More than just a bug problem…
This week’s episode of Stargate SG-1 steps into a popular sci-fi story — bugs gone bad. But, there’s more to the story behind the bugs than just their attempt to make a meal of SG-1! In Earth’s desperate attempt to find some way to overcome their enemies, both Ori and Lucian Alliance alike, they find themselves with an even more urgent and immediate threat — basically, they become their own worse enemy. The Gamma Site becomes a miniature of the universe, a microcosm of the intergalactic wars and Earth’s struggle for survival against an enemy of their own making, born of humanity’s need to explore and understand both himself and his place in the universe.
For those who enjoy parallels in storytelling, “The Scourge” offers plenty within its subtext. The bugs are after SG-1 and members of the International Oversight Advisory (I.O.A.). Richard Woolsey is the liaison for the Oversight Committee and he has brought three representatives with him for a tour of the Gamma Site, a scientific research facility located off-world. The SGC still has its presence in the form of F-302s and a secured Stargate. One of the high-priority projects of the scientists of the Gamma Site are burrowing bugs which were sent by the Ori to planets where the Lucian Alliance grows the highly addictive kassa corn which was introduced in the previous episode, “Off the Grid”. Unintentionally, through scientific curiosity, as well as overconfidence after overcoming the Prior Plague, the bugs become carnivorous and extremely deadly.
The representatives are new to ‘gate travel, but bravely walk through the Stargate to see what the scientists are doing at the Gamma Site. Among the members are representatives of France, Britain, and China. These countries were present when the Stargate Program was disclosed by Gen. George Hammond and Major Paul Davis three years ago. Two years before this disclosure, the Russians had been included in the Stargate Program because of their recovery of one of Earth’s Stargates at the bottom of the ocean.
As was presented in Season Seven’s “Lost City”, Dr. Elizabeth Weir was brought into the Program because President Hayes strongly believed that the Program wasn’t going to be kept a secret for much longer and that having a civilian in charge of the Program would make it more easily accepted among the international community. With Anubis’s attack in Antarctica and the subsequent discovery of Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy, it became clear that more nations of the world had to be told about the Stargate and about both the rewards and set-backs of intergalactic space travel which the Stargate offered.
“The Scourge” also delves into “what if” territory. What if it had been a different country’s military which had control over the Stargate all of these years? What if all countries of the world had the same level of technology as the United States has been privileged to have because of the Stargate Program? Can political differences be set aside in the fight to keep the world, galaxy, and universe safe? These questions might go deeper than the burrows of the bugs, but the answers may determine how successful Earth becomes in the fight against the Ori, the Lucian Alliance, and any other enemy which traveling through the Stargate has revealed.