AVATAR

08.06 Episode 160
Airdate: August 13, 2004

A Kull Warrior has breached the gateroom, and there are many casualties, including O'Neill. When Teal'c succeeds in eliminating the warrior, there is a brilliant flash of light, and Teal'c awakens from the virtual reality chair in which he has just completed a training scenario under the supervision of Dr. Lee. However, the chair's programming doesn't provide a sufficient challenge, and Teal'c agrees to help test the system, allowing it to learn and adapt its programming to his experience as a warrior. Teal'c reenters the game, but when he is killed by a virtual warrior, the chair administers an electric shock as it resets.

With each reset of the game, the scenario adapts. One warrior becomes two, and then a third is cloaked, the armor adapts to the energy weapon, and a naquadah reactor is set to overload by a Goa'uld whose identity continually changes. Only Teal'c can initiate the safety protocol to remove himself from the game, but as the cumulative effect of the pain stimuli becomes critical, Dr. Lee and Dr. Carmichael begin to fear that the game might kill him. Exhausted, Teal'c activates the failsafe, but the game will not let him quit. It has learned that in reality Teal'c would never give up.

With no way to release Teal'c from his virtual world, the only option is to win the game. Carter connects a second chair to the matrix, allowing Daniel to enter the game with Teal'c, and together they defeat the Kull Warriors and are joined by O'Neill and Carter. In the final challenge, they must determine the identity of the Goa'uld to prevent the overload of the naquadah reactor, and SG-1 faces each other in a tense standoff as the device becomes critical. Carter aborts the overload, but it is Siler who is the Goa'uld, and Teal'c fires his weapon. The game ends, and they have won. Responds O'Neill, "It's what we do."

Written by: Damian Kindler
Directed by: Martin Wood

Guest Starring: Bill Dow as Dr. Lee, Andrew Airlie as Dr. Carmichael, Gary Jones as Technician, Dan Shea as Sergeant Siler, Dan Payne as Kull Warrior

Reference: Autodestruct Sequence, Dr. Carmichael, Energy Weapon, Walter Harriman, Invisibility, Kull Warrior, Bill Lee, Naquadah Generator, Planets, Security Lockdown, Sergeant Siler, Teal'c, Virtual Reality Chair, Weapons

DESTINATIONS & INHABITANTS

NOTES OF INTEREST

• The virtual reality chairs were acquired from P7J-989 six years ago. For two years, Dr. Lee and a team of SGC scientists have been working to make them a viable virtual reality training tool for SGC personnel.
• The chair is directly linked to the brain, and the simulation learns its realism from the person using it. The new shutoff command is in the internal program so that only the player can control it. Once the player's mind is interfaced with the chair, he cannot be forcibly removed from the connection without risking serious or possibly fatal neural damage.
• The chair decides the scenario, a data recorder interfaced into the system tracks the game and generates the graphics, but causes a 2-second delay before the player experiences each event and responds, then those responses are incorporated and processed and the result appears on the screen. The second chair was hooked up to the first without using the recorder in the loop, so the second player would experience each event without the 2-second delay, resulting in the effect of virtual precognition.

MEMORABLE REMARKS

• Carter, all I heard was "Matrix", and I found those films quite confusing. [O'Neill]
• You've played Doom. [Carter]
  I played Def Jam Vendetta. [Teal'c]
• You know, I always thought a failsafe system was supposed to be somewhat safe... from failure. [O'Neill]
• Sir, you may have done it again. [Carter]
  Yes. How did I do it this time? [O'Neill]
• That's not going to work again. [Dr. Carmichael]
  I don't want to SEE that again! [O'Neill]

FOR THE RECORD

• O'Neill calls Teal'c "T": 1 (in simulation)
• O'Neill "It's what we do": 1
• Injuries:
  • Daniel: multiple simulated deaths
  • Teal'c: multiple simulated deaths, sustained high adrenaline production, heart rate, and blood pressure, cardiac arrest
• Popular Culture References:
  • Def Jam Vendetta [for which Christopher Judge plays D-Mob]
    • "You've played Doom." "I played Def Jam Vendetta."