A Hundred Days

"A Hundred Days" is the seventeenth episode of the third season of Stargate SG-1.

Synopsis
On Edora, SG-1 convinces the peaceful natives that every hundred years the annual fire rain would have a devastating impact on the planet. However during the evacuation process, an asteroid supposedly destroys the gate leaving Colonel Jack O'Neill and a few Edorans stranded. Meanwhile, the rest of the team on Earth spends a hundred days trying to reach them again.

Plot
SG-1 visits the planet Edora to negotiate a trade deal for Naquadah. The team views an annual meteor shower. During the "show" it becomes evident that the meteors are large enough to pose a serious threat to the planet. Laira, the leader of a local village, notes that the shower has been building in strength for several years.

SG-1 returns to Stargate Command to discuss the situation. Major Samantha Carter determines the annual shower is due to the planet passing through its system's asteroid belt, and that every 150 years it passes through a denser section. Because of this the planet is periodically bombarded with meteors that destroy the planet's surface and wipe out almost the entire population.

This time around, however, SG-1 is able to evacuate the Edorans back to Earth with the intention of transferring them back to Edora following the shower. Unfortunately, during the final evacuation, Colonel Jack O'Neill and several dozen Edorans become trapped on the planet when a meteor hits the Stargate. The Edorans who escaped to Earth are forced to stay there until an alternate home can be found for them.

On Earth, Stargate Command discovers that the Stargate on Edora has survived, though it is buried underground with a layer of rock covering the event horizon much as the Iris covers the Earth Stargate. Carter, however, develops a plan to free the Stargate.

Carter's plan is a spin-off of the method used by Sokar to attack SGC's iris, by using a particle accelerator. Although the iris prevents any sort of object traveling through the Stargate, Sokar bombarded the iris with which heated it up to near destruction. Using the same basic idea, Carter plans to melt the rock surrounding the Stargate, then reinitialize the wormhole and create a pocket large enough for one person to enter when the wormhole activates. This plan, however, will take many months to complete in order to build the particle beam, though it is faster than having the Tollan get a ship to the planet which would have taken almost a year.

Back on Edora, however, all is not lost though much of the village is destroyed. Over the following months O'Neill helps the survivors rebuild their homes and replant their crops. O'Neill falls in love with Laira. After spending weeks attempting to dig out the Stargate he begins to settle into the fact that he may be trapped here forever. After three months have passed, O'Neill has become an integral part of the new community.

At the same time, however, Carter has finished her particle beam and is implementing her plan to save O'Neill. After completing the "excavation" process a MALP is sent through the gate, but is destroyed, to everyone's disappointment. However, while reviewing the that survived, it becomes apparent the gate is lying flat "on its back", and the MALP simply fell back into the wormhole after arriving intact. Carter and Teal'c develop a plan to deal with this problem.

Once the gate connection has been established, Teal'c shoots a through the gate, which lodges itself into the rock above the buried gate. Attaching himself to the trailing rope, he pulls himself through the wormhole, ending up suspended in the cavern above the gate. The wormhole is left active while he digs, allowing him to stay in contact with Stargate Command. The wormhole cannot be kept active indefinitely however, and the wormhole cannot be re-activated with Teal'c in the cavern, as the expanding surface will kill him while the gate is being established. Adding to the problems is the fact that Teal'c has a limited supply of air, supplemented by a small oxygen bottle which will last only a few hours.

Just prior to the Stargate disengaging, Laira happens to turn on O'Neill's radio and overhears the conversation. She mentions this to O'Neill. O'Neill tracks to Teal'c's location and begins to dig, eventually pulling Teal'c free. Once they dig out the Stargate, O'Neill has to make the painful choice of whether to remain on Edora with the woman he loves, or return home to his old life. Ultimately he chooses to return home and the Edorans trapped on Earth can, too, return to their home. Carter winces upon seeing that her boss is in love.

Goofs

 * Firing a harpoon through the Stargate to allow Teal'c to arrive safely in the excavated cavern contravenes an established rule of gate travel. Objects traveling through a Stargate are stored in its buffer until they pass beyond the event horizon in their entirety, then they are transmitted through the wormhole to the destination. The cable attached to the harpoon would prevent this from happening until Teal'c entered the gate. It would have made more sense to use explosives and enlarge the cavern around the gate.