Stargate: SG-1 Memories: Chimera, Death Knell, Heroes I

CHIMERA (715)

The things that stands out for me about this episode was the title which, over the course of prep, production, and post, was pronounced any one of about a half dozen ways: Ki-mera, Kee-mera, Kee-meera, Chi-mera, Chy-mera, Chy-meera – and variations thereof. Damian Kindler was the king of the obtuse episode titles and, after following Ethon with Talion, I decided to call my next script Futtock (One of the curved timbers that forms a rib in the frame of a ship.) but was overruled by my writing partner, Paul, since he’d be sharing onscreen credit with me on that one. Anyway, Damian did a great job on an episode that provides a rarity – actual closure to a storyline! Daniel saves Sarah and, with the help of the Tok’ra, restore her to her former self.

This episode also continues Sam’s romantic arc with a fellow fandom coined “Stalker Pete”. The role was played by David DeLuise, brother of longtime Stargate director Peter DeLuise. His appearance marked the fourth appearance by a member of the DeLuise family (Dom guested in Urgo, Michael guested in Wormhole Xtreme, David guested in several episodes as Stalker Pete, and, of course, fan favorite Peter DeLuise wrote, directed, produced and had cameos in episodes too numerous to mention).

DEATH KNELL (716)

Bit of a nitpick, but if the Alpha site had been wiped out by the self-destruct, it would have been one massive blast crater instead of a clearing littered with spot fires. Realistically, however, a massive blast crater would have been a huge expense that wouldn’t have added much to the episode. The Jaffa, M’Zel, was a tip of the hat to Stargate long time AD Bill Mizel who provided us many an entertaining concept meeting with his spirited renditions of the scripts – and also showed off some killer dance moves during the shooting of SGU’s Earth.

HEROES I (717)

This one wasn’t planned as a two-parter but, after going through all the footage and assembling his first producer edit, Robert Cooper decided he would need more time to tell the story. And so, additional scenes were written and additional footage shot. No padding here, however, but some fantastic action sequences on the planet’s surface. Many guest stars of note in this episode: Adam Baldwin as Colonel Dave Dixon, Saul Rubinek as Bregman, and, of course, Robert Picardo as the pencil-pushing Richard Woolsey who makes his first Stargate appearance in this episode. What a run for Bob who goes from pain-in-the-ass bureaucrat in Heroes I to the lovable commander of the Atlantis expedition in SGA’s fifth season. And speaking of SGA and its cast connections to this episode, Adam Baldwin was another actor who so impressed that his name was at the top of our list for a possible lead role on Atlantis. Sadly, we couldn’t make it work but Adam did just fine, moving on to such memorable shows as Firefly and Chuck.