The Torment of Tantalus

Template:TVep It is often referred to by fans as "the Meaning of Life Stuff episode".

Plot

Daniel Jackson is watching some footage from 1928 of the scientists in that era working on the newly discovered Stargate, trying to get it to work but not having Samantha Carter's work on stellar drift to adjust the dialling, and hence not being able to turn it on. However, to Jackson's astonishment, they manage to do so, and a man goes through. Then the gate shuts off.

Later in a briefing, it is believed that the man was Ernest Littlefield, who 'died' years ago. He must have been stuck on the planet he went to ever since. Using modern computer enhancement, Carter is able to extract the chevrons dialled from the old footage, and a rescue mission is mounted to bring Dr. Littlefield home.

Ernest was actually once engaged to Catherine Langford, who has missed him ever since. Being told what happened, she insists on also coming on the mission. SG-1 and Catherine depart. On the other side, they find themselves in what appears to be something of a castle perched dangerously on outcropping rocks over a stormy sea and thunderous sky. Within, they find Dr. Littlefield, emaciated but alive.

However, Carter discovers that the DHD is broken and hence they are stuck. Whilst she works on a solution, Catherine has her moments with Ernest - they are cold at first (as they've been through a lot) but warm up to each other later. Jackson also talks to Ernest, who has kept a journal all these years. He takes them to a special room where a central device, when activated by Jack, projects a light-display into the air. Template:Plot-info The light-display turns out to be a representation of atoms and basic elements. On the four walls are four types of writing, and both Jackson and Ernest believe this to be some kind of meeting place for four great alien races of the past. That is when Jackson realises that the atoms are a kind of universal language - to ensure universal comprehension the language has been reduced to basic elements common to all life. There turn out to be many pages of this 'book' and Jackson becomes obsessed with copying it down.

Carter works out that a lightning strike channelled into the gate will give enough power to dial it manually, and will be their way out. In the meantime, the storm is becoming rough, and it looks like the castle will collapse. Daniel refuses to leave.

At the last moment, Ernest persuades Daniel to leave. Although the information held in the 'book' may be the source to understanding the very meaning of the existence of humans ("the Meaning of Life Stuff"), it would take more than a lifetime to study it all, as evidenced by Ernest, and there's no joy in knowing it all but having no one to share it with. Due to the obviousness of Ernest's wisdom on this matter, Jackson leaves the 'book' and they escape through the Stargate just in time before everything collapses.

Notes

The title refers to the Greek myth of Tantalus, who could never reach what he kept grasping out for, and who is the origin of the word "tantalise", as Jackson is tantalised by the enormity of the "Meaning of Life Stuff" which he cannot possibly reach.
Paul McGillion (Young Ernest Littlefield) would go on to play the recurring and later main character Dr. Carson Beckett in Stargate Atlantis.