Message in a Bottle

Plot: SG-1 return from a planet with a mysterious orb. Back at the SGC it activates, pinning O'Neill to a wall and infecting him and the rest of the base with what appears to be a virus.


Quite an enjoyable episode, that does surprisingly well to build a great deal excitement from what is essentially a gradually heating metal ball. Daniel and Sam had been studying the orb, believing it to be some form of time capsule left by an extinct civilisation. This is one of the first times that we've seen the pair properly engaged in some serious scientific investigation. This type of exploration, investigation and experimentation will become a very regular and much loved fixture in the show from now on.

It transpires that the orb pinned Jack to a wall within the gate room in order to try and communicate. It is not a time capsule, but in fact an dead race itself. It had waited for hundreds of thousands of years for someone to come along and take it to a live world so that it could prosper once again. Fortunately, the SGC knows of a primordial planet that would do the job jut nicely. The orb agrees and releases the SGC and Jack from its grips. Not a moment too soon as the quarantine process was within ten seconds of blowing up the mountain. It's not the first time and it probably won't be the last that that particular close shave happens.

Before the orb releases Jack, it manages to put him through something of an experience. Though it made a clean entry and exit through his shoulder, he was still put through considerable pain, as well as a mean fever caused by the infection. Teal'c, however, really showed his loyalty by never leaving Jack's side. We're able to see that a very strong bond has grown between them and it's fair to say that they probably understand each other the most out of the four, due to them both being archetypal warrior types.

8 out of 10