Revisions

"Revisions" is the fifth episode of the seventh season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis
SG-1 find a civilization live in a dome of an unlivable planet. The seemingly peaceful civilization use geothermal energy to maintain the dome. However, mysteriously, several people starts disappearing, and the dome is slowly shrinking.

Plot
Stargate Command sends a MALP through the Stargate to P3X-289, a planet with a highly toxic atmosphere, including finding sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane and ammonia. The MALP then sees a strange dome, around 2.2 kilometers in diameter, and 500 meters tall. Major Samantha Carter guides the MALP to the dome. It stops right outside the "mist", and extends its arm, where it seems to go through some barrier of some kind. Out of curiosity, Carter commands the MALP to inside the dome, where she, Walter Harriman and Daniel Jackson see a lush green landscape. However, a few seconds later, the transmission terminates.

SG-1 is dispatched to retrieve the probe and investigate the inside of the dome. To prevent them from succumbing to the toxins, the team is issued full Hazmat gear, which should last for at least 12 hours. They walk to the dome, finding remnants of old structures, indicating a once thriving civilization. They arrive just outside the dome, where Carter picks up a static charge. Colonel Jack O'Neill uses his P90 to poke through the dome. After that, the team starts walking through it, where they encounter some resistance, and see the lush surroundings, and detects a clean atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, enough to remove the Hazmat suits. Carter deduces that the resistance must be there to prevent people from accidentally moving through and become exposed to the poison atmosphere. They also determine that the MALP is still fully operational.

The team then notices a young boy peering at them from behind a tree. He tells them that his name is Nevin, and that he can take them to the village to meet his people, but only if he can have a Hazmat suit, which SG-1 obliges to. They soon arrive at the village, and meet Nevin's father, Kendrick who, as well as other villagers haven't seen many visitors before. They all wear silver devices on their left temples. SG-1 is then taken to the Council, where they are greeted by four councilors. SG-1 explains that they avoided the toxic atmosphere through the Hazmat suits, and came from Earth by Stargate. At first, the councilors do not know what it is, until the entire village pauses for a moment, and then remembers the Stargate as the "Gate of Magh Mar". The councilors then explain to them the devices on their heads, known as the "Link", which gives everyone the same information whenever they need it.

Afterwards, O'Neill and Teal'c manage to move the MALP in a way that they could make contact with the SGC. General George S. Hammond is pleased with the situation, and gives O'Neill another 24 hours until the next scheduled contact, meaning SG-1 is to stay the night in the village. O'Neill and Teal'c stay the night in Nevin and Kendrick's home, while Carter and Jackson stay in another house, belonging to Pallan and his wife Evalla. The couple tells them that a few hundred years ago, their advanced technology slowly poisoned their world, and started creating the dome by using Geothermal energy, and seriously cut back on their advanced technological lifestyle, and have been for 400 years. Pallan offers to show Carter the generators the next day. Meanwhile, the female member of the council wakes up from her sleep and then walks out of her home and through the barrier into the toxic area outside.

The next morning, Jackson wants to know about the past of their civilization, and Evalla shows him to a room full of books, and helps him translate them, since Jackson does not wish to access the Link. Meanwhile, Carter is shown the power room, which contains the only computers in the dome, which is used to control the Link, as well as the power readings from the geothermal generators. Carter then notices something, but when she turns to see Pallan, he freezes, as does the entire village. They are then taken out of their trance, where Carter tells Pallan of a drop in the energy reading, which Pallan says is impossible, since they "stay the same". Afterwards, SG-1 meets together, and they wish to offer the people of the dome relocation. They talk to the councilors, who tells them that they do not wish to leave. When the team tells them about the councilwoman, the other councilors tells them that they apparently never had a fourth council member, or at least a female council member since the last election two years ago.

Carter believes the link might be responsible for this, but they continue with their findings. Jackson asks Evalla questions concerning population controls, while Carter uses her computer so she could understand what their computer is saying. She then notices power fluctuations, with the energy going down by 2%. However, Pallan again tells her that the power variation is always between 0.1% to 0.7%. Meanwhile, Teal'c and O'Neill encounter Kendrick, who tells them that he and his son are willing to be relocated to another planet. However, when O'Neill and Teal'c approach the MALP, they find that it is no longer there. Carter then radios in and tells him that the dome is losing power, and has shrunk by 4% in the past 24 hours, and if the power levels continue to drop, the dome will fail, and everyone will be killed.

Carter then notices everybody freezing again. Jackson witnesses Evalla walking away. Jackson tries to stop her, but she walks round a corner. Jackson runs after her, but when he turns the corner, he realizes he is approaching the barrier and stops himself. Carter radios O'Neill and tells him its happening again, everybody's freezing. The team meets up inside a house, where they agree that the culprit to this all is the Link; every time the power levels drop, everyone is in some sort of trance, and then continue as if everything is normal, because the Link wants them to believe everything is normal.

Their plan is to convince people that the Link is lying to them, and to reprogram it, while Jackson continues to read in the old books to find proof that not everything was as it is now. O'Neill and Teal'c then plan to leave to retrieve their suits to make contact with Earth. However, on the way to Nevin and Kendrick's house, Nevin stops them and tells them that their home is somewhere else, but insists he lived in the current location for his whole life. After they make it to their "home" and retrieve their Hazmat suits, they tell Kendrick that they will make contact with Earth, and re-iterates their desire to leave the dome. However, Kendrick appears to change his mind, and denies making the request, as well as finding out that Nevin no longer wishes to become an explorer, but a gardener instead, like his father. Knowing the Link is manipulating their minds, O'Neill wishes for Kendrick to remove it. However, he says he can't as removing the Link would cause "instant death," something they never said before.

Carter tells Pallan and tries to convince him that the power levels are dropping, and that the Link is updating every time it does, to make everybody believe that the power levels are constant, and that she has to warn everyone to leave the dome and relocated. However, when she mentions Evalla, Pallan asks who she is. When Carter tells him she's his wife, Pallan tells her that he has never been married.

Daniel continues to look through the library, and then finds something to back Carter's case. He picks up a document and runs to the control room, where he tells Carter and Pallan that when the dome was set up, 100,000 people once lived in the dome, rather than the 1,300 that are living now. Meanwhile, O'Neill and Teal'c are outside the dome, where they see skeletons of people who once lived in the dome. Back in the control room, Carter tries to convince Pallan that removing the Link would not be fatal, as she saw some people remove it before they arrive, but the Link upgraded that information due to the Link not foreseeing outside visitors, so Carter reaches out to Pallan's forehead, and removes the device, which does not kill him.

Pallan, now realizing the Link is false, helps Carter in trying to reprogram it. However, in the process, the Link updates itself again. This time, the village people think that SG-1 needs help. When O'Neill and Teal'c re-enter the dome, they notice they are being followed by everyone in the village, except for Pallan, and are soon completely surrounded. The villagers offers them the devices to connect them to the Link, which O'Neill refuses. Meanwhile, Pallan, who admits that without the Link, he doesn't know how to access the system as he once did, finally manages to finds his way into the Link. Carter tells him to remove all memory of SG-1, which he does. The villagers pause for a moment, and react to O'Neill and Teal'c as if they never seen them before, and greets them again.

Some time later, the SGC sends more people and helps the entire village to relocate to another planet. Carter tels Pallan that she found out that 200 years ago, the geothermal vents started to cool, and that slowly, the dome shrank, and will completely fail one day. Pallan is now curious about knowing he had a wife, though he does not remember her. He asks Carter to help him remember by telling him about Evalla.

Notable quotes
Nevin: You came from outside.

O'Neill: Yes, we did. What's your name?

Nevin: What's yours?

O'Neill: I asked you first.

Nevin: How many planets have you been to?

O'Neill: I don't know, lots.

Nevin: More than 10?

O'Neill: Yes.

Nevin: More than 20?

O'Neill: Yes.

Nevin: More than 30?

O'Neill: Yes.

Nevin: More than 40?

O'Neill: Yes.

Nevin: More than 50?

O'Neill: Maybe.

Pallan: What is that?

Jackson: They're legal documents. All I can say is thank God for lawyers

Production

 * Christopher Heyerdahl (Pallan) would later play the recurring characters of Halling and "Todd" (The Wraith) on several episodes of Stargate Atlantis. He would also go on to star opposite Amanda Tapping in Sanctuary, playing her character's ex-fiancé, John Druitt, who also happened to be Jack the Ripper.
 * Peter Lacroix previously played Edrekh in "In the Line of Duty".
 * The computer used by Pallan to maintain the dome would later be re-used as a Galaran memory transplant computer in the Season 9 episode Collateral Damage.
 * Fantasy Garden World, located near Richmond, BC Canada was the location used to film the village in this episode. This location was later used to film the village of M65-PL8 in the Stargate Atlantis episode "Irresponsible".
 * The Link technology shares huge similarity with Doctor Who's Cyberman collectives, including from the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel".