User Reviews

This is a different episode. It's a bit darker than what we're used to, and with its theme and the look of the "memory flashes" (and probably because it's Browder's head being memory-probed) it actually reminded me of Farscape. That is not a bad thing.

I found this episode very intriguing; the concept was clever, the episode was well written and they handled the technobabble side of it very well. They made the "memory grafting" process sound believable (as believable as anything in sci-fi can be anyway), which is admirable. We've all seen similar ideas in other shows handled badly, with explanations going against all logic and ultimately ruining the show. Not so in this case. My sense of logic was very much in sync with their explanations. Kudos.

This episode also gives us a rare insight into Mitchell's head. We get to see bits of his past; tragic and semi-tragic events, some of which helped him become who he is today, and some he'd rather forget.

All good murder mysteries need a surprise ending, and such is also the case here. They did their best to keep the killer as inconspicuous as possible, while setting somebody else up as the "obvious" choice, and I'll admit I hadn't guessed who it was. And how their government ultimately treated the whole incident... Mitchell was vindicated, but the victory certainly left a bitter aftertaste.

So; a different episode - but a brilliant one.

It gets four stars for some pretty good acting. But overall the story is a tired re-hash of the old science fiction "character commits a murder but can't remember it". In this case, the scenario is turned upside down. Col. Mitchell remembers a murder he didn't commit.

After the credits, the episode flashes back to two days earlier, then proceeds. It would have been better to start at the beginning, but maybe the producers wanted a more dramatic opening scene.

SG-1 Farscape already repeated the SG-1 crew member on trial. It's at least something that this episode didn't proceed to a trial. But the scenes of Mitchell's past, drawing a generic "strong" character, are tiring. They're almost as tiring as the repeating scene of the murder.

The Ori are coming. This episode doesn't even pretend to be connected to the main story line. The Joint Chiefs are interested in technology that writes memories, so they can train pilots in a few weeks. Fighter planes aren't going to stop the Ori.

Given the Ori threat, a real, "strong" person would say "who cares, remove the memory, we have important things to do."