Stargate SG-1: Tin Man

Well, look at that, it's another good episode! Tin Man (episode 19) is a neat little mystery the first time you watch it and still holds up on repeat viewings as well. It's another case of them establishing some cool aliens that they never really do anything with - they do come back again once, but it really seems like everyone on Earth should be a lot more excited about all this.

Ah yes, it's the spinny-glowy-ball-thing.

The episode starts with SG-1 arriving on a new planet in an apparently abandoned facility belonging to an obviously technologically advanced people. There's weird machines and lots of coloured lights. They quickly assess it as being more advanced than Earth technology and not of Goa'uld origin, so things are looking up. They even find a functioning computer. Then they all get zapped unconscious.

Good morning.

They wake up on some weird coffin-shaped benches, in new clothes. Their equipment's gone but they seem to be unharmed. Soon a weird old man comes to greet them. He's very enthusiastic and quite amusing. His name is Harlan and he tells them he is the last survivor - the last on the entire planet and 11,000 years old. He begins showing them around and they soon realise that he's altered them somehow. Jack is able to do complicated arithmetic in his head without even thinking about it and they all feel great. Harlan tells them he has made them "better".

He's so cheerful though.

They press him for clarification but he won't give a straight answer, so they leave. Just like that, back through the stargate to Earth. He begs them not to leave him alone, but they're deaf to his pleas. It's pretty mean.

Aww, now he's sad.

Back on Earth, a medical examination shows them to have no heartbeats. Their blood has also been replaced with some weird white goo. Teal'c has no Goa'uld pouch in his stomach, but he still feels its presence somehow. Jack grabs a scalpel and slices at his arm, revealing electronic and mechanical workings within. Dr Fraiser immediately calls for security and the four are detained.

Like a cross between the robots from Alien and Terminator.

Sam immediately sees it from Fraiser and Hammond's perspective. Jack's more worried about being a robot, whether that means he's still himself or even a person at all. Daniel naïvely believes that the US military can't keep them prisoner forever. Teal'c, on the other hand, is acting weirdly. Even for him. But before they have time to process their new situation they all collapse.

SG-1 are all tuckered out.

Jack begs Hammond to send them back through the gate to Harlan, and for some reason he agrees. Once on the other side they immediately begin to recover, and Harlan is once again delighted to see them. They demand he put their minds back into their original bodies, but he tells them he is unable to do so, that their bodies are gone.

I don't know if they walked through the gate or were shoved.

An alarm goes off, warning of a coolant leak, and Harlan informs them that this is the reason he has transformed them - he needed help to maintain the facility, which is falling into terrible disrepair with only himself to attend to it. Jack storms off, Sam and Daniel discuss the nature of their new existence and whether or not they are still themselves, and Teal'c wanders off without saying anything. They call out to him but he doesn't answer, so they try to follow him only to run into Harlan and Jack.

Harlan is explaining his people's fate. It seems there were originally 1000 of them turned into robots once the planet became uninhabitable, but most of them left some time ago through the stargate, carrying portable power supplies. Those who stayed waited for them to return, but they never did. Most of those left ended up killing themselves. Eventually Harlan was the only one left.

A fresh emergency forces them to work with him to keep the power supply running, but Jack is attacked by Teal'c. Harlan shows up just in time to zap Teal'c with some kind of disintegrator gun. The other three are horrified, but Harlan informs them that he can simply make a new Teal'c. This one went crazy because he accidentally combined the human and Goa'uld minds into a single entity.

If robots can feel pain, that must hurt.

But Jack realises the implication - that if Harlan can make a new Teal'c, different from the first, that may mean their original bodies still exist and are still alive. Harlan admits it's true, that he had planned to send the originals back through the stargate and have the copies believe them gone forever. Then they all get to meet themselves.

"Hi, I'm Sam." 'What a coincidence!'

Jack has a bit of a heart-to-heart with himself and robo-Jack accepts his fate, agreeing tom stay behind and let real Jack go back to Earth - but only because he has no real choice in the matter. He also offers to bury the gate, knowing that the military would want him destroyed for the secrets he knows and would probably nuke the place. And then the real SG-1 go home.

Don't know why they decide to chat in front of Teal'c's naked body.

There are a few disappointments with the lack of follow-up to this episode, akin to how they never do anything useful with all the crazy stuff the transporters, holodecks and replicators can do in Star Trek, but in itself this is a really neat episode and I like it a lot.

Jay Brazeau is great as Harlan.

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