Willie Garson guest stars in Point of No Return, a fun SG-1 adventure with a comedic bent. Written by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, it first debuted on 8 September, 2000.

O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Daniel (Michael Shanks), Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Teal’c (Christopher Judge) are summoned by General Hammond (Don S. Davis) when Stargate Command receives a recorded message from someone who seems to know a lot about the stargate.

While O’Neill chats with Martin (Garson) and Teal’c poses as O’Neill’s friend Murray, Carter and Daniel investigate Martin’s apartment – hey there’s a life-sized model of Thor (the SG version not the MCU) – and find lots of odd things, but they soon run afoul of Ted (Matthew Bennett!) and his men.

When O’Neill, Murray, I mean Teal’c and Martin recover Martin’s ship, they realize that perhaps, it’s not the government that is watching Martin, but his former shipmates. It seems Martin wants to go home, but his fellows would rather stay here, hiding out on Earth.

Anderson gets to be wonderfully deadpan throughout and it works delightfully, once again showing that the series can do any kind of story from week to week, and it all works within the established universe. The comedies work well, because the characters are often frequently funny anyway.

While not quite as hilarious as Window of Opportunity, Point of No Return is a lot of fun. Seeing as both episodes are in the fourth season I’d say that perhaps the characters and writers are more comfortable having fun in the established universe now.

I know I had fun.

Tangent was written by Michael Cassutt and it debuted on 15 September, 2000. Despite being directed by Peter DeLuise there didn’t seem to be an opportunity for a cameo in this episode.

Under the watchful eye of Hammond, Major Davis (Colin Cunningham) and General Vidrine (Steven Williams), O’Neill and Teal’c are testing the new X-301, a combination of Goa’uld Death Glider and Earth tech.

After a successful test run, another test to kick the tires and light the fires, causes a dormant program to kick in, one created by Apophis (Peter Williams) to punish those who would steal a death glider.

It’s triggered after the ship makes a specific height and speed rate, and now the craft is racing into space, heading, eventually towards Apophis’ homeworld. A trip of several hundred years.

As the 301 traverses the solar system at a million miles an hour, the SGC tries to figure out how to get their team home. There’s science, reaching out to allies, and Carter and Daniel go on a covert mission to get access to a Tok’ra operative in the immediate area who may be able to help save O’Neill and Teal’c.

Surprise, it’s Jacob (Carmen Argenziano)! And you know what that means, rescue is imminent!! But will the craft run out of oxygen before rescue arrives? And what if Jacob, Daniel and Carter have trouble along the way?

This one is a very enjoyable episode, well-paced and executed and really lets the characters and their relationships shine.