Daniel: Well, that looked... familiar.
O'Neill: I don't see it.
The team track down Martin Lloyd after detecting a ship of similar design to his heading towards Earth. Unfortunately, it turns out that Martin has once again had his memories erased, and is now producing a television show called Wormhole X-Treme, which just so happens to be based around a very familiar premise and set of characters.
First appearance of Agent Malcolm Barrett. 100th Episode of the series.
"Wormhole X-Treme!" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Afraid of Needles: Martin claims that needles make him feel "queasy" when Tanner gives him the antidote for the memory-loss drug.
- Aliens Speaking English: Lampshaded by the prop master.
- Author Avatar: Martin mentions that the original story which eventually developed into Wormhole X-Treme featured a fifth member of the team; a "handsome, smooth-talking alien who was stranded on Earth when his crew deserted him". The producers made him cut that part out.
- Beat: A twelve-second long one occurs when Yolanda, the actress playing the Carter Expy, asks why she doesn't fall through the floor when she's supposed to be out of phase.
- Better than a Bare Bulb: This episode exists entirely for the show to poke fun at itself and hang a lampshade on various aspects of the production process.
- Boldly Coming: The O'Neill Expy is apparently very into this
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The O'Neill Expy actor in The Tag references him not being in a real show.
- But Now I Must Go: Tanner and his men leave Earth for good.
- Call-Back:
- In the Wormhole X-Treme trailer that the team watch, the O'Neill Expy gives the line "as a matter of fact, it does say Colonel on my uniform."
- O'Neill turns Martin's line that he's not just interested in outer space, he's from outer space back on him.
- The discussion between O'Neill and Martin regarding the fact that matter can only travel one way through a wormhole was the layman's discussion to the scientific conversation between Carter and Cadet Haley in "Prodigy".
- Chekhov's Gunman: The props guy who has a brief conversation with Martin near the beginning of the episode later turns out to be working for the NID.
- Continuity Nod: Martin still refers to Teal'c as "Murray", much to his dismay.
- Dramatic Alien VTOL: Martin uses this for his closing scene as Tanner's ship takes off.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: O'Neill witnesses the Teal'c Expy's actor getting some assistance in this department via a piece of string taped to his face.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: O'Neill slaps Martin across the face when he starts babbling incoherently after Tanner gives him the antidote.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Gets a lampshade hung on it with a scantily-clad actress wandering around the set in green body-paint.Martin: Oh, they went with green...? Okay, well, it looks good.
- I Choose to Stay: Martin decides to stay on Earth at the end of the episode, wanting to chase his new dream of becoming a TV executive.
- Identity Amnesia: Martin once again has his memories of being from another planet removed, although it was self-inflicted this time.
- It's What I Do: The O'Neill Expy apparently has this as his catchphrase.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Agent Barrett locks Carter and Daniel out of the investigation, claiming that the NID has sole jurisdiction as they want to get their hands on Tanner's spaceship.
- The Men in Black: Tanner sends Carter and Daniel to a warehouse filled with NID operatives, all of whom are wearing identical-looking black suits.Daniel: Please, Mr. Man in Black, don't pretend you don't know about the aliens.
- Mexican Standoff: Happens twice; first of all between the team led by Carter and Daniel and the NID, and then again with O'Neill, Tanner and Teal'c.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Barrett leaves a rather intimidating-looking agent to watch over Carter and Daniel; by the time the action cuts back to them they've somehow managed to incapacitate him, with the guy looking somewhat worse for the wear as Daniel finishes tying him to a chair.
- Palette-Swapped Alien Food: Parodied:Martin: Okay, scene 23 takes place on another planet. So you think aliens eat apples?Prop Master: Why not? They speak English.Martin: Get some kiwis and spray-paint them red.Prop Master: (pulls out script) Okay, so now it'll go, "Nick walks into a garden of kiwi trees, says 'How like Eden this world is,' and bites into a painted kiwi."
- Plausible Deniability: Hammond cites this as the reason why the Air Force would allow the show to air, so that any future breaches in security could simply be dealt with by saying that the idea came from the show.
- Robot Buddy: The Teal'c Expy on the show is a robot, for some reason.
- Self-Deprecation: The infamous '3 Shots Disintegrates' feature of the Zat Guns gets gleefully mocked in-story by the Wormhole X-Treme production team.
- Self-Parody: The entire episode is devoted to skewering the show's concepts and overall premise, as well as some more general sci-fi tropes.
- Sequel Episode: To "Point of No Return".
- Shout-Out:
- The NID agent that Barrett leaves to watch over Carter and Daniel is called Agent Smith.
- Martin claims the producer's last project was working on Poochinski, a show about a talking dog who solves crimes. This was an actual pilot with Peter Boyle from 1989note that never got picked up. In the Stargate universe, it evidently ran for 100 episodes.
- Show Within a Show: Wormhole X-Treme is one.
- Skewed Priorities: After being captured and tied up by a group of shady men in black, Martin's biggest concern seems to be the fact that he might miss a production meeting.
- The Stakeout: Carter and Daniel once again get tasked with staking out Martin's house.
- Stating the Simple Solution: As Martin and one of the producers are in the middle of a heated argument about how they can defeat a giant alien without being weightless, O'Neill interjects to ask why they don't just shoot him.
- Stylistic Suck: Wormhole X-Treme, very much so. The premise seems to be Stargate SG-1 IF IT HAD BEEN MADE BY IRWIN ALLEN IN 1967! Indeed, it seems rather anachronistic that this very '60s-esque show is being made, apparently with a straight face, in the early 21st century.
- Styrofoam Rocks: One scene from the show involves the Daniel Expy getting buried in them.
- The Tag: Episode ends with a couple minutes of the Show Within a Show filming and "outtakes," veering into Breaking the Fourth Wall territory when the discussions lead into talk of "this isn't a real show?"
- Techno Babble: Parodied by the over-the-top dialogue on the show.
- A True Story in My Universe: Wormhole X-Treme is a Stargate SG-1 style TV show made by an alien who subconsciously remembers the actual Stargate program.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The cast and crew don't seem particularly surprised by an alien ship landing and then taking off again in the middle of their shoot, assuming that it's just another special effect for the show. One of them even comments that they've "seen better".
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: “Don’t worry, it’s on cable.”
- X Treme Kool Letterz:Martin: I wanted to call the show "Going To Other Planets", but researchers say that shows with 'X' in the name get higher ratings.
