“Then it would seem your robot counterpart is equally as good at following orders as you.”
- Release Date: 7th February 2001
- Season 4
- Episode 21
- Director: Michael Shanks
- Writers: Robert C. Cooper
SG-1 are arriving on a planet when they get ambushed by the locals and a few Jaffa. They all look a bit odd – like how they used to look in earlier seasons. The leader of the locals recognises them as SG-1 – who helped them overthrow Heru’ur in an off-screen adventure only for Cronus to come and take over them. SG-1 are all confused as they’ve never been here before – and Carter gets confused about being called Major. In this confusion, Jack manages to sneak off, while the other three are taken into the palace, where the Jaffa leader is pleased that he can deliver Teal’c to Cronos.
Carter, Daniel and Teal’c have an odd conversation. They mention that Jack won’t contact them in case they can track the signal, but also seem to be concerned as to how much time has passed. Jack sneaks into the house of the village leader – Darien – to find out more about what happened when the other SG-1 were here. Darien says that Cronos punished his people for resisting and that he’ll be arriving tomorrow.
Cronos arrives and brings Daniel, Teal’c and Carter to him, while Jack is in disguise as a soldier. He’s very pleased to have SG-1, and wants to set an example and orders Darien to kill Daniel. He hesitates, so Cronos threatens to kill his people. Daniel nods at Jack to not blow his cover and Darien takes a shot. Daniel’s head falls off, revealing circuitry. He’s an android. Everyone – including Cronos – is shocked.
Back at Stargate Command, the human SG-1 (minus Daniel, who is off on a mission due to directing the episode) are in the control room when they receive an incoming wormhole. A signal is sent on an IDC frequency but it’s not an Iris code – instead it’s a message saying “Comtrya” – a greeting used by an artificial lifeform called Harlan who created robot copies of SG-1 back in season 1. Despite Jack’s protests, Hammond allows Harlan to visit Earth. Harlan explains that the doubles were not happy being cooped up in the facility, so RoboCarter created a much better battery (allowing them 48 hours offworld) and they’ve been going on missions through the Stargate. They’re overdue and only have 8 hours of battery left. Nobody wants to help them, but when they dial the planet for Harlan to go himself, they realise they’ve been there before and the gate should be buried so they’re curious as to what happened.
Darien goes home and tells his wife of what Chronos made him do, how Daniel wasn’t human and – most importantly – how Cronos himself was just as shocked as anyone else. They both question how a true god can be surprised by anything. A MALP is sent to the planet and they find RoboJack at the gate, annoyed at Harlen for leaving the planet. Darien comes over saying he wants to help. Jack tells them that RoboDaniel is dead and Hammond agrees to the mission as they can help the people there – SG-1 said they’d be fine.
Jack and RoboJack immediately clash, getting into small arguments over pretty much nothing, such as who is better, who broke their word and so on. It’s great to see and there’s plenty of well done moments where they interact and touch. They talk about needing more troops and Darien confirms that his people probably won’t fight as the feat the power of Cronus.
On Cronus’s ship in orbit, one of his subservient gould – Ja’din is trying to figure out the technology behind the robots, torturing RoboSam and RoboTeal’c and figuring out that they experience both pain and sympathy. She wants to know how to activate RoboDaniel’s power core. They receive a signal from RoboJack (they can send messages to each other without talking) and asks if they can help – the plan is to get on board the ship, shut off the lower levels and take out Cronus. RoboTeal’c asks to speak to Cronus and, as Ja’din hasn’t found out anything, he accepts.
Darien escorts RoboJack to the pyramid with the rings, pretending he’s a prisoner. Once he’s in position, they both start shooting, with SG-1 following in behind. RoboJack gets hit a few times. Jack, Sam and Teal’c have to leave him behind and wait to be beamed up. On the ship, RoboTeal’c attempts to take out Cronos but fails, while RoboSam tricks Ja’din into activating RoboDaniel’s self-destruct. After the explosion, RoboCarter activates the rings to bring SG-1 up.
Teal’c rushes off to save RoboTeal’c while Jack, Sam and RoboSam start sealing off the lower levels to stop the Jaffa from stopping them. There’s a force shield over the crystals they need to tamper with, so RoboSam removes them (with great pain) while Jack and Sam cover her. She gets the doors shut but the damage from the force field is too much and she dies.
On the bridge, Teal’c get thwarted by Cronos’ shield, getting shot while holding his first prime hostage. With Teal’c lying down on the ground, Cronos starts to attack his symbiote, the same method he used to kill Teal’s father. Before he can finish, though, Cronos is shot in the back multiple times by a very damaged RoboTeal’c, who then collapses. With the battle won, Jack heads down to tell Darien that his people are free again, and he sits with RoboJack as he also dies, meaning all the duplicates are no more.
It’s a really fun episode and it’s great that it follows on from what many considered to be a silly episode (I loved it though). It’s a shame we never saw Harlan getting the news, or what happened to him afterwards. Also, an episode like this must be extremely challenging for first time director, but Michael Shanks did a great job.
