Galileo (The West Wing)

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The West Wing episode
"Galileo"
^{Martin Sheen as Bartlet, left, and Allison Janney as C.J.}
Episode no.	31
Prod. code	226209
Orig. airdate	November 29, 2000
Writer(s)	Kevin Falls and Aaron Sorkin
Director	Alex Graves
Guest star(s)	Allison Smith Troy Ruptash John Carroll Lynch Charlotte Cornwell Colm Feore Kathryn Joosten NiCole Robinson
Season 2 October 4 2000 – May 16 2001
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II The Midterms In This White House And It's Surely To Their Credit The Lame Duck Congress The Portland Trip Shibboleth Galileo Noël The Leadership Breakfast The Drop-In Bartlet's Third State of the Union The War at Home Ellie Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail The Stackhouse Filibuster 17 People Bad Moon Rising The Fall's Gonna Kill You 18th and Potomac Two Cathedrals
List of all West Wing episodes...

"Galileo" is the 31st episode of The West Wing.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

Crises come in all shapes and sizes during one hectic day at the White House. The biggest fire to be put out is just that. It is in a Russian missile silo and the Russian government is covering it up ("Your paranoia was a lot sexier when you guys were Communists," Bartlet tells the ambassador). Other crises range from choosing who to put on a set of stamps to a news report that the President doesn't like green beans. But through it all, he's looking forward to a satellite hookup with schoolchildren during which they'll examine images from a Martian probe. First, though, he wants C.J. to come up with a "broader theme" for the event.

The Russian missile silo story resembles the episode with the Kursk, the Russian submarine that sank in the Barents Sea. At the time the Russians were criticised for not seeking or welcoming help from other nations. The Kursk sank in August 2000, three months before this episode was shown for the first time.