Episode:A Matter of Time

Episode

Credits

Transcript

Images

Quotes

"A Matter of Time"
An episode from Stargate SG-1
Episode Nb	Season 2 Episode 16
Directed by	Martin Wood
Story by	Misha Rashovich
Adaptation on television	Brad Wright
Original air date	(1999-01-29) USA: January 29, 1999 (1998-12-09) UK: December 9, 1998 (1999-08-12) AUS: August 12, 1999
Length	42'26"
Guest starring
Marshall Teague as Col. Frank Cromwell Teryl Rothery as Dr. Janet Fraiser Tobias Mehler as Lt. Graham Simmons Colin Cunnignham as Major Davis
Episode chronology
"The Fifth Race" "Holiday"

After gating to a world on the edge of a black hole, the S.G.C. cannot disengage the Stargate. All of Earth becomes endangered by the time-distorting gravity field.

"A Matter of Time" is the 16th episode of Stargate SG-1 Season 2.

Story

Teaser

• In space, nearby a planet and its companion star, some star's matter is drawn by another bright star. Suddenly, this star blasts then a small black hole appears, sucking all the solid rocks in it, and making it stronger.
• On the surface of the planet, four panicked people are running in a desert sand, but their steps seem to be in slow motion. Major Henry Boyd is urging his SG-10 teammates, but his voice is slowed as well. He grabs Captain Watts, who fell on the sand, and order hims to dial Earth on the Dial Home Device located after the top of the hill. They eventually reach the DHD, and Watts starts dialing Earth, but tells the team that they won't make it. Boyd encourages the team that they will make it and turns over to see what's behind him.
• Meanwhile, in Stargate Command, Colonel Jack O'Neill is given explanation by Captain Samantha Carter about the meaning of a wormhole between two open Stargates. Carter tries to compare the wormhole to a worm inside an apple, but O'Neill seems lost in the explanation. Suddenly, the Stargate activates. Lieutenant Graham Simmons, who was in the SGC briefing room during the "course", warns O'Neill and Carter of an unscheduled off-world activation.
• In the SGC control room, Simmons reports that SG-4, 6 and 10 are off world, and Daniel Jackson is with SG-6 on a digging on PX3-808. Simmons tells Carter that the signal received by the computer is not a GDO's. Carter analyses the signal which is a low frequency repetitive radio signal the same moment General George Hammond comes into the room. Carters asks Simmons to speed the signal up to 600% which eventually fits the SG-10's iris code. Hammond, who wonders what could have slowed down the signal, orders Simmons to open the iris under the recommendation of O'Neill. The iris opens but nobody comes in and after a few seconds, the wormhole disengages. Nobody has an explanation for this, but O'Neill requests permission to send at once a rescue team. Hammond delays O'Neill's request to first send a MALP, yet he orders O'Neill to put SG-1 and 3 on stand by.

Act 1

• The MALP is on the ramp, ready to go, General Hammond sums up with SG-1 SG-10's recon mission on P3W-451, a newly discovered binary system. A particular point is the recent extinction of the people of this planet, and the SG team tried to find the reason. Yet, General Hammond is reluctant to send a rescue mission, and this attitude upsets Colonel O'Neill. Even if Major Henry Boyd has been recommended by O'Neill, Hammond prefers to refer to the MALP's images. Meanwhile the Stargate is calling the planet. Teal'c tries to reassure O'Neill but visibly fails.
• Once the wormhole established, the MALP is sent through. But when the MALP reaches the other side, the image received in the control room is red and blurred. The telemetry's rate is even slower than before. Carter orders Simmons to change the setting of the image to capture the right spectrum. And the image eventually reveals Major Boyd and Captain Watts almost still for they received only eleven frames in the last six minutes.
• O'Neill sees that the team is in trouble and asks permission to Hammond to send a team, but Carter denies the request, as she is almost certain that they cannot be helped. Carter asks Simmons to wider the image which reveals a newly formed black hole, slowing down time, and threatening to kill them by increasing tidal forces.
• All hope seems lost for SG-10 and eventually Hammond orders to disengage the wormhole. Carter mentions that what they see defies the laws of physics, but O'Neill refocuses her, stating that they're "seeing good men dying in slow motion." Eventually, the Stargate won't shut down.

Notes

• The second part of Season 2 has been aired in UK before USA, and "A Matter of Time" has been aired before "The Fifth Race" yet, as a common rule on Semantic Stargate Wiki, it's the US diffusion that matters.
• On DVD releases, "A Matter of Time" has been switched with "The Fifth Race".

Goofs

Position	Goof type	Description
0:07:23	Continuity Universe error	The Stargate address we can see on screen is the Chulak address as seen in "Children of the Gods". This footage has been obviously used to save money. In "2001", where this address has been given to the Aschen to trick them, the coordinate data have been retconed.