“Just when you think you’re not in Kansas anymore, turns out ya are.”
- Release Date: 31st August 2001
- Season 5
- Episode 10
- Director: Peter DeLuise
- Writers: Brad Wright
SG-1 are retiring from a mission saying they’ve completed their standing orders of finding technology to help earth. While they were visiting a simple farming planet, they were put in touch with a race capable and willing to help them defeat the Gou’ald. They call themselves the Ashen. Everyone is happy, but we know from the episode 2010 that this is very, very bad news. A version of SG-1 from that time found out that they had sterilised humans and managed to send a note avoiding that planet back in time.
They’re having a meeting with some higher ups, including the ambassador chosen for the mission, Joe (who was married to Sam in that alternative timeline). The negotiations are to take place on the farming planet as the Ashen don’t want to reveal their address due to not having any Iris. While the Aschen have a Stargate, there’s no DHD, so they’re doing their own dialing computer but haven’t accounted for stellar drift, so can only contact nearby planets. They’re interested in Earth’s database. Teal’c points out that Jack mistrusts the Aschen.
Hammond wants Daniel and Teal’c to speak to the farmers to get their true feelings towards the Aschen, while Joe speaks to Sam about more information on the Stargate. They’re also trying to figure out where the Aschen homeworld is themselves. Joe asks Sam out for dinner (he’s clearly into her) and they head to the mess hall.
Joe goes with SG-1 to the planet and they observe the flying harvesters, which pick up the crop and pour it through the Stargate to the Aschen homeworld. Daniel and Teal’c head off while the rest meet up with the Aschen they were put in touch with – Borren – who says they’ll need their ambassador on board the harvester. Back on Earth, the calculations for the location have been completed. Three of the possible planets are unknown, one is uninhabitable and the other is a planet Hammond blocked. They’ll need to research more.
Daniel and Teal’c speak with a farmer, who has nothing bad to say as they’ve been here since he was a child. The farmer asks them to pass on a message to the Aschen saying he needs help dealing with Iron Root, but Daniel and Teal’c are happy to help. On the harvester, talks start with ambassador Mollem. Jack tells Daniel to head back when he’s finished and let Hammond know.
The iron root looks like a metal pylon and, when Daniel digs around it, there seems to be a large cavern underneath. Inside is an abandoned city, but it doesn’t look like it was ruined over time, more like everyone left and then it was covered over. It’s very curious, did they do it themselves, or was it the Aschen? Daniel finds some newspapers which talk about a pandemic and a vaccine that the Aschen helped with, so it definitely happened after they made contact.
The negotiations go smoothly. The Aschen do want everything revealed to the world – they want to negotiate with Earth, not just one nation. They’re also concerned about the population growth and can offer a way to defeat the Gou’ald with a bioweapon. They finish so they can head home and present everything to the world leaders.
Jack and Carter head back and speak to Hammond. Higher ups have halted the missions to look at these planets as turning up on the Aschen homeworld might be frowned upon and impact the treaty. Hammond thinks it’s a bad idea. When they hear that Daniel isn’t back, they go and pick him up. He’s now found a newspaper that accused the Aschen newspaper of doing something bad. Essentially, they wiped out this civilization.
Daniel explains his findings in a briefing but Hammond can’t contact the president. Jack decides to go himself – he has an open invitation to the White House. Kinsey picks him up and says he’s blocked access to the president, accusing Jack of wanting to change the future as he can’t play hero.
While most of SG-1 has been locked out of the negotiations, Carter is allowed to be part of it due to requests from Joe. They’re offering the Aschen some Stargate addresses as a gesture of good will. She has unofficial orders to try and find out more, and Daniel hands her a piece of paper. She quietly informs Joe as they both head to meet the Aschen again.
When they arrive at the meeting room on the harvester, they hand over the laptop with the Stargate addresses. While they’re looking at it, Sam asks Borren to help translate a word. He reads it out loud: sterility. Confirmation of what they suspected. Mollen realises that the jig is up so they both leave, trapping Sam and Joe in the harvester. Sam has come prepared, so attaches a rope to the balcony and starts climbing over.
The Stargate opens and Sam sends the signal to open the Iris as Joe gets attacked, he holds Borren back and tells Sam to leave him and go. Sam is given no choice as she notices the biological bomb being preparedm. She cuts the rope, falls through the Stargate and calls for the iris to be closed, with the bomb impacting just in time.
Kinsey is extremely displeased, but nobody cares on the slightest so he storms out saying there will be an investigation. Everyone else is glad that a crisis was averted. Daniel is concerned about running into them again now they have some stargate address, but Jack revealed the kicker: he picked a bunch of terrible places, the first being the planet with the black hole. A great two partner.
