"Stargate SG-1" Emancipation (TV Episode 1997) Poster

(TV Series)

(1997)

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6/10
A dress for the lady
Calicodreamin30 December 2021
Great costuming and decent acting, though little action and weak characters. Though I understand the concept of all of these worlds being populated by humans at some point in the past, I find it hard to believe we would have all developed the exact same language.
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3/10
Slow start
owlaurence19 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Well, it takes time to find one's own path. This is officially SG1's first mission off-world, but the dangerous, exotic feeling that had been prominent so far is completely gone. Obviously there cannot be Goa'uld and blaster fights in every single episode, but despite the rather unusual Mongolian setting, *nothing* even remotely alien takes place during those 40mn! (Even Teal'c seems a bit out of place for most of it).

Honestly, there is not much to save from the plot. The romance is heavily clichéed: you get your damsel in distress, your tyrannical father, even the lovestruck saviour coming to the rescue on his white horse. The major twist is supposed to be Carter's involvement --as a modern, emancipated woman who can (and will) kick butt-- but this is not handled very well either. After Carter's introductory speech in Children of the Gods, why does the series need to insist once again on how hard it is to be a woman in a man's world? While I approve of a SF series tackling real-life issues, Emancipation lays it on so thick that it actually gets annoying, and finally conveys the opposite message -that the series still has issues with gender. Besides, while Amanda Tapping certainly is an excellent, good-looking actress, it's hard to believe that her mere appearance would cause such an uproar --even more so once they get her in that horrendous, gaudy outfit! And to cap it all, the happy-ending (suddenly the men realise their mistake and everybody will be equal now) feels completely contrived, worthy of an old-school series.

I've been harsh, but there are still some good moments (and forgive me, but I always grin when Carter wins that fight), and it also serves to show that there will be more to the overall story than just the fight against the Goa'uld. But as far as I am concerned, the series is still toddling around before really kicking off. The funny thing, really, is that if it had gone on with the same kind of storyline, Stargate SG-1 might still have been successful, only different; it's only because we know it can be so much better that the episode pales by comparison.
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2/10
Boy, it sure is a good thing the magic white people came to solve sexism!
accendi-lux5 August 2012
Warning: Spoilers
After a couple of solid episodes to kick off the show, we get this dreadful mess. For an episode whose basic premise essentially boils down to beating you viciously about the head with the message that "Hey, women's rights are great, y'all!", there sure is a lot of awkward misogyny on display alongside some amazing cultural insensitivity. Jack seems to be tuned out through most of the episode, and Daniel when-in- Romes Sam into going along with the ludicrously inaccurate representation of Mongol culture. The whole thing ends with the chief of the clan more or less pronouncing gender equality a thing. Egalitarianism is easy, you guys! It's not like they'll have to unlearn centuries' worth of privilege or anything like that. This also has the added discomfort of some nasty little white-saviory implications. Hundreds of years of patriarchy are undone in a couple of days as soon as the white folks (well, and the black alien) come to town? If this society was really that close to the cusp of equality, why did our cuddly chieftain try to kill Carter as soon as he came on-screen?

The plot is stupid, the script alternates between stupid and uncomfortable, and the resolution is uninspired and boring. If this was the first episode of the series I'd seen, I probably wouldn't have bothered with any more. There's also nothing important in the way of mythology, so it's just straight up filler.

The whole episode is quite unfortunate. It'd be a one-star episode if it wasn't for Teal'c asking "What is an Oprah?" at the end.
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8/10
Starting to like the series
CursedChico5 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Starting to like the series.

I think they will visit different countries, planets. Some of them will be pre-historic cultures like in this episode.

That "task force" did not attack the humans with their developed guns. Like how european people did in america.

They protected the peace, showed about equality and came back to the earth.

I dont understand the negative reviews.
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3/10
Eh
alexkreitz12 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Watching this in 2021 is a trip. It's not super controversial or political by today's standards, especially when you consider that it was written in the late 90's. It's just... kind of boring. It is true that the first season of SG-1 somewhat stumbles before it runs (except for the pilot; masterpiece) and this episode is the biggest stumble. It is very reminiscent of an older Star Trek episode. Travelers arrive in historical culture. Cue confusion at old cultural norms. A fight happens. Travelers win but also teach the people a lesson. It's not super profound or unexpected. I specifically remember this episode from my childhood because of the "What is an Oprah?" line and Shang Tsung. Everything else is forgettable.
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3/10
some statements by the makers about egalitarianism...
trashgang25 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This entry was really terrible. This had nothing to do with stargate this was more about a political statement to make the rights between women and men the same.

This time the crew lands on a planet were some older tribes of Mongols are living. Sam Carter is the victim here, walking around as a woman showing her face is a thing not done. She's being captured and used to be swapped to another tribe to release the chief's daughter who must marry the one being chosen by her father. Of course Carter coming from a 'modern society' doesn't agree that men are superior to women and rebels against their believe. But nothing really happens except talking and talking. Towards we almost have the stoning of the daughter wasn't it that Carter wants to fight against the chief.

It all looked a bit confusing and it is clear that someone from the production wanted to make a statement here. The white 'man' bringing the good news to the tribe and even doing a bit of what the conquistadors did ages ago.

Easy to spot that Stargate still was searching what it's all about...

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5
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3/10
Far from the best
kris-gray8 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I am just re-watching this, the first time since it was first broadcast.

You can tell it was written by a woman, the poor hard done by sex with the nasty men who suddenly see the light and change centuries of misogyny, as if. Typical feminist drivel, no wonder it's usually skipped on re-runs, shame it wasn't here.

The series however, is generally 8-10 stars.
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8/10
Women Liberation
claudio_carvalho18 April 2015
Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c arrive in a planet and they save the young Abu, who is the son of the local leader Moughal, from an attack of wild dogs. However his people that seems to be descendant of Mongol does not accept Samantha, since women in their society are not allowed to show their faces, to dress like a man and to speak in public. During the night, Abu abducts Sam to trade her for Nya, who is the daughter of Turghan, the chief an enemy tribe. However Turghan does not accept the deal since his daughter has been promised to the leader of another tribe. Meanwhile Jack, Daniel and Teal'c head to Turghan's tribe guided by Moughal to rescue Sam. Will Samantha be saved? And how will end the love of Nya and Abu?

"Emancipation" is an episode dedicated to Captain Samantha Carter and all the women of the world. The SG-1 team meets a primitive sexist society and Sam helps the women liberation. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Emancipation"
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3/10
What could have been
hrobertsizemore25 March 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This was a PC episode that someone pushed. But they should have pushed it harder. People are not taught to fight fair in the military. There are no rules in combat. Carter should have broken a finger off the first time it was stuck in her face. During the fight at the end of the show she should have broken his arm in at least one place, tore his knee out in another and slice his chin open or his mouth for good measure at the end. That would have made a statement anyone could understand. In my humble opinion men and women are not equal anymore then all women are Miss America/Wonder Woman and all men are Navy Seals/Supermen. There will always be those who excel beyond the normal no matter if they are women or men. We should all be treated as equal even if no one is equal.
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8/10
The weakest SG-1 episode of all time.
XweAponX14 September 2014
But I will still give it an eight because I don't like handing out one-stars.

It's not just that I agree with the comments from the other reviewers who all make a very good point, but after the pilot episode entries, this was kind of like post-coital letdown.

And it's not that I disagree with how is this episode deals with sexism in primitive societies, in 1997 when this episode was made The World was just a little bit more sexist than it is in 2014- this is an issue that has gone on for thousands of years, women had been treated like personal property, slaves or chattel. If you look at nature, the female of the species is usually the more rugged and larger of the sexes, and males are usually the ones who pretty themselves up, especially with Birds, where the females are all plain, while the males sport striking plumage. In humans, over the course of thousands of years, it seems that nature has been reversed: women have been bred to be smaller and physically weaker, while taking on the role of sporting the bright plumage. This was all imposed by men, Who sometimes had collections of wives. The more wives one man had, the more important he was. Eventually this led to The practice of intermarrying between kingdoms, one kingdom would send it's daughter to the neighboring kingdom to marry the male heir. Before World War I, the leaders of all of the European kingdoms were relatives- after roughly 1000 years of intermarrying. In the dark ages, intelligent women were sought out and burned at the stake as witches, so religion didn't help matters any.

In this episode SG-1 visit a planet that is going through it's own dark ages, A feudal society that treats women as property.

I'm not going to argue about any of the aspects of this episode regarding that issue but what I will bring up is that although Amanda Tapping is a fine figure of a woman, I don't see men going Bugsputz over her while dressed in fatigues with short hair. While she is on mission, she is just one of the boys, and sexual allure is at its lowest state. That is why when the residents of this planet realize that Carter is a woman and the leader starts saying how beautiful she is, I found that completely unbelievable: Because as a Captain in the Air Force Carter is not as attractive as Samantha Carter would be as a woman, and her tomboy looks in the first season of Stargate simply don't put her into the 10 most gorgeous women in the world category.

Later in the series she revealed her womanhood, we saw her as a woman in different circumstances like for instance in the alternate realities stories where she was not in the military, she was all woman and very attractive in those episodes.

Under normal circumstances when she is wearing the Fatigues with gear strapped on, a helmet and armed with a P-90, I think of her less as a woman and more as a Goa'Uld Killing Machine. Except when she sets down the P-90 and pulls out the laptop computer.

I guess I'll have to attribute the slowness of this episode to the common practice when a show burns up all of its financial backing on a fantastic pilot episode or season opener, we have seen this in Deep Space 9 where they would have four fantastic effects-heavy episodes in a row, then they would have to have one episode with only four of the cast. The producers of SG-1 who were also the producers of the great Outer Limits Anthology Series, would have a "clip show" sometimes, to save money. Since SG-1 had no episodes in the can to do that with, other means were used to cut costs. The pilot episode of SG-1 was very effects heavy, so this episode was pulled out to recover from that. It is just basically a human story, there are no Goa'Uld, no aliens, just people- and I do applaud the producers of this show that they tried to make a positive social statement. But somehow the message got mixed up a little bit, and it came out sounding more like "manifest destiny" than equality and sensibility.
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