200 (Stargate SG 1)

Plot

Martin Lloyd (Willie Garson), an extraterrestrial turned Hollywood writer, returns to Stargate Command looking for assistance from SG-1 with his script for the movie adaptation of the television show Wormhole X-Treme, first featured earlier in the series in the episode "Wormhole X-Treme!". The team, especially Lt. Colonel Mitchell (Ben Browder), is reluctant to help. Mitchell is excited about his next off-world mission because it marks his 200th trip through the Stargate. However, when technical glitches prevent the team from setting off on their mission, they are stuck in the briefing room under the orders of General Landry (Beau Bridges), because the Pentagon believes a successful science fiction film about intergalactic wormhole travel will serve as a good cover story to keep the real Stargate program a secret.

The notes session quickly devolves into the team members pitching their own versions of a successful sci-fi film, including a zombie invasion (from Mitchell), a previously unseen mission where O'Neill became invisible (from Carter), "tributes" to The Wizard of Oz and Farscape (from Vala), and Teal'c as a private investigator (from Teal'c himself). Also featured are a vignette of the team's mental image of a "younger and edgier" SG-1 (sparked by the studio's suggestion to replace the original Wormhole X-Treme cast), a suggested scene by Martin that turns out to be both scientifically inaccurate and highly derivative of Star Trek, a re-imagined version of the SG-1 pilot episode where all the characters are marionettes in the style of the television series Thunderbirds, and an imagined wedding that features the return of General O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson).

Ultimately, the planning session is all for naught, as the studio decides to cancel the movie in favor of renewing the series. At the end of the episode, the focus shifts ten years into the future, where the Wormhole X-Treme cast and crew are celebrating their 200th episode, as well as renewed plans for a movie.

Production

Executive producer Robert C. Cooper originally proposed they write a normal script for the 200th episode. However it soon became clear that deciding who would have the privilege of writing the 200th episode would be problematic. This led to the idea to create a sketch episode in the manner of Saturday Night Live, with each writer creating a vignette. The episode took shape when the writers thought to bring back Wormhole X-Treme and the character of Martin, and frame the whole episode as a notes session. By the end of the writing process the episode had turned into "an homage to the cast, crew, and die-hard fans."

Stargate producers were not sure actor Richard Dean Anderson would return for the episode, so they devised many scenes where Anderson was "in" the episode but not actually shown. However, Anderson was willing to return and appeared in several scenes. In the DVD special Stargate SG-1: Behind the 200th Cooper said, "it was a big deal for us to have [him] back for the 200th episode. We obviously didn't think we could do it without him."

Despite the markedly different content of the episode, "200" took no longer to shoot than a normal episode, mainly because much of the filming took place on the briefing room set. On the other hand, the episode was much more expensive than a typical one, due to the unusual sequences. For example, the marionettes used in an elaborate spoof of the series were created by the Chiodo brothers, who also made the puppets for Team America: World Police; each puppet cost about US$25,000, and the wires pulling each puppet had to be readded by CGI in post production because they didn't show up well enough. Several existing sets were used as stand-ins; for example, the bridge of the Odyssey was used for a Star Trek: The Original Series spoof, while a set from the sister production Stargate: Atlantis was used as the chamber of the Wizard of Oz.

In an interview about the tenth season of Stargate, Cooper and series co-creator Brad Wright stated that there was a fine line between the humor of regular episodes turning into camp. While jokes for the joke's sake are usually limited in normal episodes, the line between humor and camp is deliberately crossed frequently in "200". The producers even talked about recreating a part of Blazing Saddles that breaks the fourth wall, but they could not afford the horses.

The producers made sure that the episode was well-publicized, dropping hints that Anderson's character O'Neill would return for the episode. Joe Mallozzi, executive producer for the series, also hinted that series fans would finally meet the Furlings, an enigmatic race referenced in the second-season episode "The Fifth Race" but never seen. Despite the outlandish scenes filmed for the episode, many of the writers' favorite moments did not make it to production due to time constraints. For example, Cooper noted that a Gilligan's Island skit was cut from the script.

Reception

The episode won the 2007 Constellation Award for Best Overall 2006 Science Fiction Film or Television Script, and was nominated for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Richard Dean Anderson also won a SyFy Genre Award for his guest appearance in the episode.

The episode was generally well received. IGN declared the episode "one of the smartest and funniest hours of television to grace the small screen yet this season." They went on to applaud the decision not only to parody other works but the show itself. Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune agreed, but also noted that "you don't need to be a longtime fan of the long-running program to enjoy its jibes at sci-fi clichés or expedient writing." Eclipse Magazine noted that although the episode was "not a work of comic genius", "200" was the best comedy episode of the series.

The highly publicized debut of the episode garnered a 1.9 average household rating, a 36% jump from the previous episode, and the first episode of the tenth season to reach or exceed the previous season's rating of 1.8; Stargate SG-1 at that point was averaging about 3.3 million viewers per regular episode in the United States.

Cancellation

Shortly after this episode was aired, Gateworld announced that the Sci-Fi Channel had decided not renew Stargate SG-1 for the coming year. The Channel later confirmed this decision, at the same time announcing that Stargate Atlantis had been picked up for another season. Many fans denounced Gateworld's cancellation announcement, both the timing of it (apparently it had been made while the cast and crew were celebrating the episode's airing)—and the decision itself, on the ground that, while ratings were not as high as they had been in previous seasons, the series was still drawing an audience of a respectable size. (For example, it had a season average of 2 million viewers in Australia, half of them in the 18–49 demographic.) Sci Fi responded that the cancellation decision had not been based on ratings so much as a feeling the series had run its course. Some of the main characters in SG-1 re-appear later in episodes of Atlantis and Universe and in the direct-to-DVD sequel films, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.