Wormhole X-Treme!

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“Wormhole X-Treme!”
Stargate SG-1 episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 12
Guest stars Willie Garson as Martin Lloyd
Michael DeLuise as Nick Marlowe
Jill Teed as Yolanda Reese
Robert Lewis as Tanner
Christian Bocher as Raymond Gunne
Herbert Duncanson as Douglas Anders
Peter Flemming as Agent Malcolm Barrett
Written by Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
Directed by Peter DeLuise
Production no. 512
Original airdate September 8, 2001
Episode chronology
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Episode chronology

"Wormhole X-Treme!" is an episode from Season 5 of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. The title also refers to a campy fictional science fiction series named Wormhole X-Treme! a show-within-a-show that is portrayed in the episode. This was the 100th episode of Stargate SG-1, and as such was produced as a "special" episode laden with large numbers of in-jokes and cameo appearances.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

This episode is a continuation of the Season 4 episode "Point of No Return". A spaceship that had been hidden in the outer solar system activates and begins approaching Earth, and its energy signature is matched to that of Martin Lloyd's escape pod suggesting that this is its mother ship. The military tracks down Lloyd (played by Willie Garson) and discovers that he has become the creative consultant for a television series whose concept he sold to a Hollywood studio, Wormhole X-Treme!. The parallels between Wormhole X-Treme! and the real SG-1 are uncanny, but the Air Force had decided that while being a breach of secrecy, the show could prevent any future leaks of information about the Stargate program from being taken seriously.

Jack O'Neill is given the position of the "Air Force technical advisor" to the show in order to covertly confront Lloyd about both the secrets he has leaked and the approaching spacecraft. He discovers that Lloyd has resumed using memory suppressants and does not consciously remember his previous encounter with them or his own extraterrestrial origin. O'Neill initially suspects Lloyd's associates of drugging him again, but in fact Lloyd started taking them on his own so that he could feel more comfortable with living on Earth.

Lloyd's associates are indeed nearby, however, as well as another secret government group called the NID that wishes to seize the ship's technology for themselves. Lloyd has in his possession the remote control device necessary for boarding the empty ship when it arrives, thinking it merely another of the many functionless science fiction props used on the show, and both parties want to recover it. His associates kidnap O'Neill and Lloyd, injecting Lloyd with a memory-restoring drug. Before they interrogate him, however, O'Neill and Lloyd escape.

O'Neill and Lloyd recover the remote control just as the spacecraft arrives, with the NID and Lloyd's associates in close pursuit. O'Neill gives the remote to Lloyd's associates allowing them to flee Earth, both because he sympathizes with their plight and to deny the ship's technology to the NID. Lloyd decides that he is comfortable with his new life and remains on Earth to continue consulting for Wormhole X-Treme!.

At the end of the episode there is a "Making of Wormhole X-Treme!" featurette with interviews of several of the fictional actors from the show.

[edit] Notes

Actor Stargate SG-1 character Wormhole X-Treme! character Stargate SG-1 analogue
Michael DeLuise Nick Marlowe Colonel Danning Jack O'Neill
Jill Teed Yolanda Reese Major Stacy Monroe Samantha Carter
Christian Bocher Raymond Gunne Dr. Levant Daniel Jackson
Herbert Duncanson Douglas Anders Grell the robot Teal'c
  • In the Season 8 episode "Citizen Joe", it is revealed that Wormhole X-Treme! only ran for one episode before being cancelled.
  • In the Season 10 episode "200", Martin Lloyd is writing a Wormhole X-Treme! feature film, and in order to make a good work, he contacts the SGC to ask for help. This episode also states that the Wormhole X-Treme! series ran for three episodes prior to cancellation, but performed strongly on DVD. Brad Wright, co-creator of Stargate SG-1 has said that "200", the 200th episode of SG-1, is "A little kiss to Serenity and Firefly, which was possibly one of the best cancelled series in history." Firefly was canceled before its first season run was even complete, but sold so well on DVD that it spawned a film, entitled Serenity, which begins where the series ended. [1]
  • The prop of a Death Glider is carried in the background; and as with many other "alien" objects used in SG-1, it is a miniature, with a wingspan of only about 1.5 m.
  • Teal'c's raising eyebrow is proven impossible to reproduce by the actor of "Grell the robot" - they even try wires fixed to it.
  • The name "Dr. Levant" may be an in-joke regarding Daniel Jackson's profession (Egyptology), as Levant is an archaic name for the region northeast of Egypt.
  • At one point, Yolanda Reese asks Martin Lloyd and Peter Deluise why when she's "out of phase" in one scene she can pass through walls but doesn't fall through the floor. It's unclear whether this was a deliberate reference, but this was a major plot hole in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Next Phase" (and many other science fiction series which used similar themes, including Stargate SG-1 itself).
  • The director of a Wormhole X-Treme! episode, played by Peter DeLuise, was the director of this Stargate SG-1 episode.
  • A Wormhole X-Treme! writer is played by Robert C. Cooper, a Stargate SG-1 writer and executive producer.
  • The two executives who commented on how unrealistic Lloyd's spacecraft looked are played by Stargate SG-1 executive producer Michael Greenburg and executive producer/co-creator Brad Wright.
  • Further cameos include Joseph Mallozzi (who co-wrote this episode), producer N. John Smith, and Stargate SG-1 writer Ron Wilkerson as Wormhole X-Treme! crew members; Stargate SG-1 property master David Sinclair as the Wormhole X-Treme! assistant director; make-up artist Jan Newman as a make-up artist; director Andy Mikita and producer John Lenic as the characters being beaten by Col. Danning; Stargate SG-1 director Martin Wood as an NID agent; and several more.[2]
  • A studio executive, played by MGM Television President Hank Cohen says "What this show needs is a sexy female alien!" Stargate SG-1 received just such a character in a three-episode guest appearance by Vanessa Angel as the Tok'ra Anise in the previous season.
  • Wormhole X-Treme! is filmed at Bridge Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where Stargate SG-1 is filmed in real life.

[edit] Quotes

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • Colonel Danning: "As a matter of fact, it does say Colonel on my uniform."
    (Ironic because, as a matter of fact, it doesn't say Colonel on his uniform.
    The line may also be a response to O'Neill's rhetorical question from The First Commandment, where he asks "Does it say 'Colonel' anywhere on my uniform?" after Carter and Connor both refuse his orders.)
    In the season 10 episode "200" (which was more or less based on this episode) General Landry says at one point "I'm sorry. I thought it said 'General' on my uniform"
    Additionally, in "Fragile Balance", 15-year-old O'Neill remarks; "I realise it doesn't actually say Colonel on my uniform, but it should".

Martin: "Oh no, the show is based on your Stargate program!"

O'Neill: "Don't worry, it's on cable."

  • Christian Bocher': "I'm Christian Bocher, portraying the character of Raymond Gunn, who portrays the character of Dr. Levant, which is based on the character Daniel Jackson portrayed by the actor Michael Shanks, originally portrayed by the actor James Spader in the feature film."

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  1. ^ Wright on Target. GateWorld.net (July 14, 2006). Retrieved on July 17, 2006.
  2. ^ List of major and minor cameos on rdanderson.com
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