Episode 110
First aired on 03/10/97
Directed by Johnathan Glassner
Written By Robert C. Cooper
Also Starring: Elizabeth Hoffman (Catherine Langford), Keene Curtis (Ernerst Littlefield), Gary Jones (Technician), Duncan Fraser (Professor Langford), Nancy McClure (Young Catherine) and Paul McGillon (Young Ernest).
"No prize is worth ataining if you could never share it. There would be no point. Believe me, I know" - Ernest Littlefield
Episode Guide by Amethyst
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Summary
After watching hours of film footage of experiments done
on the gate in 1945
Daniel found they had actually opened the stargate and sent someone through.
Against Jack's
advice, he showed the videotape to Catherine Langford and found out it was her
fiancé, Ernest, who she
thought had been killed in an explosion. Daniel had isolated the coordinates
from the film
 footage and SG-1 and Catherine went through the stargate hoping to find
Ernest Littlefield alive.
They arrived in a crumbling castle on the edge of an ocean and were met
by Ernest, who had been there alone for 50 years. When SG-1 prepared
to take him home they found the DHD broken and Samantha and Teal'c attempted
to rig a power line from it to the gate. Meanwhile, Ernest showed Daniel
a room containing writing from four different alien cultures and a holographic
projection of a universal language. He said it was like a book but he
had not been able to read it. Daniel became obsessed with trying to
translate it, calling it "meaning of life stuff."
A lightning storm came up and the DHD fell through the floor into the
ocean. Jack suggested
they try "that Ben Franklin thing," so they rigged up a line on the roof
to draw the lightning to
charge the gate. Jack felt they had to hurry because the castle could
not withstand another major
storm but Daniel refused to leave. Ernest told him there was no point
in learning the secrets of
the universe if you could never share them.
They got the gate working and everyone else went through while Jack persuaded
Daniel to come
with them. With the roof and the castle collapsing around them Jack
and Daniel made it back to
the SGC just before the wormhole destabilized.
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Notes
- After the Abydos Mission Catherine Langford was pulled off the Stargate Programme and had never been informed of its reopening.
- The place that Ernest had lived in for so many years was a meeting place between four Alien races. One of the four was believed to be the race that Thor belonged to as Daniel recognised the writings on the wall as Norse runes which was the writings of the Asgard.
- We now know how the US Air Force knew what the Stargate was for in the Movie. They knew somehow that it could take them to other planets but they just did not know what the symbols on the gate were for and how they could help work the device.
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Goofs
- The old Ernest had a different accent than the young Ernest.
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Character Development
We saw just how dedicated and obsessive Daniel
could be
about his work and his ideas, even to the point of sacrificing personal
safety and possibly his
life. Yet, in the end he listened and did not make the same mistake
Ernest had.
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Music
In the scene when Daniel and Catherine were discussing the young
Ernest the music was sweet and sorrowful. Also in the scenes with Catherine
and Ernest in the castle the music passages were moving.
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Enigmas
- What was it that Ernest handed to Daniel to eat? During his time
there did he find resources to make fish nets or weirs?
- What did he use to write with in his notebook for all those years?
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Personal Reaction
The episode brought up some interesting speculations.
What would
it be like to have no company but your own for all that time. Ernest
had his imaginary
"Catherine" to keep him somewhat sane but the effects of his isolation
were evident when SG-1
first found him. His language skills had deteriorated as if he hadn't
used words in awhile but if
he had his imaginary Catherine with him wouldn't he have talked to her
constantly?
"Heliopolis" was a fascinating place. I liked the concept of a universal
language consisting of
the very elements that make up all things. Why did the aliens abandon
it?
I was glad that in the end Catherine forgave him and that for whatever
time they had left they
might live "happily ever after."
Rating: 9/10
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