The Serpent's Venom (414)

[Krisz]

Not enough story and too much torture.

When I watched this episode on its first airing I wondered why it focused on this so much. We knew Teal'c would never yield to it, so just having menacing Goa'uld approach Teal'c with pain stick would have been enough. Then followed up later with the scene of Rak'nor giving him some water later and wondering how he didn't give in. Frying the Goa'uld with the pain stick was a satisfying moment though!!!

I was impressed with Jack's flying skills, matching the ship's movement to the mines' movements. Interesting how his jet flying skills translated to an alien spaceship! As far as I recall we've never seen him fly a cargo ship before, and when would he have had the opportunity to learn since Earth didn't have access to one? Chalk it down to assuming he did and it made for a fun scene to see him fly the cargo ship.

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

A great ep. I really liked the torture scenes. Teal'c really shows us how strong he is here.

Really like Apophis' mothership. He sure does sacrifice a lot of his ha'tak to escape the mines.

[Jae'a]

My LiveJournal post

I loved this ep too. Poor Teal'c...
Jacob's headset thingie reminded me of the thing they use on Deep Space Nine to shoot someone in another room, through walls.

And Jacob, next time you take a vacation, don't go to the SGC - something's bound to happen!

[Matt G]

Yeah, forgot how it was a while before Bra'tac showed up again.

[SG3Marine]

I liked the episode. While it was light on story it did plant the seeds for later episodes. The stuff about the Jaffa rebellion and Rak'nor comes up later. I didn't think the torture scenes were too much. And the humor in the mine reprogramming scenes were classic! lol

[jelgate]

This episode has a little bit of everything which is why its such a good episode. It ends Her'ur as an enemy and really answers the question of what Apophis is up. Quite interesting stuff that is obviously set up for the season finale (a great episode too). Teal'c being tortured is hardly a rare thing in SG1. In fact it happens quite often. The reason this torture works is because his interaction with Raknor. Seeing his Teal'c conviction and why he won't yield while not surprising is quite moving. I have a problem with the mine field story. Not so much with reprgramming the mine and the danger it presents but the solution troubles me. It makes no sense to how a 0 in a number system reflects the counting in reprograming the mine. The grim resolution is so bone chilling I wish it was in SG1 more

[Dimes]

Alright episode :- )

[Major Clanger]

why didn't they just take a mine from the edge of the field and stay cloaked and out of the way?

cute conversation about the significance of zero and I had totally forgotten that scene in the lift (archaeeology.com! pushing daniel's glasses up his nose)

not bad ep

[Falcon Horus]

Random note: on the back of my DVD-box it says the name of the episode is Serpent's Venom, which is what I thought it really was until the title screen says The Serpent's Venom. Odd. *shrug*

Anyway, it's an episode in which you have suck in breath every few minutes when you think they're goners when they are tinkering with the mine, and Daniel's comments about what to touch, and when to touch it. Or what not to touch.

Some fancy flying from Jacob. Jack gets to do something useful. And Teal'c has to endure a little torture on the side. That goa'uld was seting himself up for failure - I almost felt sorry for him.

[enibas5]

Have no idea, why the writers had to overdo the torturing so much.
It just was not necessary to repeat that over and over again. I generally dislike the eps when Teal'c gets tortured. The sequences last always way too long and get shown too often. You don't need that as a viewer to get the idea.

It were really always the Teal'c torturing eps. that took away the chance for the show to be a good quality family show. You cannot have your Kids watching that kind of stuff over and over again within one episode.

Otherwise the ep. had good humour and interacting among the other characters. Too bad it got spoiled by that torturing crap.

[Falcon Horus]

I doubt SG1 was ever a family show to begin with. I mean, considering the amount of nudity in the pilot, which makes half the American audience hide behind the couch.

[enibas5]

Yes, but it went towards a totally different direction afterwards, stressed by the fact, that they also did a new director's cut for the pilot in 2008/2009 because the pilot stood out as completely incoherent with a rest of the series. Doing the new director's cut, all the nudity was cut out.

And maybe "Family Show" was a wrong choice of words. It is my impression that the overdone torturing just does not fit the whole concept of the show, regardless of it was to be a family show or not.

[Anja]

I think the torture scenes remind the audience of the true nature of people listening to their superiors without questioning - Goa'uld and Jaffa. Nice when O'Neill pulls Carter out from underneath the bomb.

[Science]

This made no sense at all - them having to keep the shuttle moving at the same speed and trajectory as the mine/bomb they brought on board. The speed and direction of the mine while it is inside the shuttle is not relative to the outside speed and movement. You can throw a ball up in a car while it's moving and it isn't effected by the outside movement. It would be the same with the mine. Not that you would toss a mine about while you're in a shuttle, but that the mine itself would have continued to move at it's own pace regardless of the position and velocity of the shuttle.

As technical as this show is, it baffles me that they didn't explain this well enough. The only way it could be possible is if one central location was used to reference and control the positions of the mines and that the propulsion was induced from a distance. If that were the case then wouldn't they have explained that, and perhaps done something from that central location instead of altering a singular mine?

[maneth]

The mines had inertial engines, meaning that gravity and acceleration (including the acceleration of a ship around them) had no effect on how they moved. Acceleration as in any change in speed or direction, not an increase in speed.

I thought Jacob/Selmak explained that well enough in the mission briefing. The mines were also programmed to move about randomly in the minefield, which is why Selmak and O'Neill had to keep pace with the mine.

I agree that the message about Teal'c not breaking under torture could have been put to the audience without showing quite so much torture.