Template:SG1-7 "Grace" is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season of Stargate SG-1.
Plot
The Prometheus is traveling back to Earth with a Hyperspace engine from an Al'kesh. Every couple of hours, the Prometheus has to jump out of hyperspace to cool the Al'kesh hyperspace engine. The Prometheus stops near a nebula that Samantha Carter thinks doesn't conform to nebulae she has previously studied. When they jump out of hyperspace, the Prometheus is attacked by an unknown vessel. They can't jump into hyperspace because the engines need to cool down. The Prometheus is chased into a gas cloud by the alien ship. Samantha Carter is knocked out when she tries to divert power from auxiliary to the hyperspace engine to make a small hyperspace jump into the cloud. When she wakes up, all the other crew members have disappeared. She alone must get herself and the Prometheus to safety. She has visions of a little girl, "Grace," running around the ship, playing with bubbles and of her friends, who vocalize her worries and theories about her predicament.
The hallucination of Daniel Jackson frankly confesses that he is unreal but he is present because there is something she has overlooked. The hallucination of Teal'c warns her that this whole scenario could be a result of the hostile alien species mind-probing, with a view to her inadvertently surrendering information about the Prometheus' engine technology. Daniel then reappears and tells her that the 'nebula' may be a living being, which is why she and the alien ship are stuck inside.
The hallucinations of Jacob Carter and of Jack O'Neill serve as a means by which Carter confronts her personal life and her relationships (in particular when talking to 'Jack', her feelings for him). 'Jack' tells her he will always be there for her, no matter what.
After an encounter with Grace, who is playing with bubbles, Carter hits on a solution. She engages the hyperspace engines with only a fraction of the usual amount of power. This has the effect of rendering the ship partially intangible.
She contacts the alien ship and offers them the solution to escaping the nebula in exchange for the return of the crew and safe passage once they are out of the nebula. After the crew is returned, she creates a hyperspace bubble large enough to encompass both the Prometheus and the alien ship and they are able to exit the nebula safely. The aliens keep their end of the bargain and fly away without harming the Pormetheus. Carter collapses and is taken to the infirmary on the Prometheus. When she wakes up, she finds herself in the SGC infirmary, with Colonel O'Neill sitting on the bed beside hers. After they talk and O'Neill leaves, Carter hears Grace singing as she falls asleep again.
References
Al'kesh; Escape pod; Interstellar cloud; Nebula; Stargate Command infirmary; Unidentified spaceship; Unknown race (Grace)
Notable Quotes
Carter: Thank you, Sir. O'Neill: What for? Carter: Nothing. O'Neill: Think nothing of it. I've got plenty of that.
Notes
- Craig Veroni (the weapons officer) would later play the recurring character of Dr. Peter Grodin on Stargate Atlantis.
- This episode's plot is similar to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Night Terrors", in which the crew is unable to go into deep sleep, experience hallucinations, and are ultimately rescued from their predicament by interpreting odd visions to discover a scientific solution, and also in that two ships are trapped in a dangerous region of space and need to cooperate to get out.
- This episode's plot is also similar to the Star Trek: Voyager episode "One", in which the Voyager is traveling through a Nebula and Seven of Nine is alone. She experiences hallucinations, due to the Nebula's effect.
- This episode is also similar to an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise where Phlox is the the only conscious crew member as everyone else is in an artificial coma because they are inside a nebula that is harmful to the human brain. The nebula also made Phlox hallucinate.
- The Season 2 Stargate Atlantis episode "Grace Under Pressure" also involves a similar situation (except in a Puddle Jumper under the ocean) with Dr. Rodney McKay stuck inside and Carter is the hallucination. It is likely that the title of the Atlantis episode is a reference to this one (Grace) and to the fact the Jumper is at the bottom of the ocean (Under Pressure).
- The apparition in the form of Daniel Jackson hypothesizes that Carter was not hallucinating, rather her visions were the cloud trying to communicate with her. This may also be referenced in "Grace Under Pressure", as McKay's Carter hallucination was fan-theorized to have been caused by a "Lantean whale" (actually a large fish, flagisallus), which were confirmed in a later episode to have telepathic abilities including causing apparitions.
- According to the DVD commentary for "Inauguration", "Grace" received the highest ratings of any television show on the Sci-Fi network, including all previous Stargate episodes.
- There is a similarity to two phrases in Babylon 5, another science fiction show. Carter asks the little girl "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" near the middle of the episode. These phrases are two of the main questions in Babylon 5 throughout the show; the first is asked by the Vorlons, and the second by the Shadows. Whether the reference was intentional or not is unknown.
Sources
- Official Stargate SG-1 site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006. Most of site requires Flash.
- Screenplay (PDF). Distributed by MGM. Prepared by Line 21 Media Services Ltd (2003-10-27). Retrieved on October 18, 2006. Linked to from Official Stargate SG-1 site.
- Review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Alli Snow and Arnise. Visited May 6, 2006.
- Another review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Lex. Visited May 6, 2006.
- Producer comments from GateWorld. Visited May 6, 2006.
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This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Grace (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. |