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Stargate SG-1
Episode 6.05, "Nightwalkers"
Original Air-Date: 7/12/02
Directed by Peter DeLuise
Written by Paul Mullie & Joseph Mallozi
I don't much care to throw out declarations like "worst episode ever", but darn it if the taste in my mouth while trying to watch this episode doesn't make me think twice about that. The premise of this episode is nice in that it tries to keep the continuity going from previous episodes from last season when a Goa'uld symbiote had been procured by a dying businessman with Bill Gates-type scratch. The symbiote found a host and escaped only to be captured by the NID and later taken back by SG-1.
From the genetic samples of the Goa'uld symbiote the scientists were able to clone it. The symbiote was implanted and everything snowballed from there. SG-1 (minus O'Neill who's said to be with the Tok'ra) finds out about this when a scientist from the project contacts Major Carter and tells her the project is still going on. Unfortunately, he's promptly run off the road and the phone goes dead.
So Sam, Teal'c, and Jonas head to Oregon and begin to investigate what was going on. The townspeople aren't very informative, and neither is the sheriff. This leads to a sweep of the scientist's home where they receive a package that the scientist sent to himself, apparently to escape it being taken from his ransacked home. The item in the package is a syringe filled with an unknown liquid. So far SG-1 hasn't managed to find out anything worth squat so they hit the diner.
We get the required 'show-down' with local-folk talkin' to the 'big-city' folk. "You in my seat boy." That type of thing. SG-1 decides to investigate the facility where the scientist worked and when night comes they discover quite a few town folk heading to the docks and manage to discover a partially completed Goa'uld ship which the townies are building.
Sam goes to work on decrypting one of the missing scientist's computer disks, while Jonas and Teal'c continue to watch the docks. Along the way they manage to discover that apparently the NID has knowledge of this town and have two agents in the town. But Sam is taken by the Goa'uld townies and implanted with a symbiote while Jonas and Teal'c are captured as well.
Sam interrogates the captured Jonas & Teal'c under the watch of her 'fellow' Goa'uld. She smacks the smirk off of Jonas' face, which is good for my one enjoyable moment of this episode. One of the agents is implanted with a symbiote and sent off to meet the incoming team planning to secure the city. We go back to where Teal'c & Jonas were held and everyone in the room is disabled, except Carter. It turns out Carter wasn't a Goa'uld after all. In one of the lamest explanations she says she figured out the vial must contain some type of counter-agent and took it when the other Goa'uld were approaching figuring she had nothing to lose. Guess she just figured that out of the blue. Blah.
Carter goes to meet the incoming team and manages to zap the Goa'uld agent with a zat gun. The whole town is cured by duplicating the serum and none of the townies remember a thing. How convenient. The reason given is that the clones of the symbiote were made with a genetic kill-switch and that serum triggered it. Double Blah. Probably the lamest thing in this episode is when the townies became Goa'uld none had that "Goa'uld" voice. They also didn't act very Goa'uld like to me, which considering they should have been the exact same Goa'uld since he was cloned, didn't come across very convincing.
Next week's episode is one of at least two this season to feature Michael Shanks back as Daniel Jackson so I'm hoping that wipes the bad taste of "Nightwalkers" out of my mouth. To say this is one of my least favorite episodes of Stargate is probably an understatement. If this is what a potential seventh season would like without Richard Dean Anderson, then I look forward to this being Stargate's final season.
Episode Rating: 5 out of 10
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