"Urgo" ( 3 x 16 )

There is a strange man on the title screen.

I expect this to be FULL OF LULZ.

SG-1 is in the control room, looking at the MALP’s transmission back from a planet – it pretty much looks like a tropical paradise. They step through the ‘Gate…

…and step back into the launch room? SG-1 doesn’t think any time has passed, but according to Hammond, it’s been over fifteen hours! (Oh, gee, hate when that happens.)

In the infirmary, Hammond and Fraiser explain to the team that while there’s no indication of drugging or any noticeable injection sites nor marks, something’s still very wrong here.

They go to the Hangout, and after looking at the transmissions, they realize that the island image is a façade. The real transmission is some kind of room, but it’s a fuzzy image.

And then we get… lulz.

Everyone starts remarking in the middle of the debriefing how great the coffee is. Teal’c proceeds to drain the entire pot of STEAMING HOT COFFEE straight from the canister!! Of course Teal’c is a total BAMF and he can do that… but still! Something’s not quite right!

But the strangeness doesn’t end there. After O’Neill devours a slice of pie, the rest of the team suddenly finds him at a table – all of them at the same time – and the table is full of desserts.

Fraiser calls them all into the infirmary, where she reports that she’s found a very, very small device in each of their brains. How it got there, she’s not sure, but she doesn’t think she could remove it without causing irreparable damage. Of course taking precautions, Hammond puts them in confinement for the time being.

In the room, they suddenly all start to hear a voice. And then…

…in a very Q-like flash…

…a man appears to them! A rather jolly, flamboyant, voluptuous man, if I do say so myself. He kind of reminds me of Trelane. (Trelaaaane! <3 )

He introduces himself as “Urgo”, and it turns out that he’s more or less a figment of their collective minds/imaginations. No one else can see nor hear him. He can read their thoughts – but only to an extent. Carter realizes that he’s connected to the device, and in turn the devices are connected to each other, so they are connected to each other… thus why they all craved desserts at the same time. However, he can’t push them to do anything, only suggest.

One thing’s for sure: As funny as I find him, he’s turning out to be downright annoying.

SG-1 find themselves back in the infirmary, and of course Urgo has followed them down. He seems to have a love of learning about new things, and we get this funny line:

Urgo: (Pointing to a defibrillator) “What is this?”

Carter: “It’s a defibrillator.”

Urgo: “Oh. … Is it defibrillating now?”

Oh goodness I love this guy!

He confirms that he is in their brains, as it were, to learn about their world. He’s just a really, really complex computer program. When Jackson compares it to tagging wild animals, Teal’c retorts:

“We are not wild animals.”

And Urgo responds: “Speak for yourself, big fellow.”

Okay, if this guy isn’t like Q/Trelane-without-his-powers then I just don’t know what to think.

He also tells them that they’ll die if they go back to the creator of this technology to have him removed, but I’m not quite sure if I buy that or not. Something tells me he’s got ulterior motives. What’s he planning, anyways?

Carter does manage to create a sort of EM pulse that will eliminate him, and despite his various protests and attempts to convince them otherwise, he does vanish. Yay! Oh, wait, there are still like twenty minutes left in the episode.

Fraiser keeps an eye on each of them, and they’re in separate rooms… and they start singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. The thing is, they’re not aware of it when she asks them about it later.
URGO’S BACK!

Turns out that her EM wave worked for a short time, but then it wore off. The thing is, though, SG-1 is at wit’s end. They send a MALP through to the planet, and a voice responds, saying his name is Togar, and apparently Urgo wasn’t supposed to make himself known to them. SG-1 makes their final decision, and they decide to take the risk and go there.

While they’re getting ready to embark, Carter realizes that although he is an “error”, by definition Urgo is a sort of sentient being. Nevertheless, they go to the planet.

They are immediately transported into what looks like a laboratory. They are approached by Togar, who looks… just like Urgo. Obviously the creator. He’s also got doors in his lab that are just like the ones on Deep Space Nine (squee!). He promises them that, following the removal of Urgo, they will be unharmed, but of course Carter is still concerned about Urgo himself. Jackson suggests that Togar insert the Urgo program into himself, and thus become an explorer instead of needing hosts for his program. They agree to the exchange, and Urgo is removed from SG-1’s brains.

SG-1 goes back through the Stargate… and they don’t remember anything!

Final thoughts… Sometimes, in a series, you just need a breather. You need to laugh a little. You need someone to tickle your mental funny bone and a quick diversion for once. For Stargate SG-1, this episode is that diversion.

“Urgo” had me openly laughing for a good chunk of this episode! Dom DeLuise (who I now see played “Pizza the Hut” (yes, you read that correctly) in Spaceballs, which explains why I loved this episode so much), a late veteran actor himself, just really took the role of Urgo and ran with it. He was very funny, a little bit annoying, and completely in-character.

And I’ll confess: I’m not always a big fan of sci-fi when it tries too hard to be funny. But this worked, because while it was certainly comedic, it still had all the elements of a good Stargate episode: moral/ethical debate, the question of what constitutes life, and the notion of exploration. “Urgo” was a great little breather, but I suppose now it’s back to the real storyline!

REFLECTION/PREDICTION THINGY

(The crew reflects on what has just transpired.)

Jackson: Well, I’ll say it was great to have a laugh.

Carter: Urgo certainly was an interesting individual.

O’Neill: I’m just glad he’s gone. He was a pain in the mikta.

Teal’c: Is no one else experiencing a strange desire for pizza?