They have had the palm scanner to open/close the iris for years... it was installed in the season 2 episode 'Show and Tell'.

This might not even be necessary. It seemed apparent that Kianna was planning to harvest the Naquadah for herself and so she may have been giving false information to Ba'al, making the planet out to be worthless. It may well be that he doesn't see it worth pursuing even if she doensn't respond to his attempts to contact her.

It might be interesting, but quite frankly I think we've seen the last of the Tok'ra centered storylines and I doubt they are going to get much focus for the rest of season 7 or indeed season 8. The writers seem to be trying to let them fade into the background somewhat.

I watched it last night, and I have to agree with everyone else who was disappointed that the goa'uld died. She clearly had aspirations of greatness ("So much for my empire"), but she also had feelings for Jonas. We have seen goa'uld love before -- Osiris wants his queen and obviously had a reputation for being a little whipped by the little woman, and Apophis cries out for Amonet (sp) on his death bed. Even Kianna said that she was surprised that she could have feelings for a *human*, but she doesn't say she's surprised to feel love. I would have liked to see Jonas trying have a relationship with a woman who had equal parts love for him and desire to build an empire. That would have kept him busy

I thought the Jack - Daniel interactions were a little off. I can't even put my finger on it, but most of the time I adore any scene where these two are talking to each other, and they seemed a little snippy and the scenes were a little unsatisfying. I can't believe I'm saying this about my beloved Danny-boy, but he seemed a little condescending toward Jack. Usually Jack is the father-figure / older brother in this relationship, so Daniel lecturing Jack about how diplomacy works didn't work for me.

i thoroughly enjoyed this episode.far better than grace was .it was good to see jonas again. ough i would've liked to have seen more of that go'auld. she asn't so bad as some. had interest in jonas. coul have proveed very inerseting if her character had been continued. it was fun seeing the mixture of kelonan and more advnanced technology. I did think something was up with kianna right away though. it just didn't seem like they would bring her in otherwise. then when she injects herself, i was like. definietly some go'auldish highjinks.

I didnt like this episode. I think that those countries are going to fight each other again, take the Stargate, and go to another planet.

fallout scores 4/5 for me!.. actually 4.5/5 so 9/10 would of been better if baal actually came to the planet. and we saw a little fight.. but o well

Personally, I loved this episode. It harkened back to the older episodes. I liked the human element; a lot of the more recent episodes have lacked that. I especially liked the 'semi-good' gou'ald. I really, really disliked the statement that the Tok'ra were merely a genetic defect. I much prefer the idea that the gou'ald are not innately evil. Then again, I don't really like the idea of anything being innately evil.

Like others, I wish the gou'ald had lived. That would have made an interesting set of circumstances for Jonas to have to work out.

Your right! I forgot about that.

Daniel has done that many times to Jack over the seasons. The problem is that this time, Jack is the one to complete the deal, while Daniel is left fustrated - role reversal.

I don't think it would really have worked if Kianna lived. I knew she would die because that's the point of the story - to make us feel at least a little sympathetic to Kianna. It wouldn't have the same effect if she had lived. It would also mess up the series a little. She IS still evil, she just happen to show a little human feelings so what will she do and what will SG1 do?

Exactly the question that could open up more episodes. I wouldn't trust her either, but it would be more interesting than to just have her not kill her host. It does not, IMHO, prove that she was good - just wasn't as evil as other Goa'uld. I mean, it was the same situation as operating the drill - she could either choose to let people die, or work to keep people from dying.

I totally agree. I find pure evil for evil's sake boring, and I like the idea of a goa'uld who IS still a goa'uld having feelings for a human. She still has the drive for power and empire-building , but with everyone on the planet knowing that she's goa'uld, she can hardly get power in the normal ways. Would she do good acts in order to earn trust (which is a type of power)? Would she give up on ambition in favor of love ? Would she eventually leave Jonas even though she loves him in an attempt to build her empire? Would she drag Jonas off on her trip to achieve power? Would she try and move Jonas into a position of political power so that she can share his power as the wife of a powerful politician? The writers could have done sooooo much with this goa'uld, and they just killed her so that they wouldn't leave the story line hanging.

RDA missed an opportunity here because I could have lived with one or two episodes without him at all if they wanted to base a couple of follow up episodes on Jonas and his goa'uld girl. You could even have some nice Daniel - Jonas interactions. I can see Daniel (with his history with goa'uld girls) giving Jonas some advice. Oh so many possiblities, and they are all lost

Such a lot of interesting comments here. I share many of the opinions expressed. I especially think it is a lost opportunity not to have Kianna's symbiote (did it have a name of its own?) live. It would be much more interesting to see what could have developed with a "good" Goa'uld as a character. Life is not all black and white, after all, so an ambiguous character would make things more interesting.

As for how Kianna could be less evil than the other Goa'ulds, I like a lot of the theories suggested here. I want to add one: perhaps Kelownan biochemistry is less susceptible to full control by the Goa'uld symbiote. We know that Kelownans are different because of Nirrti's study of Jonas -- she expressed a lot of interest in him because of that. But perhaps that difference also allows more of the host to survive and even influence the symbiote? Just a thought.

As for any Sam/Kianna rivalry, I just think this is pure nonsense from the Sam point of view. Kianna was clearly nervous about Sam, for the reasons already mentioned in earlier posts, but Sam was just playfully teasing Jonas about his relationship with Kianna -- remember that they had exchanged words about his interest in a nurse in a season 6 episode. It reminds me of that.

Someone here commented that they thought the drill just seemed too coincidentally available for the task at hand. But don't forget that the Kelownans were in the business of mining their Naquadah, so having a huge power drill would be something they quite logically would develop.

I did notice that they seem to be showing a lot more skin this season -- especially all those biceps, both male and female (since when did we associate archeologists with body building?). Oh, and cleavage...wait 'til you see Sam in Chimera. Used to be that the only revealing dress came from the over-the-top Goa'ulds or an occasional Tok'ra. Hmmm, must be about ratings. Use it or lose it?

As for Jonas' hair and clothing, I just think it is interesting how many styles he's had since we first met him on Kelowna in season 5. Official Kelownan uniform and GQ haircut, Sg1 fatigues and military cut, Kelownan mish-mash and 60s mop-top cut. Reflects his character's openess to new things, I suppose.

Overall, I really liked this episode. It was nicely balanced with all those things we love about Stargate. Looking forward to more of the season.

The thing is, in a story like this, Keanna Gao'uld has to die. Yes, it would have opened up more storylines (BTW, they are tying up lose end in preparation for the final series), but that's not the point of the story.

It was to make us feel sympathetic to the Gao'uld. If she would have stayed alive and the host died, it wouldn't have the same effect. At the end of this episode, we are left with the question - Why did she saved the host, thus sacrificng herelves like a Tokra.

Her dying effectively made us question ourselves about the intensity of evil within the Gao'uld. If she had not died, her evilness would have remained more intact. I believe this episode will have consequence to what is to come - a beginning of a new friendship with non-Tokra Gao'uld?

The problem is, she just chose to not kill her host. It wasn't even said that she suffered, just that she died. From what we know, she suffered more when she climbed into the tunnel and chose the possibility of death to turning back; and once she got down to the bottom, she seemed pretty fatalistic. I don't think it was an act or else she wouldn't have made the "so much for my empire" comment.

Now that she has died, we don't know whether she really is evil or not; just that she isn't sadistic. You could say that everything in the story was simply her trying to build an empire, then she decided there was no reason to purposefully kill the host...as that way, she could feel satisfaction in that Ba'al wouldn't find out about the Naquidah by sending another agent.

Clearly this is a big mystery. Why the goa'uld inside Keanna decided to sacrifice itself to save Keanna, instead of reporting her findings to Ba'al or exposing the Colonians. Perhaps this was a rare case of simply a goa'uld turning to the good side, becoming one like the Tok'ra. Or perhaps it was a Tok'ra after all. Imposing as a goa'uld.

I thought about this too, especially with how easily they seemed to be able to acquire the tunnelling crystals from the Tok'ra. However, I came the conclusion that it is unlikely... why would they need to hide this from the SGC once they discovered that she was a Goa'uld? I can maybe see them trying to covertly acquire information on the Naquadria to use it for themselves though. Wouldn't Kianna (the host) have known if the symbiote was a Tok'ra? She should have the memories of her symbiote unless it was somehow able to hide them from her.

I believe it was genuine to. If she were truly evil (maybe if she werent in love with Jonas?) she would not have told the crew to leave. A Gaould will not have given up easily, and if she knew death were a possibility, she would try to kill as many of the team as possible. The possibility of killing Sam Carter and the Sovak, the enemies of the Gaould is certainly worth it.

It can be assumed that she is evil - the only thing that stopped her being truly evil was that she was in love with Jonas. She only did all those things to help/save Jonas, as well as saving the host cause she knew that is what he wanted (she made a comment in the tunnel about this).

Didnt anyone find it a little deceptive that a powerful Gaould was in a fragile body?

I think that's over-simplifying her motives. Yes, she did love Jonas but she also had developed respect/admiration for her host and she was intrigued by the fact that Sam would risk her life to save the people of Langarra. By acting as a human and interacting with humans she saw something that goa'uld's never do...actions that serve a greater good. Like others have already stated, I wish the symbiote had lived. A goa'uld with ambiguous motives would have been interesting to have around.

I have a bit of a problem with this too but for other reasons. Sam said the small nuclear device would be detonated along a fault line a kilometer above the naquadah deposit in order to seperate the advancing naquadria from the rest of the naquadah vein. But an explosion that would cause this kind of a sudden shift should have destroyed the excavator. At least part of the blast should have been channeled right to them through the tunnel they had dug, the path of least resistance. Or the shifting rock should have crushed them. Barring those two things, the sheilds should have failed when they passed through the molten rock the second time. Power had to be diverted to the sheilds the first time (and why didn't this molten rock follow their downward path?) and on the return trip they had even less power and were working against gravity. But we never even saw a moment of peril or concern inside the excavator on the upwards journey when they should have been dead three times over.

With the story time split between preventing the coming cataclysm and the political wrangling, it felt like the ending was rushed to meet the episode time limit. And Jonas seemed like any other offworld character brought in for a single ep. There was some attempt at conveying a former friendship with SG-1 but it just struck me as pretty impersonal. He may trust them with his life but they don't seem to really care.

Thank You. I pointed this out in a post in the Nitpick section. I liked the whole Jonas storyline although I really wanted his goa'uld girl to live, but the tech in this section really is very poorly done.

Nitpicking this ep
http://www.sg1archive.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5772

While it was cool to see Jonas again and his planet...and that cool CGI shot of the drill on its platform , the character problems with the ambassadors and Kianna were too much for me ignore, even though I really like how we found out how naquadria was made on that planet.

Its one thing to have bickering delegates, but don't insult my intelligence by making them one-note caricatures that were so obviously set up as verbal punching bags and laughing stocks for both SG1 and the audience. They were given no redeemable qualities, especially that...well....b*tch who wanted an entire planet for her own people.

To paraphrase O'Neill..."Oh please, who talks/acts like that?" I realize that they were probably written like that so there would be no chance of reconciliation, perhaps just for the sake of that single line of dialogue from O'Neill that everyone here likes so much. I mean sure, I like it too, its a funny line. But c'mon already.

The other problem I had was with Kianna. They made her too indespensable to the digging's success (designs and modifies the drill, then saves the planet by climbing into the tunnel).

Carter is there because she's the brain, yet Kianna's goa'uld has better knowledge of the system they're using. Teal'c is only there to 'keep an eye' on Kianna since she's a Goa'uld, yet besides having a communications device in her posession, she demonstrates no behavior that would lead anyone to believe she's a danger to the project. If anything she wants it to succeed, even if its for her own needs.

The bottom line is that once those four people were inside the drill, the only conflict came from having mechanical problems and the proverbial 'ticking clock' of an impending naquadria explosion that urged them to complete their mission. There was no chance of sabatoge, no chance that Kianna would perhaps change her mind at a crucial point and suddenly refuse to help.

And then to top it off....she's the one who crawls into the tunnel and saves the world? 'scuse me? Was there an "S" (Super Goa'uld!) on her chest somewhere and I missed it? Oh yes, and then she dies at the end and Jonas gets her girlfriend back who isn't really his girlfriend since the Goa'uld was in charge the whole time...how freaky is that?

This post has been edited by mithwriter: Jan 29th 2004, 7:03 PM

C'mon...she had to be indispenseable or else she never would've been allowed to get near the drill. My biggest complaint is apparently Sam was bad enough at piloting the drill they had to take Kianna along or fail, but she takes over with no problem for Kianna later.

But the only person that tells us of her needs is Kianna herself. No one else can vouch for her integrity, not even Ba'al if you believe the comment she made about the Naquadria. Self-preservation wouldn't be a big issue; I'd bet that after they finished drilling, the SGC was planning on making a call to the Tok'Ra

She could've reversed the drill when they entered the lava.

Not only does this episode lift the entire plot out of The Core but the female Gould also has to look like Hillary Swank in that movie:


Hillary Swank in The Core


Emily Holmes in Stargate SG-1: 714 - Fallout

I don't mind, because she looks very sexy just like I think Hillary does.

Still I hope this doesn't mean they're TOTALLY into ripoff mode now.

This post has been edited by Martijn: Feb 2nd 2004, 8:21 PM

You make a lot of good points, but I feel that this particular complaint is actually more of a good thing. You mention how there was no chance for sabotage (presumably complaining because it caused a lack of suspense), but I thought this was one of the things that made it more interesting.

Instead of having the typical reused story where there is a saboteur onboard, instead we have a slightly stranger one where the Goa'uld does everything that we wouldn't expect. She helped them as much as she could and instead of creating the suspense from possible sabotage, they chose to show us another possible side to the Goa'uld. The suspense came from elsewhere and personally, I feel seeing this side to a Goa'uld was much preferrable to the extra suspense that could have been gotten through a very commonly used storyline.

This episode was very cool. I enjoyed the suspence story line and the whole drill idea. I thought it was even cooler how they explained in detail about how th edrill works. I like the idea that the goa'uld helps in the end and actually went through 100% with helping without fudging anything up. Very cool. Oh i like the crystals to. Very creative writers. Def a good job. Also good to see Jonas again. Even though he has the shaggy (from scooby doo) going on there.

I really liked this episode because it shows that maybe there is hope that the evil goul'd can eventually turn to the good tokra

It was good to see Jonas again, but he needed SG1 help. Sam was able to work out that the women working with Jonas is a goa'uld She diside to help them in the end and the snake gave it's life to save the women. I think this is the first time a goa'uld snake gave up it's life to save the host.