But I will still give it an eight because I don't like handing out one-stars.
It's not just that I agree with the comments from the other reviewers who all make a very good point, but after the pilot episode entries, this was kind of like post-coital letdown.
And it's not that I disagree with how is this episode deals with sexism in primitive societies, in 1997 when this episode was made The World was just a little bit more sexist than it is in 2014- this is an issue that has gone on for thousands of years, women had been treated like personal property, slaves or chattel. If you look at nature, the female of the species is usually the more rugged and larger of the sexes, and males are usually the ones who pretty themselves up, especially with Birds, where the females are all plain, while the males sport striking plumage. In humans, over the course of thousands of years, it seems that nature has been reversed: women have been bred to be smaller and physically weaker, while taking on the role of sporting the bright plumage. This was all imposed by men, Who sometimes had collections of wives. The more wives one man had, the more important he was. Eventually this led to The practice of intermarrying between kingdoms, one kingdom would send it's daughter to the neighboring kingdom to marry the male heir. Before World War I, the leaders of all of the European kingdoms were relatives- after roughly 1000 years of intermarrying. In the dark ages, intelligent women were sought out and burned at the stake as witches, so religion didn't help matters any.
In this episode SG-1 visit a planet that is going through it's own dark ages, A feudal society that treats women as property.
I'm not going to argue about any of the aspects of this episode regarding that issue but what I will bring up is that although Amanda Tapping is a fine figure of a woman, I don't see men going Bugsputz over her while dressed in fatigues with short hair. While she is on mission, she is just one of the boys, and sexual allure is at its lowest state. That is why when the residents of this planet realize that Carter is a woman and the leader starts saying how beautiful she is, I found that completely unbelievable: Because as a Captain in the Air Force Carter is not as attractive as Samantha Carter would be as a woman, and her tomboy looks in the first season of Stargate simply don't put her into the 10 most gorgeous women in the world category.
Later in the series she revealed her womanhood, we saw her as a woman in different circumstances like for instance in the alternate realities stories where she was not in the military, she was all woman and very attractive in those episodes.
Under normal circumstances when she is wearing the Fatigues with gear strapped on, a helmet and armed with a P-90, I think of her less as a woman and more as a Goa'Uld Killing Machine. Except when she sets down the P-90 and pulls out the laptop computer.
I guess I'll have to attribute the slowness of this episode to the common practice when a show burns up all of its financial backing on a fantastic pilot episode or season opener, we have seen this in Deep Space 9 where they would have four fantastic effects-heavy episodes in a row, then they would have to have one episode with only four of the cast. The producers of SG-1 who were also the producers of the great Outer Limits Anthology Series, would have a "clip show" sometimes, to save money. Since SG-1 had no episodes in the can to do that with, other means were used to cut costs. The pilot episode of SG-1 was very effects heavy, so this episode was pulled out to recover from that. It is just basically a human story, there are no Goa'Uld, no aliens, just people- and I do applaud the producers of this show that they tried to make a positive social statement. But somehow the message got mixed up a little bit, and it came out sounding more like "manifest destiny" than equality and sensibility.
It's not just that I agree with the comments from the other reviewers who all make a very good point, but after the pilot episode entries, this was kind of like post-coital letdown.
And it's not that I disagree with how is this episode deals with sexism in primitive societies, in 1997 when this episode was made The World was just a little bit more sexist than it is in 2014- this is an issue that has gone on for thousands of years, women had been treated like personal property, slaves or chattel. If you look at nature, the female of the species is usually the more rugged and larger of the sexes, and males are usually the ones who pretty themselves up, especially with Birds, where the females are all plain, while the males sport striking plumage. In humans, over the course of thousands of years, it seems that nature has been reversed: women have been bred to be smaller and physically weaker, while taking on the role of sporting the bright plumage. This was all imposed by men, Who sometimes had collections of wives. The more wives one man had, the more important he was. Eventually this led to The practice of intermarrying between kingdoms, one kingdom would send it's daughter to the neighboring kingdom to marry the male heir. Before World War I, the leaders of all of the European kingdoms were relatives- after roughly 1000 years of intermarrying. In the dark ages, intelligent women were sought out and burned at the stake as witches, so religion didn't help matters any.
In this episode SG-1 visit a planet that is going through it's own dark ages, A feudal society that treats women as property.
I'm not going to argue about any of the aspects of this episode regarding that issue but what I will bring up is that although Amanda Tapping is a fine figure of a woman, I don't see men going Bugsputz over her while dressed in fatigues with short hair. While she is on mission, she is just one of the boys, and sexual allure is at its lowest state. That is why when the residents of this planet realize that Carter is a woman and the leader starts saying how beautiful she is, I found that completely unbelievable: Because as a Captain in the Air Force Carter is not as attractive as Samantha Carter would be as a woman, and her tomboy looks in the first season of Stargate simply don't put her into the 10 most gorgeous women in the world category.
Later in the series she revealed her womanhood, we saw her as a woman in different circumstances like for instance in the alternate realities stories where she was not in the military, she was all woman and very attractive in those episodes.
Under normal circumstances when she is wearing the Fatigues with gear strapped on, a helmet and armed with a P-90, I think of her less as a woman and more as a Goa'Uld Killing Machine. Except when she sets down the P-90 and pulls out the laptop computer.
I guess I'll have to attribute the slowness of this episode to the common practice when a show burns up all of its financial backing on a fantastic pilot episode or season opener, we have seen this in Deep Space 9 where they would have four fantastic effects-heavy episodes in a row, then they would have to have one episode with only four of the cast. The producers of SG-1 who were also the producers of the great Outer Limits Anthology Series, would have a "clip show" sometimes, to save money. Since SG-1 had no episodes in the can to do that with, other means were used to cut costs. The pilot episode of SG-1 was very effects heavy, so this episode was pulled out to recover from that. It is just basically a human story, there are no Goa'Uld, no aliens, just people- and I do applaud the producers of this show that they tried to make a positive social statement. But somehow the message got mixed up a little bit, and it came out sounding more like "manifest destiny" than equality and sensibility.