The Pegasus Project
The Odyssey brings Daniel, Carter, Mitchell and Vala to Atlantis while on a supply run. For Daniel, this is the end of a frequently-interrupted journey, but he can not take much time to savor the experience. He is in search of the other two planets where Arthur searched for Merlin’s anti-Ori weaponry. Weir shows him and Vala to the holographic interface for the Atlantis database.
Mitchell and Carter bring McKay back to the Odyssey to help with the other part of their plan. Carter theorizes that they can not get the Ori supergate to dial out because it is set to receive incoming wormholes from outside the Milky Way. They want to release a stargate near a black hole, and use that gate to dial another stargate which Teal’c has deployed near the supergate. Once this wormhole is established, they will set off thermonuclear charges in an effort to make the wormhole jump from Teal’c’s gate to the supergate. McKay thinks the plan is ridiculous, but he agrees to help Carter attempt to make the necessary calculations. Before they launch, Sheppard provides Mitchell a few tips on managing McKay’s sometimes-prickly personality.
Daniel’s methodical exploration of the database frustrates Vala, who suggests that they simply ask the database where the planets are. To appease her, Daniel does so, and is surprised when he receives a prompt reply. He suspects something is wrong – an old database should not be able to make the necessary translations as quickly as this is. He soon realizes that he is not speaking to a holographic interface – he is talking to an Ancient. Morgana Le Fay, in fact. While Morgana once opposed Merlin’s efforts to build his weapon, she now agrees that something must be done to stop the Ori. Daniel is not satisfied; he urges Morgana and the other Ancients to get off the sidelines and help prevent the Ori from dominating the Milky Way and beyond. But when Morgana tries to provide another bit of information, the other Ancients pull her away. They will not intervene.
On the Odyssey, the initial attempts are unsuccessful. McKay theorizes that it may take a sequence of charges to provide enough power to jump the wormhole. But before they can finish their test of the theory, they have a larger problem. Atlantis has detected a Wraith hive ship heading for the black hole, and the black hole is keeping the Odyssey‘s sensors from detecting it. Atlantis tries to relay a message to Odyssey through Stargate Command and Teal’c, but Teal’c has his own problems – one of the Ori vessels has come to check on the supergate.
written by Brad Wright
directed by Will Waring
music by Joel GoldsmithGuest Cast: David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay), Joe Flanigan (Lt. Col. John Sheppard), Torri Higginson (Dr. Elizabeth Weir), Matthew Glave (Col. Paul Emerson), Chelah Horsdal (Lt. Womack), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka)
Notes: Vala interfered with two of Daniel’s previous attempts to get to Atlantis, in season 8’s Prometheus Unbound and season 9’s Avalon, Part 1. Carter previously emplyed the jump-the-wormhole trick in season 2’s A Matter of Time.
LogBook entry by Dave Thomer
Aboard an Earth Empire carrier ship, an ace fighter jock is spooked when he hears a bell that he knows doesn’t belong to the 22nd century. Infuriated, his commanding officer has him pulled from flight rotation, at roughly the same time that the TARDIS materializes in her ship’s cargo bay. The Doctor, too, has heard the bell, but he has a better idea of where one might expect to hear that sound: on a passenger train in the 1950s, not at the edge of the solar system in 2197. When the Doctor admits that this realization terrifies him, Evelyn is concerned, and when the time travelers are caught investigating the ship, they’re held responsible for the increasing number of instances in which a member of the crew has nearly gone mad after hearing the bell. A mysterious door appears in the hold, a door which should lead directly into space without even so much as an airlock…and yet it doesn’t. As more of the carrier’s crew hear the bell, they are compelled to seek out the door and step through it, vanishing without a trace. The ship’s captain is prepared to summarily execute the Doctor, believing he is responsible for what must surely be an alien act of sabotage. But who’s behind the door, and who’s ringing the bell? And what ties this 22nd century crisis to a train in the 20th?
The Doctor follows a psychic attack on the TARDIS’ telepathic circuits to a living city called the Needle, but the moment that he and Melanie step out of the TARDIS, they realize that their problems are just beginning – they stumble onto the scene of a grisly murder. The two time travelers are separated, Melanie barely surviving being ejected from the city’s walls, and the Doctor is brought before Chief Blue and the Needle’s central computer, White Noise. White Noise’s function involves the careful control of both the Needle and its residents, via chips implanted in their brains which allow the computer to prevent violent impulses from becoming violent actions. Rescued by a resident of the undercity beneath the Needle – people whose chips have been deactivated and whose crave the exciting sensation of violence with little thought given to its consequences – Melanie finds that she’s quite a sensation, as her rescuers believe she’s capable of anything, even extreme acts of violence…and her insistence that she isn’t likely to do any such thing seems to fall on deaf ears. White Noise is rapidly losing control of the Needle’s even more docile populace, with murders continuing to occur…only now, via his chip implant, the Doctor can see, hear and feel the thoughts and actions of the killers as they go into “red condition.” But with White Noise attempting to control him, is the Doctor capable of fighting whatever evil is stalking the city at random?