An excellent episode that seriously changes things in the Pegasus galaxy while offering more than enough action to satisfy everyone. It starts with another encounter with people who might, or might not, be maverick Ancients living in a perfect replica of "Atlantis and then some" (sic Ronon). (By the way: I hate what they've done with the place) As can be expected considering the lukewarm welcome our heroes get, things soon go wrong. So wrong that within the next ten minutes Sheppard's team breaks jail, goes back to Atlantis, faces a full-blown Wraith assault and destroys the city before leaving for Earth --at which point the only comment that comes to mind is "huh?"
So I really gasped when the big revelation came. I guess the surprise only works for those SG-1 viewers who understand who the Replicators are and what they can do, but even those who only have Atlantis to go by will get that very quickly. The good news is, these Replicators are less psychopathic than their Milky Way brethren; the bad one is, they're much better organised, and with the full resources of an improved-upon Atlantis to work with. Hence some really awesome CGU scenes that just make the episode that much more epic -and the odds that much more desperate for Atlantis. But even as the team tries to come up with clever ways to stop those new and formidable enemies, we learn their story, which is both tragic and really symbolic. Weir interprets it in psychoanalytic terms, but it has something mythical: and a few well-placed hints only emphasise the biblical parallels). When all is said and done, Niam and his fellows are trying to get rid of the original flaw which led their creators to forsake them, seeking redemption in order to achieve Ascension. Familiar much? (As a side note, it is fascinating how history repeats itself, and how humanity keeps making the same mistakes as the Ancients --fascinating, and depressing).
This is not to say that the whole episode is one long philosophical debate; it definitely is not. What makes it really work is that even as the revelations come and the stakes are exposed, the action almost never stops and goes from jail escape to mad pursuit to space fight to siege, all within one episode. Understandably, this doesn't leave much room for character development, but you won't have time to miss it, what with a new enemy at large --one that might prove even more lethal than the Wraiths.
So I really gasped when the big revelation came. I guess the surprise only works for those SG-1 viewers who understand who the Replicators are and what they can do, but even those who only have Atlantis to go by will get that very quickly. The good news is, these Replicators are less psychopathic than their Milky Way brethren; the bad one is, they're much better organised, and with the full resources of an improved-upon Atlantis to work with. Hence some really awesome CGU scenes that just make the episode that much more epic -and the odds that much more desperate for Atlantis. But even as the team tries to come up with clever ways to stop those new and formidable enemies, we learn their story, which is both tragic and really symbolic. Weir interprets it in psychoanalytic terms, but it has something mythical: and a few well-placed hints only emphasise the biblical parallels). When all is said and done, Niam and his fellows are trying to get rid of the original flaw which led their creators to forsake them, seeking redemption in order to achieve Ascension. Familiar much? (As a side note, it is fascinating how history repeats itself, and how humanity keeps making the same mistakes as the Ancients --fascinating, and depressing).
This is not to say that the whole episode is one long philosophical debate; it definitely is not. What makes it really work is that even as the revelations come and the stakes are exposed, the action almost never stops and goes from jail escape to mad pursuit to space fight to siege, all within one episode. Understandably, this doesn't leave much room for character development, but you won't have time to miss it, what with a new enemy at large --one that might prove even more lethal than the Wraiths.
