” It probably took the Ancients a thousand years to build the gate system, and I wrecked it in a single day!”
- Release Date: 8th August 2003
- Season 7
- Episode 9
- Director: Martin Wood
- Writers: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
The episode starts with Felger (the bumbling scientist that saved SG-1 on a previous adventure) and a female assistant, Chloe, who seems to have a massive crush on him. He’s nervous because Sam is heaving over to view his latest prototype. He’s disappointed when Jack accompanies her, but he proceeds to show off the energy weapon he’s invented – which makes loud noises, sparks and cuts out the power. He says that it wasn’t supposed to happen.
Hammond is speaking to Felger, telling him that he will have to re-think Felger’s position at Stargate Command. He keeps coming up with ambitious ideas yet has never produced results. He says he’s on the verge of a major breakthrough that will trounce anything else, but doesn’t want to say what he is. He says it will be a week until it’s ready to show off, Hammond gives him a day.
We cut back to Felger’s lab and Chloe is worried for him as he has nothing. He brings up the codeword “Avenger”, but Chloe doesn’t think that it’s ready. He thinks they can make it work and she says he’s too obsessed with impressing people that it causes him to bite off more than he can chew. He says he’ll try to stop that… right after this project. He pitches the idea to Carter: it’s a virus that will infect a DHD and scramble all the symbols, rendering outgoing calls useless. She thinks it’s a good idea.
The rest of SG-1 ship out on a mission, and Carter stays behind because the idea shows promise and reminds Jack that Felger saved their lives, but Jack is still dubious, as is Hammond. Carter thinks he just needs some support. She visits him at his apartment (which is a complete mess, and he has action figures of SG-1) and lets him know that his idea is very promising and that Hammond wants her to work on it with him, which Felger is both excited and nervous about. Jack and Teal’c are visiting rebel Jaffa leaders while Daniel is helping with a relocation.
In Felger’s lab, Felger wears a tie to try and impress Carter, asking Chloe if she knows that it feels like to like someone who barely notices you. Carter enters and we get a montage of them awkwardly working together until they’re ready to test. And they’ve picked a target: one of Ba’al’s mining targets. Disabling his gate would disrupt his supply network and there’s a Tok’ra operative there to relay the result.
It takes a while for anyone to contact, and Felger rushes to the control room when Carter is called there. Jack and Teal’c are overdue in reporting back, so they’re dialling that planet. Jack answers and says the mission was going well, but the gate won’t dial out – nothing they know works. Hammond and Carter look at Felger and he tries to defend himself that it has nothing to do with Avenger, his virus. They do realise that the planet Jack and Teal’c on are fairly close to where they send the virus.
The Tok’ra contact them to let them know that more gates have stopped working. Carter analyses it and they’re all within an area around the original target gate. They think the virus triggered an update that is supposed to account for stellar drift and caused the virus to be sent to other gates. Felger is horrified and nervous, with Chloe trying to calm him down. It doesn’t help that only three of fifteen off-world teams managed to get back. They receive word from the Tok’ra – the entire gate network is down.
They contact Jack and he lets them know that one of the Jaffa leaders sold them out, and Hammond informs him that it was Felger’s virus that caused this to happen, and that Stargate Command have the only working Stargate. The MALP gets hit but Jack and Teal’c get clear and Carter suggests sending reinforcements, but Hammond can’t condone stranding more people.
Carter, Felger and Chloe try to figure out what to do. They need to somehow get the other gates to revert back to the old coordinate system. Felger says there must be a pattern with the new coordinates, so if they went to a plant and dialed randomly until they got a hit, they can compare it with the old system and work it out. But that could take years or decades. We do find out that Ba’al is assaulting the other System Lords, as he currently has the biggest fleet, which is a huge advantage with no stargates.
Felger gets a call from his mother, and he explains that he’s made another mistake at work, the first one yet. Carter visits him and Felger says he feels bad about destroying the Stargate network in a single day. She tells him that he needs to get over it and start finding a solution – he calls Carter out for being perfect, so she reminds him about when she nearly blew up a star and killed a planet full of people due to bypassing the safety protocols. Felger gets an idea: if they dump their own database into the DHD, it should be able to extrapolate from that and sort itself out.
Daniel tries this out and it doesn’t work, which baffles Felger, who ends up leaving the base. Carter admits to Hammond that he’s a complete screw-up but is still a great scientist, and the one that knows the most about the virus. She finds him near a stream (his mother told her its where he hangs out) and convinces him to return, and they realise that the virus must have been transmitted as well as the coordinates, which is what is blocking the uploads.
In the briefing room, Carter and Felger explain that they have a solution. They need to essentially create an anti-virus, but someone will need to travel to the original plant to analyse the DHD to locate it. Felger says he should go along and Carter supports him. In his lab, Felger is telling Chloe that he needs to do this, and has been off-world before. She gives him a kiss as he leaves, shocking him, then says it was for good luck.
They head to the planet and start to work when Jack reports that he and the Jaffa are planning a counter-attack. Hammond lets him know where Carter (and Felger) are and what they’re doing. Felger connects to the DHD and discovers that the virus has been altered – presumably by Ba’al. Which means their antivirus won’t work and they’ll need a new one, so Felger starts working.
The Jaffa realise they’re there and start attacking, with Carter defending their location. The force is large, and it doesn’t look good when an al’kesh ship arrives and blasting them, with Jack and Teal’c beaming down from it. With the pressure off, Felger is able to figure out the virus and restore things back to normal and Carter and Felger return to Earth. It seems Daniel has managed to get the relocation finished. Carter says that Jack has found alternative transportation but it’s a surprise.
We cut to Felger’s lab, with Felger and Chloe making out. Jack and Carter walks in and Carter calls Chloe a trollop, blaming Felger for cheating on her. They start fighting and Jack prevents Felger from stopping them, with them both watching. He then wakes up in his lab with Chloe prodding him for attention, he had another daydream and still seems oblivious about Chloe.
I enjoyed this one, and like how utterly incompetent Felger is. We never see him again, so they possibly sidelined or sacked him after the amount of damage he caused, which is probably for the best – a character like Felger is better in small doses.
