'This Mortal Coil' (410) General Discussion

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

This was a great episode, probably the best of the season, so far.

It was nice to see Weir back, although this time 100% replicator.

I loved it when they destroyed "Atlantis." Tho, I thought it would take less drones. Kudos to Mark and the visual effects team.

Monday, the end of the replicators, maybe?

[Krisz]

This episode was almost the same as Tin Man. I liked this one much better, but I'm still not terribly fond of the storyline. I just feel so bad for the clones.

I thought of 'Tin Man' as well. However, I thought the way they dealt with it, whilst almost the same seemed to lack the angst that SG-1 faced on learning of their situation and having to face losing the lives they believed were theirs. That made it more interesting to watch for me due to the focus on the characters.

Here it seemed to me more of a focus on another convenient means to get one up on the Replicators with giving the means to track all the Replicator ships in the galaxy. Having said that it was still a good episode, again mainly because I love seeing situations where characters are faced with their doubles.

[Lythisrose]

From Joe Mallozzi's Blog:
<i>THIS MORTAL COIL (410)

I can’t recall a time I was more frustrating writing (and rewriting and re-rewriting) a script than this one. On the surface, it seems like a straightforward enough story: our characters get into trouble but it turns out they’re not our characters, however they enlist the help of our characters who end up getting killed at episode’s end. Except, it turns out, they’re not our characters. It was one of those episodes that required a lot of explaining – which is something I’m averse to doing because I feel it slows things down. I prefer to assume the audience is smart enough to piece it together. According to Paul, however, I tend to assume way too much and, as a result, I kept receiving notes to “explain this” and “clarify that”. The challenge, of course, was not in explaining and clarifying but in doing so in a way that was concise and entertaining. How successful I was in the end is questionable since I tend to be my own worst critic and the frustration I experienced working on this script lingers. Still, the episode has its highlights, among them some very nice character moments.

It was great having Torri return as Weir(ish) – although this, sadly, would mark her final appearance on the show. Even though the assumption is that Elizabeth was killed by Oberoth (this was done to extinguish any hope for a successful rescue op since it would have been something that would have weighed on Sheppard moving forward), I never imagined she was actually dead. In my mind, Oberoth respected Elizabeth too much – and found her far too useful – to simply kill her. The plan was to have the team uncover the real Elizabeth, in stasis somewhere, in a future episode – something we never got the chance to do.

One of my favorite moments comes at the end of the episode – or, more accurately, after the episode has ended. McKay finally succeeds in tracking every Aurora class replicator vessel in the galaxy. As he and Sheppard look on, we see the ships flash up on the star map. BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. Six in all. ”That’s not so bad,”says McKay. ”I guess the wraith have really taken a toll.” Suddenly, another eight BEEPS and the corresponding ships appear onscreen. Then, another fifteen leaves McKay and Sheppard staring, aghast. I was very specific that I wanted to fade out on an ominous sting, wait a beat, and then hear another eleven BEEPS punctuated by Rodney’s “Oh, crap.”

While Teal’c ending up at a reading of the Vagina Monologues was my favorite SG-1 ending, this was my favorite Atlantis ending.

[garhkal]

The music they were playing in that clip made me think of the SG1 s9 season ender, Camelot.....

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Not a bad ep.

This season must be a SG-1 throwback season. So many eps feel like SG-1 eps.

For instance this one is like the one when SG-1 get robot counterparts. Except I think the SG-1 ep was better.

Two Rodney's. Now that is scary. The planet should have exploded from having so much ego in one spot. Two Ronon's. Watch out Wraith.

Those Asuran Cruisers look funny. I wonder if it was the Ancients who made them or if it's an Asuran design.

[Matt G]

Midweek, another ep of Atlantis.

1. Forgot that there was absolutely no Sam in this ep.

2. Not quite sure what the dulpi-team really thought they could do with the rest of their lives.

3. Two Rodney's LOL!

4. And yeah, this is the ep where they wrote off Weir.

[jelgate]

I found the whole premise for creating the nanite Atlantis team kind of boring. It got dull after awhile of why the Asurans would make a fake Atlantis team. The mystery itself is not a bad idea but I feel after that and the nanite Weir team got around it just got kind of dull. The whole quest of their indviduality felt like a dropped ball and the easy way out was having the fake Atlantis being killed. I am reminded of the twining from Farscape and thought it would have been cooler to explore two identical "Shephard's team." It just seems the whole point of this episode was to give the real Atlantis team a way to track Obereoth and his ships. Seemed like a waste especially for TH as is her last episode (minus a cameo). The ending with the Asuran ships was a nice cliffhanger but largely that is all this episode achieves and the whole revelation of the Atlantis team is nothing but space filler and to answer the Seer question of Atlantis being destroyed.

[Cluas]

This was under average. Did not see the point in bringing Weir back, and the cloning plot felt really stupid. Two Rodney's was just one too much.

[Alterus]

I loved the episode and plus there was that new replicator theme that sounded like a mix of the Ori and old replicator themes.

[mrscopterdoc]

Two Rodney's. Now that is scary. The planet should have exploded from having so much ego in one spot. Two Ronon's. Watch out Wraith.

so true!

[garhkal]

This was under average. Did not see the point in bringing Weir back, and the cloning plot felt really stupid. Two Rodney's was just one too much.

Not really when you take into account the cloning was done by the replicators who wanted to be human. How best to understand humans than to make some!

[losernerdfriend]

First time watching this ep!

Only two stray thoughts about the ep:
1. It was really nice to see Weir again. I miss her. Even tho she was clone, and it's been "officially" confirmed real Weir is dead, I was happy to have her back.
2. That ending. Absolutely fantastic. 'Nuff said. I think that was my favorite ending of SGA.