The Prometheus has been chosen for a special mission commanded by General George Hammond, who has stopped by the SGC to recruit Daniel Jackson for this little field trip (much to O‘Neill’s chagrin). The newly refitted Prometheus has been assigned the task of heading to the Pegasus Galaxy, and once there, will try and determine the whereabouts of the missing Atlantis expedition. Daniel has been brought along because of his knowledge of the Ancients; there’s simply nobody better than him on earth at deciphering their language. Yet while on route to the Pegasus Galaxy, the Prometheus picks up a broken-up distress call from a woman who sounds human. Unable to ignore it, Hammond orders the Prometheus to divert from its course, and when they arrive at the location of the distress call, they find a cargo ship and a Goa’uld vessel, both badly damaged.

There’s no sign of the woman who called them, but the crew finds instead a Goa’uld super soldier, who quickly takes over the Prometheus and strands the crew--whom it does not kill--aboard the damaged Goa’uld ship. Daniel manages to get to an armory and procure a P90 for himself. But he’s no match for the super soldier’s armor, and is overpowered. When he wakes up, he stunned to find himself to be still alive and tied to a chair, since these super soldiers are not known for taking prisoners. There's yet another stunning moment in store when the super solider tells a shocked Daniel in its deep, masculine voice how attractive it finds him. And it’s at this point that Prometheus Unbound stops being a standard Stargate episode and becomes something far more unusual and much funnier.

Farscape fans know actress Claudia Black as Peacekeeper officer Aeryn Sun (as well as from the modern classic SF film Pitch Black), but here she appears for the first time as Vala, an utterly charming rascal who manages to get under the skin of the normally calm and composed Daniel Jackson. After hijacking the ship with only Daniel on board, Vala gets into a Tom and Jerry-like battle of wits with him that’s hysterically funny to watch. Their full-out fight scene is also funny, and sexually charged to the point where Vala actually stops fighting and suggests that they just make out, instead. And the witty sense of humor in Damien Kindler’s script pervades the whole story, which includes a hiccupping science officer named Novak, and a wry scene where a male SG officer faces the daunting task of giving an unconscious Hammond mouth to mouth resuscitation.

It was also great to see Don Davis back in action as General Hammond. As Daniel himself points out at the opening of the episode, Hammond and his laid back command style were sorely missed in the eight season. It was also great seeing Gary Jones’ Sgt. Harriman finally see some off-world action, as well. But the real draw of Prometheus Unbound remains the entertaining clash of wits between Daniel and Vala, featuring a pair of extremely droll performances by Shanks and Black (another favorite moment of mine is when Daniel is speaking to a captured Vala on a view screen, and--becoming irritated--places his hand on the screen and pretends to squash her head). Vala would soon join the SG-1 team in the following season as a regular cast member, and my only complaint was that she didn’t become a series regular sooner.