar to when Sam was in charge of SG-1; science takes a backseat as you can't afford to lose your head in a new doohickey off-world when you're supposed to be looking out for an entire team too. Doesn't mean TPTB 'forgot' or anything, as we only saw his team when it was backup for SG-1 so naturally we don't see them on a day-to-day basis like we did with SG-1. Otherwise the show would have been called Stargate: SG-Random or something.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Fems, I think "further down the line" is similar to "as the series progressed", so I don't really think we're in disagreement.

He also seems to be in overall command of the off-world teams in season 8, when Jack's a general.

Seaboe

[fems]

Yes, I do have a basic understanding of English so I know the meaning is similar. However, my point was that it wasn't so much as forgetting he was a scientist too but that he had different priorities.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

You're giving TPTB more credit than I do. I honestly think they just forgot they'd originally introduced him as a scientist.

Seaboe

[ngewakl]

I am very confused about this episode. First Sam says there was a power spike and that means people were using the second gate. She also says that she has to overload the main gate so that the wormhole can be connected to the second gate. Well, who overloaded the gate for the NID people when they first stole the touchstone? If no one did, then how did they return to earth? Did they come through the main gate?

[fems]

I am very confused about this episode. First Sam says there was a power spike and that means people were using the second gate. She also says that she has to overload the main gate so that the wormhole can be connected to the second gate. Well, who overloaded the gate for the NID people when they first stole the touchstone? If no one did, then how did they return to earth? Did they come through the main gate?

No, the NID has the DHD so that gate takes precedence over the one with the dialing computer at the SGC, meaning that the NID had to plan their missions around the SGC or they would end up at the secret base. I think we're supposed to assume the NID took their gate/DHD offline when there weren't any missions.

[Falcon Horus]

If it's all the same to you, we could really use that Touchstone right about now. I'm sick of the bad weather and would like to place an order for sunshine and lots of it.

Doohickeys is the technical term for it, I totally agree.

I vote yes on the dismemberment of Maybourne. I loved Teal'c's face when he falls in step behind Carter when they leave the lab. He's so enjoying the intimidation.

Those damn NID-guys...

[Vagabond Serpent]

Well now that is a great episode of the series, one of the best in season 2. At first it's a little slow there on Madrona, but then it speeds up like a F-1 car and keeps you hooked until the very end. The very idea that something might be going on behind the backs of SGC and that they don't know anything about it is a really great one, and frankly, realistic. Like Jack said to Hammond, "case of the left hand not knowing what the right foot does." In fact, they might have not even learned about the rogue operation if they didn't decide to return to Madrona. So it was more of a pure accident that NID got caught that early, however how early we can't be sure.

Overall, the episode is full of humour, one of the things I love StarGate for. Hammond's line about "Anyone sneezes near the gate, I get report." "Son, do you know what colour this phone is?", Jack's line "Are those documents sensitive enough to warrant a 3 man team with Jaffa escort?", Teal'C's "In my culture I'm well within the right to dismember you" to Maybourne and his genuine horror as he was expecting the Jaffa to do that are quite hilarious for me.

Other than humour, the episode keeps the viewer suspended with the plot twists as the team hunts for the second gate and the Touchstone. It was real nice to see the continuity (another thing I love StarGate for), from mentioning previous eps (Jack's "Thanks for the memories" line after they mention Antarctica) to actually seeing a Glider being poked in.

On the fact of Maybourne's sudden change of behaviour when they find the gate is plastic, my speculation is that he sincerely wasn't aware about the gate stored there being plastic replica, however he was just recently reassigned and being a clever man, he could have thought up a possible pattern that it was moved before he was reassigned, and how it was moved so military doesn't know of it. Other than that, he surely knows more than he lets on, though he might have gone through some pains to ensure he gets a cut of that operation. I think his initial shock was more of a '"man, somebody is being naughtier than me" rather than "damn, they've caught me." one.

And the suspense of someone being able to cut all the info links or keep the president away is surely well done. There is some power aware of StarGate, capable of masking its actions from the army and capable of cloaking its own trails so nobody could catch them off guard. Surely there should have been a mole in the SGC to let the NID team know about the mission times down to a second.

And of the unanswered questions are the question who terraformed the planet 900 years ago and where they're gone? Well, using the exclusion method, we can see that tech surely ain't Asgard or Ancient, Nox don't leave their planet much for a real long time, so it got to be Furlings. So they were around 900 years and then left? *shrugs*

Rating: 8/10.

[ajay]

So, reading a lot of complaints here about the Madronans choice of wardrobe in a blizzard. But it just occurred to me; if you have a device that controls the weather perfectly, why would you ever set it to winter. They probably didn't have any warmer clothes. It would be like loving in Florida or the Mediterranean.

Random thought.

[Anja]

This ep is a bit overloaded for me, if you know what I mean. Could have been a good two - parter.
Best pun: peace/piece - unfortunately not covered in German.

[garhkal]

The NID screw everything up and most of all annoy me.

That device looked like a oversized compass.

I wonder how the native knew how to control it if they were primitive in comparison.

It was also a shame we never found out WHO made that device... was it the Gou'ald? The Ancients? Someone else?

[maneth]

I'm not too keen on the NID episodes to be honest. Teal'c said it wasn't Goa'uld tech, though.