Stargate SG-1: Singularity

October 30, 2024 9:24 AM - Season 1, Episode 14

SG-1 travels to planet P8X987. On the spot, SG-1 realises that a strange evil has decimated the civilisation that inhabits the area. All the inhabitants are gone except a little girl called Cassandra. Sam returns to Earth with Cassandra.

SG-1 arrives on the planet Hanka and learns that everyone, natives and Stargate Command personnel alike, has died from a mysterious disease. They find Cassandra, the lone survivor, and take her back to Earth. They soon discover, though, that she has had a bomb planted inside of her, set to blow in a matter of hours, and removing it is impossible.

posted by Carillon (6 comments total)

There's a lot to like in this episode. The depths the Gou'ald will go, the lack of any actual procedure for bringing people through the Stargate, Jack trying to explain to Teal'c what a black hole is. But the heart is really Sam and Cassandra. I did love how that relationship did feel natural. It was certainly effective and affecting. Hammond got a good line that really helps you understand his character, about the decision being easy, but the consequences are hard.
posted by Carillon at 9:28 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]

A breath of fresh air after last week's episode. The knee jerk reaction whenever a show centers a significant portion of time around a child character was mostly unnecessary, too. The actress who played Cassandra did just fine.

I always thought it was a weird turn to build this really big relationship between Carter and Cassandra, only to toss it off to Dr. Frazier at the end. They explain why in the episode, itself, but clearly, they wanted the emotional attachment in the episode, but not for the series. I do appreciate, and I can't remember if I appreciate how they did it, that they bring Cassandra back in a future episode. While the mythical Cassandra predicted ruin, this Cassandra is the Goa'uld attempt to incur ruination. I agree that this is a great episode of not just showing the depravity the Goa'uld are capable of, but also that they are starting to recognize that the humans on Earth are something more than a mere nuisance.

This is my second favorite SG-1 episode featuring a black hole, fwiw.
posted by Atreides at 11:55 AM on October 30 [1 favorite]

I love the line reading of Toronto at the end too.

What's your first?
posted by Carillon at 1:23 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

"they don't have swings in Toronto..."

Due to American ignorance of Canada, that really is the perfect cover for Cassandra saying weird things.

My favorite black hole episode is "A Matter of Time" which is next season.
posted by Atreides at 2:21 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

I like this one too. It has the first convincing scenes of the team bonding.
posted by janell at 9:40 PM on October 30 [1 favorite]

Agreed this is a pretty good episode. It has the common failings of all TVfrom the late episodic period*. They want to do character development and show their characters as more than two-dimensional props, but they can't see beyond the scope of a single hourlong episode. So they have to seriously rush the process of Carter bonding with this girl to the point where she would rather die with her than leave her to die alone. And then she must immediately forget all about her. (I'm assuming we'll never see Cassandra again, so it's basically the same problem we had with the episode about Jack's wife and alien replacement son.)

Within its own limits, it's well done. The girl playing Cassandra does a good job. And Tapping does a fine job of selling Carter's attachment to her, given the aformentioned limitations. So good episode, and I guess you just have to not notice how contained everything is the way you don't notice the strings in the puppet show.

* But note this is more or less contemporary with Deep Space 9, which was doing amazing long form storytelling in science fiction TV.
posted by Naberius at 5:38 PM on October 31