Red Sky

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S5 (Red Sky)

A terrible mistake by the SG-1 team means a world will die. That's a good blurb for an episode if ever there was one, and as mistakes aren't all that common these days it made for a change. In the early seasons they had to overcome all kinds of problems and built up expectations of what could go wrong and how they'd be received by less advanced cultures (this time they're seen as Elves!), but the program had become cocky, had disabled some safeties on the Stargate so they could dial up this particular world, and because of that, they do something to the sun which means it's going to kill all life on the planet! I felt the explanation of what had happened, the circumstances of how this particular event could happen, and the way it could be resolved, were all well explained and believable. Somehow the wormhole from their Stargate picked up some kind of element that got dragged from somewhere else into the sun of the K'Tal people, and because of that the sky went red, all the plants would die and consequently the oxygen would be depleted leaving all the people dead.

I liked the way the episode started with a wormhole POV, then we're tumbling out of the 'gate with the team. I also felt it was lit and shot really well, which I've noticed has been the difference this season, but even more so because of the red light and saturation or over-exposure which wasn't overdone, but was sufficient to say this is an alien landscape. I'm not sure the people would have understood the concept of an alien, they probably thought O'Neill was referring to someone not of their village. I kind of like these stories where they visit a group of humans that have grown up on these alternate versions of Earth, created a different culture and even progressed. There's something fascinating about the possibility of the Vikings or Norse or whatever, living into the present day having altered their culture with new innovations, while also still following the gods of their ancestors.

That was what I expected to get with this episode: a mix of whatever the culture was, but with changes, and indeed there was some of that as the people seemed to worship in a traditional chapel, though obviously they hadn't been exposed to Christianity so their pagan belief system was still in place. My problem with these anthropological stories is that they either don't go far enough in demonstrating the culture or they become the same kind of story: Jack or one of the others explains their beliefs are wrong for whatever reason and/or one of the team/all of the team are taken captive. There's always one man who is their enemy, who looks on them as a threat to his power or beliefs, and another, weaker character who is less 'fundamental' and wishes to help them, but must overcome the prejudices of his way of life. Now that did look the way this one was going to go, but I liked the way, for one it was connected to Thor and the Asgard, and for another, since it was a story that had been done many times before, there was a shortcut to developments.

Previously they'd have had to discover Thor's Hammer or whatever piece of tech, but now they know all about that and the treaty the Asgard have with the Goa'uld to protect certain planets. So they get right on with trying to get in touch with the aliens, only this time there's no Thor for them to talk to, O'Neill has to deal with Freyr, who doesn't know him personally and is a little more reticent of helping him than his friend Thor would have been. I love that the Asgard are finally being given a bit more personality, and that there are internal politics a little bit - they don't immediately jump to attention and help them sort out their mess, even though SG-1 had saved them from the Replicators (or put off the close conflict a bit, they're clearly still fighting the creatures and I think that was where Thor may have been when they said he was off in a distant place). O'Neill isn't known for his diplomacy, and one of the most enjoyable things about his character is watching him bumble around trying to say the right things that will unlock what he knows all about: action.

The other characters also get proper roles to play, with the possible exception of Teal'c, who mostly stands in the background, the K'Tal a bit suspicious of him as he looks like the enemy. Carter and Daniel are the voices of reason in the episode. Where Jack is willing to try and convince the people of the true facts or just leave them to their fate and forget about them, his subordinates feel the same responsibility and don't allow anger to cloud their judgement. Daniel doesn't want to dig too deeply, and understands the futility of stripping them of their religion, while Carter feels the most responsible and comes up with a way to solve the problem. Actually she comes up with two ways, and I should have seen it coming that they'd have to fall back on the 'million-to-one' plan she mentions earlier. It is a shocking moment when the initial plan to send a rocket into the sun is sabotaged by Malkus in the 'bad guy' role, with the loss of two SG team members and the destruction of the equipment.

I can understand Jack's rage against the man, after they've just put this difficult plan into operation, taking an expensive rocket that had been built for Earth's benefit, putting all their efforts and manpower into saving their planet, only for it to be destroyed by the planet's people. But as Daniel points out, it wasn't representative of all the people, and even those that carried out the deed didn't know what they were doing, and thought they were doing good. It's not often we see Jack go off the rails, ranting and raving, almost pulling the trigger on Malkus, and shows how important in tempering him, his team are. He's the leader, without doubt, but each of the four has their part to play in rounding out the team and nowhere is this better displayed than in the scene where they convince him to keep trying to help the people.

My only problem with the episode is the strong anti-God message that is given voice through Jack. In this case it's true that these people have been deceived by a powerful being that isn't actually a god, just pretending to be one. Daniel makes the point that more important than the existence of God is the existence of belief in God, which I felt was a very tenuous argument, weakly trying to have the best of both worlds - is he saying that to believe in something false is okay as long as it means we do good? What about all the bad that 'religion' has done to the world? Actually I think it would be better to believe in nothing, rather than a lie, or to believe in the truth of the existence of God, but they're trying to have it both ways.

The villagers are portrayed as buffoons who blindly follow the teachings of their god Freyr, and the SG-1 team come swanning in and try to convince them otherwise. Actually that's not quite true, they try and keep the belief intact until it seems there's nothing to do but get them to listen to reason, and it's only Jack that's doing this. This is a marked improvement compared with earlier seasons where they were quite happy to go in and upset the status quo regardless of the impact it would have on a society. Now they're a bit better informed, knowing about the Asgard/Goa'uld treaty. That was another plus point for me, the way the treaty presented a logical reason for the Asgard's non-interference. Sometimes the galactic politics doesn't make much sense, but this time it did. I never expected the episode to end on a downer so they were always going to go back to the back-up plan, even though it had miraculously gone from a million-to-one, to a one hundred-to-one chance of success. If the planet and all its people had been annihilated it would have given the SGC something to think about, but I liked the way they guess at the Asgard having something to do with it secretly and that the plan would have failed but for their suspected intervention.

When I first saw this years ago, I didn't think much of it. I didn't like the anti-God sentiments which the series sometimes preaches through metaphor, which was very unsubtle and on-the-nose, but this time I appreciated the unfolding continuity which I didn't know about before. I found the Asgard irritating, but now I see them as more rounded, partly thanks to this episode. I liked the humour, I liked the way the team was used and that the solutions made sense and could be easily understood, and while there are still reservations about the subject matter, it does deal with some interesting questions of higher powers, the mistakes that can come from not observing procedure, and dealing with people that don't want your help, yet still finding a way to support them. A well rounded episode that also looked very nice.

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