08-19: Moebius, Part 1

[Colonel Carter]

EPISODE NUMBER - 819
ORIGINAL U.S. AIR DATE - 03.18.05
STORY BY - Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie and Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
TELEPLAY BY - Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
DIRECTED BY - Peter DeLuise

SG-1 travels back in time in a daring plan to steal a piece of Ancient technology from Ra, the powerful Goa'uld who ruled in ancient Egypt.



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I was rather disappointed with this episode. It felt way too rushed and jumped scenes too quickly.

I also had some problems with technicalilties of the episode.

1. The only change that we are aware of in the past is that Ra chose to take his Stargate with him so that it didn't get buried in Egypt. Everyone, except for one person, in the alternate reality then is in a position completely believable given the Stargate never entered their lives. Hammond is still a general in the Air Force. Jack apparantly didn't commit suicide after his son's death (assuming that still all happened which it should have because his relationship with Sara and the death of his son occurred in his life before he found out about the Stargate) and it explains why he lives so far away now. He didn't commit suicide, he basically just ran away from his life.

Teal'c, obviously, isn't on earth. Daniel is in a believable position of where he might have ended up if Catherine had not come to him that one day to offer him a job with the Air Force. Clearly we see in his past that he had presented those theories which were rejected and seemed to be laughed out of the archealogical community.

Sam, however, made absolutely no sense. She joined the Air Force before she knew anything about the Stargate to my knowledge. It has been stated that her only reason for joining the Air Force was her dad, so I would assume that she joined when she was still pretty young. So technically, her character should have still been in the Air Force.

And unlike Jack and Daniel, Sam's personality was drastically different. Daniel, though perhaps a little more geeky, seemed more like he did in the movie and not as macho as he's become. :p Jack is still the same old Jack. Hammond is still the same old Hammond. Why is Sam the only one who is so drastically different? And why would she suddenly need glasses?

2. When watching the video of themselves in the ancient past, Daniel whipped off his glasses when he saw himself on screen. Okay, people wear glasses to help them see better. The fact that Daniel tends to wear them most of the time indicates that he sees better with them on. So if he was trying to get a better look at the screen, why did he take his glasses off? That would have made the screen more fuzzy to him. People who wear glasses don't expect to see something different or more clearly if they take off their glasses. That just bothered me that he did that when he was clearly doing so to try and see better.

3. How did Sam know to check for sizemec (sp?) activity to coincide with the pressing of the gate buttons on the time ship?

Those things really bothered me.

What was the deal with Daniel and Sam having to wear those ridiculous looking life preservers on Jack's boat?

Did anyone else pick up on the fact that Jack's boat was named Homer and in the episode "Beneath the Surface" when Jack's memory had been altered but he was starting to remember things, he thought Hammond's name was Homer. Could it also have been a reference to the Simpson's which I've heard the actor likes to watch?

When Teal'c put on the guard's uniform in the past, his helmet did the cool move similar to how it worked in the movie. Why didn't his snake helmet do something similar?

Was that supposed to be Ra's ship we saw at the beginning behind the Sphinx? Why was it not distinguishable like it was in the movie? It looked to me just like a regular pyramid with a few more markings.

Did we see people with the eye of Ra symbol tattooed on their foreheads in the movie?

Didn't their getting into Ra's temple and stealing the ZPM seem just a little too easy and fast?

Given that this is a completely new reality, couldn't they have given Daniel a pair of glasses that we've never seen him wear before?

Given that this is an alternate reality, Dr. Fraiser is probably still alive. It's a shame then that they could not incorporate her into the episode. Same with Kawalsky.

[Colonel Carter]

(This post is missing and can not be restored)

EDIT: This thread had several replies but as you can see by this post, they were all lost when ezboard was attacked.

[Livia Sabina]

I saw this episode for the first time today and I have to agree about the alternate Sam's characterization.

Even if she hadn't joined the Air Force, I just don't see her ending up as a doormat. Neither of the alternate Sams from 'There But For The Grace of God' or 'Point of View' joined the Air Force, but they didn't spend their lives proof-reading other people's papers.

Given the limited time between her birth and 'Children of the Gods', Sam probably enrolled at the Air Force Academy as soon as she was old enough and, in all likelihood, had her doctorate in astrophysics when she was brought into the stargate project. Her record at the Academy seems to have been exemplary and, logically, the alternate Sam would probably have displayed a similar potential and also had a stellar academic record.

Her confidence and self-esteem seem to have been very low, and while this could account for why she was allowing others to take credit for her work and staying in a tedious job, there is no reason that the absence of the stargate from her life would cause this.

As far as the glasses go, I doubt very much that our Sam would have been allowed sign up for the Air Force if she had poor eyesight, even if she used contact lenses - here in Ireland, bad vision makes you ineligible for the Air Force so I imagine it's the same in the States - so barring an accident or eye infection of some kind, I can't see why the alternate Sam would need glasses.

[John Hayward]

I'll do my best to provide whatever explanation I can come up with, assuming I can even come up with one, for some of your questions.

1. Sam was a civilian in a number of other alternate realities, and in those realities the Stargate was still there and everything, so it's possible that whatever reason she had for not joining the Air Force in the other realities explains this one's civilian-ness as well.

As far as her personality, who knows? It's an alternate reality, I'd say just about anything is possible. I personally enjoy getting to see an actor play someone totally different than what we're used to. That's why Holiday, and other episodes where character's personalities are changed, are some of my favorites.

2. Taking off his glasses might have just been for dramatic effect. Or maybe he's near-sighted... or far-sighted, whichever one means he can see things across the room but needs glasses to read the non-disclosure agreement and the file with the information on the videotape and stuff that was discovered in Egypt.

3. It might have been on the tape, or maybe she made a lucky guess, or maybe she figured that something as powerful as the Stargate would shake a little when it was turned on, or maybe that wasn't the first thing she looked for.

The life jackets were probably the rules. I've been out on a lake before and company we rented the boat from said children under a certain age had to wear life jackets at all times. It's also possible Jack was just trying to annoy Daniel and Sam, and make their stay as unenjoyable as possible.

I don't know about the actors, but it's been noted several times that Jack himself is a fan of The Simpsons.

Maybe Teal'c didn't feel like opening the helmet incase somebody saw him and saw his Serpent Guard mark on his forehead.

I think that might have just been the pyramid, not Ra's ship, but I don't remember off the top of my head.

I seem to recall a scene from the movie where a Jaffa gets killed and we see a shot of his face for a moment. However, I don't recall whether they had the Eye of Ra on their forehead or not. It should be noted, though, that there are many discrepancies between the series and the movie.

It did seem easy and fast, but in the movie we only see something like half-a-dozen Jaffa the whole time. It makes sense to me that they could've hidden themselves in a little corner while Teal'c walked around in disguise.

I don't know about Daniel's glasses. Why would they need to be different?

Kawalsky was in Moebius, and although it's always cool to get to see characters like Kawalsky, Martouf, and Janet again, I don't see how they could have really fit her in. After all, it's not like Sam, Daniel, or Jack would've recognized her or anything, and they wouldn't have any way of knowing that they were close friends in the alternate reality.

[Livia Sabina]

Sam was a civilian in a number of other alternate realities, and in those realities the Stargate was still there and everything, so it's possible that whatever reason she had for not joining the Air Force in the other realities explains this one's civilian-ness as well.

In one of the official novels, 'City of the Gods' by Sonny Whitelaw, a flashback scene is included from 'Point of View' and the alternate Sam tells her counterpart that Jacob was actually driving the car when her mother died.

In 'The Devil You Know', Sam said that if she and her dad hadn't spoken after her mom's funeral, she would never have joined the Air Force.

Something like that might have contributed to Moebius Sam's decision not to join.

[John Hayward]

I see. And it seems that the odds were against Sam and Jacob talking, because most of the alternate realities involve Carter not joining the Air Force.

[John Hayward]

It seems to me like all the alernate reality Carter's were wearing SGC uniforms.

[John Hayward]

So does Daniel.

[Colonel Carter]

From what I remember, some of the Carters were military but all of them seemed to have some knowledge of science.

Based on the alternate realities we've seen, it seems that being a scientist is always a feature of Sam's character but the Air Force is optional.

[Colonel Carter]

My point was to contrast what you said about her being a civilian.

[Livia Sabina]

Well, even if some of them were civilians, all of the Carters from 'Ripple Effect' must have been in the field and a few of them looked up when General Landry asked for Colonel Carter.

[John Hayward]

That's true.

[Livia Sabina]

I was sad to find out that Catherine had died, but I didn't understand why Daniel was the only one of the team who went to her funeral - Catherine and Sam seemed to know each other pretty well in 'The Torment of Tantalus', but they never mentioned why Sam wasn't there.

[Colonel Carter]

Jack too, he gave her a hug when he saw her in the season 1 episode and he met her back in the film. I could understand Teal'c not being there as he didn't know her that well, but Jack and Sam should have been there.

[John Hayward]

Maybe they weren't invited. It seemed to me that there were only a few people there. Maybe they wanted to keep it kind of small, only family and close friends.