SG-1 arrives on P4X-639, an abandoned, desolate world with a blazing hot sun overhead andancient ruins surrounding the Stargate. They meet Malakai, an alien archaeologist who hasbeen studying the world for many months, first encountered when SG-15 was here two weeksprevious. As Carter sets up equipment to monitor the sun's unique coronal mass emitions,Jackson examines the alien text carved into the stone walls.Before Jackson knows what's hit him, Malakai pulls a weapon and shoots him. He activates analien machine -- a stone altar just a few yards in front of the Stagate -- which causes abeam to shoot out and hit the Stargate. Jack and Teal'c try to stop him, while Carter rushesto Daniel's side. There is a blinding flash of light, and all is gone. O'Neill finds himselfsitting in the SGC commissary, eating a bowl of Fruit Loops.
It doesn't take Jack long to figure out that he's been thrown back in time, roughly 10hours. He and Teal'c are both experiencing the same day over again. They are checked out byDr. Frasier and given a clean bill of health. After they predict the unscheduled arrivalof SG-12, General Hammond and the others are convinced they are not delusional. Theafternoon mission to P4X-639 is cancelled.
But the move does little good. When a wormhole is established with Earth's Stargate, SG-1witnesses the energy beam hit the gate. Seconds later, Jack is back in the commissary withCarter and Jackson, eating his cereal.
Again, Jack and Teal'c must convince Hammond, Jackson and Carter that they are all stuck ina time loop -- though only Jack and Teal'c are aware of it.
This time around, though, O'Neill convinces the general that simply scrubbing the missionwill not break the loop. They've already tried that. SG-1 goes to the planet and again meets Malakai, who claims to have never met them before. But it isn't long before he gives himself away; Malakai is caught in the same loop, but remembers previous loops. Indeed, thiswas his goal. With an infinite amount of time at his disposal, he intends to figure out howto properly work the alien time device in order to revisit his past.
SG-1 fails to stop him, and the loop starts all over. Carter comes up with a new plan: ifEarth's Stargate is already connected to another planet when the alien time device is activated, it won't be able to get through. The loop will be broken, or at least Earth willbe left out of it.
The gate is dialed, but the plan does not work. For an unexplainable reason, the seventhchevron fails to engage -- no wormhole can be established. The beam hits the Earth gate again, and everything starts over -- again.
In the next loop, Teal'c and Jack approach Daniel. They believe that if he can translatethe inscriptions on the altar device, Daniel can turn off the machine. Since there is noway for Daniel to accomplish such a feat in less than a day, he enlists Jack and Teal'c tohelp him translate the markings.
The alien language, is in fact, a derivative of the language of the Ancients -- the advancedrace who built the Stargate network. SG-1 has encountered it twice before ("The Torment of Tantalus", "The Fifth Race"), and Jackson knows that it is linguistically similar to Latin.
Loop after loop after loop, Jack and Teal'c study Latin and help Daniel to translate theinscriptions on the altar and the walls surrounding it -- making a little progress eachtime.
Jack becomes increasingly frustrated with repeating the same 10 hours over and over again:the same Fruit Loops, the same conversations, the same task of convincing Hammond, Carterand Jackson that they are all stuck in a time loop. He and Teal'c decide to take a breakbefore they go crazy -- especially when Daniel points out that they can do anything theywant without fear of consequences.
Jack tries his hand at pottery. Teal'c -- who has entered each new loop getting hit in theface with a door -- slams it on the airman who continually hits him. And the both of themhit golf balls through the Stargate, despite General Hammond's livid protests.
Finally, before going back to studying, Jack finishes a loop by handing the general hisresignation and kissing Carter passionately.
Back in Daniel's office, their translation work is done. The walls on P4X-639 contain anancient history of the people who lived there: a colony of the Ancients. Many centuriesago, the colony was struck with some sort of cataclysm (perhaps a disease, perhapssomething else). They invented the time device to try and alter their history, but couldnever get it to work. They spent loop after loop trying to perfect it, but it did not work.Finally, the people gave up, turned off the machine and let the inevitable come.
SG-1 returns to the planet to try and reason with Malakai -- who in the many loops since haserected a force shield around the altar device. They discover that he is trying to go backmany years into the past, before his wife died. He cannot save her (she died of a congenitalheart defect), but he does wish to be with her once more.
Daniel tells Malakai about their discovery: the people who built the machine couldn't everget it to work. They gave up. Carter tells him about her theory: the device is simultaneously accessing 14 Stargates, causing time to loop for billions of people. AndJack, who understands Malakai's pain all-too-personally (having lost his own son), convinceshim that he does not want to watch his wife die again. Malakai lets her go, and deactivatesthe machine.
Back on Earth, the Tok'ra contact the SGC with the news that they've been trying to contactthem for than three months. The team may never be sure how much longer than that they werecaught in the loop. And although it was a nightmare to relive the same 10 hours hundreds oftimes, O'Neill and Teal'c had one heck of an opportunity to do the things they never couldhave done before.
