“If you’d been listening, you’d know that Nintendos pass through everything.”
- Release Date: 3rd March 2000
- Season 3
- Episode 21
- Director: Chris McMullin
- Writers: Heather E. Ash
A MALP is transmitting a signal from a new planet, one with an absolutely colossal Mayan-style pyramid on it, and Daniel is obviously excited about it. Heading inside to an enormous cavern, Carter is also excited, as the MALP detects leptons, a byproduct of something that can slow down neutrinos, something thought impossible. They zoom in on an object, and Daniel recognises it as a crystal skull.
In a briefing, Daniel explains that his granddad, Nick, found a similar crystal skull in 1971. His granddad claimed it teleported him to another planet and was ridiculed by the scientific community. It is noticed that the crystal skull Nick found was different to the others and was a single piece of crystal. A mission is approved, but Dr Faiser suggests caution as she doesn’t know what the radiation does.
They head to a crystal skull, walking across a narrow walkway above a pit so tall you can’t see the bottom (the CGI in this area is pretty awful, the sets look badly cut out). Daniel must have overcome his fear of heights as he has no issue here. Daniel stares into its eyes and it starts to glow, with a field of energy surrounding him. The radiation increases, so Teal’c shoots it with a zat gun, causing it to disperse, with Daniel falling unconscious. However, nobody can see Daniel, so the rest of SG-1 flee due to the radiation, with Carter collapsing and Jack carrying her.
Jack and Carter need medical treatment, while Teal’c is mostly fine. He heads back to the planet to collect the skull for analysis. He runs past Daniel (although you can see Teal’c avoiding him), waking him up. Daniel tries talking to Teal’c, but gets no answer, with Teal’c running straight through him. He runs to make it in the Stargate behind Teal’c, just making it. Nobody in SGC can see him – he’s out of phase (just ignore the usual out of phase issues like being able to walk on floors, although Daniel does comment on not being hungry).
With Daniel attempting to get the attention of anyone, they get Rothman to look into the skull, and this is the first time we see him for real (he was in Daniel’s dream in a previous episode). We even get an adorable scene of Daniel hearing Hammond on the phone to his granddaughter, saying he can’t make her play due to a close friend being missing. I was very confused as to how much Rothman knows, as they didn’t tell him at any point that the skull came from another planet, even after he gives up and says it’s just a useless bit of rock. They decide to go and speak to Nick, with Frasier pointing out that he checked himself into a mental institution (somehow, she didn’t find this out in a previous episode where she looked for any mental issues in his family). SG-1 decide to visit, with Daniel somehow following.
When they speak to Nick, they discover that he and Daniel haven’t spoken in years, after a large argument over not believing the other’s theories. He shunned Daniel for his theory about the pyramids being landing platforms for aliens, and Daniel shunned him for his crystal skull experience. Jack lets them know that they’ve found a similar device and Nick says he’ll tell them everything he knows if they take him to it. Hammond isn’t happy, but agrees.
Examining the skull, Nick says it’s the same. He explains that he looked at it, was transported to an enormous cavern with a massive pit (the same one SG-1 found) and giant aliens talked to him saying “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” in Mayan and then he was sent back. Daniel realises that something interrupted the process, and this is confirmed when Teal’c has the same thought, saying that him shooting it must have caused this to happen differently.
After Nick retires for the night, Daniel makes a comment to him in his room, with Nick responding. It turns out he could see and hear Daniel the entire time, Nick just presumed that he was hallucinating Daniel again. Daniel tells him everything, including about the Stargate, although we unfortunately don’t get to see them admitting to each other that both of their insane theories were correct.
Nick has a meeting with Jack and Hammond, claiming that Daniel is with them. Jack is pretty convinced when Nick repeats “don’t be an ass” from Daniel to him, while Hammond is a little bit skeptical until Nick tells him that he can still make his daughter’s play if they trust him. Nick says they need to return the skull to the planet.
Back in the pyramid, the crystal skull is placed back and the skull gets to finish its task. Jack and Sam can now see Daniel, but Teal’c can’t see any of them. He heads back to figure out what to do next. A giant alien made out of mist appears and talks about the enemy of my enemy. They realise that Teal’c wasn’t included because he was Jaffa, so they mention that the Gou’ald are their enemy. The alien speaks English and they agree to share knowledge and culture, with Nick staying behind. Daniel says goodbye as the episode ends.
This is a bit of a strange episode. I do like it, it’s nice and slow paced and, as silly as they are, I always like out of phase stories. What makes it odd is that this is such a unique alliance, and nothing is ever mentioned again. It seems like these creatures found a way to be fully out of phase to hide from the Gou’ald (presumably to a point that the Reetou scanner won’t work), although they seem like they would be far more powerful.
