Re-watch: Season 4 - It's All About the Hair

[solotrek]

I love this season, because this is the season where Sam/Jack is just dumped on us. Also, are all of Sam's hairstyles this season even allowed? One of them got pretty long.

[theredhead77]

I would just like to talk about Sam's magical hair.

 

It goes from kinda long to long and puffy to super short. Did anyone ever figure out how long a season is spread out over? And when did she have time to get a hair cut?

 

I also think this is the season Sam's tattooed on lipstick and waterproof make-up of awesome starts. That stuff never moves.

[stillshimpy]

It goes from kinda long to long and puffy to super short. Did anyone ever figure out how long a season is spread out over? And when did she have time to get a hair cut?

 

I think this goes back to the entire "Hey, the USAF agreed to acknowledge our existence and allow us to do things like pretend this was an AF program, but that came with the caveat that we had to give some nods to actual regulations."  

 

So for the eight seasons or so, they had to at least pretend to adhere to something resembling Air Force regulations and Amanda Tapping, who understandably enough was sick to death of always having to have the same haircut, wanted a bit more variety.  That variety got too long in the early poofy days of season four and the AF adviser issued a "cut that mop" ....suggestion, as I understand it.  It was part of Tapping's contract.

 

By the time seasons 9 and 10 rolled around the whole tie to AF had been loosened a great deal by the creation of Stargate Atlantis and their multi-national force and Tapping was finally able to simply start growing her hair.  Every off season she'd let it grow as much as she could and I think they filmed for about five to six months out of a year for 20 episode series (at least typically).  

 

Poor AT, they still had her under contractual obligation for that year after SG1 when she was on Atlantis for her remaining 16 episodes and man, check out her hair on SGA.  She had a bit of a follicle rebellion going on there.  Here in season four I think they just got scolded by the AF and AT overcompensated a tad with her "FINE, I'll CUT IT THEN!"  choice.  

[solotrek]

By the time seasons 9 and 10 rolled around the whole tie to AF had been loosened a great deal by the creation of Stargate Atlantis and their multi-national force and Tapping was finally able to simply start growing her hair.

 

So did the Air Force have any involvement with SGU? Because there was a lot of regulation breaking in that show. I can't see people freaking out over Carter's hair in S4 being really happy with all the CO/subordinate sex; outright murder; and other weird things that popped up there.

 

When I have time, I'll do a write up of this season, but I think S4 is by far my favorite season of the entire series. I may be biased because I'm a Sam/Jack fan though, but I thought it was really firing on all cylinders.

[stillshimpy]

So did the Air Force have any involvement with SGU?

 

Nope, I think all AF ties/involvement/approval was no longer an issue after SGA actually :)  Sort of obvious really, but

remember how they used to have real AF personnel of a very high rank appear from time-to-time? RDA also spoke at the Air Force academy on at least once occasion that I recall - and talked  a bit about how he wanted to leave the show, which didn't make TPTB happy

That was also part of the "look, we can be sort of semi-kinda ...not objecting and semi-approving, but it has to be within regulations for that kind of stuff to happen. 

 

I honestly don't know why they ever wanted it in the first place, to be completely honest about it, but I do know the stuff with Jack and Sam was directly influenced by that and so was AT's hair choices. 

Edited July 11, 2014 by stillshimpy

[Sonny]

I read somewhere they had the deal with the AF because they allowed them to use some equipment or such.

When watching this Season I kept thinking about this forum and the hair :D

 

Now to my thoughts:

Exodus is one of my least favourite episodes so far. My boyfriend even complained about my complaining. Though, just as I had given up and started reading the newspaper it picked up again and there was the whole thing with exploding the star.

 

Otherwise I liked almost all of season 4. The plots were interesting and  O'Neill's complaints about the Tok'ra made even them somewhat bearable. The team works together, the sense of camaraderie and friendship is clearly there. I guess so far I enjoyed this season the most.

 

Something I noticed during the re-watch is that O'Neill often gets just angry and resorts to yelling and threats to get answers. I wondered if I just didn't notice it before or if they made him so abrasive only for plot purposes? In The Other Side he clashed with Daniel, and I thought it was a bit out of character to suddenly disregard Daniel's thoughts so strongly.

[DittyDotDot]

I got really lazy with my re-watch, but yesterday I turned on Window of Opportunity and got sucked back in again. For some reason, this is a very iconic episode for me and one of the better "Groundhog Day" episodes I've seen. The scene where O'Neill explains "loosing it" is one that's stuck in my mind forever. I had forgotten how much of the mythology of the Ancients didn't really start to develop until later in the series. But, I still want to know what Daniel's question was!! ;)

Whereas S3 seemed to be mostly episodes I had little-to-no recollection of, S4 is chalked full of episodes I remember most clearly. It's funny how that works sometimes: 

• The Other Side - I really like this episode, it's a good discussion and everyone plays their parts well. I had totally forgotten Rene Auberjonois had a role in this episode and had me in mind of starting a Deep Space Nine re-watch, as well as maybe finding some old episodes of Benson to watch too. Why not, right?
• Upgrades - So, not only did Carter's hair get an upgrade this season, but we got a new Tok'ra too boot! Did love the team as pumped up super-humans, though. 
• Crossroads - Why does the show persist with Teal'c's backstory? Why, why, why? Setting that aside, the rest of the episode didn't make much sense either.
• Divide and Conquer - One of the better Tok'ra episodes, IMO, although, the whole "secret" was a bit over-played.
• Watergate - I liked this episode more than I remember liking it previously. Plus, it sets the stage for the IOA quite nicely.
• The First Ones - There's not as many of the "goofy" episodes anymore, but it's good to bring back the classics and remember your roots every now and again. ;)
• Scorched Earth - It's always nice when Daniel remembers he's not a member of the military and act as a civilian and get stuff done. 
• Beneath the Surface - Carter gets another haircut and they tease the Jack/Carter love story and then take it back...again.
• Point of No Return - Aww, crazy Marty makes his first appearance and Teal'c gets to ride the magic fingers! 

[theredhead77]

WOO and The Other Side are two of my favorite episodes. I've used WOO to bring people into Stargage because it captures the levity and darkness (I lost my son!) that is Stargate. 

The Other Side is just straight WTF darkness, especially the end. That may have been the event that made Sam realize Jack really did some damn distasteful things (though I don't think that line came until later in the series).

[BkWurm1]

2 hours ago, theredhead77 said:

The Other Side is just straight WTF darkness, especially the end. That may have been the event that made Sam realize Jack really did some damn distasteful things (though I don't think that line came until later in the series).

I remember this was also one of the episodes where Jack seemed to regress in how he treated Daniel, telling him to shut up several times and generally being really dismissive.  

[DittyDotDot]

6 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:

I remember this was also one of the episodes where Jack seemed to regress in how he treated Daniel, telling him to shut up several times and generally being really dismissive.  

Only in the beginning though when he was totally goal-oriented to get new technologies and didn't want to hear anything that might jeopardize the mission. I didn't think of it as a regression, but natural to the character given the situation. O'Neill is a military man and looks at things from a different angle than Daniel does and sometimes those two points of view clash. To me, that's what made the episode a good conversation instead of preachy. 

[BkWurm1]

I'm probably getting this episode where he yells at Daniel mixed up with later episodes before Daniel's "death" when it seemed like the show was returning to old conflicts and misunderstandings between Jack and Daniel for dramatic purposes, stuff that they'd previously gotten past.  At least I think that was the timing.  It's been a while since I've done a full rewatch.  

[theredhead77]

Jack is very dismissive of Daniel and does tell him to shut up when Daniel voices his concerns; however as DittyDotDot mentioned above, it was due to his being blind to all but the technologies he was ordered to acquire. Hammond does too, albeit in a much more diplomatic manner.

[DittyDotDot]

1 hour ago, BkWurm1 said:

I'm probably getting this episode where he yells at Daniel mixed up with later episodes before Daniel's "death" when it seemed like the show was returning to old conflicts and misunderstandings between Jack and Daniel for dramatic purposes, stuff that they'd previously gotten past.  At least I think that was the timing.  It's been a while since I've done a full rewatch.  

Oh, O'Neill tells Daniel to shut up and shouts at him and is downright dismissive of him in The Other Side, I just didn't see it as a regression given the circumstances. O'Neill doesn't always handle clashing points of view with class and ease and, quite frankly, Daniel was being counterproductive to the mission at hand--and a nattering pest to boot--so, I understood why O'Neill would lose his patience with him here. Of course he could've been more diplomatic about it, but that's not really O'Neill's way, IMO. And, of course, Daniel was right to be a nattering pest--not just because they turned out to be racist assholes, but because that's also in-character for Daniel.

I guess I'm just saying, people don't always act as we want them to and I'm okay with that as long as I understand why they're acting like they do. 

[FormerMod-a1]

I've been rewatching this season on the Comet channel, and if I may be completely shallow, I think both Daniel Jackson/Michael Shanks and Colonel O'Neil/RDA were looking so might fine.  Maybe their peak attractiveness for this series.  Not that they ever looked bad.  :-P  But MS was toned up/trimmed down, shedding the geek image (in a natural progression from the first season) but before getting super bulky.  Yum.

[LadyAmalthea]

Season 4 is when the wheels started to come off the wagon - so many snoozer episodes - Divide and Conquer, Watergate, Beneath the Surface, Tangent, and only a few really enjoyable ones - Window of Opportunity, The First Ones, Absolute Power.

I never liked the replicators as villains, but they were tolerable in their first appearances.  Some really interesting moral dilemmas in The Other Side and Scorched Earth, although in both cases while both Jack and Daniel's initial approaches are understandable, in the end Daniel is 100% right in both circumstances.  It's funny, I remember Scorched Earth ending by Daniel convincing the ship to be stopped thus dooming the advanced race in order to save the Anterans, which is certainly a less satisfying ending but perhaps a more complex one (and doesn't make Jack wrong and Daniel right yet again).  

I was sorry to lose Martouf/Lantash - he never worked as a LI for Sam since he always seemed attracted to her because of Jolinar rather than for Sam herself, but he was a good Tok'ra character and I wished he'd stuck around.  

Dropped plot points:

• Freya/Anise - they seemed to be setting up some kind of weird Jack/Freya/Anise/Daniel love rectangle which thankfully never eventuated.  It wasn't her fault she was stuck in a "sexy alien" role, but the concept of a less scrupulous Tok'ra was an interesting one.  
• Shifu the Harcesis, who is never mentioned by either Oma or Daniel again - what's he up to during
  Spoiler

  Daniel's ascension/the fight against Anubis?

Edited August 15, 2017 by LadyAmalthea