Menace
The Warrior ..... The Sentinel
Story By: James Tichenor, Teleplay By: Peter DeLuise
Directed By: Martin Wood
Guest Stars: Danielle Nicolet, Gary Jones & Teryl Rothery as Dr Frasier
SG-1 are exploring a world in ruins, it appears to have been an advanced civilisation but there are no survivors to be found. They enter a room and find a perfectly preserved female body. Sam detects energy readings coming from the body and they contact the SGC. They tell Hammond they think the body may be a robot, Hammond gives them permission to bring the body back to Earth.
At the SGC Sam is looking over the robot and finds the power source. Sam goes to see Hammond and asks permission to turn the robot on, he gives her the go ahead. Sam puts the power source in place but nothing happens. After a bit of a wait the robot suddenly takes a gasp of air and wakes up. Daniel explains to her where she is and she introduces herself as Reese. She asks how she got here and why she is here, she also asks where her father is. They tell her they don't know about her father but that her civilisation was destroyed and they want to find out how, they hope she knows. She says that all she is aware of is that her father knew there was danger and put her to sleep. Daniel asks to speak to Sam and Jack alone, he tells them that he believes Reese doesn't know she is a robot and she shouldn't be told yet. Daniel goes back to speak with Reese. Sam tells Jack that she can't believe anyone would attack the planet but leave a piece of such advanced technology. Jack decides to go back their and take a look around for anything else.
Daniel and Reese talk and start to form a relationship but when he asks about the danger to her planet she immediately clams up. On Reese's planet they find Replicator blocks among the bits and bobs scattered about, this is the first evidence of them in our galaxy. Back at the SGC Sam examines the blocks and finds they are dead. She wonders why they would leave Reese alone. Daniel says he thinks she is hiding something and they decide to tell her that she is a robot. Daniel sees her and tells her the truth, she goes mad and attacks him, shouting "Let me out". They decide to keep pushing her though.
Daniel goes back to see her and she apologises to him. She has made him a toy and a Replicator climbs out from behind a bookcase. Sam has the Replicator placed in a glass cubicle and they watch the video to see if they can find out how Reese made it. It appears she can use the nanotechnology in her body to manipulate other matter, she created Replicator blocks from metal in the room. Sam says that Reese will hold the key to defeating the Replicators, Hammond sends SG-2 to contact the Asgard.
Daniel and Jack go too see Reese again. They tell her about the Replicators and what they do, she tells them that they destroyed her world after she programmed them to protect her and build more of each other, however she lost control of them. After they destroyed her world they went away and she was lonely so she put herself to sleep. When Daniel and Jack ask her to tell them how to destroy them, she believes they are just like the people of her world who wanted to destroy her as well. The Replicator in the cage reacts to how Reese is acting, as Daniel and Jack push her more it tries to escape, Teal'c destroys it.
In a briefing Hammond tells them that SG-2 haven't been able to contact the Asgard, he tells Sam that until they can contact them, Reese is to be shut down. In the isolation room Reese is able to turn the surveillance camera off, two soldiers go to find out what is going on but they are attacked by Replicators. Reese escapes. Sam says that Reese must have built a backup Replicator to the first one she gave Daniel, there could be loads of them by now.
They kit up and prepare to try and stop the Replicators. Sam tries to shut out access to the gate but the computer shuts down and Replicators enter the room. Daniel says he wants to try and regain Reese's trust again, if she can be shut down the Replicators will be as well. Reese allows Daniel to see her. She tells him to activate the stargate but Daniel tells her she doesn't want her to go, he wants her to be his friend. Daniel tries to deactivate her but fails, the Replicators leave the gate room. Jack's team start to cut through the door to the gate room while Hammond and Sam head off to activate the base self-destruct.
Reese tells Daniel to make the soldiers stop destroying the Replicators but Daniel tells her it is upto her, she created them, she can stop them. If she puts herself to sleep they will try and find a way to fix her faults.
One of the Replicators in the bomb room starts to act on its own, Sam tells Jack that Reese is losing control of them. Jack enters the gate room after managing to cut through the door, he shoots Reese. Reese lays on the floor and looks and Daniel, she closes her eyes and all the Replicators stop and fall apart. They stop the self-destruct.
Daniel has a go at Jack for shooting Reese and loosing any chance they have of defeating the Replicators. Jack says he is sorry, but it had to go down this way and Daniel know it.
Reese is an android who is built using advanced nanotechnology. Reese is like a child and obviously hasn't been built properly. She built the Replicators are toys for herself but lost control of them. She believes that every time someone threatens one of her toys they are threatening her, so she programmed them to protect her.
Daniel starts to form a bond with Reese as a person, not just an android. He is very angry when Jack shoot her.
Jack (to Daniel): "Why don't you kiss her!"
Daniel (to Jack): "You stupid son of a bitch"
James Tichenor has come up with an excellent story idea and Peter DeLusie a strong screenplay for Menace. It has been wondered for a while how exactly the Replicators can about, and no one could possibly have seen this coming. It is really nice to be surprised by an episode for once and having the Replicators as toys gone wrong is a genius idea. The episode gives us a solution to the Replicator war yet doesn't at the same time, thus making the episode progress the story line but leave it open for further investigation if wanted but a reason to hear no more of it if wanted as well. After loosing a number of allies this year it would be good to see the Asgard being able to offer more of a hand. The episode also touches, although loosely, on what it takes to be a sentient life form, I do like this but this episode wasn't really about that and thankfully it didn't interfere with the proper story and was soon left to one side.
The scene where the Replicator is first seen is really good and when the Replicator climbs up onto the shelf, the line from Reese, "Don't worry, its just a toy", is fantastic. However I think it would have been even more effective for us not to know the Replicators were on Reese's planet before this as it would then have been a total shock, it was only a surprise instead! Still good though.
The performances were excellent. Michael Shanks and Danielle Nicolet were top notch, she really convinced me she had a child like persona while Shanks played off it very well. Its good to see Hammond in action as well. However Teal'c was pretty absent until the last 5 or so minutes, maybe to do with finishing scenes off for the previous Teal'c heavy episode 'The Warrior'. The CG Replicators were also very well done, they get better with each episode. They Replicators now blend with the scenes perfectly and you truly believe they are there.
Menace is definitely one of the strongest of season 5 and very inventive as well. This shows SG-1 at its strongest, proper adult sci-fi drama, strong characters with a strong story and some nice action pieces. More like this please.
The Warrior ..... The Sentinel