“Sorry. I’ve been hanging around Jack O’Neill too much.”
- Release Date: 11th August 2000
- Season 4
- Episode 7
- Director: Martin Wood
- Writers: Robert C. Cooper
SG-1 are ready to set off on a mission when the stargate fails to activate. The diagnosis show that there is nothing wrong, although they do find an energy spike similar to what happened when the second stargate was used in “Touchstone”. Checking seismic activity, they realise that it came from Siberia. Meaning the Russians have a stargate. It doesn’t take long for the Russians to admit to it, saying that they picked it up after an alien craft crashed into the ocean (Thor’s ship). The facility has gone dark and a Russian scientist has requested SG-1’s help as their stargate won’t disengage.
In Russia, they meet Dr Markov, played by Marina Sirtis (aka Dianna Troi from Star Trek). Despite naturally having a Cockney accent, she does an amazing job with a Russian accent (people with natural Russian accents auditioned for the role). She seems to know a lot about SG-1’s missions, although Jack refuses to confirm a single thing. They take a plane over to the facility and, due to ice on the runway, need to parachute. Daniel looks a bit concerned, but Teal’c looks absolutely terrified. He can face amazing threats, but trusting a backpack with his life is not his idea of fun.
Entering the facility, they find a lot of dead bodies. Some have been shot a lot, while others were killed in another way. Checking the computers, it seems that someone activated the nerve gas that kills everything. Markov checks a containment vessel and finds out that a sample was missing. She went on a mission to a planet where the stargate is underwater and brought a sample back. She was hoping for them to wait for her to return before looking into it, but they went ahead. The sample was water that seemed to produce energy.
They manage to connect with a probe they sent through. It’s damaged and won’t respond to commands, and its continued transmission is what is keeping the stargate active (with the energy from the water keeping it powered). So Markov, Carter and Daniel head off in the submarine while Jack and Teal’c look around for the remaining unaccounted personnel. The sub shuts down the probe quite quickly (shutting down the stargate) and they look at ruins for an explanation.
Looking around the base, Jack and Teal’c find an unexpected sight: Maybourne standing frozen in a walk-in freezer. This gives them an explanation as to how the Russians know so much, but also bafflement: humans don’t freeze quickly enough to be just standing up like that. They put him on top of a stove and he thaws out, with his heartbeat restarting and him waking up. He tries to flee, but when he can’t get past Teal’c he starts coughing, with him throwing up water. He tells everyone to keep clear, but it’s too late as it goes into Teal’c. Maybourne shuts him and Jack into the freezer, with Jack leaving to chase Teal’c.
Underwater, the submarine ends up stopping and burning out. Markov tries to fix it (and Daniel blames poor Russian tech, only to learn that the sub is Swiss), but pressure starts to build. Nothing seems to make sense, they’re not moving or getting deeper, but the sub is getting crushed. Daniel suggests that perhaps the water (or something that’s part of it) is alive. The glass on the font of the sub cracks, but the water doesn’t fall into the sub, instead forming a barrier. Daniel sticks his hand in in the hopes of communicating, and they all end up getting covered in it.
Teal’c reaches the Stargate and dials the water planet, but doesn’t walk through like previous people had been made to do (although they were getting shot at and gassed, so they were in a rush), instead the water leaves him and turns to vapour and goes through the stargate. The stargate activates again immediately after and a confused Markov, Carter and Daniel are thrown through. Jack says that he thinks they just enhanced hostages.
This is a great “strange alien life” episode as well as expanding knowledge of the Stargate Program to other countries. The ending does seem a bit abrupt, as we don’t deal with Maybourne selling state secrets to the Russians or what they plan to do with the stargate going forward, but I guess they wanted to end on a poignant statement.
