"I wanna explore the universe and I wanna eat pie!"
— Urgo.
SG-1 returns from a mission of which they have no memory, only to discover that they've all had an artificial intelligence implanted in their brains for the purpose of collecting data from other planets, which takes on the form of an incredibly annoying man named "Urgo".
"Urgo" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Urgo doesn't handle boredom well, and his attention frequently bounces from thing to thing, with him spewing ideas and examining things he's curious about. Which makes sense, given his primary purpose is to record experiences.
- Big Eater: Urgo turns the entire team into these, since he's programmed to collect new experiences. At one point, they all congregate in the mess hall and gorge themselves on dessert.
- Book Ends: The episode begins with the team coming back from a mission thinking no time had expired since they stepped through the gate on Earth and surprised to be at the SGC. It ends the same way, though this time we got to see where they went.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Urgo uses O'Neill's "for cryin' out loud" at one point, causing O'Neill to do a double-take.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Urgo warns the team that his creator will "scoop their brains out with a big scoopy thing" if they return to the planet.
- Department of Redundancy Department: This exchange:Urgo: I do not want you to die.Daniel: Die?Urgo: Yes, as in dead!
- Dirty Mind-Reading: Urgo catches O'Neill thinking about Mary Steenburgen and "that island Maui, with the big beaches and the little bikinis". When Urgo innocently shares the latter with the rest of SG-1, Carter gives O'Neill a knowing look while he tries to look as though he has no idea what Urgo is talking about.
- EMP: Carter uses one to try and get rid of Urgo. It doesn't work, although it does disable him briefly.
- Finish Dialogue in Unison: Since the team can no longer see him after he's removed from their brains, Daniel wants proof that Urgo is still alive before they leave the planet, leading to this:Daniel: Wait, Togar. How do we know that Urgo is really alive?Urgo: I'm here, I'm here! Tell him, tell him!Togar: I will as soon as you are quiet!Daniel & O'Neill: ...He's alive.
- The Gadfly: Urgo isn't always intentionally irritating, but he does start trying to annoy the team on purpose in order to distract them (mostly Carter) when they're looking for ways to get rid of him.
- Grew Beyond Their Programming: Urgo was never supposed to be sentient or interact with the people whose experiences he's collecting; Carter calls it a new kind of evolution and tells Togar that what he considers an error could equally be called a miracle.
- Headdesk: O'Neill does this on the briefing room table once they realize the EM pulse hasn't worked and they're still stuck with Urgo.
- The Hermit: Togar is this, having originally created Urgo as a means to explore the universe and obtain information as he was too afraid to go out there himself. Urgo says the rest of Togar's people are like this, too.
- Hope Spot: For a while, it looks as though the EMP has worked and Urgo is gone... and then the team spontaneously burst into a chorus of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
- Hurricane of Aphorisms: This exchange at the beginning of the episode:Teal'c: Appearances may be deceiving.O'Neill: One man's ceiling is another man's floor.Daniel: A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell.O'Neill: Never run with... scissors?
- I Broke a Nail: Referenced as the team sets off on an apparently dull mission:O'Neill: It's all fun and games until someone breaks a nail.
- Interface with a Familiar Face: It's revealed at the end that Togar created Urgo in his own likeness.Urgo (about Togar): As handsome as he is evil!
- I'm Melting!: Urgo does this when Carter prepares the EMP, unaware that she hasn't actually activated it yet.
- I'm Thinking It Over!:Urgo: You have to decide. Me... or death. Death or me.[long pause]Urgo: Well?!O'Neill: We're thinking!
- Later bookended when Urgo is offered the chance to live inside Togar:
O'Neill: We're giving you a chance here. Him or death. Death or him.[long pause]O'Neill: Well?!Urgo: I'm thinking! - Large Ham: Urgo.
- The Man Behind the Curtain: Togar speaks with a deep, imposing voice when the team contact him over the radio but is much less impressive in person.
- Missing Time: Both times the team go to Togar's planet, they perceives themselves as instantly returning to Earth, while Hammond informs them that they've actually been gone for several hours.
- Must Have Caffeine: Taken to ridiculous extremes when Urgo influences Teal'c to pour boiling hot coffee down his throat straight from the pot.O'Neill: Isn't that hot?Teal'c: Extremely.
- Only Sane Man: Much of the episode's humor is derived from Hammond and Fraiser looking on in utter bewilderment as the team are compelled to behave in increasingly bizarre ways while arguing with an entity that only they can see.
- Pleasure Planet: Togar's planet is under some kind of Glamour that makes it appear this way on the probe, to lure people into visiting so that he can implant Urgo in their heads to obtain information about other planets.
- Save the Villain: Urgo isn't a villain, per se, but he's the closest thing the episode has to an antagonist. The team decide to save him rather than have him removed or killed.
- Sense Freak: As part of driving the team to experience things for him to record, Urgo can enhance their sensory perceptions, making food taste better and such.
- Speak in Unison: Despite claiming that he can't make them do anything they don't want to, Urgo gets the team to do this several times throughout the episode. At one point, he influences them to sing in unison ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat"), when they're all in completely different areas of the base.
- Spock Speak:Urgo: I didn't mean to.O'Neill, Carter, Daniel: He didn't mean to.Teal'c: It was not his intention.
- Stock Footage: The shots near the beginning of SG-1 entering the Stargate and getting spat back out are recycled from "1969".
- That Came Out Wrong: Urgo is not thrilled with Carter's description of the effect the EM pulse will have on him.Carter: It would be harmless to us, but it should render Urgo impotent.Urgo: Could you, uh... rephrase that?
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Carter and Daniel come to the conclusion that Urgo is actually a sentient life-form because he is self-aware, capable of independent thought, and fears death. Because of this, they decide that he deserves to live, and convince Togar to implant the technology in his own mind.
