Template:SG1-5 "Red Sky" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Stargate SG-1.
Synopsis
A mission to K'tau causes the planet's sun to die out, after the wormhole traveled through it, causing it to be unstable. The Asgard, who protect the planet, aren't allowed to intervene; so the Tau'ri are forced to help them themselves. Unfortunately, some of the natives won't allow it.
Plot
SG-1 has a rough landing when they dial to K'tau: Carter explains she had to override the safety protocols of the dialing computer when the Gate wouldn't lock on. They meet a 16th-century (or similar period) society that worships the god of the sun and rain Freyr, one of the Asgard. Village elder Elrad is happy to meet SG-1, but one citizen, Brother Malchus, is suspicious. The "elves" (as they are called since they came through the Gate, here called an Annulus) might as well bring mischief. Seconds later, the sun goes red. Major Samantha Carter realizes the sun (referred to as the "Eye of Odin") of the planet has been passed through by the wormhole, which picked up traces of a heavy element and deposited it in the sun's mass, shifting the light emitted towards the infra-red end of the spectrum. Suddenly, photosynthesis has become impossible and the plants will die soon, which is certain destruction for the life on that planet.
O'Neill asks the Asgard High Council for assistance.
SG-1 go to a worship service, where the two elders are beamed to a cave by an obelisk and are told by a hologram version of Freyr that the town should prepare for Ragnarok, the end of the world. Colonel Jack O'Neill tries to interfere and convince them to take their fate into their own hands, but concedes to Dr. Daniel Jackson's warnings not to try. Instead, all but Teal'c go back to the church and the cave, where Carter finds a board to switch the hologram into a "phone" (O'Neill's term) to "call" Freyr.
SG-1 contact Freyr, but apparently he cannot help because the planet is protected by a treaty which protects many planets from Goa'uld invasion, including Earth. Also, the decision isn't entirely Freyr's, so he suggests O'Neill step onto the hologram platform to face the Asgard High Council. The meeting does not go well: interfering with the sun would be interfering with the natural development of the planet, and be a violation of subsection 42 of the "Protected Planets Treaty".
Carter comes up with a plan to bring an artificial element much heavier than plutonium to bond with the plutonium into the sun to restore the natural nuclear processes within the star.
The rocket, moments before its destruction.
The inhabitants of the planet, meanwhile, refuse any assistance, saying that if the gods wish them to die, they accept their fate. Major General George S. Hammond is convinced to bring a rocket ready for launch (mentioning the high price of rockets) to K'Tau. A friend of Carter's, Dr. Douglas MacLaren, provides the kind of element they need, HU-2340; he is flattered when Carter names the element "Maclarium".
Back on K'tau, village elder Malchus convinces two suicide attackers to blow up the rocket, killing two members of SG-6. O'Neill, furious about the ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy of Malchus, orders his people to leave K'tau to its fate. It takes Daniel and Carter to convince him otherwise.
Daniel tries to convince the villagers to leave the planet, without success. O'Neill rushes into the argument, claiming the Asgard are not gods, but aliens with spaceships, but the K'tau don't believe them.
Meanwhile, following a number of simulations, Carter thinks that if she shuts down the gate at a precise time, a wormhole could still deliver the element into the sun. It doesn't seem to work, but when Daniel joins in a prayer to say sorry and goodbye and that they may still evacuate, the sunlight suddenly shifts to normal.
Carter suspects it might have been the Asgard, now able to shift the sun back without the Goa'uld knowing, being able to claim it was just a success of Carter's wormhole plan. Daniel ends the episode, saying "We'll never really know for sure, will we?"
Appearances
| Appearances for Red Sky |
|---|
|
Locations
Events
Items
Sentient Species Languages Organizations Mentioned |
Notable Quotes
(SG-1 is ejected from the Stargate at a high velocity)
O'Neill: Okay. What was that? Carter?
Carter: I don't know, sir. The margin of error in calculating planetary shift used to cause the rough ride but we fixed it.
O'Neill: Carter?
Carter: We did have to override some of the dialing protocols to get a lock. I'll check the dialing computer when we get home.
O'Neill: Carter, what just happened?
Elrad: The Eye of Odin grows dim.
Carter: Some sort of shift in the light frequency.
O'Neill: Good. I thought I was having a stroke.
(As SG-1 is trying to teleport with the Asgard device)
Jackson: Okay, let's see. They bowed their heads and said a prayer, "Lord Freyr, Lord of the Aesir..."
(Meanwhile O'Neill is touching the crystal)
Jackson: (without skipping a beat) ...or we could just go straight to that.
O'Neill: (to Freyr) Na, don't worry. We haven't blown your cover. However we do have a small little problem that could use some of that Asgard magic.
Freyr: Are you implying our technology is some kind of trickery?
O'Neill: Are you sure Thor's not around somewhere?
Freyr: It is not the Asgard's responsibility to undo every error you make with technology that is advanced beyond your knowledge.
O'Neill: Excuse me! There is a whole planet full of people that are going to die.
Jackson: Um, this may be our mistake, but the K'Tau people depend on you. You set up their belief system. They think you're their god and you will protect them.
Freyr: From the Goa'uld, yes.
Carter: Sir, I've been thinking...
O'Neill: I'd be shocked if you ever stopped, Carter.
(After Carter tries to explain the situation to O'Neill)
O'Neill: I've got great confidence in you Carter. Go on to SGC and... confuse Hammond.
Hammond: I thought the odds of success for this scenario were one in a million, Major.
Carter: Yes sir, but I now think that we can increase that estimate to 1%.
O'Neill: It's your call, General. I only understand about 1% of what she says half the time.
(After the sun regains its original color)
O'Neill: Carter, am I having a stroke?
Notes
- During the DVD commentary, Martin Wood stated his desire to see SG-1 fail to solve the problem and not have the Asgard intervene to show that the team is not perfect.
- This is the first episode to explain that the margin of error in calculating planetary shift used to cause the rough ride through the wormhole seen in the movie Stargate and the first few episodes of Stargate SG-1, but Stargate Command has since fixed it.
- The Stargate system has built-in safety protocols to prevent a wormhole from passing through a star (and, presumably, other dangerous interstellar bodies). These protocols, however, can be bypassed, at least with the supercomputer that the SGC has rigged to control Earth's gate.
- In the Season 9 episode "Ripple Effect", a version of Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter from an alternate reality refers to this episode, indicating that these events likewise occurred in her reality.
- The Protected Planets Treaty allows the Asgard to defend worlds from Goa'uld attack, but does not permit any other form of interference. As such, the Asgard are not allowed to artificially advance a protected planet through Asgard technology or even save the inhabitants from natural disasters or other, non-Goa'uld attackers. An Asgard violation of the treaty in such a manner would render it null and void.
- Freyr is the Norse god of sun and rain. He is also apparently on the Asgard High Council.
- This is the first of six episodes of Stargate SG-1 written by Ron Wilkerson.
- Brian Jensen (Freyr) previously played Head Priest in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Bloodlines".
- Dion Luther (Chief Archon) previously played Mollem in the Stargate SG-1 episode "2010".
Goofs
- The episode contains a scientific inaccuracy - plants absorb red and blue light to perform photosynthesis (they are green because the green spectrum is not absorbed). Thus the plant life would be able to survive on a planet orbiting a red sun. But the star kept shifting towards infrared, getting dimmer. So eventually there would be no light to sustain the plants.
- It’s not clear how the wormhole would be passing through the star, as it is connecting two points through a shorter path outside of normal space — a fact the entire series is premised on.
- There is another inaccuracy. The fusion reactions that are a star's source of energy only occur in the very center of a star. Outside of that core, there are various layers inside stars, some of which are very stable, and don't allow for mixing of materials between layers. If a rocket were launched with a payload at the sun, it would incinerate, and the material of the rocket would be stuck in the outer layers. It would have no way of reaching the core and becoming part of the nuclear reactions.
- While at SGC they had to bypass safety protocols in order to create a wormhole, there is no way they could create a wormhole from K'tau back to Earth as the safety protocols built in K'tau Stargate wouldn't allow it. The K'tau Stargate would not allow connections to Earth while the star was between K'tau and Earth, But once K'tau moves out from behind the star a normal connection could be established.
- It is possible that the safety protocols built into the gate system might reroute the wormhole through another Stargate in the network in order to circumnavigate around the K'tau sun. This is similar to the way McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge forwards travelers to the Midway space station without materializing them at each Stargate in the bridge. This could allow travelers using a standard DHD to connect to Earth, even when it is on the wrong side of the sun.
- Carter's plan to deliver the Maclarium into the sun by shutting down the gate early can not work, since objects entering shortly before shutdown are shown to reach the target gate uninfluenced in numerous episodes. While this explains why the plan failed, SG-1 should have recognized their failure immediately upon returning to K'tau, because the MALP with the Maclarium should have been in close proximity to the gate.
- It is also unclear why the plan requires the Maclarium to be carried by a MALP instead of being simply tossed into the gate.
First Appearance
Character
In other languages
- French: Soleil Rouge (Red Sun)
- Italian: Cielo Rosso (Red Sky)
- Spanish: Cielo Rojo (Red Sky)
- Czech: Rudé nebe (Red Sky)
- Русский: Красное небо (Red Sky)
- German: Roter Himmel (Red Sky)
External links
- Template:SciFi
- Red Sky on the official MGM website. (backup link)
- Red Sky on GateWorld. (backup link)
- Red Sky article on Stargate SG-1 Solutions' The StargateWiki
|
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Red Sky (Stargate SG-1). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with SGCommand, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |