Ghost In The Machine

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (Ghost In The Machine)

This would have had so much more weight to it if they'd brought back Torri Higginson as Dr. Weir. Instead, we have 'Fran' back from the previous season, the Replicator Rodney built because of some reason I can't remember (it wasn't one of the more memorable episodes, though apparently I like it, and a big part of that was because they brought back Weir in a surprise ending), the template for this body now used by Weir's consciousness as a host in a convoluted way of bringing the character back and then getting rid of her for good this time. Except that a person floating in space, especially a Replicator, is hardly a sign of permanent deletion (as evidenced by Lore from 'TNG,' who came back and is apparently due to return again in 'Picard'). It gives you hope that we might get one last appearance from Weir (maybe give her Higginson's face again?), before the season and series ends forever. On the other hand maybe this was it, perhaps they couldn't get Higginson back this time, unlike last season when they did? It's a real shame, although I can see there'd be more confusion over whether this really was Elizabeth, and yet she's lied to her former friends when she said she didn't think the others of this splinter group of Replicators would be able to track her down.

It was a good mystery, although my initial belief was that the ghost of the title, this power surge that takes over a Jumper when they're on their way home, would turn out to be some kind of alien intelligence. Then when Weir communicates by text on the computer screen back at base it took an entirely new direction to what I expected, and in some ways a welcome one. I was hoping this would somehow bring her back into the fold... that is until Rodney gave her a synthesised voice that didn't sound like the actress who played her, and if they couldn't get Torri to record a few audio lines it was unlikely she'd be making a bodily appearance, though I still held out hope that it might be a last nice surprise. Instead things turn out quite differently. First it's thanks to the hardline response of Wolsey, whom we see call the bluff of these Replicators that are about to drown the city, a side we haven't seen of him before, and then Ronon, who never for a moment trusts these beings and keeps his scowl on them all the time as they work to create human bodies as a permanent solution for their goal to ascend into the higher dimension or whatever it was that 'SG-1' introduced.

When Rodney says at the end that it shows whether this really had been Weir, I wasn't quite sure how to read that. I would assume he meant it proves it was her because she appears to sacrifice herself to get all the Replicators out of their hair by going along with Atlantis' plan to send them into space, rather than the planet they think they're going to where they'll ostensibly be given the chance to build the bodies (apparently it's quite easy, just takes a lot of time!). She had to go through first in order to convince her brethren that it was safe and not a trick to deceive them, with one of the group communicating with her and she giving them the all clear, then they follow her out and find themselves trapped in space. So yes, I suppose it must have been Weir as that's what she'd do. I can also see why, in the absence of Higginson, they chose to use Fran, since she'd been a positive example of a Replicator, though that could still have been a trick to play with our expectations. It's been an odd time with both Weir and Beckett having died (and I thought Chorison sounded a bit like Carson, so was half expecting a twist there of some kind!), then coming back, so I didn't quite know how to take it and you are wondering all the way through if she's genuine or not, and I suppose the story works from that perspective. And at least it had some bearing on things when initially I thought it was going to be a completely separate episode, like last time, without many ramifications. That could have been fine as it's nice to go off on an adventure, but if this is the final ever part Weir had to play in the series then that's a sad resolution. I'm still waiting to see if Ford's tiny popup cameo at the start of the season foreshadowed his return, and obviously we've already had Beckett, so who else is left?

**