200 (Stargate SG-1)
Encyclopedia
"200" is the sixth episode of the science fiction
television series Stargate SG-1
s tenth season
, and the 200th episode of the series overall. Unlike the more serious nature of the season's story arc, "200" is a light-hearted parody
of both Stargate SG-1 and other sci-fi
shows, as well as popular culture like The Wizard of Oz
.
"200" won the 2007 Constellation Award for Best Overall 2006 Science Fiction Film or Television Script, and was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. The episode also marks the first time original SG-1 member Jack O'Neill
(Richard Dean Anderson
) is seen since the beginning of Season 9.
The episode received a 1.9 average household rating, one of the few episodes of the season that surpassed the average rating of Stargate SG-1s previous season
. "200" also received near-universal praise for its humor and writing. Despite the strong performance of the episode, the Sci-Fi Channel
announced soon after the episode's airing it would not be renewing the series for another season.
), an extraterrestrial
turned Hollywood writer, returns to Stargate Command
looking for assistance from SG-1 with his script for the movie adaptation of the television show Wormhole X-Treme, first featured earlier in the series in the episode . The team, especially Lt. Colonel Mitchell
(Ben Browder
), is reluctant to help. Mitchell is excited about his next off-world mission because it marks his 200th trip through the Stargate
. However, when technical glitches prevent the team from setting off on their mission, they are stuck in the briefing room under the orders of General Landry (Beau Bridges
), because the Pentagon believes a successful science fiction film about intergalactic wormhole travel will serve as a good cover story
to keep the real Stargate program a secret.
The notes session quickly devolves into the team members pitching their own versions of a successful sci-fi film, including a zombie
invasion (from Mitchell), a previously unseen mission where O'Neill became invisible (from Carter
), "tributes" to The Wizard of Oz
and Farscape
(from Vala
), and Teal'c
as a private investigator (from Teal'c himself). Also featured are a vignette of the team's mental image of a "younger and edgier" SG-1 (sparked by the studio's suggestion to replace the original Wormhole X-Treme cast), a suggested scene by Martin that turns out to be both scientifically inaccurate and highly derivative of Star Trek
, a re-imagined version of the original movie
where all the characters are marionettes in the style of the television series Thunderbirds
, and an imagined wedding that features the return of General O'Neill
(Richard Dean Anderson
).
Ultimately, the planning session is all for naught, as the studio decides to cancel the movie in favor of renewing the series. At the end of the episode, the focus shifts ten years into the future, where the Wormhole X-Treme cast and crew are celebrating their 200th episode, as well as renewed plans for a movie.
Robert C. Cooper
originally proposed they write a normal script for the 200th episode. However it soon became clear that deciding who would have the privilege of writing the 200th episode would be problematic. This led to the idea to create a sketch
episode in the manner of Saturday Night Live
, with each writer creating a vignette
. The episode took shape when the writers thought to bring back Wormhole X-Treme and the character of Martin, and frame the whole episode as a notes session. By the end of the writing process the episode had turned into "an homage to the cast, crew, and die-hard fans."
Stargate producers were not sure actor Richard Dean Anderson would return for the episode, so they devised many scenes where Anderson was "in" the episode but not actually shown. Luckily, Anderson was willing to return and appeared in several scenes. In the DVD special Stargate SG-1: Behind the 200th Cooper said, "it was a big deal for us to have [him] back for the 200th episode. We obviously didn't think we could do it without him."
Despite the markedly different content of the episode, "200" took no longer to shoot than a normal episode, mainly because much of the filming took place on the briefing room set. On the other hand, the episode was much more expensive than a typical one, due to the unusual sequences. For example, the marionette
s used in an elaborate spoof of the series were created by the Chiodo brothers
, who also made the puppets for Team America: World Police
; each puppet cost about US$25,000, and the wires pulling each puppet had to be readded by CGI
in post production because they didn't show up well enough. Several existing sets were used as stand-ins; for example, the bridge of the Odyssey
was used for a Star Trek: The Original Series
spoof, while a set from the sister production Stargate: Atlantis was used as the chamber of the Wizard of Oz
.
In an interview about the tenth season of Stargate, Cooper and series co-creator Brad Wright stated that there was a fine line between the humor of regular episodes turning into camp
. While jokes for the joke's sake are usually limited in normal episodes, the line between humor and camp is deliberately crossed frequently in "200". The producers even talked about recreating a part of Blazing Saddles
that breaks the fourth wall
, but they could not afford the horses.
The producers made sure that the episode was well-publicized, dropping hints that Anderson's character O'Neill would return for the episode. Joe Mallozzi, executive producer for the series, also hinted that series fans would finally meet the Furlings, an enigmatic race referenced in the second season episode but never seen. Despite the outlandish scenes filmed for the episode, many of the writers' favorite moments did not make it to production due to time constraints. For example, Cooper noted that a Gilligan's Island
skit was cut from the script.
as well as the Sci-Fi Channel
itself, which had shortened SG-1's Season 9 opening but changed it back after fans demanded it. When Martin learns that his main actor has backed out of the movie, the SG-1 team offers various suggestions about how to replace him or work around the lack of the actor, referencing Richard Dean Anderson
's lack of appearances in the sixth season of Stargate SG-1. Anderson himself also pokes fun at the ending of the eighth season episode , which was intended to be the series finale before the ninth season was announced. The final scene of "200", which features interviews with the Wormhole X-Treme cast, was added as an afterthought, and contains comments from the real cast which were used out of context as an inside joke.
The episode also rips on other science fiction shows. Early in the episode, Dr. Jackson asks who would make a movie out of a series that only lasted three episodes, to which Teal'c replies that it had strong DVD
sales. This is a reference to the series Firefly
, which was cancelled after airing only eleven (of 14 filmed) episodes, but whose high DVD sales allowed the creation of the feature film Serenity
. One sequence is a parody of the original Star Trek series, with SG-1 standing in for the crew of the Enterprise. Brad Wright
, the co-creator of the series, fills in as the engineer Montgomery Scott
. The episode also takes the series Farscape
to task, including its habit of inventing swear words
. The Farscape sequence itself is an in-joke as actors Ben Browder and Claudia Black both starred in the earlier series (and indeed Black reprises her original role of Aeryn Sun, though Browder appears as another character, Stark, with Michael Shanks portraying Browder's old character, John Crichton). Several other shows and movies are parodied, including telling the story of the The Wizard of Oz
with the SG-1 team – the writers based the scene on a fan painting they had hanging in their office. Other elements make fun of 24
s "ticking clock of jeopardy", and an entire sequence with all the characters played by marionette
s, in the style of Thunderbirds
and Team America: World Police
.
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Richard Dean Anderson
also won a SyFy Genre Award for his guest appearance in the episode.
The episode was generally well-received. IGN
declared the episode "one of the smartest and funniest hours of television to grace the small screen yet this season." They went on to applaud the decision not only to parody other works but the show itself. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
agreed, but also noted that "you don’t need to be a longtime fan of the long-running program to enjoy its jibes at sci-fi clichés or expedient writing." Eclipse Magazine noted that although the episode was "not a work of comic genius", "200" was the best comedy episode of the series.
The highly publicized debut of the episode garnered a 1.9 average household rating, a 36% jump from the previous episode, and the first episode of the tenth season to reach or exceed the previous season's rating of 1.8; Stargate SG-1 at that point was averaging about 3.3 million viewers per regular episode in the United States.
announced the Sci-Fi Channel
's decision to not renew their order of Stargate SG-1 for the coming year. This was later confirmed by the Channel, along with an announcement that Stargate Atlantis
had been picked up for another season. Many fans denounced the timing of the announcement, as it was apparently made while the cast and crew were celebrating the episode's airing. While ratings were not as high as previous seasons, the series was still drawing respectable audiences, including a season average of 2 million viewers in Australia, half of them falling into the 18-49 demographic. Sci Fi responded that the cancellation was not about ratings so much as a feeling the series had run its course. Characters from SG-1 would make appearances on Atlantis and Universe and in direct-to-DVD films such as Stargate: The Ark of Truth
and Stargate: Continuum
.
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...
s tenth season
Stargate SG-1 (season 10)
Season ten of Stargate SG-1, an American-Canadian television series, began airing on July 14, 2006 on Sci Fi Channel . The final season of the series concluded after 20 episodes on March 13, 2007 on British Sky One, which overtook the Sci-Fi Channel in mid-season. The series was developed by Brad...
, and the 200th episode of the series overall. Unlike the more serious nature of the season's story arc, "200" is a light-hearted parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of both Stargate SG-1 and other sci-fi
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...
shows, as well as popular culture like The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
.
"200" won the 2007 Constellation Award for Best Overall 2006 Science Fiction Film or Television Script, and was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. The episode also marks the first time original SG-1 member Jack 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...
(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...
) is seen since the beginning of Season 9.
The episode received a 1.9 average household rating, one of the few episodes of the season that surpassed the average rating of Stargate SG-1s previous season
Stargate SG-1 (season 9)
Season nine of Stargate SG-1, an American-Canadian television series, began airing on July 15, 2005 on SCI FI. The ninth season concluded on March 10, 2006, after 20 episodes on the same channel. The series was originally developed by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, and Brad Wright, Robert C....
. "200" also received near-universal praise for its humor and writing. Despite the strong performance of the episode, the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
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...
announced soon after the episode's airing it would not be renewing the series for another season.
Plot
Martin Lloyd (Willie GarsonWillie Garson
Willie Garson is an American character actor. He has appeared in over 50 movies, usually playing minor roles...
), an extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
turned Hollywood writer, returns to 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...
looking for assistance from SG-1 with his script for the movie adaptation of the television show Wormhole X-Treme, first featured earlier in the series in the episode . The team, especially Lt. Colonel Mitchell
Cameron Mitchell (Stargate)
Cameron "Cam" Mitchell is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...
(Ben Browder
Ben Browder
Robert Benedic "Ben" Browder is an American actor and writer, best known for his roles as John Crichton in Farscape and Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1.-Early life:...
), is reluctant to help. Mitchell is excited about his next off-world mission because it marks his 200th trip through the Stargate
Stargate (device)
A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
. However, when technical glitches prevent the team from setting off on their mission, they are stuck in the briefing room under the orders of General Landry (Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
), because the Pentagon believes a successful science fiction film about intergalactic wormhole travel will serve as a good cover story
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
to keep the real Stargate program a secret.
The notes session quickly devolves into the team members pitching their own versions of a successful sci-fi film, including a zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
invasion (from Mitchell), a previously unseen mission where O'Neill became invisible (from 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...
), "tributes" to The Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
and Farscape
Farscape
Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...
(from Vala
Vala Mal Doran
Vala Mal Doran is a fictional character in the American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices. Played by former Farscape actress Claudia Black, Vala was created by...
), 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...
as a private investigator (from Teal'c himself). Also featured are a vignette of the team's mental image of a "younger and edgier" SG-1 (sparked by the studio's suggestion to replace the original Wormhole X-Treme cast), a suggested scene by Martin that turns out to be both scientifically inaccurate and highly derivative of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, a re-imagined version of the original movie
Stargate (film)
Stargate is a 1994 American adventure-military science fiction film released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco Pictures. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise...
where all the characters are marionettes in the style of the television series Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
, and an imagined wedding that features the return of General 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...
(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...
).
Ultimately, the planning session is all for naught, as the studio decides to cancel the movie in favor of renewing the series. At the end of the episode, the focus shifts ten years into the future, where the Wormhole X-Treme cast and crew are celebrating their 200th episode, as well as renewed plans for a movie.
Production
Executive producerExecutive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
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...
originally proposed they write a normal script for the 200th episode. However it soon became clear that deciding who would have the privilege of writing the 200th episode would be problematic. This led to the idea to create a sketch
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
episode in the manner of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, with each writer creating a vignette
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
. The episode took shape when the writers thought to bring back Wormhole X-Treme and the character of Martin, and frame the whole episode as a notes session. By the end of the writing process the episode had turned into "an homage to the cast, crew, and die-hard fans."
Stargate producers were not sure actor Richard Dean Anderson would return for the episode, so they devised many scenes where Anderson was "in" the episode but not actually shown. Luckily, Anderson was willing to return and appeared in several scenes. In the DVD special Stargate SG-1: Behind the 200th Cooper said, "it was a big deal for us to have [him] back for the 200th episode. We obviously didn't think we could do it without him."
Despite the markedly different content of the episode, "200" took no longer to shoot than a normal episode, mainly because much of the filming took place on the briefing room set. On the other hand, the episode was much more expensive than a typical one, due to the unusual sequences. For example, the marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
s used in an elaborate spoof of the series were created by the Chiodo brothers
The Chiodo Brothers
The Chiodo Brothers are a group of sibling special effects artists, best known for their film Killer Klowns from Outer Space and creating puppets and effects for films such as Critters, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Team America: World Police...
, who also made the puppets for Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police, often referred to as simply Team America, is a 2004 action comedy film written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady and directed by Parker, all of whom are also known for the popular animated television series South Park...
; each puppet cost about US$25,000, and the wires pulling each puppet had to be readded by CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
in post production because they didn't show up well enough. Several existing sets were used as stand-ins; for example, the bridge of the Odyssey
Daedalus class battlecruiser
In the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and its sequels, several types of starships are introduced in the later seasons. In the series, they are the product of several years' worth of research into alien technologies discovered on off-world missions to other planets visited via the...
was used for a Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
spoof, while a set from the sister production Stargate: Atlantis was used as the chamber of the Wizard of Oz
Wizard (Oz)
The Wizard of Oz, known during his reign as The Great and Powerful Oz, is the epithet of Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by American author L...
.
In an interview about the tenth season of Stargate, Cooper and series co-creator Brad Wright stated that there was a fine line between the humor of regular episodes turning into camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
. While jokes for the joke's sake are usually limited in normal episodes, the line between humor and camp is deliberately crossed frequently in "200". The producers even talked about recreating a part of Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...
that breaks the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
, but they could not afford the horses.
The producers made sure that the episode was well-publicized, dropping hints that Anderson's character O'Neill would return for the episode. Joe Mallozzi, executive producer for the series, also hinted that series fans would finally meet the Furlings, an enigmatic race referenced in the second season episode but never seen. Despite the outlandish scenes filmed for the episode, many of the writers' favorite moments did not make it to production due to time constraints. For example, Cooper noted that a Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...
skit was cut from the script.
Cultural references
Most of the episode is devoted to references and allusions to other works, as well as the show itself. The title sequence is deliberately shorter than most other episodes, poking fun at shows like LostLost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
as well as the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
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...
itself, which had shortened SG-1's Season 9 opening but changed it back after fans demanded it. When Martin learns that his main actor has backed out of the movie, the SG-1 team offers various suggestions about how to replace him or work around the lack of the actor, referencing 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...
's lack of appearances in the sixth season of Stargate SG-1. Anderson himself also pokes fun at the ending of the eighth season episode , which was intended to be the series finale before the ninth season was announced. The final scene of "200", which features interviews with the Wormhole X-Treme cast, was added as an afterthought, and contains comments from the real cast which were used out of context as an inside joke.
The episode also rips on other science fiction shows. Early in the episode, Dr. Jackson asks who would make a movie out of a series that only lasted three episodes, to which Teal'c replies that it had strong DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
sales. This is a reference to the series Firefly
Firefly (TV series)
Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
, which was cancelled after airing only eleven (of 14 filmed) episodes, but whose high DVD sales allowed the creation of the feature film Serenity
Serenity (film)
Serenity is a 2005 space western film written and directed by Joss Whedon. It is a continuation of the short-lived 2002 Fox science fiction television series Firefly, taking place after the events of the final episode. Set in 2518, Serenity is the story of the captain and crew of a cargo ship...
. One sequence is a parody of the original Star Trek series, with SG-1 standing in for the crew of the Enterprise. 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...
, the co-creator of the series, fills in as the engineer Montgomery Scott
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
. The episode also takes the series Farscape
Farscape
Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series filmed in Australia and produced originally for the Nine Network. The series was conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainment...
to task, including its habit of inventing swear words
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
. The Farscape sequence itself is an in-joke as actors Ben Browder and Claudia Black both starred in the earlier series (and indeed Black reprises her original role of Aeryn Sun, though Browder appears as another character, Stark, with Michael Shanks portraying Browder's old character, John Crichton). Several other shows and movies are parodied, including telling the story of the The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
with the SG-1 team – the writers based the scene on a fan painting they had hanging in their office. Other elements make fun of 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
s "ticking clock of jeopardy", and an entire sequence with all the characters played by marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
s, in the style of Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
and Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police
Team America: World Police, often referred to as simply Team America, is a 2004 action comedy film written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady and directed by Parker, all of whom are also known for the popular animated television series South Park...
.
Reception
The episode won the 2007 Constellation Award for Best Overall 2006 Science Fiction Film or Television Script, and was nominated for the 2007 Hugo AwardHugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. 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...
also won a SyFy Genre Award for his guest appearance in the episode.
The episode was generally well-received. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
declared the episode "one of the smartest and funniest hours of television to grace the small screen yet this season." They went on to applaud the decision not only to parody other works but the show itself. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
agreed, but also noted that "you don’t need to be a longtime fan of the long-running program to enjoy its jibes at sci-fi clichés or expedient writing." Eclipse Magazine noted that although the episode was "not a work of comic genius", "200" was the best comedy episode of the series.
The highly publicized debut of the episode garnered a 1.9 average household rating, a 36% jump from the previous episode, and the first episode of the tenth season to reach or exceed the previous season's rating of 1.8; Stargate SG-1 at that point was averaging about 3.3 million viewers per regular episode in the United States.
Cancellation
Shortly after this episode was aired, GateworldGateWorld
Stargate fandom is a community of people actively interested in the military science fiction film Stargate and the television shows Stargate SG-1 , Stargate Infinity , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate Universe and their spin offs...
announced the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
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...
's decision to not renew their order of Stargate SG-1 for the coming year. This was later confirmed by the Channel, along with an announcement that Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
had been picked up for another season. Many fans denounced the timing of the announcement, as it was apparently made while the cast and crew were celebrating the episode's airing. While ratings were not as high as previous seasons, the series was still drawing respectable audiences, including a season average of 2 million viewers in Australia, half of them falling into the 18-49 demographic. Sci Fi responded that the cancellation was not about ratings so much as a feeling the series had run its course. Characters from SG-1 would make appearances on Atlantis and Universe and in direct-to-DVD films such as Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Stargate: The Ark of Truth is a 2008 Canadian-American military science fiction film written and directed by Robert C. Cooper. The film is the conclusion of Stargate SG-1 Ori arc, and picks up after the SG-1 series finale, but takes place before the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis. The Ark of...
and Stargate: Continuum
Stargate: Continuum
Stargate: Continuum is a Canadian-American military science fiction film released through MGM Home Entertainment , written by Brad Wright and directed by Martin Wood. The film is a time-travel adventure and is the second sequel to Stargate SG-1, after Stargate: The Ark of Truth...
.
External links
- 200 at mgm.com
- 200 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...