Stargate Atlantis/Recap/S01 E09 Home

"You don’t understand, Doctor: things have changed around here. The Asgard are in the process of fitting Prometheus with engines capable of reaching other galaxies. We were mapping a mission to find out what happened to you."

- Walter Harriman explains the feasibility of travel to and from the Pegasus galaxy

The team discovers a planet full of nothing but a fog-like substance and strangely constant energy readings. McKay realizes that the gate draws energy directly from the not-actually-fog - and the planet is covered with it. This near-unlimited energy supply opens up a previously unthought of possibility: dialing earth.

Not without effort, of course. McKay first has to unhook the control crystals from the Atlantis DHD that allow it to dial an eighth chevron, and then successfully reattach them to the device on the planet. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Fortunately, it's only 840 years by Puddle Jumper from Atlantis if something does go wrong. But it doesn't, and our heroes are delighted to hear Walter's voice come through the Stargate from the SGC. He assuages their worries that it might be a one-way trip - anyone who steps though could be back in Pegasus inside of a month.

So, of course, they all do. And Earth is really great! General Hammond is back in charge of the SGC for some reason. Teyla learns about shopping. Sheppard has a really sweet bachelor pad and a pizza party. Dr. Weir gets to have some awkward conversations with her boyfriend Simon from the first episode. Dr. McKay manages to score a hot girlfriend and some really ugly t-shirts. And Ford...does...something.

It is not long before problems start to arise. There is a horrible accident on the Prometheus, making return to Atlantis impossible. McKay immediately starts a scheme to see if he can squeeze some life out of Earth's ZPM, but nobody is interested in helping out. Meanwhile, Weir learns that the Atlantis mission is going wholly military - that is, she's been fired - and Ford has been reassigned to Antarctica. Sheppard's party continues to rock his sweet bachelor pad - everybody's there, including his sixth grade teacher and a couple of old army buddies who died in Afghanistan. Oh, and the laws of physics have given up and stopped working altogether. As McKay puts it, "It's like looking through a microscope at a cell culture and seeing a thousand dancing hamsters."

Weir finally gets fed up and has it out with General Hammond, who reveals himself to be an alien made up of not-actually-fog. The team have been trapped in individual fabricated realities without ever having left Fog Planet. He explains that the fog-like substance is actually the planet's population, and the Stargate draws its energy by killing them. The proposed dialing of another galaxy would have caused the death of millions. He agrees to let them go (and not starve to death while in their respective dream worlds), in return for which Weir promises to take the team back to Atlantis and never return.

Tropes

 * Fun T-Shirt: McKay has a T-shirt reading, "I'm With Genius," with an arrow pointing upward.
 * Life Energy: has been powering the Stargate. Not good.
 * Loser Protagonist: McKay's answering machine registers no new messages after months of absence. He assumes that there must have been a power failure.
 * Lotus Eater Machine
 * Reassigned to Antarctica: Literally, in Ford's case.
 * Schrodinger's Butterfly: At the end of the episode McKay wonders aloud if they really are back in reality or if they're still trapped in illusion. Then the fog yells at him.
 * Shout-Out: McKay is watching The Outer Limits, which ran several similar plots.
 * Stock Episode Titles: 53 uses
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The SG-1 theme appears in the BGM when the main characters arrive back on Earth