Stargate SG-1 – The Fifth Race

The SG-1 team visits a planet that they believe holds the key to locating one of the three other races, among them the Ancients (the original builders of the Stargate), that were once joined together in an alliance against the Goa'uld. While there, a device transfers all the knowledge of the Ancients, including their language and previously unknown gate addresses, into O'Neill's brain. Not long after returning to the SGC (Stargate Command), the colonel begins to download all this recently acquired information into the base's computers, but the strain on his brain is too much and he will soon die. Using the knowledge he has acquired, O'Neill gates to a world where he meets the Asgard, an immensely powerful race that not only cures him, but also becomes one of Earth's greatest allies. David Warry-Smith, who directed The Fifth Race, says, "I love the theme of this story. It's one of hope in which humankind is told by a superior race, ‘Hey, you're not doing too badly.' This episode required Richard Dean Anderson to play a number of his scenes without dialogue, which I think he did with both conviction and humor."