Very good episode. Well written and acted. I found my self riveted and not bored as I have most of S2. S2 on the back half seems to be more exciting.

We thought all the ancients had either died and escaped back through the gate to earth. Some survived and continued to live. Makes you wonder if there are more out there in Pegasus. Trapped by the wraith in isolated pockets. Also. I had thought that the ancients only ascended after their return through the gate but I guess some did here also. Not sure if that would be before or after 10,000 years.

I liked that Sheppard stayed for a long time in the cave. He trusted them that much to come and save him. Sheppard was brave when it came to the monster. Near the end for all those Teyla haters she showed no fear and with nothing but a small knife she ran and attacked the monster. She is kick ass and fearless. Got to love that.

I found it a bit disconcerting to see the guy from SG1. I know many of the actors were re-used and I have no trouble with it usually but geeeze I sure did this time. The guy from S3 "Demons". The one who wants to save the girl from the tampaning ceremony.

The episode wasen't bad had the feeling of sg1 100 days ... It just kinda bothers my mind to think how many generations had been inside that bubble all this time .. since there time is so much faster than ours

What did Teyla say the ratio was? 1:250? The ancients have been gone 10,000 years our time. That means these ancients have been here for 2 million 500 thousand years? That is a lot of generations. Damn. It is mind boggling to think.

I think thats is why they may have had the powers to do things such as heal, see things or move objects.

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This post has been edited by Antaeogo: Nov 29th 2005, 3:42 PM

They never said the where ancients :) they just where followers of then and there ancesters enter the portal. Hell that chick even said her grandmother essended, which would mean that some of them allready did that way earlier. But very nice episode.

It is a shame the writers keep changing what the ancients did and all. Cause in this episode they said the ancients created this place for ancients and other to safely assent without the fear of getting attacked by the wrath. This would mean the ancients where far into assention or else why build it. Then comes the question why they went back to earth in the first place, I mean if you know how to assent then why not do so? Also in season 1 Episode 3 - Hide and Seek you get that the ancients where researching assention but left to earth or they kept that alien for fun there ;) and on stargate sg1 they claim you have to have around 80% of your brain used to willing assent (season 9 Episode 9 - Prototype).

So the only way they can make the story right for ancients would be that they where still reseaching it when they went back to earth. There they figured out how to actualy do it, essended (or at least some) then went back to that planet and made the protection barrier from this episode. But that doesnt make sence either since that would mean none essended ancients also went back to that planet.

This post has been edited by Muskusrat: Nov 30th 2005, 4:45 AM

I thought that. I just couldn't remember what the episode was called. Wanted to say "for ever and a day", but it's the one where O'Neil gets stuck on that planet after the Stargate gets covered over after the meterorites hit the ground.

But there are bound to be similarities between the two. It's not just SG and SGA. Take The Simpons, Family Guy and American Dad, all three have had similar story lines at some point.

But back to the episode, I thought it was really good, was well executed for what on paper would sound like a boring story.

Was a bit baffled by the Beast thing, when they were like "We created it" I was like huh? ok....

And since when did Weir (spelling sorry) become fluent in Ancient?

She?s been studying ancient for some time and she had that casher?s-register-laser?reader-thingy (It probably could read it like a barcode and translate it)?
malp on a stick?hihi

Another plot hole that I thought of yesterday was if the one woman could see images in the future and she knew even as a child that Sheppard would come, um, how come she did not see them encircling the beast and telling it they were no longer afraid?

And she said that she saw Sheppard defeating the Beast not them. I guess her powers were not that great.

Also I didn't get how McKay was able to pin point the location of the generator.

I think they got 1/2 second of data on the tether before the temporal forces destroyed it. Enough to get an energy reading.

This post has been edited by Auntie Em!: Nov 30th 2005, 7:48 PM

Muskrat: it's ascended btw.

as for the plot holes, here does my attempt at filling them in with tidbits of story that may/may not be true.

1/ Woman being able to see the future: often in sci-fi shows these people can see a limited image of the future, with only specific life changing events appearing to them. In this case, simply for sheppard to show up was enough to cause the beast to be destroyed (eventually) and that she saw him being the key to defeating the beast. So while he did not physically destroy it, he gave the others confidence to face their fears and confront it.

2/ when the ancients built the sanctuary thing: they could have built it when researching ascention, knowing they would need protection from the wraith at some point. they could have used it when atlantis was under seige to have ancients continue to research ascention, knowing that as far as they knew the only answer was time.

3/ as for the 80% brain capacity: maybe all that praying was what increased their brain usage thingy. or something. we know they have those special powers, therefore they could have been using 80% of their brain. as we know from sg-1, the higher percentage of your brain you are using, the more powers you may get.



as far as the episode was concerned, it was great. yes, had the look and feel to 100 days, however at the same time it shed a little more light on the importance the ancients put on ascention.

Ah, excellent episode. Loved it.

*cough* at McKay - "what is ti with you and ascended women?!" I completely agree.... and was about to make the same comment. Carson when he realised he'd be going through the barrier... McKay's "Conan and Xena" comment - so, so true!

I shall add another plot-hole. And yes, it might not be a compelte plothole, because of the Daedalus and all.... but the biological\evolutionary component of ascension shouldn't be known to the Atlantis team! It was ascertained through Origin and Prototype! Ah, well...

Hmpf, and the ascended are no longer glowing octupi, just... glowing.

All in all there isn't much to say, t'was just enjoyable. ;) I actually thought that monster had something to do with Sheppard entering the barrier\ other things coming through etc. the whole "we have to face our fear" thingie was cheesy, but... oh well ;)

So far backhalf season 2 is promising. One can only hope...

The episode was O.K but I could not get passed all the Star Trek storylines. I know there is a separate thread for this kind of thing but I am going to post them here any way. In an episode of STNG Piccard gets stuck on that planet with that alien Captain that no one can understand and the crew cant get him off, and they have to fight a beast that is flashing in and out like some kind of energy creature. Sound familiar? Then there was an episode of STV where Parris and Tuvok get stuck on a planet with Tank Girl where time is moving faster. Familiar again? I have just decided I watch way too much TV!

Also I loved McKay in this Ep, how he admitted the good idea was Zelenkas and not his own and also how he admitted that the whole thing was his fault not Sheps. I love McKay.. I am glad they can make him more accountable while not making him humble, which would not suite the character at all. I only complain that we did not see any Zelenka.

This post has been edited by Circe: Dec 7th 2005, 1:11 PM

I really liked the episode. It's good to have these back-to-the-basics episodes that don't have much more than the usual: team goes to another planet, gets into trouble, gets out of trouble. The only problem was that it was a bit predicatable. I saw what the monster was about well before it was shown.


Thank you! I knew I have seen the face but couldn't remember where!


My thoughts exactly! But since Sheppard talks and acts like O'Neill so often I guess it makes sense that he had his "100 days" Kinda good motive for team-bonding plot.


Oh yeah, McKay was at his best as usual! Conan and Xena - you just can't say better! The MALP-on-a-stick gag was great as well!

i knew before watching this episode that it had the guy from SG1 in it and i knew what he looked like but it still took me a couple of mins to actually realise that it was him when he appeared onscreen.

'malp on a stick' rotflmao! the way MacKay said it after sheppard had made me laugh so hard i choked. becketts reaction when he knew that he had to go in. shaking like a leaf.lol

i knew from the start that the villagers would all assend once the beast was dead though the effects didn't seem that good in this episode.

can anyone else see sheppard assending if JF left the show?

Just remembered one thing that really bugged me: they work with Ancient technology and live in a galaxy that is filled with stuff they left but nobody on the Atlantis flagship team can properly read in Ancient! That makes no sense!

Well two things:

1) they have a scanner they can carry when needed. You scan in a section of the writing and it translates it.

2) Weir also has learned how to read it but is no where near the skill of Daniel.

Nobody beats Danny!

Thing is, this episode showed that every team should have at least one person who can read Ancient well. If one of them could've read what was said by the passage the problem wouldn't have occured at all!

I was worried that "Epiphany" was going to be like that SG-1 episode.. "Hundred Days" (or something like that) but I was wrong.

Beautifully layed out, well written again.

The only thing I was kinda annoyed was the ascension thing, couldn't we have had a better ascension thing? With the swirling arms and stuff instead of you know, a dulled down version of the asgard transport beam?

8/10!

The special effects in this episode were rubbish. Did anyone else notice that when they Ascended they didn't leave their clothes behind like every other person who as Ascended?

When Daniel ascended in 'Meridian' he never left any clothing behing. He was wrapped in bandages but they disappeared also when he ascended.

Source it sounds like your thinking of the "Left Behind" series. They do not leave the cloths behind in SG or SGA.