I believe the key to Daniel's character is the honesty, humanity and passion he brings to all his beliefs and actions.  The key to Daniel's characterisation is subtlety. 

"I think the joy of discovery was probably the most - the most positive aspect of the character, that I enjoyed to play the most. It was always - always whenever archaeology was involved, whenever he was within his element that it was fun to play that level of excitement...Torment of Tantalus that was the most fun for the character to play is that joy of discovery, of something that's bigger than all of us to discover. And that's what I really felt that the show - when the show was peaking at its strongest was when we did episodes where that - that - that discovery was happening, that initial 'What's out there?' and - you know - how does it pertain to the questions we ask about ourselves in our society and archaeology like...'What kind of questions of our own existence can we answer from looking out there?'  And I think that's where the character fits strongly into the show and when it didn't go there the character seemed to fall out of  place." 

Michael Shanks, SydneyCon, Sep 2001.

"You see, that's not true, I'm just - I'm  choosing the best way to fulfill my true function.  You see, sometimes hierarchical command structures don't allow you to consider all the possible options."

Daniel Jackson, 'Scorched Earth'.

In seasons one to three, writers Robert C. Cooper, Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright all consistently delivered the best characterisation of Daniel, and of the pivotal Jack and Daniel friendship, so crucial to the team dynamic and frankly, the success of the show.  Season Three introduced Peter DeLuise, who along with Robert C. Cooper has written the best characterisation of Daniel in Season Four and the best Jack and Daniel friendship.  Actually, the only Jack and Daniel friendship, with the exception of 'The Light', written by James Phillips, which was a tad on the ambiguous side.  In Season Five, the honours go again to Peter DeLuise in the two significant Daniel episodes of the season, 'Beast Of Burden' and 'Menace'. 

Emotional Drive

The writer Joseph Mallozzi argued in a post to Starguide forums that Daniel needs an 'emotional drive' hence his introduction of Sarah Gardner in Season Four's 'The Curse' with writing partner Paul Mullie.

"Let me begin by saying, yes, as some have pointed out, Daniel's reason for being part of the team was put into question following the death of Sha're...That's not to say there would be no reason for him to stay on, simply that one of his biggest motivating factors had been "put to rest". In order to keep that emotional drive alive for the character, we introduced Sarah/Osiris in The Curse, a former love interest now intergalactic baddie."

Joseph Mallozzi, Starguide Forum (19-Dec-01)

Mr. Mallozzi's seeking to source Daniel's emotional drive in an individual such as Sha'uri, Shifu or Sarah/Osiris is I feel missing the point of the core values of Daniel's character

Question:
Sometimes it seems that Daniel's only reason for being a part of SG-1 is the quest for his wife. Do you believe that it is his only motivation?

Michael Shanks:
No, I don't think so. I think that any adventurous archaeologist would be absolutely flabbergasted by the opportunity that Daniel is provided. And I believe that long after that story line is resolved, that his choice would be to continue to travel through the Stargate.

Interview in TV Highlights, conducted 2000, published Aug 2001.

Q: Are there any plans to let Sha're turn up again?

MS: Not that I know of.

Q: What's driving Daniel Jackson since the death of his wife?

MS: To me, he's a real "Child of the Universe". He's still having this great curiosity to find out what's "behind the next hill". In his heart he's a great explorer. And that's something that will never change.

Q: One often gets the impression that Daniel and Jack will jump on each others throat the very next second.

MS: Basically, they both want the same thing, but they both got a different approach to the problem. But what's connecting them is a fundamental friendship. They do not treat each other like normal buddies, but that's what's making this whole thing so much more interesting.

It is perfectly clear that the man who understands Daniel's character best is the actor himself.

Daniel's emotional drive is entirely within himself; it is his passion for discovery and the living past that is his primary motivating factor.  There is no doubt that Daniel loved Sha'uri but their relationship was serendipitous.  He was thinking about nothing more than how much he wanted to see what was on the other side of the gate he had opened where everyone else had failed when he stepped through it, rashly promising he could bring Jack's team home again. 

Daniel's need to learn, to grow and change drove him to seek out something more than he had.  More than Sha'uri and his family on Abydos.  From the sheer size of the cartouche Daniel discovered, excavated and used to experiment on the gate, we can surmise that he got right back to being an archaeologist while the icing was still more or less on the Abydonian wedding cake.  The discovery of the cartouche drove him to unbury the gate and then to use it.  His friendship and trust of Jack was strong enough to lead him to return Jack's message on the Kleenex box with no other guarantee than what he knew of Jack himself. 

Daniel being Daniel was what cost him Sha'uri and that is much of the emotional drive of his search for her.  I have always believed the statement in 'Forever in a Day' that every time Daniel stepped through the gate he was thinking this time he would find his wife was a miscalculation.  On every conceivable occasion, Daniel has demonstrated that the strongest emotional tie he has is his friendship with Jack.  It is to Jack he calls out to when he awakens in The Land Of Light in 'The Broca Divide', Jack who he cries out to in terror in 'Fire and Water', his journal - 'The Colonel thinks I'm a geek' - 'Jack says we'll save her' - Jack who is there for him literally in 'Need', Jack he turns to when Sha'uri dies in 'Forever in a Day', Jack whom Apophis chooses to torture Daniel into revealing the whereabouts of the Harsesis child, Jack whom Daniel dreams of in 'Beneath The Surface'...

Sha'uri certainly felt threatened by the arrival of Daniel's friend from Earth.  He represented that eternal, restless search for more...Daniel is never still.  He literally can't resist the pull of discovery.  The same drive that led Nick to refuse to adopt Daniel is present in Daniel himself.  As an adult he demonstrates the same single-minded determination in pursuit of knowledge, taking more risks than Jack or Sam are comfortable with.

Daniel loved his wife, but he turned from her to pursue his research.  He is prepared to sacrifice his search for Sha'uri without hesitation in 'Torment of Tantalus' but will not risk Jack's life.  He gives up his first and possibly only way to rescue Sha'uri from her enslavement as Ammonet's host in 'Thor's Hammer' in order to free Teal'c.  In 'Secrets' Daniel is so angry with Sha'uri for becoming pregnant by Apophis, takes it so personally, Teal'c has to force him to face her and in his dithering, he loses the chance to take Sha'uri back to Earth even though she bravely accepts incarceration as the price for stopping Ammonet. 

Add 'Forever in a Day' to this haul and you've just about exhausted all the canon references to Sha'uri.  At no point has Daniel put Sha'uri above the needs of his friends or indeed his own.  His own emotions - guilt, jealousy and rage - kept him from decisive action in 'Secrets' and he lost Sha'uri outright.

No one ever said Daniel was perfect.

It was the sheer joy of discovery that led him to unbury the Abydos gate after he excavated the cartouche with all the Stargate symbols.  Daniel quite correctly surmised that the symbols were addresses - a map of a vast network of Stargates.  Though at this point Daniel didn't know that there were more of Ra's kind, it was still a rash act to unbury the gate and expose Abydos to danger with only a handful of weapons left behind from the original mission. 

Daniel...needed to know.  His passion for exploration is endearing, but it is also selfish.  To Jack and to us it can appear at times obsessive.

I love 'Thor's Hammer' - I love the way Daniel gets his way by throwing the technology bone at Hammond.  He so wants to go and as usual, what Daniel wants...One of the many subtleties of this episode is Daniel's sensitivity, perceptiveness and receptivity to the cultures and individuals he meets.  His empathy allows him to find common ground emotionally if not experientially.  He is also far more imaginative than Sam.  One of my favourite scenes is when Kendra is escorting them to the catacomb in the mountains and we see the difference in the way he and Sam think.  Daniel is disappointed by Sam's rigidity, her inability to take something or someone on faith.  Daniel can make that intuitive leap and connect not just intellectually, but at times emotionally and even idealogically.

In 'Fire and Water', Daniel is afraid for his friends and his own life, able to translate the language without comprehension.  Nem drives Daniel to remember, but it is his own choice to submit himself to the memory device and to the pain and potentially irreparable brain damage it can cause.  Daniel is moved by compassion for Nem, they share the loss of their mate to the Goa'uld so they share an emotional bond, he is moved by pragmatism, trusting Nem will free him once he knows all that is locked in Daniel's mind, and he is moved by the need to know for himself.

'Solitudes' is an excellent example of Daniel's relentless drive and analytical, intuitive intellect.  He questions everything, discarding one hypothesis after another until he has narrowed his options enough to make the necessary intuitive leap - that Jack and Sam are right there on Earth.  He never says, but there's only one gate.  He sees the only possible explanation and goes with it.  Daniel's refusal to give up saves Jack and Sam's life in this instance.

'Message in a Bottle' in Season Two is a perfect illustration of the three strands of Daniel's emotional drive: his need to know, his need to believe, and his need to communicate.  Daniel insists on taking the artefact they find back to the SGC, wanting it to be something wonderful.  His scenes with Sam as they eagerly analyse the artefact are just that.  They work beautifully together, complementing one another as well as Jack and Daniel complement one another.  They stay up all night in their excitement and fascination, both frustrated and Daniel frankly wheedling and then sullen when Jack and duty call.  Tension is implied in Jack's comment about Daniel knowing SG-1 is a field unit.  He gets no more than a taste and has to move on.  When the artefact spawns the alien lifeform, Sam's science can do nothing to help Jack or stop the spread of the micro-organisms.  It is Daniel who makes the leap - to take the risk the organisms are capable of communicating and in fact are trying to do so.  Sam follows his lead and he is proved correct once again.  One of my favourite scenes from Stargate is the moment the organism recognises the unique bond and intimacy between Jack and Daniel and says directly to Daniel, "O'Neill wishes to live."  Only Daniel knows that Jack's intent on Abydos was suicide. 

'One False Step' is predicated on Daniel's determination to communicate.  One of the interesting elements of this is the focus on Sam's compassion for the aliens, a subtlety and simplicity in her evolution that is very pleasing and welcomed.  I was glad of the retreat from the strident feminist of the early Season One and the recognition Sam could be a woman as well as a soldier.  Again, we see Sam and Daniel complement one another perfectly.  There are so many memorable scenes - Daniel coaching his teammates when the aliens surround them in their village, his running around one of the dwellings doing an aeroplane impression complete with sound effects...he tries every technique of rudimentary communication he knows and eventually succeeds, though not in the way he would have liked.  These aliens are just too different.  Daniel respects the aliens, commenting simply to Jack's anger that he's letting them break quarantine that they don't understand and they want to be together.  Daniel is busy - he's filming the plant he saw grow and then shrink down into the ground.  He focuses on the plant - an anomaly, hence worthy of investigation.  Jack sees it as a distraction, pure and simple, and the two lose their tempers and insult one another royally.  Daniel has never been known to reject a hypotheses on the grounds of it being stupid, or making him look flaky on a good day, or until it has been proved impossible.  Look at Season Five's woeful 'Failsafe'.  I've lost count of the number of times SG-1 would have died if they'd gone with Sam's emphatic and unwarranted assumptions instead of Daniel's flaky open-mindedness. 

Daniel's need to believe comes to the fore in Season Three's 'Past and Present'.  His passionate advocacy of Linea/ Ke'ra's rights rides roughshod over the feelings of his friends.  His use of Teal'c's past against him is calculating and after he asks pointedly who he'd most trust with his life, his rider about Jack not picking him is cutting.  Daniel certainly has the courage of his convictions, rightly or wrongly, and we see he'll use any and all means within his own morality and belief system to do what he believes is right.  Daniel was the only one in Season Two's 'Prisoners' to question the trust they were placing in Linea, and Jack brushed his concerns aside.  It was a big, honkin' error of judgement, one Jack is determined to expunge.  I think if Jack had been even slightly amenable to negotiation, Daniel wouldn't have used those tactics.  He felt they were necessary, put his feelings for his friends aside, and attacked.  Both he and Jack were right and wrong in this one, but we learned that Daniel's intellect and determination to do the right thing are stronger than Jack's ability to overrule him.  Daniel is nothing short of ruthless on Ke'ra's behalf.  To ascribe that to the fact he is possibly sleeping with her and that this is a matter of conflicted loyalties is again too simplistic.  The only loyalty Daniel has greater than that he has to Jack is to what is right for Jack.  Allowing him to erase this mistake was wrong for Jack and Ke'ra, so Daniel stopped it.

He is equally single-minded in his pursuit of 'other options' in 'Scorched Earth'.  PhoenixE analyses this episode in detail in her open letter to Joseph Mallozzi.  Suffice it to say that in this episode and in the earlier 'The Other Side' Daniel fulfils his function on the team exactly.  He questions assumptions about both Alar and Lotan, with clear and uncomfortable parallels for the viewer between the value judgements Alar's people made of the Breeders and Jack of the Gad-Meer.  Daniel does fulfil his true function - to consider options precluded by the command structure - and on a personal level, acts to prevent Jack from making an unethical decision and having to live with the consequences. 

Season Four seems to have set aside Jack's carefully established character from the previous three seasons as an honourable and ethical man apparently because the writers thought it enhanced the drama. 

It didn't. 

Any fanfiction writer who twisted the characters of the team to fit the plot of their story would be rightly derided by their peers, who are very careful about consistent character arcs and in fact are quite on hot on things like character development.  Some of the writers for the series have been putting their own spin on this for two seasons, along with writing out the series' favourite character Daniel without any consequence but an ever-shrinking audience.  I suspect the audience after 'Meridian' won't so much sink as plummet.

I was astonished by claims that Daniel was in the wrong in both of these episodes given he had Hammond's blessing to ask questions of Alar and even if Richard Dean Anderson is The Star, last time I looked, colonel didn't outrank general.  In 'Scorched Earth' Jack disobeyed Hammond's orders and compounded that by forcing Sam to obey his illegal order.  Not that she had to...but Phoenix deals with that in detail.  Daniel saved the lives of the Gad-Meer and the Enkarrans, and saved Jack from court-martial, though I wonder quite how Jack wrote up his lightning decision to exterminate an entire species and murder a member of his team with the collusion of his 2IC.

Daniel's compassion and need to communicate are showcased to great effect in 'The First Ones' where he is kidnapped by an aboriginal Unas as a trophy or offering to his clan in his rite of passage.  Daniel's persistent attempts to communicate, to understand the Unas and connect verbally, emotionally and ultimately spiritually in lieu of violence are what save his life.  Unfortunately, the actions of his friends are expressly designed to nix a rescue attempt too soon in the plot and the delays could have been handled way more effectively and dramatically - perhaps by SG-1 having to fight and kill some of the Unas while Daniel was trying to comprehend and communicate with them.

The issues grew more complex in 'Beast of Burden' when the lessons in humanity Daniel taught the Unas Chaka were used to trap and enslave him.  Daniel was determined to take responsibility for his part in this and to make it right, only to discover that there was no right.  The improbable cowboys inhabiting the world Chaka was taken to had themselves been slaves and had rebelled against the Unas they in turn enslaved.  Daniel risked his life, and Jack permitted him to allow the lives of his team to rescue Chaka and shore up his shaken belief system.  This was a no-win situation for Daniel.  For the Unas to be freed, they would have to rebel against their human owners.  In the end Chaka made his own decision and Daniel respected that.  He told Chaka he didn't have to kill, but Chaka was walking away to effectively start a war.  Chaka respected Daniel greatly, but the Unas would die if the humans didn't.  It's naïve to assume anything else.  This was Stargate at its best, with no easy resolution and many moral and emotional consequences for all the team, who colluded in Daniel's personal crusade to free Chaka.  This was one situation where anything that Daniel did was wrong and in the end he made a personal choice for Chaka and against the humans, even knowing that the human children had been inculcated with a belief that slavery was the accepted order and despite several examples that the humans had a clear moral code and lived by it...'stealing is wrong'.

Daniel's passion for discovery, exploration and communication, his empathy, compassion and morality are who he is, but they are not the only part of his emotional drive.  He committed himself absolutely to his teammates, not to his wife, not to an original character invented because the writers failed to grasp the depth of his emotional bonds and loyalty to his team.  If Daniel needed any reason but who he is to go through the gate it would be the team that is his family.  They are all he needs as a 'motivating factor'.

Jack used the leverage of friendship - via a box of Kleenex  - to get Daniel to respond to him, rightly believing that knowing the message was from him would be enough to get the response no one else could guarantee.  Much of the power and poignancy of their relationship in the early episodes lies in the fact Daniel's friendship with Jack is renewed at the cost of his wife. 

Daniel doesn't blame Jack; instead he turns to him, instinctively trusting what he knows of the man.  They have shared a defining experience none of the others know about - it has never been addressed on screen;  Daniel both died and killed for Jack - forcing Jack to accept responsibility not just for his own life but for the lives of the innocent Abydonians he intended to kill.  Their shared history is intense, the trust between them not affected by a year apart.

In the essay 'Growth', I've detailed the ways in which Jack and Daniel's relationship is personal.  Their shared friendship can be used against Daniel on occasion. 

The wonderful Season One episode 'Thor's Hammer' has many layers of subtlety, revealing the distinct differences between Sam and Daniel, her rigidity of thinking versus his openness and receptivity, and presented an implicit resolution of Teal'c's choice of Sha'uri as a worthy host for Ammonet.  Teal'c took Daniel's wife and willingly embraces imprisonment in the catacomb as atonement.  It's the Jaffa revenge thing.  He acknowledges Daniel's right to seek vengeance for the wrong he has done him and Sha'uri. 

Jack forces Daniel to be the one who fires the staff weapon at the Hammer to free Teal'c, even though it is the first and only hope Daniel had of freeing Sha'uri.  Jack both allows Daniel the right to choose and makes him choose for the team, at once giving and taking away Daniel's choice.  It is a very human reaction for Daniel to hesitate.  On the surface Jack's act is almost cruel when Sam is at Daniel's side, ready to lend an assist.  Yet how could it be anyone else?  Only Daniel has the right to make this choice.  If he doesn't take this responsibility, he won’t confront his feelings, won't choose to forgive Teal'c.  He won't get past this.

I read a fascinating post yesterday that explored Daniel's function as 'everyman' on the team.  One of the strands explored was that of Daniel twice-orphaned.  He loses his parents to the cover stone, and then he loses his wife and the Abydonians to the Stargate and for Jack.  This is the moment Daniel chooses his family.  When he fires at the Hammer, he chooses for Jack, for Teal'c and for Sam.  At this point he fully engages with the team, commits himself.  He chooses for the team and against Sha'uri.  He proves his loyalty to his team above his wife conclusively.

I believe it is only in Season Two's episode 'Need' that we see Daniel choose a path of action for his own sake to the cost of his friends.  There is no real question in 'Thor's Hammer' that Daniel will leave Teal'c entombed, and I have always believed Jack was incredibly smart to deal with it this way.  There were always three people responsible for what happened to Sha'uri: Jack for using the leverage of friendship to get Daniel to open the gate to him, Daniel for needing to reach out, and Teal'c for choosing Sha'uri.  At this point there were two men, on either side of Thor's Hammer, who needed to learn something about themselves.  As much as Daniel needed to accept, Teal'c needed acceptance.  It didn't diminish his guilt or his need to atone for his sins, but it allowed him and the team to function as one.  In this choice was the offering of trust and the recognition of fellowship.

Jack's act was at once blunt force and finesse.  He knew Daniel would do what was right.  Jack's belief in Daniel's morality is absolute; it is as if he expects Daniel to be a better man than he is and in some ways relies on that, as if having Daniel's friendship is a redemption for all those damned distasteful things he's done.  My attention was caught by Daniel's words to him in 'Red Sky' in Season Five, that to walk away and leave the people to their fate as their world died would be irredeemable.  I felt Jack took that personally, felt the force of that judgement on him, and this in turn gave the team an in to convince him to do what was right if not what was the easiest or the most emotionally satisfying.

Though of all of them Daniel is the one who has been most often alone literally as well as emotionally, they are each outsiders, set apart by their skills and experiences.  Jack, Sam and Teal'c have been trained to function as 'we' but it's something Daniel has to reach for.  For him team is family.  It is personal for him, that is never in doubt.  His use of Sam's given name instead of her rank is gradual, uncertain, not immediate as it was with Jack, but he does grant Sam that intimacy.  The destruction of the Hammer brings more than a physical barrier down; it proves conclusively to all of them that Daniel too thinks as 'we'. 

It's a defining moment for Daniel, and for SG-1.  Though Daniel's emotional drive is within himself, he is intensely, utterly committed to his friends and teammates and there is no doubt he loves them dearly.  Many fans are so upset by his departure because we feel the intensity of this connection - the team needs all four of the characters and I for one bitterly regret the appointment of writers in the past two series who have been unable to address the depth of the emotional interactions and commitment of the team in their scripts or to write balanced, equal, team and character-driven scripts.

I'll openly admit that one of the things I like best about Jack is that he's damned sneaky and downright manipulative when he has to be, and he mostly has to be when his innocent young friend has his heart set on e.g. staying put in a visibly crumbling castle that was once by the sea and looks as if it will be in the sea any moment just to spend his life ecstatically exploring the embodiment of his dreams...Heliopolis.  The meaning of life stuff.  Jack is palpably unenthused by this prospect, not to say downright pissy, and goes for the grabbing the boy by the scruff of his neck and hauling him to safety stuff instead. 

Daniel is willing to take the risk of dying and the near certainty of leaving Sha'uri as the host of Ammonet such is the value he places on fulfilling his dream.  As I said, he can be selfish and obsessive.  He demands of Jack the right to make his own decision and Jack grants it.  This is all very wonderful and Jack nobly stops in his tracks, clearly ready to stay put if Daniel does, probably 90% certain what Daniel will risk for himself he won't risk for Jack and of course he's right.  Jack knows Daniel.  It was never in doubt.  He bluffed Daniel right out of there with only the illusion of choice.

So to those who insist Daniel's story ended with the death of Sha'uri in 'Forever In A Day' in Season Three, I refer you to Season One's 'Torment of Tantalus'.   Daniel is prepared to give his life for his passion for exploration, the passion that drove him to first to open the gate and then through it.  The passion that kept him on Abydos, and then had him searching, turning away from Sha'uri to reach out and explore so very quickly.  Sha'uri felt threatened, that much was plain in her stake-claiming kiss in the gateroom on Abydos.  In 'Torment of Tantalus, Daniel was prepared to give up Sha'uri outright without a second thought.  Even with the living symbols of what it would mean for him and Sha'uri before his eyes in Ernest and Katherine, Daniel gave up his wife without hesitation.  The one thing he wasn't prepared to give up was Jack.

The search for Sha'uri kept him going through the gate?  Please.  By the eighth episode of Season One Daniel had debunked this theory and went on to do it even more comprehensively in episode nine.  Even in Daniel's dreams it's to Jack he calls, to his friend, the one who grounds him, not to Sha'uri.  Daniel is dependent on Jack in a sense, because it’s only Jack who'll demand his attention and his focus on him and on the task at hand.  He'll let Daniel dream while he judges it's safe to do so, but he'll yank Daniel unceremoniously back to the here and now if he has to.  Sometimes Jack doesn't get it right: Daniel needs explanations as much as he needs to give them, but there isn't always time.  The two men complement one another; Jack may ground Daniel, but it is Daniel who will make Jack consider options that would never occur to him.

Michael Shanks likened the relationship between the two to an old married couple, comfortably bantering and bickering, knowing one another so well they can speak as one. 

The two can appear antagonistic, their belief systems and opinions conflicting, yet there is never any doubt they are friends until Season Four.

Season 4 DVDs, director and creative consultant Peter Woeste in discussion with Andy Mikita, director and Production Manager, and James Tichenor, Special Effects Supervisor of Stargate SG-1 about Jack and Daniel in 'The Light'.

PW: "When he visited Daniel that was on his own time and this is a continuum of that.  He's on his own time, right now.  He's not there for official business but because he's so concerned about HIS friend Daniel.  It's certainly not official business that brings him back, you know, to deal with this." 

AM: "Is his (Jack's) reaction borne of frustration with the situation with Daniel or is an effect The Light starting to have on him as well?"

PW:  "Well, it's a little of both...he would be somewhat frustrated because his friend Daniel is seemingly slipping away and there are no answers.  The doctor - her staff - are not able to do anything.  So there's a frustration there, but you know, he's not able to handle that frustration maybe as easily as he could have in the past."
 

The directors' commentaries on the UK DVD releases go to great lengths to assure us that Jack and Daniel are still friends.  This was in some doubt by the time these episodes actually aired.  There was much talk of the 'Exclusion Zone' - the physical as well as emotional distance between the two which was inexplicably such a keynote of Season Four.

This is not the complex, fascinating friendship we had enjoyed for three seasons.  It was clear how close the two were in the episode 'Fire and Water' in Season One.  Two scenes are particularly memorable.  In the debriefing, Jack's face is framed in a video camera.  He recalls Daniel burning and screaming out to 'Jack' but reports it to Hammond as 'Colonel'.  Jack can't contain his emotion and storms out.  I've always interpreted this fascinating distancing as a clear indication of more than mere guilt at losing one of his people on Jack's part.  Jack invited Daniel into his team and in 'Fire and Water' he realises the cost of that.  Daniel is not just a member of his team, but a civilian, and more than that, his friend.  Daniel calls Jack's name, but Jack hears 'Colonel'.  This is a stark reminder of all the lines Jack has crossed and the cost of making things personal - Daniel's life.  Later we see him lash out at Hammond's car, raging in his grief and guilt. 

HAMMOND: "What on your mind, Colonel?" 
JACK: "Retirement, actually." 
HAMMOND: "You don't mean that." 
JACK: "I think I do." 
'Fire and Water'

There is no doubt that Jack loves Daniel.  That connection they made on Abydos - typified by the simple exchange  DANIEL: "I have..." JACK: "...an idea." -  is deepened and strengthened by their experiences together on SG-1.  It isn't until Season Two's premiere 'The Serpent's Lair' that Daniel realises how much he means to Jack in a scene beloved of many fans; Jack's smile, the famous 'Spacemonkey!  Yeah!' and his bearhug.  Daniel's answering smile recognises his importance to Jack, to each of his teammates. 

In 'The Fifth Race' we see how deeply Daniel cares for Jack also.  When Jack accidentally has the knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into his brain, his ability to communicate in English is compromised.  Daniel never loses his focus on Jack, refusing to participate in an off-world mission.

DANIEL: "What about Jack?  I can't leave him like this, and I won't."

This is an episode I love because it celebrates the trust these men share.  Jack relies on Daniel more and more as his ability to communicate deteriorates and he appears to be losing conscious control of his mind.  Though he is clearly afraid, he is never isolated or alone.  Daniel is with him.  The scene on the ramp where the two look at one another is very poignant.  They know this could be the last time they see one another and no words are needed.  Their friendship has never needed them.

Later in Season Two we see the essential civility at the root of their relationship.  The writers of Stargate SG-1 do cite Jack and Daniel's relationship as antagonistic.  It is absolutely true that their agenda differs, but to judge them as antagonistic is simplistic.  In essence, Jack's job is to stop the aliens and displaced humans they encounter from killing SG-1, and at times it feels like Daniel's job is to stop SG-1 killing the aliens.  Sometimes that takes negotiation and communication (Fire And Water), and sometimes it takes standing in front of Jack's gun ('Past and Present').  Only in Season Four do we see true emotional conflict between them.  In 'One False Step' their harsh, judgemental exchange - in which a certain unspecified Plant Boy's flakiness is referenced along with a hypothetical colonel's inappropriate sarcasm - is enough to shock them into realisation something is wrong with them. 

They just don't do that. 

Jack and Daniel may disagree about everything under the sun philosophically, but at their core they are both good and honourable men, moral men who need to do the right thing. 

"That was one of the things I tried to put into this show as well is their really...uh...their conflicting relationships and the ways in which their agendas differ on the show and yet how they always ultimately end up seem to be working towards the same goal." 

Writer and Executive Producer Robert C. Cooper talking about Season Four's 'Absolute Power'.

"Your counting on their chemistry was pretty much the cornerstone of this episode.  Without their chemistry, and the dynamic between them, this would be quite frankly not a very good episode...because of the humanity that is being demonstrated between them."

Writer, director and creative consultant Peter DeLuise talking about Season Four's 'Absolute Power'.

"These two have such an antagonistic relationship, and yet deep down of course they're going to be there for each other."

Special Effects Supervisor James Tichenor talking about Season Four's 'The Light'.

There are so many examples of this in canon I truly don't know why the closeness of the men was discarded in favour of outright conflict and aggression from Jack towards Daniel.

In Season Three's 'Legacy' it is not only the doctors who believe Daniel to be schizophrenic.  Sam's tears of anguished compassion choke me up every time, as does Teal'c's grave, kind reassurances and Jack's total screaming 'can't STAND to see you like this' body language.  Jack believes Daniel to be schizophrenic, yet the instant Daniel asks for him, he leaves Teal'c's deathbed to go to Daniel.

There are too many incidences of his friendship with Jack to recount here, beginning in the pilot and moving on to one of the most powerful and compelling, when Daniel is in withdrawal induced despair, ready to jump from his balcony in 'The Light'.  Richard Dean Anderson played this scene with consummate subtlety, the awkwardness of his stilted words so eloquent of fear.  Jack was afraid to step out onto the balcony, to reach out.  The fear was evident in the tense, strained body language and in his eyes.  Daniel's grief is equally subtle and striking, the single tear tracking down his face as he turns suddenly and says simply: 'Jack?" and Jack is there, reaching for him.  Although Jack doesn't manage CPR and doesn't do anything more comforting than look at Daniel - which Daniel can't see - we have to presume he's glad Daniel is still alive.  Ditto for Teal'c and Sam, even though they don't show it.

Looking for other examples of Jack and Daniel friendship in Season Four, I can think of a couple.  Jack is certainly concerned for Daniel's welfare in 'The First Ones'.  In 'Tangent' Jack does smile at Daniel when he's rescued.  The slightly challenging teasing of Jack invading Daniel's personal space to push up his glasses in the elevator in 'Serpent's Venom'.  He does this by planting his fingers on the lenses in revenge for Daniel's sarcasm about the CD at archaeology.com.  The two of them are like kids daring each other to escalate.

I'd love to point out more examples of this friendship from Season Four but I can't think of any, which is really odd because there are so many from seasons one to three I wouldn't have time to list them.  I do remember Jack yelling at Daniel to shut up, Jack screaming at Daniel about being aboard the Gad-Meer ship and his insulting question to Teal'c about Daniel ratting them out to Lotan, I do remember that after all Jack and Daniel have meant to one another we were supposed to believe the only person Jack was drawn to in 'Beneath The Surface' was Sam - the same Sam he didn't have any kind of personal interest in or relationship with and still doesn't at the end of Season Five - and the one whose betrayal mattered to him most in '2010'.

And the writers wondered why this jarred so much on us.  Look back at 'Crystal Skull'...Sam is in full flow over  her exciting little doohickey and Jack just walks away to peer down into the cavern.  Compare that as far back as Season One's 'Brief Candle' and Jack's indulgent comment to Daniel when he delivers the baby, 'You never cease to amaze me with all your talents'.  Jack has all the time in the world - as he damn well should! - for Major Carter.  He doesn't know 'Sam' is alive.  Trying to force viewers to accept even hints of a change in the team dynamic in Season Three hit the ratings, down 15% from Season Two.  Trying to repackage the whole history of the series so Sam was the one Jack turned to cost Stargate SG-1 26% of it's audience in the first seven episodes of Season Four.

The viewers don't forget.  We don't need Martin Wood to tell us Sam simpering at Jack in her lab was filmed that way to imply an intimacy they just didn't have. 

We don't forget, and one quarter of us hated the way the writers expected us to enough we quit.

I have to ask here exactly why it was the writers kept right on marginalizing Daniel and focusing on Sam and Jack (sans the romance)?  The plummeting ratings from those character arcs weren't enough?  The plummet particularly in Sam's popularity wasn't enough?  The constant barrage of analysis from concerned fans who hung in grimly because they loved Jack and Daniel so much they gave the show every chance though they were disenfranchised...that wasn't enough?

The audience told the writers of this show exactly what they wanted and needed, exactly what would work and bring viewers back into the fold.  We shouted it loud and long.

What did the writers do?  In Season Five, with the sole exception of Brad Wright and Peter DeLuise, they did the exact opposite.

We tell the writers straight that Daniel is our favourite character - and they write Daniel out.

Does this make sense to anyone?  Anywhere?  Creatively?  Financially?  At all?

It doesn't to me. 

More on this in 'The heart and soul of SG-1' where I address the team dynamic explicitly.

I love the friendship between Sam and Daniel.  It's one of my top reasons for watching the show, right behind the Jack and Daniel friendship.  The way Sam looked after Daniel so carefully said fathoms about the kind of person she was.  Her sensitivity was always engaging and her carefully worded advice to Daniel in the field was engaging.  Some standouts were the two of them playing with the crystalline entity in Season One's 'Cold Lazarus' and Sam delicately fishing for information about her enigmatic C.O.  I've always enjoyed the realisation that after six months Sam  knows nothing about Colonel O'Neill and Daniel innocently comments that Jack has to get to know you before he'll talk.  Bless.  Does he listen to what he says sometimes? 

Sam was always protective of Daniel - for example when she throws the grenade in 'Bloodlines' - and very loving of him as a person.  They bring out the best in one another and their rapport is lovely in episodes like 'Message In A Bottle'.  There is no doubt in my mind just how much Sam feels for Daniel.  Her bond with him is - was - so deep he feels like family.  I sense that in Daniel, Sam finds the first person in her life she can just be 'Sam' with.  An equal.  Someone who gets it.  Gets her.  She doesn't have to explain. 

It's certainly Sam who Daniel slowly gets to know in Season One, their deepening friendship easily tracked by the Daniel's gradual adoption of her given name unless he's introducing her.  Daniel is respectful of Sam, not quite blind to her gender, but heedless of it.  It's a matter for gentle teasing as in Lt. Simmon's crush in 'Message in a Bottle' or a surprised look at  the embroidery on that stupid blue dress in 'Emancipation', but Sam gets to be just Sam, not Doctor, not Major, not daughter or sister, just Sam with Daniel because she is all he sees.  Daniel's lack of competitiveness lifts some of the pressure from Sam and the two of them flow well together when they work.  Sam grounds Daniel and Daniel lifts Sam to think outside the box.  Their scenes together when they're brainstorming or playing with a new toy, sparking off one another intellectually are ones I remember clearly and fondly, and look for wherever possible.

Sam's friendship with Daniel was always her strongest relationship within the team by a mile and it is of Sam he dreams when he needs comfort in 'Forever In A Day'.  She's always been by his side when he's been in need.  When Daniel is hurt, Sam is there for him.  She cries at his bedside in 'Holiday' pleading with him to stay with her and every single time I choke up and cry too.  I love how in Daniel's dream in 'Forever in a Day' the value he places on their friendship is so plain.  When he needs comfort, Sam is in his dream, taking care of him, choking back tears of empathic grief and pain.

Plain to see they love each other deeply.

I adored their scenes together throughout each of the first three seasons and missed them desperately in Season Four.  Amanda Tapping is such a fine, expressive actress, capable of so much feeling in her body language as well as voice and eyes.  I was sniffling in Season Five's premiere when Daniel stepped out to confront Teal'c.  Sam made an instinctive move to get between him and the gun Teal'c was holding on Daniel, her eyes going up to him, her fear for him so evident. 

Season Four for Sam and Daniel was desolate.  They barely spoke two words in most of the episodes and the stark contrast with Sam's tenderness and comfort of him in times of need in previous seasons was painful.  I am still furious about the way she was characterised in 'The First Ones'; along with the death of Rothman, my only serious complaint about an otherwise excellent story.  I cannot and will not believe Sam would be more concerned about burying the dead of another team than she was about rescuing Daniel.  Sam is simply too good a soldier, too good a friend and too good a person. 

During Season Four I was doubly disenfranchised, because the Sam and Daniel friendship disappeared right along with the Jack and Daniel friendship.  A lot of the heart of Stargate went with it. 

Many of us love Sam, yet in Seasons Four and Five her popularity plummeted.  Why? We can only speculate, but I think its because Sam no longer seems as human and fallible as she truly is.  Sam needs to fail and fail big time to recover some sense of herself.  She's a cipher right now, not a thinking, feeling woman.  She can't be that with Jack; she's his 2IC and after the muddle last season has to be professional.  It cuts down her human interactions tremendously to keep her and Daniel apart.  Why is it I can picture so clearly the two of them whispering behind Jack's back, commiserating over his 'little grey butts' crack when 'Failsafe' blurs to nothing but the memory of Sam speaking for Daniel.  I've given up wanting Sam and Teal'c friendship.  Jeez, could she not have him over for dinner or something?  Something.  Five minutes in her lab.  A scene.  Something.

Daniel has a complex friendship with Teal'c, an at times difficult one.  We had to wait until Season Three's 'Forever in a Day' to have their conflict over Sha'uri truly resolved.  Their relationship was made functional by Daniel's tacit acceptance and direct action in 'Thor's Hammer' and his passionate defence of Teal'c in Cor-Ai.  In 'Secrets' we had more of Teal'c and Sha'uri.  It's a fascinating episode.  It's easy to see that Teal'c thinks highly of Daniel - that he in fact loves all his teammates - but at the same time he remains sometimes disturbingly pragmatic.  He has to forcefully remind Daniel of his duty towards Sha'uri let alone the SGC to shock him into making a decision, but his commitment is never in doubt.  Teal'c makes his own mind up about everything; he literally passes judgement.  When he chooses for, there is nothing he won't do.  If he chooses against, he is relentless.  In 'Secrets' Teal'c fought for Daniel, wisely and well.  He gave them a chance and they so nearly made it.  I still don't know why they chose to hide when the mothership landed.  Daniel had time to dial. 

Daniel made so many mistakes in that episode they constantly irritate for the lack of logic let alone decisiveness, yet Teal'c's calm presence at his side doesn't judge him.  Maybe Teal'c doesn't believe he has the right.  This is a story arc that is too obvious for my taste.  It's like kids.  Every single time we see a kid, we get Jack flashing back somehow to Charlie, even in 'The Light' which really, truly should have been about the team and Daniel.  I'll never get over my wrenching disappointment at the zero comfort there was for Daniel in that story and he deserved so much more after dying.  All the time was taken up with cutesy scenes with the Mary Sue kid Loran and Sam and Jack sparring on the beach.  It wouldn't have killed the show to give us e.g., some CPR in the gateroom or enough concern from Sam and Teal'c they don't stand twenty feet away and just say 'Daniel'.  Every time we have Sha'uri, we have Teal'c.  That's not to say the scenes aren't effective.  With two such skilled and evocative actors as Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge, how could they not be? 

I love the scene particularly where Daniel goes to Teal'c and sits with him during Kel'No'Reem and quietly states his pleasure that Daniel is once again seeking his knowledge.  It's so subtle and understated, yet you believe it absolutely. 

If the writers wanted to be brave, wanted to be daring, they should have had Sam kill Sha'uri.  My God, what a story that would have been...the impact on their friendship, the agonies they both would have gone through.  That's a story with resonance. 

Daniel-Teal'c-Sha'uri is old and tired, like Jack and his Charlie-replacement of the week.  Or Sam and her boyfriend of the week.

It felt at times in Season Four that Teal'c was the only one who gave a damn about Daniel and I was pleased about that.  Teal'c is very accepting of Daniel's ways, respecting his judgement.  He'll point out the risks, but unlike Jack, won't try and make Daniel do what he thinks is best, or get between him and danger like Sam would.  We do know however that Teal'c will be at his side, wholly to be relied on.  He chooses to follow where Daniel leads, just as he does with Jack.

Perhaps even after all this you're wondering why we think Daniel is so special, so vital to the chemistry of the team and the success of the show?

We need all the characters and we need Daniel because he is at the heart of them all.  His relationship with each of his teammates is personal and it's possible for Daniel because he's the only civilian, and because... well...he's Daniel.

It is often through scenes with Daniel that we learn more about Jack, Sam and Teal'c in ways that simply aren't possible in their interactions with one another. 

He literally is the voice of the team.

Alison

(c) 2002 Alison.  All rights recognised.  No copyright infringement intended.