It was great to see Alessandro Juliani back on the small screen last night in a decent guest role in “Framed” the April 4th episode of Motive. He played a gallery owner (Serge Bisson) who was neither the victim or the killer of this story but for a small role he looked good and gave a nice performance.
Alessandro is perhaps best known for playing Felix Gaeta in Battlestar Galactica but he also guest starred in the Stargate SG1 episode “Scorched Earth” and “Moebius 1&2” as well as a recurring role on Smallville.
SG1 are guests of the Enkarans who they have helped to resettle on a new world, they are not a technology led people so live a very simple life yet are fully aware of their history and having been separated from their homeworld. Events take a turn when a huge vessel is seen laying waste to the land and it’s revealed to be the engine of a long dead race who have sent it into the galaxy to find a new homeworld suitable for terra-forming and the eventual rebirth of their race. The classic negotiate/resist options come to the fore led by Daniel and Jack both choosing options when dealing with the ships “avatar” a being created in the form of the current population.
Scorched Earth is a big episode, some excellent location work and a reliance on CG to make the alien ship and it’s technology work and for the most part it does however you get the impression it would have worked better as a double ep. The ultimate payoff and resolution seems to be squeezed in near the end almost as if they realised 30 minutes in they didn’t have time for the remaining script so things got tossed. It’s quite refreshing to see a location shoot when it’s not raining although it looked cold and that was used in the script quite cleverly.
A rather familiar face for fans of recent scifi shows appears in this episode namely Alessandro Juliani (BSG & Smallville) who plays one of the displaced people and another face you’ll know but maybe not be able to name is Brian Markinson who plays Lotan the avatar.
