Tangent

Tangent
Production
Series	Stargate SG-1
Episode	4.12
Production #	412
Original air date	September 15, 2000
Written by	Michael Cassutt
Directed by	Peter DeLuise
More Information
Gallery
Transcript
Credits
Chronology
Preceded by	Point of No Return
Followed by	The Curse

Template:SG1-4 Tangent is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of Stargate SG-1.

Plot

Teal'c is test-flying the X-301, an experimental USAF fighter assembled from parts of two of Apophis' death gliders (from "The Serpent's Lair") and human tech. It can achieve escape velocity with virtually no G-forces for the pilots, and even Carter doesn't fully understand how it works. Lt. General Vidrine is impressed (though not as much by O'Neill's sense of humor.)

The next test is aerial combat, with the SGC serving as Mission Control Center. O'Neill joins Teal'c in the X-301, but they overshoot the attack run, heading directly out into space. "We are no longer in control of the vehicle. I repeat, we have lost control and cannot eject. Please advise."

Once they're moving at a million miles an hour through space, propulsion shuts down. Apophis' recorded voice states that he installed booby traps (aka recall devices) in his gliders, so none of his betrayers would be able to use his craft, and they would return to his homeworld...after a very long time.

Affected by the time lag it takes for radio signals to reach the X-301, Carter and Major Davis at the SGC - with O'Neill and Teal'c on the glider - collaborate on a plan to slingshot them around Jupiter: The rocket motors of the AIM 120A air-to-air missiles, never fired during the weapons test, are still under their control. Unfortunately, the missiles don't have enough thrust and one hits the glider, forcing O'Neill and Teal'c to reduce life support to freezing and very low oxygen levels.

Daniel contacted allies capable of spaceflight. Anise of the Tok'ra throws him a secret bone by saying she will not risk exposing a covert operative on a Goa'uld-occupied world, even though a scout ship is within a day or so of Earth. Carter pinpoints the world, she and Daniel 'gate there and are picked up by transport rings. Fortunately, it is the Tok'ra operative, Jacob Carter, who quickly reigns in his temper (he was preparing to destroy part of the planet) once he realizes his friends' lives are at stake. The ship will reach the X-301 in roughly 24 hours.

With 12 hours of air remaining, Teal'c decides to go into an extremely deep state of kelno'reem, slowing his heart rate, reducing his oxygen consumption. O'Neill asks who he'll talk to. Teal'c renders O'Neill speechless with his depth of feeling and friendship.

Jacob pushes the cargo ship beyond maximum safe velocity, resulting in the hyperspace engines crashing within spitting distance of two Goa'uld motherships. Daniel stalls them by saying he's the Great and Powerful Oz in Goa'uld. They launch gliders in response, but Jacob and Carter repair the engines and the ship is able to re-enter hyperspace.

Upon arrival, Teal'c and O'Neill are asleep, near death. Jacob nudges the X-301 with the cargo ship, waking O'Neill into an amusing but dangerous daze from oxygen deprivation. Fortunately, he understands enough to wake Teal'c up by throwing something at him. Obeying Carter's instructions, they saturate their lungs with the remaining oxygen, open the glider's canopy, exhale and push away. Five meters from the glider, Jacob rings them aboard. They're both alive.

References

X-301

Notable Quotes

Directly after the X-301 had entered space
Colonel O'Neill: Uh, Teal'c, on our six, is that what I think it is?
Teal'c: If you think it is Earth; Yes.
O'Neill: It's shinking.
Teal'c: It's size remains constant, rather it is we who are moving away at extreme velocity.

O'Neill: Jacob, is that you?
Jacob: Yes it is Jack, now do what we tell you.
O'Neill: Do you know your ship's bigger than ours?

Notes

• The initial pass of the X-301 is announced as coming from the southwest, yet the camera looks along Runway 18 (South) to see it approaching.
• Teal'c remarks that the X-301 will take several hundred years to reach Apophis' homeworld as it is traveling at sublight speeds. If the ship is indeed traveling at a slow (in interstellar terms) 1 000 000 mi/h the trip to even the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) would take about 2700 years. Presumably Apophis' homeworld is far more distant.
• While the X-301 is not seen again, O'Neill remembers it vividly in "Fail Safe" and "Redemption, Part 1".
• The Great and Powerful Oz is one of Stargate SG-1's many references to The Wizard of Oz. According to producer Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper wrote an Oz reference in an early script, and especially with Richard Dean Anderson's tendency to ad-lib, it grew from there.

transcript of The Producer's Panel at Gatecon 2000 (September 22-24, 2000) at the Radisson Hotel Burnaby

from the Richard Dean Anderson Web Site, fan web site

• At the end of the episode, Teal'c and O'Neill are briefly exposed to vacuum without space suits. This will probably be survivable [1] as long as they are re-compressed quickly, which (in the episode) they are. However, they are seen keeping their eyes open which would not be advisable in a vacuum.
• The missiles the X-301 has are equipped with shield frequency modulators which theoretically should enable the missiles to pass through Goa'uld shields.
• While it was a failed experiment, the X-301 featured in this episode was the first step towards Earth developing its stellar fleet; the X-301 concept later evolved into the entirely man-made X-302 fighters, as well as the X-303 cruisers, most famously represented by the flagship Prometheus.
• There is an allusion to Star Trek: Daniel Jackson says to Jacob Carter: "We were hoping you could beam them out." to which Jacob replies, "What, who am I? Scotty?"
• When Major Samantha Carter tells her father Jacob to "Punch it" before jumping to hyperspace, this is a reference to Star Wars in which Han Solo tells his Wookiee co-pilot to "Punch It" before jumping to hyperspace. She also says the same line to Teal'c in The Serpent's Lair .
• When O'Neill threw a pencil at Teal'c's helmet, it bounced off his helmet, landing somewhere off screen.  This would not be possible in the zero-gravity environment of space.

Sources

• Official Stargate SG-1 site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006. Most of site requires Flash.
• Screenplay (PDF). Distributed by MGM. Prepared by Casablanca Continuity (2000-09-15). Retrieved on October 15, 2006. Linked to from Official Stargate SG-1 site. Also see Google's cache.
• Summary from GateWorld. Visited May 7, 2006.
• Review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Debra Kraft. Visited May 7, 2006.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Tangent (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.