38 Minutes Error!?! spoilers 38 minutes and sg1 season 1

[sshspooky]

Yes, season one has shown a major error in 38 minutes. let me explain:

In 38 minutes, the sj is stuck in the gate, and if the gate ran out of time then the pj would be cut in half and half the pj and crew would be stuck in the gate. well, this is wrong.

On rewatching the sg1 season 1 ep, Torment of Tantalus, i noticed something that totally destroys that principle. When Ernest is going through the gate he is in a suit and the suit is connected to a cable. now the gate deactivates when Ernest is inside and the cable is cut in half. all good so far, however Arnest arrives on the other side. on the theory that is excepted which is that once the whole of an object is through the gate it is transported through, and if the gate deactivates before that is so then the person is lost, then Ernest would not have made it to the planet, but would have been lost in the gate. However, if when the gate closes it closes from entrance point and folds in to exit point, and all remaining matter is pushed out of the wormhole as it closes, then this could happen, but 38 minutes would not have had any crisis, as they would have been able to simply step through the gate and arrive on the other side with half a pj after the gate automatically closes.

so either McKay's gate theory is wrong, or Torment on Tantalus contradicts gate theory.

[Mio]

In the Torment of Tantalus there were no DHDs to make anything work properly.

the DHD on the other side was broken, and we were dialing manually.

Without them regulating what was happening, the gate's behavior might be completely different.

[Stargate Agent]

Beside the power could have just shut off on one end which would effectively cut the gate no matter what.

[IMForeman]

The difference here is momentum. Ernest is moving when he enters the gate, and his momentum is completely unimpeded. The jumper has stopped actually in the Gate.

-IMF

[Gaterholic]

All of you make valid points. You could even Bring the episode '48 hours' into the equation. I think this is one of the "Live and Let live" things that slips in occasionally. I'm sure if you wanted you might be able to rationalize it. Maybe it was the No DHD thing, but that raises other questions, like when a jaffas staff got cut in half.


I think this falls into the "Why do they all speak english and use enlish expressions?" zone.

[GatetheWay]

You could also bring in how when hit with a zat peoples veried reactions are from instantly falling unconcious to just momenteraly stuned.

[Major Fischer]

The Zat differences could be explained by the individual's constitution.

[UnderT]

Actully in TOT I don't think the gate should have closed.
In "Watergate" the Russian gate is held open by radio signals. So it definatly should have been held open by a solid object.
And how does the gate know when to close? It always closes right after the last person walks through.
It's probably a TV thing.

[dd78matt]

I believe it has to do someting with mass and volume. Because the cable was so thin, the Gate didn't recognize it as "important" so it cut it and sent everything else through, just like with the staff weapon.

Also, I can't remember, but in Torment of Tantalus, did the cable also get sent through? Because if it didn't, and only the suit and the contents of the suit(a.k.a. Ernest) were sent through, then this is because of the whole object theory; which states that only when it is a whole object(not like strands connected to the suit) the Gate can't send it until the full object is through, but if Ernest and the cable, and the jaffa and his staff, are recognized as two seperate obejcts, and Ernest, and the jaffa, are already completely through, then they can be sent, but Ernest's cable and the jaffa's staff won't be. That is, if it doesn't have to do with mass. Remember, this is only speculation.

[Major Tyler]

It's definately a plothole. We've seen on multiple occasions a gate shut down with something halfway through, and have the front part make it through.

In "38 Minutes" they should have said that the event horizon was over the power generator or something, and that if the wormhole severed it, the PJ would explode.

[Ohper]

In "38 Minutes" they should have said that the event horizon was over the power generator or something, and that if the wormhole severed it, the PJ would explode.

They did mention a "critical overload" briefly, wherein McKay's tampering with the controls in the back might cause the engines to freak out and send a huge amount of energy through the Gate to Atlantis. It wasn't really explained clearly though

[Kelso]

If this is a Plothole it has nothing to do with '38 min'... we are looking at two different situations (as others have said). In TOT, you have a situation where neither end of the Gate has a working DHD, and the Earth Gate has been jury rigged by folks with no clue what they are doing (and using primitive technology). It is far more likely that the Stargate overloaded their generators, causing it to shut down. The real question is why the Opposite Stargate spat Earnest out rather than keeping him in the buffer. As we saw in 48 hours, you need a working DHD.

[lionel_pendergast_rocks]

I noticed the same thing in '100 days', and started a thread about it, but its too old, and couldn't find it.

[Crazedwraith]

PoV staff thing is easy to explain someone forcibly shut the gatedown.

As to the ToT rope, well again no DHD and a lack of power in the gate could be the explaination as well as the 48 hours thing. Whwn the power was cut to the earth gate the DHD on Enerst's planet reintergrated everything it had (ie one person and some rope) in its bufers and spat it out.

[Flyboy]

Maybe the gate can recognise living matter? And is programmed not to cut off with something biological in the system, except after 38 mins.