US Airdate : 27 July 1997

UK Airdate : 8 April 1998

Summary

It's been a year since the original mission to Abydos. The Stargate has been shut down; General Hammond has taken over from General West and is about to retire. The gate actives unexpectedly and a Ra like being emerges, one of the female airforce guards is captured by him, the others are killed.

Colonel Jack O'Neill is recalled to active duty, he admits that Daniel Jackson is alive and with new team member Major Samantha Carter, returns to Abydos.

Daniel has some surprising news for them, the Stargate can be used to travel to many different planets and he shows them something that was missing from the dig at Giza, a dialling device.

Uncovering the Abydos gate spells disaster for the inhabitants, the god Apophis returns and takes captives, one of them is Sha're, Daniel's wife. Ferretti is badly injured but he manages to see the co-ordinates used on the dialling device before he passes out.

A devasted Daniel returns to earth with Jack, and begs to be included on the team that goes to the rescue.

The newly formed SG1 and SG2 teams gate to Chulak, captured and condemned to death they are helped by an unexpected new ally, Teal'c, the first prime of Apophis

Notes

The broadcast version of this episode, often differs.

The missing scenes include the one where Sha're is naked during the take over by the Goa'uld and the chat between Jack and Daniel, "the Flour scene".

Stargate SG-1 first aired in the US on the ShowTime cable channel which is an adult orientated broadcaster and the nude scene was considered OK for that channel. However, for overseas broadcast and syndication it was cut so that SG-1 could be shown to a family audience.

In the UK, when the series was released on VHS the COTG tape was the edited version and rated UK PG.

When the first single DVDs were released in the UK, for some reason they decided to skip Season 1 and only release a 2 disc "best of" DVD which included COTG and the last three episodes of S1. That release was rated UK18 and included the uncut version. The same version is in the UK season 1 box set so that also has an 18 rating.

I can understand the reason the Sha're scene was cut but why the other scene? Which sets up the friendship between the two men and explains some of the back-story of their respective relationships.

Here is that scene....

At the SGC, Daniel looks lost.

"Hey." Jack greets him

"They don't know what to do with me. And I don't know what to do with myself."

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Jack suggests; they go to his place.

They open a couple of beers; Daniel sneezes.

"Nice catch." Remarks Jack.

"Thank you. Hmmm, Gate travel always seems to make my allergies..." He blows his nose. "Sorry. "

"So...You were saying...?" Jack Prompts.

"Anyway. As soon as you were gone, they realised; they were free. I mean, Abydos was their world for the taking."

"Had a little party, did you?"

"Oh yeah. big, big party. They treated me like their saviour. It was, uh, embarrassing." Daniel smiles sheepishly.

"It's amazing you turned out so normal."

"Well, if it wasn't for Sha're I probably..." Daniel pauses, the pain of her abduction still raw "She was the complete opposite of everyone else. She practically fell on the floor laughing every time I tried to do some chore they all took for granted. Like, um, grinding yafetta flour. I mean, have you ever tried to grind your own flour?"

"I'm trying to kick the flour thing." Jack quips

Daniel laughs; then indicating the bottle, "This is going straight to my head. Hmm what time is it, anyway? I must have gate lag or something."

"Daniel, for crying out loud, you've had one beer. Cheaper date than my wife was."

Daniel realising something asks, "Yes, when am I going to meet your wife?"

"Oh. Probably, ah, never. After I came back from Abydos the first time she'd already left." Jack explains.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah. So was I. I think in her heart she forgave me for what happened to our kid. She just...couldn't forget."

Daniel considers this and asks: "And what about you?"

"I'm the opposite. I'll never forgive myself. But sometimes I can forget. Sometimes."