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Stargate SG–1: Season Four
17: Absolute Power

Returning to Abydos once more, Daniel and the team discover the Harsesis child, calling himself Shifu and wishing to return to Earth with Daniel. Once there he touches Daniel, giving him knowledge of a Goa’uld defense system and putting him on a course that will fundamentally change the world... if Daniel so chooses.

Absolute power, as the saying goes, corrupts absolutely. Therefore, you can see which way this episode is headed quite early on. Stargate has become rather good at ‘What if?’ stories, usually from a parallel universe perspective, and once this episode skips forward by a year, you know that something’s not quite right. To Michael Shanks’ and writer Robert C Cooper’s credit, Daniel’s actions seem perfectly in keeping with his character, aside from an increased confidence in himself. He remains true to his principles and although he makes poor decisions, they come from the best of intentions, allowing him to retain audience sympathy.

As the others see him falling deeper into difficulty, the bond between the team also comes through, especially when O’Neill tries to show Jackson what he is doing before it is too late. It also continues the Harsesis child storyline, and it’s unlikely this fascinating child will remain absent for long. A strong entry into the series.

The Invisible Man – Season One
17: Perchance to Dream

As we observed earlier in this show’s run, occasionally the ‘invisible’ part of the title proves nearly irrelevant. Sometimes it’s hardly noticed as the story is strong enough to distract, but when the script’s lacking in originality, a bored viewer might suddenly think, ‘Hey! He doesn’t go invisible very much, does he?’

This is one of those times, with special effects used for a little breaking and entering early on and the remainder of the plot one of the oldest ideas in the book: people subliminally trained as assassins. Through a sheer fluke, Keeper Claire falls prey to evil technicians (one of them The Next Generation’s Wil Wheaton) who are brainwashing people, and now she’s convinced that a stranger will kill her if she doesn’t kill him first.

The opening features some fantastic interplay between Hobbes and Fawkes during their hilarious break-in to the FBI offices (including Darien having to be talked through using a Xerox machine), but when it settles down, the short-comings are quickly revealed. Shannon Kenny gets more of an episode than usual as The Keeper and makes the most of it, but the plot – using the coincidence of Claire happening to be chosen – is already onto a poor start, and the ending is so strained that it takes them longer to explain it afterwards than to do it.

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