First plot details for ‘Off the Grid’

GateWorld has received the first information on the plot of “Off the Grid,” an episode of Stargate SG-1 scheduled to air in the second half of Season Nine. Written by Alan McCullough and directed by Martin Wood, the episode will go before cameras in late August.

Beware of spoilers in the report below!

SG-1 is captured on an alien world after a deal with the Lucian Alliance goes bad … and the planet’s Stargate goes missing.

SG-1 learns that the Lucian Alliance has been trading in kassa, a highly addictive crop. The alliance is a band of mercenaries and traders who have filled the power vacuum left when the Goa’uld were defeated, introduced in “The Ties That Bind.” The team gates to P6G-452, a planet where kassa is grown, to meet Orrel, a mercenary working for the alliance, in the hopes he will lead them to the higher-ups in the organization.

Back at Stargate Command, Sergeant Harriman attempts to execute a routine dial of the Stargate — but the seventh chevron will not lock, preventing a wormhole from being established. All indications show that it’s the receiving gate that is having the problem, and Landry dispatches the Odyssey, a new Daedalus-class battlecruiser commanded by Colonel Casey Emerson, to pick up SG-1.

Lt. Colonel Mitchell poses as a trader hoping to procure enough kassa for 30 million addicts on seven worlds, while Carter, Teal’c, and Jackson covertly monitor the deal from a distance. Orrel is immediately suspicious, and sends his men to search the area. He’s not buying Mitchell’s story, and the rest of SG-1 is soon caught and interrogated.

General Landry, meanwhile, visits a prisoner named Nerus — likely a Goa’uld — who is being held at Area 51. Once a servant of the former Goa’uld System Lord Baal, Nerus wants his freedom, which Landry says isn’t on the table — but whatever the alien has to offer eventually justifies the concession. Nerus is brought to Stargate Command and sent through the gate.

Orrel is curious as to how SG-1 has made the Stargate on his planet disappear. They assure him that it wasn’t they’re doing, as obviously they were unable to escape before the gate vanished. Orrel and his men are recalled by the alliance, and pull their weapons to make an example of SG-1 … only to have the team vanish before their eyes!

SG-1 is beamed aboard the Odyssey, where they learn the true fate of the planet’s Stargate. Baal has been busy, taking Stargates off planets from all over this sector of space for the past several weeks. Landry coaxed the intel out of Nerus.

Orrel reports his failure to Netan, the leader of the Lucian Alliance. Two-thirds of the kassa crop on the planet will now go to waste with no Stargate, costing them a fortune. As SG-1 and the Odyssey hunt down (and find) Baal and his stash of Stargates, the Alliance mothership hunts down SG-1.

Guest characters include Orrel, Colonel Casey Emerson, Nerus, Netan, Colonel Webb (an S.G.C. officer), Lieutenant Kendrick (the Odyssey’s navigations officer), Baal (Cliff Simon), Vi’tak (a Jaffa in Baal’s service), Sergeant Harriman (Gary Jones), and a Technician.

Learn more about this and other upcoming episodes in GateWorld’s Season Nine episode guide!