Choices (Stargate SG-1 story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Choices
Author(s):	Sue Corkill
Date(s):
Length:
Genre(s):
Fandom(s):	Stargate SG-1
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online at samandjack.net
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Choices is a Jack/Sam story by Sue Corkill.

Reactions and Reviews

In this story Jack and Daniel get a chance to talk about the possibilities of time travel that arose during the episode "Window Of Opportunity". Camped on yet another alien world, the questions of what might have been, and what actually is, keep Daniel awake. He talks to Jack, then Jack can't sleep as he thinks about all the things he might have missed if time had been changed and he'd never joined the Stargate project.

I liked this story very much, and what I liked most about it was that it delves into the metaphysical questions of time travel and its possible repercussions. Daniel can't help but ponder the possibilities of saving Sha're and living happily ever after on Abydos—but Jack has a more realistic perspective and is aware of the potential repercussions of fooling about with time. Whose life will benefit from the changes? And how many lives will not? And who should get to decide and play God with the universe? These are all interesting questions and their exploration by Jack and Daniel in Choices is well done and an interesting read.

There are no surprises in this story, apart form the fact that I would have expected their roles to be reversed. I think that Jack would have a more emotional, gut-based reaction to the notion of saving Charlie, while Daniel would want to save Sha're but would have too strong a grasp on the realities of consequences to be tempted. But that's just my own personal reaction—character is a tricky thing to decipher, especially when complicated moral scenarios are involved. Apart from this small quibble I think the characterisation of both Jack and Daniel is very well done, and I could 'hear' their voices very clearly in the dialogue of "Choices".

The writing style is very good. It never degenerates into over-the-top emotionalism, nor does it try to force the characters to act in ways that aren't recognisably part of the Stargate universe. There is the occasional punctuation error—so many writers seem to litter their work with far too many commas—and there are mistakes in the file that cause some words to stick together in a regular pattern throughout the text, which is rather annoying, but overall there is little to complain about. The "message" of the story is perhaps rather a little too intrusive, but not to the extent that it's a real problem.

I enjoyed this story very much. There was very little action but I didn't miss it; I just enjoyed the serious conversation and the insights the author presented into each man's psyche. This story will appeal to a reader who is not put off by a short story that consists merely of two men discussing the merits of time travel as a way of ultimately avoiding pain and tragedy. This is a nice, well written story, and I would recommend it to those who don't mind their Sam/Jack ship implied rather than overt.