Menu Icon Search Icon

MOEBIUS

Moebius

08.19/20 Episode 173/174
Airdate: March 18 & 25, 2005

Following the passing of Catherine Langford, Daniel finds among her possessions documentation of the existence of a ZPM on Earth at the time of Ra. A ZPM is essential to power Earth's Ancient defenses, and O'Neill reluctantly agrees to Daniel's proposal to travel back in time to recover it. SG-1 uses the Ancient spacecraft to travel to Egypt in 3000 BC, and their mission to steal the ZPM from Ra's temple succeeds. However, they are unable to return to the present without the risk of altering history. Forced to remain in the past, the team inadvertently sets into motion a spiral of events that will play out exactly as it was meant to.

Scientists Dr. Daniel Jackson and Dr. Samantha Carter are summoned from their mundane jobs to meet with General Hammond at Cheyenne Mountain. An archaeological expedition in Egypt has uncovered a ZPM and a videotape with their images, claiming to be part of a team that has traveled in time, and offering details of their world so that history can be corrected if necessary. A search of the Giza Plateau reveals no stargate, only a tablet inscribed with hieroglyphics which Daniel translates. The tablet tells of a rebellion against Ra in 2995 BC which forced him to abandon Earth by ship, and he took the stargate with him.

The Egyptian tablet also describes a second stargate in Antarctica. Hoping to be included in any mission through the gate, Daniel and Carter seek the support of Jack O'Neill, who has no interest in their story or in returning to the military. Back at the base, Daniel and Carter are shown the Ancient spacecraft that was also recovered in Egypt. Dialing coordinates from the ship triggers seismic activity that Carter uses to locate the Antarctic gate. However, as the stargate is installed in the facility and a team is assembled to embark, Daniel and Carter are dismayed to learn that they will not be included on the mission.

Major Kawalsky coaxes his friend, Jack O'Neill, out of retirement for the mission to correct history. O'Neill accepts civilian scientists Carter and Daniel on the team, and they fly the Ancient spacecraft through the stargate to Chulak to find Teal'c. On Chulak, however, they are captured, and Daniel is tortured by Apophis before Teal'c is convinced by their videotape that his destiny lies with SG-1 and the free Jaffa. He helps the team to escape, but Daniel has become a Goa'uld spy, and in the firefight with Jaffa, only O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c survive to make their escape in the spacecraft.

Unable to elude the death gliders, and realizing that Apophis has used Daniel's knowledge to launch an attack against Earth, the team must use the ship's time travel device to escape from Chulak and repair their own history. They arrive in Egypt in 2995 BC, where they meet the original Daniel Jackson. SG-1 had attempted a rebellion against Ra five years earlier, but O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c had been killed. Now Daniel and his Egyptian allies are preparing a second revolt that will succeed, but this time the team must use the cloaked spacecraft to prevent Ra from taking the stargate with him.

O'Neill and Carter repair the spacecraft's cloak as Teal'c and Daniel coordinate battle plans. A Jaffa patrol discovers the ship, but quickly surrenders to thousands of armed Egyptian rebels. Just as history was meant to be, SG-1 leads the rebellion that frees Earth from the Goa'uld. At the SGC, it is the current timeline, and SG-1 views a videotape recovered with a ZPM from a dig in Egypt. This time, the videotape coincides with history, and the original mission to the past is not necessary. With the timeline repaired, SG-1 retires to O'Neill's cabin for a relaxing afternoon of fishing, as a fish leaps from the pond. Close enough. This episode aired in two parts.

Story by: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie & Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
Part One Teleplay by: Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie
Part Two Teleplay by: Robert C. Cooper
Directed by: Peter DeLuise

Guest Starring: David Hewlett as Dr. Rodney McKay, Don S. Davis as General George Hammond, Robert Wisden as Major Samuels, Colin Cunningham as Major Davis, Peter Williams as Apophis, Alessandro Juliani as Katep, Jay Acovone as Major Kawalsky, David Lewis as Dr. Balinsky, James Purcell as Dr. Hirschfield, Georgia Craig as Sabrina Gosling, Jay Williams as Ra, Benjamin Easterday as Ra's Jaffa Commander, Neil Schell as Mr. Crandall, Maurico Vasquez as Student, Sina Najafi as Egyptian Boy, Christopher Pearce as Bosworth, Rob Fournier as Airman Mansfield

Reference: Ancient Gene, Ancient Spacecraft, Ancient Time Travel Device, Apophis, Balinsky, BC-304, Beta Stargate, Bosworth, Samantha Carter, Chulak, Crandall, Daedalus, Paul Davis, Egypt, Egyptian, Sabrina Gosling, George Hammond, Dr. Hirschfield, Homer, Horus Guard, Daniel Jackson, Katep, Charles Kawalsky, Catherine Langford, Airman Mansfield, Rodney McKay, Jack O'Neill, Ra, Ribbon Device, Colonel Samuels, Shock Grenade, Silver Creek, Stargate, Teal'c, Time Travel, Time Travel 3000 BC, Zero Point Module

DESTINATIONS & INHABITANTS

Destinations & Inhabitants

Ancient Egypt

Destinations & Inhabitants

Ra

Destinations & Inhabitants

Chulak

Destinations & Inhabitants

Apophis

Destinations & Inhabitants

Alternate Earth

NOTES OF INTEREST

  • The Daedalus is a ship of similar design to the Prometheus but with several advantages since the more advanced alien technologies were integrated into the original design rather than tacked on after the fact. Once the Asgard hyperdrive is installed, it is intended to be used for the next mission to Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy.
  • Catherine Langford left Daniel an original 1889 edition of the "Eye of the Sun," the only one known to exist, which includes a reproduction of a wall painting discovered by German archaeologists in 1885 that was destroyed in a museum fire ten years later. The painting shows a figure holding a ZPM which was referred to as "the heart of light" and considered to be a religious icon by the ancient Egyptians.
  • The Ancient gene is required to operate both the Ancient spacecraft and the time travel device. The time travel device only works in time jumps longer than a couple hundred years, and is able to extrapolate a concept of time from the mind of the user controlling it.
  • Travelling back in time 5000 years, SG-1 finds pyramids in 3000 BC, proving that the Sphinx and great pyramids predate the fourth dynasty.
  • SG-1 hides the ZPM and the video camera and recording in a tomb of the first dynasty near Giza that will be uncovered by a team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago in a dig about a month before their mission began.
  • O'Neill would welcome an opportunity to travel back in time to 1908 to see the Cubs win the World Series.
  • There are no fish in O'Neill's pond.
  • Goa'uld language: "Tana-akal maltar. Jaya-nok-shol!" means "I will not tolerate such disrespect from my followers."
  • Research into the area of quantum gravity suggests that time flows like rotating fluid within our galaxy, technically allowing a traveler to journey backward and forward at will, however a huge amount of energy is required.
  • When SG-1 changes history, the timeline is altered:
    • In 2995 BC, the ancient Egyptians rebelled aginst Ra, and he left in a great flying ship but took the stargate with him.
    • Dr. Langford had excavated the area where the stargate should have been in Giza in 1934 but found only the tablet inscribed in hieroglyphics and left behind by Daniel.
    • Dr. Daniel Jackson has a PhD in Egyptology and archaeology and is teaching English as a second language to immigrants.
    • Dr. Samantha Carter has a PhD in astrophysics and works at the Department of Aerospace Research Headquarters in Washington, DC, proofreading other people's reports for errors and omissions.
    • O'Neill retired from the Air Force as a colonel and owns a boat named Homer which he charters for tours, fishing, and parties.
    • George Hammond is a brigadier general in command of the USAF Research Institute at the underground Air Force facility at Cheyenne Mountain.
    • Dr. Rodney McKay works at the USAF Research Institute, and is not allergic to lemon chicken.
    • Robert Kinsey is the US president and Henry Hayes is the Secretary of the Interior.
    • O'Neill and Kawalsky had served together in Peru, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.
  • The mission to Chulak included O'Neill, Kawalsky, Daniel, Carter, Bosworth, Mansfield, and Donner.
  • The SG-1 team had first arrived in Egypt in 3000 BC. They remained and planned the rebellion to overthrow Ra, but were captured, and all but Daniel were killed.
  • Five years later, in 2995 BC, Daniel and Katep carried out another uprising which was successful, and Ra left Earth but took the stargate with him. History was changed. Daniel wrote the tablet to be found in the future, explaining the location of the second gate.
  • The alternate team used the second gate and arrived in Egypt in 2995 BC just before the rebellion. By stealing and hiding the gate, the rebellion was successful, Ra left Earth, and the gate was buried. History was unchanged. Or close enough.

MEMORABLE REMARKS

  • Yeah, well, I generally leave the whip at home. [Daniel]
  • You been shopping online lately? [O'Neill]
  • Holy... buckets. Looks like her entire collection. [Daniel]
    I prefer stamps. [O'Neill]
  • If I have to say "what" one more time, heads are going to roll. [O'Neill]
  • We have a time machine. We can go back and get the ZPM. [Daniel]
    She wouldn't let me go back and watch the Cubs win the World Series. [O'Neill]
  • Let me do it now, I won't have to do it in 5000 years. [O'Neill]
  • Just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn't - God, that's horrible! Who would EVER say that?! [Alternate Carter]
  • Yeah, I suppose it does sound a little crazy. [Alternate Daniel]
    Really? Which part? I have to say the moment I let you on board. [Alternate O'Neill]
  • I can't believe I wasted my frequent flier miles on this. [Alternate Carter]
  • No, you, you I would listen to if you were reading the phone book. You see, I love this whole sexy librarian thing. [Alternate McKay]
  • I'm allowing the use of this ship because of the obvious tactical advantage it provides you. Under no circumstances is it to be used to travel through time. Understood? Never in my life would I have imagined giving that order. [Alternate Hammond]
  • I give this no more than a 50-50 chance of working. [Alternate McKay]
    According to the tape, it worked for eight years. [Alternate Hammond]
  • According to the tape, we're going to be demolecularized, transmitted over 2000 light years through subspace, and then rematerialized on the other side. [Alternate Carter]
    I did not need to know that. [Alternate Kawalsky]
  • Gateship One, you're go for launch. What? It's a ship that goes through the gate. Gateship. Well, I thought it was clever. [Alternate McKay]
  • Safety off, point and shoot. Not at me. [Alternate O'Neill]
  • Why are you here? [Daniel]
    Yes, excellent question. [Alternate O'Neill]
    You don't know? [Daniel]
    Well, I thought I did there, for a while, and then I realized... I didn't. [Alternate O'Neill]
    Well, I know why I'm here. [Daniel]
    Good. Let's start there. [Alternate O'Neill]
  • Yes, but, you see, the ship fits in the gate, not the other way around. [Alternate O'Neill]

FOR THE RECORD

  • Ya think?: 1 (Alternate O'Neill)
  • Sweet: 1 (Alternate O'Neill)
  • O'Neill calls Teal'c "T": 1
  • Injuries:
    • O'Neill, Carter, and Teal'c: killed in the failed rebellion in ancient Egypt
    • Alternate O'Neill, Carter and Daniel: knocked unconscious by a shock grenade
    • Alternate Teal'c: shot in the left arm by a 9mm
    • Alternate Daniel: tortured by a ribbon device, implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote, shot by Teal'c's staff weapon, and killed by machinegun fire from O'Neill and Kawalsky
  • Popular Culture References:
    • The Simpsons
      • O'Neill's boat is named Homer
      • Close enough...
    • Titanic
      • O'Neill standing, arms spread, at the bow of his boat
    • McKenzie Brothers impersonation
      • Alternate O'Neill on his boat: "No worries, eh?"
  • For the record: There are fish in O'Neill's pond.