Stargate SG-1 - General Discussion

[Aethera]

This topic replaces the old Stargate-SG1 forum which has been vaulted at the location below:

http://forums.previously.tv/forum/382-stargate-sg-1-v/

[Idiotboy]

Why were the SG-1 forums vaulted? We were muzzled right in the middle of a lively debate (on a subforum which I had initiated, ahem).

[BkWurm1]

We can pick it up again.  :D

[marina to]

We're back to a single thread! Whoo hoo! Happy X-days, everyone?

I finally got data off my old laptop's hard drive and found two DanJan stories in progress. One I had been looking for in my notes, based on Lifeboat. The other is an AU where camo-Janet ends up in this universe and Unending never happens. I even have a file from a discussion on TWoP about it. 

Thinking I just post the first one. While it was intended to go on longer, it can work as an episode stand alone. I can always add chapters later. But the second? Intriguing idea. Just not sure if I can get back into that mindset.

[BkWurm1]

If you did a rewatch you'd probably find yourself right back there in the same mindset.  But do you have the time?  If you do, it can be pretty satisfying though.  I am a Daniel/Vala fan so my fix for Unending was rewriting the ending a bit and letting them get them their memories back and get young again.  I reread it every once and a while and it always makes me happy.  You could have the same with Dan/Jan.

[blueray]

4 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:

If you did a rewatch you'd probably find yourself right back there in the same mindset.  But do you have the time?  If you do, it can be pretty satisfying though.  I am a Daniel/Vala fan so my fix for Unending was rewriting the ending a bit and letting them get them their memories back and get young again.  I reread it every once and a while and it always makes me happy.  You could have the same with Dan/Jan.

I wish that was the ending too. That way Teal'c also got to stay young and that somehow all the characters remember what happened.  Either that or none of them did. Thinking back, I never really liked how Teal'c story resulted in him aging and would have got rite of that all together.

[BkWurm1]

I was sad that Teal'c had so many years of memories and experiences that isolated him from his friends but I didn't mind the aging part.  It was IMO a clever way to handle the realities of the actor getting older when his character shouldn't.  Also, I think it would have been amusing for Teal'c to know so much more than anyone realizes about their histories since he would know ALL their stories by the time time was reversed.  It would have made for fun episodes for him to spill the beans about stuff they hadn't shared for one reason or the other.  So I can see advantages of the move but yeah, then I go back to remembering all that he'd shared with his friends has been forgotten and that makes me sad again he's left so alone even once back in the fold.  

[BkWurm1]

Just because I mentioned it.  Link to my rewritten ending for Unending.  The third chapter is mostly Daniel and Vala (unabashed shipper) but it's a very happy, teamy fic.  At one point I thought I might do more than the three chapters but while it's not marked complete, it is. 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3610711/1/Unending-The-Return

[FormerMod-a1]

Comet has come back around to Season 1.  No matter how many times I see this show, I still love it.  Season 1 we pretty good right out of the gate, imo.  However, Emancipation is on right now and it's one I don't love.  I don't hate it, it's just not a fave.

[BkWurm1]

You are being far too kind to that cringefest, lol.

Edited January 23, 2019 by BkWurm1

[blueray]

Emancipation, I think is my least favorite episode of the whole show.

[kassygreene]

I was moving across country at the time and had limited access to Showtme for awhile (remember when this was only on a premium network?), but Emancipation was the reason I didn't subscribe to Showtime after the move.  I didn't watch SG-1 until another move later, when I got Showtime bundled and caught up on season 4 there and season 3 in syndication, all wildly out of order, and all immensely better than Emancipation.

[shapeshifter]

Is Emancipation the one in which Sam hallucinates? If so, I thought I liked it.

[ae2]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Is Emancipation the one in which Sam hallucinates? If so, I thought I liked it.

No, that's a much later episode. Emancipation is the 3rd episode of season 1, where they visit a Mongol society and Sam is sold into (sex) slavery.

On the one hand, it makes sense that they would encounter cultures that still hold outdated beliefs about genders, races, equality, etc.

On the other, it was just terribly executed at every level.

I guess the positive aspect here is that SG1 got it's indisputably worst episode out of the way right up front. Compare that to say, any Star Trek series (and I adore them all) where you could make a case for their worst episodes coming in their final season or two.

[Joe]

Carmen Argenziano, Jacob Carter, has died age 75. No details about his passing are provided. It's a nice article about his life and career.

[FormerMod-a1]

So sad! 

[shapeshifter]

13 minutes ago, Joe said:

Carmen Argenziano, Jacob Carter, has died age 75. No details about his passing are provided. It's a nice article about his life and career.

Thanks for posting, @Joe. He imbued the character of Jacob with a lot of heart without "chewing scenery" or projecting ego. Looking at his very scant Wikipedia page, I suspect he was much like that IRL too.

[TVSpectator]

4 hours ago, Joe said:

Carmen Argenziano, Jacob Carter, has died age 75. No details about his passing are provided. It's a nice article about his life and career.

I just heard about this on Reddit. So sad. 

[blueray]

That is so sad. I mostly knew him just as Sam's father.

[marina to]

Came to commiserate about Carmen. Damn, he was good as Jacob. Really wish they hadn't killed him off. The show was really bad with killing off beloved characters in later seasons.

[marina to]

On 1/14/2019 at 1:09 PM, BkWurm1 said:

If you did a rewatch you'd probably find yourself right back there in the same mindset.  But do you have the time?  If you do, it can be pretty satisfying though.  

Sadly, I don't have the time. And I don't need to bring back the Vala rage. That was the driving force behind that piece, showing why it was a dumb idea to make her part of the team. Bringing back my ship was the other part of that but there was a lot that needed to happen. It would be a very long story. 

Might try that with Lifeboat though. See if that second chapter comes to me.

[Idiotboy]

Getting back to Dan/Jan for a moment, I thought this was the ship that floated with the greatest amount of buoyancy, maybe because it was initiated by the actors themselves and the writers never touched it. It was there if you wanted to see it and, if not, you could always hand wave the handholding in Rite of Passage and the "I don't give a damn" moment in Lifeboat (Teryl Rothery did several 'correct' takes and then went for broke on the last one, which director Peter DeLuise had the good sense to use). Daniel's grieving almost made Heroes bearable and there were even trace elements of 'ship' in Ripple Effect, even though Daniel/Vala was the official ship of the moment. I certainly didn't mind it because Daniel Shanks and TR made a lovely couple -- and it explained why Daniel's glasses were in Doc Fraiser's pocket in S7.

[marina to]

The handhold in Rite of Passage! *swoon*

@Idiotboy, I will have to put my Lifeboat story up just for you. If I'm lucky, Janet will return to give me her side.

[marina to]

Ok, finally posted to AO3. Going to FF.net next. My DanJan take on Daniel's head in Lifeboat.

Lifelines

[Idiotboy]

Just lovely, marina to. It makes me want to watch Lifeboat again so that I can appreciate your story in context. Keep up the terrific work.

On a tangentially related note, Amanda Tapping has been in New York City these last two weeks, directing an episode of Blindspot (so there's finally something to be said for that show) and clearly having a whale of a time. It's nice to know that A-Tap's playing in the bigs and hopefully will continue to do so forever and a day.

[marina to]

Thanks @Idiotboy. I do love writing Daniel. Part of me really wants to go back to it but I have so many other things I need to devote time to I don't know how. I haven't watched an episode in years but I have so many other things to watch I don't know when to find the time.

Martin Gero is involved with Blindspot so it's nice to know he's sticking with the good peeps he knows. I'm also really happy that Resurrection was the start of something pretty special. (I really liked that episode but I know a lot of people didn't.) I loved hearing her in the commentary talking about directing. She was so giddy!

Edited March 21, 2019 by marina to

[Idiotboy]

Here's some eye candy, just for the heck of it. Amanda's more Dr. Helen Magnus here than Sam Carter, but lovely as always.

[Featherhat]

Sam Carter, still one of my favourite characters on tv. As is SG-1 as a show. I recently found it on repeat in the UK and still the best for relaxing to, working out to etc. And still more thought provoking than SGU...…….

Edited March 26, 2019 by Featherhat

[FormerMod-a1]

I've got SG1 on right now (on Comet).

[Idiotboy]

SGU was a terrible mistake, a classic case of what happens when you spurn the fans you *have* in favor of teenyboppers and BSG fans (and odd combination). That show scraped on my nerve ends incessantly. The attempt to put Jack O'Neill-style quips in a young nerd's mouth was an epic fail. But I digress.

Does anybody else have trouble with S8 simply in terms of not feeling compelled to go from one episode to another? I know there are some strong installments at the end, culminating in "Threads" and "Moebius" but there's a f@ckton of filler like "Citizen Joe," not to mention the arid wastes of "Gemini" and "P.U." At least there's a partial reboot in S9 but one's feelings about that may swing upon how much enthusiasm you can muster to the Prior as replacements for the Goa'uld. The latter were at least outlandish and entertaining, while the Replicators had a high creep factor. The Priors are the No Fun Bunch.

[ae2]

2 hours ago, Idiotboy said:

Does anybody else have trouble with S8 simply in terms of not feeling compelled to go from one episode to another? I know there are some strong installments at the end, culminating in "Threads" and "Moebius" but there's a f@ckton of filler like "Citizen Joe," not to mention the arid wastes of "Gemini" and "P.U." At least there's a partial reboot in S9 but one's feelings about that may swing upon how much enthusiasm you can muster to the Prior as replacements for the Goa'uld. The latter were at least outlandish and entertaining, while the Replicators had a high creep factor. The Priors are the No Fun Bunch.

No, and I'm really stunned that someone could feel that way about S8 of all seasons! It's the final culmination of everything that has been building up for the previous 7 years. Yeah, it's a little weird without Jack in the field, and they spend a lot less time exploring new worlds, but even at its worst it sticks pretty close to the standard SG1 formula.

What do you dislike about Gemini and Prometheus Unbound? In my book those are good episodes and P.U. has one of the higher ratings of the season. If we're going to pick on particular episodes from S8 we have to insert Teal'c's son's wedding episode at the top.

That said, I have noticed this feeling and slowed down dramatically on seasons 9 and 10. It's not that their bad, they're perfectly enjoyable episodes and I still love them as part of SG1. But the leadup to S8 was just so enticing and I don't have that same sense of urgency to see these new stories to their conclusion. It took my SO and I about 3 months for seasons 1-8 and about 1 month each for seasons 9 and 10. (A rewatch for me, mostly first watch for the SO).

[kassygreene]

3 hours ago, Idiotboy said:

SGU was a terrible mistake, a classic case of what happens when you spurn the fans you *have* in favor of teenyboppers and BSG fans (and odd combination). That show scraped on my nerve ends incessantly. The attempt to put Jack O'Neill-style quips in a young nerd's mouth was an epic fail. But I digress.

Does anybody else have trouble with S8 simply in terms of not feeling compelled to go from one episode to another? I know there are some strong installments at the end, culminating in "Threads" and "Moebius" but there's a f@ckton of filler like "Citizen Joe," not to mention the arid wastes of "Gemini" and "P.U." At least there's a partial reboot in S9 but one's feelings about that may swing upon how much enthusiasm you can muster to the Prior as replacements for the Goa'uld. The latter were at least outlandish and entertaining, while the Replicators had a high creep factor. The Priors are the No Fun Bunch.

I greatly enjoyed season 8 - the production was so well established by then that they could write far enough ahead to film 2 or 3 or even 4 episodes in parallel.

And since Citizen Joe guest starred Dan Castellaneta, who voices Homer Simpson and therefore has an enormous fanbase among the cast and crew of SG1, and who himself seems to be a big fan of Stargate as he showed up in Vancouver a few months early and hung out, well, I liked it - and I don't like the Simpsons.

Starting for sure with season 5 (possibly season 4), every season was written like it was the last.  Season 8 as a last season worked really well.

[BigBeagle]

Quote

The Priors are the No Fun Bunch.

The Priors were probably one of those ideas that was better in theory than in execution. A foe that is implacable and relentless could be fantastic, such as the Borg on Star Trek, but that didn't translate to the Priors. Maybe religious fanatics are just boring.

[ae2]

2 hours ago, BigBeagle said:

The Priors were probably one of those ideas that was better in theory than in execution. A foe that is implacable and relentless could be fantastic, such as the Borg on Star Trek, but that didn't translate to the Priors. Maybe religious fanatics are just boring.

I really hated the Priors from when I first saw SG1 as it was airing. On rewatch they're not as terrible as I remember. I think they suffer for many reasons, but mostly

1. The basic premise is "they're like the Goa'uld, but they actually have god-like powers..."

2. We never got to see Priors with any semblance of personality.

I like the idea of having an evil Ascended Ancients as bad guys, but like you said, the theory was better than the execution.

Instead of introducing an entirely new bad guy I wish the final seasons had focused more on the fallout of the Goa'uld downfall. We could have easily seen the Jaffa turn into enemies of Earth which would have driven a lot of conflict for Teal'c. The Lucian Alliance could have been more prominent. The dominant galactic political system that lasted for thousands of years how now collapsed, there are so many stories to be told!

[shapeshifter]

On April 2, 2019 at 6:40 PM, ae2 said:

I really hated the Priors from when I first saw SG1 as it was airing. On rewatch they're not as terrible as I remember. I think they suffer for many reasons, but mostly

1. The basic premise is "they're like the Goa'uld, but they actually have god-like powers..."

2. We never got to see Priors with any semblance of personality.

I like the idea of having an evil Ascended Ancients as bad guys, but like you said, the theory was better than the execution.

Instead of introducing an entirely new bad guy I wish the final seasons had focused more on the fallout of the Goa'uld downfall. We could have easily seen the Jaffa turn into enemies of Earth which would have driven a lot of conflict for Teal'c. The Lucian Alliance could have been more prominent. The dominant galactic political system that lasted for thousands of years how now collapsed, there are so many stories to be told!

I too detested the introduction of the Ori Priors and would have definitely preferred the alternate scenarios you have described, @ae2.

I never got past the Priors' creepy appearance — I think they were supposed to be scarred by fire by choice? 
IIRC, none of them really had personalities — they were so obsessed with following their leader that they lost any unique, personal identities. Does that sound right?
An interesting concept, but losing Jack at the same time was too much.

To me, Jack was the heart and soul of the show — even though I probably prefered the characters of Sam and Daniel. Does that make sense? Ben Browder was a great "replacement," but combined with the whole Ori plot, the last two seasons didn't work for me. 
I hate the medieval settings even more, if possible.
Dammit. Need. More. Spaceships!

But I was still a completionist in those days, and I did feel rewarded for it with the series finale, "Unending."

I prefered Stargate Atlantis to seasons 9 and 10 of not-SG1 — largely because of John Shepard/Joe Flanigan and Rodney McKay/David Hewlett with their Jack O'Neill-style snark.
Plus, when the city of Atlantis rose up in the premier, I was hooked.
And Replicators were a much better villain, IMO.

I even prefered SGU to the Ori/Prior seasons of SG1.

[Anduin]

On the subject of things we don't like about Stargate, I found myself thinking of the Bill McCay books. They were IMO pretty good. They did a couple of things differently to the show. Specifically, the Gateroom was more heavily weaponed up. Anyone who came through the gate would be standing in a patch of claymore mines, facing several heavy machine guns. The kind that are fixed in place, not the handheld kind. Of course, the book gate didn't have an iris. Still, in terms of raw firepower, the books had the show beat.

Second, Hathor. I'm sorry, but I have to be shallow here. Book Hathor was supposed to be the hottest Middle Eastern woman you could imagine. Suanne Braun isn't bad, but she didn't look the part.

[ae2]

8 hours ago, Anduin said:

On the subject of things we don't like about Stargate, I found myself thinking of the Bill McCay books. They were IMO pretty good. They did a couple of things differently to the show. Specifically, the Gateroom was more heavily weaponed up. Anyone who came through the gate would be standing in a patch of claymore mines, facing several heavy machine guns. The kind that are fixed in place, not the handheld kind. Of course, the book gate didn't have an iris. Still, in terms of raw firepower, the books had the show beat.

Second, Hathor. I'm sorry, but I have to be shallow here. Book Hathor was supposed to be the hottest Middle Eastern woman you could imagine. Suanne Braun isn't bad, but she didn't look the part.

Books based off the movie and started before SG1, those should be fun! I'm going to have to try to find them.

We did sometimes see larger machine stations targeting the gate, but they weren't always present or visible. That was probably just due to budget or time issues, or simply because they got sick of showing the same scene of soldiers running to man the turrets.

And SG1 just skipped the claymores around the gate in favor of a frequently used, frequently abused self destruct system. 😁 Really, the iris and the wrist band GDOs significantly dampen the threat the gate poses.

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who likes SG1's Hathor!

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, ae2 said:

Books based off the movie and started before SG1, those should be fun! I'm going to have to try to find them.

We did sometimes see larger machine stations targeting the gate, but they weren't always present or visible. That was probably just due to budget or time issues, or simply because they got sick of showing the same scene of soldiers running to man the turrets.

And SG1 just skipped the claymores around the gate in favor of a frequently used, frequently abused self destruct system. 😁 Really, the iris and the wrist band GDOs significantly dampen the threat the gate poses.

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who likes SG1's Hathor!

Good luck. Apparently the last one was published in 1999. But you never know your luck.

I don't remember any heavy weapons. Considering what I said, you'd think it would stick in my mind, but apparently not.

And I don't mind Hathor for her own sake, she just didn't live up to the book Hathor.

[shapeshifter]

On 4/4/2019 at 8:23 AM, Anduin said:

On 4/4/2019 at 7:08 AM, ae2 said:

Books based off the movie and started before SG1, those should be fun! I'm going to have to try to find them.

Good luck. Apparently the last one was published in 1999. But you never know your luck.

Tie-in novels are notoriously poorly written, but here you go. 
Scroll down on each linked page to see local libraries from which you can borrow the book, provided your geolocation is not masked. On the right of each page are links to purchase. But you can also just Google the titles.

• McCay, Bill. Stargate: Rebellion. New York, N.Y: Penguin Group, 1995, see availability at worldcat.org/title/rebellion/oclc/33200812
   
• McCay, Bill, Dean Devlin, and Roland Emmerich. 1996. Stargate: Retaliation. New York: Penguin, see availability at worldcat.org/title/stargate-retaliation/oclc/880865122
   
• McCay, Bill, Dean Devlin, and Roland Emmerich. Stargate: Retribution. New York: ROC Books, 1997, see availability at worldcat.org/title/stargate-retribution/oclc/240714790
   
• McCay, Bill. Stargate: Reconnaissance. New York, NY: ROC, 1998, see availability at  worldcat.org/title/stargate-reconnaissance/oclc/680106915
   
• McCay, Bill, Dean Devlin, and Roland Emmerich. [Stargate]: Resistance. New York, N.Y: New American Library, 1999, see availability at worldcat.org/title/resistance/oclc/42654238; ebook also on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/resistance00mcca

If you do read any and find them worthwhile, perhaps post here.

Edited April 5, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Anduin]

I remember the books being good. I also remember there being more than four. Hmm.

[kassygreene]

I think there are six.  I think I have them all.  Somewhere.  I've moved four times since I got them.

I seem to recall that three of the books were based on the movie, and the other three on the series.

[Anduin]

23 minutes ago, kassygreene said:

I think there are six.  I think I have them all.  Somewhere.  I've moved four times since I got them.

I seem to recall that three of the books were based on the movie, and the other three on the series.

I know there was a different line of books based on the show. I bought one, it was terrible, I didn't buy any more. There were also Atlantis ones, but I was never into Atlantis.

[marina to]

On 4/2/2019 at 12:08 PM, Idiotboy said:

SGU was a terrible mistake, a classic case of what happens when you spurn the fans you *have* in favor of teenyboppers and BSG fans (and odd combination). That show scraped on my nerve ends incessantly. The attempt to put Jack O'Neill-style quips in a young nerd's mouth was an epic fail. But I digress.

Does anybody else have trouble with S8 simply in terms of not feeling compelled to go from one episode to another? I know there are some strong installments at the end, culminating in "Threads" and "Moebius" but there's a f@ckton of filler like "Citizen Joe," not to mention the arid wastes of "Gemini" and "P.U." At least there's a partial reboot in S9 but one's feelings about that may swing upon how much enthusiasm you can muster to the Prior as replacements for the Goa'uld. The latter were at least outlandish and entertaining, while the Replicators had a high creep factor. The Priors are the No Fun Bunch.

Me too, @Idiotboy. I will never watch PU or Citizen Joe again. For S8, I want Daniel in suits and all the sweet, sweet Daniel & Teal'c scenes we lost when Vala showed up. Sadly, most of the Sam episodes were just bad. With Teryl and Don gone, the show lost it's heart. Jack could never be the cuddly commander that Hammond was and Frazier served a vital function of being someone the team could talk to who was not part of the team yet could be a good sounding board. 

The Priors were a great concept but horrible execution. As for SGU? Yeah, way to piss on the fans, PTB. I will never forget all the crap about how it was a show for grownups, UNLIKE SG1. Really dudes? Did you ever watch the show? Even Window of Opportunity gave you a whammy at the end.

Edited April 5, 2019 by marina to
added SGU rant

[marina to]

On 4/2/2019 at 2:45 PM, ae2 said:

What do you dislike about Gemini and Prometheus Unbound? In my book those are good episodes and P.U. has one of the higher ratings of the season. If we're going to pick on particular episodes from S8 we have to insert Teal'c's son's wedding episode at the top.

Vala. Vala abusing Daniel and it's played for laughs and titillation. And I really didn't need the duplicate replicator and the Sam-torture. The whole Replicator-Sam arc was just stupid.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Anduin said:

I remember the books being good. I also remember there being more than four. Hmm.

2 hours ago, kassygreene said:

I think there are six.  I think I have them all.  Somewhere.  I've moved four times since I got them.

I seem to recall that three of the books were based on the movie, and the other three on the series.

FWIW, I only posted links to the movie tie-in books.
  
  

1 hour ago, marina to said:

Vala abusing Daniel and it's played for laughs and titillation. And I really didn't need the duplicate replicator and the Sam-torture. The whole Replicator-Sam arc was just stupid.

I detest torture porn too.

Edited April 5, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Anduin]

53 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

FWIW, I only posted links to the movie tie-in books.
 

Further investigation: apparently there were five, which feels better. I probably have them in my parents shed, though I lack the desire to actually read them again.

The funny thing about the books, IIRC I discovered the first one at an indie bookshop that does a lot of weird and obscure/arty farty type books. But it's not the last licenced title I've bought from there. OTOH, I have bought weird and obscure/arty farty type books there too. Don't judge me too harshly. 🙂

[kassygreene]

15 minutes ago, Anduin said:

Further investigation: apparently there were five, which feels better. I probably have them in my parents shed, though I lack the desire to actually read them again.

The funny thing about the books, IIRC I discovered the first one at an indie bookshop that does a lot of weird and obscure/arty farty type books. But it's not the last licenced title I've bought from there. OTOH, I have bought weird and obscure/arty farty type books there too. Don't judge me too harshly. 🙂

Since they are apparently out of print you could maybe make some good coin selling them.

[Anduin]

47 minutes ago, kassygreene said:

Since they are apparently out of print you could maybe make some good coin selling them.

Hmm, good point.

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, Anduin said:

12 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

FWIW, I only posted links to the movie tie-in books.
 

Further investigation: apparently there were five, which feels better. I probably have them in my parents shed, though I lack the desire to actually read them again.

Thanks, @Anduin, I added the 5th and reordered them chronologically by date of publication.

[Idiotboy]

This discussion has gotten so lively I'm running to catch up. Thanks, Marina To: It's nice to know I'm not the only one who wants to crawl under the chair during certain S8 episodes. The feeling that they give me is of enervation, of playing out the string until Moebius -- which would have given SG-1 a nice exit had TPTB not attempted a reboot. I'm not surprised that P.U. was one of the highest-rated episodes of S8, considering how heavily SciFi pimped Claudia Black's guest appearance. Unfortunately, that will never compensate me for squicky scenes of Vala sitting on Daniel's face or Hiccuping Lieutenant being played for a sexist running gag. (Misogyny was a recurring problem with the writing.) Then came the incredibly problematic decision to make Vala a regular, a square peg in a round hole if ever there was. The upshot was to turn her into an intergalactic Mary Sue, wheeling and dealing in ways that went smack against the USAF team ethos of the show. She (and Black) could have been tremendous fun as a recurring nemesis -- as Continuum displayed.

That's all I've got on the fly. Maybe I'll re-read and come back with more ... oh, and I *loved* Hathor. The episode and the character.