“Undomesticated equines could not remove me.”
- Release Date: 7th August 1998
- Season 2
- Episode 7
- Director: David Warry-Smith
- Writers: Michael Greenburg & Jarrad Paul, Brad Wright
We get to see SG-1 in spacesuits for the first time, as they traverse a planet so barren it looks like the moon – however, there is some kind of structure here, housing a spherical device which has been on for tens of thousands of years. Daniel thinks it’s some kind of time capsule and, with Carter mentioning how important figuring out this power source could be, Jack agrees to take it back to Earth. Although my small nitpick is that this is another example of a planet that makes no sense for Ra to jot down the address in the Abydos Cartouche. That said, perhaps the Cartouche is from an Ancient/Asgard database he discovered and they hadn’t fully explored them all.
Back at Stargate Command, Daniel and Sam study the object with Lt Simmons taking notes behind glass, Daniel blurts out that he has a crush on Sam without realising that his microphone is on. They get nowhere and it’s nearly time for the next mission when the sphere starts heating up and emitting radiation. Jack and Teal’c carry it back to the stargate, dialling the planet it came from, but before it can be thrown through, it sends spikes out to secure it in place, one going though Jack’s shoulder – yet oddly not causing him to bleed.
Teal’c tries to shoot the device, but it just hurts Jack. He decides to remain by Jack’s side (even making some jokes by getting well known phrases wrong) while Syler (the local handyman) tries to cut through and everyone else tries to figure out what’s going on – with more people getting sick like Jack is. Carter sets up some UV lights and it shows that something isn’t infecting just Jack, but also the bunker of SGC itself. Dr Frasier does figure out that antibiotics slow it down – but Simmons is in a lot of danger as he’s allergic to the only one that works.
Hammond seals the base and, as it looks like the organism can get through, orders a self destruct. As Carter and Dr Frasier study it more, Carter realises that it feeds off energy, and blowing up the base will just let the organism infect the entire planet. Carter and Hammond try to disable the self-destruct, but the computer itself has been infected. Meanwhile, Daniel notices that the computer displays keep flashing with a symbol from the device (it took a while for anyone to notice) and surmises that the device may be sentient and trying to communicate.
Carter increases the oxygen in the gate room and gets Teal’c to give the device more energy with his staff weapon, Jack collapses but then awakes with a different demeanour – there’s another entity inside him. It explains that it’s the remnants of an old civilisation, programmed to restore its race when it finds a suitable world. It has no ill will towards humans and would prefer not to harm them, but it won’t go back to its original harm, despite Hammond pointing out that it will wipe out another civilisation.
Daniel suggests the world they were just about to visit – one in a primordial state with no advanced life. The orb agrees that this is a more preferable solution and retracts his spikes (healing Jack in the process) and the infection everywhere goes. Jack sends them through to their new home, where SGC seemingly never checks on them. I do like the odd “really alien discovery” episodes and this is a good one.
