New Ground

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.

New Ground - Season 3, Episode 19

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Transcript

[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, which is so many times, in fact, that I can take a look at the waveform of the audio of an episode and I can read it like subtitles. It's a great skill. Now, even though I've seen Stargate that many times, for the first time, I am watching, I am searching, I am digging out those important sci-fi messages that Stargate is trying to teach us. 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 better human beings to one another. We might see some of that in this almost end of the third season episode. Brent, we're at episode 19 of the third season. Yeah. New Ground.

[1:08] And I predicted that this one is going to be Stargate's version of Star Trek The Next Generation's Homeward, where Worf and his brother helped kind of move some aliens from one planet to another planet, making them think they were just crossing the desert. We're going to see something similar in this one. Okay, so you mentioned right before our Patreon folks heard you say this, and then I cut you off. You said you wanted to change your prediction. Yes. I will give you an opportunity at this moment. What do you think? What do you want to change precisely? So I think that this episode is going to start with Tilk remembering just that.

[1:47] That pot of coffee he was chugging down is going to be like, I need some really good coffee. And they're going to go to the new coffee shop down the street called New Grounds. New Grounds. Oh.

[1:57] Well, Jeff, we'll find out here in just a few minutes. But let me give you just a little bit as we head into this episode. It's not too much. As we mentioned, this is almost close to the end. Episode 19. That means we're down to the last like four episodes of the season. Original air date, February 18th, 2000. thousand which seems just like yesterday we hit the the first one of the two thousands coming in but here we are uh jeff um i have no desire to prop this episode up or set super high expectations for you however i do want to mention the name of the writer of this episode is heather ash now you're looking at me like hmm and yeah we've never talked about her before but she has been around the entirety of season three as a story editor every episode but she's also written three episodes from season three and this is her third really really so you're like well what are the other two uh-huh i'm glad you asked jeff the first one was learning curve oh i like learning one with the kids who you know do the brain thing and the second one your favorite episode of the season maybe foothold i loved foothold now both of those are currently in the top half of our 100 completely accurate and immutable ranking of season three of sg1 Again, Jeff, I'm not trying to set too many high expectations for this episode.

[3:15] However, that's who the writer is for this episode. Well, so Jeff, with that, it's time for us to go ahead and actually watch this episode, my friend. Hey, listen, if you're joining us here for the very first time, first of all, welcome. You're amazing. We're glad you're here. We like hanging out with folks. The way this works is Jeff and I are going to go watch this episode right now. We haven't previously watched it, taken notes, and now we're here to talk about it. No, we're going to go watch it right now. And if you're hanging out with us on YouTube, you're going to catch the reaction version of that. Hey, listen, one of the things we do like to do, as I said, is hang out.

[3:48] And one of the best ways you can do that is by interacting with us. Comment down below. We love it when you comment. Please keep spoilers to a minimum because Jeff is really, truly going through for the very first time. But we do love hanging out with you there. Now, if you would happen to like the full unedited version of this whole video, head over to our Patreon page at patreon.com slash buy nerds. And do us a favor. If you listen to this whole spiel that I just gave you, this last little paragraph, hit a hashtag buy nerds, hashtag buy nerds down in the comments below. Just want to know, testing a theory, if you guys actually listen or are you fast forwarding through this part? I like that. If you're listening on a podcasting app, you can hit us with that hashtag by nerds. That's by like goodbye with an E. You can hit us with that on X Twitter, X Twitter, whatever they call it these days. We're on there. You can get the link down in the notes. The emails still come in that say X in parentheses, formerly Twitter. Right. It's basically Prince. It's like if you have to put what you formerly were, then your rebranding didn't work, dude. And as you continue listening to this episode, we're going to meet you on the other side as you gate into the future. We're going to catch you on the other side of the episode. I'm going to share my first-time reactions. Brent is going to share his sci-fi messages that he found in this one. Brent, let's dive into New Ground.

[5:12] Music.

[5:30] All right jeff so we have just watched new ground you for the first time me for the 47th time.

[5:36] Although i'm pretty sure you've seen this episode once or twice on star trek and pretty much any other sci-fi show out there it's kind of the same general idea of this episode but this one's stargate's version of it so talk to us about it there was an episode of the weekend update on saturday night live many many many many many years ago might have been david spade who was on there or somebody, but he told a joke when the movie Casino came out. So that's 90s right i think it was his joke totally encapsulates my feeling on this one oh casino yeah it's a great movie liked it a lot better when it was called heat, this was an episode i think i liked it a lot better when it was called pretty much any other version of this one oh really yeah i did not like this episode my last note is i sure hope this guy doesn't become a recurrer like i don't want to see smash mouth again i'm really i don't but he's He's going to stay as a research assistant, as a refugee, new cast member. Or are we ever, ever going to see this guy again? We don't get to see Lara again, right, at this point, but we're going to see this guy again? I'll not be happy. You don't know that we're not going to see Lara again. Well, right now I have no indication to say I will. They just told me I'm going to see this guy again. I mean, I probably won't, but eesh. I will spoil the whole damn thing for you. You never see this guy again. That's one of the more redeeming qualities of this episode.

[7:02] For whatever it's worth, Jeff, this is one of those episodes where I was like, can we skip this one? Yeah, I get it. It was slow.

[7:11] One of my big pull-in-the-tent notes here is I am really getting bored. I'm losing interest with this tilk-refusing medical treatment joke. It just kept going, and it was slow. Oh, the leader guy, Rygar, Tiger with an R. Right, yeah. Rygar, like a tiger and a rooster in one.

[7:34] Riger but yeah he's over the top fanatical just i mean i i feel like he was supposed to be portraying this archetype you know of propaganda and keeping stuff alive being a spin doctor but it was a guy just wasn't good he made some acting choice i'm assuming to walk like his weapon was shoved where the sun don't shine and it was just i don't know it wasn't good and then and then like my other thought on it was like they i feel like also this was supposed to be kind of a tilk episode and if it was this was not good he's acting really weird the refusing the like even when the light was like shining his face he was just responding weird it was out of character for him he was weirdly overconfident through the whole thing i and and i don't know just it was not good it was an opportunity when he went blind my thought was oh my gosh this is going to be incredible he's going to go out there and use the force right he's going to be jean-claude vandam and bloodsport he's just going to be like i know where everything is and yeah you know the junior is going to kind of help him along or what nope all it was was a contrivance to get him out of the picture long enough for us for us to spend what felt like six hours in those tiny cages with sg-1 if we can play the game rewrite the episode what they should have done and they they almost did it like they they were so close and then they just veered off the course with it but when tilk finally said to.

[9:03] Nyan see I don't remember his name when Teal finally said to him he's like you don't want to help me you're I'm just a scientific oddity you just want to study me you just want to what if they would have leaned into that of, Teal doesn't trust this guy because he he.

[9:22] Is just going to look at Teal'c as if he's not actually a human or say human as a living being, but just a, and he's going to use him to do whatever. That's kind of compelling and watching Teal'c be the guy who takes those steps to begin to trust and lose that animosity, whereas to juxtapose that against Riger, who is not, because he's on the other side of that with his own preconceptions being challenged to have that go back and forth that would have made this a super interesting and super compelling episode i think assuming that they do it well but yet you're right with what we're given it was just like okay i like that tilk made a new buddy social skills are improving it's got a nice smile the the things Things that were interesting in this, we learned about a past system lord, Nefertum. Ooh, you want to do a goddess check? Let's do it. Let's do it. Or a god check, actually. Nefertum. Nefertum's a real god. He's an ancient Egyptian god, the god of the lotus blossom.

[10:28] Perfume, and aromatherapy. He was the son of the creator god Ptah, or Ptah, and the mother, who they actually mentioned this one's name in the episode, Sekhmet. It basically from what i can tell and it's kind of a little wishy-washy he's kind of like you know when you wake up in the morning and there's just the crispness in the air that everything is new yeah the dew you know what i mean like it's that first light that comes over the ray it's a new day it's new life this this for he's the god of that.

[11:04] Things that are pleasant, things that are, he's like a good guy. God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like he, he represents the, the plus. So, you know, being the son of the creator, he, he sprang forth from a, from a blue lily out of the Nile kind of a, like, like very, very, very happy type deal. Well, apparently one of the most famous depictions of him was found with a King Tut where it was the statue of Nefertum only they put King Tut's face over top of it. Okay so he's the the bright and morning sun do makes everything happy that sort of that sort of deal but that's really who he is uh definitely definitely good for sure yeah that's cool that's a nice change you know i mean in this in this season we've gone up to the good neferdom all the way from the devil literally yeah so that's quite the journey they uh sgc has been running an operation that i had as a job when i was a teenager uh cold calling i was trying to sell insurance they're just trying to find gates that have opened uh the gates that previously on a dial bounced isn't like as a as a wrong number or disconnected uh that randomly calls them back my theory is that we're gonna go revisit abados we're gonna and that is not even the the point isn't necessarily about revisiting Abydos, it's that the Stargate isn't covered anymore.

[12:29] And so they're now at risk again. But I have one question on this one. And so I understand that when the gate itself is covered in rock or something like that, that stops it from forming its wormhole thing. We saw that back in 100 Days. So here he's chipping away and chips away. So now the ring is totally open and exposed so it can open up, but it's still filled with rock on the other side. So my question was like, so the gate can, the gate can open through rock, but not through like the iris or other things like when, when is it blocked? When isn't it blocked? Or is this just a plot kind of question? I think you were seeing more rock inside the ring than was actually supposed to be there. So this is Brent's understanding of it, and this is real nitpicky with it, all right? The idea is that if the ring is filled up, and especially if the ring can't dial, but if the ring is filled up, there's nothing for the wormhole to… Like coalesce. To coalesce.

[13:44] However, if you can clear that area, you can be microns above that area, it can still coalesce and send out a whoosh. As we saw in 100 Days, where as long as they could make a wormhole, they could do a cooosh and it would actually dig out a part of the molten rock that was above it. And the reason they could do that was because the molten rock dried on top of an event horizon, which then allowed for the formation of a new event horizon. I mean, how silly is that? It's microns. We can get as close as microns, as long as the insides. So that's why I say I think. Well, that makes sense then because the iris, they can have like precision how it's set up in rock. Rock is wavy and crumbly and a little off. off it it also just could have been a failure on the part of the set designer in this particular episode to make sure that it's not micro or whatever you know it's kind of caught me do we do we have anything to update on our tracking board not a one.

[14:44] Did you get any sci-fi messages out of this one? Oh, sure. We did on this one. You know, and this is one of those episodes where we'll sit back and say, you know, some of the best episodes have zero messages in them. They're just great episodes. Some of the most poignant episodes are awful and hard to watch. This one's kind of in the middle to me. You know, I don't think these are super poignant, but I definitely think they're there. I think that they have to be intentional. I'm not sure exactly what was going on in the world about the time this was written. Let's hear 2000. thousand so and by the world i'm just gonna say america because that's where most of the perspective of our stuff is written from because it's an american show so this is still pre-911.

[15:24] This is uh hot we were living high at this point we survived y2k like life was good new metal was just starting to rise yeah i think i think well i think we would have just had a brand new president that a lot of people didn't like there's that that just got inaugurated uh however this episode would have been written well before that. Anyway, here's the deal. We talked during the episode a little bit about the science piece of it. As a scientist, you may have a theory, but you're as equally excited as it being proven wrong versus proven right because it's a step forward in truth. I'm just calling out the reality that it still kind of sucks for the scientist. However, there is the, yes, this is actually how it should be for scientists, you know? And so I want to back that up and I want to prop that up because I feel like I was kind of pooh-poohing it a little bit during the reaction. Like, no, no, no, this is how we should be. It's just reality of that. But, I mean, listen, Jeff, this one really goes to the point of – and this one they chose an ancient religion that has seeded itself and has gotten into the creation and the origin of the people themselves versus – They're in an ideological war Against their own I don't want to say countrymen But the people who share their world.

[16:43] They're in an ideological war with them because of where we came from, which I'm just going to say is a really stupid reason to be in a war over something. But lots of wars have been fought over religion and more ridiculous things. And what we see is we see these examples and time and time again of when you're presented with hard, cold truth right in front of your face, people still go, nope, that's a trick. Nope, that's not real. Nope, I refuse to believe that. Nope, I fill in the blank. To the point that it crosses out of religion and it crosses into politics and into military policy. And I really, I'm really trying to avoid the politic piece of this and just, you know, this is when it goes into policy of this is how things are. And we're going to literally gaslight ourselves and everybody around us because of, you know, his, his answer was, I refuse to believe that we've been praying to a God that is evil or doesn't exist.

[17:45] Like, that's your reason. Now, Jeff, you and I are both people of faith. Don't let me speak for you, my friend. even as a person of faith to sit there and go when hard cold evidence is presented right in front of my face that i could literally reach out and touch it i have to grapple with it oh yeah you know now does it have to destroy my faith no does it cause me to go well wait a minute what does this mean in light of my faith with this being here and are these in conflict do i have to make a change you have to have that conversation you have to be willing to have that conversation conversation, you can't just be shut down, but it definitely shows the evil power of religion and how that can go. And by the way, it's not just religion and it doesn't have to be limited to religion. It could be to, to political ideologies, any ideology, any ideology. It was interesting when you're saying that, you know, if I can reach out and touch that evidence, I need to consider that and really weigh it. But I feel like in modern times, as a person of faith, there have been scientific, historical, archaeological things that have come up that have brought parts of faith into question.

[18:55] And the difference is some people will look at that and immediately be like, oh, it's wrong. It's evil. It's not true. Blah, blah, blah. Generally, when people actually interrogate those things and look at them, it can actually strengthen your faith. So I think about Rieger and...

[19:13] The key piece that he's missing is, okay, yeah, you weren't created here, but this God you were praying to, this Nefertum, 100% the real deal. He actually exists. And brought you here. So you've got a piece of the story wrong, but you're praying to the right guy, and that should shore up your belief. Like, oh, my gosh, he's real? Did stuff? Oh, my gosh, how cool is that? But instead, shuts it down. You can't be just complicit. that you've got to be willing to allow evidence to challenge your position, regardless of which side of it that you're on. And I think that's a, that's a huge piece because otherwise you do yourself a disservice. You do the people around you a disservice. And if I may, by the way, Riger couldn't have gotten away with any of that. If all those people around him who also saw, who also touched, who also was there specifically that one girl who was that the, the actress who who was getting paid to be there and not just an extra. The one who got to talk back to him a little bit. The one who actually could talk. She voiced it. Well, maybe we are wrong. Maybe we're this. And she shut it down and stuffed it down. And you know how stuff like that gets spread when people ignore what's in front of their eyes, stuff it down and allow the gaslighting to occur. You can't do that. How many Chevrons do I give this? Now, I rate this on a scale of zero to seven Chevrons as far as how strong the message is.

[20:37] I think it was pretty clear. I think it was there in your face. I think it was replete throughout the episode. I really do, based on our conversation earlier, think it would have been much better if they would have juxtaposed Rhaegar's story versus Teal'c's story where they both start in the same spot, just in their own deal. And we see one person work their way through it and the other person don't. And how one leads to life and the other one leads to destruction. In the end, what happened? happened nigh on left and rygar and all his men just turned around and went back to work the next day and covered it up all up like there was nothing that really happened out of this so for that um because it's there i'm gonna give this one four chevrons okay it's a good message it definitely was there was it really strong i think that's where it knocks it knocks it a little bit for me that makes sense could be like you said i think your juxtaposition storyline would would be a lot stronger this one was okay basically do what tko did yeah right 100 of the time that's the right answer all right jeff well i i rate you rank you get to place this episode in our 100 completely accurate and definitive ranking of season three of stargate, SG one, Jeff, we have 17 episodes on the list. That's because one of them is a dual episode.

[22:00] I'm going to read this one from the bottom. That's a good, good instinct you've got there. So just, just, I'm going to read this one from the bottom. Our bottom five are that number 13. I'm going to read these top to bottom. Number 13 is rules of engagement. 14 is demons. 15 is point of view. 16 is Seth. 17 is Linnea past and present. Isn't Linnea part two? Jeff, I'm not really sure where, I'm not sure that I would place it this low, but it would probably be floating in that area for me. But where is it floating for you? Is it in the bottom five or does it have a little bit of life above it? It is in the bottom five. But before we get there, if you remember last week, I rated Shades of Grey and I put some asterisks next to it. And I said, I was going to watch that again. I was going to revisit it. Oh, yeah. I did that, and so we're going to revisit that first because it does make a pretty substantial change. This is going to mix up our top five.

[22:58] And I'm going to tell you, this was a tough one. I had a really hard time figuring out where exactly this was going to sit because there are some such amazing episodes in our top five. But this one, Brent, is such a good episode, and it's going to land in number four, right above Pretense, right below Fair Game. You're going to push hold out of the top. I know. Can you believe that? I love that episode. Wow. Okay. Let's talk bottom five. This one, Brent, I was struggling as to where exactly it was going to go. But looking back through my notes, it's very clear to me that this is going to sit as our new number 15, just below demons and right above point of view. So demons was the episode where we went to church. We were in the medieval village, effectively. And point of view was the episode. I'm trying to remember. I should know this. Point of view was Alt-Sam. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alt-Sam. Okay. I'm with you on that. I'm with you on that. Well, Jeff, that is going to do it for New Ground. Here's the good news. We never have to tread this ground again. We sure don't. Next time, Jeff, name of the episode we are watching is Maternal Instinct. Maternal Instinct. I'm not going to give you one blippity blip of help on this particular episode. I'm going to leave it to you, my friend. What do you think? Completely blind.

[24:24] Promise you you're not going to come close to getting what this episode is about. If you do, I'm going to quit this game right now or I'm going to call you a cheater. Did you say maternal or paternal? Maternal, as in mother. Yeah. So good, because I have an immediate reaction to what that's going to be. Okay. We're going to see Cassandra again, and she's going to be in some danger, and this is going to be a chance for Dr. Frazier to shine.

[24:51] She's going to step up and really do something to somehow protect Cassandra. Well, we will find out next week if you are a big fat cheater or not.

[25:01] Because if you nail that, Jeff, you and I are going to have some conversations, buddy. We will. I'm sure I did not, but...

[25:07] It makes sense though right maternal instinct with what we've seen so listen that's a decent prediction that's a decent prediction anyway with that hey guys thank you so much for joining us here at stargate sg1 for the first time please don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your shows your podcast whatever it is that you're listening to or watching us however you're consuming this show and don't forget to leave us a rating and review drop comments down below and don't forget to share this show with someone that you know who needs to get into sg1 just like my good friend jeff over that away and uh so with that guys i'm gonna sign off that's jeff i'm brent we're getting out of here until next time guys hey brent yeah jeff you know i i think it'd be fun for us to go maybe grab some shovels break some new ground or we could go and get some coffee with the place they call that new grounds right i remember one time i was looking for a place to play some ball and i was like hey can i play over here on this new field they're like no that's new ground you can't play on that you just can't do it hey did you know that sometimes there are different places that you can go to um where they're you know destroying stuff or whatever and you're like you know this is this isn't a good place to be is this like an old old indigenous burial ground and like no we're just turning it over dude you're literally walking right now on new ground it reminds me okay stop stop for crying out loud would you just stop.

[26:33] Music.

[26:41] Let's dig into new ground by the way if you're looking for the ending thing it's those jokes right there just tell like three of them in a row and i just, i'm sorry we're on point tonight man right this is absolute professionalism that you're seeing here right now remember the game sim city where one of the plots you could get was to actually like build new ground in the middle of the water.