Space Race

"Space Race" is the eighth episode of the seventh season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis
Warrick Finn from Hebridan comes to Earth and asks Major Samantha Carter for assistance to win an annual Hebridian race in exchange for advanced technology.

Plot
Major Samantha Carter is called to Stargate Command to meet Warrick Finn, the Serrakin they rescued from an uncharted planet. (See "Forsaken") He asks for her help to win a race in exchange for access to Serrakin Ion drive. Warrick explains that it is called the Loop of Kon Garat hosted by a large corporation known as Tech Con Group. The race is hosted every year which anyone can enter and the winner gets a lucrative contract with Tech Con. He is able to bring the Sebrus into the race since Carter recharged it with a Naquadah generator. Carter asks to fly with him because the generators are precious to humans and they know how to hook it up.

On the Hebridan/Serrakin homeworld, SG-1 is introduced to Eamon Finn, the Sebrus' creator and Warrick's younger brother. Warrick escorts Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson to the Hebridan capitol building while Teal'c stays behind with Carter and Eamon to check on the Sebrus. Eamon explains to Carter that since Warrick returned, work has been scarce and his wife had remarried and has children of her own. Warrick hopes to win the race to get his life back and wants to do anything to achieve it.

The race data comes in, explaining the course and who Warrick and Carter are racing with. Eamon recognizes one of the racers as Golan Jarlath who apparently is out of jail. After the work on the Sebrus is done, we see some man walking up to it, carrying a tool box.

The race starts and the first stage is using shields to defend against weapon drones. The second stage is riding against the surface of the sun. Suddenly, the Sebrus' systems begin to shut down. Warrick does a diagnostic of the power diverter and finds out that it has been deliberately sabotaged. Carter begins to hook up the generator while Eamon and Teal'c begin some investigating.

Once they are successful, the Sebrus blasts out of the sun's coronasphere and uses the sun's gravity to slingshot back into the race.

Meanwhile, Eamon has found out that his supervisor, Del Tynan had accessed their computer. To find evidence, he and Teal'c go to Tech Con. They get in with Teal'c as Eamon's cousin, Murray. They look into Tynan's computer and find out he sabotaged nearly every ship in the race except a hired man named Muirios. Suddenly, they get caught by Tynan.

Back in the race, Warrick and Carter decide to rescue Jarlath and find out he has been sabotaged as well.

At Tech Con, Tynan explains to Teal'c and Eamon that he thinks that the Serrakin are destroying the human race by crossbreeding and he's making sure that the winner is a human for the first step of overthrowing the Serrakin. He contacts Warrick and tells him to drop out of the race or else he'll kill Eamon and Teal'c. Suddenly, O'Neill, Daniel and President Miles Hagan come in with guards and arrest Tynan and his men. Hagan now has the evidence to put Tynan in jail for corruption.

With Eamon and Teal'c safe, the Sebrus is back in the race but in third place. Jarlath reconfigures the communications array to freeze the controls on Muirios' ship. With Muirios' ship disabled, the winner is Lael Montrose.

Later, at the SGC, Carter receives word that Warrick has been hired by Lael to co-pilot on her new contract from Tech Con and Earth has an ion engine to study. Carter swears that next year, she's going to kick butt.

Notable Quotes
O'Neill: That's not our language.

Carter: It's mine, sir.

O'Neill: Right.

Teal'c: I am in your debt, Major Carter.

Carter: Indeed.

Carter: What's this? Warrick: Expensive.

Eamon: Has it occurred to you that, maybe the reason you have been passed over so many times is not because you're a human, but because you're a moron?

Jackson: Nice outfit, you guys OK?

Teal'c: Indeed.

O'Neill: How many times have I told you, don't get caught by the bad guys.

In other languages

 * French: La Grande Épreuve (The Great Test)
 * Italian: Corsa Spaziale (Space Race)
 * Spanish: Carrera Espacial (Space Race)
 * Czech: Vesmírná závod (Space Race)
 * German: Space-Rennen (Space Race)
 * Hungarian: A verseny (The Race)