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"The Torment of Tantalus" is an episode from Season 1 of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. It is often referred to by fans as "the Meaning of Life Stuff episode".

Plot

Daniel Jackson watches a film from 1945 of scientists successfully turning on the Stargate device. A man steps through the gate, but the wormhole then collapses. Jackson visits Catherine Langford, daughter of the lead scientist and fiancée of the trapped man, Ernest Littlefield, who she thought had died during an explosion in the lab.

After a briefing of events, including the discovery of the address of the Stargate destination, General Hammond agrees that SG-1 should attempt to bring Dr. Littlefield home. Catherine insists on joining the mission.

On the other side of the wormhole, they find Dr. Littlefield, emaciated but alive but that the Dial-Home Device is broken and hence they are stuck. While she works on a solution, Catherine and Ernest reconcile after years of separation. Ernest reveals a special room where a central device displays representations of atoms and basic elements. On the walls are a "book" in four types of writing and Jackson realises that the atoms are a kind of universal language.

Obsessed with copying the "book," Daniel wishes to stay. Ernest dissuades him, however, and Jackson leaves the book. They escape through the Stargate just before the wormhole destabilizes and shuts down.

Later, an attempt is made to open another wormhole to the planet to see if a return is possible. The attempt fails, but Ernest tells Daniel that one day he might meet the ones who wrote the book and tell him what it means.

Production

• The title refers to the Greek myth of Tantalus, who could never reach what he kept grasping out for, and who is the origin of the word "tantalise", as Jackson is tantalised by the enormity of the "Meaning of Life Stuff" which he cannot possibly reach.
• Paul McGillion (Young Ernest Littlefield) would go on to play the recurring and later main character Dr. Carson Beckett in Stargate Atlantis.

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Reception

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External links

• "Official Stargate SG-1 site". MGM. Retrieved 2006-06-08. Most of site requires Flash.
• "Screenplay" (PDF). Distributed by MGM. Prepared by Casablanca Continuity. Retrieved 2006-10-28. Also see Google's cache.
• "Summary". Sci Fi Channel (United States). Retrieved 2006-06-05. {{cite web}}: Text "SciFi]]" ignored (help)

• Articles with topics of unclear notability from December 2007
• Stargate SG-1 episodes