The Scourge (917)

[Dani347]

If they stick to diplomatic, friendly or even not friendly interactions discussing the part China wants to play in the Stargate program, I wouldn't mind if they brought her back and if she interacted with Daniel. As long as he didn't do something similar to what he did in this episode, in my interpretation. The questions brought up in their conversations are interesting ones that should continue.

I didn't pick up on this before I read it somewhere else, but I liked the scene in the cave where Daniel figures out that they could contact the Odyssey at the research station and Sam responded that she would be able to make it work. Nice way of them using their strengths to come up with a solution.

[Ancient 61]

Did anybody catch the Starship Troopers reference? Especially with Michael Ironside guest starring in only 2 episodes? I wonder if the writers knew that he would be guest starring when they wrote it.

Ace

P.S. I love Michael Ironside... great actor. He made Starship Troopers worth seeing several times

I am glad that someone else caught the referense to Starship Troopers.
Joanne

[gatelover12]

Apparently I am the only one here who watched Tremors the seires. In an ep of TTS A group of insects that were really a hybrid of termite/ant with a smattering of randomness thrown in were eating plants, then mules, and finaly people. They traveled underground and made a loud sound when they approched. Many people have pointed out the vibration sensing commonality so I won't go into that, but did the egg thing remind anyone else of "they nest"?

[Seshat]

Daniel. Sigh. Why did they have to do the shippy hints? Ship is like the Ori. It messes up an episode. I don't think I would have felt it was ship if it hadn't been for the lunch scene, where Ms. Shen clearly was sending out signals that she wanted to eat alone, and Daniel just ignored it and sat down anyway. Without that, I could have viewed their interactions as just two people who respected each other's backgrounds. I did like that she mentioned his doctorates, and most importantly his role as figuring out the Stargate. It was nice to have some acknowledgement that he wasn't just hanging in limbo before he ascended. And, the conversation about the US military not living up to their agreement was good. It reminded me of the problem with letting Russians into the Stargate program that was brought up in Lockdown.

Interesting viewpoint. I personally didn't see ANY shippy bits, in fact, I thought they went out of their way to avoid it. I was looking pretty closely, too, because of the writers' tendancy IMO to shove the current female guest star at the male stars in every ep this season. But I really didn't think they were doing that here. Doesn't mean they can't add some down the line, but for once I was impressed they hadn't paired up everyone again ... it's so junior high school.

[binkpmmc]

All right, time for my weekly SG-1 ranting. Honestly, I don't have too much to really say about Prodigy. I thought that seeing the team make a stand against the dangerous bugs was......oh, wait, this wasn't Prodigy, was it? No, this one was called The Scourge. Hmm. Funny, I thought that Mallozzi had already written this one once. I suppose I'll have to say something about how completely similar it was to that other episode then. Which I'm pretty sure I just did, so I'll let it go now.

SNIP, SNIP FOR THE SAKE OF SPACE.

Anyway, to sum up--good acting from everyone, good directing. Bad story idea and script. And bad, bad, bad line about Starship Troopers. I've said this before and I'll say it again here. Winking at the audience, telling us that you're aware that the story is weak, unoriginal, and derivative does not make it ok to do the weak, unoriginal, and derivative story anyway. And Old School? Come on.

That's about all I've got to say for now about Prodigy, er, The Scourge. Crystal Skull is next week. Damn! I mean Arthur's Mantle. We'll see.

WOW - great, great post golfbooy. You have hit the nail on the head again.

[ToasterOnFire]

Eh, it was a good filler episode but nothing spectacular. I'd rate it somewhere between OTG and Ethon.

-It did have some nice character and team scenes. Sam had some great moments with Woolsey. Mitch and Teal'c got to gab while walking through the forest. The whole team got together (offscreen) to watch a big-screen butchering of Heinlein's novel. I'm still getting the feeling that Daniel and Mitch aren't completely buddy-buddy though, and I don't know if this is intentional by TPTB and leading to something or my own interpretation.

-I liked the Chinese delegate and would like to see more of her. Hopefully her vague comments about the stargate are meant for foreshadowing and not simple philosophizing. While I didn't see her scenes with Daniel as overly shippy I wouldn't mind if something did develop in later episodes.

-Dr. Lee appears to be filling a niche that Zelenka fills on Atlantis - the on-base scientist who gets to explain things to people who are not on away teams and/or in command. It worked for Zelenka's character so I imagine it will be beneficial for Lee as well.

-Two weeks in a row where the Odyssey has to save SG1's butt. Hopefully things will be different next week.

[DEM]

Dr. Lee appears to be filling a niche that Zelenka fills on Atlantis - the on-base scientist who gets to explain things to people who are not on away teams and/or in command. It worked for Zelenka's character so I imagine it will be beneficial for Lee as well.

I just started watching Atlantis this season, and I haven't all of those eps even. However, I do remember a Zelenka scene of the sort you're talking about here, and I seem to recall that Zelenka explained what he understood about a problem to Weir (?) but then said that he couldn't fix the problem and referred her to the more appropriate personnel. I know I could be wrong about that, or that could have been an exception to the rule. In any case, I would be cool with Lee explaining -- at an appropriate level of detail -- problems to the non-scientists; it's the ability to fix all of those problems that I dislike. This guy has been involved in archeological, all manner of engineering, and now zoological projects! Seriously, when I first blew through my rapidly-purchased S1-8 DVDs, the 2nd or 3rd time I saw Lee, I thought I was confusing him with some other character because he was doing a task that was FAR removed in discipline from what he had done previously.

In the end, I prefer it when the SGC is portrayed as having more personnel rather than fewer, and human characters rather than multifunction hand tools.

Just watched the ep again (tho I missed Act II), and here are more thoughts:

1) Great moment when Daniel 'translated' Carter's line about the bugs tracking their prey. Unlike Ripple Effect (i think) and possibly 1 other ep, there was no ambiguous sidelong glance or squinching of face; rather he offered a matter-of-fact 'assist' for the 'regular folk'. Nice work on MS's part.

2) Amanda Tapping rocked the house, especially in the latter scenes where she was afforded room to move. Great work.

3) Liked Tomita and would welcome seeing her again.

4) Why did the visitors (Woolsey & LaPierre) look up when they were beamed aboard the Odyssey {ugh}? Isn't transport instantaneous?

[keppiezbt]

random info....i bet the guy who played the french ambassador in Belize....we were hanging out, drinking, smoke a jibber...

the guy was into pink speedos waaaaay too much but he was pretty cool...hitting on these girl i meet lol... then again i thought his door swung the other way...wink wink

[Fargater]

If you knew that Mitchell getting eaten by the bugs would guarantee Jack returning in his spot, would you wish that upon him? Something I just thought of, and sadly, yes I would wish it.

Sadly, yes I too would wish it.

[phillipjfry]

Just one thing I didn't like about this episode. You figured they could have actually picked some one who can speak chinese to be the chinese representative. I think Daniel Jackson's chinese is better than that girl's.

[LMichelle]

I wasn't sure if I was watching Stargate or one of the weekend movies The Scifi Channel foists upon us. Killer bugs? Oh, that's original. I'm not a big fan of bugs and have sort of an aversion to them. Okay, it's a full-blown phobia. Yet, I realize these are computer generated bugs, so the fear is very much quelled.

I was reading a book during commercials, but I'm still up for making making snarky comments/observations.

So this is yet another thing to blame on the Ori? I don't know. I'm just having a hard time seeing them making these super bugs to kill planets of people. Perhaps they're controlled by the Priors. He raises his staff and the bugs do his bidding.

Yes, SG-1 did seem like glorified babysitters, but every mission can't be a life and death struggle, Mitchell. Okay, so this one was. I guess he's happy now. Well, not really. He's still gotta find an apartment for Teal'c.

Daniel seemed drawn to Dr. Chen. He does have a thing for dark-haired beauties, doesn't he? However, she didn't seem interested in his company at lunch. Daniel just got himself a plate and sat right down next to her. Was it me or did Chen's voice seem smiliar to Vala's? Yes, my ship rules my life. Oh, like yours doesn't.

I love that the team has movie nights. *team squee* I'm sure there's a creative soul out there who could do a fic about them watching Starship Troopers. That would be a great fic if done well, wouldn't it?
I think it would be great to see an ep like that. Just seeing them do everyday things. I'd love to see them staying on the base doing paperwork. Hee.

Lisa Michelle

[Mattathias2.0]

Overall... Great episode.

I didn't mind the Prior or Lucian references... It shows 1) that the Ori aren't sitting on their ascended butts in regards to Priors in our galaxy, and 2) shows the Lucian Alliance is causing trouble... Overall, nice plot and subplot.

I enjoy the Chinese delegate. I didn't mind the shipping between them (seeing as Daniel is not a eunuch), but depends on where this may lead as to if I'd enjoy seeing more of her.

I also enjoyed her little speeches... I would hope that her ideas come to pass... because the Ori is a threat the US shouldn't hold off by themselves. I hope something happens in regards to this.

I loved the Carter/Woolsey and Cam/Teal'c conversations, esp. Carters mention of how he occationally meets up with an opportunity, and Teal'cs mention of his apartment back in Affinity.

Since Collateral Damage I have noticed they have been acting more and more like a team, and have enjoyed the episodes more and more lately, except for OTG, because of Cam's "Renegade" actions...

I hope to see another Gamma Site in the future, as well as a Delta or Omega Site.

This was a good episode.

Mattathias

[freyr's mother]

I dont know if I'm alone on this one, but I thought The Scourge was lacking in every category of rating. I am trying to figure out why it was such a bad ep but have come up with nothing. Did anyone notice anything that could explain why the episode was so horrible?

[Deejay435]

It wasn't the conversation. And, I agree that he would want to get everyone together on the Stargate program. But, it was the pushy, "Okay, don't mind if I do!" thing that just seemed wrong. She didn't have the air of someone who needed company, and she seemed like she wanted some time by herself to go over her notes, and he just invites himself there. I just got a "ooh, pretty and smart girlie that I wanna sit by and maybe we can hold hands later" vibe. Maybe if he had just asked to sit there, and she had been more open and they immediately started in on the conversation, or if they had all been sitting at the same table and started talking it wouldn't have come off that way to me.

That's not the vibe I got at all. I got more of a "Hmmm. Of all the delegates, she's the one we really have to worry about, she's the dangerous one. Can't have her sitting alone and stewing" vibe. After all, he had already told Cameron that the tour was actually about the Chinese, and not the IOA as a whole.

[The_Fonz_Solo]

Meh, I thought it was ok, far from great but still entertaining, but thats beside the point, in answer to your question I think you hated it because they didnt actually solve the problem cleverly or something like that they just got beamed off the planet then released a gas, a little lack luster of an ending but what are you gonna do, if this was real, and I'm well aware that its not, they probably would solve a lot of problems like that, so lets all solute it for keeping it real, haha just kidding. Still even though the ending was lack luster I kind of liked that they were just kind of like screw it lets just clear the Planet, but I didnt like that they had a name for that plan already that seemed kind of out of place. Whatever now im just rambling
.