~*~
“Oh, God.”
“Your God cannot help you now Daniel Jackson.”
“It was more just an expression of general dissatisfaction.”
~*~
So, it’s new DVD Tuesday, and this Tuesday is one I was particularly looking forward to because it is the release date of the first straight to DVD Stargate movie, The Ark of Truth. I spent the entire day looking forward to my Stargate night. I was super excited when I checked my package tracking on Amazon to find that my movie had been delivered. I hurried home and made myself some dinner then popped in the DVD and had just started to watch when *BAM*--power outage. What the heezy?!? Ergh!! Imagine my consternation. Seriously. I just know some idiot ran into a power pole, because our whole street was out. Talk about timing. Luckily we were only sans electricity for about an hour.
By the time I finally got to start The Ark of Truth my anticipation had been considerably ramped. Luckily, I was not disappointed.
Man, I forgot how much I have truly missed SG-1. I make no secret of the fact that I am an Atlantis girl all the way, but (as much as I love Richard Dean Anderson and really did adore his years as O’Neill) I can’t help but enjoy the dynamic of the SG-1 team comprised of Cam, Sam, Teal’c, Daniel, and, of course, Vala. There is some serious team chemistry going on when you get these people on screen together.
Hmm…so where to begin? I guess I’ll start with a quick recap. At the start of season nine, SG-1 and the Milky Way are introduced to a new enemy, the Ori. The Ori are a group of ascended beings in the home galaxy of the Alterrans (or the Ancients). Back before the Alterrans left their own galaxy, the group that became the Ori discovered that once they ascended, if they could get the human population to worship them they could become even more powerful. So they created the religion of Origin and have subjugated the inhabitants of their galaxy ever since then. This is actually the main reason why the Ancients left in the first place, and also the primary reason for their whole “non-interference” policy when it comes to happenings on our lower plane of existence. Throughout seasons nine and ten, the Ori become aware of our whole galaxy of unbelievers and send their priests (or Priors) on a holy crusade to either convert our galaxy or kill anyone who refuses to fall in line. The Ark of Truth wraps up the Ori story line.
We start out with a couple of Alterrans discussing their new weapon that they developed to stop the Ori from taking over their galaxy. This “ark” is a piece of technology that can be programmed to show anyone who looks at it the truth of something. They made it to show the Priors and the human population that the teachings of Origin are a lie that the Ori are using just to gain power over everyone “beneath” them. Basically, it’s a brain-washing machine, but hey, it’s supposed to be for a good use, right? Unfortunately for subsequent generations, the majority of the Alterrans decide that the ark is immoral and could too easily be turned to use for evil purposes. So they take off, blowing up the mountain and village they inhabited, leaving the Ark of Truth behind them to be buried in the rubble.
Flash to present day to find SG-1 searching for the Ark, which Daniel has of course learned about in his research. They are looking for it on Dakara, which was the Jaffa home world before the Ori destroyed it. They are, of course, operating under the assumption that the Ancients brought the device with them when they came to our galaxy. They do find something, but before they can study it, a party of Ori soldiers, led by Toman, Vala’s not-quite-ex-husband, ambushes them. They quickly find out that their artifact is not the Ark, but luckily they have their handy-dandy anti-Prior device and are able to take out the Prior commanding Toman. The death of the Prior also finally convinces Toman that Origin really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so he defects and goes back with them to the SGC.
Back at the SGC, Daniel and Vala talk with Toman and he quotes some scripture from the Book of Origin that makes Daniel realize the Ancients left the device back in the Ori galaxy. He also figures out it’s on the planet where the Ori’s holy city is located, because that’s the planet where, according to scripture, evil originated. So that’s where the head honchos decided they needed to make their permanent camp, I guess.
The SGC gives the green light for the mission and Cam gets temporary command of the Odyssey to make the journey. Of course, the IOA just has to stick its nose in and sends one of its people along on the mission. You would really think that by now the IOA would have figured out that sending its reps on field missions is a BAD IDEA. I’m pretty sure, had Woolsey not been tied up with Atlantis, he could have pointed out that this just never ends well.
While Daniel, Vala, Teal’c, and Toman are searching the ruins of the Alterran village for the Ark, Cam and Sam are in orbit up on the cloaked Odyssey, and Marrick (IOA guy) decides to do something profoundly stupid. He locks himself in the Asgard core room and activates it, using it to spontaneously generate something. That something turns out to be a replicator (in bug form). I kid you not. My reaction to this was, of course, “Oh my God, you fucking idiot.” Pardon the language, but this is seriously a stupid idea. Sam and Cam agree, as does everyone else on the ship. The replicator is being contained by a force field while Marrick explains that the IOA never expected for SG-1 to find the Ark. Their plan was to send the Odyssey on a suicide mission, attract the attention of the Ori mother ships (accomplished by using the Asgard core) and setting the replicator loose on them, thus eliminating anyone in the Ori galaxy as a threat. Wow. Talk about dumb on top of dumb, and yet, not entirely unexpected from the IOA. Naturally, our heroes think to destroy the one replicator with their Anti-Replicator Gun before it can get loose and start doing what it does best—which is tear the ship apart to get raw material in order to replicate. In order to fire the ARG, they have to drop the force field, but of course, the IOA knew SG-1 wouldn’t be too keen on the idea of creating a whole new race of replicators, so Marrick built in immunity to the ARGs when he created the darn thing. As they try to shoot it, it escapes and begins to tear the ship apart in order to make more of itself.
Meanwhile, back on the planet, Daniel and crew has actually managed to find the Ark (with the help of some “visions” Daniel keeps having, which are how he knew about the Ark and figured out where to look in the first place). They begin to examine it only to be attacked by more Ori soldiers. Teal’c is hit with a blast from a staff weapon and goes down. This comes in handy, because the Ori soldiers are apparently idiots and decide to just leave the Jaffa for dead while they capture his friends and the artifact. Teal’c of course wakes up and though gravely injured, begins his hike to the Ori city where he knows his friends must have been taken.
Up on the Odyssey the crew continues to try to eliminate the replicators. It turns out the IOA did think to program in a kill switch—a self- destruct code they could implement once the threat in the Ori galaxy had been taken care of. At least they were smart enough to realize that the replicators would just come on through the super gate and start trying to take over our galaxy—again—if they were allowed to go unchecked. While Sam works feverishly to try to keep the ship together and find the self-destruct code, Cam tries to take out the original replicator before it can make more of itself. Of course he fails at this, so his new priority becomes to take out the queen as a distraction to get the replicators away from the crew trying to shut them off. In the process he gets the crap beat out of him by a now half-replicator Marrick. While all of this is going on, four Ori mother ships show up and start firing mercilessly on the Odyssey. Whee.
Back down on the planet we find Toman, Vala, and Daniel being tortured by an Ori prior, and then Vala gets dragged off to the main audience chamber. There she is greeted by her now ascended (and totally evil but still awesome) daughter, Adria. Adria informs Vala that the weapon SG-1 sent through the super gate sometime in season ten, which was originally designed by Merlin (who it turns out was an Ancient), did manage to kill all of the actual Ori. Fortunately for her, this means that Adria was able to assume their mantle and now gets all of the power from the worshippers that was once spread across all of the Ori. Vala can barely hide her pride, let me tell you. Merlin appears to Daniel in another vision, but Daniel has by now realized that he’s not really having visions, and he isn’t really seeing Merlin. Our old friend Morgan Lefay has been helping him to find the way to destroy the threat of the Ori—and now just Adria—once and for all. She says Adria is too powerful for her to take on by herself, but if Daniel can get just one Prior to look into the Ark, the message will go to all of the Priors and Adria’s power will be greatly diminished. Around this time Teal’c shows up and busts Daniel out of his cell.
There is one last challenge, trying to figure out the correct combination of symbols to activate the Ark, but of course Daniel rises, and with the help of his team gets the head Prior to look into the Ark. Morgan then shows up and takes out Adria, and back on the Odyssey, the Priors, suddenly engaged with realizing how wrong they have been all this time cease fire and the ship is safe. Yay! Happy ending!
After that it is really just more wrapping up. Toman goes back to his galaxy to lead his people and try to find the good within the teachings of Origin so they can start over again. Though he wants Vala to come back with him she of course decides to stay with SG-1 (and Daniel). We end the movie with the team getting ready to embark on a mission and wondering what kind of new big baddie they’ll find next.
All in all I was super impressed with this. Like I said, the group chemistry is just amazing. I think one of my favorite bits was how Vala kept trying not to let Daniel (her crush) find her comforting her sort-of-husband. It was amusing. Claudia Black can do serious characters without a question, but her role as Vala has given her a chance to show off her talent at humor and I have always enjoyed that. The story arc was very nicely wrapped up, but left open for the next movie Continuum, which comes out this summer, and any more that might come out, should the Powers That Be smile upon us. There was also a nice little element of having come full circle, especially with the inclusion of the replicators. That plot element could have tanked the whole thing, but they made it work very well.
So, yeah, yay for a new Stargate movie! Make more, please! And keep Atlantis on the air for years to come! Man…don’t even get me started on the season finale for that show that just aired. It is already way past my bedtime.
A few other notes:
I am going to absolutely cry if this season really is the end for Jericho. This show just keeps getting better for me with each episode, and there are only two left! Gah!
I am also very excited to get to watch August Rush (probably tomorrow), which came out on DVD today also. It was just a happy DVD day.
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week.
See you on the other side of the wormhole,
C
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