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Really, I just did NOT see that coming. The ending to that episode just had me so choked up, I can only think of precious few other scenes in fiction that get me going this way. And then, WHAMMO. WOW. Suddenly a year later, HIS CLONE COMES BACK. When the hell did Michael get the chance to nab his DNA? Eh, who cares. CARSON'S BACK!!! Well, close enough. God, that was so beautiful, his story arc, and how Rodney reacted to the loss... I remember HATING him back in SG-1, to being on his fence as he just stands on the pier at sunset, staring out at the sea, clearly too wracked with all that's taking place inside, as it manifests into Carson's grief hallucination.

"You were the closest thing to a best friend I ever had. I'm really... really sorry... I should have just -"

"Hey. This isn't your fault."

"You're just tellin' me what I wanna hear."

"Well, that's what best friends do sometimes. And in this case, it also happens to be true. Take care of yourself, Rodney."

"Goodbye, Carson."

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that he'd probably hate it. And by "probably" I mean at best he'd hate it, at worst he'd rant about it for a good 10 minutes.
For starters, the entire non-linear story feels odd, given that it doesn't tie much to Beckett's story or demise, if anything it tells more about the background characters. It feels more like a weird homage to Pulp Fiction than a proper story.
Second of all, the "explosive tumor machine" (great name there -__-) is just there in a drawing, because I guess they didn't have the money to make an actual prop. Also, it was activated by accident, offscreen, by characters we haven't seen before, so if blink, you'll miss that detail. Great writing...
Third, Beckett's death was unbelievably stupid. Sure, he decides to break all protocol to save the man's life, and locks the floor until he finished the surgery. But... after he placed the dangerously unstable bomb into the box, why is Sheppard of all people telling him to "SIT TIGHT" and wait for the EOD expert to arrive? Excuse me sir, do you not know the protocol involving handling unexploded ordinance, especially the very unstable ones? YOU IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE THE AREA! Which is what Beckett told his crew before he decided to operate the guy! Did the writers kind of forgot about that? And once Beckett removed the bomb, he and his assistant should have rolled the patient out of there with the stretcher, regardless if he can't be moved or not, because, you know, a bomb is about to explode in your face at any time, and then let the bomb disposal guy come and take away the bomb safely. And him take away the bomb to meed with the EOD expert halfway through was extremely stupid, since you DO.NOT.PLAY.HERO.WITH.UNSTABLE.UNEXPLODED.ORDINANCE. I mean really, why was Carson supposed to sit there with an unstable bomb near him, was the bomb scared of being left alone? Is that why it exploded? And then when Carson finally delivers the bomb, the well trained bomb technician for some reason does a 270 degree spin and then explodes. I guess the bomb got dizzy and decided it had enough of the stupid writing.
And then he's back via cloning. While the explanation for how he got back is very contrived (the Wraith can now also clone a person's mind?), at least his role in Michael's story made much better sense than in this heap of shit episode.

I loved it. I thought it gave him pathos, that once he died, this side twist that the clone is comes in. The funny part is how I hear fans were standing outside the studio in solidarity to bring Carson back somehow. That's inspiring. You don't see much of that these days. Fans seem ignored. Not in this case. There's the whole issue around how much the clone is Carson, dependent on his memory. Do our memories make us who we are? Or is it something more? What irks me more is how they seemed to gloss over the demolitions personnel killed a fraction of a second before he was. Past that, I think this is a very effective way to do a death scene. Carson's death was handled spectacularly. As to Dr. Weir, well... I felt jerked around. Like, first they tell us that Oberoth had her killed, okay. Then there's these Replicator clones. They're killed. But wait! Turns out Weir is with a splinter group of Niam's faction that wants to learn to Ascend. Except... it's not really Dr. Weir, they say, and... what? It's just so inconsistent, it FEELS like some kinda creative battle between the scenes, and it's not like Weir was ever written well as a leader anyway. Great character, I love her a lot, and Torri Higginson's very doe, but as a leader? No way. Carson's story arc feels more organic. TO THIS DAY, outside the Stargate Legacy EU series that let's be honest, will go the Star Wars EU way and be decanonized whenever the next TV show comes along, I don't know if that RepliWeir was the REAL Weir or not. That's frustrating. That's a bad thing to be left with on the series ending.

It's his return that I have feelings about, and I hate it. It's the worst kind of writing that you'd find in bad soap operas: there are no consequences, nothing is real, and any character can be brought back at any time.

I think I'd have preferred more "am I the real Carson or not" type discussions, but I also don't need them, you know? I don't think Carson really ponders things over that deep, and Ronon and Sheppard certainly don't. Rodney was too overjoyed really to do so.

Yukaphile wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:33 pm I think I'd have preferred more "am I the real Carson or not" type discussions, but I also don't need them, you know? I don't think Carson really ponders things over that deep, and Ronon and Sheppard certainly don't. Rodney was too overjoyed really to do so.

DS9 didn't bother asking about the replacement O'Brien either.

There you go. From "Visionary," right? But he did ask it at the end of the episode, at least.

To further expand, since Fraiser's death happened during a time no one was sure SG1 will be renewed for the next season, her sudden death which in the long term didn't have that much of an effect on the dynamic of the series, isn't that problematic. It also happened during a fight with the Goa'uld, aka the main series villain and it's not like the Jaffa care about rules of warfare, so they'd have no problem with killing the medic on the field while the medic is treating wounded combatants, which fits her death better in the grand scheme of things.

On the other hand, having one of the main secondary characters die because he had no clue how to handle essentially unexploded ordinance, all because no one in the Atlantis' military personnel arsed themselves to give him even the most basic instructions aka "do not touch the bomb (any further in this case)" and "evacuate the area around the bomb and everyone around it", all in an episode that is essentially a bottle episode with the only connection to the main series villain is that the tumor making machine was failure in the war against them, feels like the writers decided to film their 1st of April joke script because they realized they were short on one episode and desperately needed a script.

I don't see it that way. I mean, Dr. Weir has never been the most militaristic kinda person, and Sheppard has never been exactly "by the book." So while I understand that a few minutes more could have saved Carson, perhaps not, you know. I applaud the idea. I like it, given what happened with Carson's clone. IF it had just had his death, and that's it, well... it might have felt like The Last Jedi did to you all here or Disney fans. Luckily, I have Legends, so I don't have to worry about that. And snakes alive, they LISTENED to the fans to bring back Carson. Really, these days, that would not happen. Online hit pieces like from Salon or IGN or whatever would insist that it's "toxic" fandom for wanting your favorite characters back.