Author: Dave

Daniel determines that Morgana Le Fey may be connected to Merlin’s anti-Ancient device; he speculates that Morgana might have been another descended Ancient who feared the potential of Merlin’s weapon and therefore tried to hide it. Daniel also uses the legend of Sir Gawain to help narrow the search for the three lands that Arthur supposedly traveled to in his search for the Grail. He finds a gate address in one of the books recovered from Merlin’s library in Camelot. SG-1 gets a go to explore the planet, but Vala must remain behind. Even though Landry is inclined to let her work with SGC because of her past sacrifices and her connection to Adria, Vala must pass a psychiatric exam in order to assuage any concerns from the Pentagon.

On the planet, SG-1 discovers a village that seems deserted – until they find a couple deceased in their beds. A medical officer gates in to examine the bodies, with two officers who have not had time to rest from their last mission. The team heads into nearby caves to explore, but finds nothing. They decide to call it a night and head home, until they realize that one of the escort officers has fallen asleep – and isn’t waking up again. The doctor confirms that they are all affected by some kind of mysterious condition, one that ensures that if they fall asleep, they won’t wake up. Even worse, the condition is making all of them even more tired.

At SGC, Vala’s efforts to outwit the psych test only dig her in deeper. More and more frustrated, she begins to think there is no chance that she will pass. Woolsey arrives with an offer from the IOA – the advisory council is not sure that SGC is being fully open about their operations. So the IOA is prepared to ensure that Vala passes the examination . . . if she agrees to report back to the IOA on the goings-on of the Stargate program.

written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey), Benjamin Ratner (Dr. Hutchison), Toby Berner (Grimsby), Patrick Gilmore (Ackerman), Robin Mossley (Dr. Reimer), Chris Bradford (Medical Technician)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

The Odyssey brings Daniel, Carter, Mitchell and Vala to Atlantis while on a supply run. For Daniel, this is the end of a frequently-interrupted journey, but he can not take much time to savor the experience. He is in search of the other two planets where Arthur searched for Merlin’s anti-Ori weaponry. Weir shows him and Vala to the holographic interface for the Atlantis database.

Mitchell and Carter bring McKay back to the Odyssey to help with the other part of their plan. Carter theorizes that they can not get the Ori supergate to dial out because it is set to receive incoming wormholes from outside the Milky Way. They want to release a stargate near a black hole, and use that gate to dial another stargate which Teal’c has deployed near the supergate. Once this wormhole is established, they will set off thermonuclear charges in an effort to make the wormhole jump from Teal’c’s gate to the supergate. McKay thinks the plan is ridiculous, but he agrees to help Carter attempt to make the necessary calculations. Before they launch, Sheppard provides Mitchell a few tips on managing McKay’s sometimes-prickly personality.

Daniel’s methodical exploration of the database frustrates Vala, who suggests that they simply ask the database where the planets are. To appease her, Daniel does so, and is surprised when he receives a prompt reply. He suspects something is wrong – an old database should not be able to make the necessary translations as quickly as this is. He soon realizes that he is not speaking to a holographic interface – he is talking to an Ancient. Morgana Le Fay, in fact. While Morgana once opposed Merlin’s efforts to build his weapon, she now agrees that something must be done to stop the Ori. Daniel is not satisfied; he urges Morgana and the other Ancients to get off the sidelines and help prevent the Ori from dominating the Milky Way and beyond. But when Morgana tries to provide another bit of information, the other Ancients pull her away. They will not intervene.

On the Odyssey, the initial attempts are unsuccessful. McKay theorizes that it may take a sequence of charges to provide enough power to jump the wormhole. But before they can finish their test of the theory, they have a larger problem. Atlantis has detected a Wraith hive ship heading for the black hole, and the black hole is keeping the Odyssey‘s sensors from detecting it. Atlantis tries to relay a message to Odyssey through Stargate Command and Teal’c, but Teal’c has his own problems – one of the Ori vessels has come to check on the supergate.

written by Brad Wright
directed by Will Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay), Joe Flanigan (Lt. Col. John Sheppard), Torri Higginson (Dr. Elizabeth Weir), Matthew Glave (Col. Paul Emerson), Chelah Horsdal (Lt. Womack), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka)

Notes: Vala interfered with two of Daniel’s previous attempts to get to Atlantis, in season 8’s Prometheus Unbound and season 9’s Avalon, Part 1. Carter previously emplyed the jump-the-wormhole trick in season 2’s A Matter of Time.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Exploration teams are having trouble making any headway on the two worlds identified by Morgan in Atlantis. Daniel has returned to Camelot to look for clues in Merlin’s library. The rest of the team is somewhat surprised when an uncloaked Alkesh heads right into Cheyenne airspace. After Landry orders it shot down, SG-1 heads to the crash site to discover that the ship bears a Ba’al, claiming to be the original and offering a deal. Ba’al believes that the location of the anti-Ori weapon can be found at one of the stargate addresses O’Neill learned from the Ancient repository the first time he encountered it. If SGC will kill the rest of his clones – whom Ba’al says have turned against him – then Ba’al will tell them how to find the weapon.

Agent Barrett arrives to request that SGC turn Ba’al over to the NID for questioning, in order to help gather intelligence about the Goa’uld infiltration of the Trust. But the hunt for Merlin’s weapon takes priority, so SG-1 and several other teams capture a number of clones and return them to the SGC. When Barrett has an uncharacteristic loss of patience, it provides an opportunity for one of the clones to escape. Dr. Lee attempts to rig up a system to dispense symbiote poison through the ventilation systems, but in the time it takes to coordinate that effort, the clones demonstrate some impressive coordination of their own, as the Goa’uld’s real agenda becomes clear.

written by Alan McCullough
directed by Pete Woeste
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Cliff Simon (Ba’al), Peter Flemming (Agent Malcolm Barrett), Bill Dow (Dr. Lee)

Notes: O’Neill first (and inadvertently) used the Ancient repository in season 2’s The Fifth Race. The Goa’uld infiltration of the Trust was discovered in season 8’s Full Alert. SG-1 foiled Ba’al’s plan to establish his own network of stargates in season 9’s Off the Grid.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Mitchell arrives at O’Neill’s cabin for a mandated team bonding weekend. For the moment, he’s bonding only with Gen. Landry, since Daniel is in England researching Ancient texts, Carter is in charge of the SGC, and Teal’c is assisting Col. Reynolds’ team with an offworld mission. Mitchell finds the situation slightly uncomfortable and distinctly not-relaxing, despite Landry’s orders to ease up for the weekend.

Teal’c reports back that Reynolds’ team, which has been on a covert mission, has found a sudden rash of maulings. Vala reasons that if Carter sends teams back out to investigate, they can determine if the Ori have anything to do with this . . . and delay their arrival at the cabin in the bargain. The creature attacks several members of the SG teams, but Teal’c is able to kill one with a grenade before it can attack Vala. Back at SGC, researchers discover that the creature was originally a benign plant-eater, but had been mutated by some strange slug-like creature with an odd radiation signature. Carter eventually discovers that these creatures have been bleeding through from another dimension. SG teams have been using modified Sodan cloaking devices in order to conduct covert observation missions, and the modifications removed a radiation screen that blocked the slugs.

Carter contacts Area 51 to round up all of the offending devices, but a recovered Agent Barrett discovers that one is missing, presumably in the hands of the Trust. When Mitchell and Landry learn that a strange creature has been mauling hunters around their cabin, they confirm that hypothesis – a member of the Trust has been spying on them all weekend. As a result, the mutated maulers are on Earth.

written by Damian Kindler
directed by Will Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Jodie Graham (SG Leader)

Martin Lloyd turns to SG-1 for help when the success of Wormhole X-Treme on DVD leads to the possibility of a feature film. Gen. O’Neill orders the team to cooperate, and when Gen. Landry tries to rescue them by sending them on a mission (which happens to mark Mitchell’s 200th trip through a stargate), the gate fails. Stuck in the briefing room with Lloyd, the team pitches their own ideas and tries to dissuade Lloyd from some of his. But even when O’Neill shows up in person, the team may not be able to talk any sense into the Hollywood system.

written by Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper & Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie & Carl Binder & Martin Gero & Alan McCullough
directed by Martin Wood
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Richard Dean Anderson (Gen. Jack O’Neill), Willie Garson (Martin Lloyd), Don S. Davis (voice of Gen. Hammond), Gary Jones (Sgt. Walter Harriman)

Notes: This episode is the 200th episode of Stargate SG-1 (with the pilot Children of the Gods counting as two episodes). The Wormhole X-Treme TV show was introduced in the episode of the same name, which was the 100th of the series. Executive producer Brad Wright cameos as the engineer in the Star Trek homage. The marionette sequence, which includes the voice of Don S. Davis as Gen. Hammond, would seem to be a homage to Gerry Anderson series such as Thunderbirds, along with another opportunity for the producers to take a shot or two at the original 1994 movie (and at least one line of dialogue from the series pilot). The Jack-is-your-father gag refers to the season 2 episode 1969. Vala’s most obscure reference is to Farscape, which starred both Claudia Black and Ben Browder; while Black reprised her role as Aeryn in the brief homage, Browder opted to play Stark and Michael Shanks played Crichton. Lloyd’s comment about the lack of a title sequence refers to the shortened sequence that appeared at the beginning of season 9. The story where O’Neill becomes invisible was never in an actual episode, but darn it, it should have been.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Col. Carter accompanies the Odyssey to follow up intelligence on the location of another Ori supergate. Instead of a gate, however, the ship encounters a neutron star that weakens its shields and disrupts its systems. Goa’uld motherships attack the Odyssey, drive it into a minefield, and capture it. Anateo, a second in the Lucian Alliance, orders Carter to deactivate the ship’s transponder. When she refuses, Anateo kills Col. Emerson.

Vala is able to scrounge up a cargo ship in less-than-optimal condition, and goes with Mitchell, Daniel and Teal’c to try to find the ship. Unfortunately, her contact has already been approached by Anateo’s men, and she and Daniel are captured. Mitchell proposes that he impersonate Keflinn, one of Netal’s most trusted seconds, in order to infiltrate the Alliance and find the ship. No one but Netal knows what Kefflin looks like, and Mitchell can use the Reole chemical to convince Netal. The plan works, and Mitchell learns that Netal ordered the attack on the Odyssey . . . but he doesn’t know where it is. Anateo has clearly gone rogue, and now Netal wants him stopped. Carter, Vala and Daniel provide some assistance on that score by taking the Odyssey back from Anateo, but the damage is severe – the ship is a sitting duck. And as a final complication, the cloaking device on Teal’c’s ships fails. When Teal’c is captured, Mitchell must maintain his cover, find the Odyssey, and prevent Netal from claiming it for his own.

written by Alan McCullough
directed by Will Waring
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Eric Steinberg (Netan), Rudolf Martin (Anateo), Matthew Glave (Colonel Emerson), Hawthorne James (Lucian Second), Martin Christopher (Major Marks)

Notes: The main title sequence was edited to include Vala running into the gate room to join Mitchell, Carter, Daniel and Teal’c going through the gate. This episode is the 203rd episode produced, breaking The X-Files’ record for longest-running American science fiction series. (The 2007 Guinness Book of Records credits the series as the world’s “longest consecutively-running science fiction series.” Figures a Time Lord would fall through a loophole.) Mitchell met the alien bounty hunter in season 9’s The Ties That Bind. Daniel used the memory-altering chemical in season 5’s Summit.

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer

Daniel is still trying to figure out the location of Merlin’s weapon when the missing piece arrives to Vala in a dream. The team travels to a world with a technology and culture similar to the Camelot planet. Their requests for information about the Grail are met with warnings of the danger . . . and the news that Ba’al’s team has a three-day head start on them. Morgan has cast spells to protect the Grail, and the only help is the parchment of virtues she has left behind in the library. After the team consults the archivist, Ori troops take over the village and burn the library contents. An innkeeper helps SG-1 escape, along with the archivist, who promises to take them to the Grail.

As they make their way to the cave, the team meets Ba’al, who had been snared by one of Morgan’s traps. He claims to know the name of the dragon that guards the Grail, essential knowledge for the quest. So SG-1 reluctantly allows him to tag along. They also realize that the archivist is actually Adria in disguise. She planted the knowledge in Vala’s dream and helped SG-1 go this far, because she believes that only Daniel, a former Ascended being, can retrieve the Grail. She threatens to kill SG-1 if Daniel does not agree to help her, and he reluctantly agrees. But as they make their way through Morgan’s tests, the team discovers that the threat may not come from the direction they’re expecting.

written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
directed by Andy Mikita
music by Joel Goldsmith

Guest Cast: Guest Cast: Cliff Simon (Ba’al), Morena Baccarin (Adria)

LogBook entry by Dave Thomer