“All I can say is thank God for lawyers.”
- Release Date: 11th July 2003
- Season 7
- Episode 5
- Director: Martin Wood
- Writers: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
We start off in the control room, with Carter and Daniel looking at a video feed from a MALP. The footage shows a toxic fog, a completely unlivable atmosphere. Daniel points out that there’s usually something near the Stargate, and Carter says that the MALP spotted a large dome, over 2km in diameter and 500 meters high. They send the MALP to it and the surface doesn’t appear to be solid. They go through and they see an area with atmosphere – with a green park and buildings, before the signal cuts out.
Using hazmat suits, SG-1 make their way to the planet. It’s about an hour walk to the dome, and the suits can withstand 12 hours (surprisingly, this doesn’t actually become a problem). They get to the dome and walk through, finding the park inside. More of the land seems to be projected as an image onto the forcefield, making it look like it carries on past it. The air is breathable. Touching the barrier creates a resistance, likely a warning, although not preventing people from leaving.
They meet up with a young boy, called Nevin, who agrees to take them to see his dad in the town, which looks like an early industrial town and is quite pretty. His father, Kendrick, is surprised to see outsiders and thought that they were the only survivors – and takes them to the council when Daniel asks what they survived. The Council ask where they came from and, after explaining about the Stargate, they seem to go into a trance before giving him all the data. They explain that the devices on their heads let them bring up any date from the “link”, which contains all their previous knowledge.
Jack and Teal’c move the MALP into the perfect position so it can send a signal in time for the scheduled radio contact and let Hammond know that the locals are odd, but friendly, and that their tech guy, Pallin, will show Carter everything in the morning. Jack and Teal’c stay with Kendrick and Nevin (with Nevin asking a lot of questions), while Daniel and Carter stay with Pallin and his wife, Evalla. Pallin is played by Christopher Heyerdahl, who is in Atlantis a lot, and reminds me a lot of Liam Neeson.
They explain to Daniel that their planet was simply poisoned through industry, and the dome was created to protect what was left. Other than the link, they live a simpler life than what they used to do. They hand Daniel one of their devices and says he can access whatever information he wants, although Carter suggests not doing it, saying that their brain physiology may not be compatible. During the night, one of the council members wakes up in a trance and walks out of the dome.
In the morning, Nevin says he wants to be an explorer while Pallin tells Carter that nobody has been outside the dome in over 400 years. He asks what is outside and Carter says that it’s just rubble, which Pallin says is probably why they made the dome project an image so they can’t see the ruins. He takes her into his lab, which is where the link is managed from and the status of the dome is shown. As he’s showing her, he goes into a trance while strange code appears on a monitor. He then carries on and, when Carter points out what she saw, he just says she must have been mistaken.
Evalla shows Daniel a small library, which hasn’t been touched in ages. It’s all the books they have left, and she’s willing to help Daniel translate them. She goes into the same trance at the same time as Palin and carries on as normal. After this, they both meet up with Jack and Teal’c, saying that they are willing to share their technology and information and want nothing in return. Jack says they could offer relocation.
They speak to the council, who reject it outright. When SG-1 suggest that other people may think differently, the council says that they speak for their own and their decision is unanimous. Daniel points out that one council member, a woman, isn’t here today, but the council claim that since the last election, no woman has been on the council and it has always been three members. SG-1 catch up in the town square and Carter says Pallin also says there has always been three council members. She suggests that perhaps the link can be used to change people’s memories. They agree to look into it more.
Daniel tells Evalla that there seems to be no information on the construction of the dome, and she explains that they were using the link at that point so written information would be rare. The hope is that they can eventually reclaim their planet generations into the future. She also says that there’s a two child limit to maintain the population of one 1373, and that nobody has ever gone over this limit, which Daniel finds odd.
Carter carries on studying with Pallin and she offers Pallin the opportunity to visit Earth and then return, which he thinks sounds great. She then notices that the power levels for the dome are two percent too low. Pallin says she was mistaken, and historical records shows no drops ever happening outside of 0.07%, but she knows what she saw.
Kendrick asks Jack if he and Nevin can return with them, and Jack is willing to do so. He wants a better life for his son with the opportunity to go places, and see a real sky instead of an illusion. Carter contacts Jack to say she has disturbing information, but Jack notices that the MALP is no longer in the dome. Carter says power levels are dropping and that the dome will fail. Another update seems to go out to the people and Evalla walks away, Daniel calls her and follows her, but loses her and she walks out. Jack wants to warn them, but with the computer tricking everyone into thinking everything is fine, they’ll need Daniel to find something concrete that contradicts the link.
Jack and Teal’c head to get their suits when Nevin spots them, claiming they’re going the wrong way, taking them to a different home they seem to think has been theirs the entire time. They get their stuff and tell Kendirck they’re not leaching him behind – but he says he never expressed a desire to leave. Jack tries to get through to them by saying the link is messing with them and to take the device off, but Kendirck says that they’ll die if they remove the devices, but this is clear manipulation as Jack has seen them remove them before.
Carter speaks to Pallin, trying to tell him that the dome is failing but he doesn’t believe it. She mentions Evalla, but Pallin has no memory of her and says he’s never been married. She presses it further, asking him to remove the device, but he says it will kill him. Daniel comes through with a book. It’s the signatures of everyone signing over land rights for the dome, over 100,000. Pallin finds this difficult to believe and Carter realises the dome has been shrinking to protect itself, making people walk away and erasing all memory of them. They get him to calm down enough to remove his device, and he’s fine.
After reporting to Hammond, Jack and Teal’c return, but an update goes out (which Pallin sees) and the villagers think that they’re ill and need help. Pallin tries his best to access the link (having to rely on his actual memory). Villagers start to swarm Jack and Teal’c claiming that they need to be reconnected. Palin gets into the system, but Carter realises there isn’t enough time to a full explanation, so suggests erasing SG-1 from their memory (so they’ll stop chasing). This works.
We cut to a later date and evacuations are ongoing, they’ve managed to make everyone realise what was happening. Pallin says he’s envious, because he’s the only one that knows for certain that he’s lost someone. He asks Carter to tell him about her.
After quite a lot of continuity-based episodes, it’s really nice to have a “planet of the week” episode, and it’s a really good one at that with a neat sci-fi story.
