Another free evening tonight, so I was able to watch the next episode in my Stargate re-watch - S1 episode 4 Emancipation.
It wasn’t as terrible as I’d expected! I’d forgotten a lot of the plot, including that the leader of the first tribe they encounter, Moughal, is fairly open-minded (though Carter still has to wear traditional dress), but his son Abu abducts Carter to trade her for Turghan’s daughter Nya. The rest of SG1 rescue Carter (by trading Jack’s gun for her), but they then go back to rescue Nya from being stoned to death, and Carter fights and beats Turghan to win Nya’s freedom and her own freedom.
There’s a couple of interesting points about the society - Moughal says that the rules were to keep women safe from the ‘demons’ that brought them there (presumably the Goa’uld), and points out that Turghan has to punish his daughter to show that he upholds the law, especially for his own family.
Daniel is still calling Sam ‘Doctor Carter’ in this episode, showing that they’re not really friends yet, and he’s the one who insists she wear the dress and talks about how SG1 can’t interfere with their customs. Fairly sure they don’t keep to that later in the series!
The scene with Sam in the blue dress is played for laughs, and we also get the reference to whatever Sam did on P3X-595.
Jack questions Sam’s hand to hand fighting skills (still seeing her mainly as a scientist?) and he has his hand on his gun during the fight, but after she’s won the fight, you see him looking at her as if he’s reassessing his opinion of her.
One thing that stood out is that we don’t see much of Sam’s interactions with the women of the tribes, beyond her conversations with Nya. I think (hope?) this would be different if the show was made today.
I have found a couple of stories linked to the episode that I enjoyed. This is a short and thoughtful story about Sam getting the blue dress, and the value of traditional women’s work:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
This is a story about SG1 dealing with a similar culture, set in season 6, which is moving and troubling at the same time. There’s a line in there that really got to me.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Next episode: The Broca Divide.
