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butterflyIf anything I write in here is contradicted by the show, I would love to know, as I've only seen half of season one and parts of four and five.
Daniel seems to be getting more and more... wound with each season five episode. Then he has that collapse of frustration in Menace and in the last two episodes of S5 that he's in, he seems to be in a constant state of high alert. His hand keeps straying to his gun in the Meridian flashbacks. Carter does that a lot, too, but... she's not civilian.
At this point, Daniel isn't either. He's still Daniel, but over the years, he's been adapting. Well, he had to. One of the members of the point team can't be behind the others. He has to be fit and fast and ready.
In a season seven episode, Daniel tells Teal'c that he finally feels like he belongs. And I'm watching from the beginning and... I can see how he hadn't felt that way before. The mere fact that he changes so much to be part of SG-1 speaks of how he felt that the original him wouldn't, couldn't, belong to the team.
His doubt in Fire and Water as to whether Jack would say nice things ta his funeral... played in fun, yes, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be taken seriously as part of the mosaic that is Daniel Jackson.
Daniel Jackson is a man who doubts his place in the world. In the movie, he takes the risk on the Stargate, because he doesn't feel like he's risking anything on earth -- he doesn't feel that he belongs. With Sha're, I think that he wanted to believe that this was where he belonged and yet... he had the Stargate uncovered.
He couldn't leave it alone. And part of me wonders if perhaps he wanted to be able to leave Abydos if it stopped being home to him, as he did earth. Daniel leaves worlds behind, time and time again, yet they cling to him despite himself.
He lost Sha're and, by extension, Abydos.
But he joins SG-1, tries to find her. Tries to win his world back. The one where he was adored, part of a beloved family, part of something that felt real. In his time with SG-1, they started to feel like family (Is there ever a reason given for his haircut between seasons two and three? Because that has a massive impact on the impression that Daniel wants to show the world.).
He loses Sha're again, this time forever, and winds more tightly to SG-1.
Then, in Season Four, things start to go wrong there, too. The show goes mildly 'shippy and Daniel gets left out in the cold (and seriously, he has one confused puppy look in Small Victories). But in S4, he has his passions. He can still matter, still be right, still be the one who has the moral center.
Then Absolute Power happens. I haven't yet seen the last four episodes of S4, but I'm hoping to see a shift in Daniel's attitude, one that extends in S5.
Because the Daniel in S5 is the one losing his sense of certainty in action. Things keep ending in disaster, but possibly none as heartwrenching as Menace. As I understand it, Daniel's met robots before (robot doubles of the SG-1 team). Reece could have been the key to defeating the replicators. She could have been the answer (though we don't know whether or not she would have been). Certainly, I think that Daniel was pinning a lot on her. Because... if he'd been able to reach her, that would shown that he was essential, belonged, was right. The same drives that push him in Absolute Power do influence him at other times.
But he fails. He doesn't reach her in time. More than that, his attempts to reach her are what make Carter believe that Reece has lost control of the replicators.
"This is the way it had to go down, and you know it."
And Daniel nods. He... gives up. The Daniel way is having no effect, it's doing no good, it's not going to work. This is the way it had to go down.
He's very... go-along in The Sentinel. He acts on the team to the fullest of his ability, finding the way through the force-field, but his passion, so evident in Menace, is missing. He's subdued.
"Man and machine working together to become a weapon." There's definitely some bitterness in that, but it's almost... resigned.
In Meridian, he gets a way out. Oma hands him the ticket out of the SGC. But what he doesn't realise is that he's moving to the other extreme, from reactivity to passivity. He sees ascension as a chance to make a difference, when he should know better (Orlin, Ascension). But at this point, Daniel wants out. There was a chance for Jacob to heal him. But in order for Daniel to ascend, he had to choose to leave (just as Cordy had to choose to ascend in Tomorrow).
Daniel seems to be getting more and more... wound with each season five episode. Then he has that collapse of frustration in Menace and in the last two episodes of S5 that he's in, he seems to be in a constant state of high alert. His hand keeps straying to his gun in the Meridian flashbacks. Carter does that a lot, too, but... she's not civilian.
At this point, Daniel isn't either. He's still Daniel, but over the years, he's been adapting. Well, he had to. One of the members of the point team can't be behind the others. He has to be fit and fast and ready.
In a season seven episode, Daniel tells Teal'c that he finally feels like he belongs. And I'm watching from the beginning and... I can see how he hadn't felt that way before. The mere fact that he changes so much to be part of SG-1 speaks of how he felt that the original him wouldn't, couldn't, belong to the team.
His doubt in Fire and Water as to whether Jack would say nice things ta his funeral... played in fun, yes, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be taken seriously as part of the mosaic that is Daniel Jackson.
Daniel Jackson is a man who doubts his place in the world. In the movie, he takes the risk on the Stargate, because he doesn't feel like he's risking anything on earth -- he doesn't feel that he belongs. With Sha're, I think that he wanted to believe that this was where he belonged and yet... he had the Stargate uncovered.
He couldn't leave it alone. And part of me wonders if perhaps he wanted to be able to leave Abydos if it stopped being home to him, as he did earth. Daniel leaves worlds behind, time and time again, yet they cling to him despite himself.
He lost Sha're and, by extension, Abydos.
But he joins SG-1, tries to find her. Tries to win his world back. The one where he was adored, part of a beloved family, part of something that felt real. In his time with SG-1, they started to feel like family (Is there ever a reason given for his haircut between seasons two and three? Because that has a massive impact on the impression that Daniel wants to show the world.).
He loses Sha're again, this time forever, and winds more tightly to SG-1.
Then, in Season Four, things start to go wrong there, too. The show goes mildly 'shippy and Daniel gets left out in the cold (and seriously, he has one confused puppy look in Small Victories). But in S4, he has his passions. He can still matter, still be right, still be the one who has the moral center.
Then Absolute Power happens. I haven't yet seen the last four episodes of S4, but I'm hoping to see a shift in Daniel's attitude, one that extends in S5.
Because the Daniel in S5 is the one losing his sense of certainty in action. Things keep ending in disaster, but possibly none as heartwrenching as Menace. As I understand it, Daniel's met robots before (robot doubles of the SG-1 team). Reece could have been the key to defeating the replicators. She could have been the answer (though we don't know whether or not she would have been). Certainly, I think that Daniel was pinning a lot on her. Because... if he'd been able to reach her, that would shown that he was essential, belonged, was right. The same drives that push him in Absolute Power do influence him at other times.
But he fails. He doesn't reach her in time. More than that, his attempts to reach her are what make Carter believe that Reece has lost control of the replicators.
"This is the way it had to go down, and you know it."
And Daniel nods. He... gives up. The Daniel way is having no effect, it's doing no good, it's not going to work. This is the way it had to go down.
He's very... go-along in The Sentinel. He acts on the team to the fullest of his ability, finding the way through the force-field, but his passion, so evident in Menace, is missing. He's subdued.
"Man and machine working together to become a weapon." There's definitely some bitterness in that, but it's almost... resigned.
In Meridian, he gets a way out. Oma hands him the ticket out of the SGC. But what he doesn't realise is that he's moving to the other extreme, from reactivity to passivity. He sees ascension as a chance to make a difference, when he should know better (Orlin, Ascension). But at this point, Daniel wants out. There was a chance for Jacob to heal him. But in order for Daniel to ascend, he had to choose to leave (just as Cordy had to choose to ascend in Tomorrow).
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-27 11:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-27 10:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-27 02:23 pm (UTC)Nope. The actor has said that Hathor cut it while she had the team in stasis, but there's no particular need to believe that.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-27 08:20 pm (UTC)Daniel just looks eons more military with the short hair.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-27 11:36 pm (UTC)After all, initially Daniel's haircut in the series was patterned after the one James Spader wore in the movie, but on OUR Daniel, the longer hair made him look younger and less a part of the team. With the short haircut, his face loses some of the impression of softness and innocence it had before (and he becomes even more of a hottie!).
(no subject)
Date: 2004-06-28 04:36 am (UTC)Reece and the Replicators, and <i>Abyss</i>
Date: 2004-06-28 12:16 am (UTC)"But he fails. He doesn't reach her in time. More than that, his attempts to reach her are what make Carter believe that Reece has lost control of the replicators."
Reece and the Replicators have become one sure way to interject a sense of tragedy into Stargate in recent seasons -- the sense that, no matter how good one's intentions or how hard one tries, it's all destined to end badly -- that the best one can hope for is to fight them to a 'draw', at considerable cost to one's soul or one's resources.
See, for instance, episode 6.12 "Unnatural Selection", where we find out what became of the Asgard's efforts to use Reece's remains to try to defeat the replicators -- as usual, it turns out that there's no way to deal with the Replicators without getting burned. And this time, it's Samantha Carter whose soul carries a wound afterwards, as loyalty to Col. O'Neill and the cold logic of war requires her to betray her own version of Reece. O'Neill and Teal'c seem reconciled to the necessity, in their stone-faced way, but Sam and Jonas Quinn aren't so sure.
There's also the earlier episode you mentioned, 4.01 "Small Victories", where Sam helps the Asgard stop a Replicator advance, but only at the cost of blowing up their shiny new ship, The O'Neill.
But Daniel's ambivalence about his military experiences seems to me to be evidenced very interestingly in episode 6.06 "Abyss" -- where Ascended Daniel attempts to bring O'Neill over to HIS way of thinking (a sort of spiritual game of "Red Rover," perhaps?), both out of a real concern for his friend and perhaps out of a desire for them to be a team again, but possibly also as a way to finally win all the moral arguments, by 'saving Jack's soul.' O'Neill's insistence that the path of Ascension is not for him and that if Daniel were really there and really his friend, he would offer more tangible aid, finally seems to get through to Daniel, who intercedes in the only way left to him without totally breaking all the rules, by making sure that Teal'c gets inspired with an idea of how to give Jack a chance, at least, to free himself.
In the end of "Abyss", Daniel has to acknowledge that their paths -- his and Jack's -- are not the same, anymore. But for how much longer will that be true? How long before Daniel CAN'T resist intervening directly to help his friends and family, no matter what rules or laws he must break? Only until the beginning of season 7, we now know.
Re: Reece and the Replicators, and <i>Abyss</i>
Date: 2004-06-28 04:38 am (UTC)A very depressing philosophy. And yet, as Daniel does discover in S6, it's much preferable to not trying. "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."
Also, wow, I agree on your argument that Daniel is, at least partly, trying to 'win' in Abyss. He wants Jack on his side, instead of being on Jack's side. Not all of the issue, to be sure, but definitely mixed in it.