Season 3, Episode 20 - First Strike
Air date: 2007

Earth launches an attack against the Asuran home world when it is discovered that the Replicators are building a fleet of ships.

Episode Guide | Spoilers | Teaser

(This topic is for people who have seen the episode to discuss it. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this topic.)

Kinda a bleh EP for me. Didn't really prove to what I thought it would be. Elles is bleh, hes a borring character, borring ship. The first half was just bleh. The minute they fired the Beam weapon is the minute it got good. The star drive is fixed? I didn't know they fixed it, but still good. Wonderful ending. I wonder if Wier is going to die? It seems like there ending her character to. Also, how will they escape their doom in the middle of no where?

best ep of the season, nice continuation of the replicator story. and the city flying > just sweet.

**** rating from me right now, now im waiting the next season.

About weir, i dont think shes dead right now so i wasnt really worried - Also did those nukes have more power than Drones, or couldnt the Apollo fire them?

Oh yeah and Jewel Staite = rock

Excellent episode from Atlantis, i really enjoyed this one...one minute they are sinking the city the next they are flying it!

I have 1 nitpick and you probably think Im being silly, but surely the Apollo has like 10's of 302's so why didnt they just get more asteroids to block the beam and then they were definitely gonna get away, like if the beam penetrated one of them then the other could pick up the slack...seems silly mckay didnt think of that or anyone else for that matter but hey in the end its just a tv show!

8/10

Well we now know that the 304's are Daedalus class ships... And we know what the Mark IX gatebusters are supposed to do. Sweet special effects, though.

WOO, sweet... so thats why they discovered the drilling platform... ahh it all makes sense now.

And they are known as Lantians because the planet is named Lantia... That makes sense.

I liked the Fantastic Four joke... "I am not invisible...!" *insert stern look*

Lost in space.... well that kinda sucks. I guess the Odyssey won't be needing that ZPM anymore...

Great episode, even an engaging storyline. I wonder what will happen to our heroes next??

I thought it was an ok episode. A little different but Ok. I just hope Michael Beach is returning after this episode. I really don't like the actor. I don't hate him that wit be psychopathic, because I don't even know the man, I just don't like him as an actor. But other than that an Ok season finale and can't wait for season 4 to come. One of the parts I did like about the episode was Sheppard comparing him and his team to the fantatic four, and Teyla saying she is not the invisible woman, and them asking Sheppard why he gets to be Mr. Fantastic. As for as Weir I guess we know alittle about why she is being reduce to recurrin character, after what happened in this episode.

Hmm a nitpick about the end of this episode, they said they are stranded and dont know where they are. Well they have sensors dont they, cant they look and see where in space they are or what planets are nearby. Also they really shouldnt be cutoff from anyone, they have subspace transmitters that they have used in the past they should be able to ring up the apollo, and have them start looking for them as well with apollo's sensors.


Other then that, I really enjoyed this episode, I was wondering when they were going to take to space. I liked the throwing a rock into the beam idea. the new doc, damn she it hot, was she from serenity/firefly too?

I wonder if they will be taking back a zpm from earth or not.

I was wondering... why wasn't Apollo following them?

Yay! Excellent, fantastic episode! Almost worth the crapfest of the two previous episodes.

Best line - Teyla's "I'm not invisible". That entire exchange was brilliant, especially teh "why do you get to be Mr Fantastic?" bit, but really. "I'm not invisible". Nope, she isn't, and let's hopecome season 4 the writers for the show would remember this, as well.
Chuck has a name! And it's.... Chuck. First Dr Lee gets named "Bill" after the actor and now Chuck... LoL.
Speaking of Teyla, I loved her conversation with Weir about Elles coming in, the military and everyting. It's really ncie to see they did bother to creat ecome connection between Weir and Teyla in the last couple of episodes.
Not to mention Elizabeth. This was completely adn utterly her episode. Loved every second of her. All the frstration over the IOA and the military, her dealign with Elles and the Replicators... she was fantastic. All the more annoying when I know she's reduced to recurring next season. And TBH, witht he way they ended it for her and the claims Carson would be reduced to recurring when, in fact, they killed him off.... I really, really don't like the implications of this. If they kill Weir... Grrr. I've so compeltely and utterly grown to love Weir this season, and First Strike is a great example of why.
Loved the banter between Rodney and Zelenka... as always. But it even came more to show how much Rodney gerw this season. It wasn't the seaosn 1 or 2 Rodney, his entire behaviour this episode, so much more mature - still snarkastic, but mature snarkastic. Major kudos both for David Hewlett and Martin Gero who brought him this far, through Grace Under PRessure, McKay and Mrs Miller, Sunday and now this (well, adn some credit is definitely due to Damian Kindler with Trinity and Tao of Rodney) . I also think I officially like Ronon now and even Sheppard wasn;t as intolerable as he usually is. Elles seems like a good character too - in one way they kept the dynamics of Coldwall, military vs. civilian operation, and on the other it did feel less dismissive and... I dunno, nicer. And hey, a black actor in Stargate who isn't a Jaffa!... ;) Keller was nice too - well I love Jewel Staite, she's so sweet, so obviously it would translate to the hcaracter... but they did the right thing by automatically addressing the Carson issue, too, in the first moments of the episode. Nice to hear him mentioned in an episode, too, cough. Plus! She doesn't look that young, so that's okay.

SFX departent continues to amaze me, they really outdone themsevles, and I didn't think this was possible after what they've already done prior to this. Granted, teh episode could have concentrated less on SFX, but it still looks damn cool.

All in all, marvelous. Yup, I said at some earlier point that if they end up continuing on that level I'd run out of praise words, which I guess I did. So, why am I both annpyed at the long wait til seaosn 4 and dreading what it will bring?

This post has been edited by Pitry: Feb 6th 2007, 4:31 PM

I liked it good ep I do hope Weir doesn't die i don't think they will kill her I don't think they want to be that drastic. I thought the new guy acted like a typical military guy if you ask me. I really liked the scene where Weir and Teyla were talking I liked that I want to see their friendship more. I really resonated with what Weir said in that scene right on the money glad Teyla is an ally not rival. Sink the city fly the city that was cool. I don't agree what that guy said Sheppard should not be the leader Sheppard is good right where he is incharge of military on Atlantis and running missions.

The whole Weir thing might explain the following:

Yes, I know. Sigh.

I think that was one of the best epidodes of SGA. They flew the city! One small thing i noticed: the 302s pilots wore deadalus uniforms. Now they have 24h left to do something, Apollo saves the day? And btw when is the next ep airing?

New episodes should appear on Scifi in either June or July.

This episode friggin rocked. Just when you think Stargate has become predictable and formulaic they throw out the formula and create a new one.

I don't think Weir will survive. I think she'll decide to resign her position because of her injuries and because the military and international morons don't have any confidence in her. I predict that the military will replace her with a military commander. I bet the writers created Ellis to take over but, because SG-1 got cancelled, they'll use Carter instead. Also, I bet she gets promoted.

Then again, you can't really believe any of my predictions. I remember coming here and predicting that Anubis was an Goa'uld in an Asgard's body back in SG-1 season 6. Man was I wrong.

Good times. Good times.

This episode... felt like, it was setting up the next season... Anybody else get that feeling?

Great episode. I considered it a great demonstration of the potential the Asurans have as enemies. I hope that there can be pretty good, long and many stories in the next seasons with them along. Don't defeat them as the Ori seem to be, please, oh TPTB.

Finally, a military commander that seems to know more about what he's doing, and that is not considering himself a god upon men. I think the new colonel is well suited for the command of the Apollo and the Horizon platform really well suited against the Wraith in the future as well.

The weapon they are designing with the Asgard should also be a kick, but I beg the writers not to make a Sangrael out of it any time soon. Like I said, the Asurans are a great enemy. Technologically advanced, smart, non-arrogant, watchful and aggressive. At least, this is how I feel them at the moment.

Great job with the SFX when they used the nukes to attack the Asuran ships on their planet, although I have a feeling that they've just destroyed the appetizers.

Finally, the best part of the episode, finally seeing Atlantis fly. Although they didn't really need 3 ZPMs to pull it off, it was the best decision possible given the circumstances, and the whole dragging the asteroid idea sounds a lot like NASA's Asteroid Tower that they plan on building to divert asteroids in our near future. Yes, the Asuran satellite platform was used incredibly efficient as a weapon. I wonder how they managed to transform their gate into the primary gate of the planet though. Perhaps, they used a technique to make the gate jump to the nearest in the Stargate system from the base gate.

And yes, stranded in the middle of nowhere, with many people injured and limited power. That was a great cliffhanger. Can't wait for July now...

This post has been edited by KillerMarv: Feb 6th 2007, 6:12 PM

indeeed, but it was a nice ending and makes me want to watch the next season , not only because of jewel staite mind...

The flying was sweet, though I didn't entirely understand the coloring they gave the shield at times.

They wouldn't need to transform anything necessarily. If their gate was specifically programmed to dial the gate in orbit... they may have been using special crystals or a link between the 2 gates, or something, ya know?

Sweet.

Lizzie can't die. She can't. She is Atlantis' moral compass!! When the beam scraped through the shield, my heart sank - it was so tense, and they had just made it, but then it was taken away.

Teh uber tech!! It was very nice to see the city submerging, and the stardrive engaging...but I find the question of their power supply rather dubious. I can accept being able to sink the city with a single ZPM...but the freaking stardrive? Geothermal power is great and all...but it's not exactly derived from an artifical region of sub-spacetime. Their technobabble didn't cut it this time. The Apollo's strike on the Asuran homeworld was pretty sweet, too. Very Terminator 3.

I know it'd be unrealistic given that they're the same class, but I was really hoping the Apollo would look different from the Daedalus/Odyssey. Oh well.

Poor Teyla and Ronon. I can't help but feel the writers were making fun of how little they were featured, what with Ronon's line about not understanding science, and Teyla's invisible remark.

All in all, one of the better episodes of the season. Still, I doubt the concluding part will be up to much. Bring it on, though.

This post has been edited by Parmenides: Feb 6th 2007, 7:11 PM

Not quite what i was expecting but still an incredible ep, i liked it all, the special effects, the character's reactions to the mark 9 plan, the fantastic 4 scene, the oh just go make out scene,...it was all incredible. I liked the various plans because of the satelite, seeing the city sink, then rise, then fly, awesome. I even liked the ending, you know everyone'll be fine and the city'll survive somehow, but u worry about Weir.

Things i'm looking forward to/expecting next year:
1. Rodney-Zilenka banter about who screwed up the stardrive energy calcs, i'm thinking something like "Rodney, u forgot to carry the 7", "What, that's your 7"
2. Everyone gets off Atlantis until a zpm can be brought, or mckay determines their coordinates so that the SGC can just gate one too them (they do have 2 after all, and they only really need one)
3. Weir goes into a coma for a while (this way they don't have to kill her they just put her on hiatas) and wakes up maybe midseason, then spends the rest or the season doing rehab. I could also see this leading to some incredible scene where she negotiates something in a ton of pain, with all the strength we've come to see from Weir
4. Shepard becomes temorary commander of Atlantis (makes logical sense since he is currently 2nd in command, while the IOA considers a permanent replacement) and Carter is sent as his temporary replacement as chief military officer, and leader of SGA1, i can see the look on McKay's face already, not to mention some interesting reactions from Teyla and Ronan to the transition.
5. All in all, a potentially incredible season, particularly if Michael Shanks or RDA did a guest appearance or two, after the SG1 movies. See some intershow banter that we got a glimpse of while the shows ran concurrently.

Yup, I feel the same way.

OMG! I loved this ep. The new earth ship, Atlantis flying! Just plain awsome. By the way the special effects in this ep kicked ass. Over all this was a good episode, perfect for a season finale. Can't wait till next season!

I did not read everything here but...

1. invisible woman teyla... i think that is correct., inv.wom. is the strongest in power in the fant.4 only seems like a small one becouse she got's strong humanitarian emotions....

2. submerge city? no prob but plan B???? fly away...
why fly straigt up (ok power and maybe it was homing in on the city)

3. why not send 4 jumpers or 302's with a net to tow it away or beam the gate next to it and opposit direction and blow a charge so it shifts from a to b... it has been done before

i personaly think that the smartest man in two galaxys could think of something else then hide or run., shades of gray??