A Beloved Stargate SG-1 Episode Had To Be Rewritten At The Last Minute

There's something about an alternate timeline plot that fans of "Stargate SG-1" absolutely love. The season 3 episode "Point of View" is a fan-favorite installment that currently sits at number 32 on the IMDb list of episodes (as opposed to "Emancipation," which IMDb users voted the very worst episode of "SG1") and is fondly remembered for its unique storyline that saw alternate versions of Amanda Tapper's Dr. Samantha Carter and Jay Acovone's Major Charles Kawalsky travel to the main universe to seek help from the SG-1 crew.

"Point of View" was the second time "SG-1" explored parallel universes (the first being season 1's "There But For The Grace of God," in which the Quantum Mirror is introduced). The writers would return to the concept of alternate timelines in the fourth and fifth season of the show, with "2010," and "2001" respectively — both of which have also gone down as fan-favorites, though we never got a third Aschen episode of "SG-1," which would have continued the storyline from those beloved installments. But there's something particularly impressive about "Point of View," which served as the sixth episode of "SG-1" season 3 and the 50th episode overall, in that the writers actually created the entire storyline in the span of about 48 hours.

In "Point of View," alternate versions of Samantha Carter and Major Charles Kawalsky use the Quantum Mirror to travel to the main "SG-1" timeline after their version of Earth becomes enslaved by the Goa'uld. In this alternate timeline, in which the Goa'uld have basically conquered Earth, Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Samantha Carter were married before O'Neill was killed during an attack on the SGA (the alternate version of Stargate Command). That's significant as there was always a big question mark over the pair's relationship since the very beginning of the series. Unproduced dialogue from "SG-1" hinted at Sam and Jack's romantic status, and throughout the series, there were several suggestions that the pair were more than just colleagues. But in this episode, the writers were able to explore the idea of them actually being married, and there's a touching scene where the alternate Sam cries on the main timeline Jack's shoulder.

Aside from the O'Neill and Carter marriage and the Goa'uld conquering Earth, the alternate reality is notably different from the main continuity in many other ways. Neither Teal'c nor Dr. Daniel Jackson ever became a part of the SG-1 crew, with Teal'c remaining an enemy of the human race who has led attacks on the Stargate Command of that universe.

In the main timeline, the alternate version of Carter starts to suffer from what's known as an Entropic cascade failure, which will ultimately kill her unless she returns to her own universe. The only issue is that the Goa'uld is waiting for her there, where she's almost certain to be killed. Of course, the SG-1 crew can't leave her hanging, and so they travel back to the alternate timeline with her, ultimately enlisting the help of the Asgard race, who intervene and rescue the SG-1 crew and their parallel pals from the Jaffa and Goa'uld. O'Neill and alternate Sam even have time for a kiss before the team returns to the main universe. It's an intense and at times quite moving story that seems as though it had been years in the making. In fact, the episode was actually written right at the last minute.

In an interview with Dial the Gate (via Gateworld), writer and story editor Tor Valenza revealed that "Point of View" came together as the result of some scheduling issues. "We had a big, gaping hole because some script either died from a freelancer, or whatever," he said. "Maybe MGM didn't like it. Whatever it was, it was something that had to be completely rewritten. And we just decided, 'OK, we've got to come up with something from scratch and write something in like 48 hours.'"

That's exactly what the team did, with Valenza recalling how pretty much every writer available was called in to "hammer out the plot." According to the writer, who was given story credit for the episode, "The whole staff was there trying to work it out [...] I just remember it was a really high-pressure situation for us to come up with this script story because nobody starts without the script, and we had zero, and it had to start production in two weeks, or something like that."

As far as the episode's popularity, Valenza speculated that it at least partly had something to do with Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill's relationship being explored. "[Sam and Jack] were married in the alternate universe, so that's definitely something that everybody's been wanting and everything else. And so you had that drama to it. It was a perfect way to create that soap opera tension." Sam and Jack never did get together on "SG-1," but that made it all the more compelling a relationship, with the classic will-they-won't-they dynamic being one of the best parts of the series. With "Point of View," the writers got to indulge the idea without committing to it and ruining the tension for future episodes, which is a genius move, especially considering the whole thing was written in two days.