Enigma introduces a couple of recurring items for the SG-1 team. We are introduced to the Tollan race, and two of their representatives, Narim (Garwin Sanford), Omoc (Tobin Bell), and Colonel Harry Maybourne (Tom McBeath) who will prove to be a thorn in the SGC’s side.

Written by Katharyn Powers, this episode was first broadcast on 30 January, 1998.

SG-1 encounters a planet in the throes of volcanic destruction, and a few survivors littered around the stargate warn the team not to save them. They do, of course, and that opens a can of worms for both Stargate Command, and the survivors who are led by Omoc.

Omoc is less than thrilled to be rescued by what he delivers a far more primitive race than those of Tollan, and constantly tests the bonds of the blossoming relationship between them and the people of Earth, convinced they are prisoners.

There’s a nice potential between Narim and Carter (Amanda Tapping), while O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) seems to be at loggerheads with Omoc over access to some of the Tollan technology, something they are reticent to do – can you say Prime Directive?

Things get complicated with the arrival of Maybourne who has been sent by D.C. to oversee the Tollans and work to study and reverse engineer their technology. Something Omoc fears as sharing technology led to the destruction of a neighboring civilization.

What will SG-1 do? But maybe the Nox will help? And oh dear, SG-1 has really made an enemy out of Maybourne.

The series is building up its continuity and mythology nicely. Considering we’re still in the first season this is wild that the series and the world feel so thought out, and planned.

Solitudes was written by Brad Wright, one of the showrunners, and first debuted on 6 February, 1998.

Teal’c (Christopher Judge) and Daniel (Michael Shanks) are the only ones to get through the stargate back to the SGC before a strange technical error causes it to overload and shutdown. This maroons O’Neill and Carter in an ice cave.

O’Neill is wounded, suffering a couple of broken bones, and the pair seem in danger of freezing to death unless they can find a way home or Stargate Command can them first.

Carter tries to keep O’Neill awake and aware while trying to figure out how to get the gate working. But everything she tries doesn’t seem to work, and she can’t figure out why.

At Cheyenne, Jackson is starting to put the pieces together, Earth has a second gate, a beta gate, in Antarctica. Carter and O’Neill were rerouted there when the primary gate overloaded. The gate will be tucked away for safe keeping, I’m sure.

It’s a solid episode, does some wonderful character building with some great moments between Anderson and Tapping.

We’re coming up very quickly on the end of the first season, and I am completely into the series again. It’s just so much damned fun with great characters, a lot of action, humor, and actually has some big ideas at times.

Sure, it seems everyone speaks english on the worlds they visit, but maybe they can use their proximity to the stargate as an excuse, it generates a telepathic field that allows for translation, just like the TARDIS in Doctor Who.

But that’s my only real qualm with the series as I dive deeper into my rewatch. Love this show!