Renowned for being the episode where Crichton's dilemma could have been very easily solve by simply taking off his shirt. A deeply stupid episode, and the one episode of the entire series that I really would like to believe never happened, in its entirety.

Honestly, I remember sitting there thinking "oh, don't even tell me that John Crichton was never enough of a geek to play something like Zork. It's a simple puzzle! Solve it!"

And then I realized that I was criticizing a fictional character in a science fiction show for not solving a puzzle in a manner befitting someone who'd played a text adventure game. Which, you know, er. But I would've known to take off my damn shirt, at least!

I have blocked that episode out -- tell me more about this shirt conundrum ...

God, it's so stupid.

Scorpy takes them to Katoya, who is a master of mental arts, with the intent of teaching Crichton how to resist the Scarrans. Crichton gets stuck in a cage made of a metallic grid, too small to stand in, with a hibachi built into the floor.

The key to the cage is periodically dropped from the ceiling. It falls into the hibachi but Crichton can't take it out of the coals without removing the red-hot grid above it.

Every single fan watching this said, "Take off your shirt and wrap your hands in it to remove the grid!" He never ever does. Instead, after a gazillion iterations, he picks up the red-hot grid in his unprotected hands, screaming, and then pulls the key out of the coals.

PhD in cosmic theory. Designed his own space ship. Survived living with Rygel for 4 years. Deeply, deeply, stupid.

Browder's explanation was that Crichton would burn his back on the wall of the cage if he took off his shirt.

Also? Crichton is supposed to be the free-thinker. His whole life is one big Kobayashi Maru trick. In this episode, he does exactly what he's supposed to do.

Deeply stupid.

I'm assuming, as aired, his back was in no danger?

Did he have socks, perhaps? Boxers?

I believe he was barefoot. But I've tried to purge the memory of that episode from my mind.

His back was in no immediate danger, and besides, if he'd managed to get the key, he'd be out of there. Not to mention, many more nerve endings in the hands, and hands are pretty useful. It was moronic.

Huh. That may be more deeply stupid than the Sunnydale police. Wow. I missed that it was like that when I read that particular synopsis.

Well, IIRC, that particular episode was written by the same guy who wrote A Prefect Murder and WSS #3, both of which were problematic (and probably seriously doctored by others just to make them filmable, but I'm guessing here). They were desperately short on writers.

I need to take a moment to say that not only do I love how Teal'c neither flinches nor moves quickly out of the way, but in Upgrades where the mountain starts blowing up, and everyone, including the evil Jaffa, falls down?

Not our boy.

Teal'c also managed to stay up when the deceleration from hyperspace occured the first time they showed it.

Teal'c has principal character powers.