(S03E05) Whoa. This episode is a total mind trip. Investigation of an old Atlantean research station results in the discovery of what seems to be a planet full of Ancients. When the team gates through, at first they think that they've returned to their own gate room. In truth, they've come to a giant city.
This city is friggin' huge. Not only do they have their own Atlantis style ship, they've got a giant settlement. As Weir tries to make some diplomatic agreements, she discovers that their leader is about as arrogant as Right Said Fred without a shirt. When our heroes decide to take their leave, they're detained and jailed. As soon as they're brought some food, they make their move and escape. A short grand theft Jumper, quick gate dial and they're clear.... Until Shep wakes up with one of their new friends hands stuck in his head.
It took a little bit to register just where I'd seen the whole hand in the head trick before. When I remembered, I couldn't help but freak out a little bit. A whole planet of Replicators? Holy crap! Remember just how bad-ass the Replicators were on SG-1? And these were invented by Ancients! At least these don't look like erector sets and I suppose that the life sucking wraith were getting a little boring.
Unfortunately these Replicators are a wee bit angry with the Ancients. After the Ancients built them, they decided that the Replicators just weren't the weapon they needed. They attempted to destroy the Replicators. Now the Replicators would like to get their jollies by destroying Atlantis. The Replicators take off with their Atlantis like ship to visit the old town and blow it off the face of the galaxy.
Luckily a few of the Replicators have aspirations of Ascension. One of them makes a deal. You remove the unreasoning aggression from our base code so we can evolve and Ascend and we'll help you save Atlantis. McKay manages to pull it off, and succeeds in adding a Replicator pause button so they can escape.
The team makes the getaway, with a few nice hairy moments. Once they're clear and the ship is exploding things go wrong. The other Replicators reset their ally and he attacks Weir. With some quick thinking, they send him out the airlock. The episode ends with him floating creepily through space.
Seriously, this episode was awesome. Last weeks was fun, but this one had some great plot twists. I guess we have to take away points for resurrecting the Replicator plot, but it was done really well. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out sci fi plots, but I just didn't see this one coming. I figured that it would be an elaborate Wraith ruse. So the galaxy just got some more bad guys, and we're only 5 episodes into the season.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-12-2006 @ 9:58AM
tanner said...
I wonder if the replicator distruptor weopon from sg1 has a future on atlantis.
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8-12-2006 @ 10:19AM
Mack Swift said...
I've said it before, and I shall repeat myself; the special effects this season have been awesome.
And the story sure was kewl. I mean the Replicators are just badass, and to find out they're creations of the Ancients was even better (not to mention it filled in a major Stargate related plot hole).
One thought did cross my mind; what if the Ori over on SG-1 are in fact acsended human form Replicators?
Excellent episode; great SFX; trippy story. Atlantis is rocking this season.
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8-12-2006 @ 10:25AM
Tobey Cook said...
I'd never watched an episode of Atlantis other than the pilot before this one. I'm hooked now, and I'll be looking for the back seasons of this show to watch on DVD. Nice thing is it's a good jumping on point because you don't really need to know much (and I'm familiar with the Atlantis project from the SG-1 episodes that set it up) to enjoy it. Well done, and I'm curious to see where they go from here, because I know we haven't seen the last of these guys.
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8-12-2006 @ 11:40AM
Jimmy said...
Yes, this was a great episode and I have to say Atlantis is kicking the butt of older sibling SG-1 in the storyline department. Here's one thing I don't understand: they team knows how the Replicators work, i.e. they don't need air to survive, hence they could live for a quite awhile in space. Why leave a Replicator floating in space so close to Atlantis? Anyway, the addition of the Replicators to the Atlantis universe, not to mention their origin, was a great idea on the part of writers and proucers.
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8-12-2006 @ 5:05PM
Terry Schultze said...
These are not the same replicators from SG1. And there is no Stargate plot whole when it comes to replicators (EP: Menace). And this Atlantis episode is basically a ripoff of SG1 (EP: Unnatural Selection).
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8-13-2006 @ 6:31AM
Joe said...
Yeah, I think you may have missed out on some important Stargate-related information when it comes to the Replicators. It is shown to us that a young woman who is a robot herself created the spider-like Replicators of SG-1, and she does it by using any old metal lying around. So I assume there are at least two different types of Replicators going around, one of which came from this young woman, and the other coming from Pegasus and the Ancients.
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8-13-2006 @ 3:51PM
Mack Swift said...
When Jack O'Neill was in the coma and had his brain rewired by the Ancient database (EP: New Order), he was able to build a weapon that distrupted the atomic bounds that formed the human form Replicators.
It was a plot-hole that left a few people scratching their heads. How did the design for the weapon end up in the Ancient database? Simple, the Ancients had created the Replicators as a weapon to defeat the Wraith! Taa-Daa! Plot-hole filled!
Now what about the little cyborg hottie from EP: Menace? Her creator (or father) was a Lantean who had returned from Atlantis 10,000; and for some reason decided to try and create some form of human Replicator; that true to the original programming; decided to replicate.
Oh, and the EP: Unnatural Selection, with the human Replicators that formed from the lego block Replicators? Simple, they were stuck in a time warp field that they took control up and sped up time. Thus speeding up their evolution.
It all makes since if you remember the episodes and apply some fanboy math to it.
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8-13-2006 @ 8:18PM
Akbar Fazil said...
Sorry Mack, this fanboy will have to disagree with you.
It wasn't that Jack pulled data straight from the ancient database to find the weapon premade. He just used the ancient knowledge therin to make the weapon.
I dont buy for an instant that the original girl we found in SG-1 was an Lantean creation in any shape size or form. Our galaxy replicators were created compeltly separatley from the Pegasus ones. Besides, if they were the same, dont you think we would have seen some lego block replicators in the flashback history lesson in this episode? I think the crew was specific in NOT showing them looking the same for this exact reason.
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8-13-2006 @ 11:36PM
Katja said...
Reese's creator might have come back to Earth from Pegasus, we may never know. She was created in human form, and it was she who created the "bug-like" replicators as toys. And if her father was of Lantean society, Reese might have the same codes as the Asurans and the Disrupter Weapon should have an effect, however, these Asurans have had thousands of years to advance themselves and may be immune from such technologies. There are numerous variables and possibilities and all we can do is guess! There are spoilers tied to the Disruptor weapon and Gen. O'Neill as well. I really loved this episode, it gave fans different views of the city ship, "Lantean" society, even if it wasn't actual Ancients, but their settlement was huge! I thought it was a great show, and a great sotry arch.
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8-14-2006 @ 1:04PM
Mack Swift said...
Oooooo, I love a good fanboy argument:
First, check out this page from Gateworld pertaining to the episode - http://www.gateworld.net/atlantis/s3/305.shtml
Here's an excerpt:
ANALYSIS
# This revelation about the possible origin of the Replicators -- at the hands of the Ancients -- explains the answers to two nagging questions from Stargate SG-1 mythology. First, how did the spider-like Replicators, intelligent but made up of inch-long blocks, learn to create First (the first human-form Replicator made up of nanites) by simply studying the android Reese (SG-1: "Unnatural Selection")? If nanite-based technology was their original form, it may well have been programmed in at a subconscious level.
Second, it explains why the Ancient library of knowledge downloaded into Jack O'Neill's brain happened to contain the schematics for a handy-dandy weapon capable of destroying a humanoid Replicator with a single shot, by disrupting the bond between the nanites. Clearly it was a technology with which the Ancients were quite familiar.
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8-14-2006 @ 5:45PM
Akbar Fazil said...
But that is just the thing Mack, that is an analysis of the show written from Gateworlds point of view. Not neccesarily gospel truth of the show.
There is evidence within the show for both theories. Until TPTB tell us the contrary within the show, we will never know.
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8-15-2006 @ 11:19AM
Mack Swift said...
I wonder if the execs in charge of schedualing show on Sci-Fi read these blogs. Back on Gateworld, there are a few articles about how the Stargate's rating are kinda hoo-humm this season. Now, since I've blogged about new teachnology, DVRs, and the fact that companies and advertisers are still stuck in the old ways of making money and they're bitcching that we shouldn't Tivo or tape these show but instead watch them live; I'll skip over to the actual time slots.
For starters; it's summer. And let's face it, even though this summer has been hot, at nite it cooled down enough for people to head out and enjoy themselves. Now, both 'Gates are on Friday nites, but they used to be on between 7pm-9pm with Battlestar following right after. Now the 'Gates are on 8pm-10pm.
Folks at Sci-Fi, hope you're reading this, but that is just way to late on a Friday nite in the summer. 7-9pm was perfect, but 8-10pm is too late. THe schedule worked great with Battlestar, but with both 'Gates, that's just too late of a time slot.
CHange the 'Gates back to 7-9pm during the summer, and you'll see the ratings jump back up.
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