Summit

Summary | Production | Review

The Tok'ra send Daniel Jackson to a secret meeting between the System Lords, unaware that a new power is about to attack the Tok'ra homeworld.

RATINGS SCORECARD
OUR RATING -
FAN RATING - 7.51 
EPISODE #515
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 03.22.2002
SYNDICATION AIR DATE: 01.27.2003
DVD DISC: Season 5, Disc 4
WRITTEN BY: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
DIRECTED BY: Martin Wood
GUEST STARS: Carmen Argenziano (Jacob Carter), Anna-Louise Plowman (Osiris), Cliff Simon (Baal), Courtenay J. Stevens (Lt. Elliott), Jennifer Calvert (Ren'al), Gary Jones (Technician), William de Vry (Aldwin), Anthony Ulc (Mansfield), Vince Crestejo (Yu), Kevin Durand (Zipacna), Kwesi Ameyaw (Olokun), Suleka Mathew (Kali), Paul Anthony (Slave), Andrew Kavadas (Zipacna's Jaffa), Simon Hayama (Jarren), Natasha Khadr (Bastet), Bonnie Kilroe (Morrigan)
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Deep in outer space, a small swarm of Goa'uld ships come together. The Goa'uld Zipacna – formerly in the service of Apophis and his son Klorel, but now allied with a mysterious and powerful Goa'uld – welcomes his guest. It is Osiris, recently escaped from Earth, who has taken Sarah GardnerDaniel Jackson's former girlfriend – as her host ("The Curse").

Zipacna offers her a position in service to this powerful Goa'uld, finally revealing his name: Anubis.

Back on Earth, the S.G.C. welcomes Tok'ra Councilwoman Ren'al. She has a mission for the team – for Dr. Jackson, actually, because he speaks fluent Goa'uld. The System Lords have been fighting each other more fiercely since the deaths of Cronus ("Double Jeopardy") and Apophis ("Enemies") left a power vacuum. Now, they have declared a truce and agreed to meet on a neutral space station.

The Tok'ra intend to kill all of them with a chemically-engineered poison, dealing the Goa'uld a blow from which they may never recover. Daniel is to be their means of delivery.

SG-1 journeys to the planet Revanna, the new Tok'ra homeworld. Deep underground in the Tok'ra's hidden network of caves, Jacob Carter discusses the plan. He's spent the last several months establishing himself as a minor Goa'uld in the service of Yu, a powerful System Lord ("Fair Game"). He can get Daniel inside Yu's home base, where he will use the Reole memory-altering chemical ("The Fifth Man") to convince Yu that he is Jarren, Yu's closest human slave (called a "lo'taur").

The plan works, and after Daniel pokes him with a ring designed to deliver the chemical, Yu is convinced that Daniel is Jarren. The two depart for the summit of the System Lords, and find six of the galaxy's most powerful figures waiting: Baal, Olokun, Morrigan, Bastet, Kali the Destroyer, and Svarog. The System Lords are still waiting, though, for another guest – the powerful Goa'uld who has been dealing them all heavy defeats in battle, but who refuses to make his identity known.

Inside the Tok'ra base, Ren'al shows Major Samantha Carter the chamber that is keeping the symbiote Lantash alive. Lantash was symbiote to Martouf, a close friend of Carter's who was killed more than a year ago ("Divide and Conquer"). Ren'al explains that Martouf's body was kept in stasis for months, but Lantash was eventually removed so that both host and symbiote would not die.

Osiris prepares to depart Zipacna's ship for the summit, as Anubis' official representative. Zipacna, meanwhile, has learned the location of the new Tok'ra homeworld from a captured spy. He launches a full-scale invasion of Revanna.

SG-1 and SG-17 (including the S.G.C.'s newest officer, Lieutenant Elliot) try to help the Tok'ra, but little can be done. The Goa'uld have dialed in to Revanna's Stargate, preventing their escape. The Tok'ra have relied on secrecy and subterfuge to survive for thousands of years – and now, they have neither.

The Goa'uld continue bombing runs over the surface of Revanna, in an attempt to flush the resistance fighters out of their secret tunnels. Fragments of rock and crystal continue to collapse, killing Tok'ra and blocking passages. One assault kills Ren'al and destroys Lantash's holding tank, forcing him to take the dying Lieutenant Elliot as a host. The rest of SG-17 is killed as well.

O'Neill, Teal'c and the Tok'ra Aldwin head for the surface, where they find an army of Jaffa troops amassing. They are preparing to enter the exposed tunnels and destroy the Tok'ra. They flee from an attacking death glider, but Aldwin is killed.

On the space station, Jackson is stunned when the final guest arrives: Sarah, now possessed by Osiris. She sees him and recognizes him, but does not reveal his identity to the others – an ace up her sleeve. Daniel communicates her arrival to Jacob, who is waiting nearby in a cargo ship, but is confronted in his private quarters by Osiris.

On Revanna, Elliot / Lantash can be of little help to SG-1 as they try to escape. Another bombing run blocks the only way to the surface, leaving them trapped underground.

PRODUCTION NOTES

  • "There's a bigger, badder Goa'uld beating the you-know-what out of all the other System Lords. I don't want to give him a name so we're calling him ['Voldemort'] at the moment. The sacrifice of one of the series' favourite characters is the only way to retrieve a truly dire situation." (Executive producer Brad Wright, in Cult Times magazine #69)
  • "I just finished the first draft of the two-parter, 'Summit.' Lots of cool new System Lords. ... This being a first draft, I don't know how many will make the cut, but I tried to draw from a variety of different cultures to introduce some eight new myth-based System Lords (three are female)." (Writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a chat with the Sam/Jack Horsewomen. Mallozzi also said that the episode was originally written to include the Goa'uld Nirrti.)
  • "[Apophis] got so powerful that the other System Lords are afraid of a change in the balance of power, and so they decide to band together to solve the problem. ... In 'The Fifth Man' a new System Lord appears, and our heroes have to learn that there are some pretty cool guys out there who they haven't met yet. There are still quite a few of the Egyptian gods that we haven't used yet. For example, we could meet Bastet or Anubis."

    "[Anubis was killed in the movie], but that was just Ra's First Prime. He seemed to like the name and the jackal's mask so much that he adopted the name, but he wasn't the god himself. We are probably going to ignore that. With Bastet we would have a second attractive goddess, after Osiris." (Director Peter DeLuise, in an interview with TV Highlights magazine)
  • "One episode features a meeting of eight System Lords, or evil rulers. Each lord is 'sort of human-based, [with] some kind of historical base. For instance, there's an East Indian Shiva type, and one who's a Celtic god called Morrigan. In the myth, when she appeared as a raven, death was nearby. So we took an S&M twist with it. Her garb is all black and leather and feathers and studs.'"

    "Still another System Lord is 'based on an Egyptian cat god.' So the costume would be furry? 'No fur! Iridescent fabric, maybe some metallic chain mail for the headdress and some ornate, Egyptian type jewelry.'" (Costume designer Christina McQuarrie, in Playback Magazine)
  • "In 'Between Two Fires,' Tanith refers to the Bigger, Badder Goa'uld as 'he,' possibly ruling out female Goa'uld such as Osiris, Bastet, Morrigan and the late Hathor. However, keep in mind that the Goa'uld, in their symbiotic state, are asexual and take on the sex of the host body. Furthermore, Osiris was originally a male. The symbiote was extracted and placed in a stasis jar where it remained for thousands of years until Sarah Gardner opened the jar in Season Four ['The Curse'], leading the symbiote to seek refuge in the first available body – hers. 'Him,' 'Her,' 'Male,' 'Female' – technically, the Goa'uld are both and neither." (Writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a message at GateWorld Forums)
  • "I actually had free reign to choose whatever System Lords I deemed appropriate. There were two more, but they were cut at the outline stage." (Writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, in an online chat at GateWorld Forums)
  • After the last five years, can't anyone other than Daniel and Teal'c speak Goa'uld? "Yes, in fact there are individuals on other teams who speak Goa'uld as well." Was Daniel the only one available for this mission? "No, Daniel wasn't the only one available, however he probably has the best grasp of the Goa'uld language and a fairly thorough knowledge of the Goa'uld." (Writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, in an online chat at SG1 Fans)
  • "It's very rare that we'll abandon an idea we've already committed to. In rare instances, alterations need to be made for production reasons (i.e. budget, actor or location availability). ... [For example,] take a look at SG-1 Season Five's 'Summit,' which was supposed to feature a storyline involving the Tok'ra Martouf. As I finished up the first draft, I was informed that actor JR Bourne would be unavailable for the episode so I had to rewrite the script. Exit Martouf, enter his less camera-friendly symbiote, Lantash." (Writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, in an interview with Sequential Tart)
  • "Boy, the costume department had a field day with this one! This episode was a try-out of sorts, an audition for future System Lords. I drew on a variety of different cultures, creating a colorful rogues gallery. The hope was that if one popped, we could use him/her in future episodes. Well, one did: the exquisitely evil Baal played by Cliff Simon.

    "I remember working on a rewrite of my first draft when we received word that actor JR Bourne would not be able to reprise the role of Martouf due to scheduling conflicts. As a result, my rewrite was a little more extensive. Rather encountering the Martouf we knew, we encountered his symbiote, Lantash, who had taken a new host. It worked but, alas, was nowhere near as powerful as it could have been. I publicly toyed with the idea of not using a host body and simply having Carter bid a tearful, smooch-filled farewell to the little rubber snake – but it was more an attempt to irritate my fellow writer-producers than a serious pitch." (Writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)