10.14 "The Shroud" Episode Guide

Précis

The team, sans Daniel Jackson, travels to a planet which has been visited by a Prior of the Ori. The villagers aren’t sure that this Prior is as much of a threat as the team thinks he is. When the team meets the Prior, they realize why he is so very different from the rest.

Guide | Transcript

SciFi.com Official Summary

When SG-1 discovers, to their horror, that Daniel Jackson has been transformed into an Ori Prior, they quickly seize him and confine him aboard the Odyssey. They expect to confront a brainwashed and dangerous prisoner, but instead, Daniel is relieved. He claims that since his disappearance, he has only been pretending to obey his captor Adria — finishing the sangraal weapon and becoming a Prior on her orders — until he could allow himself to be captured by SG-1. Better yet, he has a plan, but he needs his teammates' help. If SG-1 will shut down the wormhole that permanently blocks the Ori's supergate — the only bridge from their galaxy to the Milky Way — then he will use his Prior powers to steal an Ori ship, fly the sangraal into the Ori galaxy, and unleash it against the Ori.

If Daniel is telling the truth, then SG-1 can strike a fatal blow against the Ori. But if Daniel is brainwashed or lying, then his plan will allow the Ori to send more crusaders through the supergate to strike an equally fatal blow against the Milky Way.

Along with SG-1, Jack O'Neill himself meets with Daniel to determine if he's telling the truth. Over time, Daniel's heartfelt words persuade his friends that he's really himself — and that his radical plan just might work. The International Oversight Advisory, however, doesn't dare trust Daniel. In fact, they believe he's so dangerous that he should be executed.

As a middle ground, O'Neill urges Daniel to give SG-1 all the intel they need to carry out his plan while he remains a prisoner. Daniel fears that they can't succeed without his Prior powers to help. Still, he cooperates, and his information is good: Mitchell, Carter, Vala and Teal'c take over the Ori ship and fly it to the supergate. But when they arrive, Adria is waiting. With her amazing powers, she easily captures SG-1. Meanwhile, aboard the Odyssey, Daniel suddenly deploys his Prior powers in a blur of action, freeing himself and beaming up Jack O'Neill. Then he steers the ship straight for the supergate.

Daniel swears that he's only trying to help his team, but SG-1 can't help wondering if he planned to rendezvous with Adria all along. The fate of two galaxies now hangs on one question: Has Daniel courageously resisted Adria's vastly superior power, or has he tragically succumbed?

Cast

• Ben Browder as Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell
• Amanda Tapping as Lt. Col. Samantha Carter
• Christopher Judge as Teal'c
• Claudia Black as Vala Mal Doran
• With Beau Bridges as Maj. Gen. Hank Landry
• And Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson

Guest Stars

• Richard Dean Anderson as Gen. Jack O'Neill
• Morena Baccarin as Adria
• Robert Picardo as Richard Woolsey
• Christopher Gaze as Tevaris

Production

• Story by Robert C. Cooper and Brad Wright
• Teleplay by Robert C. Cooper
• Directed by Andy Mikita

Related Articles

Keywords

• International Oversight Advisory (IOA)
• Ori
• Ori Warship
• Priors of the Ori
• Sangreal
• Supergate

Other

• Season Ten Episode Guides
• Episode Guides
• Transcripts
• 10.14 "The Shroud" Transcript
• Previous: 10.13 "The Road Not Taken" Episode Guide
• Next: 10.15 "Bounty" Episode Guide

Related Links

Official

• Official MGM Stargate SG-1 Website
• SciFi Channel 10.14 "The Shroud" Episode Guide

Fan

• Solutions On-Site Forum: Season Ten Discussion Board
• Solutions LJ Companion Site
• Stargatefan Season Ten (Episode Guides, Transcripts, Multimedia, Missing Scenes)
• SG-1Web: Nitpicker's NetGuide Season Ten
• Stargate Screencaps: Season Ten

Production Notes

• This story (10.03 "The Pegasus Project") has "major story arc implications" and caused "heated debate in the writers' room", the reason being: "That you'll have to wait and see although, at the time we were discussing it, it was intended to serve as the launch for a significant, potentially very controversial story arc for one of the characters." — Joseph Mallozzi, SG1Solutions, December 22. This may or may not be related to the "controversial story arc" for Daniel which might mean his becoming a darker character, as has been alluded to by Mallozzi in the past and about which he has stated on SG1Solutions, "I've been sworn to secrecy on this one."
• The "potentially controversial story arc" for Daniel which had been identified with this episode (10.03 "The Pegasus Project") was tabled, but Mallozzi said, "We'll probably get resume discussing "the arc" in the coming weeks." (SG1Solutions, January 20, 2006)
• "Also, can you reassure us that the 'controversial' arc you're kicking around for Daniel won't be of the beloved-character-destroying kind?" was asked of Joseph Mallozzi and his answer, "Consider yourself reassured. The writers and the producers, to say nothing of Michael Shanks himself, won't do anything that will cause irreperable harm to the Daniel Jackson character." (SG1Solutions, November 19, 2005)
• "Will Daniel's time ascended be used against him by the Ori? I'm wondering this because they've had more than enough opportunities to get rid of him and they seem not to want to do that. Did they take what he said to the Doci in "Origin" as a personal challenge to change his mind in order for him to bow down to them?" was asked of Joseph Mallozzi and his answer, "All interesting questions - that will have to wait for season 10." (SG1Solutions, November 19, 2005)
• "Is it possible for someone to become a Prior unwillingly?" was asked of Joseph Mallozzi and his answer, "No, it isn't." (SG1Solutions, December 18, 2005)
• Concerning the "remarkably controversial" story arc for Daniel: "We're definitely heading there. I would say that our mid-season two-parter ends up with the character in a rather unexpected circumstance. It's a way to justify the two episodes in the summer that I'm taking off, but at the same time it's a great story development idea where Daniel kind of goes over to the other side, for a little bit, and everybody has to deal with the ramifications of that." — Michael Shanks, Starburst #339, Summer 2006.
• "We're going to be working tomorrow on a head-to-head, toe-to-toe basis; he's looking forward to it and I'm looking forward to it. We have this great camaraderie and really enjoy working with each other and that colors how the characters interact onscreen." — Michael Shanks on working with Richard Dean Anderson, Official Magazine #12, June 2006.
• "Michael stated that as far as he recollected, the four episodes he will be absent from are the 4th, 5th, 12th and 13th episodes. (At this stage not sure if he was talking about shooting order or airing order, but he did confirm he is not appearing in the episode "Lines In The Sand")." — Michael Shanks Online: TT20 2006 Update, July 9, 2006. (As far as is known, "Line in the Sand" is the 14th episode in production order, scheduled to be before cameras July 31 through August 9, but is most likely to be aired as either the 12th or 13th episode to account for Daniel's two-episode absence.)
• TV Guide: What happens on his [Richard Dean Anderson's] other Stargate episode? Tapping: Something happens to Daniel. That's all I can tell you. Otherwise, I'd have to shoot you. — Amanda Tapping in interview with TV Guide Insider, July 2006.
• "And of course, Mr. RDA [Richard Dean Anderson], who I finally got to meet and work with. Although, ironically, I spent more time with him recently on another episode than I did during the 200th." — Claudia Black, interview video at SCI FI Pulse, July 21, 2006.
• "Morena Baccarin is a wonderful actress, from "Firefly," who's a great guest star as well. We sort of have -- I wouldn't call it a 'romantic interlude,' but there's some sort of interlude between the two of them, and this has a romantic connection. So that's been a lot of fun." — Michael Shanks, interview video at SCI FI Pulse, July 21, 2006.
• About Daniel and romantic entanglements: "There is the ongoing storyline that started in season nine with Vala, about her sort of being interested in him and Daniel not being interested in her. Then this year we have another sort of pseudo love interest in the part of her daughter, Adria, played by Morena Baccarin. There is a bit of some sort of romantic entanglement that happens there and Daniel kind of pushes that aside as well. Then in the episode right after it, which is “Bounty”, where a beautiful girl pretty much propositions Daniel point blank and he lets that go by too." — Michael Shanks, Interview at Eclipse Magazine, August 16, 2006.
• "And apparently there's something interesting in store for the character [Daniel Jackson] this year that people don't know about that I won't, um, get into detail about, but there's supposedly something that's not death, not ascension...somewhere in between." — Michael Shanks, SciFi Inside: Stargate SG-1's 200th Episode, August 18, 2006.
• The German Stargate Project website is reporting that Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey) and Morena Baccarin (Adria) will also make appearances along with Richard Dean Anderson (Jack O'Neill), and that this information came from a reliable source. — Stargate Project, September 22, 2006.
• IGN Interview with Michael Shanks, published December 18, 2006:

IGN TV: Before the movies happen, we've still got the rest of season 10 to look forward to. What can we expect for the rest of the season, in particular with Daniel's involvement?

Shanks: Well, Daniel gets to go on an interesting ride; the way the first 10 episodes finished up with the quest for the Holy Grail, it is something that happens at the end of the cliffhanger that when we come back we see something happen to Daniel that sends him on a strange journey. So that was kind of fun to play. You get to see the darker side of Daniel and play with that portion of the latter half of the season. [...] ...I took two episodes off in the summer time to spend it with my family and so Daniel had to disappear for some time, and he comes back and is kind of a villain, so we'll see how that fleshes out...

• "Andy Mikita who directed The Shroud and is another one of my favorite human beings, a confidante and friend. He had me walking around Daniel (Michael Shanks), who was all frosty white," Anderson continues. "As I'm walking around in this semi-interrogational mode, I remember my speeches getting bigger and bigger and, I don't know, quite probably over-the-top. Andy apparently trusted me enough - or didn't trust me enough - to not say anything, so I started cutting it back and cutting it back. Of course, we printed everything and some days later he came up to me and said, 'You know, you'd think after all these years I would have learned to trust you. You're so right. You were so right on.' And he apologized." — Richard Dean Anderson, Official Magazine #14, December 2006.
• "For this episode we reused the Paycheck chairs from the ninth season episode Prototype. We also remounted the Ancients face hugger device under a console in one of the Ori ships." — James Robbins, TV Zone Special #74, January 2007.
• "I said to Rob Cooper, OK, just so I'm clear on this: take actor - me Michael Shanks - put him in prosthetic makeup that is quite limiting, put contact lenses in his eyes so that he can't see very well, and then strap him in a chair so he can't move his arms and legs and express himself in that fashion. To top it off, give him 16 pages of dialogue and exposition that he needs to do to get his point across and tell the story. Honestly I felt like a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest." — Michael Shanks, TV Zone Special #74, January 2007.
• Micheal Shanks started a new blog at TVGuide.com and talked about the make-up and missing scenes for this episode. (May 2007)
• Alex Levine, script coordinator, discusses in his SciFi.com blog the return of Richard Dean Anderson, the chemistry between Anderson and Shanks as Jack and Daniel, and the same missing scene about which Shanks talks in his blog. (May 4, 2007)

Further Reading

• Starburst #339
• Official Magazine #12
• Michael Shanks Online: TT20 2006 Update
• TV Guide Insider
• SCI FI Pulse
• Michael Shanks Interview at Eclipse Magazine
• Stargate Project
• IGN Interview with Michael Shanks
• Official Magazine #14
• Sky One Program Guide
• TV Zone Special #74
• Micheal Shanks TVGuide.com Celebrity Blog, From Making Out to Getting Tied Up, May 2007.
• Alex Levine SciFi.com Blog, Super powers all around., May 4, 2007.

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--DeeKayP 19:20, 5 June 2006 (PDT)