MENACE

05.19 Episode 107 (#4972)
Airdate: April 26, 2002

SG-1 visits a planet with signs of a long-deserted civilization. Alone among the ruins is a sleeping figure, a young woman who, readings indicate, is an artificial life form. She is a highly sophisticated android based on nano-technology, and back on Earth, SG-1 finds a way to activate her. The android's name is Reese. She exhibits confusion and a childlike innocence, but reveals little information about the fate of her world, and she doesn't seem to know that she is a robot. Searching for clues, O'Neill returns to the planet and makes an alarming discovery. The planet is littered with the building blocks of Replicators.

If Reese's planet was destroyed by Replicators, she may hold the key to the salvation of the Asgard. However, when Daniel confronts her with the truth, she becomes enraged and violent, then offers him a gift as an apology, a toy that she has made herself. It is a Replicator. Reese has the power to create Replicators through nano-technology and to control them with her mind. The people of her planet had feared her, and she had taught her toys to reproduce and to defend themselves until she lost control and the Replicators destroyed her world. Hammond orders that Reese must be shut down.

Reese fears that SG-1 will try to destroy her. She creates more Replicators, which she controls with her mind, and which multiply and begin to overrun the base. She seals herself in the gateroom, and Daniel enters in an attempt negotiate, but Reese is confused and frightened and is beginning to lose control. Conventional weapons are hardly effective at keeping the Replicators at bay, and Hammond resorts to the final option of setting the self-destruct mechanism. Finally O'Neill gains entrance to the gateroom, and fires upon Reese, disabling her. Instantly the Replicators disassemble, averting the threat to the base and to Earth.

Story by: James Tichenor
Teleplay by: Peter DeLuise
Directed by: Martin Wood

Guest Starring: Danielle Nicolet as Reese, Gary Jones as Technician, Teryl Rothery as Dr. Fraiser, Colin Lawrence as Major Warren, Tracy Westerholm as SF, Biski Gugushe as SF, Kyle Riefsnyder as SF, Dan Shea as Sergeant Siler

Reference: Autodestruct Sequence, Nano-Technology, Reese, Replicators, Security Lockdown, SF Guard, Sergeant Siler, UTD, Major Warren, Weapons, Major Wood

DESTINATIONS & INHABITANTS

NOTES OF INTEREST

• Reese was created through nano-technology by her “father.” She created the Replicators as toys, using the same nano-bots that she uses for self-repair to reorder matter on a microscopic level, and was able at first to control them with her mind.
• The people of the planet feared Reese and her toys, she taught them to make more of themselves and to defend themselves and her from destruction. When they went beyond her control, killed everyone and then left the planet, she was the only remnant of her civilization, and went to sleep.

MEMORABLE REMARKS

• Why don't you kiss her? [O'Neill]
• Colonel, you said to look for anything uncharacteristic of the indigenous technology, right? [Major Warren]
  I would never say anything like that, Major. [O'Neill]
• She's kind of hard to pin down in a conversation, her attention wanders, it's like she has the mind of a child. [Daniel]
  ...What? [O'Neill]
• This is boring. [Reese]
  I'm starting to identify with this girl more and more. [O'Neill]
• Robot denial? [O'Neill]
• I don't think she meant to hurt me. I just don't think she liked what I was saying. [Daniel]
  I don't like most of what you say. I try to resist the urge to shove you through a wall. [O'Neill]
• Then, then, then… I don't know. I'm just making this up as I go. [Daniel]
• You stupid son of a bitch. [Daniel]
  Hey, you're welcome. [O'Neill]

FOR THE RECORD

• Martin Wood cameo: airman behind O'Neill during the Replicator battle
• Injuries:
  • Daniel: minor head injury when thrown against the wall