Stargate SG-1: The Fifth Race
April 9, 2025 9:56 AM - Season 2, Episode 15 - Subscribe
When O'Neill looks into an alien view port, he becomes a receptacle for ancient knowledge which could unlock some of life's deepest mysteries.
Colonel Jack O'Neill accidentally encounters a machine which downloads an entire Ancient database into his mind, and causes his brain activity to increase. He begins to be unable to speak English but only in a completely new language, Ancient. There is nothing the team can do to prevent the transformation, so O'Neill is forced to go his own way to save himself.
Colonel Jack O'Neill accidentally encounters a machine which downloads an entire Ancient database into his mind, and causes his brain activity to increase. He begins to be unable to speak English but only in a completely new language, Ancient. There is nothing the team can do to prevent the transformation, so O'Neill is forced to go his own way to save himself.
The use of Latin for the ancients was an unfortunate choice, but probably one that made generating an alien language easier. The handwaving that the Romans learned to build roads from the ancients made every historian grimace.
THAT SAID.
I really enjoyed this episode. I agree, they pulled the mystery off pretty well as they raced to find an answer to save Jack. I also appreciated Daniel basically giving a big shrug regarding the ancient's language, "I don't even know how to pronounce it!" It also made me appreciate the work on the Asgard puppets and love the idea of a human just stumbling out of their stargate in the middle of their day or whenever. Jack just building the naquada (sp) generator first gen model was something I'd kind of forgotten.
Do we ever find out who the furlings were? I feel we do, but I don't recall absolutely and it may have ended up as a punchline to a joke. This episode really helped build up the future expansion of the franchise and it was just a nifty fun ride.
posted by Atreides at 10:21 AM on April 9
THAT SAID.
I really enjoyed this episode. I agree, they pulled the mystery off pretty well as they raced to find an answer to save Jack. I also appreciated Daniel basically giving a big shrug regarding the ancient's language, "I don't even know how to pronounce it!" It also made me appreciate the work on the Asgard puppets and love the idea of a human just stumbling out of their stargate in the middle of their day or whenever. Jack just building the naquada (sp) generator first gen model was something I'd kind of forgotten.
Do we ever find out who the furlings were? I feel we do, but I don't recall absolutely and it may have ended up as a punchline to a joke. This episode really helped build up the future expansion of the franchise and it was just a nifty fun ride.
posted by Atreides at 10:21 AM on April 9
Yeah, I think the closest we got to furling screen time was in Wormhole X-Treme, so, y'know, "canon".
posted by Kyol at 11:00 AM on April 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Kyol at 11:00 AM on April 9 [1 favorite]
I always have a soft spot for this kind of episode where a character stumbles into something that causes a slow and weird transformation and.....it's not automatically a bad thing? Like they're not turning into a monster or losing their humanity or something equally horrible, but they are dealing with something very confusing and scary that in the end works out.
TNG had a very similar episode with Barclay getting super smart and seemingly taken over by an alien intelligence that turns out to not be hostile and at the end they meet some new friends.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:33 AM on April 9 [2 favorites]
TNG had a very similar episode with Barclay getting super smart and seemingly taken over by an alien intelligence that turns out to not be hostile and at the end they meet some new friends.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:33 AM on April 9 [2 favorites]
I'm pretty sure the furlings don't ever really come back. I don't even think we know why disappeared?
posted by Carillon at 12:19 PM on April 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 12:19 PM on April 9 [1 favorite]
RonButNotStupid: "I always have a soft spot for this kind of episode where a character stumbles into something that causes a slow and weird transformation and.....it's not automatically a bad thing? Like they're not turning into a monster or losing their humanity or something equally horrible, but they are dealing with something very confusing and scary that in the end works out.
TNG had a very similar episode with Barclay getting super smart and seemingly taken over by an alien intelligence that turns out to not be hostile and at the end they meet some new friends."
Those are some of the best (type of) episodes.
posted by Atreides at 1:36 PM on April 9 [1 favorite]
TNG had a very similar episode with Barclay getting super smart and seemingly taken over by an alien intelligence that turns out to not be hostile and at the end they meet some new friends."
Those are some of the best (type of) episodes.
posted by Atreides at 1:36 PM on April 9 [1 favorite]
SG-1 has it's share of body horror and identity loss, and I guess episodes like this wouldn't be as special if they weren't playful deviations from the everything-is-trying-to-annihilate-or-corrupt-you norm.
"Thor's Hammer" is another of my favorite SG-1 episodes if only because the temple that Thor created to test the villagers isn't actually deadly and when they fail the trials instead of plummeting to their deaths he just shows up and says "Well I guess you've still got lots of growing to do, thanks for trying through.". If only every alien-god-deity handed out participation ribbons, the universe would be a better place.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:55 PM on April 9 [2 favorites]
"Thor's Hammer" is another of my favorite SG-1 episodes if only because the temple that Thor created to test the villagers isn't actually deadly and when they fail the trials instead of plummeting to their deaths he just shows up and says "Well I guess you've still got lots of growing to do, thanks for trying through.". If only every alien-god-deity handed out participation ribbons, the universe would be a better place.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:55 PM on April 9 [2 favorites]
Sorry, it was "Thor's Chariot" that is one of my favorite episodes. "Thor's Hammer" has that maze with the exit gateway that kills the Goa'uld parasite and frees the host, but only if the Goa'uld decides to walk through it? And if for obvious reasons the Goa'uld doesn't want to walk through the exit and chills in the maze forever the host is never freed? Seems kindof dickish and like Thor would rather teach the Goa'uld a lesson than actually free the hosts.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:09 AM on April 10
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:09 AM on April 10
I think that's just a failure of foreseeing a Goa'uld would prefer to just chill in the maze forever versus go out the exit. I think the original host had properties that a human host did not have, so it could ignore things like starvation by sleeping or whatever. We know it otherwise works because of what's her name the former host.
posted by Atreides at 7:36 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 7:36 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]
Yeah it was an Unas which has a lot of regenerative abilities.
posted by Carillon at 10:01 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 10:01 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]
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posted by Carillon at 10:03 AM on April 9 [1 favorite]