Gemini

DVD, Stargate SG-1 S8 (Gemini)

Evil Fifth of the Evil Replicators, having created an alternate Samantha Carter, now uses her to make the SGC's special anti-Replicator weapon redundant… somehow. And then alternate Samantha Carter turns out to be Evil Replicator Carter working for herself against Fifth. I never liked Fifth, although the last episode he appeared where he created a fantasy world to ensnare Carter wasn't too bad. This one is again, not too bad, but neither is it too good. I can see why Teal'c and particularly Carter weren't in the Prometheus-based episode that preceded this one. Perhaps they filmed them both at the same time? They could have, since Daniel was on different sets for much of that episode, and there's very little crossover. I wonder if Amanda Tapping got paid double for playing two roles? It's not the first time she'd done that, but the technical side of the episode was flawless, both apparently talking to each other or standing side by side without a hint of blue screen or whatever technique they use for this stuff. Granted, it was done in the last decade, so you'd expect such effects to be polished by then (Trek was doing it as far back as the eighties, or even the sixties!), but it's still nice to see good effects work.

The episode itself is another matter, filled with techy talk and little else, Carter too quick to fully trust this Replicator version of herself, and I guessed it was working for itself, stringing everyone along, though not that it wanted to become the Borg Queen, sorry, the Replicator Queen. There's a good sequence at the end where it chucks huge soldiers like Teal'c around like toys, but it's all a bit mechanical, from plotting to action. There was an angle that glimmered the hope of something more when she talks about not being able to betray her kind, yet not being able to live like a human, basically stuck between two lives, neither of which are her own, and wanting to end it all. Instead it was just a blind to gain sympathy instead of being about the emergence of a new ally, or whatever, it's just the creation of a new enemy that wants to rule the galaxy. For some reason. I couldn't remember why the Replicators had left our galaxy, but I suppose it was the development of that weapon, which is now ineffective. For some reason. I wasn't really following all the plot details as it wasn't the most engaging episode. It's one of those where the audience is let in on the secret, and we spend much of the episode waiting for the other characters to catch up, never an ideal route to a better episode, even with the twist of personal scheming. Tapping does fine, pulling off two subtly different performances, and there is a moment of introspection at the end when she says that it's her fault, since she taught Fifth betrayal, and he taught it to her double, so it ends on a thoughtful note, but too little, too late for me.

Daniel only has a small exposure, talking about the Prometheus mission, which is apparently on again now the ship's been repaired, restocked and crew selected. It's a shame we didn't get to see the mission to Atlantis, and it will be interesting to hear what results from it, and consequently Michael Shanks probably had more lines as the voice of Thor than his best known character! O'Neill similarly doesn't feature much, beyond giving instructions via monitor, perhaps budget-saving for the production or time-saving for the actor, but I do prefer it when all four are together, as that's what the series is about. When they first had Evil Carter in the room at the Alpha site, I thought they were planning on saving money by not showing both Carters together, though that theory soon went out the airlock. It struck me that the Alpha site has very little protection. Or, to be precise, no protection - we see a training mission Fifth made Evil Carter go through, and which she relives for Sam's benefit, where she kills all the SG-1 team, along with other base members, and of course the alarm sounds and the heavy metal shutters descend, lockdown coming into effect to protect the base. What faces the Stargate at Alpha site? A little desk with three monitors on it. That's not going to keep anything out, is it! It is useful to have an alternative position from which to do business, though, because, as they were planning to do at one point, they can always do a Hoth and abandon the base, hightailing it back to Earth if need be.

The trouble with Fifth is, it always feels like a bit of an indulgence dealing with him. He doesn't seem to have much motivation (well none, now that his protege scattered his remains into the cosmos), and, as Carter said, he's like an emotionally immature child, so there's not much reason to include him or explore his character. So the episode is a bit of a treading water type of thing, not getting very far, except to set up a new threat in the form of Evil Carter, to remind us of the Replicator threat (which were never the most compelling of enemies on the series), and give something else for Carter to feel guilty about. Replicate a better story next time, please guys?

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