When an SG team goes missing on a mining expedition SG-1 is sent to investigate and find themselves encountering a a transplanted tribe of Indigenous peoples who have very strong views about the SGC turning their mountain into a mining site.

Written by Tor Alexander Valenza, Spirits first aired on 23 October, 1998.

Before SG-1 can investigate an arrow with a refined trinium (an important mineral) head is shot through the stargate and injures O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) which gives Carter (Amanda Tapping) her first mission to command.

With Teal’c (Christopher Judge) and Jackson (Michael Shanks) at her side, the group encounters Tonane (Rodney A. Grant delivered a wonderfully bemused performance). He tells Carter that the spirits took the missing SG team and that they should ask for them back… from a wolf and a raven.

When the SG team is returned Carter asks Tonane to join them at the SGC so that they can negotiate a deal for the mining operation. Tonane is less than impressed with all of the mining methods that could damage their environment, but Hammond (Don S. Davis) reveals that the inhabitants of the planet may not have a choice. Earth needs the mineral for its defenses.

And that’s when the other shoe drops, Tonane’s spirits are actually an alien race living in peace with the Indigenous tribe and protecting them. If a happy medium can’t be found, they are prepared to destroy Earth!

It’s a solid episode, has an environmental theme and has some fun moments throughout. And Grant is wonderful.

Touchstone expands the stargate universe again. Written by Sam Egan, this episode was first broadcast on 30 October, 1998.

When SG-1 learns that a weather control device has been stolen from a planet they had just visited, and that the inhabitants claim that it was stolen by an SG team that came through the gate, O’Neill and the team discover that the second Earth stargate has been stolen from Area 51, overseen by Maybourne (Tom McBeath).

Area 51 does all the research and development on all the information and technology that stargate teams bring back to Earth.

Of course, bringing Maybourne into it makes things rather difficult for the team, when Maybourne knows about the secret operation of the second gate, and what it is being used for – to steal technology from other planets for Earth’s use.

SG-1 needs to find the gate and stop Maybourne and his crones, as well as return the touchstone before the people on a once beautiful planet die from an impeding environmental disaster.

Looks like the team has their tasks set for them, and Hammond may have to work his channels and favors to find out what is going on, and how high it goes.

I really like this one, because it layers out what is going on at Stargate Command, and the fact that not everyone wants to be friendly and cooperative when it comes to exploring the galaxy.

I am loving this rewatch!