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jadelotusflower · 1 year

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Obscure Christmas Movie Rewatch: Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

This was my absolute favourite Christmas movie when I was a kid (behind Muppet's Christmas Carol), and it is so veiled in nostalgia I'm not sure I can be objective (or snark too much), but here we go.

Purporting to tell the story behind the 1897 Editorial Is There a Santa Claus? by Francis Pharcellus Chruch, the events and characters have been heavily fictionalised (as the text and v/o at the end helpfully reminds us). I'm therefore going to do some fact checking as to historical accuracy, but only out of interest, and certainly not intended as a criticism. I genuinely love this movie!

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We open with Francis P Church (the late great Charles Bronson) in a cemetery, brushing the snow off the grave of his wife Elizabeth and baby Eleanor who died a year earlier. He opens up a gold watch with her picture inside, and it plays a gentle tune. He then takes out a bottle of whiskey, but turns away from the grave before he takes a swig.

In real life Church was indeed married to Elizabeth Wickham, but they had no children and I can't find any information about when she died (Francis passed in 1906). However in terms of framing a character, this is pretty effective.

We see The Sun newspaper being delivered, giving us the date of 17 December 1897.

Then we're at the docks, where James O'Hanlan (Richard Thomas) and Dominic Donelli (Massimo Bonetti) are fired after getting into a fight with another worker who levies several ethnic slurs and anti-immigrant rhetoric at them. Thomas was apparently one of the Walton kids (which I've never seen), and is one of those working actors who has seemingly been in every procedural known to man - he was also in The Americans and Ozark (but I haven't seen those either).

Their eight year old daughters Virginia (Katherine Isabelle) and Maria (Virginia Bagnata) meanwhile, are being mocked by her classmates for believing in Santa Claus. Look, the child performances in this movie are...what you would expect. But I'm not here to criticise kids, they do their best.

James can't find another job, reduced to reading The Sun a day late once it's put out in the trash, and the family is struggling. His wife Evie (Tasmin Kelsey, who I remember as Gairwyn from Stargate SG-1) is an optimist and tells him to keep up his spirits. James: "The trouble is there's too much damn spirit and not enough damn jobs."

In actuality, Philip O'Hanlan was a surgeon and coroner and they were a middle class family who lived on the Upper West Side. Virginia went on to achieve a doctorate in childhood education and was a teacher for over 40 years - her childhood home is now a school.

Frank stumbles into the offices of The Sun to pick up another bottle of whiskey from his desk, and then to the local bar to brood. Local pompous aristocratic jerk Cornelius Barrington (John Novak - who has apparently been in every Canadian-filmed production ever, including Smallville and Stargate) arrives to goad Frank about his affinity for those filthy poors. In doing so, he makes Frank sound legitimately badass: "The great egalitarian editorializer, friend and champion of the common man, would-be slayer of the capitalist dragons!"

The newsroom is populated by editor Edward Page Mitchell (the late great Ed Asner), copyboy Teddy (Shawn Macdonald), and sole female reporter Andrea Borland (Colleen Winton - apparently she was also in two episodes of Stargate but I can't place her). She's ambitious and frustrated that Mitchell will only let her report on society matters. Not gonna lie, there's a whiff of Perry White, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen about them (or maybe it's just that I rewatched the 1978 Superman recently). There's a bit of snappy dialogue:

Andrea: Did you like my society piece on the Vanderbilt ball?

Mitchell: I printed it, didn't I?

Andrea: Well...half of it

Mitchell: That was the half I liked.

Andrea heads to the bar and hesitates only for a moment at the "men only" sign before going in to find Frank and try and retrieve the article Mitchell was looking for - "The Shame of Greatness".

Frank hands her a page of a few ideas and a lot of gibberish, while Corenlius watches literally eating popcorn. There's just a big bowl of popcorn sitting out in this men's bar and grill!

If gifs were a thing in the 90's this would have been a meme.

Andrea rewrites the article and gives it to Mitchell in Frank's name. It's a great success, with Teddy walking around reciting lines and calling it "a real humdinger!" Frank confronts Andrea, and she confides in him that it was his lecture at her university that inspired her to keep going when she was only one of three women in the class (and the other two ended up getting married).

We get the dramatic irony in Frank's refusal to be impressed: "Tomorrow it will be yesterday's newspaper, and you can wrap a fish in it. Nothing that you, or I, or anybody else writes for a newspaper has a lifespan of more than 24 hours."

Cornelius approaches Andrea and offers her a job to work at his uncle's paper The Chronicle in order to expose Frank as a fraud (in real life Church actually once worked at The Chronicle, which was published by his father). But as a woman of principle she coldly rejects him, and honestly, I love her. Frank has been nothing but dismissive and patronising towards her, so it's clear it's not solely about protecting him (and perhaps the ideal she had of him) but more about who she is and what she believes. Underrated character in an underrated movie.

James foils a robbery, and the police arrive with accents of the diddly dee potatoes variety. When he arrives home he's greeted by his Jewish neighbor Mrs Goldstein. It's interesting that this is a very similar setting to Mrs Santa Claus - New York at the turn of the century and has some thematic similarities - the immigrant experience and the importance of community in particular.

James reads aloud The Shame of Greatness article to the family:

"We have become a great nation, but at what cost? Ask the red man, the black man, the immigrant, the elderly, the ill. We have built a railroad across the 45 states and bridges across rivers but there is no bridge of brotherhood. Why? Because there is no profit in that bridge. Ask the captains of industry, ask the robber barons, ask the politicians about that bridge."

Unfortunate racial wording aside, it's a sentiment that wouldn't be out of place now, 31 years after this film was made, and 125 years after the film is set. I like a little activism in my Christmas movies.

It's also worth noting that most of the above passage were parts written by Frank, so Andrea's suggestion that they were his ideas is given credence - we don't know what the rest of the article went on to say but it's implied Andrea is a great writer able to match Frank's voice.

James speaks to the frustration of America not being the promised land: "It's hard to believe that fifty years ago our people came to this country because they were starving in Ireland. Potato famine indeed! High rents ha! It's no different over here."

As a child watching this movie was the first time I'd heard of the potato famine, and it's only this rewatch I noticed that Virginia is reading a book about Oliver Cromwell! Yikes. I don't know if that was deliberate, but certainly an interesting touch.

Evie however, takes the other side of the argument, telling James to stop feeling sorry for himself, and to be grateful for what they have - family, a place to live, and food (and God - this is certainly the most religious movie of this rewatch). Evie: "You can be poor if you want to James O'Hanlon, but I'm rich. And I grow richer every day of my life."

Virginia asks her father if Santa Claus is real, and he is the envy of every parent in quickly thinking to deflect and encourage her to write to The Sun for an answer instead.

Frank is back at the bar, where Cornelius goads him about Andrea, implying there are other things she is taking care of for him. Finally Frank is moved to respond, and when Cornelius warns him that he was "Captain of the Yale boxing team" Frank punches him square in the face, knocking him to the floor.

"I've done some fighting myself, Captain," Frank says, "around Hell's Kitchen." When I was a kid I didn't realise this referred to a gritty part of New York and thought it was a metaphor and an allusion to his roving reporter life - I think it works either way.

At the postbox, Virginia is gifted a stamp by the kindly German postman Hans Schuller, in another example of this community of immigrants helping each other through the hard times.

At The Sun, Frank looks at his wife's picture in the watch, and Teddy remarks that one day he'll have a watch like that ("a real himdinger!" - an annoying catchphrase, but it's meant to be annoying). Frank takes the picture out and puts the watch in an envelope with Teddy's name on it, then goes home where he turns off the fire but leaves the gas on, in the grand tradition of family Christmas movies including attempted suicide!

I admit this went right over my head when I first watched this as a kid, I think subtle enough not to be too dark for younger viewers. There's also a nice bit of production design comparing Frank's warm and furnished apartment with the O'Hanlan's grey and bare abode.

Mitchell arrives to give Frank the assignment of answering Virginia's letter, and we get to the core of Frank's depression - that he was a man who lived for his work, never even spending one Christmas dinner with his wife because he was away on assignment, and the irony that he was in Panama writing about yellow fever while she was dying of pneumonia - guilt and longing and regret. It's pretty complex stuff for a family film, and something I never really appreciated until I was older.

Now, it's certainly wholesale fiction - Francis Church married Elizabeth in 1871, so not merely married for "more than three years" as in the film. In fact, her birthdate on the grave is 1860, which puts a bit of a different spin on things with Frank significantly older rather than being her contemporary as in real life. This is alluded to in their conversation as Frank says he took many more years than most men to find a wife, adding to his guilt for not being there for her and appreciating what he had.

There's also nothing I could find that indicated he was an alcoholic - allegedly he was an atheist and hated writing the famous editorial.

But Ed Asner and Charles Bronson are both great actors, and play so well off each other. I do give credit for this scene not being too overwritten - if you actually pay attention to the grave at the beginning you see that Elizabeth and Eleanor died on 24 December the previous year - which is on the nose, but it remains subtext rather than Frank giving exposition of the "They died on Christmas and that's why I hate it!" variety.

The next day at the paper we get a cameo from screenwriter Andrew J Fenady as the reporter who tells Mitchell things are "heating up" in Cuba, referring to the Cuban War of Independence and a precursor to the Spanish-America War. I do enjoy these small historical touches.

Meanwhile, James and Dominic find jobs for the day but have another run in with the dock workers and get to thoroughly beat them up in a nice bit of karma. There's really no point to this scene other than to see the bigots get punched, but hey, I'm here for that, and it also keeps James' story parallel to Frank's.

Frank wanders around the city and is inspired by what he sees - the poor being fed by a soup kitchen, a policeman helping an elderly homeless man, people donating to toy drives, and a scene in a park complete with brass band, sleigh rides, ice skating, and general seasonal joy. He finds a baby's rattle that inspires part of the editorial, and sees a young couple with their child, sending him back to visit his wife's grave. He buys flowers but decides to throw them away rather than placing them on the grave - along with his bottle of whiskey.

I actually think this is a great example of show-not-tell writing - a lesser piece would have had Frank talk to his wife at her grave, saying how sorry he was he never appreciated her enough when she was alive, asking how he was going to answer Virginia's question when he himself doesn't believe in anything anymore, and then make a breakthrough. But not a word is uttered - we have Bronson's performance, we see him start to experience life again and decide to stop wallowing in his grief and return to his passion for writing. It's actually very deftly done.

Mrs Goldstein appears again to give the O'Hanlan's some brisket because she "made too much." It's very sweet but James gets in his feelings about it because he's not the one providing for his family.

The police arrive to take James down to the station for questioning about the robbery, and while he's gone Virginia uses a penny she found on the street earlier to buy a paper - wanting to give her father the gift of The Sun on the day it's printed rather than the next.

Back at the paper, Frank puts his wife's picture back in his gold watch, and instead gives Teddy another: "it's not gold, and it doesn't play a tune, but it was my first watch and it helped me start the day for many years." He also tells Mitchell he will come to Christmas dinner after all, and Andrea asks him to follow her somewhere, repeating his earlier words back to him: "there has to be a finish to every story."

James arrives back at home with a tree and laden with gifts, including a pet kitten (that he befriended earlier on). Turns out he was given a reward for his part in the robbery, and that both he and Dominic were offered jobs on the police force. Something could be said about James and Dominic becoming cops on the basis of punching people really well, but perhaps this isn’t the place for it.

Virginia gives her father the paper, and of course sees the editorial and reads it aloud, as all our friends arrive, including Andrea and Frank. It's actually a rather moving scene, the community that has supported each other, and who all played a part in the letter being written, delivered, and finally answered.

I honestly think this movie holds up despite the nostalgia goggles - there is some cringe, but through fictionalising the story behind the editorial, it becomes it's own metaphor - the weaving together of these disparate lives and their various struggles, united by hope and faith. Bronson gives a great performance that really grounds the film (and the part must have been particularly resonant for him, as his wife Jill Ireland had died the year before the film was made). I really recommend this movie, and think it's a shame that it isn't as enduring or well known as the original editorial.

"Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe In Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

#obscure christmas movie rewatch #christmas movies #yes virginia #there is a santa claus #jlf rewatch #jlf posts

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cranialgunk · 4 months

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Christmas, Santa, and Jesus

As a parent, two stories I would like to tell better are the story of 9/11 and the story of Christmas. With the former, I’m still trying to get it “just right.” Both my children were born after 9/11 (my older one just nine months after). They are still so very young and naïve. People are still “linear beings” to them. There is a distinct line between right and wrong, good and bad — And good…

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#Christmas #faith #Jesus Christ #Santa Claus #Yes Virginia

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biglisbonnews · 1 year

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10-year-old asks for a DNA test on a cookie allegedly bitten by Santa to prove if he's real or not A 10-year-old girl from Cumberland, Rhode Island has a big question that she's hoping a DNA test will answer. Wanting to know if Santa Claus is real, she put a cookie he allegedly bit in a plastic baggy and sent it down to her local police department. — Read the rest https://boingboing.net/2023/01/23/10-year-old-asks-for-a-dna-test-on-a-cookie-allegedly-bitten-by-santa-to-prove-if-hes-real-or-not.html

#Post #question authority #santa claus #Yes Virginia #Rusty Blazenhoff #Boing Boing

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duranduratulsa · 1 year

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Up next on my Christmas 🎄 movie 🎥 marathon...Yes Virginia (2009) on classic DVD 📀! #tv #television #Christmas #merrychristmas #merrychristmas2022 #dvd #2000s

#tv #television #yes virginia #Christmas #yes virginia there's a santa claus #Merry Christmas #Merry Christmas 2022 #dvd #2000s #Spotify

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animationnut · 5 months

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#Christmas #Christmas specials #holiday specials #polls #Charlie brown #the grinch #powerpuff girls #mickey mouse #phineas and ferb

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citizenscreen · 8 months

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"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" is a line from an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church titled "Is There a Santa Claus?", which appeared in the New York newspaper The Sun on September 21, 1897

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salmonella-destroyer-of-worlds · 5 months

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Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

#dank memes #funny post #meme #dank #funny #funny pics #silly #funny pictures #dankest memes #humor #santa claus #funny twitter

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drunktuesdays · 5 months

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Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. -Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (1897)

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aurumacadicus · 5 months

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Watching the Charles Bronson Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus and Charles Bronson had at one point just written lines and lines of 'asdfghjkl' on his typewriter and I bellowed full-force "WHAT A MOOD" and NO ONE got it

#movies

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harringtonstilinski · 1 year

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Christmas Missions - Mitch Rapp

Author: @stilinskiparker Characters: Mitch Rapp x Reader Word Count: 746 Warnings: fluff, tw: flashing gif Tropes/AU’s: no tropes or au’s! Smut: no | yes; Requested: Yes,! I hope it meets your expectations, anon friend! A/N: Hi, friends! If you like this fic, please do not hesitate to reblog and give some feedback, whether it be in the reblogs, comments, or my inbox. As always, read at your own risk and enjoy 😊

Whoever the fuck decided to fuck things up during Christmas time can not so kindly fuck themselves. I mean, seriously! You’ve got to be fucked up to wanna fuck someone else’s Christmas up.

Mitch and I are in Miami on a mission to capture a drug lord down here. We’d been here for a few weeks, trying to locate him while talking to his customers to get his location. Once we found him, we tried to “arrest” him, but drastic measures had to be taken.

Packed up and ready to leave the Jacksonville International Airport on our flight back to Virginia when an announcement came over the PA saying that all flights to Virginia have been canceled for the rest of the day and into the night due to the snow.

After we left the airport, we found a hotel to stay in for the night.

“Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane,” I sang. Mitch looked at me like I was crazy as my eyes met his. “What?”

“You’re crazy,” he said.

“Crazy for loving Christmas?”

He nodded his head.

“Well, lucky for you, I went and bought decorations and a few other things while we’re stuck in this room for the next 24 hours.” I placed a bag down on the bed, taking off my jacket. Going through the bag, I started singing the song again - well, more like humming it to myself.

I started decorating the room, hearing the rustle of the bag behind me, smiling a little to myself. Seeing Mitch at the glass door in the corner of my eye, I watched as he placed those stick on decorations to it.

We spent the next few minutes decorating our room before I decided to ask him, “When’s the last time you celebrated Christmas?”

His shoulders slumped a little before he looked me in the eyes, giving his answer, “Before Katrina died.”

I knew about Katrina. I watched the news about the beach attack and read all the articles on it. I felt so bad, but I also wanted to keep stuff like that from happening again… so I joined the CIA.

I looked down as I messed with the decoration in my hand for a moment before I whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” he said. “Did you get anything else at the store?”

Thinking face on, I turned around and looked through the grocery bags, finding a box of hot chocolate mix that I forgot about. “I did!” I showed him the blue box with snowy mountains on it. “Want some?”

Mitch nodded his head, a hint of a smile in his eyes. He grabbed the box from me, heading to the single serve coffee machine on the counter. After he filled the styrofoam cup with water, he put it in the back of the machine before putting the cup under the machine where the water comes out.

Once both cups had water in them, he grabbed the plastic spoons that I also bought and put them into the cups before grabbing the packets of hot chocolate. At the same time, we poured the powdered mix into our cups, a smile spread across my face.

A few minutes later, I decided to give Mitch something. Reaching into my bag, I grabbed his gift and handed it to him. “Here,” I said. “For you.”

He opened it, finding a new black Henley and a razor kit. He looked at me, confused, so I went ahead and answered his question.

“The Henley is to replace the one that got all ripped to hell during the mission, and the razor kit is to help keep that facial hair in check.”

He looked back down at it and whispered, “You didn’t have to.” Looking back up at me, he said, “I didn’t get you anything.”

I waved him off, telling him it was no big deal. I really didn’t want anything, anyway. Well, there was one thing I wanted; to see my family, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

Mitch and I spent the rest of the night watching whatever Christmas movie was on TV while drinking our hot chocolates. I don’t even know when I fell asleep!

But what I do know is, when I woke up, there was a message from Mitch on the nightstand, saying, “Went to get some coffee from your favorite coffee place. Thanks for making this the best Christmas mission ever.”

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A/N 2: let me know what you thought!

Additional Note:

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Forever / Everything Taglist: @stiles-o-dylan24 @stixnstripesworld @fandom-princess-forevermore @quanticobae @mischiefandi @kellyashcroft @lauren-novak @good-vibes-and-glitter

Posted on December 17, 2022

#mitch rapp x reader #mitch x reader #mitch rapp x reader insert #mitch x reader insert #dylan o'brien x reader #dylan o'brien x reader insert

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frithwontdie · 4 months

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Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

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jadelotusflower · 7 months

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Stargate rewatch: 1x09 Thor’s Hammer

"We don’t think the Goa’uld built the Stargate system” - episode 9 of season 1 and we’re already tapping into a huge part of the mythology - the show really hit the ground running with its lore.

But who is “we”? It’s never really established whether Daniel is in charge of his own team or runs his own department, but I think we can assume so? I like to think Barbara Shaw from the film is on the team at the very least.

However the “tyrant” gods being mostly from non-white cultures and the “culture-bearers” being mostly from white/western cultures is an ongoing yikes of the show.

I wouldn’t really characterise the Norse gods as particular friends to humans? I mean in the mythology they're not tyrants but they seem no less capricious than the Goa’uld-coded pantheons. Although I guess there is some interesting stuff around the Norse gods being more like higher beings as opposed to all powerful deities, which works in the show's presentation of the Asgard, but is hardly unique to Norse myth.

For example Odin (who I don't think we ever see on the show) being more of a hands off kind of god, who is not innately omniscient but himself pursues knowledge, hanging upside down from Yggdrasil and sacrificing an eye to obtain wisdom - and of course, the fate of the gods to die in Ragnarök, an acceptance of mortality that does fit the Asgard rather than the Goa'uld.

SGC Earth has a “Sagan Institute” - a nice tribute to Carl Sagan who died a year before the show was made. IRL The Carl Sagan Institute was established in 2014.

While the hammer is obviously meant to depict the death of a symbiote, it's also likely a reference to the Midgard/World Serpent. Although the Goa’uld are referred to as “Ettins” (Eoten/Jötunn) in this episode, Jörmungandr was the serpent who surrounded Midgard (Earth) eating its own tail, and was Thor’s enemy.

It’s Gairwyn! I love Gairwyn so much. Played by Tamsin Kelsey, who was also a big figure of my childhood as Evie O’Hanlon from the tv movie Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

"You must be from Thrudvang, Thor's home in the stars." Þrúðvangr was the realm of Thor and the location of his great hall Bilskirnir, which in later episodes will be identified as Asgard Thor's flagship.

“You and I might even have some of the same ancestors” - Sam has Scandinavian heritage I suppose?

Hologram!Thor is Mark Gibbon, who will go on to play a recurring Jaffa role in later seasons.

Thor of course is the obvious choice for Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet - we get a quick mythology primer from Daniel at the top of the episode and it's funny to think that would probably be unnecessary now given the Marvelisation of pop culture. But if there was a Norse god who could be considered a "friend to humans" like Daniel claims, it would be Thor.

“The High Council of Asgard has designated Cimmeria a safe world for developing sentient species, by unanimous decree 40.73.29. The Goa’uld system lords were so informed.” So is Cimmeria part of the Protected Planets Treaty? I assume so, but that Thor doesn’t trust the Goa’uld and installed the Hammer just in case. His message is kind of sassy too, we get the impression later that Thor is perhaps more invested in humanity than the other Asgard, and would take action against the Goa’uld if he could. So it makes sense his pet planet would have extra protection.

Galyn Görg (RIP) is wonderful as Kendra, it’s a shame she doesn’t recur.

What a Look too, fantastic costuming this episode - Gairwyn's is great as well.

And two women in major supporting roles! Another Katharyn Powers episode, this is one I really love.

The first proper appearance of the healing device.

Also the helmets are still with us - just attached to their backpacks.

“[Thor’s] race may have considered projectile weapons too primitive to be concerned about.” Heh. I love that this comes back into play with the Asgard vs the Replicators later on.

I think this the World Serpent on the wall behind Jack as well, in a more expansive form than was on the Hammer.

There’s another layer to this in hindsight - when Jörmungandr releases its tail from its mouth, Ragnarök will begin, and he and Thor will kill each other. Ragnarök is Götterdämmerung - the twilight of the gods. By the end of the series the time of both the Goa’uld and the Asgard will have passed, although not due to direct conflict between these two races, but rather the ascendancy of Midgard/Earth.

Jack is pretty subdued when Teal'c points out the Hammer could be used to free Sha're and Skaara - I think he's already figured out that they'll probably have to destroy the Hammer to get Teal'c out so won’t allow himself to think about the what ifs.

James Earl Jones! Everything is better with James Earl Jones.

“Unas is believed to have been the first host, born of the same primordial waters as the Goa’uld.” Although Unas is later revealed to be a race rather than a single being, the continuity of this in season 4 is great.

Kendra doesn’t say the name of the Goa’uld who possessed her, but mentions Marduk as the one who abducted her, which may present a continuity problem later as Marduk is trapped in a sarcophagus and only freed in season 4. But I suppose it’s not clear how long exactly Kendra was a host.

“Well Sha’re wasn’t trained in a temple like you, but she had a spirit, she was a fighter.” As we saw in CotG. Daniel's unwavering faith in Sha're fighting against the possession says a lot about their relationship.

But one of the failings of the show is that it is supremely uninterested in the trauma of Goa'uld possession - we get a bit with Sam although that becomes more about Jolinar's memories and the blending of the symbiote and host, and kind of with Vala later but it’s really only treated as a shorthand for why she is the way she is.

With Kendra we at least see how her trauma manifests in her isolation, her talking to the wind, interpreting the thunder, and ultimately deciding to face her fear.

This is a nicely directed episode too, by Brad Turner, who will helm several future episodes. Some really nice shots of Kendra, Daniel, and Sam climbing over mountains and walking over aqueducts.

Sam the skeptic vs Daniel the optimist. She’s actually pretty hard on him here! I’m not sure what Sam thinks their other options are if they don’t follow Kendra.

If Daniel’s flaw is his hubris and tendency to fixate at the expense of all else, Sam’s is her judgemental streak and unwillingness to think outside the logic box.

“Haven’t you ever had a feeling that made absolutely no logical sense and it turned out to be right?” The answer for Sam is clearly no, but that will change as part of her character arc will be sometimes learning to trust things that can’t be quantified.

And its helmet time.

"I was with those who took the ones you love." A little bit of mitigating language on Teal'c part, but his willingness to remain trapped just on the chance that the wrong he was party to can be righted, we can see how much guilt he does feel. I still wish we'd actually gotten a scene before this between Daniel and Teal'c about Sha're.

Jack having Daniel be the one to destroy the hammer is harsh, but it has to be Daniel. Because he is the one most affected by the decision, he needs to be the one who makes it, not have it be made for him. Importantly, Jack doesn’t order him to do it, and isn’t completely sure he will, just hopes.

By being the one to fire the shot, Daniel takes ownership of it, and it avoids resentment on his part - Jack knows that it’s the way it has to be for Daniel personally, and the good of the team.

To his credit once handed the staff weapon Daniel doesn't hesitate - closing his eyes before firing is a nice touch though.

Kendra gives them the Ansuz rune, the equivalent to A in Elder Futhark, meaning god and is associated with Odin, knowledge and communication.

#stargate sg1 #stargate rewatch #1x09 thor’s hammer #jlf posts #norse mythology #meta #daniel jackson #sam carter #jack o'neill #teal'c #stargate sg-1

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