Be All My Sins Remember'd

Plot: The Atlantis expedition teams up with the Wraith and Larrin to execute a plan to destroy the Replicators once and for all.


This episode felt huge from the very beginning and it managed to deliver every step of the way. This is one of Stargate's finest moments, with a massive cast and spectacular action, bringing together plots that have been developing since before the beginning of this season.

Where to start? Firstly, the Daedalus and the Apollo arrive from Earth, commanded by Colonels Caldwell and Ellis respectively. Now that McKay has enabled the ability to locate the Replicator ships, the Daedalus and Apollo go about catching and destroying them. Problem is, the Replicators fall back to their homeworld before the Atlantis team have been able to destroy any more than ten of the ships, which is where McKay's plan comes in.

As we all know, weapons previously designed to stop Replicators worked by removing the bonds that held individual nanites together, effectively turning them to dust. The problem with these weapons is that the Replicators have always quickly found ways to counteract them, meaning that they were never much use in an ongoing battle. McKay proposes that they try the opposite. Instead of making the cells fall apart, they make them form stronger bonds, so that they're forced closer together. This will merge all of the Replicator cells in to one super big, super dense mass that can be destroyed.


To make the plan work, it would be necessary to get a few more ships, as the 30 or so Replicator ships would be a bit too much for the 2 Earth ships to handle. Fortunately, the captured Wraith still has contacts that he can use and rustles up 7 more ships. After that, a chance encounter with Larrin allows Sheppard to convince her to get several more ships from her people. All together, this was quite an impressive armada that helped to create one of Stargate's most spectacular space battles. It really was breath-taking. Not just that, but the replicator mass growing and taking over the planet was a unique and stunning sight. A really great vision by the shows creators.

As mentioned, this episode featured a huge cast. The captured Wraith has been a breath of fresh air when it comes to Wraith characters. He continued in this episode as fantastic foil for McKay. They worked well together and we'll hopefully see more of him in the future. Next, it was great to see Caldwell back on Atlantis. His presence isn't quite so necessary now that the intergalactic bridge is up and running, so he's not been on Atlantis quite as much. He always created excellent tension between himself and Dr. Weir and I'd like to see some of that now with Sam Carter. Finally, Larrin made a return and is already proving herself to be one of Atlantis' better recurring guest characters. Her relationship with Sheppard is being handled a little heavy handedly, but it's great to watch and I can't wait to see more of it in future.

What else? Teyla dropped the P-bomb on Sheppard and Ronon, finally explaining that she is carrying a child. Shep was a little pissed off, which I think alludes to the underlying sexual tension that's developed between them over the past few years. Ronon, however, was very caring and understanding. The pair have a strong friendship and the writers have done well to keep it at that, even though it could've easily gone up a level at any stage.

Finally, in the rubble of the Replicator planet, we see a remaining Lantean ship. It isn't quite what I expected, not a surviving Replicator ship. This one is under the command of our own Dr. Elizabeth Weir and she's eager to get started on something, now that the Replicators are out of the way. It was an excellent curveball to end and exceptional episode.

9 out of 10

This Mortal Coil

Plot: A rogue Replicator faction duplicates the Atlantis team to study their humanity, hopefully unlocking the key to ascension. When Oberoth attacks the faction, the duplicates are released to find the original Atlantis crew and aid them in their fight against the Replicators.


This just screamed scam from the get go. I was adamant that it was a massive ruse to get the duplicates to lead the Replicators back to Atlantis. I was nearly right.

I guess the main talking point of this episode will be Torri Higginson starring as the duplicate Dr. Weir, and our learning of the original's fate. That's right folks, she's dead. Probably. It sounds like she put up a good fight, but eventually the Replicators had little choice but to kill her, preventing her humanity from being a further nuisance. Of course, we only have the Replicators' word on this and she may well turn up at some point in the future. ;)

This episode was somewhat reminiscent of a Star Trek: Voyager episode, Course: Oblivion. In that episode, a duplicate Voyager ship and crew discover that they are not the original crew, as they suspected, but had in fact been duplicated on the Demon planet. The whole idea of being a duplicate and how you would co-exist with your original is an interesting one to explore. In the Voyager episode, the crew and ship decayed before they could reach Voyager for help. Here, the duplicates did the human thing by sacrificing themselves to save their originals. Ultimately, the duplicates are never going to survive for long, although it would be interesting to see a more in-depth look in to how the same person could co-exist.

I'd also like to point out that, again, Amanda Tapping was absent from this episode as Sam Carter. I'm sure that Jewel Staite has probably made more actual appearances than Amanda Tapping has this season. It's interesting, because there has been some reasonably negative discussion of Sam being on Atlantis. It seems to me that the writers probably aren't quite sure what to do with her. Dr. Weir was probably a much more suitable character for the role, as she was the seasoned negotiator. Sam was always the scientist and the intellectual, which is a role that's already filled by one Rodney McKay.

This was the mid-season finale, ahead of the Christmas period. I'm not sure how the writer's strike will have affected the production of the show, but most signs seem to point towards the show returning early in January. Indeed, it appears likely that most episodes will have been written well before the strike began. Joseph Mallozzi's blog explains how he wrapped the writing of This Mortal Coil in April.

I can't say that this was the most thrilling of finales, but it has continued building the Replicator plot. I'm interested to see how it will all pan out in the end.

8 out of 10