Stargate SG-1 Review - 1969

[drewder]

I think wrapping up the hippies was unnecessary. Often in time travel episodes the heros encounter someone and have one interaction and the show has that interaction lead to that person curing cancer or being the guy who convinced the government to restart the stargate program or something. Not everything you do in the past is going to be some sort of super butterfly moment and the reason the hippies are there is to show how the characters would react to being given the chance to change the past for someone who doesn't matter, who as far as they know could be brought back to the future without any major consequences and show that once again they think with their heads instead of their emotions.

[Nealithi]

I think wrapping up the hippies was unnecessary. Often in time travel episodes the heros encounter someone and have one interaction and the show has that interaction lead to that person curing cancer or being the guy who convinced the government to restart the stargate program or something. Not everything you do in the past is going to be some sort of super butterfly moment and the reason the hippies are there is to show how the characters would react to being given the chance to change the past for someone who doesn't matter, who as far as they know could be brought back to the future without any major consequences and show that once again they think with their heads instead of their emotions.

I am not saying they should be super important. But just checking records and finding out what happened to them would be nice for both the audience and fit with the characters. I know once I got back to my own time I would check records to see how they turned out. But not needing to be important is why I suggested they turned into suburbanites probably with kids.

[CrypticMirror]

I'm mostly with Chuck on this. I liked it, it was goofy fun, but I think they could have done more with the sixties than just a montage. When it comes on tv, or I do a rewatch, I always smile and enjoy; but I don't purposefully seek it out to rewatch like I do with some others. It is just too slight to be worth it.

I would love to see a series about hippies who do get abducted by aliens though, and not for sinister reasons, sort of Cocoon style, and them struggling to fit into a society that is even more hippie than even hippies. Either that or something based along the lines of Zenna Henderson's The People books, with hippie aliens trying to fit into Earth without losing their hippie-ness. In conclusion, I've now wrote the word hippie enough that it has stopped looking like a word. Hippie!

Not arguing your point. But I would like to see the idea if a hippie brought forward to now and see the reaction. No growing with the times, just transplanted. It would be interesting.

Not sure seeing someone commit suicide in utter despair at the wreck of human decency and kindness would make a good episode.

[Nealithi]

I'm mostly with Chuck on this. I liked it, it was goofy fun, but I think they could have done more with the sixties than just a montage. When it comes on tv, or I do a rewatch, I always smile and enjoy; but I don't purposefully seek it out to rewatch like I do with some others. It is just too slight to be worth it.

I would love to see a series about hippies who do get abducted by aliens though, and not for sinister reasons, sort of Cocoon style, and them struggling to fit into a society that is even more hippie than even hippies. Either that or something based along the lines of Zenna Henderson's The People books, with hippie aliens trying to fit into Earth without losing their hippie-ness. In conclusion, I've now wrote the word hippie enough that it has stopped looking like a word. Hippie!

Not arguing your point. But I would like to see the idea if a hippie brought forward to now and see the reaction. No growing with the times, just transplanted. It would be interesting.

Not sure seeing someone commit suicide in utter despair at the wreck of human decency and kindness would make a good episode.

So things were better in 1969 than today?

[Captain Crimson]

I really do hope, if they bring in a new SG TV show that's meant to be a continuation of the SG mythos, not a reboot, as Mr. Wright keeps teasing, that they DO NOT KILL CASSANDRA. She is VITAL to getting SG-1 back home when they reappear in 2089 after they stepped through the Gate from 1969. I'd prefer to keep the stable time loop explanation, TBH. And it's really, really simple - just don't have her appear at all. If she dies, that's gonna open up a whole list of plot holes that need resolution - like maybe she told somebody else and they were ready and waiting, or that Carter told several people as a backup. Will they address that? I don't know.

[CrypticMirror]

I'm mostly with Chuck on this. I liked it, it was goofy fun, but I think they could have done more with the sixties than just a montage. When it comes on tv, or I do a rewatch, I always smile and enjoy; but I don't purposefully seek it out to rewatch like I do with some others. It is just too slight to be worth it.

I would love to see a series about hippies who do get abducted by aliens though, and not for sinister reasons, sort of Cocoon style, and them struggling to fit into a society that is even more hippie than even hippies. Either that or something based along the lines of Zenna Henderson's The People books, with hippie aliens trying to fit into Earth without losing their hippie-ness. In conclusion, I've now wrote the word hippie enough that it has stopped looking like a word. Hippie!

Not arguing your point. But I would like to see the idea if a hippie brought forward to now and see the reaction. No growing with the times, just transplanted. It would be interesting.

Not sure seeing someone commit suicide in utter despair at the wreck of human decency and kindness would make a good episode.

So things were better in 1969 than today?

They were more hopeful, and there was certainly more of a social safety net, the betrayal of hope is an awful thing to experience. Yes, the modern world is a lot nastier in many way.

[Nealithi]

I'm mostly with Chuck on this. I liked it, it was goofy fun, but I think they could have done more with the sixties than just a montage. When it comes on tv, or I do a rewatch, I always smile and enjoy; but I don't purposefully seek it out to rewatch like I do with some others. It is just too slight to be worth it.

I would love to see a series about hippies who do get abducted by aliens though, and not for sinister reasons, sort of Cocoon style, and them struggling to fit into a society that is even more hippie than even hippies. Either that or something based along the lines of Zenna Henderson's The People books, with hippie aliens trying to fit into Earth without losing their hippie-ness. In conclusion, I've now wrote the word hippie enough that it has stopped looking like a word. Hippie!

Not arguing your point. But I would like to see the idea if a hippie brought forward to now and see the reaction. No growing with the times, just transplanted. It would be interesting.

Not sure seeing someone commit suicide in utter despair at the wreck of human decency and kindness would make a good episode.

So things were better in 1969 than today?

They were more hopeful, and there was certainly more of a social safety net, the betrayal of hope is an awful thing to experience. Yes, the modern world is a lot nastier in many way.

Social safety net was better? I am not so certain. But the general sense of hopelessness? I sadly have to concede is true. I wish I could argue it, but everyday seems to find another thing wrong another injustice. . .

[pilight]

I'm kinda with Chuck. This episode is all premise and no punchline. It feels like there's more montage than actual story.

[Swiftbow]

I don't know if they were really thinking about setting up future time travel stories with this ep.

The time travel here works on the stable time loop principle, where you can't change the past, because anything you do in the past already happened, and created the reality you came from. That's just about the most restrictive form of time travel there is (outside Ghost of Christmas Past "no one can see or hear you" stuff), and really limits the kind of stories you can tell. Which is why all subsequent time travel episodes ignore it.

This episode IS a stable loop, but it's also compatible with the iterative time travel they use later on. (I'm a huge geek for finding logical ways to make time travel make sense, so I'll explain iterative time travel in the last paragraph for the people who like tech stuff.) You just have to assume that we're seeing the final iteration... the one that finally stabilizes the loop. (IE, the first time it happened, they had to convince Hammond without the note. Also, they had to guess on the solar flare times. But, with dumb luck getting them home once, future attempts make it seem like it always happened the easier way.)

I really do hope, if they bring in a new SG TV show that's meant to be a continuation of the SG mythos, not a reboot, as Mr. Wright keeps teasing, that they DO NOT KILL CASSANDRA. She is VITAL to getting SG-1 back home when they reappear in 2089 after they stepped through the Gate from 1969. I'd prefer to keep the stable time loop explanation, TBH. And it's really, really simple - just don't have her appear at all. If she dies, that's gonna open up a whole list of plot holes that need resolution - like maybe she told somebody else and they were ready and waiting, or that Carter told several people as a backup. Will they address that? I don't know.

And, not that I want Cassandra dead, but her being around for them arriving in the future is not critical to the timeline. They change the past/present/future quite a few times in the show. And Continuum made it very clear that being in the matterstream of a Stargate is one of several methods that prevent altered timelines from "cleaning up" paradoxical entities.

Iterative time travel is used in Stargate and most other fiction (including most of, but not all of, Star Trek) wherein the time traveler can alter the past and erase their own existence, but the universe marches on. There are SOME differences... Marty can erase himself from existence, while, in others, being out of sync with one's own present often protects the traveler.

But, the basic method by which it works is this: Time is not a single dimension of space-time. There are at least 2 time dimensions, and probably 3. That is, 3 dimensions of space, 3 dimensions of time.

If you think of the time dimension as a river, then think of the second time dimension as a mostly dry riverbed with one active channel. Without time travel, the river flows and diverts by the actions of the people in the present. But a time traveler can divert the past flow, and cut off a future channel (ie, kill their grandfather). They don't disappear, though, because that channel they came from still exists... it just isn't active anymore. It's a dry channel.

Note, this is similar to the "multi-universe theory" but it more closely aligns with what is seen in fiction: changing one own's timeline, not jumping between universes. In any case, Stargate ALSO has multiple universes, and they operate differently. That's why I think they represent the 3rd dimension of time: entirely different, yet parallel, universes that each have their own wide riverbeds.

Thus: just the first dimension of space is a line, the second is a plane, and the third is a cube; the first dimension of time is a line (linear time), the second is a plane (transversable riverbed), and the third is a cube (stacked dimensional planes).

[FlynnTaggart]

Never much cared for this episode myself. I mean its an interesting concept but thats about it. Something to say "huh that sounds neat" but in execution wasn't so great. I dunno, them traveling to 1969 (nice) does nothing for me, I don't find the time period interesting nor did I find the hippie characters interesting. Certainly sympathetic, the draft sounds absolutely terrifying especially to go fight someone who you probably feel there is no reason to fight except Uncle Sam said to, just not interesting. The young Hammond actor was good though and it would have probably been more enjoyable for the episode to focus on him even if it would probably have not worked from a story perspective.

Still the episode was entertaining just because of O'Neill's antics. Between him and Marty McFly quite a few people are going to be calling bull on Lucas when he comes out with some obscure B-movie called The Star Wars.