SG-1: Divide and Conquer

[Mabus]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/stargate/sg1s4e5.php

This episode and the previous two form what could be called a "trilogy", but at best it's just three distinct stories that just happen to have a common character. I have a feeling that the writers had no idea what to do with the Anise/Freya character, which is why the character was never brought back or even mentioned again.

Also, that Za'tarc concealed ring weapon was pretty damn powerful, shame it only appears twice later in the show, you'd think it'd be more common given how useful it is.

[clearspira]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/stargate/sg1s4e5.php

This episode and the previous two form what could be called a "trilogy", but at best it's just three distinct stories that just happen to have a common character. I have a feeling that the writers had no idea what to do with the Anise/Freya character, which is why the character was never brought back or even mentioned again.

Also, that Za'tarc concealed ring weapon was pretty damn powerful, shame it only appears twice later in the show, you'd think it'd be more common given how useful it is.

It's actually even better than that. Freya was created to compete with Seven of Nine over on Voyager as they were concerned by the ratings spike brought in by the ''young men wanting to see a blonde with boobs'' demographic. Her actress even auditioned for the role of Seven of Nine.

So the story goes, the character was binned after they checked the ratings to discover that not only was SG-1 not at any risk at all from Voyager, but the writers decided that the show had become known for its strong women and didn't feel comfortable with having a character there just for fanservice. The latter particularly amuses me because come Stargate Universe the character of Vanessa James is literally just fanservice and nothing else - but different writers, different times, worse show.

Edit: I know Chuck goes into this, I just thought it was fun to talk about.

[Nobody700]

I hate to say this cause I sound mean and creepy...

But I never found Freya good looking. MAYBE it's cause they're trying so HARD it comes off I cannot find her this 'sex bomb'. She's WAY better looking than me, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some mega catch, but when a show tries too hard to show someone as gorgeous I just tune out. It's why I stopped noticing Seven of Nine's boobs, because they were always there so I just tuned them out so I could focus on wondering why Tuvok was always giving the rock glare.

On the matter of the episode, it's the best of the trilogy... and so it's just meh to me. It's really boring and I always skip the trilogy when I can, but it's the only one that doesn't annoy me. Stargate has done WAY BETTER and it's a good sign their voyager attempt failed. I don't want Stargate Voyager...

Cause we got Stargate Voyager and it sucked.

[pilight]

Jeri Ryan's sex appeal is overrated as a cause of Voyager's improved ratings. That might have drawn some viewers for an episode or two but people who tune in for that sort of thing are notoriously fickle and usually move on to the next babe quickly.

[griffeytrek]

I hate to say this cause I sound mean and creepy...

But I never found Freya good looking. MAYBE it's cause they're trying so HARD it comes off I cannot find her this 'sex bomb'. She's WAY better looking than me, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some mega catch, but when a show tries too hard to show someone as gorgeous I just tune out. It's why I stopped noticing Seven of Nine's boobs, because they were always there so I just tuned them out so I could focus on wondering why Tuvok was always giving the rock glare.

On the matter of the episode, it's the best of the trilogy... and so it's just meh to me. It's really boring and I always skip the trilogy when I can, but it's the only one that doesn't annoy me. Stargate has done WAY BETTER and it's a good sign their voyager attempt failed. I don't want Stargate Voyager...

Cause we got Stargate Voyager and it sucked.

It's that top. It is somehow both utterly bland and yet obscenely artificial. It's somehow everything bad about fake plastic boobs put up front center screen with maximum framing. It's like they looked at the early Seven of Nine outfits and said "Don't worry we can do MUCH worse than that!"

[Mabus]

Both this and Upgrades aren't bad, but there just isn't much to connect the two.
I also like how they inserted the deleted scene with Daniel going after the Naquadah in this episode. Most flashback episodes tend to just reuse clips from the previous episodes.

[Swiftbow]

I never had a problem with Anise/Freya. Though I DID first watch this show in my late teens/early twenties, so the boob top may have appealed more. It certainly didn't make me watch the show, though... I was already doing that. As an older man now, it does kind of stand out as more ridiculous to me now than it did then.

But actually, given how many Tok'Ra just came and went throughout the show, I just figured she fit into that grouping. I can't think of any Tok'Ra other than Martouf or Jacob who appeared for more than three episodes... MAYBE four?

I always thought that line about how Anise was attracted to Daniel, but, since Freya liked Jack "Anise would have to suffer" was funny. Especially since that meant she was one of the rarer Tok'Ra where the host tended to be more in charge than the symbiote.

[clearspira]

I hate to say this cause I sound mean and creepy...

But I never found Freya good looking. MAYBE it's cause they're trying so HARD it comes off I cannot find her this 'sex bomb'. She's WAY better looking than me, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some mega catch, but when a show tries too hard to show someone as gorgeous I just tune out. It's why I stopped noticing Seven of Nine's boobs, because they were always there so I just tuned them out so I could focus on wondering why Tuvok was always giving the rock glare.

On the matter of the episode, it's the best of the trilogy... and so it's just meh to me. It's really boring and I always skip the trilogy when I can, but it's the only one that doesn't annoy me. Stargate has done WAY BETTER and it's a good sign their voyager attempt failed. I don't want Stargate Voyager...

Cause we got Stargate Voyager and it sucked.

It's that top. It is somehow both utterly bland and yet obscenely artificial. It's somehow everything bad about fake plastic boobs put up front center screen with maximum framing. It's like they looked at the early Seven of Nine outfits and said "Don't worry we can do MUCH worse than that!"

I second both of these posts. Its also kind of odd in-universe. The Tok'ra are portrayed as a nomadic rebel group always on the run from the Goa'uld, stopping occasionally to live in barren artificial tunnels underneath deserts. This rubbery-plastic crop top ''thing'' is what you would choose to wear in this situation, is it?

There is definitely something incredibly unsexy about a woman trying to be obviously sexy. To put it another way... its the difference between Leia in a white dress and Leia in a bikini. It's not the outfits themselves but rather what those outfits represent when it comes to the character portrayal. The white dress is power, competence, presence, and yet still undeniably feminine; its worn by a woman who is willing to stare down a Sith Lord and fight alongside her rescuers. The other is the mark of subservience, the dominated, a slave. Admittedly, I think it does make Leia even more badass when she doesn't embrace the bikini and ends up killing Jabba with her own choke chain, but regardless, the whole of ROTJ is like this when it comes to Leia. There was a choice to make her ''more sexy'' and I just don't think that it works.

[McAvoy]

I hate to say this cause I sound mean and creepy...

But I never found Freya good looking. MAYBE it's cause they're trying so HARD it comes off I cannot find her this 'sex bomb'. She's WAY better looking than me, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some mega catch, but when a show tries too hard to show someone as gorgeous I just tune out. It's why I stopped noticing Seven of Nine's boobs, because they were always there so I just tuned them out so I could focus on wondering why Tuvok was always giving the rock glare.

On the matter of the episode, it's the best of the trilogy... and so it's just meh to me. It's really boring and I always skip the trilogy when I can, but it's the only one that doesn't annoy me. Stargate has done WAY BETTER and it's a good sign their voyager attempt failed. I don't want Stargate Voyager...

Cause we got Stargate Voyager and it sucked.

I agree. Freya is attractive to be sure but not on that level.

I also agree with the ignoring the boobs thing too. If you see them constantly they no longer become an object of desire or intrigue. Like the difference between first dates and married or dating for years. One moment you are acting like you are 14 looking for a nip slip and the next it's six years later your GF or wife is butt naked drying herself out of the shower but all you care about is picking up dog food on the next errand while brushing your teeth next to her.

[clearspira]

I hate to say this cause I sound mean and creepy...

But I never found Freya good looking. MAYBE it's cause they're trying so HARD it comes off I cannot find her this 'sex bomb'. She's WAY better looking than me, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some mega catch, but when a show tries too hard to show someone as gorgeous I just tune out. It's why I stopped noticing Seven of Nine's boobs, because they were always there so I just tuned them out so I could focus on wondering why Tuvok was always giving the rock glare.

On the matter of the episode, it's the best of the trilogy... and so it's just meh to me. It's really boring and I always skip the trilogy when I can, but it's the only one that doesn't annoy me. Stargate has done WAY BETTER and it's a good sign their voyager attempt failed. I don't want Stargate Voyager...

Cause we got Stargate Voyager and it sucked.

I agree. Freya is attractive to be sure but not on that level.

I also agree with the ignoring the boobs thing too. If you see them constantly they no longer become an object of desire or intrigue. Like the difference between first dates and married or dating for years. One moment you are acting like you are 14 looking for a nip slip and the next it's six years later your GF or wife is butt naked drying herself out of the shower but all you care about is picking up dog food on the next errand while brushing your teeth next to her.

That must be what its like to be a nudist or one of those tribal women you see on National Geographic. It's quite interesting to think about how different our society would be without a nudity taboo, isn't it?