Replicator (Stargate)

In the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, the Replicators are a race of self-replicating machines.

Composition

The vast majority of the Replicators are composed of modular blocks which are created using nanotechnology. They have very high interconnectivity, and are able to communicate via subspace to other replicators who may be light years away. Keron pathways control the molecular cohesion of all Replicators. They are very versatile and can self-assemble into various larger forms, the most common being the small spider variation illustrated here; much larger forms have been observed, including whole spacecraft on a scale comparable to Goa'uld Ha'tak.

Behavior

Replicators exhibit the ability and desire to rapidly absorb any superior technologies they encounter. They incorporate new alien technology into their currently existing store of knowledge, and constantly improve their combat and scientific abilities as they do so.

Replicators are driven solely by their desire to create more of themselves, and their Inter-Galactic storm of conquest is based solely upon this desire. Replicators can form raw materials into new blocks, although the quality of the replicated blocks is based in part on what raw materials are available. They are generally driven to assimilate new technology, often passing up familiar or less advanced technology in order to acquire more advanced technology.

History

The Replicators were originally created by a gynoid (female android) named Reese, who had been constructed by an advanced human culture in the Milky Way. Reese had the resemblance of a young woman but the mind of a spoiled child, who lacked the ability to comprehend the consequences of her actions and understand evil in any meaningful way. She was also incredibly inattentive, quick to have temper tantrums, and difficult to reason with. She displayed severe mood swings that, coupled with her formidable physical strength, were often disastrous.

Reese's retelling of the following story is the only known account of the following events so therefore may have been self-serving and/or inaccurate.

She created the first Replicators as toys under her direct control. When the citizens of her world became aware of the capabilities of the Replicators, they were alarmed and claimed she was "built wrong." Out of fear of being destroyed, she instructed her toys to carry out the primary missions of self-preservation (of herself and them) and replication. However, the Replicators soon became too numerous to completely control and escaped her dominance, and they began to destroy her world, presumably by converting every useable substance into Replicator blocks. Reese escaped the catastrophe by "going to sleep." It is believed that her "father" put her to sleep due to a fault in her emotional and/or developmental state by the demands of his society.

The Replicators soon discovered a way to leave this galaxy, where they encountered various other civilizations, most notably the Asgard. They mostly limited themselves to the Asgard home galaxy with only one known attempt to return to the Milky Way (Nemesis) until the creation of the humanform replicators drove them to attack the Milky Way.

Encounter with the SGC

Much later, after they had spread amongst the stars and become a potential threat to the galaxy, Reese was recovered by the SGC. She was retrieved from her barren homeworld in the episode "Menace" and reactivated. After a near-repeat of what happened to her planet at the SGC, she was killed. Her body ultimately yielded the key to capturing the Replicators, as one key command first installed by Reese was still present in all replicators that followed: "Come Forth."

Human-Form Replicators

The Asgard were able to cull and trap the original Replicators in a time dilation field where time would flow 10⁴ times slower than outside the bubble, allowing the Asgard a considerable amount of time to focus on the Replicator threat. However, when the Replicators arrived and found Reese's body, they hailed her as their creator and began to construct "cellular" blocks to construct a Human-like replicator in her image, whom they named First. Though the standard replicators, constructed of the common, larger blocks, would not have been able to break through the protective case protecting the time dilation device, the new "cells" of the Human-like replicator First (Similar in size to biological cells) could easily penetrate the minuscule cracks in the case and reverse the time dilation field so that time would flow 10² times faster than normal.

As several years passed inside the bubble, the Replicators began to evolve the new human-form Replicators using and created several more. In addition, they eliminated any topography and signs of civilization that once existed on the former Asgard world, save for the time-dilation device, and completely covered its surface in Replicator blocks. The discovery of Reese's body brought about the realization of their true purpose, the replacement of all biological life in the Universe with their own superior form of life. Outside the bubble, the Asgard were only aware that their plan had failed. Desperate, the Asgard requested the aid of SG-1. The Replicators would surely defeat any Asgard attempt to enter the bubble and repair the time-dilation device, whereas the technologically primitive humans would not be seen as a threat by the Replicators.

Fifth

By the time SG-1 had arrived to assist, four other human-form Replicators had been created in addition to First. They learned that the initial flaw with Reese, her lack of humanity, was later corrected in the creation of Fifth. His humanity, however, was seen as a flaw by the others (named First, Second, etc.), and removed from the subsequent versions, namely Sixth, created during SG-1's stay.

Fifth's "flaw" was used by SG-1 to trap the Replicators on the planet with the time dilation device. Appealing to his compassion and emotion, namely his attraction to Samantha Carter, they convinced him to repair the time-dilation device and leave the planet with them aboard the Prometheus. Unfortunately for Fifth, Jack O'Neill had no intention of releasing a Human Form Replicator into the Universe at large, and instructed Carter to rig the machine to trap Fifth as well. However, his humanity also made him much more dangerous than any other Replicator in existence -- as he points out to Samantha Carter in the episode "New Order". While the other self-aware Replicators were consumed with self-replication, they had no real concept of cruelty or torture (Or betrayal) because of their lack of humanity, something he knows all too well. The other human-form Replicators were destroyed in New Order, leaving Fifth in control of all Replicators.

RepliCarter

See the main article on Replicator Carter Fifth intended for RepliCarter to govern the Replicator race with him, and be his consort (of sorts; human-form-Replicators can copulate). Due to his infatuation with Samantha, he made her exactly in her image, down to the very last memory and character-facet. This in part led to her despising what he was trying to do as much as the original Samantha Carter would have.

The differences between Samantha Carter and RepliCarter have become quite pronounced due to Fifth's training of the later, namely that RepliCarter is a megalomanic, ruthless, dominating conqueror. She wishes to control the entire galaxy, and claims that this desire is also within the original Samantha Carter, just that she never had the bravery, or means, to act upon it. When Samantha denies this, RepliCarter replies that "all humans desire power." RepliCarter also is connected to the Replicator datastream.

At the beginning of Season 8 (the episode "New Order (Part 1)"), Jack O'Neill engineered a weapon that is able to disintegrate any Replicator in its blast-radius (the 'Replicator Disruptor'). This weapon would become the defining piece of technology in the fight of the SGC against the Replicators.

RepliCarter contacts the SGCRepliCarter fools Fifth into believing that she is loyal to him, and maybe even shares his love, though the specifics are never defined. In the episode "Gemini" they execute a plan to discover how to immunise their race from the Replicator Disruptor. This involves sending RepliCarter to the SGC with a false story that will make the humans help her. She says that she has betrayed and fled Fifth, and that she wants to be destroyed by their Disruptor as she hates her existence. SG-1 take her to the Alpha Site to question her. She informs them (untruthfully) that Fifth has immunised every single Replicator to the Disruptor, all except her due to his spite. However, she tells them she will help them realign the Disruptor to work around Fifth's immunisation.

They begin work on the Disruptor, but what RepliCarter is actually doing is studying the Disruptor so she can find out how to immunise her race from it. She relays reports of her progress back to Fifth, keeping in communication with him via an undetectable datastream that exists between all Replicators called The Link. Unbeknown to the SGC and SG-1, Fifth is tracking her position and is bringing a powerful Replicator ship in attack towards them.

RepliCarter betrays Fifth by firing the Replicator Disruptor at his ship before she uploads the cipher that will immunise it. Both he and his ship are destroyed. RepliCarter then immunises herself and her race, and leaves the Alpha Site via its Stargate. Teal'c tries to stop her and forces her to leave her arm behind. This decomposes into its deactivated cells, which Samantha Carter begins studying, feeling responsible for the victory of RepliCarter due to trusting her in the first place.

RepliCarter subsumes Fifth's position and becomes the leader of the entire Replicator race, and begins on an aggressive attack against the major ruling power in the galaxy, the Goa'uld System Lords. This continues in the background throughout the Season.

Downfall

In the episodes "Reckoning (Parts 1 & 2)", SG-1 and the Tok'ra begin to seriously consider the threat that RepliCarter poses to the galaxy. In the meantime, the Jaffa Rebellion gets underway, and Teal'c and Bra'tac, along with many Free Jaffa, take over the Temple at Dakara, an act that they believe will make all Jaffa come to their cause.

They discover that the Temple at Dakara was not of Goa'uld origin, but of Ancient origin, and is in fact the home of the Dakara Superweapon. This weapon has the ability to decompose all matter in its blast radius into its separate atoms, i.e. it can destroy all galactic life. It is believed that this weapon's power was actually once used to create life in the Milky Way.

Samantha Carter goes to study the weapon, hoping to be able to realign it to make it destroy only Replicators. She realises that the Replicators can immunise themselves to the Disruptor after they have seen it in action, and so a single blast that destroys every Replicator at once will be the only way to eliminate the threat. She can do this only if the blast-radius of the Weapon is extended by using the Dakara Stargate to create an outgoing wormhole to every other galactic Gate, but she will need outside help for this. Jack O'Neill stays at the SGC, Teal'c guards the Temple with the Free Jaffa, and Daniel Jackson is captured by RepliCarter.

On-board RepliCarter's ship, Daniel's mind is probed by RepliCarter for the Ancient knowledge it contains, subconsciously left over after his de-Ascension. This knowledge is the only threat to RepliCarter's rule. Daniel sees through her disguise as Oma Desala, but not before she discovers the location of the Dakara Superweapon, and heads there immediately, whilst continuing to absorb Daniel's vast knowledge.

The System Lord Ba'al, the dominant ruler of the Goa'uld, under Anubis then turned his fleet on Dakara, to drive out the Rebel Jaffa. However, Teal'c speaks to him and they negotiate that he will allow Samantha Carter time to study the Superweapon, as the Replicators are a common threat and the alternative is that Anubis will use the Superweapon to wipe out all life in the galaxy bar his own.

The Replicators arrive at Dakara and begin to attack. In the meantime, Daniel, whilst allowing RepliCarter to enter his mind, has fooled her and been working his way into her mind. He is now able to see that RepliCarter, against her own word, has attacked the SGC. Time is running out for Sam, and for one moment Daniel is able to freeze every single Replicator in the galaxy. This gives Jack enough time to survive, and Sam enough time to finish her realignment of the weapon. Ba'al helps Sam to reprogram the Dakara Stargate to dial every single Gate in the galaxy simultaneously, and the Superweapon is fired, but not before RepliCarter kills Daniel. After that, she is destroyed along with all of her race within the milky way galaxy.

Episodes

Technology

The Replicators are presented as being the most technologically advanced species in the Stargate universe, with the exception of the Alterans and Ori. They not only swiftly assimilate foreign technology but also enhance it; usually far beyond the understanding of its previous users. For example, Replicators modify a Goa'uld ha'tak to travel at 800 times its maximum speed, and utilize an Asgard time-dilation device to accelerate time (which may or may not be a regular function of the device; season 5, "Enemies") and escape the powerful pull of a black hole (season 8, New Order).

Replicators are impervious to all known handheld energy weapons. Though kinetic energy based weapons can shatter them, the Replicators have demonstrated a limited ability to reassemble from the scattered blocks and continue with their objectives. However, this ability was lost as the show progressed. The human-form Replicators furthered the Replicator invulnerability as their advanced make-up rendered them totally indestructible to bullets as well as energy based attacks.

To defend themselves at close quarters, a Replicator is capable of spraying huge amounts of an assumed acidic liquid, possibly containing destructive nanites. This liquid is capable of penetrating all metals, even the nigh-on invincible armour worn by the Kull Warriors. The human-form Replicators instead prefer to use either their massive strength, or restructure their hand into a sword with which to impale their foes; this is how both the System Lord Yu and Daniel Jackson were killed by RepliCarter.

It is speculated that the Replicators acquired their knowledge from many other races, and by pooling it together, they were able to surpass all other living species. It is also possible that they have encountered other races, prior to encountering the Asgard, whose technology was assimilated as well by the Replicators. This would explain how the Replicators escaped from their own galaxy and into that of the Asgard without encountering any other races within the Milky Way galaxy. Their prime source of knowledge would most likely be the Asgard, who are extremely powerful in their own right.

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