GateWorld - Stargate SG-1 Season Four: "Watergate"

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GATEWORLD - * * 1/2
FAN POLL - 7.25
SYNDICATION RATING - 3.0 / 3.1 (-12)

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EPISODE NUMBER - 407
DVD DISC - Season 4, Disc 2
ORIGINAL U.S. AIR DATE - 08.11.00
SYNDICATION AIR DATE - 10.29.01
WRITTEN BY - Robert C. Cooper
DIRECTED BY - Martin Wood
GUEST STARRING - Marina Sirtis (Dr. Svetlana Markov), Tom McBeath (Maybourne), Gary Jones (Technician), Darryl Scheeler (Co-Pilot)

The Russians recover a Stargate from the bottom of the ocean, and turn to the SGC for help when their experiments go awry.

SG-1 prepares to visit a new world, one they hope will be a suitable place to relocate theEnkaran population. But as the Stargate is dialed, the seventh and final chevron fails tolock into place. All diagnostics indicate that the gate is working fine, and that there isno reason why it should fail.

Carter discovers that the base power logs indicate an energy spike about eight minutesbefore they attempted to dial -- similar to when Maybourne's rogue Stargate team used thesecond Stargate recovered from Antarctica ("Solitudes,""Touchstone"). Seismic activity in Siberia, Russia preciselycorresponds with the energy spike, confirming that the Russians have a Stargate.

After confronting the Russian government, Hammond reports his findings to SG-1: the Russiansrecovered the alpha Stargate from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The U.S. swept the areawhere Thor's ship went down ("Nemesis"), and concluded thatthe gate must have been destroyed. The Russian navy, however, was on alert after thecountry discovered the Asgard ship in Earth's orbit. They recovered the gate.

The Russian government has been divided on whether or not to commission a Stargate programof their own. Now, the gate has been connected to another world and cannot be closed. TheRussian president was prepared to order the base bombed and the program covered up; but ascientist, Dr. Svetlana Markov, convinced the government to allow SG-1 into Siberia withher to try and find another solution.

The team meets up with Dr. Markov at Kuybyshev Airbase, and learn that she knows far moreabout them and about the SGC than she should. She explains that their Stargate program hasbeen in operation for 37 days, with Markov as second in command to General Sakalov. Theywere able to activate the Stargate so quickly because they have the DHD -- missing from theGiza dig where the Stargate was discovered in 1928, but recovered from the Germans afterWorld War II.

The five of them fly to Siberia, and parachute in. The base is quiet and dark, and the teamsoon discovers that all 47 of the people assigned to the project are dead. Some were shot;others died when the commanding officer enacted the extreme measures protocol and gassedthe facility.

But the Stargate remains connected to a water planet (where the gate on the other side isentirely submerged), despite the fact that it has no apparent power source (the extrememeasures protocol cut its connection to the DHD). The Russians had captured a water samplefrom the planet, though Dr. Markov was recalled to Moscow before she could examine it. Thebase officials were under orders not to touch the sample until she returned.

SG-1 must find a way to shut down the outgoing wormhole. Otherwise, they cannot use theirown Stargate -- and seven SGC teams will remain stranded offworld.

Markov explains that the water sample -- now missing from the containment area -- exhibited incredible energy properties (giving off energy in the form of heat). Carter theorizes thatthe Stargate may be drawing energy from the water on the other side to maintain thewormhole. Because a Russian probe on the other side has been transmitting a constant signalback through the gate, it hasn't shut down.

Markov, Carter and Jackson take a mini-submarine through the gate to the water planet, inorder to capture the drone and shut it off. They succeed, and the Stargate deactivates.But when they move the sub to investigate nearby ruins (and thereby try to solve the mystery of why everyone in the Russian base is dead), the sub becomes stuck. The enginesblow, and Dr. Markov sets about repairing them.

Back on Earth, O'Neill and Teal'c continue to search the base for survivors. Inside a freezer, they find the person responsible for leaking top secret information on the SGC to the Russians: it is Colonel Maybourne, frozensolid.

They thaw him out, and discover that, miraculously, he is still alive. When O'Neill andTeal'c refuse to let him get to the Stargate, a gasseous life form leaves him and entersTeal'c.

Maybourne explains his involvement in the Russian program to O'Neill, and what they discovered: the water isn't water at all -- it is a collection of millions of intelligent,microscopic life forms. They are trying to get home. The soliders in the base tried to stopthem, even shooting many of the scientists. It was chaos. The alien life forms insideMaybourne forced him into the freezer to avoid the nerve gas released by Colonel Sakalov,and kept him alive.

O'Neill follows Teal'c and tries to stop him from going through the gate and killinghimself, but Teal'c throws him aside and continues toward the gate room.

On the submarine, Dr. Markov repairs the engine -- but still, the sub will not move. As thepressure around them increases, the glass window shatters. Instead of filling the sub,though, the alien life forms create a solid wall of "water" where the window was. Danielputs his hand into the water, believing the aliens just want to understand them. But he, andMarkov and Carter, are soon pulled into the water.

Teal'c enters the gate room and dials the water planet. The alien leaves his body, andescapes through the gate, leaving him alive. Moments later, the Stargate reactivates andCarter, Jackson and Markov come flying through.

It was, Jack speculates, an exchange of hostages.

ANALYSIS

This episode posits some interesting questions on how the Stargate works, while destroying at least one long-held notion about Stargate physics. Though it has previouslybeen established that a wormhole cannot be established with a gate that is filled with matter ("Children of the Gods" and "New Ground," among others), the Russians easily gated to aworld where the Stargate was submerged in water.

It seems that, in fact, one can connect to a gate that is filled with matter that isless dense than earth or rock. While rock or dirt will prevent the gate from activating (burying a gate remains an effective way of preventing anyone from coming through it), water will not (nor will air, obviously, which itself contains matter to a minisculedegree).

It has been well-established that the alpha Stargate (recovered from the Giza dig, usedby the SGC for years and now in the possession of the Russians) supercedes the beta gate(discovered in Antarctica three years ago, and used by Maybourne's rogue Stargate team).This means that if someone offworld gates to Earth's address, they will arrive through thealpha gate. This can be overcome by overpowering the offworld gate, causing the wormhole tojump to the second gate instead ("Solitudes," "Touchstone").

Now we learn that a Stargate must be hooked up to a power source (such as the DHD) in orderto receive a wormhole. The Russians disconnected their Stargate when it was not in use, sothat SGC teams would return to the United States' gate. When they expected a team of theirown, the gate was reconnected and the wormhole defaulted to the Russian (alpha) gate.

Initially, it makes sense that a receiving Stargate must have a power source to operate. Every time the SGC visits another world, they send a probe to check the area andmake sure there is a DHD there (powering the gate and giving them a way to dial back toEarth). This also explains why SGC teams did not arrive back on Earth through the alphagate after it was salvaged from the Pacific Ocean.

But this violates at least one established fact from the series: Hadante, the prison world where SG-1 was sent two years ago ("Prisoners"),had no DHD and no power source -- but received incoming wormholes daily.

It has also been established that the Stargate retains some power even after beingdisconnected from a power source -- enough to dial out once ("Nemesis"). This ought to be enough to allow an incomingwormhole to connect to the Russian gate even after it had been disconnected from the DHD.

The alpha Stargate's dial-home device (DHD) was not missing from the dig at Giza, aspreviously believed ("Children of the Gods"). It was recoveredby the Germans, and found its way to Russia after World War II ended. The Russians likelyhad little or no idea what it was until they recently learned of the existence of theStargate.

The Russian gate would likely still cause energy spikes at the SGC and seismic eventswhen used. These would not have been noticed as out-of-the-ordinary, until the SGC gatefailed to dial out -- the result of the Russian gate already being in use.

Maybourne may still have contacts at the SGC or within the higher levels of the U.S.government, considering Dr. Markov's knowledge of the incident with the Replicator-infestedRussian submarine ("Small Victories"). Maybourne likely lost hisposition at the NID after his rogue Stargate team was exposed and arrested last year ("Shades of Grey") -- several months before the incident withthe Russian sub. It is also reasonable, though, that Dr. Markov was simply speculatingabout SG-1's involvement with their missing submarine.

It seems miraculous that the Russians would have discovered at least nine valid Stargate addresses in less than 37 days (seven already explored, and two remaining afterthe water planet, according to Dr. Markov). The vast majority of glyph combinations wouldbe invalid. Most likely, Maybourne supplied a list of valid addresses along with the otherinformation he leaked to the Russians. The addresses would therefore have their origin onthe Abydos cartouche -- the same list that the SGC uses ("Childrenof the Gods"), and potentially including some worlds that the SGC has alreadyvisited.

According to Carter, the Stargate will not close if there is a strong enough radiosignal being sent through (so long as it has a continuous power source -- something morepowerful than a DHD or the SGC's power system). The gate probably interprets the radiosignal much in the same way as matter: if there is matter still in transit, the wormholecannot be shut down. (For example, Jack kept his hand past the event horizon to keep thegate from closing in "Shades of Grey").

Notice that the wormhole held up the minisub after the front of the vehicle had passedbeyond the event horizon. This wormhole property is consistent with past events, such asApophis' body being sent through in "Serpent's Song".

The unstable vortex created by the Stargate when it is first activated (the "woosh"effect) disintegrates anything in its path ("Prisoners,"among other episodes, have established this). Were millions of alien life forms in thewater killed each time the Stargate was activated? This seems unlikely, since the aliensthemselves repeatedly dialed from Earth to get home. The vortex probably pushes the waterout of the way, just as it most likely pushes the air out of the way on any other planet.

Either the alien life forms or Teal'c himself knew the Stargate address for the waterplanet. The aliens also knew the address for Earth; they probably learned that by observingthe Russians dial out after their first visit.

When the aliens returned Carter, Jackson and Markov, all seven chevrons on the EarthStargate engaged simultaneously.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Colonel Maybourne - Maybourne eluded capture when O'Neill exposed his rogue Stargate program ("Shades of Grey"), and eventually went to Russia. He has been participating in the new Russian Stargate program since the alpha Stargate was recovered from the Pacific Ocean, and shared a great deal of classified information about the SGC, its missions and its members.

After escaping alien influence, Maybourne is presumably still at large. He has also added treason to his list of crimes.

NOTES

Some in the Russian government wanted to expose the United States' Stargate program,in order to force them to share the technology. Dr. Markov convinced them that they couldbenefit from their own program more than they could trust the Americans.

Carter's research indicates that the Stargate uses density molecular structure and theforce being exerted on the event horizon to determine if something is actually trying topass through. This counter-measure probably kept the water on the alien world frompouring through the gate into the Russian base (though the alien life forms themselvescould have prevented that, as they did not pour into the submarine either).

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Who are the Enkarans? Why do they need to be transplanted to another world?

What will become of the Russian Stargate program and the alpha Stargate? Certainly,they will not simply give it up to the United States. Will the Russians and the SGC beforced to cooperate in successfully using two gates from the same planet?

How long have the Russians known about the SGC?

For how long has Maybourne been in Russia? Was he in contact with them before theyrecovered the alpha gate?

What will become of Maybourne?

What six other worlds have the Russians visited? Did they acquire any technology, ormake contact with any alien species?

PRODUCTION

Actress Marina Sirtis (Dr. Markov) talked about her Stargate experience at the Denver Starfest sci-fi convention in April, 2002: "I was amazed I got that role. My manager called and said, 'They want you to audition for Stargate, you have to be Russian. Can you do a Russian accent?' I went, 'I don't know.' 'Well, can you do one by tomorrow?' I went to the audition. There where 19 women and 17 of them where Russian. Well, I had the edge because the audition was all techno babble. I learned it all so when I went in I dee dee dee dee [spoke the lines] and they go, 'You got the part.' Actually, when I went on the set at Stargate, the producer come up after the first scene and goes 'can you tone down the Russian a little. Tone it down, we can't understand what you are saying.'"

"Robert [Cooper] once pitched an underwater story that was technically impossible one season, and became 'Watergate' just two years later." (Executive producer and co-creator Brad Wright, in a Q&A at GateWorld)