Wormhole X-Treme!

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“Wormhole X-Treme!”
Stargate SG-1 episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 12
Written by Brad Wright, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
Directed by Peter DeLuise
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
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

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 SGC 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 actors from the fictional show.

[edit] Production

  • 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.
  • 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.[1]
  • 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.
  • Marks the first appearance of NID Agent Malcolm Barret played by Peter Flemming who becomes a recurring character throughout the series.

[edit] Guest stars

Within the fictional show "Wormhole X-Treme!," the four primary characters of SG-1 each had a representative character within the show-within-a-show. The characters, actors, and their counterpoints include:

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

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Roughly 6 minutes in, just after a man asks for a "much bigger" puff of smoke, an extra walks past with what appears to be a 2nd generation Wraith stunner from Stargate Atlantis.

According to the commentary for the episode, the Wormhole X-Treme director's demands for bigger explosions is a direct reference to Peter DeLuise's similar demands for the episode The Fifth Man. DeLuise directed both this episode and The Fifth Man, and also portrayed the Wormhole X-Treme Director.

[edit] Series continuity

  • The Season 8 episode "Citizen Joe" 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! TV film. This episode 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.[2]

[edit] Reception

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[edit] References

  1. ^ List of major and minor cameos on rdanderson.com
  2. ^ Wright on Target. GateWorld.net (July 14, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-07-17.

[edit] Further reading

  • Dave Hipple (2006). "Stargate SG-1:Self-possessed science fiction", in Lisa Dickson: Reading Stargate SG-1. I.B.Tauris, 37–41,235,263. ISBN 1845111834. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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