Maternal Instinct

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.

Maternal Instinct - Season 3, Episode 20

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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. But for the first time, I'm going to be looking for what Stargate is trying to teach us. You know, those lessons 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. As we dive into the 20th episode of the third season, and we're going to find out what a maternal instinct is. That's the name of the episode. My prediction last week is that this is essentially going to be a Dr. Frazier episode.

[0:54] We're going to see Cassandra again. It's been a very long time since we've seen her last. And so I'm going to get some of her and Frazier being, being mom and doing her maternal stuff. Well, does it still trip you out that like the whole thing about Cassie was a bond between her and Sam and now she's going to go live with Dr. Frazier. But the thing is, Sam literally travels to other planets all the time. No, I understand the logistics behind it. But when you think about how it was the bond between Sam and Cassie, it was that bond. Okay, go live with Dr. Frasier now. She was the one who pulled Sam out of her funk after Jolinar died. Yeah. Like, there's a real thing there. Also, remember when they traveled to 1969 and then they were coming home and they actually overshot? She was the whole thing. Yeah. We're not going to overshoot this one, though. And before we almost even try to overshoot it, why don't you tell us what it looks like to hit it dead on? Yeah, well, dead on, 20th episode, second to last episode, season three, Maternal Instinct, air date March 1st, 2000. We had a little bit of a break last week. Written by Robert C. Cooper, a name you should be familiar with at this point. But the director is a new name for you, Jeff. His name is Peter. I'm hoping I'm saying this correctly.

[2:09] Wost or Waste? It's W-O-E. W-E-E-S-T? Well, because you got like Walter Koenig, which is K-O-E. But that could also be Koenig. I had a teacher in school with that spelling. It was Koenig. Koenig. Yeah, yeah. So it could be W-O-E-S-T. That's why I'm going with W-O-E-S-T. Okay. But Jeff, do you remember last week with New Ground, I introduced you to a lady named Heather Ash.

[2:32] Heather had been around as script editor since the very first episode, worked on pretty much everything. And they're like, hey, why don't you write an episode? And it turns out she'd written a couple of them, and that was the third one that she'd actually written. Kind of the same thing going on here, except it's now in the director's role, not a writer's role. Peter has been around since Children of the Gods. He's worked on nearly every episode as the director of photography for the production. But here, for the first time, he's stepping into the big chair, the big director's chair. And he's going to kind of pull like a Jonathan Frakes type situation where... He's going to catch an episode or two or three per season from basically here on out. Wow, cool. But I do, it's interesting to me, you know, Stargate really is like a family. They keep things very much in the family with what they have going on. So I kind of like that about the production. And he is going to remain in the role of director of photography for all the other episodes or most of the other episodes that he doesn't personally direct. With that, Jeff, that's all I got for you on the front end of this, because I can't get into anything else without spoiling the whole episode. So what do you say? Let's go watch this episode. Let's do it. Hey, listen, if you're joining us for the very first time, you're amazing.

[3:40] Welcome. Every episode is somebody's first episode. So the way this works is Jeff and I are going to go watch this episode right now. If you're hanging out with us on YouTube, stick around because you're going to be able to watch the reaction. Jeff and I are going to do a live reaction to this video together right now. Now, if you want to see the full unedited version of that, plus all the extra stuff that we do here on the video channel, head over to our Patreon page at patreon.com slash. Bye, nerds. If you're listening to us on a podcasting app, we're going to meet you in the future on the other side of the episode where I'm going to share my first time thoughts and reactions. Brent's going to share the sci-fi messages that he found. Brent, let's dive into this one. Maternal Instinct. 7-1-7. Locked.

[4:23] Music.

[4:41] All right, Jeff, that was Maternal Instinct. I'd like to say welcome back to our audio listeners out there. You and I have just finished watching this episode, you for the very first time, and me for a great many a time, but looking for messages. Jeff, you get to go first. Take us through it, first-time viewer. What do we think of this episode, Maternal Instinct? I have one big question, just one.

[5:03] Is it just me or is Tilk's face getting really chubby? be it's not you yeah like really really i felt like i kind of noticed it last week but like yeah early and so i was just like oh it's very round so um yeah it's getting sorry all right that's all i have in this episode he says uh yeah basically i guess the donuts at craft services like really got him seriously yeah he'll get to a spot where he starts thinning out i mean you know what chris judge looks like today um he does get to a spot where he's there's there is a youtube video out there that basically tracks tilk's face from episode one like all the way to the end and i mean it's almost looking at the kind of change from like a michael jackson before and after type picture really like not quite that extreme but it's pretty close this is clearly a big episode right this is like uh harcesis and all that kind of stuff i think just to kind of put the end at at the beginning they ended this episode with like this sense of awe and wonder you know like even tilk and braytac who are out to kill false gods you know crossed their arms on their chest and gave a bow like they treated this uh this oma dasala like a for reals god you know or some being worthy worthy of worship i don't think the episode did a good enough job though for me to really buy into that sense of awe and wonder how do you mean the music lifted up they did this like.

[6:32] Cinematic when the when it flew into the stargate you know over the sg2 team and everything like oh it's this big thing and i'm just like oh yeah i think it was an alien that i don't know like it needed to use the stargate that seems pretty underwhelming when this whole time they've been talking like it can transcend to other planes of existence and stuff right right i think it's very It's very interesting. I think they talked about how this group likely seeded some of the Mother Nature sort of religions and beliefs and things like that in the earliest times on Earth. So that's kind of cool. Like, Oma Desala is Mother Nature. That's... That's cool. Also, probably not a ghoul. So some other being, but they spent a lot of time in this, and everything in this episode was interesting. At the beginning when they first started doing the deductive reasoning and cross-referencing legends and myths to figure out where Keb was, the whole idea of Braytac facing mortality.

[7:36] No, I'm probably done. I'm getting tired. I'm getting pretty old. And his whole arc to the end where he's like i feel young and ready to fight we have false gods to kill it's very interesting finding keb and then the buddhist kind of zen buddhist person and daniel going through that whole thing learning to light a flame when interesting yeah it didn't all come together though it wasn't cohesive it felt like a lot of really cool ideas yeah that That was really meant to say, yes, the Harcissus exists. Yes, it was on Keb. It's safe. And now it's somewhere out there. And the thing that's protecting it has the power to fry people and launch lightning, like a very powerful being. Literally catch multiple staff blasts coming from different angles. Yeah, snatch them right out of the air. So, I mean, this was a good episode. I just feel like it's not as good as they wanted it or meant for it to be. Does that make sense? Yeah. And there were little pieces too. I called it out when it happened in the episode when Oma DeSala was about to reveal herself for the first time. She was this flash of, well, first she kind of showed through in a pond. I think Jack was looking at it. No, Tilk and Sam were looking at it. I'm like, oh, that's a very gouldy looking slither right there. Then when she appears to Daniel, the way it reflected in his glasses, his eyes looked really gouldy when that happened. Oh, yeah.

[9:03] And it seems super intentional, or maybe it's just the way the lighting worked, I guess. I don't know. I wish I had more of a reaction to things. But one thing I've noticed in Stargate is oftentimes it'll build up and pose a question. The one it built up for me, will Daniel be able to do this cool stuff outside of here, or is this a local phenomenon? Is he going to be able to light fire out of dirt, manipulate guns in midair? Well, to answer that question, it was Mother Nature the whole time. Yeah. And not him at all. And I think, too, it was this weird thing where Daniel was both, I feel Daniel was both in awe of just the being of Oma De Sala, the way that she communicated and used her powers. Also, he was disappointed and upset and frustrated. And I'm not sure, I don't know, I feel like he was trying to be multiple things at the same time, which watered down the overall reaction to what happened.

[9:59] But on a good note, we have something to update our tracking board with.

[10:03] It's been a while it has been it's been a while yeah we uh we are keeping track of several things one of the things we are uh keeping track of is every time jack says for crying out loud and we got a new for crying out loud in this particular episode which is going to bring us up to an even 20 for crying out loud chef 20 20 for crying out loud yeah cool i think my last thought on this episode is this is clearly a paving the road episode like this happened and now there's possibilities in the future let me ask you do you think that's true because i said something at the beginning because you've just kind of come to see how stargate operates or it's exactly what you said where it's just clearly this thing i think it's clearly the thing that through this season from the time of you know of uh emanet when when we found out she was pregnant and the the whole thing that's been a big through line in this season has been the harcesis big deal they're not going to just bring out the harcesis and be like oh here it is now going away especially building up the threat that he is and all those things and so this was basically i what i feel is this was a thing to say hey all this stuff we've been talking about totally legit see here he is right here also taking him off the board for a while you'll see him later and a lot of this stuff will make sense when you see him because it's going to be weird.

[11:29] Maybe he'll be older than he should be or be able to do weird mind powery stuff. And he'll grow faster than he should. Yeah.

[11:36] But with this, all of that would make sense. So I think just the way Stargate tells its stories, this was clearly a launch pad for future things.

[11:45] So while it might be a launch pad, was this a crucible? Yeah. Did we learn from this? Were there any sci-fi messages for us to partake from? Well, I'm not really sure that it was a launch pad, but it definitely was a launch pad. That's a little Walt Disney World humor there for folks who are in the know. Was there anything? You know, Jeff, this episode was chock full of stuff. You know, if you knew that the candle was already lit, then the meal's been cooked a long time ago. Don't put anything between you and the place you are.

[12:17] Trust Oma Desala. Bella know that I'm not the one doing it. I just have faith that she's the one who's doing it. But does any of that really equal a sci-fi message? Not just a moral message, not just what, but a sci-fi message. Is it telling us something that really we can only get through the medium of sci-fi? Let's go through the litmus test. Do we get a hope for a better future? Eh. Okay. Are we talking about how we can be better human beings to one another? Maybe. Eh. If you read into the Zen cones that they were sharing. So you got to read pretty far into it. Yeah, very far into them. Does it hold up a mirror to society? No. I mean, outside of here's a Japanese Shinto Buddhist. Actually, I'd probably be more Chinese, wouldn't it? It's very Buddhist. No. So unfortunately, I got to go. No, this really isn't one of those episodes. I like this episode. I've always liked this episode. episode the the words that they say it's kind of like a little mind trip you know it's it's a real hardcore mind trip but i love the monk he's probably one of my favorite guest actors guest stars i don't even know his name but i really enjoy him in this show in this in this episode so perfect in the role oh yeah absolutely absolutely but unfortunately i'm not here to talk about how much i like the episode i'm here.

[13:39] To talk about the messages, and they're really just not there for me. And that's okay. I want to remind people, a lot of times the best episodes don't have messages.

[13:48] A lot of times the worst episodes out there actually have really deep and poignant messages.

[13:52] It's just how it seems to work. Not always, but it does seem to be that it works always. So, Jeff, I don't know that I can even really give this one a Chevron. I just don't think it was there. I agree. I always kind of keep an eye out for things. And, you know, one of the, on my life journey in the last, I don't know, year or so from the time we're recording this, I've really developed a meditation practice that I do on a regular basis. And I think it's an important thing everybody should do. It's pretty amazing. And this episode hit on that. And I was kind of pulling some messages from the episode in regards to that. But that's based only on my own personal experience. That's not in the episode itself. At most i could see a chevron but every single message and this is something you have to have your own shovel and do your own digging to get to so i think zero is a very fair rating well i am rating but you my friend are ranking you get to place this episode in our 100 completely accurate definitive immutable ranking of season three of stargate sg1 oh where to go there's so many let's Let's just do the top five just because the number one episode right now is Joel and ours memories and the devil, you know, that was a two-parter. So really we count it as one forever in a day. Number three is fair game. Number four is shades of gray. Number five is pretense. Jeff, I'm not sure that this episode cracks the top five. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. You get to make that decision. Where does this episode go? Maternal instinct.

[15:21] It comes pretty close to the top five. You know, I think I was pretty harsh on it when I was going through my for the first time reactions, but this was a good episode. I'm going to tell you what it's not better than, though. It is not better than foothold.

[15:36] It is better, though, by a slim margin than learning curve, making this one, Brent, our new number seven. That's a pretty strong, man. I'm looking at this top 10 episodes here. Some good episodes in here. it's her top 12 episodes i think for me that's where that's where the line draws is right at number 12 right now for us like i can see 13 which is dead man switch that was fun but also yeah rules of engagement rules of engagement actually rules of engagement's okay i could i could throw that one up a little bit but demons is just a little new ground i feel like i've seen that so many times before and what really happens point of view seth past past and present like Like, I'm okay not to watch those episodes again.

[16:23] It's a good spot, Jeff. Very, very good spot right there. Number seven is where we are going to place this. I can be a very fair ranker. I can be a very fair Raider. Look at that. We're good R&Rs. Although I prefer to be a Buccaneer than a Raider, but whatever. Where is that? Well, Jeff, that's going to do it for us this week on Stargate SG1. That is it for Maternal Instinct. Jeff, would you like to know what we are watching next week? Yeah. All right. Next week, we're watching. Oh, buddy. You're never going to guess what this one's about. We are watching an episode titled Crystal Skull. Kingdom of or just? Nope. Just Crystal Skull. No Indiana Jones in this one. So I will bet, I will bet a hundred Canadian dollars that we will see a crystal skull.

[17:17] Human. human not an alien one like we'll see a crystal human skull in this one and it's going to have a message that they're going to have to figure out like is it like a resonant thing like how do they get it sort of like it'll cause like i'll bring it in i'll cause some problems what's going on what's going on and then probably sam will be like oh this frequency is whatever and so it's going to be a literal crystal skull that carries some kind of important message you're a good Good guesser, Jeff. Let's see. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for us right here on Stargate SG1 for the first time. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Hey, please don't forget to subscribe while you're out there to wherever you get the show, whether you're listening on an audio podcast, whether you're listening on a video podcast, whether you're at the YouTube, Patreon, Spotify, Audible, any of those places.

[18:08] Please, rating, review, comment down below if comments are available. We love getting to see those. We love getting to interact with you guys. and most importantly please please please do share this show with somebody that you know who loves stargate sg1 or like my friend jeff over there needs to get into the gate for the very first time so for jeff i'm brent we're signing off thank you so much for joining us we'll see you guys next time right here hey brent stargate sg1 for the first time yep dude i don't know about you but i'm feeling awesome right now i got all this energy and stuff we should hook up we should go out and do something um you know it's really kind of late i mean what do you think i'm like 20 years old i gotta go to bed man no that's that'd be wild not me i'm feeling super young vibrant young alive i mean not a day over 80 you don't look at either barely indeed Indeed.

[19:04] Music.

[19:12] If you Google this Sala, all that comes up are Stargate links. Is it really? Many, many, many, many Stargate links.