I haven't posted my own very special thoughts on the episode yet because, well, I don't have a strong reaction.

It was a Damian Kindler script and those tend to give me the hives. His idea of comedy guarantees I'm going to be looking for the vomitorium before the show's end. I have to allow an exception for his drama now because I recently learned, thanks to betacandy, that DK wrote Grace. I know lots of my fellow fellow non-S/J shippers hated the episode but I generally loved it.

I hoped this episode would restore Carter to herself but I wasn't sanguine. I hoped it wouldn't rip apart any other character. I hoped it would avoid DK humor. I hoped, really, that I wouldn't hate it.

I did not hate the episode but I can't say that I really liked it, either. I want to like this episode more. It had many things I want in an episode. It had character moments. General Landry's bird call was amusing. It had continuity. It had a Stargate trip. It had a wonderful team-y ending, even if it took the whole damned episode to bring the team together. It didn't rely on an Asgard beam to solve the problem of the week. It should, therefore, have been something I enjoyed more but my resounding response was, "meh."

CHARACTERIZATION
I'm not certain how Sam's refusal to sit in general's chair fits in with her personality. It doesn't feel right to me, but then my Sam is the one from the series pilot who forced a room of sniggering superior officers to respect her and her accomplishments rather than the Sam of Fragile Balance who couldn't control a room of sniggering inferior officers. (That "inferior" is no terminology mistake on my part.) The Sam I know would respect the chair, yes, but she would also know that it reinforced her authority and that she had earned the right to sit there.

(Yeah, she earned it. At least she did in my world because I am resolutely ignoring the stupidity of her handing over National Secrets of Galactic Import last time around. And the other times. Not that I'm bitter.)

The Sam I treasure is competent, intelligent, and ambitious. I know that this scene was written to give Vala the comedy chance to sit in the General's chair and start to put her feet on the desk. And I suppose that encapsulates my disaffection with the writers; characters sacrificed to play out a joke.

Here's why that sort of thing especially bothers me: the briefing room scene. Oh, look how funny Vala is, manipulating Sam so that she gets to do what she wants to. If I thought they wrote with the characters first in mind, I'd say it's an interesting thing to note about Sam that she's not a proficient people manager; she doesn't think well on her feet in some instances. This is somewhat consistent with some recent stupid writing (Sam unable to deal with cameras in her face) and not entirely out of place for a woman whose scientific knowledge and physical prowess define her. She has a flaw: dealing with people one on one rattles her. OK. That's not unreasonable and keeps her interesting. But that has implications for putting her in charge of the SGC, SG-1, or even negotiating with aliens, doesn't it? The problem is I think this character trait is one pulled out to make a joke and then put back in the box until the next time. Like her ability to read goa'uld -- or not. Or sense naquadah -- or not.

Sam and Vala are interacting, which I wanted to see, but it confirms my fear that their scenes would be jokes rather than serious moments of characterization or, heaven forbid, bonding. I knew I was spoiled for anything TPTB would offer up the moment I read cofax7's brilliant short piece, Comparing Scars. THAT is the level of thought given to mature characters that I would dearly love to see on my screen.

I know I'm somewhat unfair to this episode because it did have characterization. It just featured characters I don't particularly find interesting or engaging. We saw a lot of Landry and Mitchell. I'm not really a Landry fan yet and Mitchell is more interesting to me as part of SG-1 than as himself. I have to like the guy before I want to spend a lot of an episode watching him be uncomfortable around his boss. Last season left me underwhelmed by the character and I'd really rather see him being part of the team, impressing me with his ability, than segregated off from the team. *shrug*

I did, however, totally love Sam and Teal'c in the closing scene. That scene goes into my "makes me happy vault." She's a perfectionist and she's driven. One comment disparaging her card skills and she puts everything she has - literally - into play. She doesn't like to lose; that's what makes her SG-1 material. Personally, I read CJ as playing a Teal'c who saw through her bluff and gracefully gave in because that's what friends do sometimes. Don't know how other viewers saw it. Her absolute delight when she won made me smile. That was the blend of charm, innocence, and drive that I see as quintessential Sam. Loved it.

I know there were other actors in the scene but I don't really remember them.

Story and Effects
My general dislike for the oft-used and totally stupid, "radiation mutates a creature into a horrific killing machine," plot has to be a part of my dissatisfaction. It worked in cheesy B-movies from the 50s but I'd hope the audience's knowledge of radiation is a bit more sophisticated these days. It's hard for me buy physicists such as Sam and biologists saying that garbage.

One thing that I did like about the storyline - I know, I'm digging here - was the acknowledgment that not everything bad in the galaxy happens because of the main bad guys. Not that it was handled particularly deftly. The "all-knowing" Ori don't know that their followers are suddenly being torn apart by a radioactive monster created by interdimension hopping uh, licorice worms? And wait, they didn't know about the super sekrit Tau'ri agents that were monitoring the planet with their cool "makes me invisible" armbands? Um, yeah. Stargate characters define protean, don't they? (And wouldn't Proteus have been a cool goa'uld to have met?)

There was a kernal of a cool idea there. Developed in a totally different fashion I'd have loved it.

I've been missing James Tichenor because I loved his DVD commentaries but that episode made his lack felt even more keenly. I'm sure he would never have allowed that travesty of a CGI creature to end up onscreen. It's hard to find something menacing when it makes you giggle. I'd rather have done the Wormhole Extreme trick of seeing the actor's horrified reactions and the dead thing but never that -- well, whatever it was it looked as if it was the rough-in for "monster goes here," in the way that the scripts seems to be, "plot stuff goes here."

And, um, that picture of the "alien" creature before it mutated? Wasn't that a lemur? Were both the art department and the art subcontractors on vacation that week or something? Apparently they were because it was necessary to move Jack's Minnesota cabin to Colorado since they couldn't dress a set to look like a cabin. I'm just not going there because that's a HUGE continuity error. Not to mention I think it's skeevy to take over someone's job and his vacation property. When is the last time you borrowed the familial vacation home of your predecessor at work? Landry isn't Jack and I'd rather that he gets his own set of Nifty Accessories in which to totally break regs by ordering subordinates to vacation with him.

Anyhow, I expect to loathe this week's joke-a-thon. I'm not decided on whether I'll watch it or just tape it while I watch the USA channel (Psych! Monk! House!) and maybe watch the hilarious (sic) send up of fans, sci fi, and a show I used to respect at some much later date. :|