SGA: Doppleganger

[CaptJodan]

So the shrink died. Those writers sure have a hardon for killing people lately. At least this time it was someone no one likely cared about (for their next trick, do Ronin).

One thing I will say about this episode. It's a bad sign when the characters themselves are bringing up old episodes and going "Yeah, I've been here before". Both the crystal episode and the sleep episode popped in my head before they said something. I'm glad that they have the characters remember what they've done before, but it also just stinks of a reused plotline with a slight couple of differences. Beyond the one death, it was basically just filler.

Unless this is the start of a Tayla/Sheppard romance.

Hoping next weeks is better.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Yeah, as soon as they found the crystal thing the first thing that popped into my mind was "Cold Lazarus." Likewise, "Morpheus" when they suggested McKay needed to stay awake. They also used stuff from "Gamekeeper" and "Avatar," I had mis-guessed it as "Collateral Damage." They even managed to squeeze in an "Entity" reference, despite it easily being the worst Stargate episode ever.

I don't think it's that bad though. SG-1 was always pretty good about referencing a given episode at least once or twice later on, for consistency and nostalgia's sake. One of my biggest beefs with Atlantis is that it often feels completely divorced from SG-1. I can understand why they try to do that, but when they bring in old SG-1 stuff it really helps it feel like good ol' Stargate for me.

That said, yeah, pretty uninteresting filler for the most part, though the McKay stuff was gold (except for his dream - I thought they really squandered that. The whale fear is interesting though, puts a new spin on "Grace Under Pressure"). Carter seems to be sliding into place a bit more as well.

[CaptainChewbacca]

The part with the clown was hilarious, as well as the 'I thought there'd be more hot women.'

I give the episode a C+/B- for being pretty predictible.

[PREDATOR490]

99% of Stargate is always reused plot fillers. If you watch alot of Sci Fi series then you will start to notice that every one has compulsory reused plots. Unfortuantly it seems that Stargate is already suffering from the beginnings of redoing its OWN plots. Cant really fault them but the writers have driven this universe into a corner with the imposed limitations.

Killing the shrink was like killing a red shirt basically. She had barely any interaction over the course of Atlantis that made her merit anything more. This episode struck me more as an attempt to shoehorn the new doctor in.
We havent seen her much at all and this is supposedly the character they killed the last one over so they must feel compelled to write her some "important" stories so people think it was worth it.

I found the Aliens references amusing but the rest seemed medicore. Carter dosent seem to be doing much and if this episode is an indication we are going to see her making references to SG1 episodes a lot. It makes for a nice connection to SG1 naturally but if all she is going to do is preach about how shes done this and that then its a really big waste of the character. I will also add that seeing her in the Atlantis uniform looks really strange to me.

As for Tayla and Ronin. Yet again they demonstrate how completely useless they are at anything beyond shooting. All Ronin does is stand around like a smartass idiot when people are talking and his best contribution was nailing the guy with the gun. Tayla is more or less the same except she just serves as eye candy. I have little faith in any romance for her since they should fall under the same rules that applied to Carter / O'Neil. Given that Carter is there I would expect her to enforce such a rule as both a leader and as someone who had to bear through it.

[General Zod]

This season needs less filler episodes. Though the clown bit was funny.