Chimera

| Production | Transcript | Review

Daniel is plagued by dreams of his former girlfriend, who has been taken as a Goa'uld host. Samantha Carter begins a romantic relationship with a detective, from whom she must hide her life at Stargate Command.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 7.23 
NIELSEN - 1.9 
EPISODE #715
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 01.30.2004
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 02.07.2005
DVD DISC: Season 7, Disc 4
STORY BY: Robert C. Cooper
TELEPLAY BY: Damian Kindler
DIRECTED BY: William Waring
GUEST STARS: Anna-Louise Plowman (Sarah Gardner/Osiris), David DeLuise (Pete Shanahan), Paul Jarrett (Special Agent Farrity)
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PRODUCTION NOTES

  • "Robert [Cooper] wants to do a story that ultimately dispels Carter's 'Black Widow' tag, focusing on her relationship with a new boyfriend who doesn't know anything about her work at the S.G.C. This relationship will be tested by the secret she keeps and, over the course of the episode, the boyfriend will become increasingly suspicious and attempt to find out what she is hiding. Maybe he will unwittingly become involved in some SG-1-related situation despite Carter's best efforts. But what is the situation? Well, Robert also wants to do a story that reunites Daniel with Osiris. Maybe there's a way to combine the two stories." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in his Season Seven production diary)
  • "There's also the potential for [Sam] to get a boyfriend – not named Jack O'Neill, sadly. It'll be someone off the base, and that creates a million problems. If the storyline happens, it'll be about this person not understanding what she does for a living, and her not being able to tell him. It will force her to take a long hard look at how she's lived her life and the choices she's made." (Actress Amanda Tapping, in SFX magazine)
  • "I think that it's an offshoot of what happened in 'Grace.' The writers were trying to, A) dispel the 'black widow' curse that Carter has, and also to open her up for more experiences and to flesh her out just a little bit more as a human being. And so it's an interesting episode for me because I felt so out of my element doing these, you know, little cutesy-flirty scenes, and of course the kissy-kissy, and it's so not a side of Carter that we've ever seen. And so she really falls hard for this guy, and the fact that he hasn't died yet is a pretty good sign, but I think it's also freaking her out. 'Oh, no, he didn't die! Now what do I do? Now I have to have a relationship! How does that work?'"

    "[David DeLuise is] wonderful. We had instant chemistry. He's very much a DeLuise in that he's utterly charming, has a fantastic sense of humor, but he's a really wonderful actor and we spent a lot of time running scenes and going over different beats and trying to work stuff out. David and I would, you know, after work, go and sit in a coffee shop and run scenes. We went for walks where we were running scenes as if we were, you know, the characters. He's wonderful, and we will see some of him in Season Eight, so I'm looking forward to having him back."

    The episode didn't address how Carter felt about him essentially stalking her behind her back. "I don't think Carter knew to what lengths he was going. She doesn't know that he phoned the FBI. She doesn't know that he ran a background trace on her. She doesn't know that he was doing all these things. The only thing that she knows is at the end of the stake-out, he's there. So yes, he's been following her, but I think she hadn't at that point in the episode had time to assimilate the fact that he'd been following her. I mean, you know, yes he shows up, and yes he's been tailing her, but she doesn't know to what extent and to what great lengths he's gone to to try to get information on her, so she's kind of oblivious at this point.

    "And I think the fact that the way the episode ended with the big explosion, and 'Oh, my God, he's been hurt,' and 'Oh, my God, now he's OK,' and I can actually – you know, the classified information is no longer classified to this man because he's seen it, then I can actually tell him what I do for a living. I think that she sort of doesn't even think about the fact that he followed her and maybe that's something that'll be addressed later. 'Wait a second, buddy! You followed me to that stake-out!' But I think at the end of the episode she's just so relieved that he isn't dead. And again, she doesn't know to what extent he was tracing her. ... It may be addressed later. And it does seem, I guess, that he's stalking her. I think, on the one hand because he's so interested in her, and he knows there's something that she's hiding. And she said as much: 'I am hiding something from you, I can't tell you.' And that's gotta be really frustrating when you're getting to know somebody and you're really, you know, really have feelings for them, but, again, I don't think she knows to what extent he went." (Actress Amanda Tapping, in an interview with GateWorld)
  • "I was saying to the director and the producers on set I was like, 'Well, what do you want me to hum?' I mean, you know, and so I started jokingly humming the Stargate theme song, and they said 'That's brilliant!' And so I said, 'OK, well it's just a ditty that she's got in her head. I mean, it's not like she watches Stargate ... she's on it! But I was talking with Michael because I said, 'Wouldn't it be funny if I sang the MacGyver theme song?' And so I went running up to Michael Shanks and I was like, 'How does the MacGyver theme song go? How does the MacGyver theme song go?' And we couldn't – like there was, you know, maybe two minutes to try to learn it. So I said, 'Ah, forget it. I'll just do Stargate.' It would've, I think, would've been really great if I hummed the MacGyver theme song, but I didn't know it." (Actress Amanda Tapping, in an interview with GateWorld)
  • "We're always surprised by fan reaction. For instance, after 'Chimera,' there was a thread about the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo that went on forever. The fact that Carter didn't realize there was a zoo in the area was intended as a subtle poke at her character: she's been at Cheyenne Mountain for 6-plus years and has been so into her work that she hasn't even taken the time to have a social life. It was a throw-away that was, perhaps, a little too subtle." (Co-executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a Q&A with Stargate SG-1 Solutions)
  • Among the actors originally considered for Pete Shanahan was Farscape star Ben Browder. "We considered him for casting. I love Ben. I think he'd have been great. I would have loved to use him, and I think the crossover would have been a lot of fun. But he turned us down." (Executive producer Robert C. Cooper, in an interview with the Richard Dean Anderson Web Site)
  • "The things that stands out for me about this episode was the title which, over the course of prep, production, and post, was pronounced anyone 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 this 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 the Sam's romantic arc with a fellow fandom coined 'Stalker Pete.' The role was played by David DeLuise, brother of Peter DeLuise. His appearance marked the fourth appearance by a member of the DeLuise family (Dom guested in 'Urgo,' Michael guested in 'Wormhole X-Treme!,' 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)." (Writer / producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)