Point of View (306)

[fems]

Pretty simple, really. Jack retires (again) and is re-hired as a civilian contract employee. Good for real life, bad for television.

Depends on what function Jack would have, considering frat regs also apply to relationships between AF personnel and civilian contracts.

[garhkal]

Especially when working at the same command.

[sgelite]

Just watching this episode again and I had to point out the bit that always makes me chuckle, no doubt it was mentioned in the many pages before so sorry if this is going over old ground.
For every reality there exist's an alternate reality! ok we all know that, Alternate realities 101 right?
the Controller for the quantum mirror has the ability to find alternate realities and set the mirror to that reality but as Kowolski said "don't turn it of (the controller) or we'll have to search from near where it was" bear in mind, INFINITE possibilities!!
Long story short(er) Daniel has to search for the right reality, under threat of impending doom, with infinite possibilities and lo and behold finds the right one
My problem with this scenario (if you haven't guessed yet ) is the loose way they flirted with the term infinite!
I mean come on people, infinite. an unending assortment of realities, some almost identical to ours thats a lot to chose from and that dial had no visible marking system I could see.
Not having a go or anything as I love the episode, it just as I said, makes me chuckle
But on a side note do you know who I think would have benefited greatly from the mirror?, The Asgard!!
They could have used it to find a version of themselves that had not started to deteriorate due to cloning and been able to gather samples that would ultimately saved their race.
And let's face it we know their would be such a reality out there because as i stated once or twice before, the choice was INFINITE. Well IMO anyway

[Major Clanger]

not a bad ep but in the end the thing that really stands out is Teal'c's observation that the only reality that matters is your own. That's why he had absolutely no qualms about killing AR Teal'c.

But seriously. They should have destroyed the mirror yonks ago. Now there is an Apophis that knows about the multiverse. He's coming...

[fems]

not a bad ep but in the end the thing that really stands out is Teal'c's observation that the only reality that matters is your own. That's why he had absolutely no qualms about killing AR Teal'c.

But seriously. They should have destroyed the mirror yonks ago. Now there is an Apophis that knows about the multiverse. He's coming...

I think the question is can they destroy the mirror? It wasn't up until season 9 I believe that they could find a way to destroy a Stargate (and with it almost an entire planet), and it was suspected the quantum mirror was also made of naquadah. Not to mention the kind of power source (if not naquadah in one way or another) that would be needed to create a portal into an alternate reality. I'm not sure they could safely destroy a quantum mirror, especially not when looking back to the explosion (and all the gamma and particle radiation) of Sam's experiment in Singularity when she tested minute samples of the naquadah and potassium found in Cassandra's chest.

I was also under the impression that the Asgard had killed the alternate Apophis after beaming him up, since they are enemies of the Goa'uld.

[Major Clanger]

what happens to the jaffa and Goa'uld the Asgard hoover up? Are they really that ruthless?

[fems]

what happens to the jaffa and Goa'uld the Asgard hoover up? Are they really that ruthless?

Dunno. We were never shown what happened with Heru'ur's Jaffa either in Thor's Chariot, but there must be a reason the Goa'uld are all terrified of the "Reenlokia". Heru'ur certainly seemed to think fleeing was a better option than staying there and having a word with the Asgard about interfering... Although I can imagine the Asgard extracting a symbiote from its host and thereby saving the host. No idea what their opinion is on Jaffa though. They never offered to make something like tretonin for them to free them, so they probably saw them as an enemy (with the exception of Teal'c).

[garhkal]

Perhaps they get converted to matter for the asgard to build other stuff from.

[GusF]

After the classic Season One episode "There But for the Grace of God", this marks the series' second exploration of the concept of alternate realities, which has always been one of my favourite science fiction storytelling devices as we are often given the glimpse of a world where the characters not only fail in their goals but sacrifice their lives in the attempt. Such stories show the audience just how much is at stake if the normal versions of the characters fail in their mission without the worst of all worlds coming to pass in this one. In that respect, "Point of View" is a follow-up to the aforementioned episode as it likewise depicts an Earth which has suffered the full force of a devastating Goa'uld attack. While the Earth of this reality's fate is harrowing, it is not as bleak as that of the Earth featured in "There But for the Grace of God", thanks to the efforts of the SG-1 that we know and love.

As I mentioned in my review of that episode, one of the most engaging and engrossing aspects of alternate realities for me as a viewer lies in the fact that we are often presented with characters who are the same but different from the ones with whom we are familiar. In this instance, this narrative device is perfectly illustrated with Doctor Samantha Carter. Unlike her counterpart in our reality, she never joined the military and worked as a civilian scientist at the SGA (possibly as a member of SG-1) until the Goa'uld attack which forced her to flee to our reality with Major Charles Kawalsky in search of sanctuary. Perhaps due to her lack of military training, she is far more emotional than the Sam of our reality and appears to suffer from feelings of both inadequacy and resentment towards her counterpart due to the fact that, unlike her, our Sam was able to figure out a way to defeat the Goa'uld invasion with only a few days of advance warning. However, she is eventually able to overcome these feelings and the two Sams are able to work together well. If she had stuck around, the two Sams would have been able to solve all of the SGC's future problems in record time instead of just in the nick of time! By far the biggest difference in this version of Sam is that she was married to the Jack O'Neill of her reality, who was killed in front of her several days earlier while (unsuccessfully) defending Cheyenne Mountain from the Jaffa incursion. While the alternate Jack featured in "There But for the Grace of God" was a cold and nasty bastard, her description of his counterpart in her reality suggests that he was extremely similar to our Jack, which makes his presence at the SGC all the more difficult for her. She finds herself grieving for her late husband in a world where he is still alive but where they did not have a romantic relationship. His similarities and his differences to the Jack that she loved and lost make it almost impossible to come to terms with her husband's death while she remains in our reality.

Outside of her personal life, another major difference between our Sam and Dr. Carter lies in the fact that it was her who figured how to activate the Stargate while, in our reality, this distinction belonged to Daniel. Given that Daniel was never part of the Stargate program in her reality, the events of the original "Stargate" film presumably proceeded very differently. Although no information is given about the start of her relationship with Jack, I like to imagine that Dr. Carter accompanied Jack on the first mission through the Stargate to Abydos, helped him defeat Ra and was able to help him get his life back together and come to terms with Charlie's death, all of which Daniel did in the film. While these events marked the beginning of Jack and Daniel's very close friendship in our reality, I choose to imagine that the same events led to Jack and Sam falling in love in this reality. Speaking of Daniel, it is never made clear what became of him in the alternate reality. It is possible that he was killed in the Goa'uld attack on Earth, as was his counterpart in "There But for the Grace of God". Then again, he could have died as a child along with his parents or he may not have even been born. It's fun to speculate on the myriad possibilities. Of the other characters, the General Hammond of their reality appears to be identical to the one from our reality while their Dr. Frasier was mentioned but not seen, suggesting that she died during the Goa'uld attack on the base.

In the alternate reality, Teal'c is still serving as the First Prime of Apophis (who is still alive and one of the most powerful Goa'uld System Lords, though our Apophis would soon return from the dead and seize power once again so swings and roundabouts!). While the alternate Teal'c in "There But for the Grace of God" was much the same as ours except for the ponytail, this Teal'c's snazzy little goatee is by the far the smallest difference between him and our Teal'c. Although he has only about a minute worth of screentime, the fact that he brands our Teal'c a "shol'va" for describing Apophis as a false god speaks volumes about his character. This Teal'c seemingly lacked the benefit of Bra'tac's influence, who taught our Teal'c from an early age that Apophis was no more a god than he was and that the Goa'uld were conquerors who had enslaved his people. This Teal'c, the Goebbels to Apophis' Hitler, represents everything that our Teal'c despises about his own people so I imagine that he felt that he had no choice but to kill him. While they shared identical DNA, they were far from being the same person.

One of the unsung heroes of the series is Jay Acovone as Kawalsky, who returns in this episode for the second of three times after his death in the series' second episode "The Enemy Within". While I realise that the death of a popular and important character was necessary to illustrate to the audience just how much a threat the Goa'uld posed, I regret that it was necessary. Kawalsky's continued survival is perhaps the only way in which the alternate reality is in any way better than ours. I'm sure that he was invaluable to the SGA before the Goa'uld invaded and will continue to be invaluable in the rebuilding of Earth with the help of the Asgard, whose use in this episode, while a deus ex machina (if Thor was involved, almost a literal one!) was inspired. They seem to be the same benevolent protectors of humanity as in our reality.

As in "There But for the Grace of God", it's fairly unlikely that any of the events portrayed in the series to date happened here. Needless to say, the events of the Daniel- and Teal'c-centric episodes definitely didn't take place but I can't think of events from any other episodes which definitely did take place except for the discovery of the Abydos cartouche and even that must have surely occurred under very different circumstances than those portrayed in "Children of the Gods", perhaps even during the events of the film.

[Falcon Horus]

PoV - interesting episode.

Sidenote: if Jack can't handle two Carters, it's a good thing he wasn't around when they were dealing with a dozen Carters when the SGC turned into the grand central station of the multiverse.

I really don't like AU!Carter's hair... at one point the wig's not even put on right and you can see the line where it's glued to AT's head.

Anyhow, we revisit the quantum mirror which we learn has been gathering up dust in area 51. Nice to see Kawalsky again.

Chris at least wearing actual chainmail this time round. Okay, I really like chainmail... it's cool! Kinda like how bowties are cool. His goatee, however, mixed feelings on that. Same for Apophis' facial hair... that was just too AU.

Also, Carter's face when they're watching the interview with Doctor Carter in the briefing room - beyond priceless!

[Radio Picon]

I've never been very interested in AU stories. I just kind of tolerate them as they seem to often be stories about exact opposite types of characters. This one was different in that the characters weren't as different at all. I like that Stargate did it this way. And Amanda Tapping did a great job as well. She really is a better actress than realized having only sporadically seen SG-1 through the years.

[Sparky She-Demon]

PoV - interesting episode.
Sidenote: if Jack can't handle two Carters, it's a good thing he wasn't around when they were dealing with a dozen Carters when the SGC turned into the grand central station of the multiverse.

It's also probably good that he wasn't there for one other reason other than there being too many Sams!

[Falcon Horus]

It's also probably good that he wasn't there for one other reason other than there being too many Sams!

Not everything is about Sam/Jack you know, so stop wacking me around the ears with it. I do not, never will and absolutely hate the thought of that ship. Thank you.

[Sparky She-Demon]

Not everything is about Sam/Jack you know, so stop wacking me around the ears with it. I do not, never will and absolutely hate the thought of that ship. Thank you.

I will do my best to stop doing that.

[garhkal]

I've never been very interested in AU stories. I just kind of tolerate them as they seem to often be stories about exact opposite types of characters. This one was different in that the characters weren't as different at all. I like that Stargate did it this way. And Amanda Tapping did a great job as well. She really is a better actress than realized having only sporadically seen SG-1 through the years.

I feel some AU stories have been done well, such as "There but for the grace", or "Ripple effect". Others were just ok, such as "The road not taken", or "Mckay and Mrs miller". Just depends who you ask.