One Small Scene: “Are we still so far from real, to you?”

At the end of Double Jeopardy, following a team of human beings and their android counterparts before the rounded out finale of the typical SG-1 setup, the last of a four-person group dying to free the planet of the week hits a little harder with the critical question.

The intentional slightly toneless phrasing from Richard Dean Anderson indicates a machine, but the words themselves, as well as the milky substitute for blood punctuate the theme. Double Jeopardy’s science fiction idea comes down to this line at the end of the episode.

The orchestral score starts to bite with some of the last dialogue of the last scene:

“Darian. I’m running out of energy. I will shut down soon.”

The words belie the emotion.

It’s obvious the character is dying.

Lying on the floor, asking about his companions, the shared discussion of their two teams makes this potentially messy plot really quite clear. Two teams. Eight people, pairs of each other. The machines all are dead or dying. But the machine Oneil died taking weapons fire to liberate an enslaved population the same way the flesh and plot character would. He was even more resilient, as a clearly tough android.

But now the robot is prone, bleeding in a way that can get past the TV watershed, yet is implicitly conveyed even for a young audience.

“Carter and Teal’c?”

“Yours don’t look so good. The real ones, they’re okay?”

“Are we still so far from real to you”

“No. I guess not.”

It is not the same character speaking to another. But the question, the changing of consciousness is one SG1 does repeatedly and most impressively when exploring the nature of possession (the Goa’uld), swapping bodies in many episodes, and in this case replication of what one could consider the soul.

What makes SG-1, as we see with the robotic Teal’c slaying Cronus to avenge ‘our’ father shows that a machine with the same memories and drives as the original cannot easily be dismissed as ‘unreal’. The robotic Daniel at the beginning of the episode accepts his death with equanimity that suits his altruistic nature. While they are essentially a younger, less experienced and non-human team the core of their identities and purpose is intact. To explore, to liberate as many from slavery as possible. And if necessary, to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others.

This is a clever thing for a show of its era, good Canadian sci-fi TV without the most impressive budget compared to today. It makes a cost effective and potent point simply by rely upon what we see; the actors ‘playing different roles with identical bodies. For a show very interested in dismantling the authority of false religion, and the capacity of human spirituality as dwelling within the soul, compassion being something of a martial virtue and sign of humanity’s enlightenment one day, it’s more typical of the show and worth revisiting as science fiction to see the idea of robotic duplication being a tale of rescue and sacrifice, rather than a killer robot or dedicating most of the story to explain it’s premise.

It's not about the robotic, or being copied that the episode wants you to think and feel about. But that are there two of you, is there a living being beside you if they sacrificed their lives for what they believed is right? Isn’t heroism, compassion and our connection to others which make us real?

I must admit, this scene stayed with me as it’s very much ‘Grandparent science fiction’. I saw this with my now deceased grandad. Where flashy CG fails, emotion resonates for many years.

What do we consider real?

Reference:

Stargate: SG-1. Double Jeopardy, Season 4 Episode 21. Director: Michael Shanks, Writer: Robert C. Cooper. 2000.