Stargate SG-1: Prisoners

• Release Date: 10th July 1998
• Season 2
• Episode 3
• Director: David Warry-Smith
• Writers: Terry Curtis Fox

SG-1 appears on what looks like a run down planet, with large spiders roaming around. They find nothing interesting, so they start heading back. Someone begs for help from a mysterious group called the Taldor. They suddenly get transported to a dark room where omnipotent voices charge them with aiding a murderer, with the sentence of life imprisonment.

They get thrown though the Stargate to a prison planet, one with no DHD. They quickly surmise how they can escape: find a good enough power source and dial the gate manually. However, they also have to work out where to go, as Earth has the Iris and they no longer have their codes. They do get accosted by some prisoners (one taking an interest in Carter), but the old lady that appears to be in charge, Linea, orders them to stop. 

Daniel and Sam speak to Linea where she shows them a plant that can start a cold fusion reactor, but only with the help of activators that Linea has made. If they can convince her to help them, they can dial the gate. They just need to figure out where to go. 

Meanwhile, another SG team attempts to negotiate with the Taldor. It doesn’t go well, so Hammond decides to go himself. This is his first time through the Stargate. Negotiations don’t go so well, even with Hammond saying that there can be no relations between the two people if SG-1 aren’t freed, but they still refuse to let them go (if they even know how to do so).

Back on the prison planet, SG-1 learn the pecking order. A horrible looking porridge is sent though and a tough guy gives Linea a bowl, feeds his friends and then lets everyone fight for what’s left. A meek guy who keeps trying to be friends with SG-1 shares the remains with them. They also learn that some prisoners think the kawoosh will send them back to the other side, with them dying instead. It’s not long until the tough guy and his gang decide to kill Jack and Daniel.

As Daniel is getting strangled, Linea secretly uses a device to kill his attacker, while Teal’c and Jack manage to take out the rest. As Daniel recovers, Linea helps a new prisoner by curing his blindness, but he flees in terror. Daniel also suddenly gets an idea – SG-3 are due to go on a mission to chart a planet. They can go there and meet up with them to return to Earth.

After the next meal time, when everyone else is eating (with Daniel having to dish out due to now being top dog), they use the plants to power up the Stargate and escape with Linea, with the formerly blind person managing to also escape before the Stargate disengages. Back at SGC, Carter is showing Linea how computers work when the other prisoner is brought back, claiming Linea is the Destroyer of Worlds, and created a plague that wiped out hundreds of thousands. It’s too late, though, as Linea has already knocked out Carter, hacked their computers and left through the Stargate. 

It’s another enjoyable episode, but the consequences at the end are only due to stupidity – there’s no way they would have given her access to so much information so quickly.