Lifeboat (episode)

"Lifeboat" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis
While examining a crashed alien ship called the Stromos, Dr. Daniel Jackson is struck with a power surge. After returning to Stargate Command, it is discovered that several consciousnesses from the people trapped in stasis are in Jackson's head.

Plot
While exploring P2A-347, SG-1 encounters a crashed alien space ship containing a plethora of cryogenic pods. The team separates to cover more territory and see how many aliens are contained in the pods. Soon after Dr. Daniel Jackson finds a pod that has failed, SG-1 is attacked by an energy wave. Teal'c soon recovers to find Colonel Jack O'Neill and Major Samantha Carter unconscious and suspects that they are not alone on the ship. When he finds Daniel's body he finds another mind in control of it. Daniel had become host to many different minds of the alien ship's crew. While under observation at Stargate Command, Daniel shows signs of many different minds cramped in his brain.

Major General George S. Hammond then dispatches the rest of SG-1 back to the planet to investigate the alien ship and find a way to cure Daniel. They discover that the minds of the passengers are being saved in the ship's computer. The ship's power source is failing and there is not enough energy to restore the minds in the computer to the bodies held in cryogenic freeze. They also find that one of the crew, Pharrin, is awake and he was the one that downloaded the other minds into Daniel's body. The crewman also carries many minds within himself. When a pod would fail he would download the person's mind into his own. Once the pods failed and the bodies died, there was nowhere for the minds to go and they would be completely lost as the computer failed. Since the crewman was becoming delirious from too many minds inhabiting his body, he wanted to save more of the crew by putting them into Daniel.

SG-1 provides a Naquadah generator to repower the ship. With his help SG-1 is able to remove the other minds from Daniel and awaken the passengers of the ship. The passengers' home world was being destroyed and they were being relocated to another world to save what part of their civilization they could. The SGC plans to help the passengers continue their relocation either with their ship or via the Stargate.

Notable Quotes
Carter: These people are alive - at least they're in some form of cryogenic sleep. Any civilization without faster than light technology would have to resort to something like this in order to cross the vast distances between stars. Otherwise it would take an entire generation, or more, and given the effects of relativity...

O'Neill: We've got a shipload of frozen people.

Carter: That would be the more succinct way of putting it, sir.

Teal'c: That is not Daniel Jackson.

Hammond: But is he a Gou'ald?

Fraiser: No, sir. Although at the moment he's every bit as arrogant.

Hammond: Well then is Dr. Jackson suffering from some sort of mental illness?

Fraiser: I honestly don't know, sir. His preliminary EEG readings are like nothing I've ever seen. On one hand, there's indication of coma. But at the same time we're seeing readings like those of a dozen people all jumbled together.

Fraiser: How are you feeling, sir?

O'Neill: Headache. Bad.

Fraiser: I can take care of that. But first I need to know if you're feeling... yourself.

O'Neill: Well other than this nail through my head, I'm fine.

O'Neill: (about Daniel) How'd he get stuck in here?

Teal'c: Daniel Jackson's preliminary electroencephalogram proved anomalous.

O'Neill: I dare you to say that again.

Carter: And we can start relocating them shortly after that.

O'Neill: Good. We'll leave that for SG-4. They love that kind of stuff.

O'Neill: How you doin'?

Jackson: Bad headache.

O'Neill: Nail in the head kind of thing?

Jackson: Yeah, something like that.

Wins

 * Won Leo for "Dramatic Series: Best Lead Performance by a Male" (Michael Shanks)

Nominations

 * Nominated Leo for "Dramatic Series: Best Supporting Performance by a Female" (Teryl Rothery)

In other languages

 * French: Vaisseau Fantôme (Phantom Ship)
 * Italian: La Scialuppa di Salvataggio (The Lifeboat)
 * Spanish: Bote Salvavidas (Lifeboat)
 * Czech: Záchranný člun (Lifeboat)
 * German: Das Rettungsboot (The Lifeboat)
 * Hungarian: Mentőcsónak (Lifeboat)