The Torment of Tantalus (110)

[GateGhost]

My mouth droped when I saw that Paul McGillion was in this episode. He did well in this episode. I'm glad that they liked him.

[jtg]

How did Ernest survive "sane" for so long?

Remember, he had that "library" will all the "Meaning of Life Stuff" to occupy him. He likely spent many many hours decoding and "reading" what to him would be the ultimate source of knowledge.

Also, his "imaginary" Catherine friend, I suspect could have been an Ancient taking the form of Catherine, so perhaps not so "imaginary".

jtg

[KateT]

Just watched this episode again. Love it, one of my favourites. Was pleasently surprised to see Paul McGillon in it, he looked very different!

Love the guy that plays old Ernest too. Makes me laugh when he gives everyone a naked hug, especially Teal'c lol :-)

Shame they never go to back and look at the "book" again. Maybe they could have figured out a way to contact the Furlings. Would love to have met them properly.

[stupidoctopus]

My mouth droped when I saw that Paul McGillion was in this episode. He did well in this episode. I'm glad that they liked him.

Oh, man! Until I saw your post, I didn't even know Paul McGillion was young Ernest!

How did Ernest survive "sane" for so long?

Remember, he had that "library" will all the "Meaning of Life Stuff" to occupy him. He likely spent many many hours decoding and "reading" what to him would be the ultimate source of knowledge.

Also, his "imaginary" Catherine friend, I suspect could have been an Ancient taking the form of Catherine, so perhaps not so "imaginary".

jtg

I agree that he had all of that stuff to occupy him, except I don't think the imaginary Catherine was an Ancient, especially considering that the Heliopolis was over-run by the Goa'uld for a long time. On top of that, it's easy to just see things after being alone for so long.

Just watched this episode again. Love it, one of my favourites. Was pleasently surprised to see Paul McGillon in it, he looked very different!

Love the guy that plays old Ernest too. Makes me laugh when he gives everyone a naked hug, especially Teal'c lol :-)

Shame they never go to back and look at the "book" again. Maybe they could have figured out a way to contact the Furlings. Would love to have met them properly.

The Heliopolis Stargate was buried, so they could never return. I would too have loved to have the Furlings thing properly played out.

[SF_and_Coffee]

I agree that he had all of that stuff to occupy him, except I don't think the imaginary Catherine was an Ancient, especially considering that the Heliopolis was over-run by the Goa'uld for a long time. On top of that, it's easy to just see things after being alone for so long.

Huh? I could swear that based on what was said in the episode, Heliopolis was one of the places the Goa'uld had never been to, because the address was not one that was found on the Abydos map.

ETA: Ah, here's the relevant bit from the episode transcript:

(This is during the scene in the conference room where SG-1 are discussing with Hammond the possibility of visiting the planet whose address the 1945 team dialed)

HAMMOND
(impatiently)Captain Carter.

CARTER
(sheepishly, she straightens up)
Yes, sir. It seems the planet in question is close to Abydos, so it uses many of the same points in space as locators, which explains why the team in '45 could coincidentally dial in without compensating for planetary shift. But Sir, the planet in question is not on the cartouche we found on Abydos.

CATHERINE
What's the significance of that?

CARTER
The Goa'ulds haven't charted it. They may not even have been there.

DANIEL
If the Goa'ulds haven't been to this planet, and there's obviously a 'gate there, then we would have unquestionable proof that they didn't originally build the Stargates.

TEAL'C
The Goa'uld are scavengers. Since they have not traveled to this planet, we may find technologies we can use against them.

The Heliopolis Stargate was buried, so they could never return. I would too have loved to have the Furlings thing properly played out.

No, the Heliopolis Stargate fell into the sea and was buried or destroyed, so it wouldn't connect. But once the Tau'ri had acquired ships, they could conceivable have visited the planet that way to see if the library had survived. I'd have liked to see that myself.

[stupidoctopus]

You're absolutely right. I must have been confusing Goa'uld with something else (perhaps the Ancient plague?)

Also, I wasn't aware the Tau'ri had such ships. I'm only on mid-s4 :O

[WraithCommander]

I think it's a great episode, love the flashback scenes. The 4 races element really opened up the rest of the Stargate future in my opinion. It paved the way for all story lines to come.

[garhkal]

'Tis a pity we never heard about the Furlings though.. "Cept' for that one ep in season 6... when Oneill and Maybourne got stranded together.

[stupidoctopus]

'Tis a pity we never heard about the Furlings though.. "Cept' for that one ep in season 6... when Oneill and Maybourne got stranded together.

What's worse is that it seems like that episode puts blame on the Furlings for the collapse of their 'utopia,' but after all, it was a Goa'uld who poisoned them. What's even weirder is that you'd think they'd monitor for something like a Goa'uld..

..but I digress.

[garhkal]

Maybe the gou'ald that got in was one 'seeking redemption or sanctuary'..

[mathpiglet]

I think it's a great episode, love the flashback scenes. The 4 races element really opened up the rest of the Stargate future in my opinion. It paved the way for all story lines to come.

Exactly. This was a great episode to tantalize us with the whole mythology of the four races.

[the fifth man]

This Season 1 episode was simply amazing. Great from start to finish. It is as good to watch today as it ever was.

[maylet]

Amazing episode, and a really good way to introduce the other races, too bad that the gate went to ocean and they weren't able to ever come back, it would have been really cool to see more of that place. I feel bad for Ernest being alone for such a long time, poor man

[jtg]

Amazing episode, and a really good way to introduce the other races, too bad that the gate went to ocean and they weren't able to ever come back, it would have been really cool to see more of that place. I feel bad for Ernest being alone for such a long time, poor man

Oh, but they CAN go back.

Humans have starships, and it's already been established that the Library planet is probably one of the nearest to Earth, so the only reason nobody has gone back is that nobody has written a script to do so.

The stargate may have fell into the ocean, but for technology able to travel across the stars, mounting a salvage operation to get i tup and remount it a wee bit further from the cliffside would be almost trivial.

The Library machine itself is likely still in good shape beause it was interior and in the most solid part of the building, so unless the whole cliffside fel down, it's still there. Even if it fell to, it's likely that being ancient technology, it's still intact, or at least reparable, or worst case, it's dead memory can be uploaded to another storage for examination.

jtg

[Vagabond Serpent]

Yeah, they can easily go en orbit, locate stargate, beam it somewhere else and use it again.