First Aired On: January 12, 2001
Written By: Brad Wright
Directed By: Andy Mikita
Guest Stars: Christopher Cousins (Joe), Dion Luther (Mollem), Ronny Cox (President Kinsey), Teryl Rothery (Dr. Janet Fraiser), David Neale (Dialer), Linnea Johnson (Guide), Bryce Hodgson (Kid), Liza Huget (Waitress)
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Related Episodes:
Daniel Jackson's History/Linguistic/Mythology Lesson:
Sam Carter's Physics Lesson:
Important Stargate Information:
Alien Species/Background:
Important everyday life stuff we learn from Stargate:
Carter: So how long will you be gone?
Joe: Ah, well, I have to visit that new embassy on the southern continent, then I have to tour the nine planets, and...
Carter: You're kidding!
Joe: Of course I'm kidding. You think I'd miss your Anniversary ceremony tomorrow?
Carter: No, it's no big deal, I --
Joe: Oh, it's no big deal? If it wasn't for you, we'd have never even met the Aschen. I'll be back tonight, okay?President Kinsey: My fellow Americans. Ten years ago this very day, a team code-named SG-1, then working in secret, came upon an alien race, the Aschen. And with that introduction, I was able to forge the greatest alliance this country, indeed this world has ever known. (applause) I read now from Colonel Jack O'Neill's mission report of that first contact. "These folks sound too good to be true. Willing to share their science and technology, friendly, smarter than we are. One thing's for sure: the Goa'uld are coming. The Aschen could save our asses." Well, guess what, Jack? They did. (applause) Jack O'Neill could not be here today, but those candid words hurriedly scratched down in a mission report ten years ago were prescient. Membership in the Aschen Confederation guarantees the security, the health, and the future of every human being on God's Earth.
Daniel: What was Jack's excuse? I expected to see him here.
Teal'c: O'Neill has made his feelings very clear concerning the Aschen alliance.
Daniel: Well, he could have come to see us.
Fraiser: Well, I almost didn't come myself.
Daniel: What?
Fraiser: It's easier for you, Daniel. I mean, your job wasn't made obsolete.Fraiser: Think about it, Sam. I mean, we've all taken the anti-aging vaccine, the anti-cancer vaccine, and now the Aschen have these medical machines that can reverse tissue damage and mend broken bones... I mean, where does that leave me?
Carter: I guess when you put it that was I know what you mean... I mean, half the time the science they're talking about is so far over my head, I feel like a lab assistant.
Fraiser: Ah, but you have something to do.
Carter: Yeah.
Fraiser (laughs): Okay, enough of that, tell me by any chance are you and Joe..?
Carter: Not yet. They say it isn't either one of us, we just have to keep trying.
Fraiser: You know, they still let me keep an office in Washington, even though I have nothing to do. So I'd be more than happy to give you a check up.
Carter: No, they said I was fine--
Fraiser: Sam, the medicine I practiced may seem like the dark ages now, but I was your doctor for a long time. How long have you been trying?
Carter: Almost three years.Fraiser: Sam, I don't know how your Aschen doctor could have missed it, and frankly I just don't think it's possible he could have--
Carter (apprehensively): What?
Fraiser: You can't have children.
Carter: They said everything was normal--
Fraiser: In every other way it is--
Carter: Then this is a mistake.
Fraiser: Here, let me show you the scan. (she turns the computer monitor so Carter can see it) There's no room for interpretation. I mean, clearly, your ovaries are damaged.
Carter (tearfully): Why?
Fraiser: I don't know. I don't know what may have caused it or when it may have happened but obviously it was some time…
Carter (getting angry): No. I want to know why the Aschen doctors looked me in the eye and told me that I was okay. Why did they lie to me?
Fraiser: I don't know. But I'm willing to help you find out.Mollem: Did your people ever imagine converting a planet into a star?
Carter: No, I doubt it.
Mollem: I should think you would have at least considered it, given the rapid growth of your population, the viability of the planet...
Carter: Humans just don't think quite as far ahead as the Aschen seem to.Fraiser: So maybe this has happened to some other people. Do a general search. Human reproductive statistics.
Carter (entering commands into the database): That's it.
Fraiser: You can read this?
Carter: Oh, that can't be right. If I'm reading this properly, the worldwide birth rate
has dropped almost ninety-one percent in the last two years.
Fraiser (very surprised): What?
Carter: That's what it says right here. These are Aschen numbers.
Fraiser: Yeah, but we would know--
Carter: It's happening everywhere the anti-aging vaccine has gone.
Fraiser (abruptly): Turn it off.
Carter: They're doing it systematically--
Fraiser: Just turn it off, please.Fraiser: The night before General Hammond died, he called me, and he said he needed to speak to me about something very important, something that he couldn't discuss over the phone. And the next day, I told the Ashen doctors, I said this is impossible, he could not have died of a heart attack, he was in perfect health, but they said their diagnostic machines were infallible.
Carter: A number of years ago a freak accident sent us back to 1969. We know that by dialing coordinates that are precisely on the opposite side of the sun at the exact moment of a solar flare, it causes the wormhole to turn back towards Earth on itself and it creates a time distortion. Theoretically, we could send ourselves a message.
Daniel: Wait a second, I thought you said it was impossible to predict the exact moment of a solar flare.
Carter: For us, yes, it was. But with access to the Aschen computer...
Fraiser: Okay, wait a second here... We are considering changing the lives of the entire human race on Earth -- do we have that right?
Carter: If we don't, then we will live to see the end of the entire human race on Earth.O'Neill (not very welcoming): What are you doing here?
Carter: It turns out we made a mistake. A big one.
O'Neill: Which one? We made a few.
Carter: Our alliance with the Aschen.
O'Neill (sarcastically): Oh that... not working out, is it? Gosh, I wish I'd seen that coming. Oh, wait, I did see it coming.O'Neill: Let me tell you something, Carter, you want to erase your mistakes, that's your business. My conscience is clear. I warned everybody, I threw up the red flag and everybody, including you, shut me down.
Carter: I'm asking you to put that behind us.
O'Neill (angrily): You're not happy with the way things turned out, I'm sorry to hear that. Personally, I like things the way they are. No more saving the world, just a nice pond with no pesky fish in it, and the single most pressing issue in my life is whether or not to get a dog. There're a lot of pros and cons to consider.
Carter: Jack, I'm talking about the future of the human race.
O'Neill: So was I.Tour Guide (extremely perky and annoying): All righty, everyone, everyone please step all the way out, we've arrived at Level 28. Can anyone guess at what special room is on this floor?
Young Boy: The Gate room?
Tour Guide: Oh, that's very, very close... anyone else?
Daniel (wearing sunglasses and a hat as a disguise): He's right. It's the Gate room.
Tour Guide (condescendingly): Well, what I'm sure many of you don't know is that officially it was known as the "Embarkation" Room because that's where the SG teams "embarked" from. Okay, now we're walking... this way. (stopping in from of a photo) And these people comprise the famous SG-1, arguably the most important -- although not my personal favorite team of the entire command. And we're walking...O'Neill: And we're walking...
O'Neill: Hey. Thanks for showing.
Carter: We decided to take the last tour of the day. So, when did you decide against getting a dog?
O'Neill: I'm still thinking about it. In the meantime, I did a little shopping on your behalf. The zats are completely operational. (showing Carter the GDO) This, however, presents a problem.
Carter (looking at the GDO): It's a replica.Sergeant Davis (entering the control room): Excuse me, you people aren't supposed to be--(sees that it's O'Neill, Daniel, and Carter) Colonel O'Neill?
O'Neill: Sergeant... what are you doing here?
Sergeant Davis: I ... I work here now. Sort of the operations tech advisor.
Daniel: Oh, you're doing a great job.
Sergeant Davis (smiling at the compliment): Uh... this section is closed off. You're here for old time's sake?
O'Neill: That's it exactly.
Sergeant Davis (seeing the zats on the table): Where did you get those?
O'Neill: The zats? Armory. We're taking them.
Sergeant Davis: Oh, no, no, no.
Carter: Sergeant, please this is really important. Do you know where our real GDOs went?
Sergeant Davis: I'm not a sergeant anymore, and you're not colonels, and you're not supposed to have that remote either.
Daniel: Oh, that's good, because actually we don't want that one, we want the real one.
Sergeant Davis: It's in the White House. In the Oval Office, on the President's desk.Carter (speaking of the GDO): I think I can get it.
Daniel: Joe?
Carter: He's a good guy.
O'Neill: If you tell him, there'll be no going back.
Daniel: Of course if you don't tell him, there'll be no going back.Daniel: I think this is the note we should send.
Fraiser (scanning it quickly): That's it?
Daniel: I thought about including more information, but I think in this case the simpler, the better.
O'Neill: Why don't we just stick one on a rock and throw it through?
Daniel: It would never make it through the automated defenses.
O'Neill: Can we at least mention who won the Superbowl in 2004? (Fraiser rolls her eyes)
Daniel: No.
O'Neill: World Series?
Daniel: No.
O'Neill: Grey Cup?
Daniel: I put it in my own handwriting, so I'll be able to recognize it when I read it.
O'Neill: I think we should all write a note of our own. In case I don't make it to the gate, you can keep trying.Carter: This isn't just about me. I read this right from an Aschen terminal. Mollem gave me access to work on something else. The birth rate has been cut over ninety percent.
Joe (stunned): Oh my God. It was supposed to be a third of that.
Carter (astounded, then furious): You knew?
Joe: The Aschen insisted on it.
Carter: Oh my God...
Joe: Honey, they see farther ahead than we do. They knew that if we didn't limit growth --
Carter: Is that what you call this?
Joe: Obviously this is not what we agreed to.
Carter: I can't believe this.
Joe: We didn't have a choice, Sam.
Carter: You sold us out!
Joe: You think this was my decision?
Carter: You could have told me!
Joe: Oh, come on, Sam, you know how it works! Before the Alliance you spent most of your adult life in secrecy.
Carter: Oh, please, that was different!
Joe: Sam, it's the same.
Carter: No!
Joe: It's exactly the same! Our population was unsustainable. Without drastic measures, the Aschen didn't think we were worth investing in. Obviously, they went too far, but I can't believe they did this deliberately. There must be some sort of reverse medical procedure they have…
Carter: You still don't get it.
Joe: Sooner or later, the Goa'uld would have wiped us out, Would you have preferred that?
Carter: The Aschen way is slower. That's all.Joe (glaring at O'Neill): I knew you'd have something to do with this.
O'Neill: Did you get it?
Joe: Yes.
Carter: Thank you.
Joe: What do you going to do with it?
O'Neill: Send a message.
Joe: To who?
O'Neill: To whom. Let's have it.
Joe: I'll hand it over if you give me your word that Samantha will play no part in this.
O'Neill: I can't do that.
Joe: It's in a briefcase at the customs office at Stargate Terminal. They've been instructed not to release it without my authorization. Your word.
O'Neill: We need her to pull this off.
Joe: Well, whatever it is, you'll have to do it without Sam.
Carter: Joe, unless I help--
Joe: This is not negotiable. You don't want to tell me what's going on, that's fine. But if it involves GDOs, then it involves the Stargate. And the terminal is the last heavily defended place on this planet. I will not let you risk Sam's life.
O'Neill: Okay.
Carter (concerned): You won't have back up.
O'Neill: We won't need it.Joe: If you can manage, just give us enough time to get away from here.
O'Neill: The message goes in six minutes.
Joe: Sam wanted me to wish you good luck.
O'Neill: Give her my best.Mollem: Colonel O'Neill?
O'Neill: Melon.
Mollem: Mollem.
O'Neill: Mollem. I'm sorry, it's the war, you know... (gesturing at his head, as if to an old war wound)
Mollem: You didn't come to the Anniversary celebration.
O'Neill: What's to celebrate, I say.
Mollem: Surely the Aschen have proven your earlier misgivings erroneous. For all we've done.
O'Neill: Yes. You've certainly done your part.Teal'c (referring to his staff weapon, which the controller wants to confiscate): We carry these for ceremonial purposes only.
Controller: I'm sorry, but you'll have to let me have it.
Teal'c: Very well. (shoots him)Joe (yelling desperately): Shut down the system! I'm the Confederation Ambassador, shut down the system! (watching as the automated defenses shoot Sam as she runs towards the gate) NO!
Daniel (reading the note aloud): Under no circumstances go to P4C-970. Colonel Jack O'Neill. (looking at O'Neill) That looks like your handwriting.
O'Neill: It is my handwriting. (takes the note back) And that's my signature.
Teal'c: Though you sent no such note?
O'Neill: Nope.
Fraiser: Sir, may I? (O'Neill gives her the note, and she looks at it more closely) That looks like blood, sir.
Hammond: Have it analyzed.
O'Neill: General, wasn't 970 on our mission list?
Hammond: It was, not anymore. I'm not taking any chances. (calling up to the control room) I want P4C-970 removed from the dialing computer immediately. Dismissed.
Carter: I wonder why you sent it? I wonder when?
O'Neill: Yeah. You got to wonder.
Chain Reaction Absolute Power
