Stargate SG-1/Recap/S1/E03 Emancipation

Series:Stargate SG-1 Episode: Season 1, Episode 3 Title:"Emancipation" Previous: The Enemy Within Next: The Broca Divide Recapper: Shadow Penguin SG-1 arrives on a forested world and come across a teenager being chased by dogs. They scare off the dogs and save him. Men on horseback appear, and seem offended by Carter, and prepare to kill her. The boy stops them, and his father comes riding up. Carter asks what she did and he is about to attack her for speaking without being spoken to. The boy stops him again, and they decide she lives since she helped save the boy.

Turns out the tribe is a Mongul type tribe with very strict rules on women. Covering their faces, acting submissive, speaking only when spoken to, and generally being the property of the men. Carter is upset, but gets talked into following the customs while they are there. She gets kidnapped in the middle of the night by the teenager, who decides she's the perfect woman to trade to a rival tribe in order to get what he wants, the hand of his love, the daughter of the chieftain. The chieftain rejects his offer and gives him gold for Carter instead.

SG-1 goes to free Carter and find that the boy's father is considering changing the customs since he loves his wife. They find Carter and to avoid war, they make a trade to get her back. Jack trades the chieftain a gun and they run off before he finds out it is useless once the bullets run out. However, he laters finds that his daughter has escaped to meet with the boy. They decide a duel will settle the dispute and avoid war, so Carter challenges the chieftain. She kicks his butt, no war occurs, the women are freed, and everything is changed.

The writer of this episode was Katharyn Powers, who previously co-wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Code of Honor", which essentially had exactly the same plot. Just replace Mongols with Africans and Sam Carter with the also blonde, short-haired Tasha Yar. Both were even the third episode of their respective shows' first season. However, the Stargate version manages to be even preachier.