It's easy to forget exactly what the guys in capsule in Time Squad were trying to do-- according to Zen, their capsule contained brood units and genetic banks. Does this change our analysis of Deliverance? The Time Squad capsule was launched with landing instructions but no capacity to re-launch--i.e., on the same kind of errand as the Deliverance rocket. The Time Squad capsule is more rounded and less pointy, if it matters. And at the end of the episode Blake orders it dumped into space, with implied destruction of all its genetic material.
In Time Squad, Blake and Jenna climb into the capsule without oxygen masks, although they know that life support in the capsule is inadequate. Blake ordered a rendezvous with the capsule although he didn't know who was in it or why--it could have been Hitler and Himmler, for all he knew. The main action of the episode involves blowing up a nuclear power plant, so there's a sort of poetic justice in most of the crew developing radiation sickness in Deliverance.
in Deliverance, of course, they go to Cephlon to pick up Marryat (who is already dead) and Ensor Jr. (who is, to say the least, a lot of trouble in the short run)--without knowing who they are or what they're doing, and they go down to a planet they know to be dangerously radioactive without adequate protective equipment. Well, that's B7 all over innit--either ending up destroying things you tried to save or saving things you tried to destroy (Star One).
My reading: at the script conference, someone suggests diffidently that it's too early to remake Time Squad, at which point the ever-popular "capture by primitives" and "worshipped as god" tropes are introduced. (I would not be surprised if a similar thought process influenced the script for the film version of Stargate.)
-(Y)
PS--Deliverance's first shot of fur-clad primitives reminds me of the old ad campaign for Blackglama mink coats: "What becomes a legend most?"