"Red Sky" ( 5 x 05 )

We start off with SG-1 literally tumbling through the ‘Gate (not landing on their feet like they all usually do) and Carter thinks it’s because they had to override some things back home to get a lock. Daniel, meanwhile, thinks that this could be an Asgard-protected planet. (Hey! Neat!) 

A group of natives approach them, and of course their leader has got the whole “He’s an enemy of the gods” thing goin’ for Teal’c, but then O’Neill sticks up for his buddy.

“Not anymore. Thor loves this guy.”

(Well, I suppose…)

The people are pretty happy that SG-1 is well-acquainted with Thor (okay, that’s a good sign), since Freyr (the god/Asgard of this planet, I assume) is their protector, and those two are both Asgard. Everyone seems pretty nice, except for this one guy, Malchus, who pretty much tells them all to leave.

And then… something weird happens.

The sky turns red.

(Huh, anyone reminded of “The First Commandment” (1x06)?)

Malchus comes back and immediately tells SG-1 it’s their fault. Oh man.

Elrad believes that this is the “will of the gods”, and they all go off to a temple to pray. So while Carter and Teal’c go back to get some better scans with the MALP, Daniel and Jack see if they can get in touch with the Asgard.

As they enter the temple, Malchus and Elrad plan on going to the Hall of Wisdom to speak to Freyr, and Jackson and O’Neill join them. They all find themselves in a hall of sorts, and once again, we get a hologram telling them that they basically… need to be brave.

Great. Another recording. And they’re transported back.

Back in the temple, O’Neill tries to convince the people that perhaps this is just a test, but Malchus won’t hear it, and he storms out, everyone following.

They reconvene with Teal’c and Carter, and Carter thinks that the wormhole getting here passed directly through this planet’s sun, and when they bypassed the safeties, they created some kind of shift with the wormhole.

Carter, Jackson, and O’Neill (no Teal’c this time; we wouldn’t want him getting into any sort of trouble with the Asgard tech) now enter the Hall of Wisdom, and are again greeted with the manly hologram. Carter “pulls the plug”, as it were, and the actual Freyr appears. O’Neill admits that they’ve maybe caused a little issue and might need some help fixing up. However, in the process, he inadvertently insults the Asgard as a whole and… yeah, not a good idea, Jack. It’s ultimately Carter who tells Freyr what happened, and he doesn’t seem happy that they bypassed protocols to get a lock here, and tells them basically that the people here are screwed.

“It is not the Asgard’s responsibility to undo every error you make with technology that is advanced beyond your knowledge.”

However, Freyr does hook O’Neill up with the Asgard High Council, using that wonderful hologram communication technology. He speaks first with Chief Archon, and the Asgard echoes what Freyr said – they can’t help. O’Neill fairly points out that the Asgard are already interfering – the K’tau people think that they’re gods.

“Look, we made a mistake. A big mistake. And we’re very, very sorry. But we also saved your little grey butts” (Yes, you read that correctly) “from the Replicators, and now we want your help.”

Ah, Jack diplomacy…

But Archon explains that they still can’t. Part of their treaty with the Goa’uld says that they can’t advance the world in question in any technological way. If they did, they would be violating the treaty, and all the treaties would be nullified – including the one protecting Earth.

Well. That would be bad.

“Good luck, Jack, and see ya!”

They head back to the ‘Gate, and Carter thinks that if they can introduce even heavier, more stable elements into the sun, they could stabilize it, and save the K’tau people.

She goes back, and they plan to put the element on a rocket, launch the rocket into the sun, and then poof! No more red sky. It’ll take about three weeks, though…

…And three weeks later…

The rocket is in progress, just about ready to go out. Just as the last shipment comes through…

…the rocket blows up.

CRAAAAP.

O’Neill goes after Malchus after he finds out that two members of SG-6 are dead, as well as two of the K’tau people. And the rocket? Gone for good. Elrad convinces Jack to take his gun off of Malchus, and he reluctantly does.

O’Neill’s ready to get out of here and just forget about it, but Jackson convinces him that this place is still worth saving. He thinks that they could try to convince the people to relocate, and since they still have the super-heavy element, maybe they could still do something…

Daniel fails in his attempt to get them to move, but they won’t hear it. Jack even steps up with the “THEY’RE NOT GODS” argument, but if anything, it just antagonizes them further. Personally, I think that Jack must sound like a crazy man up there, like one of those guys off of Ancient Aliens, and I don’t see how he could possibly hope to convince them. The Asgard have been nothing but benevolent. Why believe otherwise? Jackson just hangs his head in shame as Jack prattles on, and Elrad finally asks them to just leave.

But Carter’s got one more trick up her sleeve. She thinks they can send the element through the Stargate to K’tau, but shut down the ‘Gate just in time to have the Maclarium stop in the sun, instead of on the planet.

So what do they do? They give it a whirl… and hope for the best.

They go back to the planet, and… well, the sky’s still red.

…Waiting, waiting… nothing yet…

Jackson goes to tell them “goodbye, the end is here” (mmm, hold on Daniel!)…

…and then the sun comes back to normal!

Teal’c thinks that the Asgard may have covertly interfered, and Carter and O’Neill concur. Maybe they used the launch of the element to cover their own actions. But as Daniel says, we’ll never really know for sure.

But hey! We saved the planet! That’s something to celebrate!

Final thoughts… Ah, yes. Another “all we did is show up and we screwed up the entire planet”. Just like “Thor’s Hammer”, “One False Step”… And, y’know, it might take a while, but things usually turn out okay. Well, all right, that whole thing on Cimmeria with Heru’ur (A DEAD FALSE GOD) could’ve turned out better, but hey, we got to meet the Asgard for the first time! And that was awesome!

Very interesting little ordeal we had here with a couple different concepts. I found what Freyr (and other Asgard for that matter) had to say in the whole “false god” idea. They had desired to assist this world, but couldn’t do so directly, so they more or less masqueraded as the gods of the K’tau original beliefs and just hang onto that until they were ready to know the truth. It’s a very different rationalization that the Goa’uld, who rule through fear and intimidation rather than as a truly protective entity. In truth, they’re really a lot less invasive than the Goa’uld in the societies they’re involved with. It does raise the question how many of their protected civilizations are privy to the knowledge of what the Asgard actually look like… but I suppose in the end it doesn’t really matter. God; alien; whatever. Might be a little peeved at first to find out they’ve been lurking behind a façade, but in the end I think I’d be grateful at the least!

I’d like to believe that the Asgard honestly and truly desired to help the K’tau people. They simply could not risk the collapse of all treaties with the Goa’uld in order to do that (you know, the whole “needs of the many” thing). At the same time, though, I wouldn’t doubt if they had perhaps given that Maclurian element a little nudge into the sun if Carter had been just a little bit off. (“Sshh, no one will know!” Wink wink, nudge nudge.) As we’ve seen, they can be kind of sneaky in a roundabout sort of way. But that’s what makes them awesome.

“You’ve gotta love those guys!”

Overall, a pretty good episode. Especially good work from RDA. I loved that scene with him and the Asgard Council, and his little shpeal to the K'tau about what the Asgard really are, haha. He really is a great actor.. there's a reason his name is "above the title"!

PREDICTION/REFLECTION THINGY:

(As of this writing, I have survived my first-ever university exam!! YAAAY!!!)

O’Neill: What’d ya have to do?

Carter: Quantum mechanics?

Jackson: Translate an alien text?

Teal’c: Defeat a First Prime in combat?

O’Neill: Convince a group of bureaucrats to keep your team together?

Carter: Stop a black hole from sucking in the planet?

Jackson: Persuade an extremely advanced race to spare another?

Teal’c: Battle a false god to the death?

Marie: Er… Actually, it was just a multiple-choice exam over some basic Sociology concepts.

(Everyone stares.)