TNMC
This site’s design is only visible in a graphical browser that supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
Stargate SG-1
Episode 6.07, "Shadow Play"
Written by Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie
Directed by Martin Wood
Original Air Date: 7.26.02
Now this is the kind of quality I hope for and expect to see from Stargate. This episode pays homage to "A Beautiful Mind", and plays out a scenario dealing with schizophrenia and hallucinations. The story starts off with Kelowna making contact with the SGC. Kelowna is one of three rival nations on the planet that Jonas Quinn comes from, and is the nation he worked for and regards him as a traitor for taking naquadria (a radioactive form of naquada) and giving it to Stargate Command. Three representatives come through to negotiate with the SGC for advanced military technology.
The world Jonas came from is only at about our 1950's level of technology, and it turns out that the other two rival nations have joined forces and plan to eliminate Kelowna. So the Kelownans want some schematics to make jet aircraft so that they may win the engagements. Jonas meets up with his old Professor, Dr. Kieran, who's played by Dean Stockwell (in a great performance!) The negotiations go as expected - the SGC refuses to give military aid to the Kelownan's and they leave. Before they do, though, Dr. Kieran drops a bombshell on Jonas. The naquadria bomb is ready and the Kelownan's will use it. Not only that but Kieran's in the resistance and plans a coup to stop the government from using the bomb! Oh my!
Jonas begins to sort through his loyalty to the Stargate program and the nation that he grew up in. He's later pressed into service by the President of Kelowna and asked to watch Dr. Kieran; apparently they suspect he's involved in the resistance. Dr. Kieran continues to go about his business and meet with the rebels, but he becomes increasingly and visibly erratic - a nervous wreck. SG-1 continues to meet with the President of Kelowna and his cabinet, but they only agree to give up antibiotics while the Kelownans want that military tech.
One of my favorite parts of this episode is when Jonas says that his world's three governments need to come together if they want the SGC to deal with them with this potential military technology. The Kelownans point out that the US doesn't exactly share the stargate with the rest of the planet. It's about time that gets thrown back at them. So the negotiations spiral downward and nothing is really decided other than to stop negotiating.
Dr. Kieran and Jonas go to meet the rebels, but they're pursued by a Kelownan soldier and Dr. Kieran falls about fifteen feet. This is when they really start to drop the swerve in the episode. Dr. Kieran wakes up in the SGC's medbay, and we're told that the Kelownans found him and had no idea why he was there. It turns out that Dr. Kieran is suffering from schizophrenia, which is brought on by misproper shielding while working with the naquadria. Two other scientists had suffered the effects and had been institutionalized, which is why the President asked Jonas to watch Kieran.
The rest of SG-1, minus Jonas who stays with Dr. Kieran, returns to Kelowna and finds the "rebel" warehouse. The naquadria which Dr. Kieran had snuck out is there, but none of his imaginary friends are present at the moment. We're further treated to a scene of Dr. Kieran speaking to Jonas in the medbay, but when the camera pulls back we don't see Jonas on the monitor in the medbay and know that it's a hallucinatory Jonas.
So SG-1 returns with some more naquadria and it looks like Kelowna is going to be wiped out by the rival nations or use naquadria bombs on them. Dr. Kieran stays on Earth and will be sent to some sort of institution as the damage to his brain is not reversible. Jonas tells him that he saved his world by helping them contact the rebels.
I can't say enough good things about this episode after some of the recent disappointments. Dean Stockwell gave an amazing performance in it, much better then his wasted appearance on Enterprise last year. Sure the episode borrowed from the storyline of "A Beautiful Mind", but I didn't actually realize what was truly going on until Dr. Fraser talked about Kieran being schizophrenic, and then the pieces all fell into place. The reason why Jonas couldn't catch Kieran before he fell from the steps during the chase was because it was an imaginary Jonas. Little things like that made the episode very cool, especially on a second viewing. I'm interested to see what happens to Jonas' world now. It's going to be vastly different with either Kelowna destroyed, or a very irradiated planet with naquadria bombs used.
Episode Rating: 9 out of 10
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
