Beachhead (906)

[LMichelle]

What was up with Sam's hair? I believe she forgot to dry it after getting out of the shower.

The Ori weren't as annoying in this ep. Not saying much, though.

Loved the basketball scene!

Vala's the hero! Vala's the hero! *squee* She'll be back. She wouldn't leave her Daniel. It's just screaming out for fanfic, isn't it?

No Southern Cameron. You could count god awful, though, especially if it's used as one word.

Nerus is a perfect example of Guttony. In fact, I was reciting the seven deadly sins in my head each time he was on the screen.

The band's back together!

[valaCB]

Aw man I really wanna see this episode, it sounds amazing, damn why di I have to live in the UK?!?!?

You can download some clips HERE

[salamander7]

looks like I'm the only one, but I HATED this episode. don't get me wrong... I love the new cast and the new feel of the show... Avalon/Origin was awesome! but there were just too many things that peeved me right out about Beachhead.

for the love of God I wish the writers would stop pulling their punches with the characters' emotional attachments. Jack and Sam, yea ok, I understand, but we KNOW Daniel had *something* going on with Vala. he looked genuinely upset when she was burnt, so there was a connection on some level. hello, friendship? they don't have to have sex! how about a hug! a kind look! ANYTHING!! no real human being is that cold and stoic and unemotional. instead, after 5 eps of bonding and friendly bickering, he tells her to shut her face about 10 times in a row, actually shoves her around, and then she goes and almost kills herself and he looks more concerned that he's about to pass out again. and then oh-ho-ho she's in the Orii galaxy, too bad for them! ha-ha. *weeps for the death of the not-a-jackass Daniel*

lots of people brought up how lame the welcome wagon was for Sam, and someone else said that the writers would have had to cut something else out if they'd included more reaction to Sam. I don't buy that... lots of shows do a very masterful job of balancing character exposition and action. like, ummm, I dono, this week's episode of Atlantis? not only was the reaction to Sam lamer than lame, but all the Jaffa on the planet were killed. DEAD. SG1 has always reacted pretty strongly to stuff like that, and this time it was like "that's a bummer. so, back to us..." and the total lack of concern for Vala. there was like a glimmer of 'yay team!' at the beginning, and then it was 40 minutes of "Sam's back, we hate you, why are you still here?"

I was SO excited for season 9, it was coming along so well, and this episode was like a spectacular arms-flailing flat on your face wipe out. I wanna know what happened to the people who wrote Threads and Avalon and when they're coming back.

[creed462]

The ep did show another thing to beat the Ori there will be a high cost

[UhSir]

Salamander7 - Yes, the Daniel being mean to Vala was bad all over. But I'm not a Daniel fan and maybe the Daniel fans liked it? Daniel got some really good snappy comeback lines instead of his usual hemming and hawing. But at the expense of another character, albeit not a "regular" character, is wrong wrong wrong and not funny for me.

[TheCorpulent1]

I thought it was funny initially. Sometimes you just get comfortable in an antagonistic relationship with someone; the fact that you're not openly nice at every turn with them doesn't imply that you don't care, often quite deeply, for them. But it seemed out of character that Daniel wouldn't have warmed up to her at least a little, since Daniel's usually not that way. Daniel's usually very accepting of people, and he's seen Vala in pretty vulnerable spots already.

[acdj31]

And I liked that this wasn't played as the huge "Carter's Return" episode. It works much better with her inclusion being handled with a somewhat understated, business-as-usual type of nature.

I glad that tptb didn't make the whole ep about Carter's return. I happy she is back. It feel like they were trade one character with other (Vala-Carter). I wish Carter and Vala could have interacted more.

I love the scenes on the planet with all of them in the spacesuits. I loved it when Mitchell and Daniel were talking to the Prior. Good parts: "Earth Minutes", Mitchell saying 'that it' to Daniel and when Daniel was making his 'I don't know' face at Mitchell. I like Daniel and Mitchell relationship with each other but I like Daniel and Jack relationship better.

Can't wait to see some real team interaction next week. (P.S. If Daniel, Teal'c and Sam actually said yes to joining the team when Mitchell asks them.)

[Hatcheter]

I thought it was funny initially. Sometimes you just get comfortable in an antagonistic relationship with someone; the fact that you're not openly nice at every turn with them doesn't imply that you don't care, often quite deeply, for them. But it seemed out of character that Daniel wouldn't have warmed up to her at least a little, since Daniel's usually not that way. Daniel's usually very accepting of people, and he's seen Vala in pretty vulnerable spots already.

But that woman drives him absolutely nuts. Daniel was more short-tempered and sarcastic while she was around then he's ever been before. Hopefully he'll be able to relax a bit now that she's gone.

As for Sam's return, it's not like she had been out of contact, or even that far away. Especially not when you have teleportation technology at your disposal. Remember Mitchell's offer to buy her breakfast in 'Avalon part I'. I suspect that she was around a bit, but not getting involved with operations in the SGC while still assigned to Area 51.

[SlightlyManiacalGater]

best episode of the year! 5 stars finally some action! what a great show, vala was great! welcome back carter!

What's up with going to the five star rating system? Not that I dislike it - I've thought for a long time that 4 stars just didn't give enough of a "spread" to really rate an episode, and I figured it was just so that the current SG1 episodes could be compared evenly with the early ones. But why now? I could understand if it were at the beginning of the season, but in the middle? It just looks like trying to artificially goose the ratings midway through.

Back on topic, I was sort of ambivalent about this episode. I really hate losing Vala, but I did like that Teal'c actually had something to do in this one. I'm usually not big on the technobabble-heavy episodes, but I like that the Ori are getting scarier and scarier the more we try to fight them.

[Maxum]

I thought this episode was good. The first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes were good, but I felt the middle was a little weak. Let's start at the beginning.

I loved the interaction between the four of them playing basketball, and for all those who don't like Daniel's mean comments to Vala, it's all part of their relationship. Daniel and Vala were genuinely having fun, and frankly, I think Vala is more comfortable when Daniel is sarcastic with her. It's an act between them, but they are both aware of a mutual friendship underneath the surface. Daniel's "shut up" remarks don't hurt Vala's feelings. She set the tone of this relationship, not Daniel, and he's simply playing the game. She had MORE than a few snarky snide remarks regarding everything going on with Ori, and it would have annoyed the hell out of me. Daniel simply expressed what everyone was probably feeling. Anyway . . .

So glad to have Sam back! Although I would have loved to have seen a hug between her and Daniel and Teal'c, but oh well. It's quite obvious that the four members (Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, and Sam) have been keeping in touch with other. Just because they are not always together on screen does not mean that their friendships have ended. The fact that Daniel and Sam were talking on the phone indicates to me that they are keeping in touch, which explains why there was no overly affectionate "welcome backs." Probably because they would say something to the effect of "Didn't I just talk to you on the phone yesterday?" However, from a fan standpoint, I would have liked a hug or something. It would have been funny to see Daniel give Sam an affectionate embrace with Vala standing there watching, but we didn't, and I'll get over it.

Liked the Gould, Nerus, and I loved that he specifically acknowledged SG-1 as the hero/legends they are. I mean really, Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c have basically been a HUGE thorn in their sides. They wiped out most of the enemies in the galaxy, and it's nice to see that the Gould acknowledge that fact. I thought it was funny how he mentioned that Mitchell and Vala are not part of the legendary SG-1 (Mitchell will find his place with the team, I'm sure).

I still enjoyed the Daniel/Vala bantering; it doesn't get old for me. I also enjoyed the trip aboard Promethius. However, I did NOT like the trip down to the planet, and here's where the episode faltered a bit. After the emotional episode of "The Powers That Be," where Daniel is visibly angry and has personalized the threat of the Ori, his banter with Mitchell on the planet seemed very out of place to me. I mean the Prior was wiping out an entire planet, and everyone was making jokes. That's the one part of this entire episode that I felt should have been written differently, which is what knocked my review down from a "great" episode to a "good" episode.

Technically, the good guys didn't win this round. It was a 50/50 split. The Ori won 50% by wiping out an entire planet, and the SGC (or Vala) won the other half by destroying the Supergate. The destruction of the Supergate was good, but a little too simple. The solution should have been glaringly obvious to a mind as brilliant as Sam's, and she didn't figure it out, but Vala did? Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it just seemed too simple.

I also felt that there should have been a more dramatic scene between Daniel and Vala before she departed. Since Vala kept having all this snide remarks to everything happening, it would have been good for Daniel to look at her and say "Can't you provide anything constructive or is it all about you?" This would have hurt Vala's feelings, and thereby propelling her into her "sacrifice," which ulitimately would have made Daniel feel terrible after losing her. Again, I just wanted a little bit more emotion between them, and it feels like they swept it under the rug. Finally, it would bother me immensely if someone I cared about or was friends with ended up in the Ori galaxy. How can that be a good thing?

Overall, it was a good and enjoyable episode, but not the best episode of the season, in my opinion. Here's how I rank the episodes so far, keeping in mind that I really loved all of them. (Season 9 is turning out to be fantastic!):

1. The Powers that Be
2. Origin
3. Avalon Part II
4. Avalon Part I
5. Beachhead
6. The Ties that Bind

Lastly, I'm so sorry to see Vala leave, and I want her back before the season ends.

[Quinn Mallory]

I would say this is probably my favorite episode so far this season (unless you count the first 3 parters as a whole).

[Dani76]

I think it was an awesome, butt-kicking episode. I really liked TPTB but Beachhead was even better.
Okay, I admit it, I was happy to have Sam back.
But I also liked the team interaction, the special effects (WOW), and how the story about the Oris is developing. I mean, they started out with the Priors "just looking" for worshippers. Then they showed a little bit more of their powers in TPTB: I liked the bullet scene...and it started to get creepy - how can you actually defeat them?
And then last night - bang!!! They are just so powerful - who would have thought. It's creepy and dark - I love it!
On top of all that, they even managed to make this episode really funny and a lot of that comes from Vala, which is one of the reasons why I will miss her. CB is great as Vala and she made me laugh quite often. I hope that she will be back, too.
Now I am just waiting for the team to (re)assemble, to find out a little bit more about the characters' backstories, mostly Mitchell and what happened to Sam while she was gone and why, and to see more of Teal'c.
Can't wait for next Friday.

[joasia]

I'm guessing she pops onto a planet in some temple or structure and then she leads her own adventures trying to get back.

Not very likely - she is still bound to Daniel so she is probably weak and falls asleep very often. Just like Daniel.

One MAJOR flaw in this ep.... the blocks of the ubergate were about 125% the size of the cargo ship, yet they managed to fit through the normal gate? (When the cargo shpi took the position as the last link, you could see the blocks were pretty much solid)

May be they did extend something sideways? Like the jumpship does.

[majorsal]

i know i'm going to get slammed for this, and i dont want any claudia black/vala fans to take offense, but i'm so glad she's finally gone! here i was so excited about sam/amanda's return (understatement of the century), and when i woke up in the morning and started thinking about beach head and stargate, the very first thing that came to mind was that vala was gone. i never wanted stargate to go that route (sexed up, for no other reason than sexed up), and it only got worse with daniel and vala taking so much attention away from the other characters. for five eps.

i don't mind if she comes back for some appearances here and there, but i hope they would not only be with daniel this time. she seems to find teal'c attractive, go there. she seems to be intrigued with mitchell and landry, go there. she 'could' find something to like about sam, go there.

but i'm so glad the show's going to get back to serious story telling.

again, no offense to cb/vala fans.


sally

[valaCB]

looks like I'm the only one, but I HATED this episode. don't get me wrong... I love the new cast and the new feel of the show... Avalon/Origin was awesome! but there were just too many things that peeved me right out about Beachhead.

for the love of God I wish the writers would stop pulling their punches with the characters' emotional attachments. Jack and Sam, yea ok, I understand, but we KNOW Daniel had *something* going on with Vala. he looked genuinely upset when she was burnt, so there was a connection on some level. hello, friendship? they don't have to have sex! how about a hug! a kind look! ANYTHING!! no real human being is that cold and stoic and unemotional. instead, after 5 eps of bonding and friendly bickering, he tells her to shut her face about 10 times in a row, actually shoves her around, and then she goes and almost kills herself and he looks more concerned that he's about to pass out again. and then oh-ho-ho she's in the Orii galaxy, too bad for them! ha-ha. *weeps for the death of the not-a-jackass Daniel*

lots of people brought up how lame the welcome wagon was for Sam, and someone else said that the writers would have had to cut something else out if they'd included more reaction to Sam. I don't buy that... lots of shows do a very masterful job of balancing character exposition and action. like, ummm, I dono, this week's episode of Atlantis? not only was the reaction to Sam lamer than lame, but all the Jaffa on the planet were killed. DEAD. SG1 has always reacted pretty strongly to stuff like that, and this time it was like "that's a bummer. so, back to us..." and the total lack of concern for Vala. there was like a glimmer of 'yay team!' at the beginning, and then it was 40 minutes of "Sam's back, we hate you, why are you still here?"

I was SO excited for season 9, it was coming along so well, and this episode was like a spectacular arms-flailing flat on your face wipe out. I wanna know what happened to the people who wrote Threads and Avalon and when they're coming back.

I agree. the lack of amotion in this episode is scandal. the ignoring of Vala was terrible. Vala talk and no one hear her, everyone ignore her...WT*? she is so tring to fit to the team but they all ignore her, even Daniel! its really abuse for the character. and about Carter. she is back after some time...show a little emotion...

and another thing. is there something between Vala and Teal'c? in the beginning after the basketball scene, Vala was behind Tealc's chair and they exchange looks. something is going on there