Season 4, Episode 17 - Absolute Power
Original Air Date: January 19, 2001

In an almost magical whirlwind, Daniel is reunited with the Harsesis child, Shifu (last seen in the season 3 episode Maternal Instinct). The child teaches Daniel a lesson by giving him some Goa'uld genetic memories and launching him on a spiritual journey. Daniel soon begins to behave erratically.

>>Daniel soon begins to behave erratically.

Signally the beginning of the end for Daniel. We must be prepared for his absense from the series.

ok i didnt feel pulled in by this episode it wasnt about enough it was just about that child and daniel it so bored me.

I knew this was a dream all along!!! did u?

i thought it was a dream when the boy said 'dreams can teach' and its nothing along hte lines dainel would do, and it shoiws that anyone can be corrupted by power.

i dont care if its a dream reality or a nightmare that kid flippin bored me to death.

Be that as it may, but can you honestly say you got nothing out of the episode?

geez that kind freaks me out hes like bald an hes like nine!!!!!!!!!!!!! even hammond has more hair than him but it was a prety borin episode for quite a lot of the techincal blah blah stuff

ment kid not kind ther

Jimmy welcome aboard, if you have to fix a spelling mistake please use the EDIT button on the post in error and fix it there.

I didn't see this episode as one with alot of technical blah, the whole point of it was to make us realise the morality of having "absolute power", but I suspect my words are lost on you

I like this episod mainly because a good character (Daniel) is given the opportunity to play "the bad guy" and i think he did it very well...

What I really liked was that statement Shifu made about the only way to win is to deny it battle.

At first Daniel thought he meant the gouald but then he realized he was talking about the information within him.

I enjoyed this episode. I've been wanting to see Daniel be bad. Sometimes he's just too nice!

One question, though. Towards the end, after Daniel wakes up, Shifu says something about Daniel's dream revealing secret desires or evil (don't remember which) within. Does that refer to the evil in Daniel, or humanilty as a whole? It would be interesting to think that peaceful, tolerant Daniel's secret desire is to be an evil dictator and rule the world!

What Shifu is referring to is that the evil within his own, Shifu's, subconscious is too powerful to control, and the only way that he can stop if from controlling him is by avoiding battle with it. And basically this means to not access that knowledge. If any machine had been used to access that knowledge, then Shifu would not have been able to control it from taking him over.

What Shifu did to DJ was allow him to dream what might happen if the knowledge from Shifu's unconscious had been placed in Daniel's mind, and how he would inevitably end up controlling DJ, no matter how good his original intentions were.

I don't think that DJ was inherently evil in this episode. He was DJ trying to protect earth from the Goa'uld. The problem was that the Goa'uld knowledge inside of him was controlling him, and basically making him no better than the Goa'uld.

But here's a question. Some Tok'ra brings a Zatarc detector into the SGC, yet this provokes no reaction from either O'Neill, SC, Teal'c or Dr. Frasier. How can this be? Don't you think it would be stirring up some memories that they don't necessarily want to be remembering?

Actually I think its even simpler than that. The title says it all - absolute power (corrupts absolutely)

The knowlage isnt controlling DJ - the knowlage represent absolute power, and no matter how good a person you are, how honest your motives are, that sort of power is goint to corrupt you. I beleive we all have a DARK SIDE and a LIGHT SIDE (like Gaffa tape!) and we live somewhere between them both.

If anyone ever saw the original episode of star trek where kirk got split into two by a transporter accident you'll know what I'm getting at. Good/bad we need them both to be whole!

Anyway I liked this episdoed because it had Daniel acting out of character. I too reolised that it was a dream or something like that quite early on but I still enjoyed it.

My favorite part was when Jack was forced to shoot Daniel. I wondered at the time if Jack would be able to do that but as this is happening in Daniels head - it only goes to prove that DANIEL beleives Jack could do it!

GO Daniel.. kick some butt

I feel this was the most stilted SG1 episode to date. The only thing that lead it any credence was that Daniel had weak charachter to begin with. This episode only served to cement, in my mind, the shallowness of Daniels' charachter. Ideologues should have no authority in world affairs but thier opinions may be sought from time to time.

I guess me not liking Dr. Jackson is a sign of good acting.

Daniel received the knowledge of the Goa'uld and so could build weapons that could penetrate Goa'uld ships' shields, so if the Goa'uld know how to do this, why don't they use this type of technology to defend their planets from each other?

They would then be able to basically conquer a planet, sit back and not worry about having to defend it from rival Goa'uld.

Uh you obviously didn't understand what I was saying or something. The point is that these orbital defense platforms are better at defending AGAINST Goa'uld ships.

Well, we know that the weapons of a Goa'uld ship can't so easily penetrate the shields of another Goa'uld ship, but the weapons on the defense platforms seen in this episode could (according to Daniel).

Good point about the Goa'uld not usually caring about planets, but then again if they defend them they would be able to hold their power more easily.