Collateral Damage (912)

[starfox]

Two nitpicks:

1) I agree with whoever said that SG-1 should have been better dressed for the party. That moment was a bit disconcerting for me. Dress uniforms and suits would have worked better there.


2) It's been heavily implied by several people that Cam and Reya had sex. I gotta disagree. Look at her during the memories of the murder and when they show the body. She's wearing the same dress and her hair is still in an updo. Those two things lead me to believe that Cam did the responsible thing and left. Also, I'm pretty sure that the moment Marell found the memory splice was Reya bidding Cam good-night at the front door. See? He's still a gentleman.

[tsaxlady]

Well this episode was okay for a one off.

I did enjoy seeing Mitchell serious in this episode and fewer one liners. At least the whole team went off world thru the GATE together. While Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c did not have much to do in the episode we did get to see that they care about Mitchell unlike Babylon.

The episode was just a bit slow for me. Not the best episode of the season but also not even close to the worst episode of the season. All in all imo it was an okay episode. Not one I would go out of the way to watch again but one I would watch if it was on.

[valaCB]

Love this episode!! Cam/Sam was great to see, didn't like Ben acting, Love Amanda acting, well done. Daniel was cute as allways and Teal'c...indeed

Have to add, Ben looks soooooo good

[jetvlt]

in terms of all things that combine to make an awesome episode, this one had them all. kickass cinematography, writing, acting, sfx, sets, and what really stood out for me, the music, which was different to anything ive heard in sg1, ever.

all in all, and some of you might find this to be a stretch, and most will disagree, but personally, its the best episode ive ever seen. (and ive seen them all up to 912.)

[PG15]

That was one of the most powerful episodes of SG1 I've seen, and quite disturbing.

Who ever directed did an EXCELLENT EXCELLENT job, he should do it again, and again, and again, and so on.

Ok, yeah, the girl thing was a little iffy, but it didn't bother me that much.

The dad scene was awesome as well. Bring the actor back please.

Nice new angles of Cheyenne mountain!

I DID NOT see the twist at the end, with the husband erasing his own memory. Very well done.

The beginning sort of dragged though.

Nice memories, although the refugee part didn't have as much impact as it could've. It should've been something much more painful IMHO.

Browder did a very nice job.

And finally, the twisted face in the mirror, when they finally revealed the husband's face was freaking creepy! I was very disturbed by that. I think one of these days that picture will get put into one of those .swf files that scream at you.

Final "grade": 4/5

[Dani347]

I forgot to say this, but I thought the guy playing the husband did a very nice job.

[azurek8]

I thought this was good..a bit dark, but enjoyable. I guess the who did it a few seconds before it was revealed. Prion, now I remember the episode of Star Trek TNG, that was one of my faves. I did miss about the first 15 minutes because my daughter was crying in my ear, so I missed what they were talking about. My daughter is asleep now, she doesn't feel good. I'll just watch it again at 11 o'clock.

Quick Question: who is Jeff Upton? They had a in memoriam for him at the end of the show. I'm just wondering who that is.

edit to correct the name.

Azurek8 here... Hi! I looked him up on the internet and he was a chief lighting technician for a few shows. That is all i could find out about him.
Nice to see a mention for him from the show. Another soul gone over. God bless him.

[BigBadBob]

Unless I missed something, the gate activating was never shown in this episode. Even though they went back and forth a few times. Kind of bothers me, but oh well.

Also, some of the dialogue was odd. The guy on the other planet said something was censored in the interest of national security.

That's exactly how the US government officials would put it, why not word it differently for another planet?

[Ksenia]

Just finished viewing it!

Pros:
--Teaser: Very cool, loving the flashback style of photography that was used, as well as when Mitchell is first taken in, as it's a bit skittish feeling.
--And absolutely love the shot of Mitchell at the window right after the credits, with the ringed planet through the window - that was just beautiful! One of my favorite shots of the entire episode (and there were many).
--We've all seen the memory transplant or creating sort of device in other sci fi shows, what I particularly liked was the explanation of how it could be beneficial - the educational purposes.
--Daniel's resistance to the idea. He brought up his concern at the board room meeting, and he followed it up by discussing the negatives with the Emissary at the reception.
--Ben Browder's acting as he described the memory.
--Briefing room scene minus Cameron - awesome shot of the room from the gateroom! I loved that perspective, a bit different from what we're used to.
--City exterior scenes. Nice city somebody made, lots of movement in it!
--Sam's concern. She played it well, not too much, not too little.
--Flashbacks - they looked good, they sounded good.
--Mitchell's father - I loved this guy! Very quick and easy to care about him, the relationship was fantastically portrayed. The actor was fantastic.
--Love Walter. =^)
--Both the guys playing 'memory technicians' were fantastic.
--Cameron's angsty flashback - quite interesting! Love the backstory.
--Ben Browder's acting, re: angsty flashback. Awesome.
--Daniel & Teal'c argument with the Emissary about continuing the investigation, despite the graft discovery.
--Reflection, though slightly annoyed as my boyfriend guessed it as soon as they decided to look for an anomaly and before they showed anything, so it lacked a surprise element for me. But still very well done, and including the quick zoom in shot on Cameron in the chair after.
--The creepy scene of the killer coming back in and not knowing what happened, the entire feel of that was eerie, I liked it. The look of disbelief in Cam and Sam's faces.
--Last scene with dad. That was so well done.

Cons:
--SG1 just looked a bit silly at that reception. Didn't feel quite right.

Neutral:
--Cam's relationship with the woman seemed fairly innocent to me. It didn't bother me one bit, and she was interested as he was, perhaps more so as she asked him to walk her home. Previous to that he just seemed to quite enjoy her company.

Overall: Yeah, excellent episode! Great to see that backstory on Cam, and he played this episode particularly well. Loved the guy playing his dad too.

Yes, the plot was a bit predictable with the memory chair, and they gave that up straight away, that was no secret - we knew how it would end, roughly. But I find that the telling of the story is more important than the ending sometimes - in movies like Titanic, you know what's going to happen, it's the journey of getting there that's interesting. Good storytelling in this one.

[cajnjirl]

2) It's been heavily implied by several people that Cam and Reya had sex. I gotta disagree. Look at her during the memories of the murder and when they show the body. She's wearing the same dress and her hair is still in an updo. Those two things lead me to believe that Cam did the responsible thing and left. Also, I'm pretty sure that the moment Marell found the memory splice was Reya bidding Cam good-night at the front door. See? He's still a gentleman.

No, they didn't. So why is everyone freaking out?


And I also think it was a government cover-up, because no one seemed to care that she was dead and just wanted SG-1 to leave.

[SophieTucker]

I too was glad we got a break from the Ori

And I did enjoy the episode but I had to remind myself this was Mitchell not Lt. Paris because this episode was so reminiscent of Voyager (both SG's gave us a ST:VOY plot this week). Still, I think there were enough differences that it was less predictable than predicted.

It bothered me that SG1 would go to a reception in their fatigues - I guess they didn't have time to go home and change.

I am ready to see something "happy" in Mitchell's past -lot of "sad" memories.

[AGateFan]

I too was glad we got a break from the Ori

And I did enjoy the episode but I had to remind myself this was Mitchell not Lt. Paris because this episode was so reminiscent of Voyager (both SG's gave us a ST:VOY plot this week). Still, I think there were enough differences that it was less predictable than predicted.

It bothered me that SG1 would go to a reception in their fatigues - I guess they didn't have time to go home and change.

I am ready to see something "happy" in Mitchell's past -lot of "sad" memories.

Sadly they ruined that explanation as they were already at home, sitting at in the conference room talking about the reception they were going to go to. So it seems they would have had enough time to get something together.

[nccjones]

Sadly they ruined that explanation as they were already at home, sitting at in the conference room talking about the reception they were going to go to. So it seems they would have had enough time to get something together.

Yeah, that scene did bug me. Also the fact that the Gate was never used in the show. I think what they should have done as they would have in the past is show Sam, Daniel and Teal'c coming through the gate and the General would be at the ramp and then Sam explaining what happened to Mitchell. If not that, using the Malp by the Gate to explain the situation. I found it odd that they were casually discussing it in the conferance room.

Another pet peave. When they said that the government was willing to let Mitchell go with no consequences, then Daniel (or Sam...can't remember which) said that Mitchell wanted to stay behind to find the killer...the General should have said NO! It was not their problem. Yes, Mitchell had the memories of the murder, but by all accounts he should have been dragged back to Earth. I just found it odd that the General was so willing to let them run around a planet that willing to frame him. They had no idea what else could have been done. To me that made no military sense at all.

[Hatusu]

I agree with you, NCC. That surprised me and it looked like the General lacked control. I wonderd why the writers chose to take away much of the threat in this show. It really reduced the tension.

Earlier, I forgot to mention that I enjoyed the unusual opening sequence. I actually checked to see if I had accidently changed channels. I also admired the shot of the Stargate Command conference room from outside the window. Since I know that the conference room is three stories up, and I'm not sure they can get a camera crane in the Gate Room, they must have had the camera operator on a pretty tall ladder.

[TheCaptain]

I thought this was one of the better episodes this season, it really had a murder mystery-esque quality right from the start that I found interesting in an SG-1 episode.

I'm a fan of Star Trek Voyager and have seen many of the show's episdoes but not all, so can anyone give me a name or reference of the ep Collateral was similiar to, so I can read about it or catch it on satelliteTV replays? Thanks

To me yes there were a couple of nagging issues that just seemed a little bit out of place in the ep (namely, the BDUs at a formal party, and the amount of times that bludgeoning murder scene was shown to us - I get the fact that it was hard for them to prove that he DIDN'T kill her in the first place, but still...) but overall, in my opinion it was highly enjoyable. If this was the standard of the one-off episodes to come, then I say 'bring 'em on!'

The Ori are great, yes, but this was really a refreshing change from these preliminary introduction eps for the new enemy - and we got to see the Mitchell character revealed a little bit more, got to understand him a little better. I'm warming more and more to Cam now that the absence of Jack has sunk in a little, and this episode did wonders for my outlook towards him. Wasn't a big fan of Farscape, but I see that Ben Bowder is a good actor - more than adequate for his character and the series, at least.

Look about Landry and his decision to let Mitchell run with the investigation, I don't really think it's fair to blame the commander, he was relying on the call of his senior officer and the rest of the team and they were backing Cam with this.

Although the somewhat cold, dismissive nature that he employs with the rest of the SGC personnel really peeves me, I thought his call to let SG1 run with things and solve the murder issue was a fair call. It was never really going to come down to Mitchell on death row, anyway, because neither side wanted that at all.

I as a fanfic writer love the idea of exploring these guys again sometime after the events of this episode (we never really did learn their planet's name or what they called themselves, did we?). Just think they could be a little dark and twisted, and with a mixture of technologies and the protection of the Asgard treaty (not very relevent now I guess, but would have allowed their race to develop to a very high point) they could be quite a powerful force. And with this memory programme now militarized...

Okay, so overall, I give it a 9 out of 10 - it has a couple of flaws but so do most shows, but overall it gave us insight into Mitchell's character, we got to see a planet technologically advanced thanks to the protection of the Asgard non-interference treaty with the Goa'uld, and we saw the team working together on one task, which seemed somewhat against the current norm of the show.

A sign that TPTB still have some great shows to bring out in the future, I hope...

Capt