The Other Side (402)

[Brother Freyr]

But how to prove it was actually Alar that hit the iris?

I think you have enough evidence to draw a valid conclusion that it was Alar. Proving suicide would be difficult [...] There are all sorts of factors that would make it an extremely interesting case.

From the POV of military superiors, Alar's death isn't the main concern. It's being deprived of his technical knowledge. They would have traded him a comfortable captivity in return for tech advancement.

[hedwig]

From the POV of military superiors, Alar's death isn't the main concern. It's being deprived of his technical knowledge. They would have traded him a comfortable captivity in return for tech advancement.

That assumes he actually had all that specific knowledge tucked away in his brain and could be able to tell the military in detail how to build and use that tech, and how to create and use the medical info.

[Brother Freyr]

yes, no doubt his personal technical knowledge is limited. but even where it is, he'd possess basic ideas that would point our scientists in exciting new directions.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

yes, no doubt his personal technical knowledge is limited. but even where it is, he'd possess basic ideas that would point our scientists in exciting new directions.

But do they need him? Sam and Daniel spoke with the scientists and both Jack and Teal'c tried the remote control fighters.

Seaboe

[garhkal]

My LiveJournal post
Another Rene fan here. (Well, how can you not be?)
I recently got the Stargate book 'Alliances' and I just now learned that it directly follows on from this episode. I was going to wait till I'd finished another book I'm in the middle of, but now I'm thinking of reading it now.


Maybe you should read it too, apparently, it deals with the concequences of what Jack does in this ep. I can't give a proper recommendation or anything, having not read it yet, but maybe just a suggestion.
(The book also has Jacob in it - bonus! )

Wow.. never knew that.. Might have to look it up in my local library.

As soon as the higher ups were aware of what the Eurondans were offering, I'm sure Jack got his orders to seal the deal and that's why he was so stubborn about everything. Up until the moment his conscience decided to step up.

And that's the part i am wondering about. He obviously got orders to "make it happen", but ignores them, not only breaking the deal, but the device which had the info in it.

[Dave2]

If the surface of the planet was poisoned, how did the "enemy," the Breeders take over most of the planet and survive up there?? The visuals show the Breeders bombing buildings on the surface. What would be the point of that if Alar's people were deep underground?
Why didn't SG1 try to establish contact with the Breeders faking an attempt at diplomacy?
Why would the stargate be located in a tunnel instead of outside?

Then there is another issue: O'Neill decided to doom Alar and all the stasised people to destruction because of their racist ideas, without any hope that they could even change their minds, and without a diplomatic option. I think this is also a bit problematic. Why didn't the new "allies" from Earth seek to enforce a surrender instead??

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

If the surface of the planet was poisoned, how did the "enemy," the Breeders take over most of the planet and survive up there??

Within the context of the show, no one knows.

Seaboe

[shipper hannah]

But do they need him? Sam and Daniel spoke with the scientists and both Jack and Teal'c tried the remote control fighters.

Seaboe

Just because you can use an iPod doesn't mean you understand the mechanisms of how they work.

[shipper hannah]

I'm reading the Stargate novel Alliances right now. I'm interested to see how it deals with the issues raised.

The Other Side is one of my favourite episodes.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Just because you can use an iPod doesn't mean you understand the mechanisms of how they work.

But the same is true of Alar. Without the plans etc. in the weird crystal thing, how much more could they really do with him than without him?

Seaboe

[Brother Freyr]

But the same is true of Alar. Without the plans etc. in the weird crystal thing, how much more could they really do with him than without him?

The short answer is they'll never know, a fact that would surely irritate Jack's superiors.

[Dimes]

Good episode.
The bad guys they tried to help reminded me of Nazi's tho.

[Major Clanger]

I love this ep. This is the kind of thing that the early seasons of Stargate were developing and it came good at the end of S3 and through S4 and into S5. Not everything is black and white and the people who control the stargate aren't necessarily speaking for the whole planet (hmmm remind you of anyone?)

It shows just how desperate the SGC and the US government were to get their hands on weapons technology, that they were ready to hand it over with relatively little in the way of background checking.

What was impressive about this was the tension between Jack and Daniel and I am really looking forward to seeing that developed through S4, as well as the position that Sam is in - she's military she's a scientist, she wants to get her hands on the tech, she knows we need the weapons but it's not black and white. Daniel gets a bit too airy fairy for me sometimes and I think that's why Jack goes too far the other way, although he was great in this ep as soon as he heard "not like us".

Good stuff.

ETA: and, of course it has Teal'c's brilliant line abut concealing things

[Falcon Horus]

Lots of food for thought here with this episode. Politically, socially and how far are we willing to go to get the technology we seek. Some really interesting dilemma's at play. Tension between all the characters. That stare between Carter and O'Neill at the end when he demands the iris be closed, they just know the dude's right behind them and are about to kill him. They did tell him not to follow which we knew he wouldn't listen to. In fact, even I was rooting for Jack to close the iris.

They were committing both genocide and genetic cleansing... not the kind of people I would want our guys to trade with.

I really love the depth of this episode, and definitely has a place among the favorites.

Also, really really enjoyed the first person view when O'Neill's flying that unmanned bomber.

[ajay]

Interesting episode.

Was it really necessary for SG-1 to destroy the underground facility in order to escape? I feel there was an opportunity to just walk away once they learned of what Alar's people were doing. Of course, that opportunity disappeared once Alar drew weapons on Sam and Daniel. But by destroying the facility behind them, effectively killing an entire race, a majority of which were in stasis with no means to defend themselves... once again, they fought a war without knowing the full story.