Corporate Retreat

Fanfiction
Title:	Corporate Retreat
Author(s):	Ceridwen
Date(s):
Length:	75K
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Stargate SG-1
External Links:	Corporate Retreat (archived at AO3 by the stargatefan_archivist)
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Corporate Retreat is a Stargate SG-1 story by Ceridwen.

Reactions and Reviews

General Hammond sends our favourite team on a "Corporate Retreat" weekend. One of Jack's former colleagues has a score to settle and he chooses that weekend to play out his old grudge. Much violence and mayhem ensues.

Essentially, this is Stargate SG-1 with a classic stalker-movie plot. It's an action-filled, fast-paced adventure that's both funny and dramatic. Reversing the popular fandom cliché, here it's Jack who gets whumped and Daniel who comes to the rescue, though Jack is by no means a "weak" character in the story. The setting is the horror/slasher film classic one of the isolated cottage with few modern conveniences and dodgy electricity, and the author employs a couple of other classic elements of horror, too, including the villain who comes back from the grave and just won't die. I'm reminded of the "Scary Movie" rules for surviving a horror flick: never be alone, never drink or take drugs, never say "I'll be right back", and never, ever have sex. Fortunately, though, since there's only some (very mild) Sam/Jack UST, the last of those rules remains unbroken. As for the others, though...

The author has a quirky sense of humour that comes across well and an easy-to-read prose style. Teal'c's misunderstandings of some common expressions are well-chosen and her characterisation of Jack - well, there the humour relies on the reader knowing a little about McGuyver and the connection between that show and Jack O'Neill. If you do know those things the characterisation of Jack is hilariously funny. At one point, he demands of Sam: "Do you think I can de-fuse a bomb with a paperclip?" I won't spoil what he does with the cactus.

The story does have some major flaws. Most are editorial errors; the story clearly wasn't beta-read, just run through a spell checker, and some of the spelling errors stand out badly. For example, Jack consistently speaks of "diffusing" the bomb (it should be de-fuse or defuse) and at one point Daniel declares, "you never seize to amaze me, Jack" (should be cease) - giving the declaration an irony I'm sure is unintentional. Sam starts the story as a Captain, becomes a Major partway through, yet is demoted again at the conclusion. Messy. There's also one characterisation issue that, to me, is a serious flaw. Jack, who canonically calls everyone except Daniel by his or her surname, consistently refers to the man trying to kill him as "Michael". It doesn't fit with what I know of Jack and throws me out of the story each time it comes up.

I have to say, though, that if you can forgive the technical errors, the plot and humour in this story make it well worth reading.