Thirty-eight Minutes

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"Thirty-eight Minutes" is an episode from the first season of the television series Stargate Atlantis. It first aired on July 30, 2004.

The episode's story has three settings: the city of Atlantis, the puddle jumper in orbit above the planet Athos, and flashbacks on Athos' surface relayed through a dying Maj. John Sheppard. Chronologically, the events unfold as follows:

Maj. Sheppard leads a team that includes Lt. Aiden Ford, Dr. Rodney McKay, and Teyla Emmagan back to Athos to do reconnaissance on the Wraith. They intend to survey the Wraith stronghold where they were taken prisoner, but soon learn that it was actually a massive ship that has now taken off and left a huge crater in its place (see "Rising"). In awe, they prepare to return to their puddle jumper and head back to Atlantis. On the way back, they are attacked by three Wraith.

Maj. Sheppard orders the rest of his team back to the puddle jumper, but stays behind to provide cover by shooting at the Wraith. He manages to kill one, but as he is retreating he is attacked by a large, black parasitic creature. He is immobilized, and one of the Wraith approaches him. Sheppard is surprised when the Wraith leaves without killing him. He soon realizes that the action was not one of altruism but sadism, since a death at the hands of the parasitic creature is slower and more painful than a death at the hands of a Wraith.

Lt. Ford returns for Sheppard and discovers the parasite. His attempts to detach it from Sheppard prove unsuccessful. Ford then takes out his pistol and shoots the creature with it. However, instead of killing the creature, this causes severe pain for Maj. Sheppard, nearly killing him, and the creature quickly repairs itself. Ford and Sheppard conclude that the creature acts like a Wraith; that is, it feeds off the life of its host and any attempts to damage it only hurt the host. The team brings Sheppard aboard the puddle jumper and take off. In an effort to return to Atlantis as quickly as possible and get Sheppard into the hands of a medical doctor, the pilot of the puddle jumper approaches the stargate in orbit around the planet at a high velocity. But the jumper's thruster pods, which were damaged by the Wraith as the craft took off, do not retract in time. The vehicle becomes lodged in the stargate, with half of it demolecularized and half of it still outiside the gate in space above Athos.

Only thirty-eight minutes can pass before a stargate's wormhole shuts down. In this case, such an event would destroy the part of the jumper that had demolecularized and would leave the rest open to the vacuum of space. The team members in the still-intact section of the jumper inform Atlantis of their predicament.

Dr. Carson Beckett in Atlantis works with Ford and Teyla to help Sheppard. They notice that the creature has a soft underbelly, and Beckett suggests that pouring various substances on it could kill it in the way that pouring salt on a leech can kill it. Several substances, including iodine, have no effect. When the team tries salt and water, Sheppard is put in a great deal of pain. As Sheppard gets weaker, the team search for a solution by discussing the creature's similarity to the Wraith, conjecturing that it the two species could be related by evolution. Sheppard is then struck with an idea. He tells the team to electrocute him with a defibrillator, suggesting that if he is dead, the creature will no longer attach itself to him. Ford reluctantly agrees, and he then kills the Major. Several seconds later, Teyla is able to pull the creature off him, after which Ford shoots it repeatedly. Ford then uses the defibrillator on Sheppard several more times in an attempt to revive him, but this proves unsuccessful. Not wanting the Major to die, Teyla accompanies his body into the wormhole, where it will stay in demolecularized stasis.

Meanwhile, a team of scientists in Atlantis, including the American Dr. Cavanaugh (Ben Cotton) and the Czech Dr. Zelenka (David Nykl) work to find a solution to the immobility of the puddle jumper and the impending death of its crew. Dr. Cavanaugh proves to be contentious and unhelpful, and he seems more concerned about his ego than about saving the team. He complains to Dr. Elizabeth Weir about his dislike of taking orders and of working with the military, and she responds by threatening to send him through the stargate to an uninhabitable planet if he continues to be disruptive. When he scoffs at this threat, she responds by asserting that she will carry through with it if he remains a problem and sends him back to work.

Dr. Zelenka proves to be more useful, as he finds a way to manually retract the puddle jumper's thrust pods after experimenting on a jumper in Atlantis. He relays this information to Dr. McKay, who has also been experimenting. McKay is successful in manually retracting the pods, but the puddle jumper remains stationary due to inertia. Time is running short, and McKay realizes that that there is only one way to get the rest of the jumper through the stargate and remolecularized in Atlantis before the wormhole closes and the crew is killed. He states that the team must blow the rear hatch of the craft in the hope that the evacuation of the craft's atmosphere will provide enough momentum to propel the craft through the gate in time. Lt. Ford agrees to stay behind and manually blow the hatch, and McKay then goes through the wormhole's event horizon. The plan is successful, and the craft passes through the wormhole and arrives in Atlantis, where Major Sheppard is successfully revived by Dr. Beckett.