When Daniel vanishes without explanation, his friends turn to his wacky archaeologist grandfather for help

He's Got That Quip Thing Going

Ballard: Now we must wait for the giant aliens. Jack: That just has a nice ring to it.

Carter: Look at these readings sir, these are leptons.    More Stories 'Stargate SG-1' - 'The Crystal Skull' (spoilers) Stargate SG-1 Digs 'New Ground' Stargate SG-1 - 'Shades of Grey' 'One Hundred Days' Shines Stargate Spotlight on Richard Dean Anderson    Related Links Stargate SG-1 [official] Jack: Get out! Carter: Well that means something inside this pyramid is slowing down neutrinos. Normally neutrinos pass through ordinary matter no matter how dense -- something like 500 million billion just passed through you.

Jack: Hey, if you'd been listening you'd know that Nintendos pass through everything.

Written by Michael Greenburg and Brad Wright
Directed by Brad Turner

Yet another beautiful offworld setting, this one containing a vast pyramid with a long bridge leading up to it. A MALP robot drone moves slowly across the bridge, up from the stargate at the far end.

Back on Earth, the SG-1 team is gathered around a monitor in Stargate Command. Studying data from the drone, Carter reports that the planet has a breathable atmosphere, but no sign of complex life.

The MALP enters the structure, revealing the interior to be a huge cavern adorned by stalactite formations. A small stone bridge leads across to a central platform.

Both Daniel and Carter think it's a major find. Daniel believes that the site is Mayan in design, while Carter finds that the rock formations slow down neutrinos, a fact that could revolutionize modern physics.

When they look closer through the MALP camera-eye, the team finds a skull on a pedestal in the middle of the platform.

Another good episode from the writers of SG-1, combining the rich character development and the overarching plot we've come to know and love.

It was nice to explore Daniel's background -- especially his connection with his grandfather -- and the added twist of his teammates having to discover the past rather than have Daniel himself narrate it via flashback made for interesting television.

As for the larger storyline, "Crystal Skull" plays to one of Stargate SG-1's chief strengths -- connecting its space-opera epic of diverse alien races with the evolution of culture on ancient Earth.

Although this episode erred a bit too much on the side of becoming a character study -- making it a decent B episode, but little more -- the fact that the writers managed to bring in allusions to the ongoing fight against the Goa'uld lifted it above typical episodic television.