Avalon, Part 1 (901)

[Token]

As a Sam fan and a Sam/Jack shipper, I wasn't sure what Season 9 had in store for me. I wasn't a Farscape fan either. That being said... I am very excited about Season 9 now!!

I enjoyed Cameron Mitchell. I enjoyed the flashbacks. I was a little shocked he got the Medal of Honor, but maybe they will explain more of the reasons in later episodes. It was refreshing to see the "Stargate" universe through the fresh eyes of Cameron and Landry. I also like the fact that Cameron is not a cocky, self-assured leader.

Beau Bridges was delightful! For me, Beau being part of Stargate was a promising point for Season 9, and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed.

It was fantastic to see Sam!! I wasn't expecting to see her at all. I liked how Cameron is in awe of Sam in a "fan" way as he is with all of SG-1.

WELL DONE!!

[DetriusXii]

When General Landry interrogates Vala.

Gen. Landry: How old are you?
Vala: Mental abuse won't work either.
Gen. Landry: I have a daughter abour your age. Hasn't listened to me since she was twelve. It doesn't matter what I say or do.
Vala: You're not going to bore me with your personal life are you? I have to admit, an hour or two of that might break me...

I liked that quick witted response. I didn't like Vala in Prometheus Unbound, but I liked her character in this episode. The sex jokes were wittier in this episode than they were in s8.

[Faraway]

I got another Farscape refrence for you.

When Vala passed by Mitchell and Landry, after coming through the gate, she talks about how she should be having fun in a room with all this testosterone.

Claudia's other alter ego Aeryn from Farscape said "Oh, to be in the warm glow of all this testosterone," in a sarcastic manner in season one's Family Ties.

[Ancient 1]

I thought the episode was okay; average considering what it had to accomplish, but does everything out of Vala's mouth have to be a smartass remark? If TPTB intend to kill her off, okay; but if not, the character needs some depth. She's just so one-dimensional at this point....She lies, she steals, she fights, and she has a smartass attitude. This will not have much appeal over time; IMHO, naturally.

[Elizabeth Bartlett]

All the diolugue between Daniel and Vala is halarious. They are compleate opposites that they work well together. Plus there's the unresolved sexual tention between the two that makes even more funny to watch. And when they fight they act like five year olds.

*Daniel and Vala fighting*
Cameron: Do I have to seperate you two?

Cameron:"Or you could just marry the chick."
Vala:"YEA! Let's make babies!"
*Daniel throws a pillow at Vala*

Vala:"Ah, doesn't this bring back memories. Yeah, isn't this where I beat you up?"
Daniel:"No."
Vala:"Yeah this is where I crushed your-"
Daniel:"All right then."

[ping-pong]

Loved Avalon part 1.

Impressed with Cameron Mitchell so far. For those who thought there were too many flashback scenes: it was only to delve into Mitchell's background regarding his credentials as Colonel as well as his connection with SG1.

General Landry is different from Hammond---and I like that. Not to slam Hammond because I loved him (and I still miss seeing him) but Landry's gruffness is something I like. Hammond had a stern, but loving fatherly personality towards SG1. Landry seems to have like a personality that is gritty and crochtety on the outside; but allows his warmth to show--on certain occasions.

Loved seeing Jack again. I'm going to miss him.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Sam's brief appearance.

I like Vala's over the top personality. I love how she's such a pesky annoyance to Daniel---and perhaps to the rest of SG1 team. But I think there's more to Vala than being a scheming tart; and it will show through as more episodes follow.

Daniel's beard is not that bad. In fact, I think it's quite attractive. But don't get him started on the ancients!! Boy can that guy talk----and fast!!

Teal'c----that's my man!! Christopher Judge was right when he said in that Gate World interview that Teal'c doesn't know whether or not to like Mitchell. Their interactions are quite funny--especially that scene in the cave. I was impressed at how Dakara (the Jaffa holy city) has improved since "Reckonings" from season 8. I'm curious to see how the newly free Jaffa will create their own government and how their relationship with the Tauri will be affected. It already appears that Teal'c will find himself stuck in the middle between his loyalty to the Tauri (SG1 in particular) and loyalty to his people.

[UNRE4L]

The part which really got me laughing was the mitchell's interview with the army people.

And where mitchell was trying to talk Daniel into staying with SGC because of his knowledge of the ancients. MS then said: Well thats why i am going to the "City of the Ancients". It was the Way he said it which got me laughing.

[Kevin]

Overall I really liked the show. The pacing was fine, as they had to establish new things in a reasonable manner, and just jumping into it wasn't the way to go.

I really liked that they had the group disbanded. After taking out both the Gou'ald and the Replicators, it was almost like their "job was done". They had done all they could to save the world, and it seemed they no longer needed to. All their enemies were gone. Very realistic

The plot was a little slow at first, but it will sure pick up next week. Great idea to make Merlin an Ancient

Daniel has slowly evolved over the year. He's become much more cynical over the years....maybe it's from spending all that time with Jack. She's no longer the wimpy little archeologist.

Jack not opening the drawer.....classic.

I love Vala, she's great to watch. Her interaction with Daniel has been really well done. Their fun! And you could never go wrong with leather

Wasn't crazy about Mitchell. Hopefully it will change after this episode, but he felt like Crichton too much. That's my only real complaint though.

Dakara looked great

Solid episode overall

[mtee1958]

I look forward to watching him find the voice of *Cameron Mitchell*... and as that voice grows I expect we will all be pretty impressed with the range this man has

Overall I was just thouroughly entertained... I liked how the story was slowly unfolded and I had no expectations of some deep major plot... Heck this is SG1 FCOL.. it isn't a deep show... It had everything I expected and more. I had a great time watching it and came away looking forward to next week... that is all I ask from any TV show

That is exactly it!!!!!!!!! It's a tv show -- lean back and enjoy! Sometimes I hate coming onto forums because people are going to blast it for not doing this or that. One question -- was it fun/exciting and/or heart pounding to watch. Did you spend an enjoyable hour watching? If yes, then it did it's job. Don't over analyze -- just watch and enjoy. If you hated watching, then stop - if you can't get over not having RDA on or somesuch -- then stop. I frankly couldn't watch Jonas, it bothered me and was no longer fun - so I stopped watching. It seemed crazy to me to sit there and complain yet continue watching every week. It's tv and that means it should entertain you in some way. I thought it was a good ep -- the time raced by -- I chuckled at times and I came away satisfied. I fully expect to have weeks where the writing is off and it's not as good -- show me a tv show that consistently delivered week after week, year after year. So for those off weeks, you shrug and go - there's always next week.

[Dani347]

I liked it. There were a few problems, but overall I enjoyed it. I thought the pacing in the introduce Mitchell scenes was too slow. And, I really didn't care about the battle scenes. Not my thing. Liked it better when Mitchell was actually interacting with people. He seems more by the book military than Jack, but not in a hard*ss way.

I also had a hard time seeing Beau as Landry. He just never seemed to establish the character.

I liked how Mitchell really respected and almost hero worshiped each member of SG-1.

I think they did a good job of not making it Fargate. Unless the whole of it being that is simply having actors who used to work on that show. But, the interaction between Vala and Mitchell was nothing like between Aeryn and Crichton. Probably because Vala is nothing like Aeryn. And, if the wink to him when she said she was pregnant was supposed to be a nod to her having a baby of Farscape, it went over my head. I thought it was just her way of saying not believe her when she said she was pregnant this time.

I've read here and on other boards how Daniel seemed angry, and I didn't see it. Unless people mean angry with Vala, and yeah, but is that surprising? She ruined his chance to see Atlantis, and we know he's been gunning for it. But, I didn't see any anger from him when Mitchell came to talk him into staying. I saw distraction. I'm guessing every conversation he heard since he found out he was going to Atlantis probably filtered through his head as "Blah, blah, blah Atlantis, blah, Atlantis, blah, blah, Atlantis" And, I didn't see cyncism, except around Vala, and again who can blame him? But, when he was talking about Merlin, he seemed really excited and bouncy and can't believe it, and like Daniel of old. I liked that it never occured to him that no one would know who the heck this "Mergin" person was, because he was so caught up in the discovery. And, those quick nods when Mitchell was trying to wrap his head around it all. "Merlin?" Excited nod. "Yes!" "Was an Ancient?" Excited nod. "Yes!" He had excitement and wonder, and than of course he went into lecture mode. So, for me, he seemed like Daniel of old, which is how I like him. Except for the beard.

Teal'c didn't talk as much as last season, but more than earlier seasons I thought. And he had some nice reaction shots. I loved him keeping vigil in the infirmary. Plus his look when Daniel threw the pillow. I also thought his reaction to Mitchell was good. Mitchell was trying so hard to get him to say he was excited to be back, and he wouldn't humor him. And, "Are you still having fun, Colonel Mitchell?"

I understand why they did it, and I don't have a problem with the fact of it, but I hate hearing the name "Jackson" in reference to Daniel. Daniel is such a lovely name. I want to hear that as much as possible.

[zuz]

Think I might try a summary:

Cameron is standing at the stargate, touching it like Picard touched the Phoenix in First Contact. A couple of SG people (inc Harriman) talk about him and name etc

*Flashback*
Antarctica - Giant spaceship fight. Dogfighting (rather unrealistically IMO) protecting SG1 in the cargo ship. Cameron Sounds more like a commercial 747 pilot talking, also their "radar" is pretty suss. But none-the-less it's a REALLY good battlescene, their F302 takes a hit, smoking engine, a wingman comes in to help him, then promptly gets blown away.

Back in gate room a few quick words and then the Intro. Not impressed with very brief intro. Perhaps they did not have a proper "character" intro ready. Seemed more like a Atlantis space born gate as well.

Shot of mountain entrance.

Inside General's Office.

*Flashback*
Assumably prometheus flight deck. Cameron talking to flight crews (probably as a squadron leader rather than total commander).

Back in General's room.
Cameron is impatiant. Walter O'Reilly has a comical moment. Everyone's good at their job according to the Gen, he likes yelling at people. Cameron makes a joke about himself. Gets given stack of personele files. Has to pick his team.
Cameron "is here to join SG-1", but Gen says Cameron is "there to lead".

Carter = R and D at Area 51.
Daniel = Leaving
Teal'c = Gone for a month.

Jack never used desk drawers. Cameron tries to explain he wanted to work with the "old" SG-1.

Daniels Room.
Cameron and Daniel meet. Make some small talk, Cameron wants Daniel to stay, Daniels is going to Atlantis. Cameron chose SG-1, which means the "old" crew not just the SG-1 unit name.

*Flashback*
Antarctica - Has a enemy on his six, yet somehow manages to help carter by taking out an alkesh, for some reason the Glider on his butt is gone.

Daniels Room
Daniel gives him his apartment key.

Temple at Dkarra (sp?)
Teal'c offers to give Cameron some names of good warriors, talks about his government plans, Teal'c is talking about problems. So Cameron does'nt even get to ask Teal'c to join before he leaves. Cameron gets a little "whacky" and mentions "he's on a mission from god" and tries to get directions to the stargate.

Cut shot of mountain.

It's SAM!!!!
Blah Blah Hyperdrive, Blah Blah Uplink, Cameron flat out asks for Sam to come back, joke about Dr Lee, tries to "sweet talk" Sam into coming back. Shows that "Self Depreciating" streak shown earlier. Sam has to leave. I suprised he did'nt ask Walter to join SG-1.

*Flashback*
Get's owned by a death glider, co-pilot dead, eject fails (dodgy parts), crashes.

Jack's house. Which is now (I think) the new General's house, Jack did'nt tell Cameron that Sg-1 was broken up. Some various quotes, and a chess game. Jack Wins.

Audition Montage.
A librarian type linguist (I've seen her somewhere before).
People call him dave. Which is his name.
Techno Geek.
Guy who likes pushups.
Crazy android scientist's (why they would be applying for SG-1 I don't know). Their thing sounds cool.

*Flashback*
Crashed in the snow, radio saying death of enemy fleet.
Very quick flashbacks.
Nurse.
Emergency.
Getting told co-pilot is dead.
Mother?
Docter, walking chances are slim.
Daniel giving praise.
Getting Congressional Medal Of Honour (I have a real problem with that.)
Jack tells him he can do anything he wants. Within Reason.

Gateroom.
DAMN. Vala. "Nice Outfit". She asks for Daniel straight away. She has brought a tablet of ancient treasure. Joke re pregnancy. Tablet is code. Vala knows the code. Danial is needed to "understand" the tablet. Joke about gene pool. Nice comedic touch with Daniel and Cameron. Vala bought tablet from Goauld.
Goauld bracelets, from the Sky Goddess. Daniel gets strapped into one. Vala gets the other one.

Braclets link the 2 people togther.

Mountain Shot.

Dr's Lab.
Can't cut through the bracelet, Dr thinks about cutting the hand, no chance. They don't know how it works, it has faint energy readings.

Daniel Faints.

Security room.
Vala and General, General talks about daughter a bit. A torture joke or 2. Camera is panning around. General gets through little speech.

Vala Faints.

Medical Room.

Teal'c is back. "Daniel Jackson" he says. Daniel seems fine. It's the bracelet. Kormac is what they are, used for prisoner transfer, if the 2 people get far from each other, they both die. Vala interjects. Vala stole it from someone who did'nt tell her about that. Danial gets a little angry and chucks a pillow.

Vala will remove the bracelet (if she can), after she gets the treasure. The Daedulus left 2 hours before he woke up. Cameron suggets getting the treasure, or Danial marrying the "chick". Vala is happy.

Daniel's artifact room. Teal'c does not need to return. Cameron and him have an pretty one sided exchange. Daniel figures out the "secret", and after a fashion reveals that the Ancient Treasure was hidding my Merlin, the Arthurian legend.

Cut to Briefing room. Long winded explation from Daniel about Arthur's times and myths. Blah Blah Blah, Ancients probably hid everything with their Tech.

Cameron is happy, but then Sam can't come. Cameron is less happy.

Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Prometheus.
Daniel would be staying onboard, but then they realise the radio won't work, and then Vala reasons (after flirting a bit with Daniel) and some tech talk, that the rings will get them inside.

Beam Down with rings.
Empty Cavern. Joke about having sex. Oh look, it's the sword in the stone. Daniel get's all geeky and corrects Cameron about the sword itself not being Excalibur. Cameron can't pull it out.

Merlin hologram comes up "Only those with a wealth of knowledge and truth of spirit shall be given access to the underworld. Prove thee worthy and all will be revealed." Vala keeps her eyes on the prize. More flirting\jibing between the 2 kids.

Teal'C wants to explore some tunnels, Cameron goes with him, and the 2 lovebirds go together. Both happen upon rooms that light up with Flares\Fire when they go near, they both enter and get trapped. Radio don't work.

Daniel belives the room is a test. His room is a couple of pots, with some ancient underneath, Cameron's is some sort of number puzzle or word puzzle, too bad they can't read it. Teal'c shoots at the door. Cameron get's a bit of a strange moment, not happy about possible ricochets. Vala opens one of the pots, it's empty. She then tempts fate by exclaiming "How much worse could it get".

Promptly the celing starts to fall down. Teal'c does his iron man thing holding it up. The other pot is empty on Vala's side. Vala and Daniel look slightly concerned to say the least.

"To Be Continued".

Thanks for the summary, (((macktheknife))) You made my day.

[psumetguy2008]

I also loved the interview part.....especially the woman talking in ancient and apparently able to hold her breath for 30 minutes while talking 130 mph...

[the fifth man]

In my opinion, the first episode of season 9 definitely lived up to my expectations. Yeah, it may not have had as much action as in atlantis's premiere, but this is a different situation. Atlantis just picked up where it left off, SG-1 had to start fresh. The team is broken up, Mitchell desperately trying to get them back together. I know the action will pick up, so I can't wait for next week, and the week after....and so on. This should be a sweet season, for all three shows.

[ApophisLives]

I actually laughed quite a bit at Vala's remark about the 1 in 10 chance of the "baby" being Daniel's then her nod and wink towards Mitchell. It's something that only a Farscape fan would get.

Uhu. But can you imagine how absolutely senseless this remark seemed to someone who's never watched Farscape? Inside jokes are always problematic when they're not also a little bit funny for an outsider because then the outsider realizes that it was an inside joke and feels left out. Making parts of your audience feel left out is never a good thing.

I actually thought the remark was funny, and I haven't seen a second of Farscape. She has this way of making everyone uncomfortable, or keeping everyone on edge. For example, look at the guard's reaction upon escorting Vala through the gate when she says, "We had a lot of fun searching each other, didn't we boys?" Not to mention her incessant jabs at Daniel. It just seemed like she was taking the opportunity to throw one at Mitchell while simultaneously kidding with Daniel. Notice his expression; he was taken totally by surprise.

The Teal'c/Cameron friendship...or lack thereof. I got quite a kick out of the fact that Teal'c doesn't seem to like Cam at all right now. I mean, he appreciates what Cam did in Antarctica...but personality-wise, think OIL and WATER. It'll be interesting to see how Cam wins his friendship.

Interesting. I agree with 99.9% of your review, but I got the exact opposite impression here. I thought that while Teal'c obviously doesn't hold Cam in the same esteem that he hold Jack, he seems to acknowledge Mitchell's honor in his usual, wordless way. I think he trusts in Mitchell's abilities, and it will probably only get stronger.

I thought a good sign of their rapport was when Teal'c fired at the door, and as Mitchell is freaking out, he has this grin on his face, which seemed to be saying, "He has no idea what he's in for."

Here's a question for you all who have seen the episode...when Daniel and Vala are in the tunnel and she comments that she's a little afraid of whatever creature might have been left behind to guard the treasure, and Daniel said something like "it would be running from you when it gets to know you," was it just me or did you see kind of a hurt expression on her face? I saw that and it kinda told me that Daniel's judging her by the way she's acting/has treated him...but perhaps that's just a façade and he doesn't really know her at all. She seemed genuinely to have her feelings hurt...which tells me that there might be some more depth to her character and personality than maybe was first thought...

I didn't see it as a real expression, more of an "okay, you got me." I think if it was supposed to be serious, it would have been a closer shot.

[Avenger]

I really liked the Farscape references and the humor in the episode was great. The chemistry between Vala and Daniel is hilarious.