In the episode, continuing their search for the Lost City of the Ancients, Stargate Command discovers Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) living on an alien planet with no memory of who he is or how he got there.
On a planet of ancient ruins, four nomads walking in the forest come across the body of a naked man lying among the dirt and leaves: It is Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks).
Known to the nomads as "Arrom", Jackson has no memory of his life before arriving on the planet, but in time Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) convince him to return with them to Earth.
The team see an opportunity to lure Anubis, who is also searching for the Ancient lost city, to Vis Uban in order to destroy his super-weapon and cripple his mothership.
As Anubis arrive in orbit above Vis Uban, Jonas and Daniel use rings to transport onboard his ship in order to locate the target.
O'Neill and Carter then launch their attack from space in an F-302 fighter against Anubis' mothership and its death gliders, eventually using a hyperspace-burst to penetrate the ships shields and destroy the reactor.
Stargate SG-1 was officially renewed by the Sci-Fi Channel for a seventh season on November 7, 2002, with the network confirming that Richard Dean Anderson would return as Jack O'Neill.
[1] The following day the network made the announcement that actor Michael Shanks would return as Daniel Jackson, once again as part of the main cast, having left at the end of season five.
[2] The following week it was further announced that Don S. Davis would return as George Hammond, Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter and Christopher Judge as Teal'c, whilst Corin Nemec's Jonas Quinn would now be reduced to a reoccurring character.
Being a big fan of Star Wars, Robert C. Cooper based many of the sequences on both the original 1977 film and Return of the Jedi, even having O'Neill directly reference "red leader".
[11] Director Martin Wood also consulted a fighter pilot to make the dialog that would be used by Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter more accurate.
[18] In order to best capture the scenes involving Daniel crawling through the air-vent's onboard Anubis' ship, Menard had to construct his own makeshift camera dolly come crane that could pull in and out of the highly confined space.
[19] As with previous seasons, Wood and Menard looked for new and interesting ways to shoot within the shows most prominently featured set, Stargate Command.
The script sees an amnestic Daniel Jackson question if there was ever a romantic relationship between him and Sam, something Shanks and Tapping felt was out of place given the characters purely platonic friendship.
[22][23] As scenes in Cooper's story had such unmistakable influence from Star Wars, Wood encouraged visual effects supervisor James Tichenor to really embrace and accentuate this influence in the visual effects sequences involving O'Neill and Carter's F302 attach against Anubis' mothership, borrowing elements from the Rebel Alliance's Death Star trench run from the 1977 film, and the reactor bombing run in Return of the Jedi.
[12][11] During the live action photography of the sequence, actors Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping wore masks that obscured their characters faces.
[29] IGN positively received the episode, awarding it 4 stars out of 5, commenting "SG-1 has maintained a certain level of comfort, like a favorite pair of blue jeans".
The reviewer appreciated the references throughout the episode to Star Wars, highlighting the quality of CGI effects sequence of the attack on Anubis' mothership.
[30] DVD Talk positively received the episode, commenting that the opening "gives a lot of fans what they have been clamouring for; the return of Daniel Jackson".
Mark Sachs of Los Angeles Times applauded the two-parter as one of the "delights of its genre", whilst Zap2it also positively received the episode, with it leading their recommended shows for that day.
[40] Snow enjoyed the interplay between Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) and Jonas Quinn (Corin Nemec), but was critical of what they believed to be contrived story.
Reviewer Lex felt that the choice to pay homage to Star Wars was well executed, but had hoped for a more original sequence and was also critical of the portrayal of the "cliche" villain Anubis.
The reviewer noted that the "most poignant moment" of the episode was the scene where Dr. Jackson (Michael Shanks) telling Teal'c (Christopher Judge) he's remembered the name of his wife.