Review of Fail Safe

Stargate SG-1: Fail Safe (2001)
Season 5, Episode 17
10/10
One of my favourite episodes
21 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
A really good episode with a lot of amazing action and some really awesome moments, in space and at SGC. The pace never lets down and there are some really good lines, so what's to ask? The initial plot line, obviously, rings a bell or two -or twenty: an asteroid is about to hit Earth and destroy it. I even find it interesting that everybody's first idea is NOT to blow it up, but to ask for help among their allies. And when that option fail, plan B involves much more advanced technology than, let's say, Bruce Willis might have used. Even though they're still fumbling their way through most of it.

I love episodes set in space. I love watching mankind learn to fly spaceships through the hyperspace when they still can't write reliable instruction manuals on How To Disarm a Nuclear Bomb. I love the easy, always funny banter that goes on among the team in times of peril, and their matter-of-fact assumption that if they have to die to save Earth, well, that's just the less pleasant part of an otherwise extraordinary job. They not only work well as a team, but they "feel" great to the viewer too.

And I love the action. It begins about 5mn into the episode and never lets down till the last minute. None of the obstacles are really that original, of course, but they are well-handled and reflect the spirit of the series well. Meanwhile, watching SGC evacuate in anticipation of Armageddon adds drama and intensity to SG1's mission, and the moment when Hammond remains the last man to hold the fort is very moving. And the last-second twist that allows Earth to avoid destruction once again is really quite brilliant.
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