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Stargate SG-1
Episode 6.02, "Redemption - Part II"
Original Air-Date: 6.14.02
Directed by Martin Wood
Written by Robert C. Cooper
Let me start off by pointing out that I'm enjoying the look of the show in this new season. I know Sci-Fi channel may not be directly approving the budgets but they're paying MGM a bigger fee than Showtime so that's indirectly helping to increase the budget of the show. There was one of the coolest visual sequences I've seen in Stargate SG-1 in this episode involving a jumbo-jet. Anyhoo, let us move onto the review.
The episode picks up where we left off the previous week, Earth's stargate is stuck in the 'on' position and it's sucking up loads of energy from a weapon Anubis is using. Once the Stargate absorbs too much energy it'll blow, and throw the planet into a nuclear winter. The scientists are baffled as to what solution could save the planet. The lone hope seems to be Teal'c, Master Bra'tac, and his son Rya'c who are en route to the planet from where Anubis is using his weapon. Earth, however, has no knowledge of this so they're racing to try and prevent their doom.
The lecherous Dr. McKay, who is having a cute snippy showdown with Carter this entire episode, comes up with a plan to use an EMP pulse directed through the Stargate to short out the weapon. Apparently nobody seems to think that maybe the device being used isn't even susceptible to an Electromagnetic Pulse, but they go on anyway. The plan doesn't work out, and because of having to open the Iris the Earth now has only 26 hours before it goes boom.
The Jaffa dudes (Teal'c, etc.) arrive at Anubis' planetary base in a cloaked cargoship and are promptly attacked by gliders. Apparently Anubis has the technology to detect these cloaked ships, which makes you wonder when he got it since he couldn't detect the cloaked SG-1 cargoship in the season finale just 3 episodes ago. They ring down to the planet and into an ambush but manage to fight their way past. Teal'c and Bra'tac leave a slightly wounded Rya'c behind and are captured trying to sneak in and destroy the super-weapon.
Meanwhile, Stargate Command tries to figure out a way to save the planet and it falls to newcomer Parker.Errr I mean Jonas Quinn, who plants the solution into Carter's head by asking how the Stargate got into the mountain. They realize that the Stargate could be removed and exploded in space, then the planet would be kosher. Lucky for them the X-302, while not being able to hyperspace, certainly reaches orbit easily enough. The Stargate happens to weigh 64,000 pounds so she's a big boned gal. Colonel O'Neill is going to pilot the X-302 solo and dump the gate in space.
Here is where we get possibly the coolest visual sequence I've seen on Stargate. One of the techies at Area 51, where the X-302 is kept tells Colonel O'Neill that it's been stripped down because they needed to lower the weight, some of the systems gone include weapons and oh yeah, landing gear. Jack's gonna have to eject out of the thing out over the ocean on his way back. To conserve fuel and to enable lift-off without landing gear the X-302 is strapped to the back of a jumbo jet. We next see O'Neill in the X-302 with Air Force jets on both side of the jumbo jet. The X-302 separates from the jumbo jet and heads off to try and leave the atmosphere in an extremely cool looking sequence.
Back at Anubis' planetary base, Rya'c sneaks up to the base and views the weapon and decides to steal a glider to assault the base. My one disappointment with this episode is the way this whole sequence is shot. We're hastily cut between Jack and the X-302 and Rya'c. One minute Rya'c is looking at the base, the next minute he's in a glider shooting the guards transporting Teal'c and Master Bra'tac. Rya'c begins to attack the weapon but it's shielded and other gliders are attacking as well.
Meanwhile Jack tries to get the X-302 into orbit but the craft is too overweight, he fires the main rocket engine a tad early as the engines die and the ship comes up slightly short of achieving orbit and begins to descend back to the planet. It's here where Jack himself saves the day by proposing to use the hyperspace engine. It didn't work in the test because the safety detected an unstable hyperspace hole, but who cares where the hyperspace engine takes the X-302 just as long as the stargate is taken away from the planet before it goes ba-ba-boom.
Some equations are hastily worked out and it's determined that the hyperspace engine needs to only be active for 1 second to get the craft far enough from the planet. Jack bails out at the last possible second and the craft and stargate explode three million miles from the Earth. Let's take a moment of silence now for the stargate. Although unless I'm mistaken now we'll have the original stargate back. The original stargate was transported to an Asgard vessel and exploded over the Pacific Ocean. Since then SG-1 has been using the gate which was in Antarctica, and the Russians found the old gate in the ocean. So now we'll have the gate the Russians had. Although SGC had to pay the Russians some greenbacks, give them the plans to the X-302 and the X-303, and allow a Russian SG team.
Teal'c, Master Bra'tac, and Rya'c land in the cargo-ship and let the SGC know the super-weapon has been destroyed so they can set-up the new gate and use it without fear of a repeat performance. I think they should use the cargo-ship and go to some unpopulated planets and get some spare stargates. You know, just in case. ::smirk:: Finally Jonas Quinn is allowed onto SG-1 after Carter talks to O'Neill about him, and the alternative is allowing an unknown Russian onto the team.
A satisfying conclusion to the opening two-part premiere for season six. Although I must say this feels like more of a new juncture for the show which seems odd since season 6 is meant to be the final season. I suppose Sci-Fi channel could have asked for something along these lines to introduce people to the show. Some of the word from Executive Producer Brad Wright was that the Premiere of SG-1 last week drew the highest ratings of any show for the Sci-Fi channel's history, and that it helped boost Farscape to its highest ratings in awhile. I think that's why they picked up Stargate so I'm glad to see it's serving a purpose. You may also want to keep your eyes peeled because some news has broken about the animated spin-off of to Stargate SG-1 so I'll try to write up a brief article about it for this week.
Episode Rating: 8.5 out of 10
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