Daniel Jackson Articles
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TWTID Home * Jack and Daniel * Sam and Teal'c * Daniel and Sam * Daniel and Teal'c * SG1 * Michael Shanks |
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The Importance of Being Daniel... The question was asked on SGClassic list: We should all have a reasonably good idea by now of what it is about Daniel that makes his presence on the team so important, I venture to say essential. What do *you* think it is? Humanity, intelligence, drive, spirit? Or something more...an indefinable *something*? Thanks, JayEm, for the question. :-) Many thanks to the list members who gave their permission for us to have their posts on this site. Boy that's a hard task. I think Daniel brings an "outsider" view to the team. Jack, Carter, and Teal'c are all of a military mindset (even if Sam is a scientist, she's still military) whereas Daniel isn't bound by conventional thinking. As someone who works on a lot of teams, I recognize the importance of having different viewpoints represented. Daniel is the one who can think outside the box. Who is willing to think there may be a different way of solving a problem. Not only that I think Daniel is also a buffer between the others. And last but not least, he is the one with the linguistic skills, the understanding of different cultures. I mean, no matter how things may have been written in the recent future, Daniel is the guy who really preps the others on what to expect. It's not just "Oh boy, new planet, new culture, let's just pop in and see what happens." It's a lot of hard work to determine just what they're walking into. And I can't think of anyone I'd rather have by side in that situation than Daniel who is responsible and dedicated to his work. Daniel's Arc Over? I felt compelled to add something regarding that whole "arc" comment made by Brad Wright (you know, that Daniel's arc is over). If Stargate is the story of Daniel's journey [a point put forward by an SGClassic list member]which I agree whole heartedly it is, continuing the story without him is like continuing a fairy tale once the hero has slain the dragon or won the maiden. When the hero's journey is over, does anyone really care what happens to the rest of the characters in the story? I personally don't care if people choose to watch season 6 or not, but the hero's journey is over unless some powers truly understand why so many are upset with what's happened. I suppose that some people may see Stargate as Jack's journey, but I can't agree with that assessment. The whole thing that made the movie so amazing to me was that the hero was the person you least expected to be.
Oh, boy. Where to start? And from what POV? I'd better qualify this first ;^) I'm in a rather feisty mood tonight, so not inclined to pull many punches. I'm among those who are firmly convinced that Daniel is the *only* irreplaceable member of the team. He is unique--more so even than Teal'c. He's the control that lets Jack be a good leader; he's the prod that forces Sam to think truly creatively. Without him, sorry, I just don't think Jack's that good a team leader, at least not for the kind of job SG-1 does, and Sam is just another admittedly smart, but basically run-of-the-mill rigidly thinking scientist. First, Stargate has always primarily been the story of Daniel's journey. There's really no way to rationalize your way out of this--from the movie onward. And this is strikingly demonstrated by the fact that Daniel is really the only one of the characters who really *has* gone on a personal journey. In a very shallow, simplistic sense, Teal'c comes closest among the other characters, but even his story doesn't touch Daniel's. Daniel's the only one of the characters who has apparently been deeply, personally affected by what has happened to him over the last few years. Sam, Jack and Teal'c are very much the same people they were when we first met them in CotG, other than the degradation in all three that has occurred during seasons four and five. None of those three have escaped. The fact that Daniel *did* to a large extent escape this loss of dimension has a lot to do with the fact that he's no longer with us, I think. So, Daniel's has been the "hero's journey." Without him, well, everything feels pretty directionless, despite the supposed heating up of the us-vs-them big military uber-plot. On a more personal level, Daniel is important because he's emphatically not military. Allow me to repeat that, because it is vitally significant. Daniel is the only member of the team--the only regular member of the *cast*--who is not military. This gives him a completely different perspective. It makes him the checks-and-balances member of the cast. And, sorry, the most important member of SG-1. Without him Jack's bombastic, smart-mouth style would have gotten the team (and Earth) obliterated long ago. Without him, the entire purpose behind the Stargate program from the start would have been purely military, which would have been a dreadfully sad thing. Of course, the way things have worked out, it's come down to that in the end anyway :^( Daniel's unfailing attempts to take the ethical high ground also set him apart from the rest. This is the source of some of the sense of naivete we have about him. We tend to think that those who hold tight to the high ground are unrealistic and innocent. They aren't--they're excessively courageous, but that's the feeling most people have about them. For some bizarre reason, it's also the source of some of the dislike of Daniel that comes from some corners of the fandom. For some, "good" is "bad." Go figure. More intimately, Daniel's beautiful spirit also makes him very dear. Despite being corrupted by Jack's smart mouth LOL! he's still a sweet, gentle, *good* man. His is a complex, multi-faceted character. And I guess that's the bottom line. If you take SG-1 as a whole, about 80% of the character depth for the whole team comes from Daniel. Teal'c has huge, almost completely unrealized potential. They've utilized him in a very one-dimensional style. Other than periodic token-alien jokes, and a very few episodes, nothing has been done with Teal'c. The Samophiles who have been in control of the creative directions in the show for the last few years have elevated her to SuperSam status, and she never really had a lot of dimension, even before the current team took over, because she was never allowed to have anything that smelled even a little bit like a weakness. This is why all of these Sam-centered episodes are so unremarkable--they're too flat and boring, because the character hasn't been given enough contour to carry a whole episode. This isn't AT's fault--she's shown that she's capable of acting the heck out of the material they give her. But as long as they refuse to develop any nuances in the character, Sam will always be a secondary character, no matter whether they get rid of Daniel or not. And that brings me to Jack. I love Jack. I love the *fanfiction* versions of Jack. But frankly, they've done almost nothing to actually develop this character in the series, particularly recently. We've got one or two bits of information about his past--almost all delivered in the movie, and exploited in the series. They haul out Charlie every time they want us to shed a tear for Jack, but in the meantime they've given us very little actual character development. He's the all-purpose, supposedly outstanding military team leader. The only real exceptions have been in the emotional, intimate scenes he's done with Daniel, and those have been few and far between (as in, pretty much nonexistent) in the last two years. And this lack of development has been exacerbated in the last two seasons. There are few episodes in those two seasons in which Jack manages to go beyond the two character aspects they seem to think he has--smartass and amoral military moron. Fan writers do *so* much better with him than the series writers do. Without Daniel, well, there's pretty much no hope for Jack. I told you I was in a feisty mood ;^)
I haven't seen the fifth season yet, I am watching in syndication, and only discovered the show halfway through season three but here goes... Daniel brings a conscience to the team. He is always looking to find a peaceful way to resolve matters. He has a bit of the Anne Frank complex, he still believes that most people (Goa'ould not being classified as people) are basically good. He brings a sense of wonder to each new discovery. I love that. I also love his intelligence. Daniel has a way of taking some of the more esoteric scientific stuff and making it more understandable to the layman. I have always been drawn to brain over braun. (of course putting that brain in that gorgeous blue eyed package doesn't hurt either!) He also has a certain vulnerability because of his background. Not being military, he is sometimes awkward in the more militaristic situations, and sometimes socially inept I would imagine due to his childhood. It kind of puts me in my protector mode. I want to protect him from the bad stuff. (my therapist once told me I need to stop trying to save the world) In a nutshell, it's the whole Daniel package that I enjoy and will thoroughly miss on the team. They say the sum of the whole is greater than the parts. This is a perfect example.
I see Daniel as the hero of his own mythology. I love the mythological concepts of the series, and Daniel's journey has created it's own mythological scope. His journey has given birth to a totally new mythology. And in a more global sense, I think Daniel represents humanity's own sense of curiousity, restlessness, striving to look outside itself for the sake of learning for it's own value. He, I think, also represents the 'moral compass' we can always count on to point to true north. Without him, the show flounders and the other characters are left at sea, with nothing but the soldier's rigid and unyielding worldview. You have all set me to thinking on why I love this character so much and I wanted to share my views, however awkwardly I may have voiced them.
Daniel Jackson is a fascinating combination of contradictions. He is at once a wide-eyed innocent in some of the ways of the world, and yet knowledgeable about so many aspects of its history and customs; intellectually brilliant yet often endearingly impractical; so vulnerable he elicits the strongest possible protective feelings in others, both male and female, and yet unbendable, immoveable and unshakable in the strength of his beliefs. Someone who has made it clear he doesn't like pain and would much rather avoid it wherever possible, thank you, and yet who is as resilient under torture as any soldier even though he is far more traumatized than any soldier by the realization that someone could enjoy hurting him on purpose. He is someone who would go without food and sleep for days if necessary to try to save a friend, and yet would argue with that same friend until the moon turned blue if a principal depended on it. And is not even averse to using the same friend's powerful instinct to protect him against him to get his own way, rather in the manner of a teenager airily proposing to hitchhike to a party on the bad side of town to get a lift from a reluctant parent. He is also someone who combines the wide-eyed wonder of a child with the mind of a genius and the kind of face and body that causes unwary viewers to go slack-jawed with lust. Daniel is someone who has managed to live within a military organization for five years without ever allowing his own ethics to be compromised by its dictates. Someone who finds almost anything and everything fascinating to do with his own field of interest but visibly glazes over when any form of weaponry is discussed. Someone who is kind-hearted, tolerant and sympathetic to the feelings of others, and yet can also be waspish, sarcastic and occasionally downright pissy, as well as being stubborn as a whole legion of mules. Someone who shows infinite respect for the culture and traditions of the transplanted humans they encounter on their journeys through the universe but will be openly dismissive of the hierarchy of the US military. Someone who would risk his own life equally to save the genetic memories of a lost civilization, study the repository of a universal language, save the planet from annexation by the Goa'uld, or save one human being he hardly knows from a staff weapon blast. Daniel is someone who suffers from self doubt and who lost his parents and his foster parents so could be expected to do anything to keep his niche in academia, where he had friends and support, but instead stubbornly stuck by his conviction that the pyramids were far older than others believed, even though it won him ridicule and exile. Someone whose curiosity about the universe and the people in it led him to risk his life stepping through a portal about which almost no one else knew anything, when the only other people prepared to make that mission were career soldiers who were used to obeying orders and a team leader so grief-stricken at the loss of his child he no longer cared if he lived or died. Daniel is a linguist who believes absolutely in the power of communication over the power of a bullet, even when his own life is put into danger by that belief. An anthropologist who has put his fascination with the culture of others into very real, and sometimes life-threatening practice; continuing to travel through the 'gate and hang onto his belief that every new culture they encounter is a potential friend and positive learning experience even after a number of new cultures have imprisoned him, tortured him, or occasionally killed him. And an Egyptologist who jumped at the opportunity to live the life of an Ancient Egyptian when it was offered to him even though it left him exiled forever (as far as he knew) on the far side of the galaxy, out of the reach of modern medicine, sanitation, and assistance. He has shown the courage of his convictions time and again since joining the SGC; choosing always to communicate, not to threaten; to keep trying to reach others long past the point when a lesser man would feel justified in using force. He has shown the courage not to murder a sleeping Unas with a rock even though it had already kidnapped him, injured him, and make it clear it was intending to kill him, because it is so much a part of Daniel to believe that there always has to be a better way than that. Which brings me to one of Daniel's defining characteristics: his compassion, and not just compassion for the weak and the defenceless, which his teammates also share, but his ability to feel sympathy for even those who have taken him prisoner, threatened him, frightened him, even hurt him, if he feels their cause is just, or they are simply obeying the diktats of their culture. This compassion even extended to the man who was responsible for choosing Daniel's wife to be a Goa'uld, and who later killed her to save him. Daniel instinctively knows when someone is 'good' whatever their actions might say to the contrary, and he will try to reach those people long after others have given up. He got through to the closed-off O'Neill of the movie when no one else could have done because he sensed there was a reasonable and decent man underneath that frozen shell; he defended Teal'c in a court of law because he felt it was the right thing to do. He has yelled 'don't shoot!' countless times to anxious and sometimes angry teammates who have struggled through difficulties to rescue him only to find him occasionally battered and bruised but still surprisingly alive and relatively well because of his own resourcefulness and his determination to communicate with his captor, however unpromising a candidate that captor might initially seem. The hostility or mistrust of humans, aliens, and even animals generally dissolves in the face of the unique Daniel Jackson combo of honesty, compassion, determination to communicate, and, of course, those resolve-crumbling big blue eyes. Above all Daniel is someone who has grown and developed before our eyes in the five years of the series in a way that few fictional characters are permitted to do. We have seen the events that have shaped him and seen him logically altered by them. He has become less innocent, more competent in the field, warier and more cynical, yet has always retained his essential sense of wonder about the world around him, his enthusiasm for the journey through the 'gate, and his inner sweetness. He is someone who has learned how to use a P90 with dogged competence in the field and show strength and courage under fire again and again, yet never lost his intrinsic vulnerability, that essential core that makes men and women want to keep him safe at all costs. He is still as fascinated by the great unknown now as he was six years ago when he first touched the shimmering blueness of the event horizon; still wanting to learn, to know, and to understand. He is also someone who will as unhesitatingly risk his own life to save the lives of others now, even after all the physical pain such actions have cost him over the years, as he would back then on the first mission when he threw himself in front of that first staff weapon blast to save the life of a man he barely knew. And that is just a *fraction* of the reasons why I love Daniel Jackson, but like all wonders of the world, he can't really be explained in words or seen in a photograph, he has to be experienced on the big and the small screen in every nuance and word, and glance and action; a thousand little moments that add up to an entirely irresistible whole.
For those of us who jumped or plunged into Stargate SG-1 in the first or second season with little to no knowledge of the series, the character of Daniel Jackson is an immediate visual link to the movie. Even with the obvious casting changes necessary for the series, it only takes a few moments for a new viewer to realize, "Oh, okay! That's the Egyptologist! Now I'm not totally clueless..." Okay, so that's me when I saw my first confused episode of Stargate SG-1. (Within the Serpent's Grasp is not a good episode for your first viewing!) But as I got my hands on more episodes, mainly 6 episodes from season 1, I found that it was the "cute" archaeologist who drew me into the series. Looking back nearly five years later, I can see some of what charmed me into becoming a fan. Daniel is not just an important link for those of us who love Stargate from the movie in 1994. I mean, yes, Jack O'Neil(l) is there, but Richard Dean Anderson's Jack is very different from the Jack-ass of the movie. (Bad pun, but a poignant one!) Daniel represents continuity. Daniel is the factor upon which so many vital things are hinged in those first episodes that influence everything there on. He is sought by Jack and Hammond on Abydos for answers about the "Ra-clone." The search for his wife brings us to Teal'c and introduces the Jaffa and the Goa'uld. It is his research on Abydos that brings knowledge about the Stargate and its ability to go to other places, and the cartouche he discovered with its varied destinations that gives SG-1 somewhere to go every week. Dr. Daniel Jackson connects us with the Stargate's past, and he is vital to the Stargate Program's future. Without Daniel, as we see from the various alternate realities, nothing is the same and nothing lasts for long. Daniel himself, especially in his early incarnations in the movie, and seasons 1 and 2, doesn't win us over by his looks. It is his personality and his actions that draw us in. He is passionate, and he is intelligent. Sex appeal of the deliberate kind belongs to Jack and Teal'c; it is no coincidence that we see no bare flesh from Daniel in Season 1. Daniel himself also doesn't see himself that way. He gives us the feeling of an ugly duckling moment in Brief Candle when he muses if the Argosians even know the word unattractive. But Daniel is attractive for far more than his brains. As time goes on, he gets his own chance to shine and to win the spotlight that Teal'c and Jack mutually and exclusively used to share. But by the time we realize that beneath the long hair and the glasses lies a non-geek, the audience realizes that our already pretty terrific package of archaeologist/linguist/peaceful-explorer just got that much better. Daniel proves that it takes more than just a pretty face to be an excellent character. A multi-dimensional personality, an intruiging combination of attitude and intelligence and a role of continuity between the movie and the series are all an important part of Daniel Jackson's role. By losing him, the journey of Stargate SG-1 seems to go off on an unknown (but still potentially interesting...?) tangent. It is in knowing the past that we know ourselves. How will SG-1 fare now without their archaeologist? Fare thee well...
Daniel...what is it about him? I'd dabbled around, catching this show on syndie and later straining my eyes watching it on the flippy, fuzzy ShowTime bleed you get when you don't pay for it<g>. It was okay, in some places above average. But the one that got me was Solitudes. Now this is an ep the shippers claim began it all (with the exception of the pilot were the attraction angle escapes me). For me it was about a team of four people, split down the middle, one pair lost and the other breaking their butts to find their friends. This is the one that spoke to me. This is where I felt I saw what Daniel was made of. Remember at this point I had only seen a handful of S2 eps and a very few of s3. We saw him deny the 'truth' the people were trying to feed him. To get up from a pretty heavy injury to work with tireless determination to get his friends back home. We saw the way his mind latched onto an improbable possibility and not give up until he'd convinced the others Sam and Jack were alive. We saw the leap of insight and the leap of faith that Daniel made on the strength of his own determination. We saw the 'geek' come up with the answer that saved their friends. Over time I came to see this as inherent to the character. Sensitivity, yes...and it definitely counts. But what defines Daniel for me is his 'old soul'. He understands in a way a lot of us aspire to - at least I do that the only limits on humanity are those people set for themselves. He gives us hope that we can be *more*, better if you will, than our petty squabbles would indicate. He fights for the important things, the 'cosmic-level justice' that we all should hope to achieve with a tenacity that is impressive. On a baser level, yes, the physicality matters. Daniel embodies the sort of man I've always been attracted to. I'm human and still female, definitely not dead yet and can appreciate his looks. But there is far more to him than that and that is where the attractiveness lies for me. We're told in many places that Jack is the everyman and that may be so for some. For me Daniel fills the role as well for those of us who don't quite fit into a Jackian worldview. Our intellectual, idealistic everyman maybe? For me, seeing things through Daniel's eyes is a far more interesting way. He sees it with the wonder we would all feel if faced with impossible and amazing things. He takes a kind of universal responsibility for the things they do and I'd like to think we all would do the same. I very much identify with that aspect of him. Looking through Jack's eyes shows us the view from the stands, looking through Daniel's shows us the view from the stars and I like that view much better. Having said all this, I in no way deify the guy as some complain so may of us do. He has faults, and for me those only enhance the overall package. Wisdom is never easily gained and being human there are so many inbuilt stumbling blocks along the way. It's how one comes back from those stumbles that helps us grow...or fall further down the evolutionary ladder.
The Significance of the Sweater by Ellie Daniel in Changeling is a dream from Teal’c’s perspective but there is far, far more to this that first meets the eye. Over the years we have seen many incarnations of Doctor Jackson, so many it’s hard to keep track, but for now I am only going to address the FIAD [Forever in a Day] Daniel and Ascended Daniel. The two are completely different, no way can you place the two under one description. I’m not 100% certain that the sweater is exactly the same, the FIAD one seemed a little different in texture but any way that is beside the point. FIAD Daniel wore a T-shirt under a cream sweater for many reasons. It was vital to remove him from his normal SGC attire, this included the open necked shirt and tweed jacket look he had going. It was also vital that the clothing reflected his uncertain and vulnerable state of mind at the time. The scenes where he wears the sweater are his most vulnerable and this is why he gets the hug from Jack (yay). A sweater was the perfect choice, the colour had to be a pale one as strong colours just do not have that same effect, that outfit was just so adorable as was his whole demeanor in those scenes. Ascended Daniel though, is a completely different kettle of fish. It was vitally important to establish a new “look” for Daniel, it had to be totally different and yet familiar. It also had to be a strong one for new viewers and to establish a visible memory jog if he was to appear later in the season. Three things mainly contributed here actor, lighting and costume I can’t think of a time when Stargate has pulled off something so brilliant as they did here and in every other Ascended Daniel episode in season 6. They pulled out all the stops and the result was subtle and brilliant and messed with your head. Let’s start with Abyss and the costume. Traditionally all characters who have “passed on” return in white or variations thereof. They used a lovely soft cream, a sweater because Daniel must look incredibly comfortable and nothing does this more that a lovely sweater, the pants, again, the cut is soft and quite loose too. (None of your Absolute Power dressing here) Add to this the gorgeous soft orange lighting (which they use a lot in Stargate) which give his complection a healthy looking tan. Finally add the actor. MS did a superb job here, by removing Daniel’s glasses he gave him a simple open look but one that was instantly “Daniel”. He looked happy, fit and well, he oozed a sort of supreme contentment that signified his new ascended state. Even the hilarious shoe throwing incident was so much more than a joke, it affirmed Daniel as non-corporeal, we didn’t have to put up with a fuzzy holographic type image, we just knew Daniel wasn’t quite human, that he couldn’t be touched because Jack threw his shoe at him, a delightful scene that carried so much meaning. When he appeared in the infirmary at the end, well we knew he was non-corporeal, he was there but would disappear in the blink of an eye. This was Ascended Daniel and set the precedent for all subsequent appearances. Next we had Changeling, as is pointed out, this Doctor Jackson is not Daniel’s dream but Teal’c’s. What Teal’c needed then more than anything was his friend the “Scholar Daniel”, how he was in the earlier seasons. This is exactly what we got, the hesitant, slightly shy, fiddling with his glasses, learned colleague. Look closely at the first outfit, it echoes brilliantly the tweed jacket and open neck shirt that Daniel wore so often in earlier episodes. In his next appearance, in the brown shirt it is again Teal’c’s dream, but this time he feels closer to him, the shirt is an echo of his own, but again the slightly gauche young scholar is not quite right in it. I know a lot of you love that brown shirt, it does look great from the waist up, but a smartly dressed Daniel would have tucked it in, over pants like that you either tuck or wear a shirt a lot shorter and snugger on the hips that. The proportions were all wrong and brilliantly stated that this was still Teal’c projecting. Finally we know that we are back at the real SGC when Ascended Daniel in the sweater appears once more appears to Teal’c. This version of Ascended Daniel is so well established by Abyss that it is this very thing that verifies the reality of the scene. MS though still adds another dimension to him, his stance and body language are slightly different than when he visited Jack, this is a Daniel who is starting to doubt, his eyes and speech portray a wistfulness and sadness that just weren’t there in Abyss. On we go to Full Circle, this is where they pull out all the stops and start messing with your head, it’s brilliant in it’s complexity and hardly noticeable but so well done I find in incredible to watch. In the very first scene we meet a totally new Ascended Daniel, gone is the contentment from Abyss and the sadness from Changeling. It is replaced with an awesome power and determination. The Abydonian robes here a master stroke, the hood adding to the mystery and power, his face still soft and open but his eyes are dangerous. This is the self appointed Protector of the Planet, the prodigal son has returned to his adopted home with a new purpose, it seems he has found a new path. Next the elevator scene and the lighting guys do us proud. Instead of the traditional back-up lighting of orange low level emergency lighting, we get a bright white overhead light. This dramatically alters Daniel’s look, the sweater is lighter in colour and the shadows which form on his face are unusual, they emphasize his new mission. He is now asking for help not giving it, he is uncertain and edgy, not at all like the Ascended Daniel we have come to know. The sweater too is past it’s best here, it is growing on him, it is turned back at the cuffs (notice that Daniel in uniform, either his SGC one or his ascended one, never rolls his sleeves up, he does with his own clothes but never his uniform) when he leans on the wall, the sweater leans further, the thing is wearing and so is Daniel’s patience with the Ascended. When we next see him with the team on Abydos he is a strange mixture of both the Protector Daniel in his robes and the uncertain edgy Daniel in the elevator, he no longer wears the hood up and he is struggling with “crossing the line” for the team. Brilliant subtle performance. Finally the face off with Anubis. We return to the Protector of the Planet, the hood and robes conveying his mystical power and absolute resolution, gone is the hesitancy, gone is the sadness, we return to the contentment of Abyss, Daniel has found his purpose. Now we see why we needed that first scene on Abydos establishing this new Protector Ascended Daniel. There was no way in the world that those scenes with Anubis would have worked in the Sweater, we had to have the Abydonian robes with the hood. I bow to all who brought off this amazing feat, writers, actors, lighting, costume, sets, camera work etc. They all helped to establish a new affirmed “look” for ascended Daniel but brought him through so many changes in only 3 episodes, it is masterly to watch, I loved it. I can’t wait to see what season 7 will bring. Ellie PS I still think it should be burned. This essay originally appeared at: |
