No Return, by Redbyrd (PG)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

I'm quite pleased to be doing episode related recs this month! There are lots and lots of gems out there... ::rubs hands in anticipation::

Rec Category: Episode related

Pairing: none
Categories: episode related, gen, Jack O'Neill, team, drama, character study
Warnings: none
Author on LJ: redbyrd_sgfic
Author's Website: Redbyrd's Stargate Fanfiction
Link: No Return

Why This Must Be Read: Redbyrd's website is one of the first stops for anyone wanting to read gen episode related fics. In No Return, Redbyrd takes two episodes – Beneath the Surface and Point of No Return – and draws some excellent parallels, giving wonderful characterization to regular characters and breathing marvelous life into new ones.

Jack's unsettling struggles with the recovery of his personality after the mindstamp makes him a lot more sympathetic to Marty's own confused memories. Tanner and the others become real people, genuinely frightened of the Air Force and honestly doing what they think is best. And the final team discussion, when Daniel puts their reactions on P3R-118 into some much-needed perspective, is wonderfully healing for all the members of SG-1.

Like most of Redbyrd's episode-related fics, you don't get much retelling of scenes we already know; those that she does include are told from a unique perspective. What you really get are the missing scenes before, after, and between, complete with characterizations and explanations that make the episode shine. No Return is a story that even non-Martin Lloyd fans (like me!) can thoroughly enjoy. And if you do like Marty, then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and go read!

Jack barked, "Sit!" in his best military manner. He was gratified to see that it worked on Marty. "Look, you gotta relax. Nobody's going to do anything to you, I promise." He paused, reluctant. But he wasn't going to get any more information without engaging in dialogue. "Now, if- and I stress the word IF- there is such a thing, what makes you think your way home is through this- stargate?"

Marty looked up at him helplessly. "I- I- I don't know! I get these ideas. Flashes. It's a little confusing. I don't even know for sure why I want to go, it's just- a- a feeling- I'm somebody there. Like, like there's- something important for me to do there, more important than anything I can do here. Can I have a glass of water?"

Jack felt a chill like icewater down his spine as he stared at Martin and flashed on a conversation he'd had less than two weeks before.

//'Look I just think I'm supposed to be doing something more important.' Carlin said earnestly.

Therra gave him a puzzled look. 'We're helping our people survive an ice age.'

Jona nodded. 'What could be more important than that'

Carlin looked frustrated, struggling to put his unease into words, 'I don't know. Look, I just have this feeling that all of us are part of some bigger, grander thing.'//

"Yeah." Long experience kept Jack's face impassive, but he was inwardly shaken as he got up to get Marty his water. This was stupid. There wasn't anyone using memory stamps on Earth. Marty was just nuts. Wasn't he? He had certainly found out something. Jack just wasn't sure what yet.

He handed Martin the glass, watching him dig in his pockets and produce a bottle of medication. Hammond. He froze, staring at the bottle. No memory stamps, but Hammond had passed on Janet's speculation that whatever had been added to Martin's meds was what was making him crazy. He reached for the bottle. "Let me see those." He glanced at the prescription label for Haliperdol. "You should go easy on this."

"But-" Martin started to protest and Jack gave him his best sincere look.

"Just for a while. Trust me."

Martin asked, "What about the symbols?"

"What symbols?" He could hear a train whistle in the distance, a sound that always made Jack think of his childhood in Chicago.

Marty said, "It's one of the things I see in the flashes. There are seven of them. I wrote them down." He handed a folded scrap of paper to Jack.

Seven symbols? It couldn't be. This guy was a nut job. Jack teased it open, looking down on the crudely drawn markings. Six symbols, all recognizably from the stargate. The last symbol was as familiar to him as his own name- an inverted V with a circle - the origin symbol for Earth.

Comments

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm very pleased you picked this one! This is a story that's received very little feedback- in part I suspect because the episodes it's based on aren't that popular.

But I'm rather fond of it- it took some serious powers of invention on my part to get something vaguely plausible out of the canon for it! (And if you look closely- it makes the subsequent Marty episode make more sense as well.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

That's really why I liked it - you took a largely unlikeable ep (for me, anyway) and made the people in it real, and characters I could actually care about it. And I loved how you tied it to BtS, which isn't likely to be a gen girl's favorite fic either, so... All good, really! :)

I never look too closely at Marty eps. As far as I'm concerned, the only "real" thing that happened in 200 is that Daniel got new glasses.

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

which isn't likely to be a gen girl's favorite fic either

*g* I finished BtS saying, "Bu-wuh-hey! You can't just transplant thousands of mindstamped slaves from an ice planet to a tropical paradise?! And what about the team? They're still totally confused. Shippiness? What shippiness? ::inserts fingers in ears:: LA-LA-LA!!

And then of course it's followed by PONR. Which was complete gibberish. And that bugged me. As far as we can tell from the episode, it all takes place in a single day (all sunlight scenes). Even given that summer days in Montana are long, that's pretty tight timing considering all the testing and phone calls and the USAF crews that show up. And they're not SGC or why would Teal'c hide his tattoo? One loose end after another after another. And even though I didn't like the episode, I couldn't leave it alone until it made sense. The *only* way I could make it work is if Tanner and crew change their plans more than once in the course of the episode. *And* I had to keep it consistent with the info they give us in Wormhole Xtreme. Gah.

(Unfortunately, I have to suspect that Tanner and crew were eventually eaten by Replicators. Unless I figure out something more interesting to do with them, of course. Or the PTB actually tie up a loose plot thread for once.)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

It's one of the things I most enjoy about your ep tags - your ability to take an ep that few if any people actually like and make it not only likeable, but workable. Very few people like Krista, or Raynor, but you made them both into real, empathetic human beings.

So keep writing. We'll keep reading. :)