Revisions (Stargate SG-1)
In the episode, Stargate Command discovers a civilization living in a seemingly perfect dome on an otherwise toxic, unliveable planet.
Believing everything is not as it seems, Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) learns from one of the inhabitants, Pallan (Christopher Heyerdahl), about their technology, whilst Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) attempts to find out more about planets history and the dome's creation.
SG-1 journey to the planet and after discovering the dome has a breathable landscape soon encounter a young boy named Nevin (Liam Ranger).
Meanwhile, Major Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Dr. Jackson (Michael Shanks) stay with Pallan (Christopher Heyerdahl), a technician who maintains the dome and his wife Evalla (Tiffany Lyndall-Knight).
After agreeing to take Nevin and Kendrick to another world, Teal'c and O'Neill soon discover that the MALP is missing, with Sam determining that the dome is losing integrity and collapsing in on itself.
[6] Director Martin Wood noted that a number of changes were made to the story due to budget constraints and Richard Dean Anderson's reduced schedule, with the original intention that the scenes involving O'Neill and Teal'c being perused around the town by the inhabitants would take place at night.
[7] Mallozzi later commented that it was a rare script for him, in that he knew exactly where he wanted to the end the episode, with "a final moment in which one of the characters asks Carter to tell him about the wife he no longer remember".
[7] Costume designer Christina McQuarrie dressed the inhabitants of the alien world with very little colour in any of the outfits, as well as making the garments very form-fitting and smart.
Wood wanted this to contrast the colourful world and also give the impression that they weren't technologically advanced, as well as making them look creepy and unusual.
[7] A big discussion point during production meetings was whether or not to show the Link that was controlling the inhabitants, ultimately opting for a small removable implant that would sit on the side of the subjects face.
Director Martin Wood gave production designer Bridget McGuire the brief of creating a space with lots of plexiglass and "things we don't see" in the alien village itself.
[13][7] Art director Peter Bodnarus explained that they reworked "honey-coomb looking creates and turning them into our idea of a self-replicating building block-type of alien world" for the walls of the structure.
[15] As production was running three different main unit crews simultaneously that day, each shooting different episodes, the faces of team were obscured by the hazmat suits, allowing the lead-actors stand-ins to portray the roles of SG-1, including Dan Shea standing in for O'Neill and Finn Michael for Jackson and Herbert Duncanson for Teal'c.
[16] Directed by Martin Wood, with director of photography Jim Menard, filming presented a number of challenges for production.
[7] The location also featured a Christian church, which despite Wood's attempt to obscure from view, ended up briefly appearing in the finished episode.
[7] As the town at Fantasy Gardens was far smaller than the alien world imagined in the script, director Martin Wood wanted to try and make the location appear larger than it actually was in camera.
[7] Wood placed an emphasis on using crane shots, often looking down onto the village and the characters, whilst also predominately opting to use wide-angle camera lenses, not using anything longer than 25mm.
[18] Additionally, Wood tried to keep the camera moving during scenes, using "creeping" movements in an attempt to make the audience feel uncomfortable, as if "something isn't quite right".
The reviewer felt that the horror of the episode was well underplayed and appreciated that the computer controlling the population "is just that", rather than a device that "Sam, or perhaps O'Neill has to argue with and make it realize the error of its ways", drawing parallels to the program from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Dearsley praised the effects, locations and costume design but was critical that "O'Neill bonds with a little kid for about the millionth time in the history of Stargate".
[24] Of the reviews featured on fan website GateWorld, one contributor commented that despite the episode seemingly trying to return to the team-based exploration stories found in the earlier years of SG-1, "Revisions" "didn't quite manage to capture the old magic".
A lack of any real danger or tension was one of main criticisms, whilst the team dynamic between Jack & Teal'c was highlighted by the author for providing "light-hearted moments" and Sam & Daniel "doing what they do best".
