| We pick up on this story as SG-1 have just come through the Stargate onto an alien planet. Our team of intrepid explorers are surrounded by a considerable number of natives who speak a language Daniel doesn't know, and who are at first curious and then nervous of the new arrivals. The team have been together long enough for them to have dealt with various first contact situations, but in this instance it isn't quite what they're used to dealing with. The story shows the team dealing with an alien culture that are clearly not a real threat to them. We are in Daniel's head throughout, and we follow Daniel puzzling over the locals' reactions to both their speech and their appearance. The author ably conveys both Daniel's slight frustration at Jack's impatience and his desire to figure out what's going on before Jack does anything impulsive. Some of Daniel's actions cause obvious terror among the natives, while others just make them more confused. I'm not going to give any more of the plot away because I think this is a story where the process of Daniel's understanding is all important. I think the author has captured each character's behaviour at this point in their development as a team wonderfully. I like the way that the team try to follow Daniel's lead yet can't quite stop themselves from reacting as soldiers to any perceived threat. The reaction of the natives seems very realistic to me for a set of people who are obviously more primitive than the humans of earth. The use of words is evocative, and descriptives like "Her whole body was tense, as rigid as the crude weapon she held" and "the elusive but entrancing mixture of expressions that he was struggling to interpret" add to the atmosphere, allowing the reader to picture the scene clearly. The only problem I had was that by the end of the story I wasn't quite sure what the natives thought Teal'c was referring to when he pointed to himself and said his name. They obviously didn't realise he was describing himself, so what were they thinking? Perhaps I wasn't mean to know; perhaps that's one of the lessons the story was teaching – that the team frequently don't get all the answers. Overall this is an enjoyable story. If you want something to remind you of the time when the team used to go off-world to meet knew people, take ten minutes and give this one a whirl. |
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