"Stargate SG-1" Review Season 03, Episode 05, Learning Curve

"Stargate SG-1" Review Season 03, Episode 05, Learning Curve

9/10

23rd July 1999
Written By: Heather E. Ash
Directed By: Martin Wood

After having made contact with the Orban, a people slightly more advanced than Earth but with a far greater rate of advancement and willing to exchange knowledge with the SGC. During an exchange of a powerful energy source SG-1 discovers facts which they feel are morally wrong; through nano technology they use a select group of children to learn and study a subject and pass them through a ceremony which removes the nano cells and distributes the knowledge through the entire people while leaving the child at an infant stage of mental ability.

The concept of nano cells is not new, having been used in season one to age the people of a less advanced world. The ones used in this episode are harmless, more akin to very tiny super computers containing vast amounts of information which the host has acquired. I do not wish to go further into detail on the matter.

The moral or ethical implications of using children in the manner showed could keep philosophy students and professors occupied in heated debate for hours, but ultimately it is not up to any one civilisation to dictate the methods of another without being under an occupying force.

The Naquadah Reactor shown in this episode will not return, however it will spawn an Earth equivalent which will power quite a few devices and facilities in future seasons and episodes.

While the Orban remain allied with Earth we will not see or hear much from them in the future.

The plot is good, the acting talent is good, the effects are few and relatively well integrated.

Link to Series Review:
Stargate SG-1