Thoran
Summary
Thoran was a Tok'ra operative who oversaw the implanting of Jack O'Neill with the Tok'ra symbiote named Kanan. He was introduced in the episode, 6.04 "Frozen".
Character Biography
As Earth's allies, the Tok'ra were contacted for assistance when Col. Jack O'Neill was dying from an plague that was thought to be the original disease that wiped out the Ancients several million years ago in the Milky Way. O'Neill became ill when he was in contact with an Ancient woman, nicknamed Ayianna, who was buried in the ice of Antarctica, but who revived once she was freed and thawed out. Ayianna was able to heal through touch and successfully saved the rest of the team and research staff at the Antarctic Research Station, but she died before she could heal O'Neill. (6.04 "Frozen")
Thoran proposed that O'Neill permit them to implant a symbiote named Kanan so that he might be healed. There was the additional benefit that Kanan could then reveal the intelligence he had gathered during his last mission in which his host was mortally wounded. Timing was urgent, and after Carter appealed to the soldier side of O'Neill, he agreed to the implantation with the understanding that the blending would not be permanent. (6.04 "Frozen")
Once Kanan was blended with O'Neill, a change came over him, however. He acted upon O'Neill's "never leave anyone behind" creed and took O'Neill to one of Ba'al's secret bases in order to retrieve his lover, one of Ba'al's lo'taurs named Shallan. O'Neill and the slave were captured, but Kanan left O'Neill's body before he could be captured as well. He knew that Ba'al would torture O'Neill for information, and it was this act of cowardice that put O'Neill and Shallan in grave danger. (6.06 "Abyss")
Thoran had to be the bearer of bad news concerning O'Neill/Kanan's unexplained absence from their base. General Hammand and the rest of SG-1 were livid. Thoran defended Kanan's honor, claiming he was as a brother to him, and blamed O'Neill for the strange behavior. Dr. Janet Fraiser insisted that the host could not have that kind of influence on the symbiote and that it was Kanan who had taken O'Neill without his approval. (6.06 "Abyss")
Relations between the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri were tested as the team tried to figure out where Kanan could have taken O'Neill. They asked Thoran for copies of Kanan's mission reports, hoping to get some idea as to what might have motivated the symbiote to act so uncharactistically. Thoran refused to hand over the reports, even after Carter cited the specific portion of the Tok'ra-Tau'ri treaty that made their two peoples allies through the sharing of intelligence. With Hammond's threats to cut off the alliance, Thoran agreed to obtain the reports. (6.06 "Abyss")
O'Neill's team, with the mental prodding of an ascended Daniel Jackson, who was standing by O'Neill's side through his ordeal, figured out that somehow Kanan had been influenced by O'Neill enough to want to save the woman that he loved from Ba'al's evil grasp. Unfortunately, Ba'al's base was a fortress, impossible to penetrate without a great loss of lives. (6.06 "Abyss")
Thoran was ready to accept that Kanan was lost. Even though their numbers were dwindling and every Tok'ra's life was valuable, he realized that going into Ba'al's base to rescue Kanan was too high of a risk and out of the question. (6.06 "Abyss")
Teal'c, with Daniel's prodding, figured out a way to give O'Neill a fighting chance by informing Lord Yu of the location of Ba'al's base where he was conducting advanced technological research without the knowledge of the other System Lords (an offense against their High Council rules). Lord Yu attacked the base and caused the power to fail in O'Neill's prison, allowing him to escape along with Shallan. Thoran apparently left the SGC without addressing Kanan's abandonment, but took Shallan with him as she wished to join the Tok'ra and continue the fight in Kanan's name. (6.06 "Abyss")
It's possible that Thoran felt as the some of the other Tok'ra once he understood the circumstances of Kanan's actions: Jacob Carter, as host to the Tok'ra Selmak, explained, "Kanan broke one of our highest laws. He used you. I can tell you that even Selmak was sickened by it and there's no way he could have hidden those feelings from me. But Kanan did something terribly wrong while trying to do the right thing." (6.06 "Abyss", 6.09 "Allegiance")
Episodes
Related Characters
- Col. Jack O'Neill
- Daniel Jackson
- Maj. Samantha Carter
- Teal'c
- Gen. George Hammond
- Ayiana
- Ba'al
- Jacob Carter/Selmak
- Dr. Janet Fraiser
- Kanan
- Shallan
- Yu
Related Articles
- Ancient Plague
- Ancients
- Antarctic Research Station
- Ascended Beings
- Goa'uld
- Lo'taur
- Symbiote
- System Lord
- Tok'ra
Actor
--DeeKayP 19:47, 2 Sep 2004 (PDT)