“Prodigy” is episode nineteen of season four of Stargate SG-1.
Major Carter is giving a lecture on physics at the US Air Force Academy when one of the cadets states that her calculations are wrong – and she’s right. O’Neill is on a mission that he considers rather boring, with a lead scientist he finds annoying (to be fair, Jack finds many people annoying and lots of things boring – he hasn’t exactly got a high threshold in those areas).
The cadet is smart, but has an attitude problem. Carter thinks she has potential, and so she takes her to the SGC, and then to the moon that O’Neill is on. They have discovered an unusual lifeform on the planet, that seems to be energy based.
When the scientists trap one of the lifeforms, they seem to take it quite badly. Of course, the cadet helps out with the solution.
This episode features a cameo appearance by USAF General Michael E. Ryan, then Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, as himself (the portrayal of the USAF in Stargate SG-1 is considered to have been very positive by the organisation and Richard Dean Anderson was honoured by the USAF for his role).