Thought of the Day for TPTB
Abyss Review by Alison
Starring Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks
Written by Brad Wright
Directed by Martin Wood
This is the only episode I've seen of Season Six, and until we have additional appearances confirmed for Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson, it will be the only episode I'll see. Is it good? Is it worth the months of campaigning, the hard work and commitment? Is it worth paying £19.99 for the DVD just to see this one episode? Absolutely.
I was mesmerised by the scenes with Jack alone, by the scenes with Jack and Daniel. I've seen it twice now and still haven't begun to fathom its complexity, the myriad of issues it raises about the nature of these two men, who strive so hard to live up to the ideal the other holds of them as well as to their own standards and beliefs, who are so different, seeming opposed, yet always finding compromise, always coming together to do what's right. For every disagreement, there is understanding, empathy, acceptance.
The story is not without flaws. I'm still disgusted with the transparent plot device from 'Frozen' which resulted in Jack receiving a Tok'ra symbiote to so little purpose or effect. Daniel's couldn't-wouldn't-shouldn't, ascending to do more, to attain powers he can't use? What was the point, then, of his ascension? How can Daniel be content with the level of frustration and impotence he must endure? Already, we're more than suspending our disbelief, our hands, like Jack and Daniel's, are completely tied by plot devices.
There is also the ambiguity of what Daniel did do, his absence from Jack's cell followed by scenes where first Jonas, then Sam and Teal'c seem inspired to some intuitive leap of logic that leads to the chance Jack is eventually granted.
Lastly, we have Jonas Quinn, the man who knows least about the Tok'ra, who knows least about Jack, being the one to make those initial intuitive leaps. Brad, you really should have resisted the urge to play with your new toy. Jonas being the source of this handy intuition jarred horribly. He should have been background on this one, with Sam and Teal'c, who know O'Neill and the Tok'ra far better than Jonas ever will, taking the lead.
I haven't seen the previous episodes, won't see any after this unless Daniel is in them. I don't hate Jonas. I don't even dislike him. He barely registers at all, evoking no emotion, good or bad. He's just there. Wallpaper, if you will. Wallpaper with lines and a deference shown him by Sam and Teal'c which also jars horribly. He pulls energy and dynamism out of the scenes he appears in.
My opinion of Jonas remains unchanged since Meridian. He's a poorly conceived and awkwardly introduced character without the weight to even hold interest as a one-off guest star. I'm fortunate I haven't seen him in Daniel's office yet, but the sight of him making free with Daniel's books, aping Daniel's habit of bringing beverages with him to briefings and that constant writing in his notebook...what is this exactly? An attempt to lend the character depth of some kind? Why, if he has a photographic memory, is he writing in a notebook? Is he SG-1's stenographer?
I see that Jonas fulfils his requirements deedily. Sam doesn't have to do all the boring Exposition now Jonas is there, Teal'c doesn't have to be the Comedy Alien now Jonas is there, and Daniel doesn't have to be the allotted Humorous Geek, butt of that pocket-protector humour. Ah, Daniel. Jonas has finished what he started. He's literally taken Daniel's life, not just his precious, private, soul-defining books and journals, his place and his role on the team, his friends, his office, his wife's precious wedding bowl, the finds of Daniel's life, everything, right down to his mannerisms.
He's no more than a pale imitation, an ape at best.
Brad, what you delivered, though, was a powerhouse of emotions, conflicts, compromises, resolutions and new questions between Jack and Daniel. You talked of grabbing new viewers with your fresh new perspective and your new broadcaster. It hasn't worked though, has it? You'll be pleased to know it worked in Abyss. Someone wrote to me after the episode, commenting that this was the first episode of Stargate he'd seen, he was enthralled by the energy and spark of the two men in the cell. He had to know more. Not surprisingly, this guy is confused as hell that you let Michael Shanks go. He's not the only one.
It's not just because Michael is a brilliant, passionate and sensitive actor, but he made Richard Dean Anderson look so good. He made all his co-stars look good, look their best. People watching comment now on the flatness of the show, the emptiness at its core. It was never just the character of Daniel Jackson at the heart of the team, but Michael Shanks at the heart of the cast. You always had two stars, two leads but didn't see it. You put aside what was unique in the Jack and Daniel friendship and went for clichéd and obvious red herring romance. Like that hadn't been done to death a thousand times before.
In Abyss, you did good, Brad. You did better than good. You were brilliant. You punched people's hearts out, made them remember why they're fighting, what they could have again with Daniel back in the team, with these two characters and these two actors let loose. You made those who've got through Season Six without thinking or caring too much realise what they've seen so far is crap. It's fool's gold, all glitter on the surface and nothing at the core.
Abyss had heart. It had soul. Passion. Humour and pain. Not just from Daniel, but from Jack, whom so many have told me isn't here in Season Six even when he's on screen. You've given us an all-series best for Jack O'Neill, and the best performance I've ever seen from Richard Dean Anderson. I ached for Jack, for his humanity, his frailty. He had to face himself, had to learn his limits. He was brave and compassionate and terrified and angry all at once. He hurt and we hurt with him.
Where was this Jack? You kept him from us for so long. We glimpsed him in Beast of Burden, in Threshold and Enemies...but there's been so much anger, bitterness and cynicism where Jack used to be. In Abyss, you gave Jack back his dimensionality. I'm glad I watched. I can carry this memory of Jack instead of the man I didn’t know at the end of Season Five or for most of Season Four.
What came through for me so strongly here is that for Jack, Daniel is unique. Normal standards, normal rules do not apply. There was anger, yes, that Daniel couldn't-wouldn't-shouldn't help him, because he couldn't play God, because the others wouldn't let him...because you wouldn't let him, Brad. Daniel offered Jack ascension, wanted Jack so much to take it. Needed it. Daniel took the right path for himself, but the place at his side is empty, just as it is for Jack. There wasn't the killing edge of anger Jack took out on that hapless guard he appeared to beat to death, not for Daniel. There was understanding and acceptance. Trust.
The subtlety, the depth of that was very beautiful. I'm tearing up now, remembering. The wrenching scenes of torture where Jack just can't take any more and he softly cries out for Daniel, and again, and then he sits hurting and alone in his cell, where he tells Daniel so simply that he needs him.
Jack: Daniel?
Daniel: I'm here.
Jack: You were gone.
I'm so angry at you for what you're capable of, episodes like Fire and Water, The Serpent's Lair, Secrets, Serpent's Song, as you've just told us, and what the series in the last few years has failed to deliver. It's such a waste. You understand both Daniel and Jack, you write them so wonderfully well, and even with this unmatched understanding the dynamic, its importance has been ignored in the show.
I was thrilled to see Daniel, so much more confident and clear than he has been for a very long time. Yet he was feeling, open, warm. Very much our Daniel, for all this power he won't-can't-shan't use. He's doing what he needed to be doing, and what you stopped the character from doing. He's exploring the universe with all the passion he's capable of, he's become the true child of the universe that SG-1 gave him a taste of for the first three years. Daniel isn't wiser than he was, but he is stronger and more accepting of himself.
These are two friends who can't let go of one another. They've become close, as close as family, more than brothers, more than son without a father and father without a son, close enough to know one another and to trust. Jack is still angry that Daniel left, Daniel needs Jack to be with him, to open his mind, to be the man he knows Jack is. Jack knows the man he is, he knows those things he's 'lied to himself' about, but he's blind to his potential. It's the potential Daniel sees, always saw. Jack's comments are terribly revealing. He's not the man Daniel is, but as Daniel says, when has that ever stopped Jack from doing anything? Jack doesn't just face his mortality and his limits, he faces himself, what he can and can't, will and won't do. As does Daniel, because this is about both of them.
As always, Jack and Daniel are two-halves of a whole. Equal, balancing opposites. Jack seeks a death Daniel knows he can ascend beyond. This is about love, but it's also about power. Both men are constrained by their natures, and also by their circumstances, each as rigidly confined as the other in what they can and can't do. Daniel is there to console and to help Jack escape his fate by ascension but he can't do anything for Jack, he can only open Jack to the possibility and then he has to do it for himself. He can't think of another way. Jack's other way is death, a permanent end. It's the one thing Daniel can't do, though Jack believes he'd do it for Daniel. There's no right and no wrong there. Truly impossible to decide.
Daniel does what he can. He opens his teammates to possibility but they have to do it themselves. Jack has to save himself just as they have to work to save him. Daniel wouldn't-couldn't-shouldn't interfere, but he does, just like he says he won't stay and Jack says he did.
Daniel wants Jack to be with him, Jack wants Daniel to stay with him. He can't let go. Neither of them can and neither of them will have the friendship they need; all they have is a chance. There's always a chance, always a way.
The moments between Jack and the slave girl Kanan loved worked for me. They made her real to Jack, made his fear of breaking, his fear of subjecting her to his torture, work. The sets were gorgeous, the special effects, especially the anti-gravity chambers, blending seamlessly into powering the story. Excellently done. Martin Wood's direction of the scenes between Jack and Daniel and Ba'al and Jack was masterly. Ba'al was a soft-spoken, non-posturing villain and he worked well, chillingly sympathetic and menacing by turns. I'm sorry I won't see more of him. There was also a small beat between Carter and Teal'c, a warm touch of her hand on his arm. I liked that very much.
What didn't work were the false little moments of 'we're all in agreement', of 'Sam, Teal'c and Jonas' and 'we all contributed' are no more than a band aid, a manipulation. You can't tell the audience, you have to show. You can't tell us what to think or feel, we watch, we see, we think, feel and judge for ourselves.
I've hardly begun to fathom this story Brad Wright wrote for us, and for which Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks gave their all. Your pride in 'Abyss' is justified, Michael Shanks' judgement about the story being right for Daniel was sound, Richard Dean Anderson's excitement and praise of the episode merited, and more.
There is resolution here, of a sort. A necessary healing after 'Meridian'. Pictures of the characters we can hold in place of the utter defeat and failure, the isolation that led Daniel to believe he had no choice to ascend, the bitterness, the anger and distance of Jack. For that I do thank you. It will help more people than you know.
Brad, if you intended this as Daniel's farewell, you failed. Utterly. We want more.
You made us want more by once again showing us the potential in Stargate, the power of these two characters together and how together they fuelled the dynamic of the team and the premise of the show. You can't do it without them both, you need them both. You always had two lead characters, Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, with unmatched chemistry, energy, dimensionality and passion. Jack and Daniel bring the best from each other, just as Anderson and Shanks do. Stargate is not Stargate without them. We can't let go of Daniel any more than his friend Jack can.
I thank you sincerely for Abyss. It truly is the very best of Stargate.
By Alison
21st July 2002
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