Enigma

Plot: SG-1 arrives on a planet where a current cataclysmic event has left several people fighting for their lives around the Stargate. SG-1 take them back to the SGC, where it is discovered that they are part of a high developed civilisation, the Tollan. The SGC must fight to prevent the NID from taking them away for study.


Enigma is an intellectually satisfying episode that shows the Stargate programme's first contact with a clearly technologically superior civilisation. It turns out their world had been destroyed after a series of events had played out that started with them sharing their technology with a less advanced neighbouring planet. Understandably, they were a little cagey about sharing with the primitive Earth people. It was stimulating to see SG-1 try to learn as much as they could from the Tollan, all in good faith.

Their leader, Omoc, was played by Tobin Bell, of Saw fame. He's been in several other TV shows in recent years, notably 24 and Alias. I don't think there's even been a character actor that could play a mean, arrogant bastard as well as him. He was in fine form as Omoc, spending most of the episode looking down his nose at the regular cast members.

Also in the group was Narim, who has quite a thing for our Sam Carter. He's a bit more open with them, explaining how Quantum Physics is elementary science and how much he loves her, and his new cat. He's the first of Sam's love interests and we'll see him again as she rampages her way across the galaxy, leaving a man at every port. Narim is played by Garwin Sanford, who appears in a couple of episodes of Atlantis as Dr. Weir's fiancee.

That's not all. We're introduced for the first time to Colonel Maybourne. He's immediately up to his tricks as he seeks to take the Tollan away for study. He's easy to dislike and plays up well to the role that he's been set. Maybourne is a name that's easy to say with disdain, which Jack does so well. The obvious highlight of the episode saw General Hammond pulling rank to put Maybourne in his place, if only briefly.

In the end, the Tollan go through the gate to live with The Nox (remember them?). Lya shows up to escort them to the Nox homeworld, as Maybourne is desperately trying to hold on to them. Fortunately, Lya pulls off some seriously cool shit as she opens a wormhole back to the Nox homeworld without having to manually dial the gate. It's a cool trick that I don't think we see again.

This episode triumphs in reprising a couple of plot lines that were laid carefully at the beginning of the season. The Tollan and Maybourne are a couple of new ones that are added to a nice little pot of plots. SG-1 is really hitting its stride at this point as it quickly rattles towards that first end of season finale.

8 out of 10