The Enemy Within (102)

[Major Fischer]

Anyone else notice how.... excitable Hammond seems to be about, well, everything in this episode? Or annoyed. And Hammond also seems really cold and lacking in the basic compassion he shows later in the series.

[DownFallAngel]

Well yea. Thats because the SGC at this point in time was a major goof. It costs millions of dollars to run and they could only establish a wormhole for instantious galactic travel to one planet.

They then place Hammond, a most likely decorated general, in this position of baby sitter, and now a whole slew of choas is insueing.

[Major Fischer]

I guess it feels to me like the entire episode is painful to watch, and it's supposed to be one of the better ones in the first half of season 1. Makes you really think about what people say about Atlantis...

[Replicarter]

:| crap, im so glad they killed him off.

[zats]

Poor Kawalksi! He was cool!

What was good:

a. Plot line. They needed to show just how evil the goa'uld are--and I suppose that they couldn't go too long before killing off someone cool. (Sorry. "Heroes" still rankles.)

b. I know there was an awful lot that was done well, but to be honest, it's been a while since I've seen this one. What tends to stand out most in my mind is what I didn't like. I'm really not this negative, at least not most of the time.

What wasn't good:

a. Kawalksi. I liked him!

b. Why'd Warner do the procedure instead of Janet? My Da swears that she's one of the nurses in the OR--but I can't tell.

c. How'd they only get a husk, anyway? Was there part that remained behind that they simply didn't catch, or had the goa'uld actually integrated itself into Kawalksi's nervous system? If it's the latter, it rather throws a damper on later eps where they've successfully removed a goa'uld. It'd be a bit of bad thing of they found out that everyone they thought they'd successfully un-goa'ulded still had a snake in their heads and no one knew it.

Overall, a fine ep. Not one of my favorites, but not the worst either.

[Replicarter]

Someone gave me a bad rep because of my earlier post, saying why I still watch the show if I find it crap, I don’t, I like Stargate itself, and enjoy most episodes, but in the earlier seasons there were quite a few bad episodes (but i like stargate because i became a fan during season 4, which was one of the best seasons), and characters which I found very boring and I am glad they killed them of, I’m entitled to my opinion aren’t I?

[SeaBee]

I think that part of the problem with this episode is that in order to use the Kowalsky (sp?) character, the PTB had to agree to kill him off. (I'm sure I read something about it, somewhere). And as this was also only the second episode, the plots and characters hadn't really been properly developed.

It's very difficult for a new show to hit the ground running, and so many fail to even start walking, Space, Above and Beyond, for example. I have to admit that I didn't start watching SG-1 until the second series, I'd tried a couple of the first series, and didn't really get the point.

So the early episodes wern't the greatest. They needed a little more development and a bit more filling out, but I wouldn't call them [email protected] Just a learning process.

[greytop]

I like the way Jack tried to get Teal'c on SG-1.

[Lord Zedd]

Anyone else notice how.... excitable Hammond seems to be about, well, everything in this episode? Or annoyed. And Hammond also seems really cold and lacking in the basic compassion he shows later in the series.

yeah I noticed that too yesterdaay when I saw it again.I bought the boxset of season 1

[LMichelle]

Pretty intense storyline for the second episode of the series.

Too bad they killed off Kawalsky. I enjoyed the Jack/Kawalsky banter.

[ShimmeringStar]

Anyone else notice how.... excitable Hammond seems to be about, well, everything in this episode? Or annoyed. And Hammond also seems really cold and lacking in the basic compassion he shows later in the series.

Maybe he was happy he finally had gotten the SGC command position so he could do his part in keeping the timeline intact (in relation to S2’s 1969)???? (*laughs* and to get back his $ ‘loan’ to the team? )

[ShimmeringStar]

Too bad they killed off Kawalsky. I enjoyed the Jack/Kawalsky banter.

As for me… I liked Kawalsky too. He had more presence and humor than some of the colonels TPTB foisted on us later (Reynolds, etc.) I know it surprised me that they killed him off in the 2nd episode. But I was happy they brought him back in later eps (the GameKeeper, Point of View….), even if they were AU or VR.

[SmartFox]

Im kind of sad that Kwalsky is dead but atleast he comes back for a couple guest appearnces.

[hermajesty]

Anyone else notice how.... excitable Hammond seems to be about, well, everything in this episode? Or annoyed. And Hammond also seems really cold and lacking in the basic compassion he shows later in the series.

I noticed that too. However, i think its a good thing, it shows that there's been character development and that Hammonds experiences through the series have made him a better person.

I agree that its a shame they killed Kawalsky. He was a good character - in Children of the Gods he seemed easily as good as Sam or Teal'c or Hammond character-wise.

[GatetheWay]

I started regularly watching Stargate in season six and realized I had a lot to catch up on. So I used my family's brand new Netflix membership to rent the first season DVDs. When I saw CotG I was like "Hey cool, I remember Kawalsky from the movie! Its cool the character is in the TV show now. I wonder why I haven't seen him in earlier ep.s. He seems really likable." Boy was I surprised when they killed him off . It was one of my first SG shock moments. I really found it unfair that he only got to be alive for 3 ep.s but I'm glad they brought him back a few times since.

[Im_just_guessing]

That was 2 eps, CotG is one episode. (officially)

[PugGate]

I thought the episode was a great way to broaden our understanding of the Goa'uld

[alexia_star_2002]

Did anyone else notice that O'Neill calls Kawalsky by 2 different first names....at least what I remember...he calls him John and Charlie/Charles.

[Katerine]

A review after seeing 7 seasons, then re-watching:

Things got much calmer in later episodes. It was kind of surprising to see so many shouted orders for a simple Goa'uld attempted invasion.

So much for my first impressions; on to other things...

There was some very good Jack development in this episode. I'm not talking so much about the friendship between Jack and Kowalsky as I am talking about the first hints of Jack's strong sense of right and wrong. I loved the contrast shown between him and Kennedy. (Personally, I thought Kennedy made some good points re the proposed operation on Kowalski, but Jack and Hammond were still in the right).

Hammond, also, starts to show himself as somebody who will stand up for his people, and who has quite a lot of integrity of his own (as opposed to in CotG, where his rather senseless anger towards Daniel kind of put him in bad-guy territory for a little while). I loved the way he dressed down Kennedy in this episode.

Teal'c was the one who got the most development in this episode. I thought they did it rather well, although in retrospect it's was kind of strange to see him so stiff. I'd never realized that he's changed so much over the years. (It was also kind of strange to see him so thin...)

Even Sam had some good development - it's nice to go back to the seasons where she was a competent professional. Although she seemed a little too helpless during the hostage situation - could be because of a Goa'uld's superior strength. Or it could be because the writers hadn't given her strong martial arts skills yet. Haven't decided.

And on to the negative: I love Daniel. He's by far my favorite character. Watching him grow, intellectually, tactically, spiritually, and ethically (even when it seems that he can't possibly become any more ethical) is one of the greatest things about this show. But even I found his single-mindedness in this episode kind of... what's the word I'm looking for... annoying. I mean... Kowalsky was his friend. He should have some concern for Kowalsky for his own sake, not just because of what a successful operation could mean for Sha're!

Was kind of sad to see Kowalski go. Good man. Even if we only saw this episode, we could still tell that from his reactions to the news of what he'd done during his blackouts. Dramatic, and introduced the "take as host" threat very well. But it sacrificed a good character to do so.

Plot was ok. Had some excitement (see above re shouted orders over something that would eventually become commonplace, but at the moment is still new).

(ETA something I forgot last night): Plot had a one glaring hole, though... at one point, Daniel goes to rest, finds a dead body, and then... nothing. No mention of the body for the rest of the episode, except for one part where Jack tells Kowalsky that one person is dead. If it weren't for that, I might have thought that Daniel disposed of the body himself without telling anybody. Also, the death might have had a bit more impact if the doctor had... I don't know... a name...(/ETA)

6 of 10.

[QuiGonJohn]

It's very difficult for a new show to hit the ground running, and so many fail to even start walking, Space, Above and Beyond, for example. I have to admit that I didn't start watching SG-1 until the second series, I'd tried a couple of the first series, and didn't really get the point.

Actually, I think SG-1 hits a stride pretty quickly, especially building dynamic among the team.

I also liked Kowalsky and would have liked to see him stick around. Sure, we'd see less of him, with him having his own team. but from time to time, he could show up.