After a couple of solid episodes to kick off the show, we get this dreadful mess. For an episode whose basic premise essentially boils down to beating you viciously about the head with the message that "Hey, women's rights are great, y'all!", there sure is a lot of awkward misogyny on display alongside some amazing cultural insensitivity. Jack seems to be tuned out through most of the episode, and Daniel when-in- Romes Sam into going along with the ludicrously inaccurate representation of Mongol culture. The whole thing ends with the chief of the clan more or less pronouncing gender equality a thing. Egalitarianism is easy, you guys! It's not like they'll have to unlearn centuries' worth of privilege or anything like that. This also has the added discomfort of some nasty little white-saviory implications. Hundreds of years of patriarchy are undone in a couple of days as soon as the white folks (well, and the black alien) come to town? If this society was really that close to the cusp of equality, why did our cuddly chieftain try to kill Carter as soon as he came on-screen?
The plot is stupid, the script alternates between stupid and uncomfortable, and the resolution is uninspired and boring. If this was the first episode of the series I'd seen, I probably wouldn't have bothered with any more. There's also nothing important in the way of mythology, so it's just straight up filler.
The whole episode is quite unfortunate. It'd be a one-star episode if it wasn't for Teal'c asking "What is an Oprah?" at the end.
The plot is stupid, the script alternates between stupid and uncomfortable, and the resolution is uninspired and boring. If this was the first episode of the series I'd seen, I probably wouldn't have bothered with any more. There's also nothing important in the way of mythology, so it's just straight up filler.
The whole episode is quite unfortunate. It'd be a one-star episode if it wasn't for Teal'c asking "What is an Oprah?" at the end.