“Gate travel may be hazardous to your health”
- Release Date: 16th July 1999
- Season 3
- Episode 4
- Director: Peter DeLuise
- Writers: Tor Alexander Valenza
SG-1 are investigating a creepy looking planet when they find a locked chamber. The door is outdated Gou’ald technology. Inside are nine rotting dead bodies – all likely Gou’ald from a minor group, competition to the System Lords. They look around – with Daniel finding a Gou’ald tablet. Jack decides that it’s best to get the medical team to check out for what happened.
Back at SGC, the medical team confirms the bodies were Gou’ald and their hosts who died six months ago. The cause is unknown, as the Gou’ald bodies are absorbed when they die. Daniel starts to see some of the bodies around the base, then hears a Stargate being dialled in his closet – with him being pulled in. He wakes up in the infirmary. After pleading his case, he’s diagnosed with schizophrenia. Considering all the crazy stuff they go through, it’s strange that they’re so quick to dismiss Daniel’s claims.
It turns out that Dr. Fraiser and Dr. MacKenzie have been looking into possible side effects of travelling through the Stargate, as a lot of people at SGC suffer from headaches, which is an early sign of mental health issues (it’s also an early symptom of pretty much every single medical condition, so it doesn’t mean much). Gate travel is suspended until Daniel’s condition can be investigated. Again, this doesn’t seem right – Daniel has seen death, has died multiple times, had his mind swapped and all sorts of other things.
After Daniel tries to stop a Gou’ald from taking over Jack (one which wasn’t there) and ends up getting taken to a padded cell in a mental institution and filled with drugs. Jack, Teal’c and Sam visit him and he hallucinates a corpse behind Teal’c. Daniel attempts to stop it and something comes out of him into Teal’c. He gets restrained and mutters the name of Ma’chello – the inventor and Go’ald fighter that Daniel swapped bodies with.
As they get back to Stargate Command, Teal’c passes out – his Gou’ald larva is dying and Dr. Fraiser can’t figure out why. Back at the mental institution, Daniel is feeling mostly better (other than the effects of the drugs) and tries to make his case – but does it poorly. He says that a dead man spoke to him and that’s why he knew he wasn’t crazy. He tasks the doctor to ask about Teal’c and if he’s sick. Jack picks him up shortly later and takes Daniel back to SGC, and is (rightfully) quite short with Dr. Fraiser.
Sam looks through some pictures of Machello’s inventions that were taken to Area 51. They find that one of them is a Gou’ald Tablet and there are a lot of page turning devices alongside it. They ship them over and Sam and Janet investigate them in a secure environment (with Jack also in the room, for moral support I guess), they wave the page turner and a load of little bug-like things come out – and straight through the containment and into Janet, Sam and Jack.
Janet and Jack start to hallucinate, but Sam is OK. It takes them a while to figure out that it’s probably because a Gou’ald has died in her (it’s pointed out that the Gou’ald Jack got died too quickly for any effects to him). Fraiser suggests using her blood but the rather incompetent other doctor tells her not to waste her time (as though there’s anything else she can do locked in a room) as it won’t work. Janent makes a few instructions and the other doctor finally realised – instead of separating one specific protein maker from the blood, they can just remove the red blood cells that cause rejections.
Sam’s blood works at tricking Mahcello’s creation, including in Teal’c, who starts to recover, with the creature dying after it leaves. This episode has a lot of problems, but Michael Shanks’ acting is extremely good.
