Morena Baccarin

EPISODE NUMBER - 1007

ORIGINAL U.S. AIR DATE - 08.25.06

WRITTEN BY - Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie

DIRECTED BY - Andy Mikita

GUEST STARRING - Morena Baccarin (Adria), Tony Amendola (Bra’tac), Matthew Glave (Colonel Emerson), Martin Christopher (Marks) The Jaffa take the fight to the Ori, using a genocidal weapon on their new worshippers and landing SG-1 in the middle of a war they can’t control.

NEWS & SPOILERS

# "I believe [’Counterstrike’] has been slotted for the 7 spot. Lots of good emotion in this one, bonding, and a significant loss at episode’s end. I’m kind of concerned about the visual effects budget on this one and will look to trim a little in my next pass." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a message at his GateWorld blog)

# "As I was writing ’Counterstrike,’ I realized that it was a surprisingly sober outing for one particular character and wondered whether it was a little too ’down.’ I honestly can’t see how it can’t be given the circumstances. Still, we finally get to see the inside of an Ori ship and the story affords a bonding opportunity between two characters with a rocky past." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a message at his GateWorld blog)

# "A while ago, a fan asked whether Daniel would be telling Vala about Sha’re. At the time, my response was ’it’s possible’ simply because the circumstances had not presented itself. Lo and behold, the proper circumstances did come along in ’Counterstrike.’" (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a message at GateWorld Forum)

# "We ended up breaking episode 7 today which either Paul [Mullie] and/or I will write. This one is going to be a lot of fun. Brad said it reminded him of ’Reckoning,’ and no wonder." (Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)

# Vala’s half-Ori daughter Adria returns, now a young woman in her early 20s. As the leader of the Ori invasion fleet in our galaxy, she is now attempting to recruit new warriors into their army. Adria is resolute and frightfully dangerous, and when she encounters her mother again she pressures her to accept Origin, the Ori religion.

Adria is no longer the young girl she was when SG-1 first met her. She is cold and brutal, testing a new weapon by killing a Jaffa and then bringing him back to life in order to continue interrogating him.

Meanwhile, Bra’tac and General Landry travel to the Free Jaffa homeworld of Dakara. There they confront Se’tak, a Jaffa military leader, about his questionable tactics in the war against the followers of the Ori. But Se’tak stands by his decision to use a powerful Ancient device against their enemy, even though its use violates the Jaffa’s agreement with Earth — and will result in the deaths of millions of innocents.

Se’tak hopes that one day they will capture enough Ori ships to make a stand against the enemy, but believes that until then this great cost is acceptable to avoid the even higher cost of defeat. He has recently tested his weapon, and Landry challenges the fact that he chose a human-populated world to target, and not one of the Jaffa worlds that have capitulated to the Ori invaders.

Elsewhere, SG-1 confronts a group of Jaffa led by a man named Bo’rel. A younger warrior with a powerful presence, Bo’rel will do whatever he believes is necessary to fight the Ori threat — and captures Teal’c and Colonel Mitchell, telling them that he intends to seize their ship. When Daniel suggests to him that the humans and Jaffa work together he refuses, declaring that his people will never be dependent on another race again. (GateWorld news report)

# Guest characters include Adria, Bra’tac (Tony Amendola), Se’tak, Bo’rel, Odyssey commander Colonel Paul Emerson (Matthew Glave), Captain Marks (Martin Christopher), a Prior, and a number of Jaffa.

# On an alien world, Adria — the "Orici" — addresses a gathering of the newest followers of Origin, a village of humans. SG-1 hides amongst their number. Above, the Earth ship Odyssey is in orbit. But a powerful weapon is used by an unknown foe to wipe out the villagers, some 100,000 worshippers in all.

Later, Bo’rel and his Jaffa attempt to seize control of an Ori ship, but find Mitchell and Teal’c already on board. The two are captured, and Bo’rel uses the hostages to attempt to flush out the rest of SG-1, who are on board.

Adria herself soon captures Daniel and Vala, demanding that they tell her what happened to her new followers on this planet. Clearly she has powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities, and attempts to forcibly wrestle the information from Daniel’s mind. She brings back to life a Jaffa she has killed, forcing the soldier to reveal the location of the weapon that wiped out her new planet of followers: Dakara. (GateWorld news report)

# Firefly actress Morena Baccarin has been cast in the recurring role of Adria, TVGuide.com’s Michael Ausiello reports. Though her Stargate character first appears as a rapidly-growing child in the season premiere, "Flesh and Blood," it is believed that Baccarin’s first appearance as the adult Adria will be in "Counterstrike." The character will recur throughout the show’s new season.