Long
before the days of digital streaming, when broadcast viewership and syndication
were king, when all TV shows needed 20+ episodes per season, 100 episodes was a
milestone every show dreamed to achieve. And the shows that did make it would celebrate with a very special
episode. With the case of Stargate SG-1, the series took a back
seat from its continuing storyline for a meta-episode—the creators’
affectionate parody of and tribute to their own show.
“Wormhole
X-Treme!” is a sequel to the Season 4 episode “Point of No Return”, bringing
back alien human Martin Lloyd and his old acquaintances, still stranded on
Earth after fleeing their home planet as it was bombarded by the Goa’uld. A distant starship, allegedly from Marty’s
people, is en route to Earth—presumably, as though they’re coming to reunite
with their long-lost friends. SG-1 sets
out on Earth to relocate their old friend.
Luckily that won’t be too difficult, thanks to Marty has adapted their
missions into a TV show, Wormhole
X-Treme!
In
this episode, Martin Lloyd’s past memories of the Stargate Command have been
suppressed again, but it seems they have been subconsciously retained just
enough to make it a successful pitch for a TV show. This episode rightly plays up Marty’s
condition as a legitimate conflict, delivered subtly yet effectively in guest
star Willie Garson (of Sex and the City
fame). Whenever he is acting innocent
and ignorant of Stargate Command’s existence, there is a layer of honesty in
his new personality. Marty also
genuinely cares about his own TV show, and the script frames him very
sympathetically. Underneath that
charming TV writer-producer he has become, Martin Lloyd is still a vulnerable
man struggling to come to terms with his grief.
This dark reality, hidden under the new persona he has taken, is
executed so subtly in a way that still makes him so sympathetic. The dark undertone of Martin’s memory loss
heightens the stakes as the members of SG-1—especially Jack and Teal’c—having
to find a way to convince Marty to reconnect with his past before the ship
arrives.
Though
Marty’s arc is the episode’s backbone, his TV show, Wormhole X-Treme!, is its heart.
Within the context of the episode itself, Wormhole X-Treme! is an adaptation of SG-1’s missions with a
campier tone. Complete with cheesy
one-liners (e.g. “It’s what I do!”), hammy acting, and a soundtrack that feels
like it belongs in the 1960s Batman
TV show, it is the kind of cheesiness that will make even casual Stargate fans laugh. Series creator Brad Wright wrote this episode
with Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie; they use Marty’s show as a window for the
creative team to reflect on their own show and how far it had come then. As such, there is plenty of self-references
and meta-humor to boast.
It
is very impressive just how the writers are able to recreate the spirit of SG-1 in Wormhole X-Treme! For one,
the four main characters of Marty’s show are almost verbatim to their
counterparts in SG-1. All four of the
actors playing all four of the actors playing the counterparts nail not only
their own personalities down, but also the personalities of their characters
and how well they align with SG-1. For
example, there is a sequence in the beginning where SG-1 is watching a
commercial for the show, which really highlights how perfectly they match
up. With just SG-1 to go off of, just
makes you wonder how Marty had written other major characters such as General
Hammond and Dr. Janet Fraiser.
The
writers are also not afraid to lampshade the show’s own shortcomings, lending
to some of the episode’s funniest jokes.
These include poking at some plot holes in its own lore or the fact that
the aliens speak English (not just in Stargate,
but in so many other science fiction franchises as well). One hilarious joke about using Earth fruits
on an alien planet set is a nice little reference to how so many of the show’s
episodes are filmed in the rural countryside of British Columbia and make use
of that environment. The fact that this
episode was filmed at Bridge Studios—the same studio where all the episodes of
all three Stargate TV shows were
filmed—is a very nice touch, an Easter egg for the veteran fans.
Several
members of the actual creative team behind Stargate
SG-1 actually show up on set, either in chief roles or in short cameos. Peter DeLuise—one of SG-1’s most prolific episode directors—goes so hilariously over-the-top
as the TV episode director you can’t help but laugh. Then-new co-showrunner Robert C. Cooper appears
on set in one scene, and Brad Wright, the creator himself, gets to appear at the end, fittingly enough. Most of these references are subtle, but
someone who is well-versed enough in the series will be able to pick up on them
all.
It is
very hard not to love “Wormhole X-Treme!”.
Judging the episode on its own merits, it expands on a previous episode
and completes a sympathetic storyline about a group of lost aliens who are
trying to find a new home. Moreover,
this is a loving tribute to Stargate SG-1
from a group of creators who really cared about what they were making here.
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