Red Sky (Stargate SG-1)

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“Red Sky”
Stargate SG-1 episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 5
Guest stars Fred Applegate as Elrad
John Prosky as Malchus
Norman Armour as Dr. MacLaren
Brian Jensen as Freyr
Written by Ron Wilkerson
Directed by Martin Wood
Production no. 505
Original airdate July 27, 2001
Episode chronology
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"The Fifth Man" "Rite of Passage"
Episode chronology

"Red Sky" is an episode from Season 5 of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 Fertility God Freyr, one of the Asgard. Village elder Elrod is happy to meet SG-1, but one citizen, 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. 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.

SG-1 go to a worship service, where the two elders are beamed to a cave and are told by a hologram version of Freyr that the town should prepare for the end of the world. O'Neill tries to interfere and convince them to take their fate into their own hands, but concedes to Daniel'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. O'Neill steps onto the hologram platform and is projected to the Asgard High Council Chamber, but 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 §424 of the "Protected Planets Treaty".

Carter comes up with a plan to bring an element heavier than plutonium into the sun to restore the natural fission.

The inhabitants of the planet, meanwhile, refuse any assistance, saying that if the gods wish them to die, they accept their fate. Hammond is convinced to bring a rocket ready for launch (mentioning the high price of rockets) to K'Tau. A friend of Carter's, Professor MacLaren, provides the kind of element they need; he is flattered when Carter names the newly invented element "Maclarium". Village elder Malchus convinces two suicide attackers to blow up the rocket, killing two members of SG-6. O'Neill is furious about the ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy of Malchus, and orders his people to leave K'tau to its fate. It takes Daniel and Carter to convince him otherwise. When Daniel still can't get the village to listen, O'Neill rushes into the argument, claiming the Asgard are not gods, but aliens with spaceships.

Fortunately, the K'tau people don't believe him. 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, suddenly the light shifts to normal.

Carter suspects it might have been the Asgard, now able to shift the sun back without the Goa'uld knowing. Daniel ends the episode, saying "We never will know for sure, will we?"

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