h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'Fragile Balance' is an episode fans are destined to either love or hate. Stargate has never been above having a little fun at its own expense, and this episode takes that to a whole new level, and pulls it off with spectacular success, I think.

Originally conceived for season four of the show, 'Fragile Balance' failed to find a place in that season, or the two that followed it. Finally, re-written and touched up, it finds its way into seven - although you can't help but feel the significance of the title may have been lost somewhere along the way.

Playing as a straight-out comedy, this episode proves the best hour's humour since 'Window of Opportunity' in season four. A lot relies on the actor playing the 'young' O'Neill, but he succeeds wonderfully, arguably putting in a better performance than Richard Dean Anderson himself for this particular hour. Anderson's absence from recent episodes due to his reduced work-schedule has been noticeable, and any excuse to keep O'Neill out of the action of an episode is taken, often to the show's detriment. However, 'Fragile Balance' manages to be an exception to the rule, as it doesn't suffer at all.

A departure into silliness this may be, and no doubt some will loathe it for that, but to me this will probably stand as a favourite for some time to come.

R25968 00:11 10/8/03

it was amusing. very, poor ol' rich...

I'm still disappointed we're seeing so little of him this season... he was hardly in last week's episode again

i am too. when he appears, its so short of a time. i wonder what theyre planning. i have a nagging feeling.

You mean what they're planning to do with O'Neill? I already know what they're going to do with him, but I won't spoil it for you unless you really want to know...

Go ahead and tell me. I will find out eventually.

Oh, my goodness! They're not really planning on doing that are they?? Oh, my. Oh, dear. Oh, NO! That would be absolutely wretched. They can't do that!!!

Uh? Hello? I'm getting seriously confused here...

They're going to have Colonel O'Neill promoted to General in season 8, which probably means he'll be getting his own command somewhere (though whether that'll be on Earth or perhaps the Alpha Site or elsewhere, we don't know yet) - it's a convenient way to make sure he can't go off-world regularly as a part of SG 1, though.

FraserD

I had just read what they were going to do. That's awful. They're also planning on getting rid of General Hammond. Now I know why I don't go to those spoiler sites. That means they'll have to break up SG-1. What will they do with everyone else?

I'm not sure that they're going to break up SG 1, necessarily - they might have O'Neill replace Hammond, and introduce someone else into the team. They might even bring back Jonas, although that is pretty unlikely.

I'm downloading last Friday's episode at the moment, and it should be finished in about an hour... I just hope it's better than I'm expecting it to be

FraserD

The episode Friday wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. I think the main thing was everyone was together again...FINALLY.

Stacy.