Apr 052014
 

avatar2 Cameron is visiting an old friend who has a terminal condition, his friend Major Bryce Ferguson has been digging into the exploits of Cameron since their careers diverged and is very close to realising what Cameron has been up to since the battle over the Antarctic. The Jaffa high council is close to ratifying the move to a democratic system of government but some last minute changes of opinion by key pro-democracy supporters throws the plans of Bra’tac and Teal’c into chaos. They know that something is wrong and along with Daniel investigate those that have altered their votes and then Teal’c goes missing but Jaffa honour and integrity can not be as easily overcome as a simple change of opinion. Cameron racked with guilt over the accident which led to Bryce’s condition swings it so he can let Bryce live his memories of recent events thanks to the memory technology recently acquired from Galaran and bidding a goodbye Cameron joins the mission to rescue Teal’c from an old adversary.

A quiet moment.

A quiet moment.

Stronghold has two very definite story lines which in the best tradition overlap more and more as the episode moves on, it was interesting to see that Cameron while getting the reward of being assigned to the SGC believes his friend would be in his place if things had gone differently. The ongoing political games going on at the sharp point of Jaffa government is something you would think they would not be prepared for but the seem to have picked up the back stabbing and power plays in the manner of the best of human politicians. Of course this particular turn of events is the doing of an outside force using Tok’ra technology and as always Ba’al does a bang up job of setting things into motion but thankfully for the Jaffa and the SGC the endgame fails in spectacular fashion. I have to say that the fire fight is an excellent example of a television budget battle sequence and again Stargate benefits from using practical effects where ever possible, CGI bullets and muzzle flashes still ruin scenes, you can’t be real blanks and pyrotechnics. When all is said and done it’s perhaps the simple discussion between Teal’c and Cameron that the episode will be remembered for, despite Cameron feeling he deserves nothing and that the job is the job we see that integrity and the desire to do the right thing no matter the consequences is the only way to live a life.

We got some nice feedback via Facebook and Google+ along with the usual ongoing chatter on Twitter, many thanks for all of that and continued support via retweets and other postings. This weeks promo is for the Star Trek podcast Two To Beam Up and next week we return to Atlantis for the episode Grace Under Pressure and the first appearance of a new guest host. We’d love to hear from you about anything to do with Gatecast and more importantly Stargate and we’d appreciate any reviews/ratings you care to give us so keep watching the show and listening to us blabber on about it:)

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Mar 082014
 

avatar2 SG1 visit the planet Galaran who are part of the Asgard protected planets treaty with the former Systems Lords. With little support coming from the Asgard who have their own issues the Galarans have opened up talks with the Earth for mutual trade and information exchange offering a memory technology which could train anyone with any skill in a matter of days rather then months or even years. Impressed with the demonstration Cameron gets close to the head scientist a Dr Reya Varrick and after going home with her is found the next morning with her dead and a belief he killed her. Complications arise when it becomes evident that his memory has been tampered with and despite the Galarans looking to sweep the crime under the carpet Cameron insists on an investigation.

Do you really trust him?

Do you really trust him?

Collateral Damage is a rather dark story, quite brutally shot although the rather clever way to shoot the attack and it’s consequences mitigated a lot of the violence which probably got it past the Scifi channel censors at the time. The technology offered has it’s benefits that is for sure but is so open to exploitation for all the wrong reasons it’s almost to dangerous to have access too as clearly demonstrated by the events in this episode and for those that recall in the premiere of Blakes 7 when memories are tampered with to secure a conviction for political means by the powers that be. This was an out and out Cameron episode and Ben performed well both in the one on one with Reya (Anna Galvin) and then opening up Cameron’s character with part of his background good and bad all of which put him where he is today. Loved the guest appearance by Ian playing his dad and we’ll see him again and of course William playing the Emissary always delivers.

Superb lighting

Superb lighting

This weeks promo is for the Scifi Diner podcast and thanks to Brad for the voicemail and the chatter across our social media portals, we can’t thank you all enough for joining us as we enjoy everything that is Stargate, well apart from Infinity which I actually tried to watch via Amazon Prime this past week. Next week we have the Atlantis episode Epiphany and as always plenty of SG1 and Atlantis episodes that we could do with a guest to join us and we still have an opening for the Atlantis wrap up show we’ll be recording in about three months.

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