After the classic Season One episode "There But for the Grace of God", this marks the series' second exploration of the concept of alternate realities, which has always been one of my favourite science fiction storytelling devices as we are often given the glimpse of a world where the characters not only fail in their goals but sacrifice their lives in the attempt. Such stories show the audience just how much is at stake if the normal versions of the characters fail in their mission without the worst of all worlds coming to pass in this one. In that respect, "Point of View" is a follow-up to the aforementioned episode as it likewise depicts an Earth which has suffered the full force of a devastating Goa'uld attack. While the fate of the Earth of this reality is harrowing, it is not as bleak as that of the Earth featured in the aforementioned episode, thanks to the efforts of the SG-1 that we know and love.
As I mentioned in my review of that episode, one of the most engaging and engrossing aspects of alternate realities for me as a viewer lies in the fact that we are often presented with characters who are the same but different from the ones with whom we are familiar. In this instance, this narrative device is perfectly illustrated with Doctor Samantha Carter. Unlike her counterpart in our reality, she never joined the military and worked as a civilian scientist at the SGA (possibly as a member of SG-1) until the Goa'uld attack which forced her to flee to our reality with Major Charles Kawalsky in search of sanctuary. Perhaps due to her lack of military training, she is far more emotional than the Sam of our reality and appears to suffer from feelings of both inadequacy and resentment towards her counterpart due to the fact that, unlike her, our Sam (along with the rest of SG-1) was able to figure out a way to defeat the Goa'uld invasion with only a few days of advance warning. However, she is eventually able to overcome these feelings and the two Sams are able to work together well. If she had stuck around, the two Sams would have been able to solve all of the SGC's future problems in record time instead of just in the nick of time! By far the biggest difference in this version of Sam is that she was married to the Jack O'Neill of her reality, who was killed in front of her several days earlier while (unsuccessfully) defending Cheyenne Mountain from the Jaffa incursion. While the alternate Jack featured in "There But for the Grace of God" was a cold and nasty bastard, her description of his counterpart in her reality suggests that he was extremely similar to our Jack, which makes his presence at the SGC all the more difficult for her. She finds herself grieving for her late husband in a world where he is still alive but where they did not have a romantic relationship. His similarities and his differences to the Jack that she loved and lost make it almost impossible to deal with her husband's death while she remains in our reality.
Outside of her personal life, another major difference between our Sam and Dr. Carter lies in the fact that it was her who figured how to activate the Stargate while, in our reality, this distinction belonged to Daniel. Given that Daniel was never part of the Stargate program in her reality, the events of the original "Stargate" film presumably proceeded very differently. Although no information is given about the start of her relationship with Jack, I like to imagine that Dr. Carter accompanied Jack on the first mission through the Stargate to Abydos, helped him defeat Ra and was able to help him get his life back together and come to terms with Charlie's death, all of which Daniel did in the film. While these events marked the beginning of Jack and Daniel's very close friendship in our reality, I imagine that the same events led to Jack and Sam falling in love in this reality.
In the alternate reality, Teal'c is still serving as the First Prime of Apophis (who is still alive and one of the most powerful Goa'uld System Lords). While the alternate Teal'c in "There But for the Grace of God" was much the same as ours except for the ponytail, this Teal'c's snazzy little goatee is by the far the smallest difference between him and our Teal'c. Although he has only about a minute worth of screen time, the fact that he brands our Teal'c a "shol'va" (meaning "traitor") for describing Apophis as a false god speaks volumes about his character. This Teal'c seemingly lacked the benefit of Bra'tac's influence, who taught our Teal'c from an early age that Apophis was no more a god than he was and that the Goa'uld were conquerors who had enslaved his people. This Teal'c, the Hess to Apophis' Hitler, represents everything that our Teal'c despises about his own people so I imagine that he felt that he had no choice but to kill him. While they shared identical DNA, they were far from being the same person.
One of the unsung heroes of the series is Jay Acovone as Kawalsky, who returns in this episode for the second of three times after his death in the series' second episode "The Enemy Within". Kawalsky's continued survival is perhaps the only way in which the alternate reality is in any way better than ours. I'm sure that he was invaluable to the SGA before the Goa'uld invaded and will continue to be invaluable in the rebuilding of Earth with the help of the Asgard, whose use in this episode, while a deus ex machina (if Thor was involved, practically a literal one!) was inspired. They seem to be the same benevolent protectors of humanity as in our reality.
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