Threshold (502)

[TonyB1972]

I didn't start watching SG-1 till around season 6, but I caught it everytime it was on, on different channels and quickly saw about all of them. I have bought seasons 1-6 now, and am on season 5. I wanted to watch them all in order since I have seen them all jumbled up.


I thought it was kinda confussing that the guy Teal'c let go, and later burned up in a village was supposed to be killed for retreating while fighting RA's forces. I imagine another goa'uld could of took over for RA and stayed behind the scenes, but it makes you think RA was still around. I thought this seemed very odd. Who knows, maybe Ra is still out there lurking around?


Anyone else notice this or have any ideas on it?

[Metarock Sam]

I love this episode It is one one of the best s5 eps. Not to mention a good teal'c story with big dose of Bratac. Also it got to show some of thingsTeal'c had to do in the service of Apophis to gain his respect.
10/10

[Beatrice Otter]

The Cactus Looks Back: Threshold

I very much enjoyed this episode. The shooting, writing, and acting were all superb. I especially loved the flashbacks. The "snowy hilltop" scenes felt similar to the opening of Gladiator. At first viewing, I might have considered it my new favourite episode-- though in the time since, it has faded slightly from such high standing.

It provokes some quandaries in the Teal'c chronology, however, in my opinion.

In The Light (4.18), we discover that Teal'c is nearly 102. When I heard this, my jaw hit the floor. I continue to see no reason to have made this distinction. According to the Gateworld synopsis, the episode was penned by James Phillips-- I am not familiar with him, nor am I aware of any other episodes he's written. But the decision to reveal Teal'c's age was surely collaborative. If the creative staff had wanted to reveal his age, why didn't they do it sooner? Doing it at this point-- and having it be such a high number-- only makes it more difficult to relate to Teal'c, in my mind. I'd always thought of him as being, say, forty to seventy; more of a peer to O'neill. Now he's Stargate's Spock, and we can't know what to expect from him maturity-wise without knowing a lot more about the culture of Chu'lak/the Jaffa.

In Threshold, Bra'tac's age is revealed as 137. He also expects to die when his symbiote matures, in two years. (Quick note: I've only just started watching season six for the first time. No spoilers, please!) This would put him at approximately 140, and from his conversation with Carter, we gather that most Jaffa would be rejected if they attempted to take on a new larval Goa'uld at this age. So, there it is: if it was not spelled out in earlier episodes, we can now be fairly certain that the average natural Jaffa life expectancy is nearly double that of humans. This is where Teal'c's age starts to make a little sense. With 35-40 years left to live, his natural life would end at about the same time as the rest of the team's. Teal'c won't be appearing in Stargate: The Next Generation one-hundred years in the future. ;P

But here's my problem with the whole thing: In a flashback, Drey'auc announces that she's pregnant. We can only assume with Rya'c. How old is Rya'c? In Bloodlines (1.11), Rya'c is about to be implanted with his first larval symbiote. I don't own the episode, but I'd guess he's no younger than eight, no older than twelve. The people of Chu'lak are transplanted humans, correct? So Jaffa of Chu'lak age as humans would, prior to implantation.

So, you're telling me that Teal'c was aged 85-90 when he became First Prime to Apophis? Not knowing very much about Jaffa culture, I admit that it's possible. But Christopher Judge was playing Teal'c in the flashbacks between twenty and thirty in terms of maturity, I thought-- thirty-five at most. So, 40-70 as a Jaffa assuming that implantation halves mental development, along with aging. And that can't be, can it? Either way, it's ludicrous to think that Teal'c was running around like this until the age of 85-90; and then, within 10-15 years, he became the reserved, wise, and battle-hardened Teal'c that we all know. If Rules of Engagement (3.09) was any indication, the Goa'uld start Jaffa young-- as in, age-twenty young. (And I don't believe we assume that implantation slows maturation into adult form, do we?) I can believe that Teal'c was a foot soldier for 60+ years. It doesn't seem possible, but it's plausible. But were that the case, there's no way that his character would have been as youthful as he appeared in Threshold.

Cactus, we don't know how long ago Teal'cwas first presented to Apophis. He could have only been twenty or thirty at that time. And later, I think maybe part of what you're seeing as the character "ages" rapidly is that the mental strain of dealing with Apophis close up and all his evil, and trying to work through the issues of his false godhood, really did a number on his personality. I mean, until then he was just a foot-soldier type. People don't grow, mentally, until and unless something forces them to do so. Some people never mature past a certain point, because they never find themselves in a situation where they have to. For T, that situation was being Apophis' first prime and trying to reconcile that with Bra'tac's teachings.

[Beatrice Otter]

I didn't start watching SG-1 till around season 6, but I caught it everytime it was on, on different channels and quickly saw about all of them. I have bought seasons 1-6 now, and am on season 5. I wanted to watch them all in order since I have seen them all jumbled up.


I thought it was kinda confussing that the guy Teal'c let go, and later burned up in a village was supposed to be killed for retreating while fighting RA's forces. I imagine another goa'uld could of took over for RA and stayed behind the scenes, but it makes you think RA was still around. I thought this seemed very odd. Who knows, maybe Ra is still out there lurking around?


Anyone else notice this or have any ideas on it?

It's a flashback, from several years in the past; the battle for which Valar was supposed to be exiled could have taken place decades ago, for all we know. Ra died only a year before the series started.

[Beatrice Otter]

I thought this was a beautifully well-done episode, IMO. I'm glad there was a whole entire episode dedicated to Teal'c after the events of the Season 4 Finale/Season 5 Premiere... and it was done very well too.

Yeah. Stargate doesn't often do an ep that explores a character's psyche, but when they do they don't do it halfway. I wish they'd had an ep like this to deal with Daniel's descension.

[SmartFox]

This ep shows how sometimes you can be wrong. When it started I thought, "Oh no, not another clip show!", and was all ready to stop paying attention when I realised it was good. Must have been pretty cold, out in that snow with no shirt on!

This wasn't even a clip show. None of those scenes had we really seen before, or we saw them from a different perspective.

[fair_nymph]

This was a much needed and much appreciated filling in of some of the blanks in Teal'c's past.

Well said -- these were my thoughts exactly.

It was a very well done Teal'c episode, really the only such one I've thoroughly enjoyed so far. It truly enlightened my understanding of Teal'c motivations and depth of emotion.

I felt bad for Janet during this episode, because she really was trying to do her job, and letting him suffer goes against everything a doctor stands for. Clearly, it needed to be done, but I don't know if I would have been able to resist from putting Teal'c out of his pain, had I been there.

Wonderful showing of Brei'tac -- I love how dramatic he is, without being cheesy, and still having a bit of humour. He's a great character, and a true friend to Teal'c.

[valaCB]

WOW!!! what an excellent episode and what a great body Christopher Judge has , i like it

I allways want to know about Teal'c past and what made him to betray his believes.

[QuiGonJohn]

Like I said on the CotG thread if they had include that scene between Bra'tac and Teal'c where they are looking through the bars his sudden switch would have made more sense to me, but they didn't and so we have little understanding of his character untill Threshold comes along.

Also, that scene now gives much more reason and meaning as to why Jack thought reaching out to Teal'c, might actually work. Since he saw him and heard him with Bra'tac, earlier in the cell.

Another great episode.

[Perriman33]

Great one for Teal'c it makes a lot of difference to see part of his background, before I'd only noticed he had a few female interests. But now his character has a bit more depth and I found it better later on knowing how he became first prime and his relationship with Bru'tak.
I suppose earlier on they wanted teal'c to be this mysterious alien warrior, but as the seasons have progressed he has been shown to be just like the rest of SG1,with his own fears and hopes and dark background.

[Stricken]

Again we get to see more background into the life of Teal'c on Chulak and his time inservice of Apophis, although i think the only reason this panned out this way was because TPTB love having Apophis comeing back even though this time he is dead and not comeing back!

[walter_MacChevron]

Great character building episode for Teal'c!

[captain jake]

Again we get to see more background into the life of Teal'c on Chulak and his time inservice of Apophis, although i think the only reason this panned out this way was because TPTB love having Apophis comeing back even though this time he is dead and not comeing back!

Or is he?

[First]

Yes, Teal'c didn't completely make sense until this ep. His defection in CotG seemed far too sudden, especially when we later discovered how old Teal'c was and how long he had been in Apophis' service.
This was a much needed and much appreciated filling in of some of the blanks in Teal'c's past.

Exactly what I was going to say. At first I thought it was just a clip show. Teal'cs brainwashed blind loyalty to Apophis started to get annoying (although necessary to the story).
But then we get into Teal'cs past, which was very cool. Seeing his progression to first prime, his friends, his former life brings more depth to Tealcs character.
A powerful moment was when Tealc was shocked by Bratac's revelation that he thinks Apophis is not a god, but he just plays along so he can make a positive different wherever he can. From then on Tealc opens his eyes, taking note of all the non-godly things Apophis does.

I like seeing the alternate views of a previous episode. Like Tealc & Bratac's point of view in the CotG scene, that we never saw in the original, but it flows well and makes much more sense now.

[garhkal]

agreed... And it brings a little more weight to those looks we saw teal'c have IN COTG, when he saw apophis's mate choose amongst those ladies for his new queen...