Pretense (Stargate SG-1)
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| Stargate SG-1 episode | |
|---|---|
| “Pretense” | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 15 |
| Guest star(s) | Alexis Cruz as Skaara/Klorel Garwin Sanford as Narim Marie Stillen as High Chancellor Travell Kevin Durand as Zipacna Frida Betrani as Lya Bill Nikolai as Technician |
| Writer(s) | Kathryn Powers |
| Director | David Warry-Smith |
| Production no. | 315 |
| Original airdate | January 21, 2000 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Foothold" | "Urgo" |
"Pretense" is an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. It began a running theme in Stargate, which was to compare humans to the show's major anatagonists, in such a way as to make the viewer either consider humans as evil, or else the antagonists not actually evil at all.
In "Pretense", this takes the form of a court hearing to decide who has the right to live, when only one being may: an enslaved human or his Goa'uld master and symbiote. Whilst the main characters put up a good defence for the human and why the Goa'uld's practises are, after all, evil, the viewer is left considering these issues by his or herself.
[edit] Plot
The Goa'uld Klorel crash-lands on the planet Tollana after his fleet is destroyed in battle. Klorel is the son of evil System Lord Apophis, who took Skaara's body as a host in the first episode of Stargate SG-1, "Children of the Gods".
The Tollan take Klorel prisoner, and, having the technology to extract Goa'uld parasites from human hosts, but not knowing whether it would be right to use it, hold a trial (called a "Triad" in their culture), to decide the final fate of Skaara/Klorel.
Triad involves a member of the Tollan Curia (the governing body of Tollana), who presides over the hearing, "Archons" (like lawyers/barristers) for the "Seekers" (interested parties), and a third Archon, a person completely neutral on the subject. After the representing Archons and their Seekers have made their case, each party has one vote as to whose case wins. In theory a representing Archon's opinion can have changed by the end of the Triad, causing him or her to vote against his Seeker. However, in most cases each representing Archon will vote for his Seeker, meaning that the neutral Archon will cast the deciding vote.
Skaara asks dear friends Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill to, together, be his Archons. Meanwhile Klorel has an adept minor Goa'uld, Lord Zipacna, be his Archon. The Nox woman Lya, a previous friend, is called in as the third Archon, due to the Nox's well-known utterly neutral and unbiased nature. The Tollan install a symbiote silencer onto Skaara/Klorel, allowing the conscious mind present to change freely and thus allowing both parties to speak.
Daniel and Jack argue as per what they've been believing for 4 years since they'd met the Goa'uld - they are evil, parasitic invaders of an innocent human's body, and that Skaara has the right to it. Lord Zipacna argues that the Goa'uld view humans as inferior beings, and just like humans breed and cull cattle or other animals they view as inferior, so too do Goa'uld do as they please with humans. Jack counter that Goa'uld take their hosts by force and create nothing of their own, merely taking the ideas of others.
Meanwhile, Samantha Carter and Teal'c discover a deeper Goa'uld scheme whilst exploring Tollana. They notice Jaffa next to one of the Tollan Ion Cannons, and Carter surmises that they are "painting" it, marking it out as a target for a long-range attack. They inform the Curia of their findings, but the Tollan are unworried. Even if the Goa'uld could, somehow take out a couple of Ion Cannons, the remaining ones would instantly destroy the offending ship. That is, Carter realises, unless every single Cannon is destroyed at once, achievable by "painting" every single one first. The Curia are unworried. If they continue with the matter, a new Archon will defend Skaara.
Meanwhile the trial continues, at each turn Zipacna presenting a very shrewd but persuasive case for Klorel. He ultimately presents a challenge - that as killing is supposedly wrong, Klorel should live. This is because if Skaara wins then Klorel necessarily dies, but if Klorel wins, Skaara will indeed go on living for hundreds of years, albeit as a host to Klorel.
Later, Teal'c meets with the Nox woman Lya and asks her to do a mysterious favour for him, despite it not being (at first hearing) in her nature. She consents.
The trial concludes with Lya casting the deciding vote in Skaara's favour, declaring: If Skaara lives, Klorel will die, and yet if Klorel wins, Skaara's conscious life will come to an end (as the symbiote completely suffocates the host's mind), along with his free will, and this does not count as life in itself. Presented then, with equal evils, the body is awarded to its original owner, Skaara.
Immediately, Zipacna tries to cast a bomb and sabotage the hearing, whilst at the same time his Goa'uld Ha'tak begins to fire on Tollana. Jack knocks Zipacna out. Outside, the Tollan are rushing about in fear, for their Ion Cannons have indeed been wiped out.
Teal'c and Carter, along with the rest of SG-1 and Lya, run to a specific area where Lya uses her Nox powers to unhide an Ion Cannon. The favour she did for Teal'c was to use her powers of invisibility to hide this Cannon earlier so that the Jaffa couldn't paint it. The Cannon now fire upon the Ha'tak and instantly destroys it. Because the Nox are strict pacifists, Carter can't understand why Lya would have done this. She says she didn't kill anyone, but was only passive in hiding a Cannon. Carter remarks that it was "a very thin line [she] didn't cross."
The Tollan are for the first time immensely grateful to SG-1. Yet they won't give the knowledge to Earth on how to build an ion cannon for they can't share their technology. But, on the plus side, Skaara is now free from Klorel and Klorel will be sent back to the Goa'ld homeworld.
[edit] Notes
The urban outdoor scenes of Tollana were shot on the main campus of Simon Fraser University (S.F.U.) in Burnaby, a small city just east of Vancouver. The unique concrete architecture, known in campus as the "Academic Quadrangle", was planned by the now internationally famous architect Arthur Erickson during the "forward-thinking" 1960s when this university was first built with the intention of being different and distinct from more traditional campuses such as the older and existing University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) in Vancouver.
The same university location would be used again in the Fifth-Season episode Between Two Fires when the SG-1 team visits Tollana once more.
[edit] External links
- Official Stargate SG-1 site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006. Most of site requires Flash.
- Screenplay (PDF). Distributed by MGM. Prepared by Casablanca Continuity (1999-11-01). Retrieved on 2006-10-15. Linked to from Official Stargate SG-1 site. Also see Google's cache.
- Summary from GateWorld. Visited May 7, 2006.
- Review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Penfold. Visited May 7, 2006.
