Foothold

This is Stargate SG1 For the First Time! From the creators of Babylon 5 For the First Time, Jeff Akin is watching this iconic show for the first time while Brent Allen, who has seen it at least 47 times, is watching for the first time for those sci-fi messages that hold a mirror up to society or show us how to be better human beings.

Foothold - Season 3, Episode 14

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Transcript

SG1_314 Foothold

[0:00]

Music.

[0:15]

Welcome to Stargate SG-1 for the first time, still not a Star Trek podcast.

My name is Jeff Akin, and I'm watching Stargate SG-1 for the first time.

And I'm Brent Allen, and I'm watching Stargate SG-1 for the 47th time.

But for the first time, I am looking for what Stargate is trying to teach us.

I'm watching the show, searching for those sci-fi messages.

[0:36]

You know, those things that hold up a mirror to society, give us hope that things

can be better in the future,

or just tell us how to be plain better human beings to

one another we're going to find out if that happens in

the 14th episode of the third season of sg1

we're watching foothold and last

week i was asked to predict this one and my prediction is

that some aliens are going to come busting through

the stargate while sg1 is off on some other planet maybe

they're attacking earth maybe they're just super aggressive whatever but

they're going to attack they're going to gain a a foothold in

the SGC and when the SG1 team comes back we're

gonna have us some pew pew pew going on do

you have any cool facts about this one other than the pew pew pew

you're a good guesser uh cool facts not really it was

November 5th 1999 when this episode first aired uh so right after last week

you know no big break or anything coming out of the the two-parter uh but there

is a fun note uh that is sort of side it's related to this episode the director

of this episode a guy named Andy Makita.

Now, this is a name. I'm not bringing up all the directors. I'm just bringing

up the guys that are major in the Star Trek.

[1:47]

Oh, my gosh. In the Stargate series.

[1:50]

Uh world you know people like robert c

cooper peter del louise uh

martin wood andy makita is one of these guys

okay he is going to go on to direct 64 episodes

across the entire franchise 21 of them are going to be

right here in sg1 this is his first sg1 episode

however jeff he's actually been around since children

of the gods okay he was first assistant director

on half of season

one every episode of season two and

pretty much every episode of season three to this point and

they finally were like hey you first ad why don't you

direct an episode now so he directs an episode see

what you got again it worked out pretty well for him because he goes on to be

a very consistent director he also is a producer comes on as a producer eventually

he's a production manager he's

the second unit director of all three franchises for a lot of the episodes.

[2:50]

So the guys just like when you

talk about people who make stargate this is a dude making stargate and this

is his first episode where he's he's directing and he really gets to to helm

an episode so i'm really excited for this episode really you know how i i often

talk about if we were to give give Stargate the beam me up treatment,

which is the, you know, where do you go through and you kind of say,

that's an episode we're doing.

That's an episode. That's a, that's an episode. And we're going to leave these ones out.

Um, this is an episode that, uh, at least as far as the message goes,

I don't know that this one has a big message in it.

But it's one that i i just have a gut feeling

watching it with this particular lens i'm going to come out with something i've

never seen before awesome that'd be fun so i'm kind of excited to to really

jump into this episode because i don't know what it is like i'm thinking for

it i'm going i i i have no idea this is not the knox where i can go i can tell

you exactly what that message is.

[3:50]

This is not you know a couple other episodes

i can't mention yet but thanks here's all that build up and

nothing now that has nothing to

do with the quality of the episode jeff i'll let you decide that for yourself

but speaking of quality of the episode why don't we go ahead and jump into this

one foothold what do you say let's do it all right well listen if you are joining

us for the first time here at stargate sg1 for the first time first of all welcome

you're amazing you're awesome and we're so glad that you have chosen to join

us here the way this works is jeff and i.

[4:20]

Have not already watched this episode and we've come in prepared with notes

to talk about it We're going to go watch the episode right now.

If you're hanging out with us on YouTube, stick around because you're going

to get our reaction, cut-up reaction.

If you want the full unedited version, head over to our Patreon page at patreon.com slash.

[4:37]

Bye, nerds. And if you're listening on a podcasting app, one of our incredible

audio listeners, you're about to gate into the future.

We'll be there waiting for you. I'm going to share my for the first time reactions.

Brent's going to share that message if he finds it.

If. It's a big if, right? It's a big if. We're either going to have a nice Chevron

conversation or none whatsoever, but we'll find out right after we watch this

episode. Brent, let's do it. Let's watch Foothold.

[5:07]

Music.

[5:24]

All right jeff we are back having just watched foothold it's ended less than 30 seconds ago,

Your first time watch my God knows how many time watch to be honest with you,

but I was looking for some messages, Jeff, you get to go first,

my friend, give us your thoughts on this episode.

I think what you just said kind of sums it up here. God knows how many times

this is a wildly rewatchable episode. I think absolutely.

This is a lot of fun. Do you, so I am, I'm a, I'm a little bit older than you are.

And so my, uh, formative like TV shows and movies, we have a little bit of a

difference difference there, but do you remember, I don't know,

mid eighties, there was a show, it was a remake from like a fifties movie,

but called invaders from Mars. Yep.

Love that. I read that book when I was in grade school and they came out with

the movie and we just watched the TV adaptation right here. Right. Right.

Or more than that. Hey, what if we did TNG's conspiracy just maybe a little

bit, you know, a, with, with an actual ending to it. Without the worms.

[6:26]

Yeah. Worms. little little boop boop boop

boop sticking out of their neck things you know this was this is

a this is a great episode this is a lot of fun and i

think coming off what we watched last week it needed to be

like this needed to have have some some oomph

to it a little bit but just a good episode right

just just here here's a cool bad guy thing

of the week what i think i love the most that i

got in this one is i love how this show

has been written in such a way that my first first

instinct was they ended up

in a fake SGC that someone

built up and cloned them and like

that thought was totally feasible well you've seen it before I mean I think

it was the beginning of this season right like they woke up out of cryo freeze

and they were in a fake SGC they they went to another world and there's a fake

set of SG teams like it it's they've certainly built it it up to be plausible for sure.

I think, and they've given you the, uh, the science and the mechanism streams

can get redirected, you know, the, the, and, and intercepted for things.

And so it's like, Hey, you, you never know if where you're going is where you.

[7:37]

You never know if where you end up is where you thought you were going.

I thought that was cool. I want to, I want to give you a lot of credit on this

one in that I was really enjoying this episode, but we paused partway through and you said,

Hey, do you believe that everything that sam

and tilka are experiencing is actually what they're experiencing there

are aliens there whatever or what dr fake

dr frazier said of you know it's the it's the chemical spill it's

a hallucination as soon as you ask that question that that hadn't

even occurred to me at that point i was just taking it at face value and enjoying

the whole thing oh it's going to be a whatever that little wrinkle throw it

in there added so much to this episode oh my gosh is this guy that is that really

this is this this and then when they kind of came out and they had the he-man

room with everybody hanging down the he-man room.

[8:25]

They look just like he-man you're right absolutely so yeah

super cool i i like this one quite a bit uh good tilk

episode in the beginning just a total i mean one man army yeah kicking butt

big time i we met major davis for the first time uh not for the first time this

is actually his third appearance in the show i happened to look it up after

we talked about it but yeah that that's major Davis.

We did see him in the episode, a matter of time. Okay.

We've also seen him in the episode, uh, into the fire, which was our,

uh, season premiere, uh, of the seventh. Oh no. Wait. Yeah. Yeah.

It was a season premiere. Yeah.

Uh, we, we saw him there, but I think this might be the first time we've really

gotten any major words, any, you know, outside of, uh, I'm major Davis.

We've been waiting for you. Here we go. But even Jack was like, who are you?

So, uh, major, major Davis is going to become a recurring character. Cool.

[9:22]

And you'll get to know him, um, not quite on the level of Dr.

Frazier, but you know, yeah, he's a guy who's around. So nice.

You'll see him in other, other shows and you'll be like, Hey,

that's major Davis from Stargate.

Like this will be where you know him from. So that's kinda cool.

I think was neat in this one, Mayburn we've been, we've been trained to know

that guy's a piece of work.

We don't like him all the way up until almost the

very end I was sure he was one of the one of

the aliens but turns out he's just a jerk but

Jack gave him his due at the end and

Mayburn gave Sam hurt hey you know I I credit all of this to two major Carter

hey and then he's like hey y'all I'm gonna go maybe I'll see you again and Jack

says that would be nice I thought that was really cool we've had a lot of great

leadership moments from O'Neill throughout the the series so far, but this one was huge.

And one that we don't talk about a lot, just the whole idea of like,

you've proven yourself to be a not great and trustworthy person.

[10:22]

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have that stick with you you can

change you did good and I'm

going to acknowledge that you did good I'm not gonna

like tongue-in-cheek the whole thing and find a way to still

insult you or whatever I thought a really big moment

from uh from Jack in this one in addition to my

reactions Brent we also are tracking a couple

things in this series and we have have

a for crying out loud we get to add that to the

list adding that to the list you know

what i really wanted i kept looking for i kept expecting it and

just never manifested was a daniel death

because had she shot fake daniel

and we saw michael shanks die on screen that

would count that's a daniel death and that would have counted uh but

alas we did not this is our first for crying out loud

in quite a while it feels like it doesn't it it it's

uh yeah certainly feels like it but anyway uh grabbing our

tracking sheet here uh this is gonna bring us up

jeff to 19 for crying

out loud so far over the course of the show we are at six daniel deaths by the

way for anybody it doesn't feel like it's been that many but it has been that

many we've got two indeeds i we've had to have missed some indeeds 100 i'm positive

we have yeah yeah and we have three sam boyfriends friends just to,

just to update the tracking sheet there.

[11:42]

Normally this is the piece where we shift and you talk about the messages and

assign Chevrons, but I just want to pause for a minute and say my prediction.

I kind of, I kind of sort of nailed this one.

Here's the part you got wrong in your prediction. You said the SG one would

return at just the right time.

And like later in the show and they'd pew, pew it out and, and solve the whole

problem. It literally started with that.

And then we got the rest of the episode exactly as you nailed it.

You got this one dude you nailed it i'm gonna count

it yeah yeah you get full credit you get

full point on this one for sure i love it because again like not

only is the show set itself up that i can automatically assume cool things but

it's also set itself up that with a name like foothold i can do the math and

say well somebody's going to come and attack because they're on the map now

i just i don't know i just love i really want to acknowledge that for not being

a serialized show We've talked about this a lot,

but it does such a great job of just planting the seeds and doing the world

building that pays off in just little ways like this is really great.

So I will tell you the title for next week's episode makes perfect sense.

[12:51]

Only once you've seen the complete episode. Great. Great.

What I didn't remember as a person who's seen the show for so long is,

was I just tracking the show, taking everything at face value,

believing that these guys are really aliens and they're making up this BS story

about hallucinations and whatever?

[13:11]

Or was I really going back and forth between, wait, is it a hallucination or

is it real? Is it a hallucination or is it real?

And I'm not really sure which way it's going to go. And I, I wasn't sure.

Sure how you took that as a first time we are so yeah up

until you planted the seed i was just taking it taking it as it

was i didn't plan to see the show playing the seed i just watered it

a little and just showed it hey look here's the thing germinating

right here i'm curious if this episode recolored

or reset anything for you as far as messages go

did you did you find anything in this one you know jeff i said i said prior

to watching this episode i was really excited because this is an episode that

i didn't necessarily think would have a whole lot of messages in it but i I

just felt this was going to be one that gave us a lot of messages and I'd find

something new in this episode I've never seen before.

This is an episode I've seen countless amount of times, like for real,

like when I'm just hanging out, want to watch an episode of Stargate.

If I come across foothold, I'm probably stopping and watching this episode.

It's just a fun episode to me. I really, really love this episode.

Unfortunately, I was completely wrong, Jeff.

[14:17]

There's really not much going on in terms of message. The only thing I think

I could get, and this maybe falls under the category of how to be better human

beings to each other, give credit where credit's due.

Like we saw right there at the very tail end, like, Hey, thank you.

You're an enemy, but we don't really like you, but we're actually on the same side.

So we can, you know, at least be nice and who knows, maybe we'll be friends.

But anyway, uh, extend an olive branch, give credit where credit's due.

You don't have to be enemies you're actually on the same side uh.

[14:50]

Is that really a heavy message in this episode no is that what this episode's

about no are they trying to teach us anything no so while i that's one of those

like if i'm grasping at straws i could maybe pull that out but i'm not giving

this one any chevrons jeff that's fair that's very fair,

now i rate the episode based on how strong the message is sometimes there's

just not one there but you know what there always is a spot on our 100 completely

accurate and definitive ranking ranking of season three of Stargate SG one, which you,

my friend, are solely in control,

of placing these episodes in that order.

Our current top five, I'm gonna go to our top five here is, uh,

the, the double episode, Joel and ours memories and devil, you know,

which was what we had last week. Fantastic set of episodes there. Yeah.

Number two was forever in a day, which we heard about that one a lot here about

the har ceases child and Keb and trying to find out where Keb is and,

you know, it turns out it wasn't over there.

Who are these guys? A fair game was another one. Learning curve was another

episode. And our number five is into the fire. That would be our season premiere.

[15:58]

Jeff, does this episode crack the top five? And if so, and even if not,

where do you rank this episode?

Foothold. Looking at some notes here. This is a, this is, I'm not going to lie.

This is a tough one for me.

And you might be surprised at where it's a tough one.

So I had to go back and look at some of my notes. we've had uh

some incredible episodes especially

from last week i don't know if this is going to be controversial or

not but you know what it's my list i get to call

things whatever i want you do this brent is

going to be our new number four episode wow all right i was i was i was almost

i was considering is it going to be number three or number four but i really

appreciated fair game game for you know bringing in the asgard and just it was

it was big it was a big episode,

and had a lot it was also really well done fair game just for those playing

at home trying to remember fair game is the episode where we had the gould system lords come in.

[16:59]

And try to create the treaty and and try to include

earth on the protected worlds treaty with the the asgard

i was trying to think the thor's race though with the

asgard you you literally just said that a minute ago uh yeah so that was that

was uh fair game so you're putting this one right below that episode uh right

above learning curve which was a really good episode we just watched that one

a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it was cool another callback kind of episode thing thing, but, uh,

yeah, this was just, I think this one I'm really rating the side just on its rewatch ability.

Like I literally might watch this when we're done recording again.

Oh yeah. It's absolutely worth it. Absolutely worth it. Well,

Jeff, uh, that's gonna do it for us here for foothold.

Let's talk about next week's episode. Maybe it's an episode you'll also wanna

watch. Maybe not, but you're not allowed to watch it till we do it together for this show. Fair.

I told you already, this is an episode that once you see it,

you'll you'll understand the name, but I'm curious if maybe you'll be able to

predict what the episode actually is about just based on the title.

The title for next week's episode is pretense.

[18:06]

Pretense. What do you think pretense might be somebody, uh, I wanna put this

one on Hammond, but just some, Hammond's gonna have an idea,

a pretense, and they're gonna operate on that and, uh, it's gonna be a big mistake.

That's really general. I have no idea what this pretense doesn't really tell

you a lot. Let's define what the word pretense means.

Okay. Cause I, I kind of want to schmooze this in for you just a little bit.

Uh, pretenses is when you are putting up a front to mask what you're really

trying to do. I'm going to stick with the Hammond thing.

Hammond's got a false pretense going and he's got some other game that he's playing.

I don't think it's necessarily going to be nefarious though.

Okay. Like that's going to be the thing at the end you figure out.

It's like, Oh, Oh, he had this thing going the whole time. In fact, here we go, here we go.

Because a pretense doesn't have to be a negative thing.

[18:59]

So he's gonna put him through some stuff, like bad stuff or whatever,

and in the end it's gonna be like, hey, congratulations,

General O'Neill, like maybe it's a whole thing, but a way to recognize somebody

or promote somebody or something like that.

So it's going to be a positive pretense.

We're going to promote you, but actually what we're trying to do is make you

retire, get you out of here. Yeah. Congratulations.

[19:24]

Here's your, here's your star and you can just go that way.

Thank you. Hey, we're going to take you off the bridge of your ship and we're

going to make you an admiral and we're going to shelf you because we don't want

to talk to you anymore. Jeff, you are a good guesser, my friend.

Oh, well, thank you. We'll find out just how close you are next week,

right here on Stargate SG one for the first time.

Hey, listen, thank you guys out there so much for joining us.

Don't forget that wherever you're getting this show, whether it's on YouTube

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that you know who loves stargate SG one or somebody who like my friend Jeff

over there needs to get into the gate for the very first time.

So with that, we're gonna sign off here for today saying, yes, Jeff. It occurs to me.

How do I know that you are really you, how I need you to, um,

I need you to open your shirt up, I need to see your chest.

[20:52]

Come on, just open it up. Let me see. Make sure you, just you for crying out loud.

[20:57]

Music.

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