Nemesis (Stargate SG-1)
Encyclopedia
"Nemesis" is the last episode from season 3
of the science fiction
television series Stargate SG-1
. Written by Robert C. Cooper
and directed by Martin Wood
, the episode first aired in the United Kingdom on Sky One
on February 11, 2000, and had its American premiere on Showtime on March 8, 2000. The episode sets up the Replicator
s as a new major enemy, ending in a cliffhanger that is resumed in the season 4 premiere "Small Victories".
"Nemesis" was the first SG-1 episode to be filmed entirely on 35 mm film
before the series switched from 16 mm film
to 35 mm film for all purposes in season 4. A visual effects milestone for the series, the episode was nominated for an Emmy Award
in the "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series" category, and won a Leo Award for "Best Overall Sound in a Dramatic Series".
as Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks
) had his appendix removed. Just after Major Carter
(Amanda Tapping
) declines Colonel O'Neill
's (Richard Dean Anderson
) invitation to go fishing, O'Neill is beamed aboard the cloaked Asgard
ship Beliskner orbiting Earth. Encountering bug-like robots, O'Neill learns from the dying Asgard, Thor, that the creatures are called Replicators
. They ingest the ship's alloys in order to self-replicate and will eventually land on Earth in the search of more raw material. O'Neill contacts Stargate Command
with a request to beam up explosives, however, General Hammond (Don S. Davis
) also sends along Carter and Teal'c
(Christopher Judge
) against O'Neill's wishes. An Earth shuttle may be sent to pick them up later.
SG-1 plan to steer the vessel towards Earth to vaporize it during atmospheric reentry
. Because the Replicators prevent SG-1 from retaking the bridge, Carter and Thor suggest placing an elementary naqahdah-enhanced bomb on the deceleration drive. When Teal'c leaves the spaceship to place the bomb on the outside of the hull, his airtank blows, however, Carter manages to beam him back on-board. Thor, whose vitals crash at this moment, is put into a stasis pod to preserve his life.
While SG-1 waits for the right time to detonate the bomb, they must devise a plan to get off the ship. They eventually beam Stargate Command's Stargate on-board and intend to travel to the planet P3X-234 before returning home using Earth's secondary gate ("Touchstone"). After Teal'c has dialed the gate manually, O'Neill detonates the bomb, crashing the ship in the Pacific Ocean
. The last shot of the episode shows a Replicator crawling on remains of the sinking spaceship.
and directed by Martin Wood
. After the first three seasons of Stargate SG-1 had been filmed on 16 mm film
(although scenes involving visual effects had always been shot on 35 mm film
for various technical reasons), "Nemesis" was the first episode filmed entirely on 35 mm film. Stargate SG-1 switched to 35 mm film for all purposes at the beginning of season 4. The visual effects team used the episode to experiment with the design of the Replicators, a new recurring enemy to whom the character Thor had first alluded in the early season 3 episode "Fair Game". "Nemesis" featured more visual effects than any previous episode, but was excelled by the season 4 premiere, "Small Victories", which showed the best computer-generated shots of "Nemesis" in its "Previously on" segment. Visual effects supervisor James Tichenor considered the few episodes with big visual effects budgets the most likely works to contain visual cues that impress Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy Awards) voters. Tichenor claimed that effective visual effects do not call attention to themselves and instead rely on the actors' reactions to nonexistent things.
Daniel Jackson's appendicitis
reflected Michael Shanks
' real-world condition at the end of season 3. During the last shooting day of "Crystal Skull", Shanks suffered an appendicitis attack, which he had first misinterpreted as food poisoning from the Thanksgiving dinner
. While Robert C. Cooper desperately tried to rewrite the script of "Nemesis", producer Brad Wright
contrived elaborate storylines to reduce Shanks' involvement in the episode. Cooper eventually decided to use a common health issue to explain Daniel's absence from the episode's action scenes. Shanks appeared in four scenes set at Stargate Command, although he also provided the voice of the Asgard Thor in post-production. Although much of Daniel's and O'Neill's exchange in the infirmary was improvised, critic Jo Storm speculated in his book Approaching The Possible that Daniel's question in the infirmary bed to O'Neill ("Did you get a haircut?") may reflect the actors' hairstyles which had significantly changed since the season 2 finale; the lines may have been added to appease the many viewers who had commented on the characters' new looks on the online boards. "Nemesis" was the last episode before actor Christopher Judge
started sporting a small blond beard for several episodes in season 4.
on February 11, 2000, and had its American premiere on Showtime on March 8, 2000. In Germany, "Nemesis" was held back from season 3 and aired as the first hour of the season 4 premiere. Airing in American broadcast syndication during the 2001 May sweeps, "Nemesis" had a 2.7/2.8 household rating
, which helped Stargate SG-1s placement as second among first-run entertainment hours (a second airing after a premiere on an American subscription channel is not regarded as an off-network rerun) and placed fifth overall in the U.S. syndication market. "Nemesis" was nominated for an Emmy in the "Outstanding Special Visual Effects" category in 2000, but lost to the X-Files episode "First Person Shooter
"; the other competitors were Star Trek: Voyager
episodes "Life Line" and "The Haunting of Deck Twelve
", and the X-Files episode "Rush". "Nemesis" won a Leo Award for "Best Overall Sound In A Dramatic Series" in 2000.
Jo Storm wrote that the "cleverly disguised action mini-arc" gives insight into the imperfection of the Asgard and that the "foreign, creepy" Replicators are "conquerors who make the Goa'uld look nice by comparison". He felt that the episode had "all the classic elements of fiction", and lauded Robert C. Cooper's storytelling idea to take the Stargate from the SGC and Don S. Davis's following "best nonspeaking moment". In Storm's mind, the visual effects were well-placed and did not overthrow the story, but he wondered about the "ubiquitous Sam/Jack interest". If not interpreted as "flirtatiousness", Carter could be "truly touched at being let into the 'inner circle' of [O'Neill's] life, and finally being 'one of the guys'", which Storm found problematic as the character had previously never been shown to feel left out.
Stargate SG-1 (season 3)
The third season of the military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 commenced airing on Showtime in the United States on June 25, 1999, concluded on Sky1 in the United Kingdom on March 8, 2000, and contained 22 episodes...
of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
. Written by Robert C. Cooper
Robert C. Cooper
Robert C. Cooper is a Canadian writer and producer best known for his work in the Stargate franchise. He was formerly an executive producer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis until both series conclusion and currently holds the same title on the third Stargate series Stargate Universe...
and directed by Martin Wood
Martin Wood
Martin Wood is a Canadian television director who has been directing since the mid 1990s. Specializing in science fiction, where he is best known for his work as a director and producer on Stargate SG-1 , as well as its spin-off series Stargate Atlantis .-Career:Martin Wood began his television...
, the episode first aired in the United Kingdom on Sky One
Sky One
Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...
on February 11, 2000, and had its American premiere on Showtime on March 8, 2000. The episode sets up the Replicator
Replicator (Stargate)
In the military science fiction series Stargate SG-1, the Replicators are antagonistic self-replicating machines that propagate by ingesting the metals that make up civilizations and use them to create either blocks that form the bug-like version or smaller cells that compose the human-form...
s as a new major enemy, ending in a cliffhanger that is resumed in the season 4 premiere "Small Victories".
"Nemesis" was the first SG-1 episode to be filmed entirely on 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
before the series switched from 16 mm film
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
to 35 mm film for all purposes in season 4. A visual effects milestone for the series, the episode was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in the "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series" category, and won a Leo Award for "Best Overall Sound in a Dramatic Series".
Plot
The SG-1 team gets leave timeLeave (military)
In military, leave is a permission to be away from one's unit, either for a specified or unspecified period of time.The term AWOL, standing for absent without leave, is a term for desertion used in armed forces of many English speaking countries....
as Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
) had his appendix removed. Just after Major Carter
Samantha Carter
Samantha "Sam" Carter is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction Stargate franchise, appearing in television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. SG-1 and Atlantis are both about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien...
(Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping is an English-born Canadian actress, producer and director. She is best known for portraying Samantha Carter in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis...
) declines Colonel O'Neill
Jack O'Neill
Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, three science fiction shows about military teams exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
's (Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson
Richard Dean Anderson is an American television and film actor, producer and composer. He began his television career in 1976 as Dr. Jeff Webber in the American soap opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver...
) invitation to go fishing, O'Neill is beamed aboard the cloaked Asgard
Asgard (Stargate)
The Asgard are a fictional highly advanced race in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. They are first mentioned in the episode , and first seen in . In the series, the Asgard gave rise to Norse mythology on Earth, as well as accounts of the Roswell "Greys"...
ship Beliskner orbiting Earth. Encountering bug-like robots, O'Neill learns from the dying Asgard, Thor, that the creatures are called Replicators
Replicator (Stargate)
In the military science fiction series Stargate SG-1, the Replicators are antagonistic self-replicating machines that propagate by ingesting the metals that make up civilizations and use them to create either blocks that form the bug-like version or smaller cells that compose the human-form...
. They ingest the ship's alloys in order to self-replicate and will eventually land on Earth in the search of more raw material. O'Neill contacts Stargate Command
Stargate Command
The Stargate Program is a fictional top-secret program that plays a key role in the Stargate franchise: it surrounds the operations of the Stargate on Earth. The core of the Stargate Program is Stargate Command , based at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station near Colorado Springs, Colorado...
with a request to beam up explosives, however, General Hammond (Don S. Davis
Don S. Davis
Don Sinclair Davis PhD was an American character actor, theatre professor, painter and captain in the United States Army.-Career:He was perhaps best known for playing General George S...
) also sends along Carter and Teal'c
Teal'c
Teal'c is a fictional character in the military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. Played by Christopher Judge, Teal'c is a Jaffa warrior from the planet Chulak. As a Jaffa, Teal'c is a genetically modified human with an abdominal pouch that serves as an incubator for a larval Goa'uld...
(Christopher Judge
Christopher Judge
Douglas Christopher Judge is an American actor best known for playing Teal'c in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. He attended the University of Oregon on a football scholarship and was a Pacific Ten Conference player.-Early life:Christopher Judge was...
) against O'Neill's wishes. An Earth shuttle may be sent to pick them up later.
SG-1 plan to steer the vessel towards Earth to vaporize it during atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a celestial body from outer space—in the case of Earth from an altitude above the Kármán Line,...
. Because the Replicators prevent SG-1 from retaking the bridge, Carter and Thor suggest placing an elementary naqahdah-enhanced bomb on the deceleration drive. When Teal'c leaves the spaceship to place the bomb on the outside of the hull, his airtank blows, however, Carter manages to beam him back on-board. Thor, whose vitals crash at this moment, is put into a stasis pod to preserve his life.
While SG-1 waits for the right time to detonate the bomb, they must devise a plan to get off the ship. They eventually beam Stargate Command's Stargate on-board and intend to travel to the planet P3X-234 before returning home using Earth's secondary gate ("Touchstone"). After Teal'c has dialed the gate manually, O'Neill detonates the bomb, crashing the ship in the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. The last shot of the episode shows a Replicator crawling on remains of the sinking spaceship.
Production
The season 3 finale "Nemesis" was written by Robert C. CooperRobert C. Cooper
Robert C. Cooper is a Canadian writer and producer best known for his work in the Stargate franchise. He was formerly an executive producer of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis until both series conclusion and currently holds the same title on the third Stargate series Stargate Universe...
and directed by Martin Wood
Martin Wood
Martin Wood is a Canadian television director who has been directing since the mid 1990s. Specializing in science fiction, where he is best known for his work as a director and producer on Stargate SG-1 , as well as its spin-off series Stargate Atlantis .-Career:Martin Wood began his television...
. After the first three seasons of Stargate SG-1 had been filmed on 16 mm film
16 mm film
16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...
(although scenes involving visual effects had always been shot on 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
for various technical reasons), "Nemesis" was the first episode filmed entirely on 35 mm film. Stargate SG-1 switched to 35 mm film for all purposes at the beginning of season 4. The visual effects team used the episode to experiment with the design of the Replicators, a new recurring enemy to whom the character Thor had first alluded in the early season 3 episode "Fair Game". "Nemesis" featured more visual effects than any previous episode, but was excelled by the season 4 premiere, "Small Victories", which showed the best computer-generated shots of "Nemesis" in its "Previously on" segment. Visual effects supervisor James Tichenor considered the few episodes with big visual effects budgets the most likely works to contain visual cues that impress Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy Awards) voters. Tichenor claimed that effective visual effects do not call attention to themselves and instead rely on the actors' reactions to nonexistent things.
Daniel Jackson's appendicitis
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency and many cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, mortality is high, mainly because of the risk of rupture leading to...
reflected Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks
Michael Garrett Shanks is a Canadian actor who achieved fame for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the long-running Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
' real-world condition at the end of season 3. During the last shooting day of "Crystal Skull", Shanks suffered an appendicitis attack, which he had first misinterpreted as food poisoning from the Thanksgiving dinner
Thanksgiving dinner
The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, generally centered around a large roasted turkey. The majority of the dishes in the...
. While Robert C. Cooper desperately tried to rewrite the script of "Nemesis", producer Brad Wright
Brad Wright
Brad Wright is a Canadian television producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known as the creator or co-creator of the television series Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe...
contrived elaborate storylines to reduce Shanks' involvement in the episode. Cooper eventually decided to use a common health issue to explain Daniel's absence from the episode's action scenes. Shanks appeared in four scenes set at Stargate Command, although he also provided the voice of the Asgard Thor in post-production. Although much of Daniel's and O'Neill's exchange in the infirmary was improvised, critic Jo Storm speculated in his book Approaching The Possible that Daniel's question in the infirmary bed to O'Neill ("Did you get a haircut?") may reflect the actors' hairstyles which had significantly changed since the season 2 finale; the lines may have been added to appease the many viewers who had commented on the characters' new looks on the online boards. "Nemesis" was the last episode before actor Christopher Judge
Christopher Judge
Douglas Christopher Judge is an American actor best known for playing Teal'c in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. He attended the University of Oregon on a football scholarship and was a Pacific Ten Conference player.-Early life:Christopher Judge was...
started sporting a small blond beard for several episodes in season 4.
Reception
"Nemesis" first aired in the United Kingdom on Sky OneSky One
Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...
on February 11, 2000, and had its American premiere on Showtime on March 8, 2000. In Germany, "Nemesis" was held back from season 3 and aired as the first hour of the season 4 premiere. Airing in American broadcast syndication during the 2001 May sweeps, "Nemesis" had a 2.7/2.8 household rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, which helped Stargate SG-1s placement as second among first-run entertainment hours (a second airing after a premiere on an American subscription channel is not regarded as an off-network rerun) and placed fifth overall in the U.S. syndication market. "Nemesis" was nominated for an Emmy in the "Outstanding Special Visual Effects" category in 2000, but lost to the X-Files episode "First Person Shooter
First Person Shooter (The X-Files)
"First Person Shooter" is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It is the spiritual successor to Gibson's earlier episode "Kill Switch".-Plot summary:...
"; the other competitors were Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
episodes "Life Line" and "The Haunting of Deck Twelve
The Haunting of Deck Twelve
"The Haunting of Deck Twelve" is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the penultimate episode of the sixth season.-Plot:A planned power outage causes the Borg children to wake from their regeneration cycles, much to their surprise. Neelix is there to comfort them. The children wonder if this incident...
", and the X-Files episode "Rush". "Nemesis" won a Leo Award for "Best Overall Sound In A Dramatic Series" in 2000.
Jo Storm wrote that the "cleverly disguised action mini-arc" gives insight into the imperfection of the Asgard and that the "foreign, creepy" Replicators are "conquerors who make the Goa'uld look nice by comparison". He felt that the episode had "all the classic elements of fiction", and lauded Robert C. Cooper's storytelling idea to take the Stargate from the SGC and Don S. Davis's following "best nonspeaking moment". In Storm's mind, the visual effects were well-placed and did not overthrow the story, but he wondered about the "ubiquitous Sam/Jack interest". If not interpreted as "flirtatiousness", Carter could be "truly touched at being let into the 'inner circle' of [O'Neill's] life, and finally being 'one of the guys'", which Storm found problematic as the character had previously never been shown to feel left out.
External links
- "Nemesis" at mgm.com
- "Nemesis" at scifi.comSci Fi Channel (United States)Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
- Screenplay (PDF), distributed by MGMMetro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...