“One small step for Jaffa.”
- Release Date: 8th March 2000
- Season 3
- Episode 22
- Director: Martin Wood
- Writers: Robert C. Cooper
Daniel is in the infirmary. Not through any kind of fancy injury from an away mission, but due to having his appendix removed (Michael Shanks needed an emergency operation for appendicitis just as this episode was being filmed, so they had to write him out of it). This means vacation time for SG-1. Teal’c is off visiting his family while Jack wants to go fishing. He invites Sam, but she’d rather work on a naquadah generator – her kind of fun. As Jack starts to head off, Sam watches him get beamed away by an Asgard teleporter. On the ship, Jack sees some mechanical spiders wandering around. Thor speaks over the intercom and directs Jack to him.
Jack meets up with Thor, who is dying and in a bio bed, and gets introduced to this new enemy, called the Replicators. These are the great enemies that the Asgard have been fighting in their galaxy. They gained control of his ship and found out about Earth from the ship’s database and have decided to check it out. Thor warns Jack that the Replicators will consume everything for the purpose of self-replication. Thor goes unconscious and leaves Jack to learn how to operate the ship himself.
While SGC are trying to locate the ship, which is hidden from all their radars, Jack uses a hologram communicator to speak to Hammond, Sam and Teal’c. He says he needs lots of guns and explosives, and for everyone to stay on Earth as Jack needs to blow it up and there’s no way off. The transporter will alert the replicators, so he has to head there and grab the equipment quickly.
Naturally, Sam and Teal’c come along for the ride, armed with shotguns and a few crates. As the replicators come, they head back to the room with Thor, who has regained consciousness. Sam has a plan to escape: a shuttle is being prepped and they can use an airlock and EV suits to get on board. The first plan is to get to the bridge and take control. Sam directs Jack and Teal’c to the bridge, but it’s completely overrun by replicators. While guns can temporarily disable them (and sometimes destroy them completely).
With the bridge taken out of the equation, and explosions inside of the ship being automatically suppressed, Sam comes up with another plan: blow up the right engine on the outside of the ship. Due to his resilience to radiation, Teal’c heads out, but replicator goop lands on his EV suit’s oxygen tank. He places the bomb successfully but the replicators shut the airlock on his way back. As the teleporters in this area are down, he has to kick off the ship until he’s in range, Sam beams him up just in time. Thor also gets worse and Sam has to put him into stasis. She also has another idea.
Back on Earth, Hammond and Davies are trying to work out a plan for if SG-1 fail. If the ship lands, they’ll have to let the other world governments know about aliens and the Stargate program then blow it up with whatever they have. Daniel has faith that SG-1 can still do it. They hear the asgard beaming sound and the Stargate itself is taken. They realise that SG-1 plan to use it to go to another planet, then dial earth again, but are still ready to attack the ship themselves if it looks like its going to land.
Jack defends the gate from a vast amount of replicators while Teal’c dials it. Once a connection is made, Sam beams over with Thor’s pod and pushes it through to the other side. The replicators get closer and closer (even with the three of them blasting them to bits) as Carter waits for the right time to tell Jack to blow it. We see the explosion as a fireball falls into the sea. We don’t see if SG-1 made it through, but we do see that one replicator survived the explosion.
This is a great introduction of a new enemy, and one that will crop up many times. Their effects look great, and the CGI on them is much more effective than CGI they’ve attempted in the past. One thing I like about the finale is that the main threat is over (you know they made it through the gate) and a new one is teased for the next season.
