I thought it was a great ep. I didn't like that Ford was such a wuss and a pushover. MacKay just yells and orders him around all the time. HELLO!!!! He is an army Lt. !!!! Show some spine!!!! And then he freaks out about being the next one to die!!! Honestly, the writers need to develop his character a lot more.

Other than that I really liked the episode. The tension between Sheppard and Weir was great. I didn't really like that they never finished their discussion about chain of command because I think that Sheppard got off the hook too fast.

Ford is such a cutie though.
But yes, him being pushed around a lot, him having to take orders all of the time and never actually standing up for himself is getting a tad tiring...this guy is in the military...where are his guts? his courage?

this was a good episode but they need to think up new ways of having bad guys etc without killing heaps more of the team because the do not have unlimited people.

sheperd was a loser for not doing what wier said.

i am glad mcay didn't die.

looking forward to next ep

OK so in Oz we only just got this ep, so whether anyone will read this is beyond me but......
Why would the nanobug have to have been created as a weapon against the wraithe? I mean if you created something to kill all the humans, but your race, doesn't that just mean they'll came for you now.....as the only food source?
Maybe it could just have been an ethnic cleansing thing by some crazy Alantian.....perhaps Atlantians were being born that didn't have the gene and someone didn't approve.....
Just a thought....
Ninja

They didn't actually say that. The episode was more or less concluded with "we have no idea who made the virus and why...".

I still don't get how they figured out it's a disease so fast... Other than teh world-wide episode-length intuition of course But it's a lovely episode nonetheless.

Could it have been a hint that there's something else out there - another as yet unknown adversary?

I think its pretty safe to say that. Looking at the way the virus didnt affect those with the Ancient gene, it could turn out that it was created by the Ancients themselves so that the Wraiths sourceof food (humans) would be killed off. Perhaps it was created by the Orii before they ascended??

Im sure Martin Gero said that we will find out more about the creators of it in season 2. Im not certain but im fairly sure I read it.

My take on this epi.:

As has been previously mentioned, the whole infectious disease thing is nothing new, and neither are nanites. However, it didn't seem too trite or overdone, so I'll forgive 'em for that.

The one thing I really did like about this episode is how it leaves you hanging at the end, wondering if maybe the Atlantis team will meet whoever created this virus. Whether or not they turn out to be an enemy is totally up for grabs, but I think we're probably leaning more towards them being an enemy.

Many people have mentioned Furlings in this topic, and I was wondering if they mentioned them somewhere in the episode and I missed it. The Furlings might be involved, I'm not necessarily saying they weren't, but I'm just not seeing how so many people made that connection. Did I miss something? (very possible, trust me, I do it all the time )

~Haven~

Yeah I recall him saying this, too. I'm not sure they'll mix in Orii tho - didn't they say they're trying to keep mythologies apart? But it does open a huge amount of possibilities.

I suppose it does make sense to keep the Orii out of Atlantis season 2, since they would have only just been introduced in SG1 season 9.
I speculated that it may have been created by the Orii as they are supposed to be 'bad' Ancients, therefore they should have had the Ancient gene. Since the Orii are 'bad' Ancients, they may have thought it was acceptable to wipe out the Wraith by wiping out their food. But it makes sense to leave the Orii from Atlantis from now.
I'll go back to my original theory that it was created by the Furlings who turn out to bad ass enemies

But weren't the Ancients themselves susceptible to the virus? In which case it sounds more like an experiment to protect against the Wraith gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Those that were infected with the virus saw visons of things attacking them. The people without the Ancient gene died of a brain anurism (spelling??), i think. Those with the Ancient gene experienced the symptoms (McKay) but did not die from exposure to the virus. I would have thought that meant it was engineered not to kill those with the Ancient gene but could kill those without it.

You're right. Well then, how about the possiblity that the Ancients were playing around with an immunization type virus that would have made human blood unpalatable to the Wraith? Sort of like the polio vaccine - where live (but weakened) polio microbes were injected into a host - sometimes actually causing polio and/or death. Maybe they were injecting Wraith DNA or something to fool Wraith biology into believing that humans were of the same species, therefore making their blood unacceptable?

I suppose it could be something like that but didnt McKay also say that it definitely wasnt created by the Wraith nor the Ancients. I recall him saying it was a different technology to what he has already seen, Im sure he said it wasnt Ancient tech.

Well...back to square one, which is that it was some as yet unknown adversary.

Dafmeister, have you seen this episode more than once? Because if not, your memory is really excellent.

This post has been edited by Sighfienerd: Jun 28th 2005, 6:18 PM

there is always a bigger fish

Umm who are the orii?? We haven't got that in SG1 here yet....soo far behind in Oz....or I could have just missed it but I doubt it!

Summed it up so nicely!!! Great ep. either way!!
Ninja

Ive seen it a few times. I record them when they are first shown and I end to rewatch them every few months.
Ok just rewatched the end of 'Hotzone':
McKay: Upon further investigation I think we can rule out they were created by the Wraith. They are different to any Wraith technology we have come across thus far.
Sheppard: Well if not the Wraith...then who made them?
McKay: I honestly don't know. Whoever they were, let's just hope they are not still around.

He doesnt actually say they weren't Ancient tech, but im sure he would have recognised them if they had been Ancient technology



Sorry I shouldhave put theat in spoiler tags.


This post has been edited by Dafmeister: Jun 29th 2005, 4:20 AM

Since McKay didn't have the gene naturally, it was engineered by Beckett, it would make sense that they would give the gene therapy to everyone on Atlantis, wouldn't you think?

Maybe eventually, but it would take longer to take effect than the infected people had left before they would have died from the nanobugs. They explained that in the episode.
Also gene therapy can be quite dangerous and I'm sure they aren't stupid enough to give it to everyone, before closely following their guinee pig (McKay). Various real-life studies have for instance cured one disease only to later result in cancer in the patient, which is why the study would have ben illegal on Earth as the people are perfectly healthy without the Alantian gene and so it would be considered far too dangerous to muck with their genetics just so they can play with Atlantian machines (even though it would be cool)......also results for genetic engineering can vary tremendously between patients. A similar example arose in "poisoning the well" actually, and showed us that Beckett wouldn't take on anything like gene therapy lightly and without having thouroughly tested it.

P.S. Sorry for the earlier double post. I'm new to this and didn't realise you could quote 2 diff people in one response....how do you do that anyway?? There are tags above the box I'm writing in...is it to do with that? I'll try next time....noob I know!

This post has been edited by ninjamara: Jul 2nd 2005, 2:13 AM

I agree, in fact I remember Beckett saying that the gene therapy wouldn't have happend on earth for awhile, until it had been tested for some time.

I guess since this is an exploratory mission, more or less, and we have been shown that having the ancient gene definitely helps you, I think I would want to have that in me. For the most part, I think you would be safeguarded, if for no other reason than you can operate the machines, weapons and puddle jumpers.

Um maybe. I mean if it helped you operaTe medical equipment too, maybe if something went wrong you could fix it anyhow.......I'm glad that they haven't just gone, "here it is..now you've all got the gene", buT instead been mature about it and seem aware of the risks. That's all!

They also mention in that episode (I think Zalenski(spelling?) says it, or Beckett) that the gene therapy only works on 48% of all recipients.
This exact point in this episode actually has something i would like to confirm; I know Ford didnt have the gene, but I was wondering if he says at this point that he had never had the gene therapy, or if he says that he had had it and it didnt take. I was wondering if someone who had taped the episode could confirm this for me, I would really appreciate it.