The Scourge (917)

[Skydiver]

2 people per F-302, 2 F-302's (Mitchell and Teal'c can't fly back more than 2)

Total capacity 4

Number of people 8

It'd take 3 trips (2 pilots, 6 to be transports besides, 2 open spots for travel)

At least one trip would leave 2 IOA members alone without a member of SG-1 defending

Ideally, the first trip would take 2 IOA members since the destination should be safe from bugs. The next two trips could be 2 IOA followed by 2 SG-1, or two sets of 1 IOA 1 SG-1. The second would keep communication and military (or at least Daniel) presence with both groups for the greatest period of time. All this assumes nothing crazy happens at the "safe" destination. Then there's just the problem of getting off the planet.

It could have been a good plan, and filled with it's own issues without playing the Oddessy beam-out-at-last-second card (though a beam out would have still been necessary to leave the planet, but I could have dealt with that)

sam can fly a 302. so you have to figure that in the equation, three pilots, 5 passengers

[Skydiver]

Mitchell said they'd ferry them to a safe place. Meaning they'd take some, then go back and collect the others.

No plot hole.

which could have brought up a whole new situation. if the three people best suited to defending the delegates are also the folks that have to take them to safety.....who stays behind with the last two? and who would those last two be?

[uknesvuinng]

sam can fly a 302. so you have to figure that in the equation, three pilots, 5 passengers

Yes, but she wasn't with them on the initial trip for F-302s. She would have to trek over there herself or be flown over there to pick up a third F-302.

[Skydiver]

Yes, but she wasn't with them on the initial trip for F-302s. She would have to trek over there herself or be flown over there to pick up a third F-302.

good point

[Dani347]

Ack! All this sounds like those blasted word problems in math. Or like that riddle where you have to cart a wolf, a duck, and some flour across a bridge without losing any.

[GhostPoet]

I'm marking this down as one of my all time favorite episodes. I could easily watch it again

[DEM]

Ack! All this sounds like those blasted word problems in math. Or like that riddle where you have to cart a wolf, a duck, and some flour across a bridge without losing any.

Heh. It's like Carter's solution in Holiday.

I was hoping that uknesvuinng would do us the favour of mapping out a plan that includes Carter -- with the condition that she couldn't walk back to the main site.

[uknesvuinng]

Heh. It's like Carter's solution in Holiday.

I was hoping that uknesvuinng would do us the favour of mapping out a plan that includes Carter -- with the condition that she couldn't walk back to the main site.

What do you mean specifically? Didn't I pretty much do that already?

[DEM]

I mean... uh, be specific. As in "All right, it's a little complicated, so I need you to do exactly as I say. We're going to have to play a little musical chairs with your bodies. First, Colonel, you and Ma'chello will switch...."

Oh! And I meant "includes Carter flying one of the 302s -- but she doesn't walk to the base to get it."

Or, ignore me cuz I'm being a dork.

[uknesvuinng]

I mean... uh, be specific. As in "All right, it's a little complicated, so I need you to do exactly as I say. We're going to have to play a little musical chairs with your bodies. First, Colonel, you and Ma'chello will switch...."

Oh! And I meant "includes Carter flying one of the 302s -- but she doesn't walk to the base to get it."

Or, ignore me cuz I'm being a dork.

Well, it wouldn't make much sense to switch out pilots without good reason. Sam does however have the greatest US military stargate experience, and so it would make sense that she should be the last SG-1 member out of the danger zone, as her cool head and leadership skills are needed to keep the delegates safe. Teal'c would be a good choice too, but I imagine the IOA members would be rather uncooperative, having an alien ordering them around, even if Teal'c has the most stargate and military experience by far. Mitchell shouldn't even be in command of a JROTC group, although he was a little less immature in this episode.

[DarkQuee1]

Sigh. It's a sad commentary on season 9 when one of the best eps is a basically dumb, plothole-filled, logic-impaired oversized-cockroach SciFi creature feature (this ep could be centerpiece of SciFi's Saturday night schedule. ). With loads of questions. Just a few examples:

Why are the civilian visitors always idiots?

Why did the bugs, after coming up from underground and getting the second guard with the group, ignore Our Heroes, standing right there and go back underground? (Sure, maybe there's a reason. But it's *their* job to tell us what it is, not *our* job to invent explanations).

Why are Cam and Teal'c just tramping along talking out loud, since that seems to be locator beacons for the bugs? And why are they not attacked? Even when we get all that rumbling underfoot?

Why is Sam automatically left behind at the cave (without even a discussion), and not the civilian of the team, Daniel? Rampant sexism? We know she's a marks(wo)man, and Daniel isn't. She's military; he isn't. She's "co-leader" (yeah, I know, dumb concept); he isn't. Etc.

Why do we suddenly have convenient "locator" devices--which we all know will, of course, not function when the plot device bunny needs them not to?

Why is Daniel suddenly back to being ivory tower, when he's seemed to move to a more practical, hardheaded approach this year? It's all the military's fault that we aren't giving China alien weaponry?? Yeah, like even civilians couldn't see the reason for that. (Maybe, since the Chinese are getting a free ride on the program, letting the US have all the expense and take all the risk, we should ask them to pony up $40 billion for the program this far, and $10 billion a year for the future, if they want more goodies? And she's making threats? Are they planning on invading the US and taking it?)

And so on, and so forth.

Best part of the ep: Teal'c telling Cam that what a friend is for, is to pay attention when someone says, "Don't bother." Yes! Way to go, Teal'c.

[PG15]

I'll try to answer some of these.

Why are the civilian visitors always idiots?

Well, they're not ALWAYS idiots, look at that civillian audit guy from Zero Hour.

Why did the bugs, after coming up from underground and getting the second guard with the group, ignore Our Heroes, standing right there and go back underground? (Sure, maybe there's a reason. But it's *their* job to tell us what it is, not *our* job to invent explanations).

Simple, they didn't hear them. The bugs rely on sound, so that's why Mitch told everyone to hush up. To the bugs, there was noone there, so they simply returned to where they usually live - underground.

Why are Cam and Teal'c just tramping along talking out loud, since that seems to be locator beacons for the bugs? And why are they not attacked? Even when we get all that rumbling underfoot?

I thought they were whispering...hmmm....no idea.

Why is Sam automatically left behind at the cave (without even a discussion), and not the civilian of the team, Daniel? Rampant sexism? We know she's a marks(wo)man, and Daniel isn't. She's military; he isn't. She's "co-leader" (yeah, I know, dumb concept); he isn't. Etc.

Because you want one of your best people protecting the valuable members of the IOA.

And, just in case the others didn't make it back, you'll still be left with a high-ranking officer who knows what she's doing.

Why do we suddenly have convenient "locator" devices--which we all know will, of course, not function when the plot device bunny needs them not to?

We had them ever since Off the Grid, which was caused by the events of Ethon, when Daniel's older beacon was separated from him. So, after that they learned their lesson and implanted the beacons into their actual person.

Makes perfect sense to me. The real plot hole is that they never thought of that in the first place.

Why is Daniel suddenly back to being ivory tower, when he's seemed to move to a more practical, hardheaded approach this year? It's all the military's fault that we aren't giving China alien weaponry?? Yeah, like even civilians couldn't see the reason for that. (Maybe, since the Chinese are getting a free ride on the program, letting the US have all the expense and take all the risk, we should ask them to pony up $40 billion for the program this far, and $10 billion a year for the future, if they want more goodies? And she's making threats? Are they planning on invading the US and taking it?)

Well, I'm sure Danny has always been the "Ivory Tower", but when's the last time he had to deal with foreign delegates?

And for your information, we've been making decisions for the entire planet for the last 9 years. It's about time other country gets to have a say in the matter.

[cbh]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted about this yet as I haven't read through all of the posts yet but I have a pet peeve and it is definately episodes like this that hit it right on the head. I think it is definately a hollywood kind of thing. Not too many people get to experiance explosions first hand but the whole ending of this with the C4 bricks irriatates me.

ONE brick of C4 that size could have easily leveled a building, let alone how many they placed around them. I can't blame this show in particular because I don't remember too many shows or movies that have actually shown explosives the way they should be. Like hand grenades for instance....they dont just knock two people back and make a little noise when they explode... they have a 5 meter kill radius and a 15 meter casualty radius. Thank goodness they didn't use any in this episode or I would have died. And Im not even going to start with how the explosions were perfectly round columns straight into the air.

I don't think this was one of the better episodes at all.

[The Shadow]

That was my thought, and I have to say I hate it. Everytime the Ori are mentioned, or the Ori do something, or someone makes reference to something the Ori have said, I have to wonder exactly why tptb are so pissed off at religion.

Bugs crawling out of someone's mouth is one of the most disgusting things ever. Bugs crawling under someone's skin is another one. The only good thing about the bugs is that when they ate the people they didn't leave anything. I don't think I would be able to take a shot of half eaten corpses.

Anyone able to translate what Daniel and Shen (?) were saying in the gateroom?

Well, at least they made SG1 have to work to get beamed out.

Here is Daniel and Shen's conversation in the gateroom:

SHEN
Your Mandarin is very good.
DANIEL
Not as good as your English.
SHEN
As it should be.
(referring to Mitchell)
What do you think about him?
DANIEL
We're still observing him.
[She laughs out loud. He smiles at her.]
MITCHELL
Yeah, that's very funny.
(to Daniel)
Get lost.
[Daniel and Shen looked at Mitchell, shocked, while Teal'c and Carter look amazed that he has said anything in Mandarin.]

Didn't they put English subtitles on the bottom of the screen? Didn't notice....was having too much fun hearing MS speaking Chinese....this is SO COOL, I speak Chinese, I came from China only 4 years ago, I am only 14, and they are speaking Chinese on Stargate!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Seastallion]

which could have brought up a whole new situation. if the three people best suited to defending the delegates are also the folks that have to take them to safety.....who stays behind with the last two? and who would those last two be?

Well, considering there are 3 pilots and 5 passengers, I would venture to guess had things gone down that way, that Daniel and Woolsey would probably be the ones left behind... unless they decided to double up and have two people sit on two other peoples laps. Why not? Sure it isn't too safe, but surely safer than sitting around with the bugs, and considering they have inertial dampeners that should help ease the safety. Colson mentioned that the F-302 was as smooth a ride as a 747, so one would think that you could get away with flying without a seatbelt, as long as the pilot wasn't showing off. That is probably how things would've gone down. Crowded maybe... but ultimately safer.

All in all... great episode..! I liked it. I especially loved it when Woolsey blew up at the French Ambassador. Thumbs up!!