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brainofckStupid Stargate. :p
I am about to write some extreme Jack behavior, and I wanted to go back and find out if there is any justification for said behavior so this morning, I got up when the cat yowled and popped in the movie, which I have not seen.
However, I'm not sure the movie is appropriate for Small Boy, so I had to stop when he woke up. Well, actually, I let him watch with me til they were getting ready to go through the Gate the first time, but I don't trust Abydos and Ra, so I need to preview that before Small Boy sees. It's only PG-13, so maybe it will be OK.
So anyway, this Part One applies to the first 20-30 minutes of the film.
SPOILERS for the movie, the show, and various fan fic.
Part One of CK's Guide to Stargate for People Who Have Forgotten It or Never Saw It
Poor baby Daniel! I didn't realize exactly how down and out he was when Catherine offered him the Stargate job. Evicted from his apartment! No wonder the jokes about how he was desparate enough to become her boy toy...
Daniel's first act as a translator arriving at the Mountain is to ruthlessly correct someone's bad translation of the inscription on the Gate's coverstone. He mutters about how someone must have been using Budge and why do they keep republishing him? :)
Daniel works around the clock for two weeks trying to figure out the glyphs on the Gate. He is clearly GUZZLING coffee during these scenes. They go so far as to send him out to the water fountain in the hall outside the room where he is working to get more water in the coffee pot, which has just the dregs of the previous coffee in it. Chain coffee making. He might as well have been lighting his ciggarette off the butt of the previous one...
Daniel pulls a fast one to get on the team that goes through the Gate. They send the MALP through and they are looking at the pictures it sent back of the Gate on the other side. They being Gen. West, Daniel, Jack, and some other people. They are all realizing that the glyphs on the other gate are different from the glyphs on Earth's gate. (A cool thing I didn't realize and that they don't really emphasize in the show. Every planet's Stargate should have a different set of glyphs!!! So dialing between planets without going back to Earth first is probably more or less impossible on the fly. A continuity problem for the writers on the show, as SG-1 dials between planets, skipping Earth, whenever it is convenient for the plot.) Anyway, everyone else is realizing that the glyphs are different and therefore it's going to be pretty tricky to dial home. West, apparently an easily discouraged man, immediately talkes about scrapping the entire Gate program because getting home will be impossible. Daniel volunteers, "I could do it!" Because of course, Daniel can see that the cheverons on the other gate are locked at what he is assuming are Earth's coordinates from that Gate. (There may be a plot twist on this, as I am not sure Daniel could see all 7 cheverons from the footage they were watching, but Daniel assures West that he is absolutely sure he can do it.) West says, "You're on the team."
They are rushing to get the mission moving, so nobody else even seems to look at this footage. Using Daniel's breakthrough, they opened the Gate, immediately sent the MALP through, a team is assembled and ready to go, and as soon as Daniel has his look at the MALP telemetry, it appears that they go through the Gate on their first mission the same day, if not almost immediately.
The funny part to me is, when Daniel says he can dial the Gate home, Jack mutters, "He's full of shit," and walks off in disgust. I think Jack saw exactly what Daniel saw on the MALP telemetry, but I imagine if he DID, he will confront Daniel with it later on in the movie. But this might also have been Jack testing Daniel (see my continued rambling below). Maybe Jack didn't call him on it, because he figured if Daniel was smart enough to figure it out, not to mention figure out the entire glyph problem in two weeks, maybe he would be a useful resource in the field.
For those of us who are not Egyptologists, the Gate was buried under a coverstone. Coverstones typically cover tombs. At one point Daniel does ask about what else was under the coverstone and whether it was covering a tomb, but in the excitement of his landslide of discoveries and everyone's cooing over them and him, he doesn't follow up on the question. Nor does he consider at this early stage the warning that was written on the coverstones. FYI, this is some other need-to-know information that Jack has and Daniel doesn't. The remains of a goa'uld were found under the coverstone with the Gate.
Interesting to note that before Daniel has his breakthrough regarding the glyphs and what they mean, right before he goes out to the hallway to get water for coffee, he notes to himself on his dictaphone that "I'm never gonna get paid." *snickers* Those of you who have watched the show for enough seasons will recognize that at a key moment, Daniel asks, "I do get paid for this?" Apparently the scars caused by seeking and losing grant funding run very, very deep... *snickers more*
Oh. Another small tidbit of which I was not aware. Catherine was given autonomy over the program, but eventually the Air Force decides that she might actually get the Gate working, so they go out and specifically reactivate Jack for his as yet unspecified talents. And Jack, at this point, is in charge of the Program! COOL! I had no idea! :)
Another small, slashy tidbit, the first scenes of the movie show Jack and Daniel's recruitment in parallel. And they arrive at the mountain at almost exactly the same time, Jack all spit and polish, and Daniel looking quite disreputable (and sneezing). Daniel has just finished his devastating re-translation of the coverstone, including identifying that it is not at "Door to Heaven" but rather at "Stargate." Catherine is about to tell him more extiting stuff when Jack comes in and tells her that the whole project has been classified and she isn't to tell anything to any civilians anymore without his direct authorization.
So in that one tiny first scene between them the canon sets up the conflict between Jack and Daniel. Daniel is seeking, and Jack is protecting. Or, less generously, Jack is standing in the way of scientific discovery of the truth. But interesting to see that the writer set up their first scene as a confrontation. Also interesting, Jack wins the battle here, denying Daniel his immediate access, but Daniel wins the war, becuase he clearly gets access. Though the access must have been controlled by Jack. OK. This analysis is going nowhere, moving on.
They are clearly testing Daniel through the whole first part. Daniel works for two weeks and finally figures out what the glyphs are and what they mean. He figures out they represent a method for locating a point in space. Gen. West expresses that Daniel has done in two weeks what it took the other scientists in the room 2 years to figure out. We think that the other scientists have been working for two years prior to Daniel and Daniel has just swooped in at the end and given them the whole story. However, Daniel shows them the solution, then they roll back the blast shield on the embarcation room (the meeting is taking place in the briefing room), and we realize that Daniel has yet to tell them anything they don't already know. The control room as we all know it from the show is already there. The gate is set up and spinning. The control computers are there, with their dialing programs all set.
Daniel, of course, figures out how to determine which glyph is Earth's point of origin. He only brings them the last piece of a puzzle they have already worked out.
This raises another interesting Jack/Daniel question, really a sort of "sub-question" of the one above. Jack stops Catherine from telling Daniel very much before he steps in as the mediator of what Daniel can know. Was Catherine planning to keep all this information from Daniel and test him by making him work through the whole puzzle of the glyphs again? They didn't need him for that. But he did figure it out himself in a fraction of the time it took them. Would Catherine have told him about their work on the glyphs, and let him get to work immediately on the project they had hired him for - to try to determine which glyph was Earth's point of origin? Was it Catherine or Jack who tested Daniel and made him jump through the hoops? A teeny weeny point in the plot development, but an interesting one for the slasher's feelings about the development of the relationship between these two men.
And that's my guide to the first 20 minutes of the movie! Stay tuned to tomorrow's guide to hopefully the rest of the first full hour! *snortle* Ah, the life of the working mother!
I am about to write some extreme Jack behavior, and I wanted to go back and find out if there is any justification for said behavior so this morning, I got up when the cat yowled and popped in the movie, which I have not seen.
However, I'm not sure the movie is appropriate for Small Boy, so I had to stop when he woke up. Well, actually, I let him watch with me til they were getting ready to go through the Gate the first time, but I don't trust Abydos and Ra, so I need to preview that before Small Boy sees. It's only PG-13, so maybe it will be OK.
So anyway, this Part One applies to the first 20-30 minutes of the film.
SPOILERS for the movie, the show, and various fan fic.
Part One of CK's Guide to Stargate for People Who Have Forgotten It or Never Saw It
Poor baby Daniel! I didn't realize exactly how down and out he was when Catherine offered him the Stargate job. Evicted from his apartment! No wonder the jokes about how he was desparate enough to become her boy toy...
Daniel's first act as a translator arriving at the Mountain is to ruthlessly correct someone's bad translation of the inscription on the Gate's coverstone. He mutters about how someone must have been using Budge and why do they keep republishing him? :)
Daniel works around the clock for two weeks trying to figure out the glyphs on the Gate. He is clearly GUZZLING coffee during these scenes. They go so far as to send him out to the water fountain in the hall outside the room where he is working to get more water in the coffee pot, which has just the dregs of the previous coffee in it. Chain coffee making. He might as well have been lighting his ciggarette off the butt of the previous one...
Daniel pulls a fast one to get on the team that goes through the Gate. They send the MALP through and they are looking at the pictures it sent back of the Gate on the other side. They being Gen. West, Daniel, Jack, and some other people. They are all realizing that the glyphs on the other gate are different from the glyphs on Earth's gate. (A cool thing I didn't realize and that they don't really emphasize in the show. Every planet's Stargate should have a different set of glyphs!!! So dialing between planets without going back to Earth first is probably more or less impossible on the fly. A continuity problem for the writers on the show, as SG-1 dials between planets, skipping Earth, whenever it is convenient for the plot.) Anyway, everyone else is realizing that the glyphs are different and therefore it's going to be pretty tricky to dial home. West, apparently an easily discouraged man, immediately talkes about scrapping the entire Gate program because getting home will be impossible. Daniel volunteers, "I could do it!" Because of course, Daniel can see that the cheverons on the other gate are locked at what he is assuming are Earth's coordinates from that Gate. (There may be a plot twist on this, as I am not sure Daniel could see all 7 cheverons from the footage they were watching, but Daniel assures West that he is absolutely sure he can do it.) West says, "You're on the team."
They are rushing to get the mission moving, so nobody else even seems to look at this footage. Using Daniel's breakthrough, they opened the Gate, immediately sent the MALP through, a team is assembled and ready to go, and as soon as Daniel has his look at the MALP telemetry, it appears that they go through the Gate on their first mission the same day, if not almost immediately.
The funny part to me is, when Daniel says he can dial the Gate home, Jack mutters, "He's full of shit," and walks off in disgust. I think Jack saw exactly what Daniel saw on the MALP telemetry, but I imagine if he DID, he will confront Daniel with it later on in the movie. But this might also have been Jack testing Daniel (see my continued rambling below). Maybe Jack didn't call him on it, because he figured if Daniel was smart enough to figure it out, not to mention figure out the entire glyph problem in two weeks, maybe he would be a useful resource in the field.
For those of us who are not Egyptologists, the Gate was buried under a coverstone. Coverstones typically cover tombs. At one point Daniel does ask about what else was under the coverstone and whether it was covering a tomb, but in the excitement of his landslide of discoveries and everyone's cooing over them and him, he doesn't follow up on the question. Nor does he consider at this early stage the warning that was written on the coverstones. FYI, this is some other need-to-know information that Jack has and Daniel doesn't. The remains of a goa'uld were found under the coverstone with the Gate.
Interesting to note that before Daniel has his breakthrough regarding the glyphs and what they mean, right before he goes out to the hallway to get water for coffee, he notes to himself on his dictaphone that "I'm never gonna get paid." *snickers* Those of you who have watched the show for enough seasons will recognize that at a key moment, Daniel asks, "I do get paid for this?" Apparently the scars caused by seeking and losing grant funding run very, very deep... *snickers more*
Oh. Another small tidbit of which I was not aware. Catherine was given autonomy over the program, but eventually the Air Force decides that she might actually get the Gate working, so they go out and specifically reactivate Jack for his as yet unspecified talents. And Jack, at this point, is in charge of the Program! COOL! I had no idea! :)
Another small, slashy tidbit, the first scenes of the movie show Jack and Daniel's recruitment in parallel. And they arrive at the mountain at almost exactly the same time, Jack all spit and polish, and Daniel looking quite disreputable (and sneezing). Daniel has just finished his devastating re-translation of the coverstone, including identifying that it is not at "Door to Heaven" but rather at "Stargate." Catherine is about to tell him more extiting stuff when Jack comes in and tells her that the whole project has been classified and she isn't to tell anything to any civilians anymore without his direct authorization.
So in that one tiny first scene between them the canon sets up the conflict between Jack and Daniel. Daniel is seeking, and Jack is protecting. Or, less generously, Jack is standing in the way of scientific discovery of the truth. But interesting to see that the writer set up their first scene as a confrontation. Also interesting, Jack wins the battle here, denying Daniel his immediate access, but Daniel wins the war, becuase he clearly gets access. Though the access must have been controlled by Jack. OK. This analysis is going nowhere, moving on.
They are clearly testing Daniel through the whole first part. Daniel works for two weeks and finally figures out what the glyphs are and what they mean. He figures out they represent a method for locating a point in space. Gen. West expresses that Daniel has done in two weeks what it took the other scientists in the room 2 years to figure out. We think that the other scientists have been working for two years prior to Daniel and Daniel has just swooped in at the end and given them the whole story. However, Daniel shows them the solution, then they roll back the blast shield on the embarcation room (the meeting is taking place in the briefing room), and we realize that Daniel has yet to tell them anything they don't already know. The control room as we all know it from the show is already there. The gate is set up and spinning. The control computers are there, with their dialing programs all set.
Daniel, of course, figures out how to determine which glyph is Earth's point of origin. He only brings them the last piece of a puzzle they have already worked out.
This raises another interesting Jack/Daniel question, really a sort of "sub-question" of the one above. Jack stops Catherine from telling Daniel very much before he steps in as the mediator of what Daniel can know. Was Catherine planning to keep all this information from Daniel and test him by making him work through the whole puzzle of the glyphs again? They didn't need him for that. But he did figure it out himself in a fraction of the time it took them. Would Catherine have told him about their work on the glyphs, and let him get to work immediately on the project they had hired him for - to try to determine which glyph was Earth's point of origin? Was it Catherine or Jack who tested Daniel and made him jump through the hoops? A teeny weeny point in the plot development, but an interesting one for the slasher's feelings about the development of the relationship between these two men.
And that's my guide to the first 20 minutes of the movie! Stay tuned to tomorrow's guide to hopefully the rest of the first full hour! *snortle* Ah, the life of the working mother!
