SG-1 comes back from a desolated, technologically advanced planet to find out that they're not actually SG-1. Much surprise is had by all.
Comtraya!
The full recap is we begin with the team investigating said planet, only to set something off and get shocked into unconsciousness. They wake up missing their gear and in new uniforms, when they run into a strange and vaguely creepy guy called Harlan whose catchphrase is "Comtraya!" uttered with irritating regularity. The team grills him for information, but all he says is that they're better, so they leave through the Stargate.
Back on Earth, a medical exam has shown them to be without a heartbeat and a subsequent blood test takes a turn for the weird when the fluid is white, not red. Those who have paid attention to the title will realize our protagonists are actually robots at this point, but those who haven't shouldn't worry; O'Neill slices his arm open and reveals a decidedly robotic arm underneath his skin. Security is called and the robot "impostors" are detained. Until they collapse. This manages to convince the higher ups to toss SG-1 back through so they can grill Harlan some more and find out what exactly happened.
They do just that, with O'Neill taking things hardest and nearly breaking Harlan's neck. they group find out their earlier collapse is due to a power supply on the alien world that they have to be near to so as to keep working, forcing their current bodies to remain on that world. They then ask about reversing the consciousness transfer so they get their old bodies back, only to be told it's impossible. So they're stuck. A few conversations without Harlan later and O'Neill is still angry, Teal'c can still feel his larval Goa'uld despite not actually having it, and Daniel is ecstatic about the whole thing. O'Neill leaves to grill Harlan again, and Teal'c leaves without a word so Daniel and Carter try to follow. They lose Teal'c, but catch up to O'Neill, at which point we cut to Teal'c shaking uncontrollably. This can't end well.
Harlan tells O'Neill, Daniel and Carter that he needs their help in maintaining the structure they're in, for no other reason that assuring Harlan's survival. Then an alert sounds and Harlan sends them off to open some rusty vent covers. Daniel and Carter manage theirs easily, but O'Neill is interrupted in sorting his when an apparently uncontrollable Teal'c attacks. A chance throw sorts the original vent problem, and the fight gets stopped when Harlan disintegrates Teal'c. The remainder of SG-1 are horrified and O'Neill now has a nasty looking patch of skin burned away on his face, but Harlan scurries off claiming to build a new Teal'c. Daniel and Carter follow and grill Harlan over being able to make a new robo-Teal'c without the original to take a consciousness from, ignoring his explanation for the "malfunction" (Goa'uld larva consciousness was interfering with Teal'c's, apparently).
At this point, the truth comes out: Harlan has, in fact, been keeping the originals in captivity to copy their consciousnesses, rather than a singular transfer. Robo-O'Neill is not happy, but robo-Carter and robo-Daniel seem fine with it. The originals are released, much to their confusion, and Teal'c doesn't seem to want an explanation for why his robot double got disintegrated.
A small bout of Snark-to-Snark Combat occurs between the O'Neills onscreen, while the Carters and the Daniels discuss things excitedly and Teal'c feels left out off-screen. Then the originals return through the Stargate as all the robots (including a new robo-Teal'c) say goodbye, with robo-O'Neill reminded to bury his end, and the credits roll.
"Tin Man" provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alien Blood: Frasier tries to take a blood sample from O'Neill and gets a milky white substance instead, indicating that he is most definitely Not Himself.
- Blessed with Suck: The robot doubles have vastly superior strength and intellect in addition to immortality, but O'Neill, at least, feels that this does not compensate for the fact that they're still robots and will never be able to return home.
- Brain Uploading: Subverted. The team initially assumes that their conscious minds have simply been transferred to robotic bodies, but it turns out that they're actually clones.
- Facial Horror: When Robot!Teal'c's symbiote's transferred consciousness takes over his body, it attacks Robot!O'Neill and holds his face in front of a steam pipe. The real O'Neill does a Sympathetic Wince at the result.
- Fantastic Racism: Subverted; Harlan keeps referring to Teal'c as "different" and seems rather dismissive of him compared to the other three, but he doesn't actually have anything against the Jaffa. He simply failed to take into account the presence of the symbiote as a separate entity, causing the initial Teal'c robot to malfunction when he inadvertently transfers both consciousnesses into the same body. He later rectifies this mistake and creates a second, functional copy of Teal'c.
- Heroic BSoD: Robot!O'Neill has one on discovering that he actually a clone and can never return to earth.
- Large Ham: Harlan.
- Poor Communication Kills: The episode would have been very short if Harlan had explained the situation to the copies in the first place. In his defense, he was (justifiably) concerned about the psychological effects of the mind transfer. And busy trying to keep the facility from falling apart. And probably more than a little loopy from all the time he's spent by himself.
- Really 700 Years Old: Harlan is "11,000 going on infinity."
- Ridiculously Human Robot: The robot doubles of the team, plus Harlan.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: O'Neill gets into a round of this with himself.
- Sole Survivor: Harlan is the last surviving being on the planet.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Happens twice: first of all the with the initial reveal that the team has been replaced by robots, and then later when they discover that their original assumption that their conscious minds had been transferred was wrong and they're actually clones.
- Trust Password: Robot!O'Neill tries this on Hammond by saying that his wife died of cancer four years earlier and his granddaughters' names are Tessa and Kayla. It doesn't work.
- Tuckerization: General Hammond's granddaughters Tessa and Kayla are named after the co-creator Brad Wright's daughters.
- Unexplained Recovery: At the end of the previous episode, Jack had to be airlifted out of Antarctica, suffering from a broken leg, cracked ribs and internal bleeding. Here he is back to normal fighting shape with no explanation given. Though there are often implied gaps between episodes to allow for other unseen adventures, Jack should have taken months to heal enough to return to active duty, which is inconsistent with later established timelines.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Harlan insists that he has given them a "gift", but the robot team is not exactly ecstatic to find that they're effectively immortal. As O'Neill puts it, "people are not supposed to live forever." Even Daniel, who has by far the easiest time adjusting, is more than a little overwhelmed at the prospect of potentially living for 11,000 years. Also why Harlan was the last robot on the planet before SG-1 showed up: the others who copied their minds into robot bodies eventually grew terminally bored.
