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ENIGMA

Enigma

01.17 Episode 17 (#3972)
Airdate: January 30, 1998

Arriving on Tollan, SG-1 finds a world in chaos. A violent volcanic eruption is destroying the planet, and the few survivors are barely alive. The Tollan refugees, however, are not grateful for their rescue. They view Earth as primitive, and fear Earth's theft and misuse of their advanced technology. Their fears may be realized when Colonel Maybourne arrives seeking weapons technology for the NID. SG-1 must risk court-martial to find the Tollans a new home world, and help arrives in the form of Lya, who appears at the SGC and invites the Tollans to join the Nox.

Written by: Katharyn Powers
Directed by: William Gereghty

Guest Starring: Tobin Bell as Omoc, Garwin Sanford as Narim, Tom McBeath as Colonel Maybourne, Gerard Plunkett as Tuplo, Gary Jones as Technician, Frida Betrani as Lya, Tracy Westerholm as Airwoman, Woody Jeffreys as Guard

Reference: Alternate Dimension, Invisibility, Lya, Harry Maybourne, Narim, NID, NID Rogue Operation, Nox, Omoc, Schrödinger, SF Guard, Sub-Space Transmitter, Tollan, Tollan Phase-Shift Technology, Tollans, Tuplo, UAV

DESTINATIONS & INHABITANTS

Destinations & Inhabitants

Tollan

Destinations & Inhabitants

Tollans

NOTES OF INTEREST

  • The last Tollan team stayed behind to seal the gate before going to a new settlement planet outside the gate system. Ten human refugees survived the destruction of Tollan and were relocated to the Nox homeworld.
  • Sarita, the nearest planet to Tollan, with a similar technological level to Earth, used the Tollan device that produces unlimited productive energy to make war, resulting in the destruction of Sarita in one day, and a shift in the orbit of Tollan that caused instability and its eventual destruction.
  • There have been no animals on Tollan for generations.
  • Readings from the miniature UAV: Ground temperature 1700 degrees F. Air temperature 200 to 1500 degrees F. Atmosphere containing pyroclastics, basalt, ash. Lava flowing toward the stargate, to be buried within days.
  • Sher-mal: Legendary Tollan figure similar to an angel, said to appear at the moment of death and take you to her dwelling in the stars
  • Physicist Erwin Schrödinger theorized that a cat in a box with a can of poison gas activated by the decay of a radioactive atom would, at any one instant, be both dead and alive at the same time.
  • Quilebrium physics, Tollan equivalent of quantum physics, a "misconception of elementary science", states that an atom's state is indeterminate until measured by an outside observer.
  • Tollan technology includes devices to produce unlimited energy, to alter molecular structure of solid matter, and to record emotions.
  • Colonel Maybourne from the NID, replaces Colonel Kennedy, who was promoted.

MEMORABLE REMARKS

  • Temperature, ground, 1700 degrees Farenheit, air seems to be in pockets ranging from 1500 degrees down to 200. [Carter]
    Sounds like LA. [O'Neill]
  • I would gladly stay, if only to spend more time with a certain inhabitant of this planet. I speak, of course, of Schrödinger. [Narim]
  • Whoa. Cool. [O'Neill]
  • Promoted? Talk about failing upwards. [O'Neill]
  • What your mind doesn't know, your heart fills in. [Narim]
    I don't know what that means, exactly, but it's beautiful. [Carter]
    Which is exactly what it means. [Narim]
  • What do you mean, 'disappeared'? [Maybourne]
    I mean, like, 'poof', Sir. [Airwoman]
  • God, I love those people. [O'Neill]

FOR THE RECORD