Stargate SG-1, Season 2, Episode 20

"Show and Tell"

images used above are courtesy of Gateworld and MGM

Overall Rating:  Very Good

There is an unauthorized incoming wormhole at SGC.  As usual, the iris cover of the stargate is closed.  Yet, the iris keeps re-opening.  SGC personnel cannot keep the iris closed.  The base is on red alert, and armed military personnel fill the gate room, ready to fight any threat coming through the stargate.  A lone figure emerges from the stargate, a human child.  Unarmed, the child only carries a warning for Earth.  A rebel faction of an alien race intends to attack Earth.  The alien race is called the Reetou.  The child only wants to speak with O’Neill.  Called son by his mother, the boy adopts the name of O’Neill’s deceased son -- Charlie -- for himself.

This Charlie knows a lot about O’Neill, and things that have happened at SGC.  The staff thinks Charlie might be psychic.  Charlie says that his mother told him the information.  His mother is invisible to, and unheard by, everyone except Charlie.  Everyone is concerned about a possible attack from unknown aliens, and convinced that Charlie is hallucinating his mother, due to post-traumatic stress.  General Hammond and SG-1 begin to strategize a way to deal with an unknown threat based on information from Charlie’s unseen mother.  SG teams have seen enough unusual events to not dismiss Charlie’s warning.

Dr. Frasier discovers that Charlie is suffering from multiple physiological issues, and does not have long to live.  Events demonstrate that mom, and the Reetou rebels, are real.  Stargate Command is under siege, uncertain if they can save Earth from the Reetou rebels, and save Charlie from dying.

Jeff Gulka is excellent as Charlie.  He portrays the character's moods, from exasperation to exhaustion, very well.  Charlie is believable as a human child from an alien culture.  He is charming, without being precocious.  The Reetou are an interesting, and very alien, species.  The regular cast does an admirable job, neither overshadowing, nor being overshadowed by, Mr. Gulka’s performance.

Failures:
How the Reetou rebels get into Stargate Command is sketchy, but not unforgivably so.