Stargate SG-1: Hathor

• Release Date: 24th October 1997
• Season 1
• Episode 14
• Director: Brad Turner
• Writers: Jonathan Glassner

Archeologists discover a sarcophagus with Egyptian hieroglyphs in a Mayan pyramid – the pair realise that this discovery means that the ridiculed scientist Dr. Daniel Jackson was right about his theories of ancient Earth cultures being related. The sarcophagus opens and a Gou’ald kills them – she vanishes and the scientists’ team send it to Daniel Jackson for study. It somehow ends up in the embarcation room – presumably there’s no room big enough to house it. Daniel and Jack recognise it as the device Ra used that can heal humans – even dead ones.

At that moment, a woman in Egyptian clothing turns up at SCG, saying she knew the Stargate was there. O’Niell, Jackson and Hammond question her, and this is where they all turn into utter idiots – before they come under the spell of Hahor’s mind control dust. Hathor – the name of an Egyptian goddess, calling themselves “we” and using the Gou’ald name for the Stargate (Chaapa-ai) because they can “sense it” – turns up right after the discovery of a Gou’ald healing chamber and not one of them even entertains the possibility that she’s a Gou’ald. After this stupidity, Hathor uses a magic dust to fully mind control the men.

Hathor convinces them that she’s a good Gou’ald, very glad that her enemy, father and husband Ra was killed by Daniel and Jack. Carter and Teal’c are both very suspicious that Jackson, O’Niell and Hammond are complying with Hathor’s every wish, and as the guys give Hathor a tour of the facility, Carter heads off to do her own research. She eventually bumps into Dr Fraiser, who is also suspicious of how the men are acting.

Hathor takes Daniel into her quarters and says she is a queen Gou’ald, and that for better compatibility with hosts, she has to obtain DNA, which with humans is quite pleasurable. This means that Sam was threatened with rape and both Jack and Daniel have been raped – all within 14 episodes of season 1. It’s quite a disturbing recurring trend.

Carter, Fraiser and the female staff (alongside Teal’c, who is immune to the mind control powers) gear up to try and stop Hathor, but are unwilling to kill all the male staff protecting her. They get locked into quarters, while Jack gets turned into a Jaffa to become Hathor’s prime and receive the first Gou’ald larva (which are swimming in a bathtub in a large locker room).

Locked up in a room, Dr Fraiser comes up with a plan: the men should be susceptible to being seduced by them as well as Hathor. This works, with Janet properly snogging her guard and Sam knocking hers out right away. The see Hathor put Jack into the bathtub and left. They quickly get him out and confirm that no larvae have entered his pouch, but he still has no immune system. They use the sarcophagus to heal Jack (something they seem to forget about when it comes to trying to find a way to free the Jaffa). Hathor shoots them and destroys the sarcophagus.

Jack suggests using tranq guns, which was an idea Sam had, only that they had already been removed from the armoury. Jack knows that there’s more in a storage closet. They confront Hathor again, knocking out the men and shooting Hathor, who sets the bathtub on fire and runs out of the room (with nobody noticing). We then see her leaving to Chulak via the Stargate, and all the men get better after she leaves.

The episode really falls apart due to how dumb everyone has to act in order to get mind controlled – they even act like idiots before Hathor even arrives.