Stargate: SG-1 9.16: "Off the Grid"
Written by Alan McCullough
Directed by Peter DeLuise
In which SG-1 is caught offworld when the planet’s stargate disappears without warning, but when SGC investigates, the truth points to a scheme to carve out a new network…
To a certain extent, I like the basic idea at the heart of this episode. Even setting the Jaffa Nation aside, there are a number of issues still remaining in the wake of the defeat of the System Lords. In a way, it reminds me of the primary concept for the Star Wars Extended Universe novels before the New Jedi Order. A lot of the books were devoted to the idea of various powers trying to fill the gaps left by the Empire, including several of the remaining admirals. And of course, that meant trying to rebuild the Empire and prevent the success of the Rebellion from spreading.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers were rather familiar with those books (they were rather popular), since a number of the same ideas are being explored in this season. There’s the emerging new threat, the criminals taking control of Goa’uld resources, Baal trying to carve out a new empire of his own (using clones in the process), and the Tau’ri trying to hold it all together and keep the idea of self-determination viable.
Like those novels, however, the quality of each tale can be highly variable. And of course, different fans have different preferences. I took a bit of slack because I didn’t find the previous episode all that interesting. Well, that’s personal preference. I also thought that this episode was hit or miss, scene by scene, and it didn’t really come together for me until the final act or so.
The first half of the episode, dealing with SG-1 running up against the Lucian Alliance, wasn’t quite as interesting as it could have been. As much as I like the idea of rogue humans taking control of System Lord resources and creating a galactic crime syndicate in the process, the implementation of that idea is not always as good as it could be. Sure, it’s fun to have Amanda Tapping in a leather corset top, but it doesn’t cover up mediocre events.
Far more interesting was the idea of Baal stealing stargates to create his own independent network. That’s actually not something I had thought of, but it makes perfect sense. But I was a little put off at the idea that Baal would only be trying this using one group of clones. Obviously, I don’t believe that Baal is gone for good after this episode, since there are several of his clones out there. But did he only have one ship with an Asgard transport device? Seems like it would work better if he had a few parallel efforts to steal gates and set up isolated networks that he could bring online and then link together.
I also felt that the quick introduction of the Odyssey takes some of the thunder from the previous episode. I liked the idea of a relatively self-contained situation having a huge impact on the SGC’s overall operations, but that’s completely undercut by the fact that a much more powerful ship is ready to go online in the very next episode!
Nerus was also a bit annoying. Or rather, Landry’s version of trying to convince Nerus to explain what Baal was doing with the gates. While I understand that the goal was getting Nerus to ingest the locator beacon, it felt like Landry gave Nerus his feast a little too quickly. It’s a minor thing, but it also didn’t give me the feeling that Landry was quite as clever as the writers wanted him to seem.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 7/10
Directed by Peter DeLuise
In which SG-1 is caught offworld when the planet’s stargate disappears without warning, but when SGC investigates, the truth points to a scheme to carve out a new network…
To a certain extent, I like the basic idea at the heart of this episode. Even setting the Jaffa Nation aside, there are a number of issues still remaining in the wake of the defeat of the System Lords. In a way, it reminds me of the primary concept for the Star Wars Extended Universe novels before the New Jedi Order. A lot of the books were devoted to the idea of various powers trying to fill the gaps left by the Empire, including several of the remaining admirals. And of course, that meant trying to rebuild the Empire and prevent the success of the Rebellion from spreading.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers were rather familiar with those books (they were rather popular), since a number of the same ideas are being explored in this season. There’s the emerging new threat, the criminals taking control of Goa’uld resources, Baal trying to carve out a new empire of his own (using clones in the process), and the Tau’ri trying to hold it all together and keep the idea of self-determination viable.
Like those novels, however, the quality of each tale can be highly variable. And of course, different fans have different preferences. I took a bit of slack because I didn’t find the previous episode all that interesting. Well, that’s personal preference. I also thought that this episode was hit or miss, scene by scene, and it didn’t really come together for me until the final act or so.
The first half of the episode, dealing with SG-1 running up against the Lucian Alliance, wasn’t quite as interesting as it could have been. As much as I like the idea of rogue humans taking control of System Lord resources and creating a galactic crime syndicate in the process, the implementation of that idea is not always as good as it could be. Sure, it’s fun to have Amanda Tapping in a leather corset top, but it doesn’t cover up mediocre events.
Far more interesting was the idea of Baal stealing stargates to create his own independent network. That’s actually not something I had thought of, but it makes perfect sense. But I was a little put off at the idea that Baal would only be trying this using one group of clones. Obviously, I don’t believe that Baal is gone for good after this episode, since there are several of his clones out there. But did he only have one ship with an Asgard transport device? Seems like it would work better if he had a few parallel efforts to steal gates and set up isolated networks that he could bring online and then link together.
I also felt that the quick introduction of the Odyssey takes some of the thunder from the previous episode. I liked the idea of a relatively self-contained situation having a huge impact on the SGC’s overall operations, but that’s completely undercut by the fact that a much more powerful ship is ready to go online in the very next episode!
Nerus was also a bit annoying. Or rather, Landry’s version of trying to convince Nerus to explain what Baal was doing with the gates. While I understand that the goal was getting Nerus to ingest the locator beacon, it felt like Landry gave Nerus his feast a little too quickly. It’s a minor thing, but it also didn’t give me the feeling that Landry was quite as clever as the writers wanted him to seem.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 7/10
posted by John Keegan | 11:12
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