The Masked Conservative

That’s what Dr. McCoy would always say to Captain Kirk whenever the crew befell the tragedy of losing one of its members. And though Stargate is a different series than Star Trek, it would be what Bones would have to say about his counterpart from this other equally popular series as character Dr. Janet Fraiser has now been written off the show.

Even though this plot development does not come as much of a surprise as rumors of her demise have been circulating around the Internet for quite some time, producers were able to imbue the episode with a degree of tension by carefully concealing just what character had passed throughout most of the episode by putting the lives of two other characters in danger as well. These included your average expendable walk-on you expect to die (the anonymous so-called ”red shirt” from the original Star Trek) who Dr. Fraiser and Daniel Jackson tend throughout the episode and even series lead Colonel Jack O’Neil, played by Richard Dean Anderson, who gets a Jaffa staff weapon blast to the gut early on and who is accompanied back through the Gate with Major Samantha Carter balling in tears.

Though the episode masterfully concealed to the end just who it was that would not be returning next week, the manner in which this detail was revealed would have been more suspenseful in the form of one of the epic battle scenes characteristic of this great series. Instead it is tacked on at the end of what really was a drawn-out two-parter about an obnoxious journalist who is given permission to film a documentary about the personnel of this top-secret government facility. The journalist demands that Daniel Jackson, the team’s archaeologist and social scientist, hand over the videotape detailing just who it is that did not come back alive. However, there is a sense of romantic irony in the moment as the journalist is humbled a bit as he sees on the tape that is Dr. Fraiser that fell in the line of duty. In the previous episode, the journalist and Dr. Fraiser had been making goo-goo eyes and pitching woo to one another across a table in the base mess hall.

Compared to other death scenes on Stargate over the years, Dr. Fraiser deserved better. She has been with the team nearly since the beginning. When Daniel Jackson “died” only to return the following season, everyone came to bid an eloquent goodbye, even causing viewers to think there might have been a latent attraction between him and Major Carter which has not been played up to the degree it should have since his return. Likewise, an entire episode was spent with Daniel’s alien-possessed wife Sha’re pleading with him through a series of visions not to blame Teal’c for her death. Even the Goa’uld tyrants who portray themselves as the pagan gods of ancient earth are usually allowed to ham it up before they get what’s coming to them. For some reason, a grainy videotape finale just doesn’t seem fitting for such a heroic character.