Bad Guys

Summary | Production | Fan Reviews

SG-1 realizes they have stepped through the gate into another planet's museum – but are mistaken for a band of zealous rebels who have taken hostages.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 8.58 
NIELSEN - 1.2 
EPISODE #1016
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 05.18.2007
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 02.18.2008
DVD DISC: Season 10, Disc 4
STORY BY: Ben Browder and Martin Gero
TELEPLAY BY: Martin Gero
DIRECTED BY: Peter DeLuise
GUEST STARS: Joshua Malina (Cicero), Alistair Abell (Jayem Saran), Richard Zeman (Lourdes), Sean Allan (Chancellor), Danielle Kremeniuk (Varina), Haley Beauchamp (Sylvana), Brent O'Connor (Heren), Ron Canada (Quartus)
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SG-1 visits an alien museum on another planet – but are mistaken for a band of zealous rebels who have taken hostages. Though they find a D.H.D. when they gate to the planet they are unable to get home, discovering that the dialing device is just a museum replica.

The usual approach is not an option, so the team decides to play along and "negotiate" their terms with the local authorities, led by a stern hostage negotiator named Quartus. Jayem Saran, a nighttime security guard inside the museum, hopes to be a hero and contacts the authorities outside with an offer to help take down SG-1.

Inside the museum they also soon meet Cicero, one of their hostages and a researcher at the museum. He has long been shunned for his belief that the Stargate is a portal allowing travel to other worlds, and he is overjoyed when he learns that the team came through the gate – and is sympathetic to their plight. While the team hopes to stall for time until help comes from Stargate Command, Cicero has plans of his own.

PRODUCTION NOTES

  • "We are filming an episode which is a very interesting story, based on a story that Ben Browder suggested to the writers. If I can talk specifically about it, I don't wan to give away spoilers. We go through the gate to investigate a museum and things are not what they seemed. We end up in a very tense situation on an alien planet and we have a first contact situation with them that doesn't go well, doesn't go according to plan. And think it's an interesting story, interesting idea. Vala gets to display some of her criminal skills." (Actress Claudia Black, in an interview with The Scifi World)
  • "The episode ... not one of my favorites. Shooting it was great, as one of the highlights was actually working (for a change) with my co-star, Ben Browder. We often joke that for some reason, since he joined the show, we haven't been allowed in the same room, let alone the same scene together. We enjoy working with each other, and this is one of the few times we have been allowed to interact on any level. This trend, unfortunately, proved fleeting, because in the movies we are shooting, more of the same."

    "I do know that there is something like 22 extra minutes of the episode that ended up on the cutting room floor. That's amazing, given a 44-minute delivery time. However, in my opinion, it weakens the overall impact of the episode. It seems to vacillate between being serious and/or comedic in a very strange way.

    "And, for the first time in a while, I can honestly say that it renders my performance appalling. Note that when Daniel goes off the deep end to the hostages – something completely out of his character and purposely meant as such – there is a missing scene in between there that helped to make the outburst a little more sensible. I'm not making any apologies or passing blame, but the inclusion of that would have made it all jive more. Such is the nature of episodic television."

    "On a separate note, this was also the episode which, when we were filming, we found out that we had been cancelled." (Actor Michael Shanks, in a post at his TVGuide.com blog)
  • "Oof. If 'Bounty' was one of my favorite episodes to the show's final season, this one ranked down at the bottom. Daniel just felt out of character in this one. Still, the premise was interesting, a story that formed from an idea Brad once had for a tease: A museum tour on an alien world takes visitors by an ancient artifact, the Stargate, that suddenly comes alive, kawooshing, and introducing SG-1 to the shocked crowd.

    "I recall sitting in on the auditions for this one and having one of the actors for the role of the museum curator delivering his lines with a French accent. What, exactly, an alien was doing with a French accent, I'm not sure. But, then again, I'm not exactly sure why all the aliens SG-1 encountered spoke English. Oh, right. It was the communication nanites that 'infect' all gate travelers, allowing them to understood and be understood in any off-world language. Except Goa'uld, of course." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)