Stargate: SG-1 10.9: "Company of Thieves"
Written by Alan McCullough
Directed by William Waring
Enjoyment of this episode will depend greatly upon one’s opinion of the Lucien Alliance. Conceived as a wild card in galactic politics in the wake of the defeat of the System Lords, the Lucien Alliance is essentially the Space Mafia. They have the means, motive, and opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves, and they dislike anyone getting in their way. Yet they have enough resources to be a serious threat.
All things being equal, they should be interesting. The galaxy is a dangerous place at this point. The Ori are running rampant (though in the background at the moment), the Jaffa Nation is in disarray and playing “bad ally”, the Tok’ra and Asgard are nowhere to be seen of late, and the Lucien Alliance is taking advantage on all sides. They should be imposing. Instead, they come across as goofy and generic.
Avateo, one of the prominent members of the Alliance, is played by Rudolf Martin. Previously, Martin was best known for two roles: Dracula on “Buffy” (a semi-effective guest role) and Ari on “NCIS”. As Ari, Martin played one of the more disturbing recurring characters; he was quite good at being terrifying in his competence and control. This is a very similar character, but the performance is not even close to the same level of quality. Frankly, Avateo is incredibly annoying, and the line delivery is about as bad as it gets.
Even when recurring characters are being killed off (a sure sign of a story reaching for impact, when nothing else in the story works), there’s a sloppiness to the entire production. The guest cast is terrible and the apparent threat of the Lucien Alliance is tempered by the inability to take these events seriously. For me, some of the scenes meant to be funny came across as desperate, and to a certain extent, disrespectful.
I’ve often said that the writing staff sometimes takes the audience for granted, though I’ve said it a lot more for “SGA” than “SG-1”, especially in recent seasons. I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse them of coasting in this episode, because the plot points were communicated. Earth is at war with the Lucien Alliance, so one more possible ally against the Ori is out of the question. That makes the search for the Sangraal even more important, which is logically the point of the exercise.
My issue is with the execution. The writing wasn’t particularly sharp, and some of the lines that were supposed to be imposing or humorous fell flat. The acting, especially from the guest cast, was far below the usual modest standard. The direction also didn’t help, because there was a casual nature to scenes that should have been more animated. It was just an episode with a lack of cohesiveness, and given that it featured adversaries that have been hard to take seriously, this amounts to another misfire.
(As a sidenote: I also have a podcast associated with my various reviews called “Dispatches from Tuzenor”. Recent episodes cover the “Stargate SG-1”, so it might be something of interest. Go to http://entil2001.libsyn.com if you want to listen!)
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 1/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 4/10
Directed by William Waring
Enjoyment of this episode will depend greatly upon one’s opinion of the Lucien Alliance. Conceived as a wild card in galactic politics in the wake of the defeat of the System Lords, the Lucien Alliance is essentially the Space Mafia. They have the means, motive, and opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves, and they dislike anyone getting in their way. Yet they have enough resources to be a serious threat.
All things being equal, they should be interesting. The galaxy is a dangerous place at this point. The Ori are running rampant (though in the background at the moment), the Jaffa Nation is in disarray and playing “bad ally”, the Tok’ra and Asgard are nowhere to be seen of late, and the Lucien Alliance is taking advantage on all sides. They should be imposing. Instead, they come across as goofy and generic.
Avateo, one of the prominent members of the Alliance, is played by Rudolf Martin. Previously, Martin was best known for two roles: Dracula on “Buffy” (a semi-effective guest role) and Ari on “NCIS”. As Ari, Martin played one of the more disturbing recurring characters; he was quite good at being terrifying in his competence and control. This is a very similar character, but the performance is not even close to the same level of quality. Frankly, Avateo is incredibly annoying, and the line delivery is about as bad as it gets.
Even when recurring characters are being killed off (a sure sign of a story reaching for impact, when nothing else in the story works), there’s a sloppiness to the entire production. The guest cast is terrible and the apparent threat of the Lucien Alliance is tempered by the inability to take these events seriously. For me, some of the scenes meant to be funny came across as desperate, and to a certain extent, disrespectful.
I’ve often said that the writing staff sometimes takes the audience for granted, though I’ve said it a lot more for “SGA” than “SG-1”, especially in recent seasons. I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse them of coasting in this episode, because the plot points were communicated. Earth is at war with the Lucien Alliance, so one more possible ally against the Ori is out of the question. That makes the search for the Sangraal even more important, which is logically the point of the exercise.
My issue is with the execution. The writing wasn’t particularly sharp, and some of the lines that were supposed to be imposing or humorous fell flat. The acting, especially from the guest cast, was far below the usual modest standard. The direction also didn’t help, because there was a casual nature to scenes that should have been more animated. It was just an episode with a lack of cohesiveness, and given that it featured adversaries that have been hard to take seriously, this amounts to another misfire.
(As a sidenote: I also have a podcast associated with my various reviews called “Dispatches from Tuzenor”. Recent episodes cover the “Stargate SG-1”, so it might be something of interest. Go to http://entil2001.libsyn.com if you want to listen!)
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 1/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 4/10
posted by John Keegan | 18:12
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