Episode of the Week: ‘The Shroud’

When SG-1 discovers that Daniel Jackson has been turned into a Prior of the Ori, they must determine whether or not his plan to destroy the Ori is genuine.

“The Shroud” Facts:

• “The Shroud” is Richard Dean Anderson’s second appearance in SG-1‘s tenth season (after the less serious pop-in in the 200th episode). It also marks the former series star’s final episode in the series — though he would go on to appear on SGU and in the SG-1 movie Stargate: Continuum.
• Daniel Jackson was taken by Adria three episodes earlier (“The Quest, Part 2”). Though the original plan was to have the character (and actor) gone a bit longer, it was plenty of time for his off-screen transformation into a Prior to occur.
• The original idea for Daniel’s turn as a Prior was to play it much darker (with Daniel more than merely physically transformed), and even to extend it out over a longer arc — with him coming back to a sense of who he really is and being redeemed. Alas, the producers decided that taking the beloved character too dark would damage the good guy that Daniel is at his core.
• Compressing the storyline in this way also made “The Shroud” heavy on the exposition. Rather than seeing Daniel’s turn and re-turn played out over several episodes, Daniel spent the episode strapped to a chair telling the story, and then trying to convince his team that he was still loyal.
• Did the weapon work? Are the Ori all dead? We would hear Adria’s answer to that in “Dominion,” but not know that it was, in fact, true until the finale movie The Ark of Truth.

“The Shroud” on GateWorld:

• Episode Guide
• Photo Gallery
• Screencap Gallery
• Discussion Thread
• Season Ten Podcast
• Interview with Michael Shanks (2007)
• Interview with Robert C. Cooper (2007)

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Rewatch “The Shroud” this week! Then post your comments below, or head over to the “The Shroud” discussion thread and see what people were saying back in the day. What are your favorite moments?

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