Episode 8 - Underground
Air Date: (US) August 27, 2004

Efforts to open trade relations with a species called the Genii turn sour when the team discovers their new "allies" have ulterior motives.
Guest starring Star Trek's Colm Meaney.

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.)

To say the least, suspense continually plagued this episode. Now that we know what the team is up against...wow, there in trouble! I only hope they can find some means of defence to hold the brutes off!

Good ending...took a while to get there though. I was hoping Sheppard would say, " Well...you've already made an enemy of us!"

Must say though - the whole, Sheppard/McKay banter on the way back from the gate was histerical...I love it when those two interact.

Could live without Weir at this point.

Good Episode sans THE FRIGGIN' COMMERCIALS!
Really, Sci-Fi needs to cut down on them. Too many and too long.
It feels like more commercial time than there is show.

They need to give Weir something to do or cut her.
Her bit parts could be dropped out and nothing would suffer at this point.
I don't dislike her but the character is bringing nothing to the table.

Boy was this a suspensfull episode!
This people may turn out to become the version of the Ashen on the pegasus galaxy!
I doubt it will be the last they will hear from them...
Again it seems the script writters have no clue on what to do with Higgins character Dr Weir. And I think its showing, I think in this ep she looked more disapointed probably with her character than with the fact that Sheppard had offered nukes...

If the script writters dont get their act together I would be surprised if we hear that she is leaving the show and with good reason..

This ep reminded me of The Other Side for some reason. Meh. Teyla's got a new hairdo. I guess someone spoke to her about the practicality of having long flowing tresses in the heat of battle.

Colm Meany was cool. I never get tired of seeing that man.

I know EXACTLY why: The table scene where McKay starts prattling along about his 6th grade experiment or whatever...That looked EERILY like the scene from The Other Side. The resemebelence was uncanny, so much so that I kind of think it was intentional: Paying homage to one of the best SG1 eps ever

Anyway, I liked this episode, but I can't give a concrete opinion just yet...I was a bit distracted by the episode of SG1 that aired (and I say that in a VERY negative way).
I'll watch it again and judge.

Great ep!

I dont understand why the Gemni people we were up themselves... We clearly had far more advanced technology and had a common enemy. Couldnt they just work with us??

Overall, I enjoyed this Ep, but... They really need to develop Teyla's character. She seems really 2D. I can't believe she told the entire story about waking up the Wraith and it didn't even occur to her that the Genii would take that poorly?? I want to know why she would do such a thing. This is character development...

Colm Meaney was there. Downside: His reckless attitude wasn't believable to me. On DS9 he practically symbolized a humble man of great integrity and he always strikes me as one.

Teyla was sweet
Her haircut is way better too.

Colm Meaney, woohoo!

Fun episode, although IMO there's been too many early industrial civilizations lately...Getting a bit boring...
I imagine Tori Higginson didn't expect such a small role...she started as the main character, sheesh!
Wouldn't be surprised if she pulled a "Tasha Yar"...

Then she would leave in the first season, yet still appear in the series final of season seven because she was so special and part of the family
I'd prefer her to do the negotiating, as she suggested Major Sheppard herself. There wasn't enough room for that in this episode I suppose.

This episode was okay, I enjoyed SG-1 a lot more though. The whole "suspicious" thing came a bit early though. We saw that alien guy talk in his little arm band and everyone knew that he they were bad. I mean, come on, I perfer to be surprised then all of a sudden know that they're bad. Well, I didn't have enough time to finish this episode but I did see the ending. I'm real surprised to that Teyla didn't save that moaning guy. I would of shot the freak telling her to leave him behind, but then I'm kinda weird when it comes to opinions.

Shes kinda like General Hammond, hes not in all the scenes in SG-1 but we know hes there. He IS the leader. Like Weir, shes not always there but they do need a someone in charge. Besides, how could they cut her? Would she just go back to Earth or get shot?

I agree with all that has been said, particularly about the Weir character - the Tasha Yar thing is a real possibility if they don't do something with the character. She had more to do in the SG1 eps Lost City and New Order than she has in her own show!
PS. Colm Meany rules

If the Stargate gods are benevolent, they'll make it a slow and painful death.

Good ep. interesting story and good to see a good oul' Irishman in it.

In case your wondering i am refereing to Colm Meany. I know someone out there was wondering who was irish in it.














Don't lie. i know it was you.

Still, the way Atlantis started you just expected much more involvement from her side. I mean hell, she's the second person shown Atlantis' intro, just as Daniel Jackson was up till season 5, and yet she doesn't even have half of his time on screen per "typical episode".

I was expecting that too.

I thought the way Weir ended the mission briefing at the beginning seemed off. Ending with "sounds like a mission people" and then gets up and leaves just didn't feel right, like there was something else someone should have said or maybe it was the way she said it.

They will return for Episodes 10 and 11

This post has been edited by Reignfire: Aug 28th 2004, 7:45 PM

So you want Weir to get killed off only to appear later on in some alternate reality episode and finally appear again as the bastard grown child of the alternate Weir and a Wraith ?


I'm getting tired of her complaining about what Sheppard does on missions If she is so adamant about things then SHE should go along - she IS a friggin diplomat, isn't she ?

My other comments have pretty much been stated by others already. I liked this ep and I really do not like the Genii losers. Well at least they had dinner.

People keep on complaining about Weir, but so far, I don't think she's so bad. Now that the Athosians (sp?) are gone, we don't have to see her coddling to their sensitivities. Some complained about her "decisions" line in PtW, but they misquoted and made it sound worse than it was. In 108 - Underground, her time is limited, but she didn't annoy me. She's smart enough to realize that Sheppard's negotiations with the Jennai (sp?) are fairly reasonable, and that there's realistically no changing them at that point anyway. I can't blame her for warning him about arms dealing - after all, as the Jennai prove, you can't always trust your clients.

Actually, I'm more disappointed with the character of Major Sheppard. He's definitely not as cautious as he ought to be - for example, when he realized that his radio signal had been blocked by the bunker, he just shrugged and kept going with McKay. What he should've done was get his lazy butt back up the ladder and tell Ford what was going on. Or better yet, respectfully ask the Jennai leaders what was going on before tresspassing. (McKay's comment "Maybe they don't know it's here" was pretty stupid, too - the hatch was covered in straw in a Jennai barn, not, say, hidden in an ancient forbidden cave or something.) The writers ought to be coming up with better lines for him, too. The parting exchange between (Cowen?) and Sheppard should have been more like:

Instead, he said, "Oh yeah? Same to you." Ouch. That's a zinger. "Stay positive," indeed. He's not bad, but his performance could be a bit better. I'd also have grabbed a few Marines from the Atlantis base to stick in the back-up puddle jumpers. I mean, what were the PJs going to do, realistically, if the Jennai had decided to fight? Fire off a few drones and blow away Sheppard's team as well? If they'd brought the Marines, they could've dropped the PJ's rear ramps and had some guys aiming their rifles from the back. Plus, you'd have the cool (and for the Jennai, discouraging) effect of having a few laser dots dancing around on Cowen's face and chest.

I think some disciplinary action is in order for the A-Team. Weir had every right to chew out Sheppard for his unauthorized negotiations, and Sheppard ought to have given Teyla a good talking to. She needs a few lessons on keeping her mouth shut, as well as keeping the greater good in mind. The Jennai commando was absolutely right in trying to keep the team from being discovered. Teyla's actions to save the coccooned man, while well-intentioned, put the entire team and mission at risk. More importantly, she woke up another hive ship that will now begin pillaging the galaxy and murdering hundreds or thousands more people... all for the sake of one person who, for all we know, was already as good as dead. And yet, Sheppard only saw the bleeding heart. I feel that the alliance could have been salvaged if Sheppard had taken disciplinary action, instead of confronting the Jennai for their insensitivity. Not only could the Jennai offer food, but they had relatively advanced weapons that would be very useful if the A-Team runs out of P90 ammo. Even though, as it turned out, there were far too many Wraith ships to take out with commando raids, I can think of a few situations where a couple nukes could come in handy...

This post has been edited by Gunfighter: Aug 28th 2004, 9:53 PM

This is way off topic, but every time you refer to them as the "A-Team" I get this image in my head:

IT was a good episode. I think the Genii would be far more menacing than the Wraith-what if they somehow form an alliance? Scary.
Spoiler: THey are going to get us bad later on in "The Storm" how the hell are we going to get out of that oneI wish MCkay would shut the hell up in this episode! He was so wrapped up in his bragging he wasnt thinking of the consequences of sharing info with them and being forced to help them advance. Most likely they are going to take any technology we have with out asking just like typical doublecrossing son of a bitches for their own causes-they are really dangerous-bravo to sga for developing good baddies here!

Who's that? (stargate is the only scifi show I know)

THats funny. Hey isnt the one at the top the leader in The Gamekeeper?

It does kind of look like him, but the Gamekeeper was Dwight Schultz who played Lt. Reginald Broccoli er... Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager

This post has been edited by Reignfire: Aug 29th 2004, 12:19 AM

What the hell was with that thing where they let Teyla try save those people, I mean sure it is noble to save those people but seriously, those other people were right, if they go busting them out of the caccoons they might draw attention to themselves and who knows, maybe even wake up another ship. Besides, if they take them away from that ship, what will the wraith do? they'll just go and get some more people! so whats the point? you save one or a few lives and condemn a few more.

I realise they wouldn't have in the process told anyone about there being more to feed on so probably they would have little reason to wake up, but they are sneaking about on a ship which is bound to have some keepers there, if they go trying to save more than the one they would probably bring too much attention to themselves and there could be consequences.

I also am beggining to dislike the weir conversations where sheppard is trying to get authorization for things, its getting repetitive. What happens is sheppard comes along every time, when they've done something, and weirs like "what!?!" and eventually, she'll back down and let him do it.. its like, whats the point?

I guess what I have most against that is the fact she seems so agitated and whines about things, I'm more used to more emotionless leaders who will just take things into consideration and perhaps calmly offer a few counter discussions or look slightly angry if things have gone really bad and then give the go usually. Weir though, she gets agitated and it always seems like she wants to do one thing but does the other just because they bossed her into it, I guess that is her character in a way now but if shes some great negotiator, wouldn't she be less weak character-wise?

I guess some of my statements here are unfair, but its how I feel about it right now. I remember thinking "idiots!" on more than just that hostage situation.

Oh one last thing, I don't like that moonshine scene thing, I mean firstly how he said it seemed a bit unconvincing, I suppose it'd do though, but it didn't have the same atmosphere of the similar themed scene scene from the sg1 ep children of the gods, so I don't think it shoulda been there.

So overall, I think I didn't like this EP much. I think this is because of the whole plausability of a lot of the story and in part the acting, scripting and camera work let it down a bit. It just seemed strange to me that they would give C4 to help clear tree stumps, and there were other things I didn't like.

However it was not a complete and utter failure of an EP in my opinion, there were some times I enjoyed, like the whole science fair a-bomb stuff, and a lot of it was ok. Oh it was nice to get a number on ships too (even if they aren't entirely sure).

This post has been edited by Mental Case: Aug 29th 2004, 1:10 AM