Stargate SG-1: The Broca Divide Rewatch
August 21, 2024 4:54 PM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe
The Stargate base is put in deadly peril when it is contaminated with a dangerous infection which causes its victims to become mindlessly animalistic brutes.
O'Neill and his team land on planet P3X97, which has a light and a dark side; the inhabitants of the light side are on a Bronze Age level of culture, while a kind of brutal prehistoric man lives on the dark side.
O'Neill and his team land on planet P3X97, which has a light and a dark side; the inhabitants of the light side are on a Bronze Age level of culture, while a kind of brutal prehistoric man lives on the dark side.
But the budget they spent on the Land of Light’s decor (and didn’t spend on fight-choreography in the forest-somehow-growing-in-total darkness)!
Season 1 is rough! But also: Janet! “Mr. Teal’s”.
posted by janell at 5:17 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]
Season 1 is rough! But also: Janet! “Mr. Teal’s”.
posted by janell at 5:17 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]
I've already gone ahead by quite a bit. But I could tell right away that the show was filmed in Vancouver - the forest scenes are basically my backyard growing up.
That virus thing is kinda silly when it flipped from fight to horny.
posted by porpoise at 6:01 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]
That virus thing is kinda silly when it flipped from fight to horny.
posted by porpoise at 6:01 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]
This may be one of the last times Jackson's allergies really are mentioned.
This would definitely not be the episode to show friends to win them over to how fun and enjoyable SG-1 can be as a show. It's an interesting premise and I liked how Carter immediately knew what Jackson was talking about when he brought up the Broca Divide. It almost made up for her silly cave person approach to physical attraction with O'Neil. Thankfully, this is one of the last times in my memory where her character is sexualized in any manner.
RDA basically making chimpanzee sounds as he's thrown into an isolation cell was priceless and really made no sense whatsoever. I feel like the director of the episode really didn't offer much guidance on where to take his character other than "Be angry, violent, and ape-like," and left it to the actors. Additional points for O'Neil's attempt to joke with Teal'c falling flat.
"I do not think you are well, you just told me your name is Lucy."
I think this episode, more than the last, also gets the ball rolling on expanding mission of SGC as it adopts a perspective that its mission is more than just military. Later on, we hear and see that the creation of SG teams with more scientific/research focus and it all started with this episode.
As with many of the cultures that we encounter, it's always somewhat ignored that they remained stagnant for X number of centuries since an alien picked them up and dropped them off on a different planet. I suppose one could say that the Goa'uld purposefully restricted their advancement to maintain them at their level of civilization (I think that's in the movie to a degree?) since that restrained their ability to rise up against them?
posted by Atreides at 7:13 AM on August 22
This would definitely not be the episode to show friends to win them over to how fun and enjoyable SG-1 can be as a show. It's an interesting premise and I liked how Carter immediately knew what Jackson was talking about when he brought up the Broca Divide. It almost made up for her silly cave person approach to physical attraction with O'Neil. Thankfully, this is one of the last times in my memory where her character is sexualized in any manner.
RDA basically making chimpanzee sounds as he's thrown into an isolation cell was priceless and really made no sense whatsoever. I feel like the director of the episode really didn't offer much guidance on where to take his character other than "Be angry, violent, and ape-like," and left it to the actors. Additional points for O'Neil's attempt to joke with Teal'c falling flat.
"I do not think you are well, you just told me your name is Lucy."
I think this episode, more than the last, also gets the ball rolling on expanding mission of SGC as it adopts a perspective that its mission is more than just military. Later on, we hear and see that the creation of SG teams with more scientific/research focus and it all started with this episode.
As with many of the cultures that we encounter, it's always somewhat ignored that they remained stagnant for X number of centuries since an alien picked them up and dropped them off on a different planet. I suppose one could say that the Goa'uld purposefully restricted their advancement to maintain them at their level of civilization (I think that's in the movie to a degree?) since that restrained their ability to rise up against them?
posted by Atreides at 7:13 AM on August 22
P.S. Forgot to mention, Teryl Rothery's Dr. Fraizer become a low key fave of mine starting with this episode.
posted by Atreides at 7:14 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 7:14 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
How fast did progression happen in the Bronze age? How fast would it go if one relatively small settlement was removed to somewhere else? It might even regress without some larger world to draw on for innovative steps forward, trade etc.
posted by biffa at 9:30 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 9:30 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
I do appreciate that they make the other members on the team smart, it's not just Daniel Jackson with everyone else being not smart. Carter is so great because of that too, she's never portrayed as dumb.
posted by Carillon at 10:03 AM on August 22 [3 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 10:03 AM on August 22 [3 favorites]
Definitely still fumbling for its direction. Should somebody bring back an extraterrestrial pathogen at some point, given the project's utter lack of quarantine precautions? Oh hell yes.
Should it be this one? No, not really, this one is kind of silly. And inconsistent. Everyone gets violent. Except Carter, who gets all horny. O'Neill is completely incoherent, except when he's not. And I'm not buying the whole, "virus rewrites your DNA and you immediately look completely different" business either, though that's such a hoary SF trope that I guess I can't blame them for just going with the flow.
I will say it was kind of a shame we didn't get to see how General Hammond manifested it. That might have been fun.
And I'm assuming the planet is meant to be tidally locked, which is why you have a day side and a night side? That's an awfully precise line of demarcation there. You could literally stand with one foot in the light and one in the dark, like you're straddling a state border or something. Not sure that's how that would actually work. Not to mention the unlikely survival of the forest on the permanently lightless side.
All in all, not a terrible episode, not a great one. Waiting for the show to hit its stride.
posted by Naberius at 12:10 PM on August 22 [1 favorite]
Should it be this one? No, not really, this one is kind of silly. And inconsistent. Everyone gets violent. Except Carter, who gets all horny. O'Neill is completely incoherent, except when he's not. And I'm not buying the whole, "virus rewrites your DNA and you immediately look completely different" business either, though that's such a hoary SF trope that I guess I can't blame them for just going with the flow.
I will say it was kind of a shame we didn't get to see how General Hammond manifested it. That might have been fun.
And I'm assuming the planet is meant to be tidally locked, which is why you have a day side and a night side? That's an awfully precise line of demarcation there. You could literally stand with one foot in the light and one in the dark, like you're straddling a state border or something. Not sure that's how that would actually work. Not to mention the unlikely survival of the forest on the permanently lightless side.
All in all, not a terrible episode, not a great one. Waiting for the show to hit its stride.
posted by Naberius at 12:10 PM on August 22 [1 favorite]
> how General Hammond manifested it
The owls are not what they seem.
posted by porpoise at 7:13 PM on August 22 [2 favorites]
The owls are not what they seem.
posted by porpoise at 7:13 PM on August 22 [2 favorites]
A smidge annoyed they did not try to explain the 'dark zone'. Also the core team that skip a helmet or night goggles sometimes.
posted by sammyo at 7:39 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 7:39 AM on August 28 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by Carillon at 4:58 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]