The Quest Part I - Review
23/10/2008 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachel500The Quest Part I is the 10th episode in Season Ten of Stargate SG1.
Review
Review
The first part of The Quest takes SG1 from sci-fi to unimaginative fantasy in one fell swoop as the show returns to the Ori arc. While the story retreads fantasy standards such as mazes, riddles and dragons, it does manage to do the almost impossible of balancing the contributions of all of the SG1 team and the two villains who are added into the mix.
Having always loved Arthurian mythology, it’s always been a disappointment that the show has only really touched on the most minimal aspects of it which is still the case with The Quest. The search for the Sangraal continues and it was nice to see the three planets mentioned in Camelot having some validity after two of them seemed to be summarily dismissed earlier in the season without reason. But this and the mention of Morgan are the only references and with only a tenuous link to the mythology, the story takes a leap into the more general fantasy genre and fails to find its footing.
The entire ‘quest’ within the episode is a cliché; strangers turning up in a village at the beginning of a quest, challenges to prove themselves ‘worthy’ of the treasure and even the dragon. While this is the standard fantasy formula, there is nothing ultimately done to make this original which makes the story fairly tedious. This is not helped by the fact that there is little mystery in the challenges for the audience to try and work out the solution along with the heroes. The time dilation maze is quickly explained as is the chest and the child; the riddles section moves along so fast that the audience barely has time to comprehend what has been said before the team is onto the next one, and the wall of fire was fairly obvious to anyone who has ever picked up a fantasy book. The Sangraal located across a narrow bridge over a deep canyon and the dragon turning up just completed the cliché. Compare these tests to those in S2’s Thor’s Chariot and the latter comes across as much more interesting.
There were parts of the quest which were better than others but even these have their issues; the time dilation maze is quite clever and does try to marry the sci-fi heart of the show with the fantasy storyline but visually it doesn’t work well. The sight of the team all lined up behind Carter and walking awkwardly around invisible walls smacked of children playing make-believe; it was hard to believe that they were in any danger of being stuck in time seriously. Equally, the riddles were interesting and the sense of the tunnels collapsing around them did add some urgency and tension to that section. However, the immediate thought on hearing Daniel yell ‘clavia’ was that the archaeologist had suddenly turned into Harry Potter. If these were the relatively good bits, the worst aspect of the quest has to be the dragon where the special effects team seem to have come up with a mutated Sodan-cloak monster with wings; really awful.
With the story drowning in a fantasy cliché, its only saving grace is the charm of the SG1 characters and the nice sense of team that exudes from their interactions. From the opening of Teal’c and Mitchell checking in on Daniel; Daniel, Sam and Vala checking out the addresses; the scenes with the villagers and the Ori ‘invasion’; their working together on the challenges and to contain both Adria and Ba’al – there were so many nice moments that its difficult to mention them all. Indeed, all the SG1 characters are used within the story which adds to the overall team feel of the episode. Unfortunately, the characterisation does come across as one-dimensional at times; Sam is primarily science girl, Mitchell the military man, Teal’c the intimidator, Daniel the translator and Vala the comedienne and they don’t really get the chance to go much beyond these boundaries within the story but certainly they should especially given the inclusion of Ba’al and Adria.
A huge disappointment of The Quest is the absolute lack of tension in the relationship between Vala and Adria that did exist in Counterstrike. The sense is that the writers are moving onto the dynamic between Adria and Daniel. It’s Daniel who works out the old man is Adria (which was well done in terms of a surprise although the ‘truth is only seen by someone seeing with both eyes’ nonsense was a huge give away), who she challenges when her cover is blown and who challenges her at the end over her powers. There is undoubtedly a great tension between them especially in the stand-off over the Sangraal. But for Vala and Adria there is only one lacklustre scene that retreads old ground in terms of dialogue and adds nothing new.
Equally given what had happened between Sam and the Ba’al clones in Insiders, there was the potential or a character moment about that in The Quest which is also ignored beyond a comment about the time it has taken for Ba’al to find the planet. It is difficult to see what purpose adding both villains to the story brings in this first part, although they do at least provide a good contrast to our heroes especially in the test of kindness where it is the ‘goodness’ of the SG1 team that finds the right way. It is hoped that Ba'al and Adria's roles will make more sense in the conclusion.
The first half of The Quest in many ways sums up the first half of season 10 very well; the story lacking substance while having a certain charm and the characterisation lacking depth while finally displaying a revitalised SG1 team that feels and acts like a team. The latter allows a great deal else to be forgiveable but the hope is for more improvements in the second half of both the season and The Quest.
Having always loved Arthurian mythology, it’s always been a disappointment that the show has only really touched on the most minimal aspects of it which is still the case with The Quest. The search for the Sangraal continues and it was nice to see the three planets mentioned in Camelot having some validity after two of them seemed to be summarily dismissed earlier in the season without reason. But this and the mention of Morgan are the only references and with only a tenuous link to the mythology, the story takes a leap into the more general fantasy genre and fails to find its footing.
The entire ‘quest’ within the episode is a cliché; strangers turning up in a village at the beginning of a quest, challenges to prove themselves ‘worthy’ of the treasure and even the dragon. While this is the standard fantasy formula, there is nothing ultimately done to make this original which makes the story fairly tedious. This is not helped by the fact that there is little mystery in the challenges for the audience to try and work out the solution along with the heroes. The time dilation maze is quickly explained as is the chest and the child; the riddles section moves along so fast that the audience barely has time to comprehend what has been said before the team is onto the next one, and the wall of fire was fairly obvious to anyone who has ever picked up a fantasy book. The Sangraal located across a narrow bridge over a deep canyon and the dragon turning up just completed the cliché. Compare these tests to those in S2’s Thor’s Chariot and the latter comes across as much more interesting.
There were parts of the quest which were better than others but even these have their issues; the time dilation maze is quite clever and does try to marry the sci-fi heart of the show with the fantasy storyline but visually it doesn’t work well. The sight of the team all lined up behind Carter and walking awkwardly around invisible walls smacked of children playing make-believe; it was hard to believe that they were in any danger of being stuck in time seriously. Equally, the riddles were interesting and the sense of the tunnels collapsing around them did add some urgency and tension to that section. However, the immediate thought on hearing Daniel yell ‘clavia’ was that the archaeologist had suddenly turned into Harry Potter. If these were the relatively good bits, the worst aspect of the quest has to be the dragon where the special effects team seem to have come up with a mutated Sodan-cloak monster with wings; really awful.
With the story drowning in a fantasy cliché, its only saving grace is the charm of the SG1 characters and the nice sense of team that exudes from their interactions. From the opening of Teal’c and Mitchell checking in on Daniel; Daniel, Sam and Vala checking out the addresses; the scenes with the villagers and the Ori ‘invasion’; their working together on the challenges and to contain both Adria and Ba’al – there were so many nice moments that its difficult to mention them all. Indeed, all the SG1 characters are used within the story which adds to the overall team feel of the episode. Unfortunately, the characterisation does come across as one-dimensional at times; Sam is primarily science girl, Mitchell the military man, Teal’c the intimidator, Daniel the translator and Vala the comedienne and they don’t really get the chance to go much beyond these boundaries within the story but certainly they should especially given the inclusion of Ba’al and Adria.
A huge disappointment of The Quest is the absolute lack of tension in the relationship between Vala and Adria that did exist in Counterstrike. The sense is that the writers are moving onto the dynamic between Adria and Daniel. It’s Daniel who works out the old man is Adria (which was well done in terms of a surprise although the ‘truth is only seen by someone seeing with both eyes’ nonsense was a huge give away), who she challenges when her cover is blown and who challenges her at the end over her powers. There is undoubtedly a great tension between them especially in the stand-off over the Sangraal. But for Vala and Adria there is only one lacklustre scene that retreads old ground in terms of dialogue and adds nothing new.
Equally given what had happened between Sam and the Ba’al clones in Insiders, there was the potential or a character moment about that in The Quest which is also ignored beyond a comment about the time it has taken for Ba’al to find the planet. It is difficult to see what purpose adding both villains to the story brings in this first part, although they do at least provide a good contrast to our heroes especially in the test of kindness where it is the ‘goodness’ of the SG1 team that finds the right way. It is hoped that Ba'al and Adria's roles will make more sense in the conclusion.
The first half of The Quest in many ways sums up the first half of season 10 very well; the story lacking substance while having a certain charm and the characterisation lacking depth while finally displaying a revitalised SG1 team that feels and acts like a team. The latter allows a great deal else to be forgiveable but the hope is for more improvements in the second half of both the season and The Quest.
