| Synopsis | Review | Quotes |
First Aired On: March 10, 2000
Written By: Robert C. Cooper
Directed By: Martin Wood
Guest Stars: Colin Cunningham (Major Davis), Gary Jones (Technician), Guyle-Lee Fraizer (Technician #2)
Synopsis: We open with O'Neill entering the infirmary, where Daniel is lying on one of the beds. He asks Daniel how he's feeling; Daniel replies that it's funny, after everything they've been through, he ends up with appendicitis, of all things. O'Neill asks him if he wants to go fishing, Daniel says he would if he could...only he can't exactly stand at the moment. O'Neill leaves, saying he'll see Daniel in a week, then goes and talks to Carter, who's blasting away with a big ole torch at her Naquada reactor. They talk for a bit about how having leave means to actually leave the base, but Carter emphasizes that she's been wanting to work on this reactor for awhile now and, well, has fun working on it. O'Neill then tells her he's going fishing up in Minnesota and she's welcome to come along with him; she says the invitation sounds great, but turns it down. He says goodbye and turns to go, but a second later she follows, possibly to take him up on the offer. Of course, we never find out since at that moment he's zapped away by a teleportation beam (ala "Fair Game") and finds himself on an Asgard ship, many, many miles above earth. So much for that vacation in Minnesota. This time, however, O'Neill's not greeted by Thor, but rather by a troop of nasty purple mechanical spiders who tromp past him toward the room where he was beamed aboard the ship. Uh-oh, this does not look good. We cut to the opening credits.
Back in the SGC, Carter tells Hammond that she thinks the beam that took O'Neill was Asgard technology, in which case he's probably okay. Hammond certainly hopes so, and he tells Carter to send a message to Teal'c to return. He then calls Major Davis at the Pentagon to alert them of the problem.
On the Asgard Ship, O'Neill hears Thor's voice and is guided by him to a small room with some big monitors on the walls. Thor is lying in a pod of some kind, obviously not doing well. He tells O'Neill that he is dying...and that they have a rather large problem. Seems the mechanical bugs (named Replicators by the Asgard) O'Neill saw before are a bit of a headache for the Asgard. As a matter of fact, they're the "enemy worse than the Goa'uld" we first learned about in "Fair Game." They accessed information about Earth in the Asgard's computers and plotted a course there in order to destroy it. Before Thor passes out, he points O'Neill to a number of stones on a pedestal a few feet away and tells him that the information he needs is stored in them. O'Neill then starts listening to the recordings contained in the stones.
We cut back to the debriefing room in the SGC. Teal'c has just returned and asks what's going on; Carter tells him the Asgard took O'Neill, although they still don't know why. While they're talking, they suddenly hear O'Neill's voice--he's projecting a hologram of himself into the debriefing room from aboard Thor's ship. He tells them that the bugs have overrun the ship and wants them to prepare a ton of explosives to transport up to him so he can destroy the ship. Unfortunately, Thor disabled the downward transporter so the Replicators couldn't use it to beam themselves down to Earth...so there's no way O'Neill can get off the ship. He warns Carter and Teal'c not to try to come up to help him since there's no way for them to get back to Earth, then turns off the holographic image. Hammond asks Carter if the Asgard ship can be destroyed by a surface-to-air missile strike, but Carter says no--the Asgard use a cloaking device that makes it impossible for Earth to spot them. They can't fire anything at a ship they can't see.
On the Asgard ship, O'Neill listens to some more of Thor's instructions, then fast forwards once it gets too technical for his tastes. He enters some symbols onto the control panel and goes to get the cargo the SGC was supposed to have prepared for him. Once he gets there, however, he finds that Carter and Teal'c disobeyed his order and are standing there with the equipment. Carter says that Hammond overruled O'Neill's order for no one else to join him since they have a possible way off the ship. NASA has a shuttle standing by ready to rescue them--all they need to do is transmit the coordinates of the Asgard ship back to Earth. Unfortunately, at that moment they hear the Replicators approaching, having been attracted to the area by the high energy level of the transport beam. O'Neill tells them to grab what they can and follow him back to Thor's room. They go through a door with Replicators hot on their tails, but a few of the bugs get through. Teal'c tries to blast them with his zat gun, but there's absolutely no effect. Even worse, when O'Neill blows them up with a shotgun, they reassemble themselves a few seconds later and chase after O'Neill and company. Oh dear, these things appear to have more lives than Daniel does. This could definitely be a problem.
So O'Neill takes them to Thor's room and introduces everyone once again. Thor repeats that they're all doomed and shouldn't have come to his ship, but Carter insists that they can get off. They plant some PBX, jump ship, then blow it and the Replicators to kingdom come. Thor, however, destroys this hope by saying the ship is equipped with dampening fields the event that there was an explosion. It simply won't be destroyed in the manner described by O'Neill. If Thor had known of a way to destroy the ship, he would've already done it and not dragged O'Neill et al into the whole mess. O'Neill then shows Carter the recordings Thor had made and she says she'll go through them and try to figure out some of the specifications of the ship.
Back to Earth we go. Major Davis exits the elevator and is greeted by Hammond. Davis has done his homework on the situation--the only thing he does all day is read up on the Stargate program. Anybody else wishing they could get his job?
On the Asgard ship, Thor is explaining that they found the Replicators on a planet in their home galaxy. Their creators were gone, probably destroyed by their own creation, and the Asgard brought some Replicators onto their ships before they could determine the danger. The Replicators then learned how to avoid being killed by Asgard technology and now annihilate anything that gets in their path. Apparently, these nasty little buggers are each capable of very high capacity for learning and individual behavior, yet they all act with one common goal--self replication. They will continue to eat Thor's ship until they have sufficient numbers to attack Earth, then land the ship on Earth and eat to their hearts' content. Thor also tells SG-1 that the ship can't withstand an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere; it'll burn up. Carter realizes they could use this to their advantage. If they can regain control of the main computer from the bridge, they can crash the ship into the atmosphere. To do that, O'Neill and Teal'c will have to go to the bridge and try to take control.
So off they go to the bridge, all the while hearing the Replicators crawling through the walls. Carter stays behind with Thor, who is clearly getting worse at each passing moment. His healing pod mechanism would be able to help him...but he refuses to use it because if the Replicators have tampered with it, it'll kill him. Carter offers to help him with her limited medical training, but unfortunately there's nothing she can do. Anyway, she directs O'Neill and Teal'c to the bridge, and finally they get there. There's only one problem--there are hundreds of the damn bugs covering every inch of the bridge. O'Neill scraps that plan and returns to Thor's room to form a new plan.
They quickly look through the gear Carter and Teal'c brought from Earth and, to their relief, find the Replicators haven't damaged any of it. As for Thor, though...he's not doing so hot. Carter tells O'Neill that Thor's pod could put him into a deep stasis that would preserve his life, but he's refusing to let them use it on him. Why? Because as long as he's conscious, he can still help them. Okay, so that's a good reason. Carter then gets another idea--if they place a bomb laced with Naquada inside the ship's dampening field, it could possible destroy one of the engines and force the ship to crash into Earth's atmosphere, burning up. Finally, a plan! Somebody will go outside the ship (using the space suits Carter and Teal'c brought along from Earth) and plant the bomb.
Back in the SGC, Daniel's heard the news about his fellow teammates and is walking around, albeit very painfully. He asks if there's anything he can do to help, then overhears Davis say they've gone on Defcon 3 alert. If the Asgard ship attempt to land, they will tell the rest of the world what they know (Editor's question--does this mean tell the world about the Stargate, too? Hmmm...) , then hit the ship with everything Earth's got. Daniel reminds them that SG-1 is up there and Hammond says he knows; he wants to give them a reasonable chance before he starts blowing things up.
Meanwhile, Carter determines that the bugs haven't overrun the airlock yet and explains to O'Neill and Teal'c that their space suit tanks can hold six hours of oxygen. Teal'c volunteers to don the space suit and hook up the bomb and, after hearing about a radiation hazard that Teal'c's symbiote provides some immunity to, O'Neill agrees to let him.
They put the space suit on Teal'c and O'Neill helps him to the airlock, fortunately not running into any more bugs. O'Neill opens the door for Teal'c and into outer space he goes, taking one small step for a Jaffa. <g> What they don't see however, are a few drops of acid that fall from the ceiling (where the Replicators are feasting yummy stuff like metal and wire...I'll pass, thank you) onto Teal'c's oxygen tank. Teal'c heads out of the airlock and fastens the bomb to the exterior of the ship, but as he's returning, O'Neill hears some bugs inside the airlock. Without warning, the door to the airlock closes, locking Teal'c outside. Making matters worse, at that moment the acid eats through his oxygen tank and it bursts. Carter tries to get the door open, but to no avail--it simply won't open. She then tries to beam Teal'c onto the ship using the Asgard teleporters but guess what? Those have been disabled as well. The only option left to them is to have Teal'c push away from the ship and she'll try to catch him in the next teleporter's range. Teal'c does as he's asked (putting a lot of faith in O'Neill and his word, mind you), and finally he reaches the next teleporter and is beamed aboard. Thank goodness, he's still okay after such prolonged exposure to the hostile environment out there.
Back in the SGC, they've still had no communication from SG-1, nor any sign of the ship in orbit. Daniel and Hammond briefly talk, Daniel saying he feels like he should be up on the Asgard ship with the rest of his team. Hammond tells him that's exactly how he feels most of the time.
On Thor's ship, O'Neill and Teal'c make it back to Thor and Carter. O'Neill sees a cover over Thor's pod, and Carter explains that Thor was dying and she had to put him in stasis to save his life. Now all they can do is wait until the right time to detonate the bomb and blow up the engines so the ship will crash. Unfortunately, they still don't have any way off the ship because Carter can't fix the downward teleporting beam without Thor's help. O'Neill decides he should really contact Hammond and tell him what's going on...except that he can't. The bugs have disabled the communications device. Eek. Complicating things further, the ship suddenly starts to move, descending toward Earth. Ah, but Carter has another plan. Good timing, huh? <g>
In the SGC, NORAD finally reports seeing the ship in atmosphere; the cloaking device must have been disabled. The way it's moving, it should land on the Western coast of the United States. They can only assume that SG-1 has lost the fight and Hammond alerts his superiors to go to Defcon 2. They have to stop the ship in whatever way they can, whether SG-1 is still alive or not. Poor Daniel is not a happy camper at this news.
O'Neill and Teal'c move through the ship to the room where they've been teleporting things from Earth, and at that moment in the SGC we see a beam of light on the Stargate. Once the beam disappears, they see the Stargate is gone. Of course! Daniel says. They're going to use the Stargate to get off the ship to another planet, kinda like he did in "The Serpent's Lair." Since there's enough energy in the Gate for one dial out, SG-1 should be able to escape in time. Hammond orders the second gate at Nelles to be unsealed ASAP.
Teal'c dials out the gate manually to P3X 234 while O'Neill shoots the bugs that were attracted to the room by the teleporter beam. At the same time, Thor's room (where Carter still is) is finally overrun by the Replicators. O'Neill tells Carter they've got to go, and Carter won't argue--she teleports herself into the room with the Stargate. They wait a few minutes, fighting off the hundreds of bugs that are swarming them, then finally Carter tells O'Neill it's time and he detonates the bomb.
Outside the ship, the bomb goes off, starting the ship on fire and changing its descent to Earth. It crashes into the Pacific Ocean, 400 miles from the coast of California. Major Davis reports that naval recovery teams are set to go to the wreckage, and he assures a really, really worried Daniel that SG-1 probably escaped in time using the Stargate.
Last thing we see, however, is the wreckage of the ship floating in the water...and a Replicator crawling out, unharmed by the salt water and the crash....
To be continued....
(On a side note, for those interested, Michael Shanks came down with appendicitis/a burst appendix right before the filming of this episode. Daniel was supposed to have a larger role in the story, but the writers had to rewrite the script to get Daniel out of most of it so Mr. Shanks could recover. Therefore, what better ailment to give Daniel in the episode than appendicitis? <g>)
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Related Episodes:
Daniel Jackson's History/Linguistic/Mythology Lesson:
Sam Carter's Physics Lesson:
Important Stargate Information:
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Important everyday life stuff we learn from Stargate:
Quotes:
O'Neill: "Hey."
Daniel: "Hey."
O'Neill: "How're you doin'?"
Daniel: "Good. Did you get your hair cut?"
O'Neill: "Yeah. Why?"
Daniel: "No reason."
O'Neill: "Can I see your scar?"
Daniel: "No."
O'Neill: "Ah, Fraiser says it'll be about a week before you...get out of here."
Daniel: "You know, it's funny. I mean, after everything we've been through these past few years and of all things it's my appendix that lays me out. It's not going to be a week. I mean, I practically...I feel fine now."
O'Neill: "Wanna go fishing?"
Daniel: "Actually, I wouldn't, ah..." He tries to sit up but grimaces in pain. "Well, maybe, no, you know, maybe I'll just...I will stay here for two or three...three days."
O'Neill: "Bye."O'Neill, over Carter's blowtorch: "Carter!"
Carter: "Sir! How's Daniel?"
O'Neill: "Oh, he's going to be fine. What're you doing?"
Carter: "Ah, I'm getting ready to do a detailed analysis of the decay rate of Naquada within the reactor. It's really quite amazing that, unlike plutonium, Naquada actually has a...."
O'Neill: "Ah ah ah! I'm on vacation."
Carter: "Yes, Sir."
O'Neill: "So are you."
Carter: "I know. It's not that I'm happy that Daniel's in excruciating pain or anything like that but I've actually been looking forward to an opportunity like this for quite some time."
O'Neill: "You know, maybe it's just me but I always thought when one got some leave, one actually left. Daniel's recouping, Teal'c's off visiting his kids somewhere. Personally, I have a date with a little lake in Minnesota where the bass grow that big." He holds out his arms to indicate the size.
Carter: "Really."
O'Neill: "Oh, yes. What I'm describing here, Carter, involves a very special element."
Carter: "This is fun to me, Sir."
O'Neill: "Well, if playing with your little reactor sounds better than exploring the lakes and natural beauty of northern Minnesota, there's not much I can do."
Carter: "Was that an invitation, Sir?"
O'Neill: "Nothing wrong with that, is there? Couple of co-workers, friends if you will, fishing. It'd be fun."
Carter: "Wow. I appreciate the offer, Sir, really. It sounds great. But I should...."
O'Neill: "No sweat. See you in a week. And by all means...have fun."Thor: "O'Neill...."
O'Neill: "Thor! You alright?"
Thor: "I am dying."
O'Neill: "What happened?"
Thor: "It is, as you humans say, a long story."
O'Neill: "This have anything to do with those...bugs in the hall?"
Thor: "I could not transport you directly into this room. The...bugs, as you call them, are attracted to the high energy output of the transporter."
O'Neill: "What are they?"
Thor: "They are the enemy of the Asgard."
O'Neill: "This would be the enemy worse than the Goa'uld you told me about?"
Thor: "I am weak. The information you will need is contained within the stones. Forgive me."
O'Neill: "For what? Thor?" Thor falls asleep.Thor: "Colonel Jack O'Neill. I have made these recordings for you in the event that I am dead or am unable to pass on the necessary information. Under my command, the Malistener was called into battle against an enemy we have named Replicators. During battle, this ship became infested by the technology. The Replicators accessed the computer which contained information about your planet and plotted a course here. The crew was transported off the ship. I destroyed the outbound transporter technology to prevent the Replicators from escaping and remained in the hopes of stopping the Malistener from reaching Earth. If you are watching this recording, then I have failed and I have also likely doomed you to certain death."
Carter: "Colonel?"
O'Neill: "Carter?"
Carter: "Sir, what's going on?"
O'Neill: "Well, I need a spaz 12, a BF8, 10 pounds of PBX and a USAF the size of the Stargate in, oh, five minutes?"
Carter: "That's a lot of explosives, Sir."
Hammond: "May I ask why?"
O'Neill: "Yeah, basically, Thor's ship has been overrun by a bunch of nasty techno bugs."
Teal'c: "Were the Asgard not able to defeat them?"
O'Neill: "Guess not."
Carter: "So, Sir, are you saying these bugs are technological?"
O'Neill: "Yeah. Apparently they plan to land the ship and infest Earth. Thor says this would not be a good thing."
Hammond: "Well, what are you going to do?"
O'Neill: "Destroy the ship."
Carter: "Where's Thor?"
O'Neill: "Oh, he's here. He's...just not feeling too well at the moment."
Carter: "We'll be ready in ten minutes, Sir. Thor can transport us up there to help you."
O'Neill: "Thank you, Carter, but that's not going to happen. Thor's out cold. Bugs got him pretty good. But he did leave some instructions on how to run the toys up here."
Carter: "So can you transport us up?"
O'Neill: "I could, but...I'm not going to."
Teal'c: "What is your reasoning, O'Neill?"
O'Neill: "Anybody who comes up does not get down."
Carter: "Well, Sir, if you can't get off the ship...."
O'Neill: "Yeah, I know. Look, my time's almost up here. Have the stuff ready in ten minutes. And wish me luck."
Carter: "Colonel...."
O'Neill: "Major, that's an order and that's final."
Hammond: "Good luck, Jack."
O'Neill: "Thank you, Sir."O'Neill, about the technical specifications on the recordings: "Yeah, my eyes glossed over right about there."
Hammond: "I see you've done your homework, Major."
Davis: "General, all I do all day long is read up on the Stargate program."Thor: "The Replicators were brought aboard an Asgard ship before the danger could be fully comprehended."
O'Neill: "We do that all the time. Kind of expected more from you guys."
Thor: "Overconfidence in our technology has been our undoing."O'Neill: "Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me with all this advanced intergalactic technology, this ship can't withstand a little heat?"
Thor: "In order to reflect the sub-phase field of the phase generator...."
O'Neill: "So...no."
Thor: "Yes."Hammond: "What are you doing down here, Dr. Jackson?"
Daniel: "I've just been informed, Sir. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help."
Davis: "General? We're going to Defcon 3. The Russians have gone on alert as a response. The moment the Asgard ship attempts to land, the President has decided to let the rest of the world know what we know."
Hammond: "And then?"
Davis: "We hit it with everything we've got."
Daniel: "Ah...SG-1 is on that ship."
Davis: "I have as much confidence in SG-1 as you, Dr. Jackson, but they left over an hour ago, we've had no communication since, and we have no idea what kind of a time frame we're dealing with here."
Hammond: "Let's give them a reasonable chance, Major."
Davis: "Yes, Sir. I'll try to define 'reasonable' to the Pentagon."Carter: "Each tank has six hours of oxygen. Whoever goes should have plenty of time."
Teal'c: "I will go."
O'Neill: "I was going to do it."
Carter: "There is a radiation concern, Sir."
Teal'c: "My symbiote protects me from exposure to radiation for a prolonged period of time."
O'Neill: "Okay, you go."O'Neill: "Say something."
Teal'c, in a space suit: "One small step for Jaffa."
O'Neill: "Very nice."O'Neill, to an unmoving Teal'c: "C'mon, breathe!!!" Teal'c finally opens his eyes. "Oh, yeah. That's following orders."
Hammond: "Dr. Jackson, are you okay?"
Daniel: "I'll be fine."
Hammond: "Why don't you go back up to the infirmary. I promise I will notify you as soon as there's any news."
Daniel: "Sir, I know there's no reason for me to be here, but I just...I feel like I should be here. That's not totally true, I feel like actually I should be up there with them."
Hammond: "Now you know how I feel most of the time."Teal'c: "Thor was correct. We are going to die."
O'Neill: "Oh, c'mon, Teal'c, lighten up. We've been in these situations before."
Carter: "No, Sir, we haven't."
O'Neill: "We haven't?"Hammond: "This is General Hammond. This time I recommend going to Defcon 2. Deploy all available assets to intercept the alien ship."
Daniel: "General...."
Hammond: "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson, but if that ship makes it through the atmosphere intact, we have no choice but to assume SG-1 failed. We must destroy it by all means necessary." Daniel is not a happy camper at this news.Daniel, seeing the Stargate disappear: "They're going to use it to escape!"
Davis: "Like you did from the Apophis mothership. It could work."
Daniel: "It will work. They'll gate to another planet, then home."
Hammond: "You had a DHD. They don't."
Davis: "Even disconnected, there should be enough power to gate out once."
Hammond, picking up the phone: "This is Hammond. I want the beta gate unpacked from storage immediately. Yes, you heard me. I want it unsealed and ready for use as soon as humanly possible."O'Neill: "Where we goin'?"
Teal'c: "P3X 234."
O'Neill: "Thank you, it's nice there this time of year."
Crystal Skull Small Victories
