Entity (episode)

Entity
Production
Series	Stargate SG-1
Episode	4.20
Production #	420
Original air date	January 31, 2001
Written by	Peter DeLuise
Directed by	Allan Lee
More Information
Gallery
Transcript
Credits
Chronology
Preceded by	"Prodigy"
Followed by	"Double Jeopardy"

Template:SG1-4 "Entity" is the twentieth episode of the fourth season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis

An "entity" from P9C-372 makes its way into Stargate Command through MALP transmission, and immediately begins to take over a section. Trying to disconnect it causes the entity to take control of Major Samantha Carter.

Plot

When Stargate Command dials P9C-372 and send a MALP, they discover highly advanced life. Suddenly the MALP seems to start flying, and before the connection is lost, the computers overload. Colonel Jack O'Neill cuts power to the gate manually, but computers are behaving as if controlled by an intelligence. Soon SG-1 realizes an alien life force has taken over the base's computer system. It uses cameras to follow their actions and shuts down the computers if necessary. When Major Samantha Carter wants to reboot the SGC's network, formatting drives and rebooting from the unnetworked backups from the day before, everything seems to be normal again. Only a minute later, a section is detected infested by the program/being, which had stored itself on the drive of a MALP. When SG-1 break their way into the MALP-room, the entity has used the MALP, then other machines and all computers in the room to build a supercomputer. It runs on the battery powering the emergency lights in the room.

Dr. Daniel Jackson argues instead of destroying the machine as O'Neill suggests, they should use the interface it provided (a keyboard and monitor). Carter asks the entity what it wants, and after a reply from the machine, an electric current runs from the keyboard to her fingers. She faints and is brought to the infirmary. Finally, through Carter, the entity is able to communicate its intentions: to destroy the threat Earth poses to its homeworld. SG-1 finds out that when the SGC had sent a MALP to the world, the Earth radio equipment needed to control their robot interfered with the aliens on the world, destroying many of them. Interpreting the action as an attack, the alien entity was sent to infiltrate the SGC's computer system and destroy the facility. While matter can only travel the way a gate was dialed, the entity, like radio waves, could use the radio carrier wave to get into the computer (though when the gate was shut down, it had not had time to complete the total destruction it intended).

Angered with the fact that it uses Carter as host, O'Neill tells the alien that if it stays in Carter's body, the SGC would send wave after wave of MALPs to his planet unless it gave Carter back. In agony, Carter's body breaks free from the restraints it was put in, is trapped in the hall and (picture) emits an energy beam to the mainframe (via the lights and power outlets in the hall). O'Neill zat's Carter's body once but it does nothing. O'Neill is forced to zat her again (which should kill her). Carter falls to the floor. In the medical room Carter is on life support with O'Neill sitting watching over her. Dr. Janet Fraiser comes in and asks if Sam ever told him about her living will (that she doesn't want any extraordinary means) to which he replies, "Yeah, she told me." Dr. Frasier tells O'Neill there is no brain activity of any kind and that "I think it's time to let her go." O'Neill quietly asks Dr. Frasier to "wait a minute, huh?" Back in the MALP room, SG-1 sees "I AM HERE" written again and again on the screen. They realize it might be Carter, and Dr. Fraiser connects Carter's body to the supercomputer. Immediately a power surge enters the body, and the supercomputer shuts down. Carter's consciousness, restrained while the entity was in her body, is now returned to her body, and she is soon conscious again. Hammond orders the planet locked out of the dialing computer.

References

A-M18A1 Claymore mine; Ancients; Asgard; DEFCON; DNA; EEG; EKG; Electromagnetic pulse; Entity; Level 24; MALP; P9C-372; The Pentagon; Repository of knowledge; Stargate Command infirmary; Tok'ra; X-ray; Zat'nik'tel

Notable Quotes

(Immediately after sending the MALP through the gate)
O'Neill: (to Teal'c) You look tense.
Jackson: No, I'd say anxious.
Teal'c: I am neither tense, nor anxious, perhaps concerned.
Jackson: Why?
Teal'c: The address of this planet was procured from the repository of the Ancients.

Hammond: What's it doing?
Carter: Flying, Sir.
O'Neill: MALPs can't fly.
Jackson: Apparently that can.
O'Neill: Shouldn't there be a memo on this stuff?

Carter: Sir, very high frequency isolations are being transmitted on a feedback loop.
Jackson: They may be trying to communicate.
O'Neill: They?
Jackson: Well, whoever...they are.
O'Neill: Exactly.
Jackson: What?

Frasier: Some form of energy came through the Stargate. Its only prudent to make sure there's no physiological effects to those exposed. ASAP.
O'Neill: Who put her in charge?
Hammond: The US Air Force.
Teal'c: In medical matters, Doctor Frasier may overrule those of any rank.
O'Neill: (To Daniel) I'm not getting all my memos!

(O'Neill is dancing back and forth in front of a security camera being controlled by the alien Entity in the computer system)
O'Neill: I think it likes me!

(SG-1 sees the mainframe the entity built in the MALP room)
O'Neill: General, we're gonna need some claymores down here.
Hammond: I'm on my way.
Jackson: You wanna blow it up?
O'Neill: Yes.
Jackson: Why?
O'Neill: "Why!?"
Carter: Sir, we've completely isolated this area of the base, there's no chance of reinfection of our computer.
Jackson: It's obviously fighting to survive.
O'Neill: So do bacteria.
(the screen brings up Carter's file)
Carter: It's trying to communicate.
O'Neill: So do bac...

Jackson: In a way you succeeded. We won't go back there. You can repair the damage we did and we won't send any more probes through.
O'Neill: Yes we will.
Jackson: Jack?
O'Neill: We'll send dozens of them. One after another. I don't care what it does.
Carter: No.
O'Neill: Leave her. Now.
Carter: You won't.
O'Neill: You've read my file. Think again.

Notes

• According to the personnel files the Entity pulls up, Colonel Jack O'Neill's D.O.B. is 10/10/51, Major Samantha Carter's is 10/17/65 and Dr. Daniel Jackson's is 01/04/65.
• The actions of Carter's mind while in the MALP room computer are very similar to the actions of the Alien "Entity" known as Jerry in Michael Crichton's Sphere. In Sphere, the hostile Alien refers to himself as an "Entity," possibly responsible for the title of the episode. The Alien speaks to the team through the computer systems, at one point posting the message "I AM HERE." on the computers. This is, of course, identical to the message posted by Carter. This is one of many Stargate SG-1 episodes bearing an extreme likeness to novels written by Michael Crichton. Other episodes have resembled Prey, The Andromeda Strain, and Timeline very closely.
• When the Entity looks up O'Neill's personnel file, the display reads "John O'Neill." One of the files it skips by reads "Lee Van Cleef".
• This is similar to the Stargate: Atlantis episode "The Intruder" in which a Wraith computer virus takes control of the Daedalus. The events of this episode are also referred to there. The same method of shutting down the system and restarting is used to try to eradicate the virus there but fails there because the virus downloaded itself into F-302 fighter-interceptors like the entity downloaded itself into MALPs. There the virus is eradicated when the 302s it controls have the navigation computers pulled and one is destroyed, allowing the shutdown to work.
• This episode is the only to be shot completely in HD until "New Order, Part 1". Starting with "Nemesis" all episodes were shot completely in 35 mm. Previous episodes were all filmed in 16 mm (except the effect shots).
• Sgt. Sylvester Siler's name tag reads "Sgt. Dan Siler" throughout this episode.  It can be seen very clearly when he, O'Neill, and Carter are trying unsuccessfully to get into the MALP room.

Goofs

• While Dr. Daniel Jackson and Major Samantha Carter are in the control room explaining what happened to General George Hammond, the Earth patch on Jackson's left sleeve can be seen switching between shots from being crooked and partially detached from the velcro to being straight and in its proper place.

In other languages

• French: Entité (Entity)
• Italian: Entità (Entity)
• Spanish: El Ente (The Entity)
• Czech: Entita (Entity)
• German: Die falsche Wahl (The Wrong Choice)
• Hungarian: Személyiség (Personality)

External links

• Template:SciFi
• Entity on the official MGM website. (backup link)
• Entity on GateWorld. (backup link)
• Entity article on Stargate SG-1 Solutions' The StargateWiki

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Entity (Stargate SG-1). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with SGCommand, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.