Gemini (811)

[Tok'Ra Hostess]

I just want to add:

Kudos to the folks behind the actors! I was so caught up in the drama that I didn't even notice how seamless RC and HC were in their appearances together.

On the third viewing I really concentrated on the VFX and I have to say this was the best VFX of that sort I remember seeing.

Gemini was an award-worthy ep, for terrific acting, terrific drama and terrific VFX, IMO.

[Calicto]

Definitely a good episode.

Reminded me of the CYLONS from the new Battlestar Galactica, which in my opinion is definitely a GOOD THING.

[Wyrminarrd]

Actually, the circumstanial evidence points to that very scenario repeating itself over and over again. It's not pure innocent coincidence that both superpowers developed essentially the same types of strategic weapons simultaneously. The fact that they were both busily engaged in stockpiling weapons of mass destruction aside, there was a lot of idiocy and incompetance involved.

And if we consider the Manhattan project, we have Albert Einstein, a German national who sent a warning letter to President Truman that the Germans were quite in a position to build the atomic bomb. Einstein went on to become one of the primary four who worked on the Manhattan Project - the project that gave the US the bomb. (Turns out Germany wasn't even working on an A-bomb.)

Now, of course, I've left out a ton of details, like the fact that Einstein was by that time an American, had renounced his German citizenship long before the war broke out, and because of his Jewish heritage, was not even welcome in Germany at that time.

RC kind of made the same convincing arguements, only within the constraints of a 44 minute episode.

No doubt these mitigating factors helped the top brass in the US gov't have more faith in Einstein , and Bohr - another German national refugee (or was he...? ), and other guys with very German sounding names. Of course they watched them like hawks, but let's face it, at the time, who was smart enough, and American enough to watch them?

What happened in Gemini was a disaster, but it hardly set a precedant.

But here the horrible mistake was made even greater as the weapon in question was the ONLY weapon that could have any effects.

Plus the USA could watch Einstein and make sure that he didn´t communicate with Germany (there were propably many,many agents assigned to the project with only that job to do). Carter on the other hand knew that RC could communicate with the hive mind in a way that was impossible to monitor.

I see why the writers wanted this to happen, after all if the replicators were so easily defeated then RC would be a pretty useless character to have floating around but that still doesn´t excuse this kind of sloppy writing, there is no way that the airforce would have actually done things like this.

Plus a simple logical exercise would have told them alot about RC´s motives. #1: She might have a perfect copy of Carters mind and thus know what she would do.
#2: As Carter was the one who wanted to study RC and keep her alive you can infere from #1 that RC knew this and thus knew she would gain access to alpha site despite saying she only wanted to be destroyed.
#3: If she knows this then she must have an alternate agenda with coming there and the most obvious one would be to gain access to information on the weapon.
#4: Carters judgement can´t be trusted in any matter regarding the clone and any decision she made regarding it should be viewed with suspicion.

From that you can easily see that the right course of action would have been to grant RC´s request at the start and simply shoot her the moment she came through the gate, or atleast say that they were going to do it and see how she would react to it.

[DarkQuee1]

Too trusting, right.

Can anyone come up with a good fix for Carter's gulibility? I've tried for thirty whole seconds and failed, but if anyone is less addled and lazy than me...

??

Uh, bad writing?

They needed RepliCarter to be able to get her hands on the cipher and they couldn't think of a good way to do it, so....let's have everyone suffer from Dumb-Itis.

J.

[Mike]

I loved the line at the end when replicarter said something to the effect of, "Fifth taught me betrayal, and you taught it to Fifth". That line pretty much summed it up for me.

Kind of sad to see Fifth go. I loved the character.

[Lord You]

But here the horrible mistake was made even greater as the weapon in question was the ONLY weapon that could have any effects.

Well, human projectile weapons can certainly affect replicators too - in fact that was one reason for the Asgard's recruiting Earthlings to help them out so many times.

The humanoid replicators are immune to such weapons, but they require rare materials to construct and regular replicators still compromise most of their technology. I also doubt Replicarter will risk making another humanoid replicator that could challenge her power over the others given her actions in Gemini. (Note that I haven't seen the episode yet.) So replicator technology still is vulnerable to kinetic weapons in practice.

I wonder why bullets can stop replicators, though. Perhaps the shock "scrambles their circuits?"

[keppiezbt]

i just saw this episode and well, it kidna sucked. i had high hopes for it but i was dissapointed. i thought oneill should have been much tougher and u could see a mile away she was playing them.

2 stars

[Nathan]

It was just shown here in Australia.

Interesting. So I guess we know who the major new bad guy is for season nine.

I liked this:

Replicater: I am Samantha Cater
Jack: We already have one of those
Replicarter: There are two of us
Jack: If only.

[Aioth]

I've just seen Gemini in Australia, and TBH, it was obvious that it was a trap. A trap of star wars proportions. Surely the Air Force would have set guidelines to follow in the case of prisoners, which I expect would include not showing them blueprints to your secret weapons. Kind of ruined the suspension of disbelief.

Not that bad though. If I had to, I'd give it 9/20.

[keppiezbt]

I've just seen Gemini in Australia, and TBH, it was obvious that it was a trap. A trap of star wars proportions. Surely the Air Force would have set guidelines to follow in the case of prisoners, which I expect would include not showing them blueprints to your secret weapons. Kind of ruined the suspension of disbelief.

Not that bad though. If I had to, I'd give it 9/20.

it was obvious carter let her feelings get in the way and she was right to say at the end it was her fault....

anyone with a brain could have seen it was a trap a mile away....so obvious...

[DetriusXii]

Well, human projectile weapons can certainly affect replicators too - in fact that was one reason for the Asgard's recruiting Earthlings to help them out so many times.

The humanoid replicators are immune to such weapons, but they require rare materials to construct and regular replicators still compromise most of their technology. I also doubt Replicarter will risk making another humanoid replicator that could challenge her power over the others given her actions in Gemini. (Note that I haven't seen the episode yet.) So replicator technology still is vulnerable to kinetic weapons in practice.

I wonder why bullets can stop replicators, though. Perhaps the shock "scrambles their circuits?"

In previous episodes, it was shown that human hand weapons weapons couldn't really prevent a swarm of replicators taking over. In the episode with Reese, the Replicators still had an advantage and their only real option (if Reese wasn't there) would be to detonate the nuke. And realistically, when SG1 encounters human form replicators, are we going to see them run away every episode? Asgard ships couldn't prevent the Replicators from replicating and if one human form replicator manages to board a ship, that ship is screwed. The ancient weapon still remains the only weapon that dealt with replicators and their ability to reproduce.

[The Kender]

OMG..how stupid was Carter, i can't believe she trusted the Replicator version of herself...Hello its a Replicator...doesn't matter what it looks like its still a Replicator and can't be trusted.

Replicator Carter was cool though.

[Nathan]

Yeah it was a bit stupid to let an enemy have full and unrestricted access to the plans for the only weapon that can permanently stop them.

I think Carter should have been severely reprimanded for that or at least have a mark on her record for handing over plans to the enemy.

Essentially that weapon stopped the replicators getting into our galaxy. Now that weapon is ineffective and the replicators are here and will cause trouble. Sam is responsible, she allowed her feelings of hate for fifth to cloud her professional judgement and in doing so let the enemy get into our galaxy. She should be demoted back to Major - she obviously can't handle command positions yet

[Lord You]

In previous episodes, it was shown that human hand weapons weapons couldn't really prevent a swarm of replicators taking over. In the episode with Reese, the Replicators still had an advantage and their only real option (if Reese wasn't there) would be to detonate the nuke.

Actually, it was shown that Replicators usually win by brute force when they can't adapt to a new technology. The trick to defeating the Reps is to destroy any initial incursion before they gain a foothold. That's when they're weakest, and apparently they can't instantaneously communicate with the others of their kind (otherwise the Replicators would have overrun the Milky Way shortly after the first episode featuring them).

And realistically, when SG1 encounters human form replicators, are we going to see them run away every episode? Asgard ships couldn't prevent the Replicators from replicating and if one human form replicator manages to board a ship, that ship is screwed. The ancient weapon still remains the only weapon that dealt with replicators and their ability to reproduce.

The ancient weapon is the most effective weapon against the replicators, but there are still other defenses. Kinetic weapons still sometimes work. The good old "blow the star up" plan would probably still work, as would sucking them into a black hole (if they don't have a time-dilation device lying around) or blowing them up in hyperspace. Or allowing an energy-creature to drain their power. Or heat from uncontrolled decent into an atmosphere. Or chemical attacks on their component alloys (like rusting ferrite). Or possibly energy damping fields that can stop Wraith ships. Or...

Note: I'm not saying it wasn't a goof to allow Replicarter access to the Ancient weapon... just not a completely obvious goof.

[Easter Lily]

Eeeek... I wasn't not very impressed with this episode overall. Characterization seemed very shonky. Like others have said, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to see that this evil twin thing from 10 000 light years away . Seems to me that it puts a huge question mark on Carter's ability to make difficult command decisions. The only redeeming factor from the episode was Amanda Tapping's performance.

With all the complaints and condemnation about this season that I've heard so far, this is the one that seems to me to fit the bill.