The Other Side

The Other Side is the second episode of the fourth season of Stargate SG-1.

Plot
The episode opens with the SGC technical team examining the logs of the stargate, which has activated three times in the last hour, each time with small impacts on the iris. Studying the information recorded during the activations, they detect an extremely slow radio message. For the first time in the history of the SGC, humans from another planet calling themselves the Eurondan "call home"; dialing the Earth's Stargate without first being contacted by the Tau'ri. Asking for help from the SGC, claiming that they are under attack from an unstoppable and unspeakable enemy.

SG-1 arrives and initially assists. Using a Eurondan device Jack O'Neill shoots down an unmanned reconnaissance drone. This allows the Eurondans to demonstrate their advanced technology; their aircraft are remotely controlled by a neural interface and their underground base is protected by an energy shield, powered by nuclear fusion reactors. However, the reactors are fueled by heavy water, of which the Eurondans have no more supplies. As a result, their defences are breaking down. Despite imminent defeat, the Eurondans are unwilling to use the Stargate to find a new home because a large majority of their people are trapped in suspended animation and would believe that they've fought the war for nothing.

The SG-1 team is impressed by Eurondan military technology, with Carter commenting to General Hammond that the Eurondans are "at least a hundred years ahead of us, maybe more." The Eurondan leader, Alar offers to provide knowledge of all their technology in exchange for a continuous supply of heavy water. For the first time, it appears that the SGC has finally found an advanced culture willing to offer them the means to defeat the Goa'uld. However, Daniel Jackson is skeptical of the Eurondans, concerned that the arrangement has been conducted without any knowledge of the Eurondan's enemy or why the war started. The Eurondans themselves refuse to disclose any information and are apparently disturbed by discussing the enemy and their decadent ways. However, O'Neill is authorised to negotiate on behalf of Earth and requests, then orders, Daniel Jackson to keep his objections to himself.

If SG-1 initially notice the fact that the Eurondans are all of the white race group, they do not comment on it. However, Alar, makes several objections to the presence of Teal'c because he is "not of their kind". O'Neill eventually suspects that this is not because he is a Jaffa, but because he is non-white. He prompts Daniel Jackson to investigate the nature of the war, and of the enemy the Eurondans are fighting. He also discovers that the population preserved in suspended animation comprises identical white Nordic-looking individuals. Jackson learns that the enemies, which are so feared and reviled, are known as Breeders. It is later revealed that the Breeders are called this because they had no respect for "genetic purity", breeding without care or plan. Major Carter also realises that to build a bunker of such size and depth would have required many years of planning and construction before this supposed "war" began. Alar replies stating the war was "inevitable."

The Eurondans are all from the same phenotype, populating their race through planned breeding and even through cloning, ensuring the continuance and purity of their people. It was, in fact, they who had originally started the current war, poisoning the atmosphere in an attempt to kill off those who would not submit to their eugenicist beliefs on reproduction. Unwilling to support such blatant attempted genocide, SG-1 commandeers many of the remote fighters used by the Eurondans, escorting Breeder bombers and attacking the shielded bunker which housed the command center and technology of the Eurondans. SG-1 leaves the facility as it begins to fall apart due to the Breeders' heavy bombing.

Alair frantically offers to teach Earth all he knows in exchange for safe passage through the gate. O'Neill stares at him silently before stepping through the gate, and then orders the iris closed behind him. Though it is never made explicit that he does follow them through, a slight impact is registered on the Iris moments later.