By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 1 minute ago

Comedy is hard to do right. Miss the mark and the audience is laughing at you, not with you, or even worse, not laughing at all. Stargate SG-1 is one of the rare long-running sci-fi shows that managed to find a balance between the comedic and dramatic.

“Wormhole X-Treme!” celebrated 100 episodes on September 8, 2001, by making fun of the show itself, with the backstage crew getting a chance to be on camera as Stargate Command investigates a new show that’s a little too close to the Stargate Program. It’s a fun, light-hearted celebration of everything that fans loved about the series, and it was crammed with jokes and inside references,s resulting in one of the all-time greatest episodes of any sci-fi series. 

Wormhole X-Treme Is Everything Great About Sci-Fi

The actual plot of “Wormhole X-Treme!” centers on the returning Martin Lloyd (played perfectly by the late Willie Garson), a humanoid alien who stayed behind on Earth following the events of Season 4’s “Point of No Return,” and again, he’s lost his memory. Martin is seemingly trying to piece together his missing memories by working as a consultant for the low-budget series Wormhole X-Treme.

Jack O’Neil (Richard Dean Anderson) is sent to the Vancouver studio to investigate what’s going on when a ship appears near Earth bearing the same energy signature as Martin’s species. That’s the loose plot excuse of Stargate SG-1’s 100th episode celebration, which was elevated to greatness by everything else going on. 

Martin Lloyd (Willie Garson) On The Set Of Wormhole X-Treme

“Wormhole X-Treme” is a love letter to Stargate SG-1, even if, as the episode reminds fans, there’s a lot that never made sense and plotlines that ended up going nowhere. The best reference is to the phallic Zaknitel sidearm, or “Zat” which functioned as follows: One shot stuns, two shots kill, three shots make it go away. Finally, thanks to the crew of “Wormhole X-Treme” someone gets to say, “that’s stupid.” It was. No one knew how long a victim would be stunned; no one knew the timeframe that “reset” the counter. It was a stupid weapon, and thankfully, someone finally said it. 

One of the best meta jokes comes from the studio president providing a note that Wormhole X-Treme needs a sexy female alien. It’s delivered by Hank Cohen, the actual president of MGM Television at the time, and the same person who made that suggestion. Thanks to him, Stargate SG-1 added Anise (played by Vanessa Angel) to the cast, and just as quickly, the Tok’ra archaeologist was removed when the show’s ratings remained unchanged. 

There’s Six Levels To This Daniel Jackson Stand-In

The end of the episode featured the cast of Wormhole X-Treme, and includes what may be the best line in the entire franchise, thanks to the many layers it includes: “I’m Christian Bocher. I’m portraying the character of Raymond Gunne, who portrays the character of Dr. Levant, which is based on the character Daniel Jackson, portrayed by the actor Michael Shanks, originally portrayed by the actor James Spader…in the feature film.” 

A Major Syndication Milestone

Stargate SG-1 Poking Fun At Itself In “Wormhole X-Treme”

Making it to 100 episodes was a major milestone for shows back in the days of syndication. 100 was the minimum number of episodes required to qualify for syndication, which allowed the studio to make major profits. Stargate SG-1 started on syndication thanks to Showtime, but reaching 100 episodes proved it was a hit series, and no one could have imagined it would keep defying the odds and reach another 100.

“200” brought back Martin Lloyd and featured the crew pitching their ideas for a sci-fi movie, including Vala’s suggestion that sounds suspiciously like Farscape. By then, both Claudia Black and Ben Browder were part of the SG-1 cast, making it another brilliant meta joke and proving that even 200 episodes in, the writing room had more ideas than they knew what to do with. 

Stargate SG-1 remains beloved by fans 25 years after “Wormhole X-Treme” first aired. Since then, there have been two well-received spin-offs, tv movies, and a new series in the works from Amazon. Will the new show make it to 100 episodes? No, no it won’t, but if it has even a fraction of the lasting impact of the original run, it will be another sci-fi success.