Enigma

"Enigma" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis
SG-1 rescues a group of technologically advanced Humans, the Tollans, whom they find near death on a volcanically unstable planet. The Tollans don't want to share any of their knowledge with the more "primitive" Earth Humans and, because of this, the NID and Colonel Harold Maybourne plan to take them away for study. SG-1 tries to stop the NID by having the reluctant Tollans use their technology to escape.

Plot
SG-1 reaches a planet which is at the brink of destruction, something which happened only recently. There they find several survivors of an advanced civilization, fleeing the destruction of their planet and despite the protests of one of them the team brings them all back to Earth. However, the survivors, known as the Tollan, flaunt an arrogant air about Stargate Command over their advanced knowledge and technology. Especially their leader, Omoc, behaves very arrogantly and is even angry about being rescued by SGC since a rescue transport was already on its way. However another Tollan, named Narim, becomes interested in Captain Samantha Carter and they even develop some kind of relationship. SGC offers to find the Tollan a new home, but the Tollan are doubtful of SGC's ability to help them. This becomes evident when SGC offers the Tollan a place in the Land of Light that they had been to some time ago, but they react very arrogantly about the primitive civilization on that world.

The US government, seeing their first chance at securing some advanced technology, places the Tollan under lock-down. They also send Colonel Harold Maybourne to get information from them. Nevertheless, the Tollan, using their advanced technology, are able to walk through walls, and easily escape to the surface. This proves that their technology is far superior to that of the Goa'uld. However, they are unwilling to share their technology with what they see as primitive cultures because of what happened on their home planet. In former times, the Tollan discovered another inhabited world, named Sarita, near their planet and when they became advanced enough, the Tollan shared an unlimited energy source with them. Within one day, the people had used the gift to make weapons and destroyed their entire civilization. This, in turn, was what caused the orbital alignment of Tollan to shift and the destruction of their world as well.

Because SG-1 and Major General George S. Hammond are unhappy about how Maybourne is treating the Tollan, they decide to help Omoc and his people through Dr. Daniel Jackson, as he is a civilian. He tells the Tollan about the Nox and leads Omoc outside, where he sends a signal to the coordinates Daniel provides for the Nox homeworld. Daniel then leads them to the gate room where the Nox come through the Stargate and offer the Tollan a home with them until they can leave to their new homeworld.

Maybourne intervenes and says that if Dr. Jackson allows them to leave he will be court-martialed, but Colonel Jack O'Neill reminds him that Daniel isn't in the military, and therefore can't be court martialed. Daniel says goodbye to the Tollan and the Nox take the Tollan home with them. Lya tells Daniel that, "Your race has learned nothing, but you have." Later the team recalls "what the little guy with funny hair" once told them "That the very young do not always do as they are told."

Notable Quotes
Jackson: Well because they felt about us kind of the way you do. They called us 'very young', which I guess is a hair polite than calling us 'primitive'. But same idea.

O'Neill: What?

Jackson: Oh, just thinking what the little guy with the funny hair once told us.

O'Neill: The very young do not always do as they're told?

Jackson: Yeah.

Carter: (describing Tollan) Temperature — ground 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. Air — seems to be in pockets, ranging from 1500 degrees down to 200.

O'Neill: Sounds like L.A.

Jackson: I was just down in the infirmary with one of the Tollan, trying to get them to talk to us. They only ask questions, they never answer them. As a matter of fact, one of them was asking a lot of questions about you.

Carter: I thought they weren't interested in us.

Jackson: Oohh... I didn't say us. I said you.

Narim: There was a time before reason and science when my ancestors believed in all manner of nonsense, like the sher-Mal. The story goes that if a sher-Mal appears at the moment of death, she will take you to her dwelling in the stars.

Carter: Ah, we call them angels.

Narim: Then you still believe in them?

Carter: Some of us do.

Narim: Ours were reported to be quite beautiful, and when I saw you, well, you seemed to fit the description.

O'Neill: Intelligence? What happened to Kennedy?

Maybourne: Promoted. I took his place.

O'Neill: Promoted? Talk about failing upwards.

Hammond: Why don't you ask the airman outside to show you to our guest quarters?

Maybourne: That's OK. I'll wait.

Hammond: That wasn't an invitation. It was an order, Colonel.

Narim: You are anything but primitive, Samantha. What your mind doesn't know, your heart fills in.

Carter: I don't know what that means, exactly, but it's beautiful.

Narim: Which is exactly what it means.

Jackson: I'm no astronomer, but won't that take thousands of years?

Omoc: Why should it?

Jackson: Well its light. Light can only travel so fast.

(Omoc takes a long branch and indicates the ends.)

Omoc: The distance between these two points seems far, until you do this. (Omoc bends the branch ends together)

Jackson: Oh I know this. One of our scientist talked about this. What you are talking about is folding space.

Omoc: (Smiling humorously) No, you wouldn't understand.

Jackson: I guess not. Let's hope the Nox do.

Goofs

 * When SG-1 and Major General George S. Hammond are first talking to Omoc, the position of his oxygen mask changes between shots.

Characters

 * Colonel Harold Maybourne
 * Narim

In other languages

 * French: Les Réfugiés (Refugees)
 * German: Enigma
 * Italian: Enigma
 * Spanish: Enigma
 * Czech: Záhada (Enigma)
 * Hungarian: A titokzatosak (The Mysterious Ones)