Stargate SG-1: Thor's Hammer
September 25, 2024 9:20 AM - Season 1, Episode 9 - Subscribe
SG-1 goes to the planet Cimmeria in search of allies against the Goa'uld. Upon arrival, Jack and Teal'c are trapped in a labyrinth, where the only exit is through Thor's Hammer, a device to destroy Goa'uld, but preserve the host. Daniel Jackson must destroy the device that could someday have saved his wife in order to free his friends.
Whilst exploring Cimmeria, Teal'c and Colonel Jack O'Neill are transported to a Labyrinth where any Goa'uld will die if they try to escape, leaving the host free. The two nevertheless attempt to find a way out, but are found by an unwanted visitor who will stop at nothing in killing them as it attempts to escape. Meanwhile, Captain Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson use Kendra, a former Goa'uld host, to guide them to the Labyrinth.
Whilst exploring Cimmeria, Teal'c and Colonel Jack O'Neill are transported to a Labyrinth where any Goa'uld will die if they try to escape, leaving the host free. The two nevertheless attempt to find a way out, but are found by an unwanted visitor who will stop at nothing in killing them as it attempts to escape. Meanwhile, Captain Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson use Kendra, a former Goa'uld host, to guide them to the Labyrinth.
This is one of my favorite first season episodes. One, the ASGARD. Yay!
Second, I loved the introduction of the Unus (is one just an Unum?), which well, could indicate why the Goa'uld have a preference for human hosts - but also, is a neat historical fact. Incidentally, since the Unus recognized Teal'c as a Jaffa, I suppose that Goa'uld was at some intersection of "we found humans for slaves, but hey...still considering them for hosts?" stage? There is also something satisfying about a primitive weapon that flings pieces of metal at objects at high rates of speed surprising an alien from an advanced civilization. Thanks to IMDB, I just discovered that James Earl Jones did the voice!
Third, I always just like saying, "Gone a'viking!"
One thing I appreciated was allowing Daniel to be the one who blew up the anti-Goa'uld device. Probably if this happened today, the writers would purposefully stroke the tension between Jack and Daniel by making it happen against Daniel's will. I like my team working together, not pushing each other apart.
posted by Atreides at 9:46 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]
Second, I loved the introduction of the Unus (is one just an Unum?), which well, could indicate why the Goa'uld have a preference for human hosts - but also, is a neat historical fact. Incidentally, since the Unus recognized Teal'c as a Jaffa, I suppose that Goa'uld was at some intersection of "we found humans for slaves, but hey...still considering them for hosts?" stage? There is also something satisfying about a primitive weapon that flings pieces of metal at objects at high rates of speed surprising an alien from an advanced civilization. Thanks to IMDB, I just discovered that James Earl Jones did the voice!
Third, I always just like saying, "Gone a'viking!"
One thing I appreciated was allowing Daniel to be the one who blew up the anti-Goa'uld device. Probably if this happened today, the writers would purposefully stroke the tension between Jack and Daniel by making it happen against Daniel's will. I like my team working together, not pushing each other apart.
posted by Atreides at 9:46 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]
Unus are way more scary than Gedd that's for sure, when thinking about first races for infestation.
posted by Carillon at 11:22 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 11:22 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]
yeah but why not spend an hour looking for an override button or something on the outside, to avoid ruining this very useful tech? not very smart on the part of SG1. I already forgot (I plowed through the first half or so of S1 back when this re-watch started) whether there was some problem with Teal'c that needed immediate attention, but all the humans could pass through the aperture just fine to tend to him.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 6:05 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 6:05 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
Enjoyable enough episode, I guess, though I don't know if I can muster your enthusiasm for it, Atreides.
I noticed that there's not a lot actually happening in this episode. Daniel comes up with some random, what if there are good guys out there idea, which granted, isn't a bad one. And out of nowhere, Teal'c is like, oh, you should go here. They made all of us memorize the phone number. And they're off.
Then Teal'c and Jack get zapped into the cave, where they walk around a lot, dodging James Earl Jones, while Daniel and Carter walk through the world with the ex goa'uld woman. Shoot James Earl Jones some more, walk the other direction through the cave set. Carter doesn't trust their guide for no particular reason beyond hitting their runtime.
James Earl Jones is back again. Saying nothing particularly important beyond "I will eat you!" And then Daniel and Carter and ex-Goa'uld do get there, just in time to serve no purpose at all. (If they'd just gone, "damn, Jack and Teal'c are dead," headed home through the Stargate, and gotten good and drunk, you'd have the same story except Jack would be the one to zap the hole in the wall.) The whole thing could have been wrapped up in 15 minutes if they didn't have to fill an hour.
I did like the water distribution thing where they Carter threw her hissy fit. I'm pretty sure that scene exists because they found a cool location for it. What the heck is that thing anyway?
I don't know. I was more interested in the part where the woman in charge says her husband is off a viking, but that turns out to mean "going to the towns to look for work." I wanted to know more about that. What's in the towns? But I know they don't have the budget for that. They spent most of this episode's money on the Unas suit and an hour and a half of James Earl Jones's time.
And if he was the voice, who, I wondered, was in the suit. It would have been hilarious if it was David Prowse, like Jones has a clause in his contracts that says if he's just doing a voice, then Prowse has to be in the suit. But no, according to imdb, it's someone named Vincent Hammond, for whom this is pretty much his stock in trade. His credits tend not to have names (Werewolf, Huge Alien, Mutant Suitor) or if they do have names, they're just random syllables thrown together (Kothoga, Koltok, Megwan).
Overall, not a bad episode, but it felt kind of half-baked to me.
posted by Naberius at 8:16 AM on September 29 [2 favorites]
I noticed that there's not a lot actually happening in this episode. Daniel comes up with some random, what if there are good guys out there idea, which granted, isn't a bad one. And out of nowhere, Teal'c is like, oh, you should go here. They made all of us memorize the phone number. And they're off.
Then Teal'c and Jack get zapped into the cave, where they walk around a lot, dodging James Earl Jones, while Daniel and Carter walk through the world with the ex goa'uld woman. Shoot James Earl Jones some more, walk the other direction through the cave set. Carter doesn't trust their guide for no particular reason beyond hitting their runtime.
James Earl Jones is back again. Saying nothing particularly important beyond "I will eat you!" And then Daniel and Carter and ex-Goa'uld do get there, just in time to serve no purpose at all. (If they'd just gone, "damn, Jack and Teal'c are dead," headed home through the Stargate, and gotten good and drunk, you'd have the same story except Jack would be the one to zap the hole in the wall.) The whole thing could have been wrapped up in 15 minutes if they didn't have to fill an hour.
I did like the water distribution thing where they Carter threw her hissy fit. I'm pretty sure that scene exists because they found a cool location for it. What the heck is that thing anyway?
I don't know. I was more interested in the part where the woman in charge says her husband is off a viking, but that turns out to mean "going to the towns to look for work." I wanted to know more about that. What's in the towns? But I know they don't have the budget for that. They spent most of this episode's money on the Unas suit and an hour and a half of James Earl Jones's time.
And if he was the voice, who, I wondered, was in the suit. It would have been hilarious if it was David Prowse, like Jones has a clause in his contracts that says if he's just doing a voice, then Prowse has to be in the suit. But no, according to imdb, it's someone named Vincent Hammond, for whom this is pretty much his stock in trade. His credits tend not to have names (Werewolf, Huge Alien, Mutant Suitor) or if they do have names, they're just random syllables thrown together (Kothoga, Koltok, Megwan).
Overall, not a bad episode, but it felt kind of half-baked to me.
posted by Naberius at 8:16 AM on September 29 [2 favorites]
Those are all valid criticisms. I think a big part of my excitement is just we finally (oh no, seven episodes into the entire show) start talking about the Asgard, who I've always appreciated as elements of the show. I definitely would have liked to have seen more of the viking society, too. It was a mythology building episode, which I'm also a sucker for those types of episodes.
posted by Atreides at 7:22 AM on September 30
posted by Atreides at 7:22 AM on September 30
Ah so they're laying pipe for these Norse god types being around as enemies of the goa'uld as a longer term thing? Okay, that's cool.
posted by Naberius at 10:55 AM on September 30 [1 favorite]
posted by Naberius at 10:55 AM on September 30 [1 favorite]
I want to say they make their appearance by the season 1 finale, I could be wrong.
posted by Atreides at 12:36 PM on September 30
posted by Atreides at 12:36 PM on September 30
I think it's not until season 2 when we actually fully meet them?
posted by Carillon at 1:23 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 1:23 PM on October 1 [1 favorite]
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Ruax was suitably creepy, good work too with the fake out for the team. Dramatic irony there helping amp the tension.
posted by Carillon at 9:25 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]