Beast of Burden (507)

[mrscopterdoc]

I liked seeing Chaka again and wonder what happens to him.

[maneth]

There seems to be a 50/50 split but I liked this episode, and there is a downbeat ending which is quite unsual, we are left thinking how far will the unas go to get their freedom.. slaughter all the humans? Or maybe Chaka could persuade the others to try and free the slaves without having to..

Indeed. An ambiguous ending that I quite enjoyed. And I must say that the Unas prosthetics are some of the best I've seen on any TV show ever.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

I absolutely love this episode. The atmosphere, the rain, the Unas, the special effects, the brilliant casting of Larry Drake, the excellent actors covered in prosthetics, the slightly medieval style to the set, the brilliant dynamic between Jack and Daniel, which for once demonstrated their respect for each other's point-of-view even when they had different opinions.

The scene with Jack and Daniel locked up is epic. It goes on for a very long time and moves through different stages, but manages to remain compelling all the way through. There is a lot going on, both in terms of on-screen, subtextually and emotionally.

The only thing that I don't like about this one is Michael Shanks' hair - what the hell is going on with it?!

RATING: 9 out of 10

[Dave2]

Maybe the Unas could take some advice from Caesar on Rise of the Planet of the Apes.... ;-)
But I don't understand something. How did Chaka get to their planet from the goa'uld/unas home planet if the stargate had not been used for "as long as anyone could remember?"
And where did all the goa'uld weapons come from?

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Maybe the Unas could take some advice from Caesar on Rise of the Planet of the Apes.... ;-)
But I don't understand something. How did Chaka get to their planet from the goa'uld/unas home planet if the stargate had not been used for "as long as anyone could remember?"

The slaver paid someone for a Stargate address, went through and kidnapped Chaka, brought him back to his planet.

And where did all the goa'uld weapons come from?

Left over from the Goa'uld and Jaffa who ruled the planet before the human uprising.

[Dave2]

I guess I missed it. If no one had come through the Chapa'ai for such a long time, so WHEN did they get Chaka, considering SG1 met him in Season 4? How did it happen? Apparently also the goa'uld had left their planet for unknown reasons a long time ago, and yet the weapons were still of an updated version and still worked normally.

The slaver paid someone for a Stargate address, went through and kidnapped Chaka, brought him back to his planet.



Left over from the Goa'uld and Jaffa who ruled the planet before the human uprising.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Did you not watch the opening sequence of the episode? Haha!

[Dave2]

Yes, but I apparently missed something.....

Did you not watch the opening sequence of the episode? Haha!

[Matt G]

Once again...I'm the first Rewatcher to catch this ep...

1. This ep sounded vaguely interesting when I first heard it but I hadn't honestly thought there was much mileage in Chaka.

2. Chaka munches the energy bar and gets whacked!

3. Was this SG1's problem? Well to be fair they thought it was going to be more straightforward than it turned out to be.

4. DAniel was a bit naive thinking the Unas were going to be pacifistic though.

OK ep.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Let's see, an episode saw evolution of all our main characters.

So the Unas go to war with some people to gain freedom, which we won't see the outcome of until Season 7 (I believe)

The Commentary:

• There were only 3 full Unas costumes(?). The extras playing Unas had a head and hands/feet.
• Some human extras were also used for Red Sky (which aired before this one).
• Martin hadn't met Dion (without his makeup) until the end of this episode (Martin hadn't seen "Fifth Man" yet). He thought Dion was an extra at first
• Originally, Daniel was going to give Chaka a gun, but changed to Zat.

Monday, The Stargate version of redshirts Russians return, with their own SG team. And Col. Chekov makes his first appearance in the series.

[Krisz]

One of the better episodes of season 5 for me. I liked the Unas storyline.

Always like the moral dilemmas Daniel and Jack end up facing and converging from different points of view. How to help the enslaved Unas but not disrupt the lives of people who have the Unas as part of their lives.

You just had to feel for Daniel when he finds out that Chaka's capture is made easier by his lure to get the Unas to come to a specific place for him to observe....ooops!

A nice villain to boo and hiss at in Burrock.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Once again...I'm the first Rewatcher to catch this ep...

I don't think so. I think LeftHandedGuitarist beat you by two weeks.

Seaboe

[Matt G]

I didn't think anyone had started Rewatching S5 before the start of December.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Hehe, I'm going at my own pace and started season 6 today

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

I'm watching 1 season per month, but when I watch, I watch multiple episodes at a time. I tend to finish early and either rewatch or do other things (clean house, for instance) for the rest of the month. And I delayed starting season 5 since I'm not very fond of it.

Seaboe