2010 (episode)

2010

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2010
Production
Series	Stargate SG-1
Episode	4.16
Production #	416
Original air date	January 3, 2001
Written by	Brad Wright
Directed by	Andy Mikita
More Information
Gallery
Transcript
Credits
Chronology
Preceded by	Chain Reaction
Followed by	Absolute Power

Template:SG1-4 "2010" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Stargate SG-1.

Plot

The episode begins in medias res with Sam breakfasting with her husband Joe as they discuss their fertility problems. They also mention the Aschen, an advanced civilization who possess a very high grade of medical technology.

It turns out that the year is 2010, a 10-year jump into the future from the previous Stargate episode. Earth has transformed into a seeming paradise of long life and perfect health thanks to an alliance with the Aschen Confederation. It is the 10-year anniversary of SG-1 first encountering the Aschen, and there is going to be a ceremony commemorating the event. The Stargate now serves as a public gateway to other worlds and stands in the J.R. Reed Space Terminal. With the help of the Aschen, the Goa'uld have been defeated; the president is SG-1 nemesis Robert Kinsey. During the ten year anniversary ceremonies, the former SG-1 members are all present—minus Jack O'Neill. It also turns out that General Hammond is dead.

At this point in time, Sam and her husband, Senator Joe Faxon, are trying to get pregnant, but so far no luck. Their doctor, an Aschen, says there's nothing wrong with either of them and that they should just keep trying. When she tells Janet, Janet asks Sam to come by her office for an examination. Janet mentions that she is bored, given the near absence of disease thanks to Aschen medical technology. Sam agrees to be examined by her, and Janet makes a shocking discovery: Sam has been sterilized. She'll never be able to have children. Sam is devastated, not only because she can't have children, but because her Aschen doctor lied to her by telling her there was nothing wrong with her. Both wonder if this problem has occurred anywhere else in the world. They use the Aschen computer at Sam's lab to do a search.

Sam and Janet soon discover a dark secret: the Aschen have made over 90% of humans infertile, allowing them to bloodlessly take over the earth. They appear to have killed General Hammond when he became suspicious.

The former members of Stargate Command and SG-1 realize that it will be impossible to defeat the Aschen, so their best hope of victory lies in preventing Earth from ever meeting the Aschen. Using the advanced sensors the Aschen have given Earth, they pinpoint when a massive solar flare will happen, allowing them to repeat the same form of time travel they used previously to travel to and from 1969. They plan to send a warning to the past, using the centrally located, very public, Aschen-controlled Stargate.

First, they must go to great lengths to obtain a GDO in order to cause Stargate Command to open the iris. In the course of this, Sam discovers that her husband knew about the Aschen plan to decrease human fertility, though they had told him they would only make 1/3 of the population infertile. In contrast, O'Neill never trusted the Aschen, and is bitter that his word was ignored. After initially rebuffing the former SG-1 team when they ask for his help, he joins them in carrying out their plan. Sam must ask her husband, who is an ambassador to the Aschen, to steal it for them, because the only remaining GDO is in the Oval Office, on President Kinsey's desk. He agrees to aid them in exchange for the paternalistic promise that Carter be kept out of the final assault on the Stargate.

File:2010.png

Sam about to send the note through the Stargate

To get control of the Stargate, they enlist the help of Teal'c and another Jaffa. They are able to break through the strong defense measures surrounding the Stargate and dial the gate. However, as the former SG-1 members try to send their hand-written note through the gate, they are killed one by one, with each getting a bit closer to the gate. After the deaths of Teal'c, Jack, and Daniel, Sam breaks away from her husband and rushes to the Stargate. As she is cut down by the lasers, she manages to throw the bloodied note, written by O'Neill, through the gate. Janet is the only survivor as she escaped through the Stargate to Chulak before the mission began.

Back in 2000, Stargate Command receives an incoming transmission, accompanied by an SG-1 IDC, and through the gate comes a small, crumpled paper note. Written on it, in O'Neill's own handwriting (and with spots of O'Neill's blood on it as well), is a simple message: "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO P4C-970, COLONEL JACK O'NEILL". General Hammond orders P4C-970 locked out of the dialing computer to prevent the planet from ever being contacted.

References

O'Neill's cabin

Notable Quotes

Waitress: Will there be anything else?
Dr. Jackson: ...Apparently not...

Teal'c and a Jaffa come out of the Gate holding staff weapons
Dialer: I'm sorry, sir, but weapons are not allowed.
Teal'c: We carry these for ceremonial purposes only.
Dialer: I'm sorry, but you'll have to let me have it.
Teal'c: Very well.
*Teal'c shoots the dialer with his staff weapon*

Notes

• The title of this episode is a homage to Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two. Coincidentally, Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series used the term "StarGate" to refer to one of its major plot devices, the monolith. This episode is also the first part of a short story arc continued in the episode 2001, the title of which is a homage to Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• The story of this episode is followed up in the Season Five episode 2001, in which the SGC makes contact with the Aschen through encountering them on a different planet. The Aschen quickly offer the humans an alliance. They are defeated and likely destroyed by the P3W-451 black hole.
• Sam's 2010 husband will also appear in the episode 2001, in which he will negotiate with the Aschen.
• This episode is one of only three to feature Teal'c without his golden Apophis tattoo.
• O'Neill's reference to the lack of fish in his pond is also featured in The Curse, Threads, Moebius, Part 2 and 200.
• Sam's reference to the "Jupiter ignition project", is an homage to the Arthur C. Clarke novel 2010, in which Jupiter is converted to a sun.
• This episode establishes Sergeant Harriman's first name as Walter, due to an ad lib of Richard Dean Anderson's.
• In the Gateroom at the SGC museum, curiously, a banner is displayed which bears the logo of the Bedrosian forces.
• In the tour scene a tourist has his picture taken in front of the replica stargate while doing the Vulcan salute from Star Trek.
• It is said in the episode that George Hammond died of a heart attack in 2004. The actor, Don S. Davis, actually died in 2008 of the same cause. Because of this, his character was also revealed to have had a heart attack in the same year. This was referenced in the final episode of Stargate: Atlantis, "Enemy at the Gate".
• The events of this episode begin on July 27, 2010, which is erroneously indicated to be a Thursday on Joe's newspaper. In actuality, it is a Tuesday.

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 (2000-10-16). Retrieved on October 15, 2006. Linked to from Official Stargate SG-1 site. Also see Google's cache.
• Summary from GateWorld. Visited May 3, 2006.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2010 (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.