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===Wormholes and Solar Flares===
===Wormholes and Solar Flares===


The idea of using wormholes as time machines has been explored by Rip Thorne, in his book ''Black Holes and Time Warps''. Various problems exist in maintaining a wormhole long enough to be used to travel through, but since this is the ''Stargate SG-1'' universe and stable wormholes are a given, then traveling through a wormhole in order to travel through time is no problem at all. In the near-instantaneous nature of stargate travel, SG-1 basically covers a large distance in a relatively short period of time, whereas light would take a while to travel that same distance.
The idea of using wormholes as time machines has been explored by Kip Thorne, in his book ''Black Holes and Time Warps''. Various problems exist in maintaining a wormhole long enough to be used to travel through, but since this is the ''Stargate SG-1'' universe and stable wormholes are a given, then traveling through a wormhole in order to travel through time is no problem at all. In the near-instantaneous nature of stargate travel, SG-1 basically covers a large distance in a relatively short period of time, whereas light would take a while to travel that same distance.


Interference with the formation of the wormhole through the magnetic discharge of solar flares is one way in which ''Stargate SG-1'' proposes that SG-1 could travel through time. In the episodes, 2.21 "1969" and 4.16 "2010", the wormhole is bent by solar flares. Depending on which side of the side these flares occur, the traveler is either transported to the past or to the future. According to Albert Einstein, "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." His theories in special relativity, as well as those of the mathmetician Hendrick Lorentz, propose that time and space are somehow bound teogther in a four-dimensional space-time continuum. Einstein's general relativity theories proposes that velocity and gravity warp spacetime in ways that cause time to be relative to the observer measuring it. Through special and general relativity, however, travel to the future is more easily accomplished than that to the past, but because ''Stargate SG-1'' is science fiction, traveling to either the past or the future is possible.  
Interference with the formation of the wormhole through the magnetic discharge of solar flares is one way in which ''Stargate SG-1'' proposes that SG-1 could travel through time. In the episodes, 2.21 "1969" and 4.16 "2010", the wormhole is bent by solar flares. Depending on which side of the side these flares occur, the traveler is either transported to the past or to the future. According to Albert Einstein, "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." His theories in special relativity, as well as those of the mathmetician Hendrick A. Lorentz, propose that time and space are somehow bound teogther in a four-dimensional space-time continuum. Einstein's general relativity theories proposes that velocity and gravity warp spacetime in ways that cause time to be relative to the observer measuring it. Through special and general relativity, however, travel to the future is more easily accomplished than that to the past, but because ''Stargate SG-1'' is science fiction, traveling to either the past or the future is possible.  


The computations done normally by the Dial Home Device (DHD) to compensate for stellar drift had to be accounted for by Carter in her dialing computer software. These computations also had to account for how close the wormhole formed to the sun. Carter had done research into other uses of the stargate technology, including time travel. In her research, she investigated the impact solar flares would have on a wormhole and proposed that these flares, if predicted, could make time travel via the stargate possible. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. This magnetic energy along with Earth's gravitational field, according to Carter, would bend the wormhole and cause it to return to Earth. Basically, they'd wouldn't travel through space as much as they would time in the space-time continuum.
The computations done normally by the Dial Home Device (DHD) to compensate for stellar drift had to be accounted for by Carter in her dialing computer software. These computations also had to account for how close the wormhole formed to the sun. Carter had done research into other uses of the stargate technology, including time travel. In her research, she investigated the impact solar flares would have on a wormhole and proposed that these flares, if predicted, could make time travel via the stargate possible. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. This magnetic energy along with Earth's gravitational field, according to Carter, would bend the wormhole and cause it to return to Earth. Basically, they'd wouldn't travel through space as much as they would time in the space-time continuum.
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Technology was the means of time travel in the other time travel episodes of ''Stargate SG-1''. Both the technologies used were created by the Ancients, a race of humans who lived millions of years before humans on Earth. As a matter of fact, in the ''Stargate SG-1'' universe, the Ancients were the ones who seeded the Milky Way Galaxy with our present life forms after a plague swept the galaxy millions of years ago (8.18 "Threads").
Technology was the means of time travel in the other time travel episodes of ''Stargate SG-1''. Both the technologies used were created by the Ancients, a race of humans who lived millions of years before humans on Earth. As a matter of fact, in the ''Stargate SG-1'' universe, the Ancients were the ones who seeded the Milky Way Galaxy with our present life forms after a plague swept the galaxy millions of years ago (8.18 "Threads").


One such time machine was developed by the Ancients who lived on the planet designated P4X-639. It took advantage of the geomagnetic disturbance which occurred every fifty or so years to power the device. Unfortunately, the machine only generated a short-term continuous loop. The creators of the machine attempted to fix the machine, but were unsuccessful. They shut down the machine, recorded their failure on the walls surrounding the device, and let the end come. Daniel translated the text and determined how to shut down the machine which had been activated by an alien archaeologist named Malikai. Malikai did not have the same translating skills as Daniel and didn't realize that the machine would never work in the way he intended—to go back in time over twelve years to see his dead wife alive once more. The machine was never able to send the traveler back further than ten hours, and as long as the machine was operational, the traveler looped in time for those ten hours. (4.06 "Window Of Opportunity")
One such time machine was developed by the Ancients who lived on the planet designated P4X-639. They took advantage of the geomagnetic disturbance which occurred every fifty or so years to power the device. Unfortunately, the machine only generated a short-term continuous loop. The creators of the machine attempted to fix it, but were unsuccessful. They shut down the machine, recorded their failure on the walls surrounding the device, and let the end come. Daniel translated the text and determined how to shut down the machine which had been activated by an alien archaeologist named Malikai. Malikai did not have the same translating skills as Daniel and didn't realize that the machine would never work in the way he intended—to go back in time over twelve years to see his dead wife alive once more. The machine was never able to send the traveler back further than ten hours, and as long as the machine was operational, the traveler looped in time for those ten hours. (4.06 "Window Of Opportunity")


The second time machine built by the Ancients was in the form of a small space craft with a time machine built in. This small craft is able to fly through the wormhole of a stargate, and thus, it was nicknamed a "puddle jumper" by Major John Sheppard (because the event horizon of a stargate's wormhole looks like a puddle of water) when he discovered a bay full of them on Atlantis. The term "jumper" was also used by Carter (8.19 "Moebius Part 1"). (In real life, there is an ultra-light aircraft named "puddle jumper".) This time machine generated a field of some kind around the spacecraft rather than using the wormhole to travel through time.  
The second time machine built by the Ancients was in the form of a small space craft with a time machine built in. This small craft is able to fly through the wormhole of a stargate, and thus, it was nicknamed a "puddle jumper" by Major John Sheppard (because the event horizon of a stargate's wormhole looks like a puddle of water) when he discovered a bay full of them on Atlantis. The term "jumper" was also used by Carter (8.19 "Moebius Part 1"). (In real life, there is an ultra-light aircraft named "puddle jumper".) This time machine generated a field of some kind around the spacecraft rather than using the wormhole to travel through time.  
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'''Parallel Universes (Alternate Realities)''': In the ''Stargate SG-1'' universe, the concept of parallel universes or alternate realities was established before any of the time traveling episodes were shown. The first episode which introduced alternate realities was 1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God", in which Daniel Jackson crosses over into a parallel universe via a "Quantum Mirror". The theory states that for every decision, a new universe is created so as to satisfy each possible outcome. The number of universes, therefore, cannot be calculated and is nearly infinite.  
'''Parallel Universes (Alternate Realities)''': In the ''Stargate SG-1'' universe, the concept of parallel universes or alternate realities was established before any of the time traveling episodes were shown. The first episode which introduced alternate realities was 1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God", in which Daniel Jackson crosses over into a parallel universe via a "Quantum Mirror". The theory states that for every decision, a new universe is created so as to satisfy each possible outcome. The number of universes, therefore, cannot be calculated and is nearly infinite.  


[[Image:workinprogress.jpg]]
'''Causality and Temporal Causality Loop''': The basic idea of causality is that a cause must always come before its effect. In relation to time travel, there is the possibility that the traveler might be involved in a temporal causality loop where the actual act of going back in time is what causes an event to happen and that resulting event is what causes the time traveler to go back in time (Event A causes Event B causes Event A). One of the most popular illustrations of a temporal causality loop was that presented in the movie ''Terminator'' in which John Connor sends back Kyle Reese to save Connor's mother, Sarah, from the terminator (a biomechanical android) who went back in time to prevent his birth. While in the past, Kyle and Sarah conceive John. The Event A in this illustration is John's sending Kyle back in time. The Event B is John's conception with Kyle as his father. The fact that John exists, then, is what leads to the time traveling scenerio, and, thus, Event B, John's birth, causes Event A, the need to go back in time to allow John to be born because his father is the time traveler Kyle.
 
'''Paradox''': The temporal causality loop is an illustration of a paradox. Another popular paradox among time traveling examples is the grandfather paradox in which a time traveler goes back in time before his grandfather meets his grandmother and then kills him. If the time traveler's grandfather is dead, then he cannot meet the his grandmother, and therefore, he is never born. So, if the time traveler is never born, then he cannot go back in time to kill his grandfather which would then lead to his birth.
 
'''Moebius''': A moebius strip is a physical representation of the infinity symbol used in math (looks like an 8 on its side). In time traveling terms, a moebius is a temporal causality loop in which all the events are locked together to form an infinite loop in which time travel is necessary in order to establish events which make time travel necessary. The only way to break out of the loop would be to stop the need to travel back in time.
 
Because parallel universes have been established by ''Stargate SG-1'' to exist in the SG-1 universe, the viewer is left with a way to deal with these time traveling events which otherwise might cause a paradox. Instead of there being one timeline which is always changing because of a loop, there are different realities in which various scenerios and conditions are met which would prevent a paradox. Therefore, the history in one reality is different from the history in another from the moment the time traveling event impacted the timeline. That leaves us with a version of SG-1 which have come out of all loops, prevented catastrophies, or experienced all necessary events which make their existence optimistic.


==2.21 "1969"==
==2.21 "1969"==
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SG-1 finds the stargate and dials it close to the time of the second solar flare listed on the note. They are under fire by security personnel, but manage to enter the wormhole which flings them into the future (the sun flares are on the opposite side of the sun to the one which sent them into the past). When they exit the wormhole, they are in the SGC, but too far into the future. They are met by an elderly Cassandra Fraiser, who uses advanced technology to engage the wormhole and send them back to their time. Cassandra said that Carter told her that they would be flung into the future and would need help getting back, so Cassandra knew where and when she had to meet them.  
SG-1 finds the stargate and dials it close to the time of the second solar flare listed on the note. They are under fire by security personnel, but manage to enter the wormhole which flings them into the future (the sun flares are on the opposite side of the sun to the one which sent them into the past). When they exit the wormhole, they are in the SGC, but too far into the future. They are met by an elderly Cassandra Fraiser, who uses advanced technology to engage the wormhole and send them back to their time. Cassandra said that Carter told her that they would be flung into the future and would need help getting back, so Cassandra knew where and when she had to meet them.  
==4.06 "Window Of Opportunity"==
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==4.16 "2010" and 5.10 "2001"==
==4.16 "2010" and 5.10 "2001"==
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|}
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In the year 2001 (5.10 "2001"), SG-1's IDC is transmitted through an incoming wormhole, but all of SG-1 are present. They open the iris anyway, and out comes the note. General Hammond immediately has the planet's designation locked out of the dialing program. SG-1 meets the Aschen on the Volian homeworld and based on the fact that the Aschen do not have a DHD, the SGC knows that the Aschen can only dial to planets close to their own because they cannot compensate for stellar drift (1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2"). With that information in mind and the desire to determine the Aschen homeworld's identity (because the Aschen refused to divulge it), the SGC discovers that P4C-970 is one of four likely planets. Even though their suspicions are valid, the President of the United States told them to stop their investigation so that diplomatic relations could be established with this very advanced race. Daniel and Teal'c, however, do their own investigation and uncover the identity of the Aschen and their goal to wipe out the population of any planet in their confederation. Earth is spared from the Aschen.
In the year 2001 (5.10 "2001"), SG-1's IDC is transmitted through an incoming wormhole, but all of SG-1 are present. They open the iris anyway, and out comes the note. General Hammond immediately has the planet's designation locked out of the dialing program. SG-1 meets the Aschen on the Volian homeworld and based on the fact that the Aschen do not have a DHD, the SGC knows that the Aschen can only dial to planets close to their own because they cannot compensate for stellar drift (1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2"). With that information in mind and the desire to determine the Aschen homeworld's identity (because the Aschen refused to divulge it), the SGC discovers that P4C-970 is one of four likely planets. Even though their suspicions are valid, the President of the United States told them to stop their investigation so that diplomatic relations could be established with this very advanced race. Daniel and Teal'c, however, do their own investigation and uncover the identity of the Aschen and their goal to wipe out the population of any planet in their confederation. Earth is spared from the Aschen.
==8.13 "It's Good To Be King" and ''Stargate Atlantis:'' 1.15 "Before I Sleep"==
[[Image:workinprogress.jpg]]


==8.19 "Moebius Part 1" and 8.20 "Moebius Part 2"==
==8.19 "Moebius Part 1" and 8.20 "Moebius Part 2"==
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|valign="top"|[[Image:82009.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Fishing at Jack's cabin]]
|valign="top"|[[Image:82009.jpg|thumb|170px|left|Fishing at Jack's cabin]]
|}
|}
Next, we're back in our own time and see that SG-1 has the ZPM and the tape. Comparing their events in history to the ones cited on the tape, they decide that there is no need to go back in time to fix the timeline. Then, they all go fishing at Jack's cabin, just as they had in the final scene in the episode, 8.18 "Threads". We are led to believe that the tomb with the ZPM and tape were discovered between Daniel's return from his second ascension and the team fishing trip to Jack's cabin. This tomb had been uncovered one month prior to the start of the events of "Moebius Part 1", so the assumption is that we have backed up a few weeks before Catherine Langford dies and the time traveling mission was undertaken. The timeline has been fixed, except, now Jack's lake has fish.  
Next, we're back in our own time and see that SG-1 has the ZPM and the tape. Comparing their events in history to the ones cited on the tape, they decide that there is no need to go back in time to fix the timeline. Then, they all go fishing at Jack's cabin, just as they had in the final scene in the episode, 8.18 "Threads". We are led to believe that the tomb with the ZPM and tape were discovered between Daniel's return from his second ascension and the team fishing trip to Jack's cabin. This tomb had been uncovered one month prior to the start of the events of "Moebius Part 1", so the assumption is that we have backed up a few weeks before Catherine Langford dies and the time traveling mission was undertaken. The timeline has been fixed, except, now Jack's pond has fish.  


==Episodes==
==Episodes==


* [[1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2" Episode Guide|1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2"]]
* [[1.03 "The Enemy Within" Episode Guide|1.03 "The Enemy Within"]]
* [[1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God" Episode Guide|1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God"]]
* [[2.21 "1969" Episode Guide|2.21 "1969"]]
* [[2.21 "1969" Episode Guide|2.21 "1969"]]
* [[4.16 "2010" Episode Guide|4.16 "2010"]]
* [[4.16 "2010" Episode Guide|4.16 "2010"]]
* [[5.10 "2001" Episode Guide|5.10 "2001"]]
* [[5.10 "2001" Episode Guide|5.10 "2001"]]
* [[7.18 "Heroes Part 2" Episode Guide|7.18 "Heroes Part 2"]]
* [[8.13 "It's Good To Be King" Episode Guide|8.13 "It's Good To Be King"]]
* [[8.18 "Threads" Episode Guide|8.18 "Threads"]]
* [[8.19 "Moebius Part 1" Episode Guide|8.19 "Moebius Part 1"]]
* [[8.19 "Moebius Part 1" Episode Guide|8.19 "Moebius Part 1"]]
* [[8.20 "Moebius Part 2" Episode Guide|8.20 "Moebius Part 2"]]
* [[8.20 "Moebius Part 2" Episode Guide|8.20 "Moebius Part 2"]]
* [[Stargate Atlantis#1.15 "Before I Sleep"|Stargate Atlantis: 1.15 "Before I Sleep"]]


==Related Characters==
==Related Characters==
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* [[Joe Faxon|Ambassador Joe Faxon]]
* [[Joe Faxon|Ambassador Joe Faxon]]
* [[Charles Kawalsky|Maj. Charles Kawalsky]]
* [[Charles Kawalsky|Maj. Charles Kawalsky]]
* [[Malakai]]
* [[Rodney McKay|Dr. Rodney McKay]]
* [[Rodney McKay|Dr. Rodney McKay]]
* [[Samuels|Maj. Samuels]]
* [[Samuels|Maj. Samuels]]
* [[Elizabeth Weir|Dr. Elizabeth Weir]]


==Related Articles==
==Related Articles==
===Keywords===


* [[Alternate Realities]]
* [[Alternate Realities]]
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* [[Stargate]]
* [[Stargate]]
* [[Zero Point Module (ZPM)]]
* [[Zero Point Module (ZPM)]]
===Other===
* [[1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2" Episode Guide|1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2"]]
* [[1.03 "The Enemy Within" Episode Guide|1.03 "The Enemy Within"]]
* [[1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God" Episode Guide|1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God"]]
* [[7.18 "Heroes Part 2" Episode Guide|7.18 "Heroes Part 2"]]
* [[8.13 "It's Good To Be King" Episode Guide|8.13 "It's Good To Be King"]]
* [[8.18 "Threads" Episode Guide|8.18 "Threads"]]


==Further Reading==
==Further Reading==
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* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/ NOVA Online: Time Travel]
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/ NOVA Online: Time Travel]
* [http://science.howstuffworks.com/time-travel.htm Howstuffworks "How Time Travel Will Work"]
* [http://science.howstuffworks.com/time-travel.htm Howstuffworks "How Time Travel Will Work"]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_S._Thorne WikiPedia: Kip Thorne]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein WikiPedia: Albert Einstein]
* [http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1902/lorentz-bio.html Hendrick A. Lorentz Biography]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel WikiPedia: Time Travel]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality_loop WikiPedia: Causality Loop]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminator WikiPedia: The Terminator]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox WikiPedia: Grandfather Paradox]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%F6bius_strip WikiPedia: Moebius Strip]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%F6bius_strip WikiPedia: Moebius Strip]


Revision as of 14:43, 19 March 2005

Time Travel and Alternate Timelines

Summary

Stargate SG-1 has presented two major timeline theories over the run of the show: (1) alternate realities, and (2) alternate timelines. Alternate Realities are presented when various versions of SG-1 live in parallel universes, some almost identical; others, so extremely different so as to be unrecognizable. Alternate Timelines are presented when it appears that the timeline in which "our" SG-1 is modified by a time traveling event.

This article presents Alternate Timelines in which SG-1's timeline appears to be changed due to one or more time traveling events.

Methods of Time Travel

Various physicists have proposed how time travel could be made possible in our reality, but in the Stargate SG-1 universe, it is already possible. There have been two primary means of time travel presented.

Wormholes and Solar Flares

The idea of using wormholes as time machines has been explored by Kip Thorne, in his book Black Holes and Time Warps. Various problems exist in maintaining a wormhole long enough to be used to travel through, but since this is the Stargate SG-1 universe and stable wormholes are a given, then traveling through a wormhole in order to travel through time is no problem at all. In the near-instantaneous nature of stargate travel, SG-1 basically covers a large distance in a relatively short period of time, whereas light would take a while to travel that same distance.

Interference with the formation of the wormhole through the magnetic discharge of solar flares is one way in which Stargate SG-1 proposes that SG-1 could travel through time. In the episodes, 2.21 "1969" and 4.16 "2010", the wormhole is bent by solar flares. Depending on which side of the side these flares occur, the traveler is either transported to the past or to the future. According to Albert Einstein, "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." His theories in special relativity, as well as those of the mathmetician Hendrick A. Lorentz, propose that time and space are somehow bound teogther in a four-dimensional space-time continuum. Einstein's general relativity theories proposes that velocity and gravity warp spacetime in ways that cause time to be relative to the observer measuring it. Through special and general relativity, however, travel to the future is more easily accomplished than that to the past, but because Stargate SG-1 is science fiction, traveling to either the past or the future is possible.

The computations done normally by the Dial Home Device (DHD) to compensate for stellar drift had to be accounted for by Carter in her dialing computer software. These computations also had to account for how close the wormhole formed to the sun. Carter had done research into other uses of the stargate technology, including time travel. In her research, she investigated the impact solar flares would have on a wormhole and proposed that these flares, if predicted, could make time travel via the stargate possible. A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released. This magnetic energy along with Earth's gravitational field, according to Carter, would bend the wormhole and cause it to return to Earth. Basically, they'd wouldn't travel through space as much as they would time in the space-time continuum.

Solar flares are not predictable because of the time it takes for us to observe the flare. Because of the time it takes for light to travel, we observe a solar flare after it has actually occurred. In the episode, 2.21 "1969", General Hammond used Carter's research to record the times of the solar flares which we observed in the year 1969, so Carter didn't have to predict those. The manner in which Cassandra sent them back to the present when they overshot their return and were flung into the future was not identified in the episode, but it could be assumed that by the time Cassandra was an elderly woman, solar flares were predictable. It could also be assumed that another form of wormhole manipulation was performed by Cassandra's use of advanced technology to get them back to their time.

Time Machines

Technology was the means of time travel in the other time travel episodes of Stargate SG-1. Both the technologies used were created by the Ancients, a race of humans who lived millions of years before humans on Earth. As a matter of fact, in the Stargate SG-1 universe, the Ancients were the ones who seeded the Milky Way Galaxy with our present life forms after a plague swept the galaxy millions of years ago (8.18 "Threads").

One such time machine was developed by the Ancients who lived on the planet designated P4X-639. They took advantage of the geomagnetic disturbance which occurred every fifty or so years to power the device. Unfortunately, the machine only generated a short-term continuous loop. The creators of the machine attempted to fix it, but were unsuccessful. They shut down the machine, recorded their failure on the walls surrounding the device, and let the end come. Daniel translated the text and determined how to shut down the machine which had been activated by an alien archaeologist named Malikai. Malikai did not have the same translating skills as Daniel and didn't realize that the machine would never work in the way he intended—to go back in time over twelve years to see his dead wife alive once more. The machine was never able to send the traveler back further than ten hours, and as long as the machine was operational, the traveler looped in time for those ten hours. (4.06 "Window Of Opportunity")

The second time machine built by the Ancients was in the form of a small space craft with a time machine built in. This small craft is able to fly through the wormhole of a stargate, and thus, it was nicknamed a "puddle jumper" by Major John Sheppard (because the event horizon of a stargate's wormhole looks like a puddle of water) when he discovered a bay full of them on Atlantis. The term "jumper" was also used by Carter (8.19 "Moebius Part 1"). (In real life, there is an ultra-light aircraft named "puddle jumper".) This time machine generated a field of some kind around the spacecraft rather than using the wormhole to travel through time.

The timeship discovered by SG-1 on Harry Maybourne's planet could only make jumps of at least a few hundred years at a time (8.13 "It's Good To Be King", 8.19 "Moebius Part 1"). The technology of the two timeships presented in the Stargate universe are so nearly identical that it is possible that they were both built by the same Ancient, Janus, who was introduced in the Stargate Atlantis episode, 1.15 "Before I Sleep". Janus' machine was used to travel back in time 10,000 years in the Pegasus Galaxy and was destroyed in the past in a crash. Janus, however, was one of the Ancients who returned to Earth 10,000 years ago and he could have built a second machine which was found in Harry's planet in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Terminology of Time Travel

Parallel Universes (Alternate Realities): In the Stargate SG-1 universe, the concept of parallel universes or alternate realities was established before any of the time traveling episodes were shown. The first episode which introduced alternate realities was 1.20 "There But For The Grace Of God", in which Daniel Jackson crosses over into a parallel universe via a "Quantum Mirror". The theory states that for every decision, a new universe is created so as to satisfy each possible outcome. The number of universes, therefore, cannot be calculated and is nearly infinite.

Causality and Temporal Causality Loop: The basic idea of causality is that a cause must always come before its effect. In relation to time travel, there is the possibility that the traveler might be involved in a temporal causality loop where the actual act of going back in time is what causes an event to happen and that resulting event is what causes the time traveler to go back in time (Event A causes Event B causes Event A). One of the most popular illustrations of a temporal causality loop was that presented in the movie Terminator in which John Connor sends back Kyle Reese to save Connor's mother, Sarah, from the terminator (a biomechanical android) who went back in time to prevent his birth. While in the past, Kyle and Sarah conceive John. The Event A in this illustration is John's sending Kyle back in time. The Event B is John's conception with Kyle as his father. The fact that John exists, then, is what leads to the time traveling scenerio, and, thus, Event B, John's birth, causes Event A, the need to go back in time to allow John to be born because his father is the time traveler Kyle.

Paradox: The temporal causality loop is an illustration of a paradox. Another popular paradox among time traveling examples is the grandfather paradox in which a time traveler goes back in time before his grandfather meets his grandmother and then kills him. If the time traveler's grandfather is dead, then he cannot meet the his grandmother, and therefore, he is never born. So, if the time traveler is never born, then he cannot go back in time to kill his grandfather which would then lead to his birth.

Moebius: A moebius strip is a physical representation of the infinity symbol used in math (looks like an 8 on its side). In time traveling terms, a moebius is a temporal causality loop in which all the events are locked together to form an infinite loop in which time travel is necessary in order to establish events which make time travel necessary. The only way to break out of the loop would be to stop the need to travel back in time.

Because parallel universes have been established by Stargate SG-1 to exist in the SG-1 universe, the viewer is left with a way to deal with these time traveling events which otherwise might cause a paradox. Instead of there being one timeline which is always changing because of a loop, there are different realities in which various scenerios and conditions are met which would prevent a paradox. Therefore, the history in one reality is different from the history in another from the moment the time traveling event impacted the timeline. That leaves us with a version of SG-1 which have come out of all loops, prevented catastrophies, or experienced all necessary events which make their existence optimistic.

2.21 "1969"

Lt. George Hammond in 1969
Catherine Langford in 1969
Cassandra of the future

We are given the perspective of SG-1 as they are flung into the past when the wormhole is bent by a solar flare. When they go through the wormhole from the SGC, they emerge momentarily existing in two times, and then the wormhole disengages and the embarkation room reverts to a missile silo. A missile's rockets are about to be test fired, but Teal'c disables the rocket's electrical systems with a blast from a zat gun.

The team is confined and their belongings are confiscated. They are interrogated, assumed to be Soviet spies.

One man, however, finds a note given to Carter by General Hammond before they leave. He opens it to find that it is in his own handwriting and is addressed to him personally. "Help them." Lt. Hammond is amazed, but is finally convinced that SG-1 are actually from the future and that he had written the note to himself so that they could get back home.

While Jack and Teal'c investigate the date and times written on the note, theorizing that they must be solar flare events, Carter and Daniel disguise themselves and visit Catherine Langford. She welcomes them into her home, thinking that Daniel is the son of one of her father's contemporaries, and tells them where the stargate is located. Daniel had revealed earlier that it was soon afterwards that Catherine revitalized the stargate research.

SG-1 finds the stargate and dials it close to the time of the second solar flare listed on the note. They are under fire by security personnel, but manage to enter the wormhole which flings them into the future (the sun flares are on the opposite side of the sun to the one which sent them into the past). When they exit the wormhole, they are in the SGC, but too far into the future. They are met by an elderly Cassandra Fraiser, who uses advanced technology to engage the wormhole and send them back to their time. Cassandra said that Carter told her that they would be flung into the future and would need help getting back, so Cassandra knew where and when she had to meet them.

4.06 "Window Of Opportunity"

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4.16 "2010" and 5.10 "2001"

Dr. Samantha Carter Faxon
Ambassador Joe Faxon
Dr. Janet Fraiser

In the future, in the year 2010, Samantha Carter is the wife of Ambassador Joe Faxon and they are attempting to conceive a child, but have failed. Carter has barely aged, thanks to the medical technology of the advanced race, the Aschen, with whom Earth has joined into a conferation. The Aschen helped Earth defeat the Goa'uld and wipe out disease. The stargate is public knowledge and people travel freely to other worlds within the confederation, including Teal'c's homeworld of Chulak. SG-1 is recognized for their contributions in establishing the alliance, but Jack O'Neill refuses to take part in the celebrations because he was the lone voice of dissension concerning the trustworthiness of the Aschen.

Soon, Carter and Dr. Janet Fraiser (who is still alive in this version of the future because the events of the episode, 7.18 "Heroes Part 2", did not happen since the Aschen wiped out the Goa'uld) determine the reasons for Carter's inability to conceive. She is infertile, a condition hidden from her by her Aschen physician. Suspicions arise and soon they discover that the Aschen's medicines have rendered an over 90% drop in the world's birthrate and Earth's population will be wiped out within the next hundred or so years. The Aschen conquer the worlds of their "confederation" by patiently waiting for the population to die to free up the resources, mainly the land, for their own version of galactic domination.

Dr. Daniel Jackson
Teal'c
Jack O'Neill, USAF retired

Daniel, Janet, Teal'c, and Carter decide that they need to do something about this situation, feeling somewhat responsible for it. They devise a plan, based on their experience with time travel and a sun flare's influence of a wormhole (from 2.21 "1969"). The plan is to send a note back in time to before they meet the Aschen (in the year 2001) and prevent the SGC from ever making contact with them. After Carter visits Jack at his cabin, Jack decides to get involved with the plan.

Daniel and Jack write notes to send back. The note is a warning not to go to the Aschen homeworld (P4C-970) under any circumstances. In their plan, they would forcibly take control of the stargate and establish a wormhole at the same time a solar flare occurs, predicted by the advanced computer system of the Aschen to which Carter has access through her work. First Teal'c and his Jaffa friend fall, then Jack, then Daniel. The automatic laser defense system surrounding the stargate kills each one with brutal precision. Finally, Carter leaves her husband's side, grabs the blood-stained note from Jack's hand, and throws it through the wormhole just as she dies.

Carter sends note
SG-1 receives note
Aschen homeworld is locked out

In the year 2001 (5.10 "2001"), SG-1's IDC is transmitted through an incoming wormhole, but all of SG-1 are present. They open the iris anyway, and out comes the note. General Hammond immediately has the planet's designation locked out of the dialing program. SG-1 meets the Aschen on the Volian homeworld and based on the fact that the Aschen do not have a DHD, the SGC knows that the Aschen can only dial to planets close to their own because they cannot compensate for stellar drift (1.02 "Children Of The Gods Part 2"). With that information in mind and the desire to determine the Aschen homeworld's identity (because the Aschen refused to divulge it), the SGC discovers that P4C-970 is one of four likely planets. Even though their suspicions are valid, the President of the United States told them to stop their investigation so that diplomatic relations could be established with this very advanced race. Daniel and Teal'c, however, do their own investigation and uncover the identity of the Aschen and their goal to wipe out the population of any planet in their confederation. Earth is spared from the Aschen.

8.13 "It's Good To Be King" and Stargate Atlantis: 1.15 "Before I Sleep"

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8.19 "Moebius Part 1" and 8.20 "Moebius Part 2"

Daniel finds reference to a ZPM in 3000 B.C.
SG-1 uses the Ancient time machine
SG-1 gets stuck in Egypt in 3000 B.C.

At the start of the episode, 8.19 "Moebius Part 1", Catherine Langford has died and Daniel inherits her collection. He finds reference to a Zero Point Module (ZPM) in a book which describes the worship rituals of the ancient Egyptians in 3000 B.C. Knowing that Ra was still on Earth in 3000 B.C., the team uses an Ancient time machine (discovered in the episode, 8.13 "It's Good To Be King") to go back in time 5000 years to retrieve the ZPM, hoping to power up Earth's defenses in the Antarctic as well as establish a stable wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy where the Atlantis Expedition Team is stranded. Their time machine is discovered after they find the ZPM, so they decide to place the ZPM in a First Dynasty Tomb, which Daniel knew had been uncovered a month before their trip back in time, along with a video explaining that they might have messed up the timeline. They placed the ZPM into the tomb so their future selves will discover it and never decide to go back in time to retrieve it. They recorded the video so that whoever discovered it might know what the timeline was supposed to be and learn how to operate the stargate.

Alternate Daniel Jackson
Alternate Samantha Carter
Alternate Jack O'Neill

We then return to present day to see that the future has indeed been altered. The stargate was taken by Ra in his spaceship rather than being buried by the Egyptians in a rebellion and, therefore, there is no Stargate Program. Other than that, the same people exist, but they live very different lives because the stargate never influenced them. Daniel is still a Ph.D. who was shunned from the archeological community because of his theories concerning the pyramids, and has become a teacher of English as a second language. Carter is still a Ph.D. in astrophysics, but she never joined the Air Force, but instead she reviews other people's papers for scientific accuracy in the Department of Aerospace Research. Jack O'Neill is a retired Air Force colonel, who has no ambition other than running a touring/fishing boat. Teal'c is assumed to be living on Chulak as the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis' First Prime.

Alternate Brig. Gen. George Hammond
Alternate Maj. Paul Davis
Alternate Maj. Samuels

Brig. Gen. George Hammond sends Air Force personnel, lead by Maj. Paul Davis (sporting a mustache) and Maj. Samuels, to retrieve Daniel, Carter, and Jack. Daniel and Carter respond, but Jack refuses. Hammond shows the tape to them and immediately they go to work in carrying out the mission to fix the timeline. They meet with an alternate version of Dr. Rodney McKay who leads the investigation of the time machine left in Egypt from 5000 years ago. Daniel translates a tablet found by Dr. Langford in 1934 (rather than 1928) at the same site where the stargate had been before the timeline had been altered. This tablet, it appears, was chiseled by the time traveling Daniel Jackson, who told them where they would find the second stargate in Antarctica. Using seismic readings as a guide, Carter and Daniel help the Air Force uncover the stargate, thus establishing a Stargate Program. General Hammond, however, makes it clear that Daniel and Carter will not be part of the Program.

Alternate Dr. Rodney McKay
Alternate Maj. Charles Kawalsky
Alternate Goa'uld System Lord Apophis

This story is then continued in the episode, 8.20 "Moebius Part 2". Jack O'Neill has changed his mind and decides to get involved with the mission. He joins up again with his old service buddy, Maj. Charles Kawalsky (who is still alive in this timeline because there was no Stargate Program and he did not get killed as in the episode, 1.03 "The Enemy Within"). Jack persuades Gen. Hammond to allow Daniel and Carter to go with them on the mission to Chulak to retrieve Teal'c. They use the DHD on the time machine's dashboard and fly the craft through the stargate to Chulak. There, they are taken captive and Apophis tortures Daniel with the ribbon device, not believing that they are from the Tau'ri. Daniel stubbornly resists the torture, so Apophis implants a Goa'uld symbiote in him to obtain the necessary information and sends Daniel back to his team as a spy. Teal'c is impressed with Daniel's strength and courage and decides to see the tape on which Teal'c describes the newly-formed Jaffa Nation. Teal'c decides to help, but is forced to kill Daniel. There is a firefight and only Jack, Carter, and Teal'c remain to go to Egypt of 5000 years ago.

Alternate Teal'c
Daniel in ancient Egypt
Egyptians succeed in rebellion

Upon their arrival in the year 2995 B.C., they meet the time traveling Daniel, the only survivor of the original team. Jack, Carter, and Teal'c were executed for attempting to start the uprising to bury the stargate, a plan which was doomed to failure because they lacked the necessary numbers and Ra was still on the planet. Daniel was angry at his teammates for their actions, leaving him alone to fix the problem. When the alternate Jack, Carter, and Teal'c arrive, he realizes that the future had been impacted significantly. However, he had already started planning the rebellion once again and the alternates had come before Ra had left with the stargate, so there was still a chance that they could change events to correct the timeline.

Teal'c aids Daniel in the strategy of the rebellion, while Jack and Carter work on the cloaking device on the time machine. Each is successful and Ra's forces are overtaken and the Egyptians gain control of the stargate. The rebellion was a success, but the time machine was damaged. We're left thinking that the "original" Daniel and his alternate teammates are destined to live out the rest of their lives in the past.

The time travelers' tape
The uncovered ZPM
Fishing at Jack's cabin

Next, we're back in our own time and see that SG-1 has the ZPM and the tape. Comparing their events in history to the ones cited on the tape, they decide that there is no need to go back in time to fix the timeline. Then, they all go fishing at Jack's cabin, just as they had in the final scene in the episode, 8.18 "Threads". We are led to believe that the tomb with the ZPM and tape were discovered between Daniel's return from his second ascension and the team fishing trip to Jack's cabin. This tomb had been uncovered one month prior to the start of the events of "Moebius Part 1", so the assumption is that we have backed up a few weeks before Catherine Langford dies and the time traveling mission was undertaken. The timeline has been fixed, except, now Jack's pond has fish.

Episodes

Related Characters

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Further Reading

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Various Versions Of Established Characters:

2.21 "1969"

8.21 "Moebius Part 1"

--DeeKayP 20:01, 4 Mar 2005 (PST)

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