Wormhole X-Treme: When Stargate Became Self Aware

“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, uh, Daniel Jackson, portrayed by the actor Michael Shanks, originally portrayed by the actor James Spader in the feature film.”

“Wormhole X-Treme!” is without question the silliest episode of Stargate SG- 1 that was ever made, and that was very much the intention. The show within a show style episode goes deep into the meta to become self-aware and mocks itself in the best way possible. The uniquely comedic entry to Stargate SG- 1 canon celebrated the series through parody, cameo appearances, inside and metafictional jokes and references that were met with cheers and jeers from the sci-fi faithful.

This episode is a continuation of the Season 4 episode “Point of No Return.” A spaceship that had been hidden in the outer solar system activates and begins approaching Earth, and its energy signature is matched to that of Martin Lloyd’s escape pod, suggesting that this is its mother ship. The military tracks down Lloyd and discovers that he has become the creative consultant for a television series whose concept he sold to a Hollywood studio, Wormhole X-Treme!.

The parallels between Wormhole X-Treme! and the real SG-1 are uncanny, but the United States Air Force had decided that while being a breach of secrecy, they are willing to allow the show to continue, because it can provide ‘plausible deniability’ to any future leaks of classified information about the Stargate Program… read more >