“Or the real question is, will they have ears?”
- Release Date: 25th August 2000
- Season 4
- Episode 9
- Director: Martin Wood
- Writers: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
A party is being held for SG-1. In an off-screen adventure, they have helped a race called Enkarans find a new home. Searching for their new world was mentioned at the start of Watergate, when the Stargate wasn’t working. During the celebrations, someone from a nearby village arrives, a giant flying saucer is spewing out fire and has destroyed their village, and is on its way here. It will destroy the Stargate in a matter of days, and the village not long after.
Analysing all the days they have, Carter theorises that this ship is terraforming the planet to suit a sulphur-based lifeform. Jack proposes throwing whatever they have at it, but Hammond won’t authorise any weaponry. Their only options are to figure out how to communicate with it or convince the Enkarans to leave – which they will not do as some are too far from the Stargate. They won’t leave their people behind.
SG-1 set up a radio transmitter and are swiftly beamed up to the ship, where it has an environment suitable for humans. They are greeted by Logan, a biomechanical life form the ship built to help communication. He has a message asking for the Enkarans to leave. SG-1 say that they need a planet with this specific level or Ozone to survive, but Lotan explains that this ship is the remnant of an entire civilian called the Gadmeer, they have searched far for the right planet and there were no sentient lifeforms when they started the process. They don’t have the resources to start again on another planet. SG-1 are sent back to the surface.
Jack is determined to blow up the ship to save the Enkarans. He asks Carter if the naquadah reactor they brought can be turned into a bomb. Carter says that they’re safeguards to prevent it, but she could do it (she did design it, after all). She looks unhappy with the idea, so Jack issues a direct order. They calculate that if they place it ahead of the ship, it will blast upwards and destroy it.
While Jack and Carter are off doing this, Daniel tells Teal’c that he’s going to speak to Lotan. Teal’c queries about disobeying orders, but Daniel says that Jack mentions about needing more options, so he’s technically following orders. Teal’c is happy with this loophole and even says he agrees with Daniel once Jack returns.
On the ship, Daniel tries to get Lotan to go beyond his programming. He’s such a good replica of the Enkarans that he can’t understand the music of the Gadmeer, so Daniel tries to convince him that he doesn’t just have to fulfil his mission then be disassembled. Lotan is convinced to listen to the Enkarans people when Daniel points out that if the Gadmeer are as peaceful as Lotan says, they wouldn’t want to be brought back via mass murder. However, Jack has already started the overload. While Lotan is speaking to the Enkarans, the shop detects the bomb. Daniel goes with him and they’re able to fire it into the sky.
They’re still at a stalemate, though. This planet is the only one that can bring back this lost civilization, but the Enkarans still need a home. As the ship has scanned millions of planets to find the right one, are there any suitable for the Enkarans. Lotan brings up one. It has the right ozone, is slightly warmer and has an indigenous population, which Lotan then realises that these lifeforms march the Enkarans – it’s their original homeworld. But it has no Stargate
Lotan visits the Enkarans and says that he can take them there, then return and continue converting the planet. The Enkarans are overjoyed and even suggest that Lotan join them once they’re there, it’s better than being absorbed back into the ship. With the matter resolved, SG-1’s mission is complete.
This is another great episode for Daniel, featuring learning how to communicate with an alien entity in an entirely different way to the language barrier of the precious episode.
