The Present Crisis

Fanfiction
Title:	The Present Crisis
Author(s):	Sandman
Date(s):	2002
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Stargate SG-1/Quantum Leap
External Links:
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The Present Crisis is a Stargate SG-1/Quantum Leap story by Sandman.

Reactions and Reviews

This was another of the nominees in the Crossover section of this year's Stargate Fan Fiction Awards... from the crossover section of the Stargate Novel Archive.

This was great! I'm kind of surprised that this wasn't the one that won, since it not only managed to be true to both shows, but it was adventuresome, painful without being gratuitous torture, expressions of friendship without being over the top, didn't concentrate on only one character, gave tense scenes tension, character interaction with subtlety (well, except for the Gou'ald characters, they're never subtle...) and it all came together well. Great stuff. That's why I usually consider it worthwhile to check out nominees for awards as well as winners, because even being nominated means that a fair few people thought it was a good story. (Though of course I don't always agree with their assessment!)

I liked the reason for Sam (Beckett)'s Leap; it was deliciously ironic. I also liked the way the end was done, I mean, what happened to Sam at the end: it made sense. I liked how it wasn't just a Jack-and-Sam-Beckett (and Al) show; Daniel got a chance to shine in his Daniel way, and Sam(antha Carter) had some nifty Samness. Teal'c was himself, but he didn't come to the fore a lot in this one. And the main support characters from QL got a look-in too. Well, this *was* posted to the SG *Novel* archive -- something that long does give more characters a chance to do more than just say a few lines.

Hm. Okay, this is curious. I'm not surprised that you liked it - reasonably well written, only very minor grammar issues, good characterization of the SG-1 characters, and the pace keeps up; but I am surprised that you liked it as much as you did, because I thought the plot was thin. I mean ... They get caught, they get hurt and/or tortured, and a convenient Tok'ra ex machina helps them onto a convenient one-of-a-kind superfast escape ship. None of the regular characters is genuinely proactive in this story, and Sam Beckett comes off as utterly passive, which I don't recall him ever being on QL. It's not any thinner than some of the actual SG-1 episodes are, but in a novel, I'm hoping for *more* development than there is time for in 50 minutes of TV. Still, I got quite a bit of fun out of snarky, flippant Jack. Worth reading. And I think I shall be hitting that Stargate novel archive quite a bit in future. Thanks for pointing it out.

I think I took the "passivity" as an ironic change -- because usually Sam is there to *do* something, but in this case, what he was supposed to do, was be ignorant, so that it was totally impossible for "Daniel" to give the Gou'ald what it wanted, no matter how much he was tortured. I appreciate irony. Especially since Al figured out or suspected the reason above, and knew he couldn't tell Sam(*), thus adding another source of angst. And for some reason, perhaps because the torture was a key part of the plot and purpose of the story, it didn't feel gratuitous as so many hurt/comfort stories do... I agree that it *was* rather a lot of hurt, angst, hurt, angst, let's see how we can angst some more stuff, but... Maybe it was just a welcome relief after whatever it was that I'd read before it.