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Stargate Information Archive _ Atlantis Season 3 _ 309 - Phantoms
Posted by: Arcady Sep 9th 2006, 10:02 PM
| Episode 9 - Phantoms Air Date: September 15, 2006 While on a mission to rescue a lost team, Sheppard and Ronon are influenced by a mind-altering device created by the Wraith.
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Posted by: Protoziggy90 Sep 16th 2006, 1:35 AM
Wow... I really didn't like this at all... This is quite far down in my rank book. There was no point to this episode what-so-ever and the entire episode was basically running around and hallucinating and shooting each other. Very poor in my opinion.
Posted by: DrM007 Sep 16th 2006, 4:05 AM
Again. No story arc development. Except that now we have one lovely Teyla wounded. I hope they're not killing her off. Like - "Oh, that gunshot had a terrible infection, she died." 
It was her who saved the day actually. Thank god for that wraith gene...
Apart from that little mishap, I enjoyed this episode too.
Was this episode a ripoff of the SG-1 "Paradise Lost" or what? I mean the hallucinations.
And again. Rodney was hillarious.
-Did I not just use word puzzling?
...
-(at Ronon): Person? Animal? How many syllables?
...
-He shot me! You shot me!
Also Ronon was funny when he complained to John: "You shot me too."
John: I'm sorry for shooting everyone!
What was with the taliban hallucinations? Was that suppose to be Afghanistan? And that russian helicopter? It was so obvious that it was "put" there on purpose...
Maybe I should stop complaining...
Posted by: brittney Sep 16th 2006, 7:03 AM
And again. Rodney was hillarious.
-Did I not just use word puzzling?
...
-(at Ronon): Person? Animal? How many syllables?
...
-He shot me! You shot me!
Also Ronon was funny when he complained to John: "You shot me too."
John: I'm sorry for shooting everyone!
That was about the extent of the entertainment for this episode. Just a few good lines. Not much of a story. Was Teyla just trying to talk John out of what he was seeing, like anyone would, or was she trying to use her "wraith DNA" to somehow alter what he was seeing, like a wraith would?
Rodney said "if it were possible to manually dial", but how would it be, aren't all the stargates in the Pegasus galaxy "digital". They don't actually spin. And this stargate on an uninhabited planet is now useless without a DHD, unless Rodney fixes it later, so I wonder if they could take it and add it to their interplanetary stargate network?
Posted by: Sylver Sep 16th 2006, 7:18 AM
This wasn?t the best episode I?ve ever seen on Atlantis, but far from the worst. No plot development, little character development, though I enjoyed taking a deeper look into everyone?s minds. Maybe I?m spoiled, but I miss the season-long arcs of Sg-1.
I wish they?d have shown less of Sheppard?s fear and more of something else. Really, anything else was fine, but the episode was pretty thin as was to fill, what 43 minutes? of actually show, so I can offer no suggestions.
Maybe more on the gate itself, as someone mentioned. Taking it for their own use since it?s pretty worthless now, especially since anyone on that planet is stuck without a way to dial out.
I?m not sure, however, I?d want those particular Marines with me on a mission. They seemed slow to draw their weapons, and not at all ready to face an alien planet. The machine/generator was a good idea, but they dropped the ball on it. It seemed to me that it was based on fears.
Beckett?s was losing a patient, more specifically *thinking* he lost one when he made the mistake. I found it ironic that while he was trying to save the guy on the table a dozen or so times, the one with a shoulder wound died quietly and unnoticed in the corner.
McKay?s fear was not being able to do the impossible with alien technology. I have to admit, he was the funniest! You shot me!
I understood Sheppard?s fear; it was crashing in the Afghani desert and being surrounded by Taliban while trying to rescue his friend. I wonder what happened when he returned. And how he remained in the military after that.
What really impressed me were two things. The first was Anubus? super-soldiers the other guy saw (I?m sorry, I missed all the non-regular?s names) thought he saw. If that?s the scariest thing he fears, I don?t blame him. Two was Teyla. Finally, I say! For a while I thought she was going to be regulated to the background as nothing more than a Ronon-shouting, gun-wielding, head-tilting extra who happened to be in the opening credits but got less airtime than Beckett (who, much as I may like him, has a limited vocabulary that consists mainly of doctor-clich?s).
Posted by: tauri129 Sep 16th 2006, 12:00 PM
wasnt the best ep ever but i didnt mind it. it was somewhat remniscent of paradise lost, but i liked seeing the teams fears. i especially likes sheppherds afghanistan flashbacks-- they should tell us more about what happened to sheppherd to put him in a dead end post in antarctica
i too enjoyed john apologizing for shooting everyone 
Posted by: rkenshin Sep 16th 2006, 12:28 PM
Well at least they weren't staring at some flashing stream of light for half the episode 
But this episode was nice just to see the Anubis Kull Warriors again
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 16th 2006, 1:28 PM
Man, this had to be the greatest episode of Atlantis that I ever saw... In 10 years of both SG-1 and Atlantis I have never seen an action episode with such a brilliant story. It all came down to the Wraith using their giving visions to their pray technology, but each character having different visions, and all being made so creepy, the writers done a wonderful job. In my all time favourites of Stargate, this goes on second place, right after Meridian. 
The writers for Atlantis are getting better and better... It all started with Sateda, and there have been 6 consecutive episodes that have not let me down. And the season is far from over. 
Posted by: Kate Sep 16th 2006, 2:33 PM
I liked the ep. Rodney's whining about being shot.......... Ronan's reaction to Rodney's whining......... Not the best, but all in all, not too bad.
Posted by: Drowsy Sep 16th 2006, 3:21 PM
The episode was great, but it just had nothing to do with... anything. 
Yay for super soldiers though!
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 16th 2006, 3:32 PM
The episode was great, but it just had nothing to do with... anything.
Yay for super soldiers though!
Yes, it was kind of a filler episode... But this is what makes it even more wonderful. Writers worked well for an episode of this kind, and they made the greatest (of course, in my opinion) story possible.
And, I'm kind of thinking that it had something to do with something. People have been complaining that there are no team bounds in Atlantis, that characters were not shown working as a team enough. This is what I think viewers wanted. An episode that can show the whole team in action. At the end, we saw even Teyla having a great part in saving the team.
Also, Teyla was not affected by the Wraith tech-thingy, because...
Posted by: Revan Sep 16th 2006, 3:50 PM
Not a bad episode at all. I quite liked it!
Rodney complaining was a tiny bit annoying... you shot me! We also got a little more backstory for Shep. I was somehow unsurprised when Ronon started seeing Wraith around every corner. The Major bowing himself up was freaky...
I wonder why the effects stopped as soon as the device died...
Teyla is part Wraith, her brain chemistry is different. the Wraith wouldn't want the device to mess with them as well.
Posted by: deadulus101 Sep 16th 2006, 6:22 PM
it was alright i was kinda falling asleep at the end cuz i was getting a liitle bored but i can't wait for next weeks episode. I'm very excited for that one.
Posted by: Auntie Em! Sep 16th 2006, 11:02 PM
What was with the taliban hallucinations? Was that suppose to be Afghanistan? And that russian helicopter? It was so obvious that it was "put" there on purpose...
I think that Russian helicopter had nothing more to it than....the producers of SG-1 had already paid for it and used it in "Evolution Part 2" in S7 of SG-1. I recognized it right away. They were most likely just saving their budget for something better later on. Just reused an old prop!
Posted by: Rogue Ashrak Sep 17th 2006, 12:05 AM
Not a bad ep, Sheppard's flashback style hallucinations were interesting. They could have done more with Ronan's though, the whole point to his hallucinations was simply to have him running around randomly shooting things. Thay could have at least tied it into his background as a Runner, perhaps have had him see Shep as his Wraith nemesis from Sateda. Oh and I totally saw Rodney's hallucination coming. 
Also like Marv said, I'm definetley starting to see all of them really bond as a team. I mean Shep and McKay have always had their twisted Jack & Daniel-esque bond, but the final scenes of both this ep & McKay & Mrs Miller have really started to show Teyla and Ronan are just as much a part of the team. If the writers keep this kind of quality up it won't be long until they manage to truly capture the "close family" feel that the members of SG-1 have.
On that note...Ronan had absolutely no reason to complain Shep about shooting him! He was shooting at Shep first! Shep was just good enough not to get hit!
As for McKay, lets face it. Who hasn't wanted to shoot McKay? (in the leg of course!) I don't think Shep's apology towards Mckay was all that sincere.... 
EDIT: By the way all this talking about the team has me wondering about one thing: What's happening with Ford? He was a boring member of the team, but we haven't heard about him since last years mid-season two-parter.....
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 17th 2006, 1:43 AM
EDIT: By the way all this talking about the team has me wondering about one thing: What's happening with Ford? He was a boring member of the team, but we haven't heard about him since last years mid-season two-parter.....
Posted by: JinxY Sep 17th 2006, 6:25 AM
I didn't like it that much ....
I though McKay's whining about how he can't fix it and don't put all the pressure on the mad genius was annoing and not that funny.... and since when does Teyla know how to shut down a wraith complicated device? I mean it took McKay a while to figure out what it even does and she comes along in the end ..oh pull that and it shuts down. I know they were all suppose to be under it's influence but it seemed a little unrealistic to me 
I was so sorry for Beckett ....he was trying so hard to save that lt.'s life and because of the effects of the machine he didn't even notice the other guy died right next to him 
Other than that, it's always nice to see a SGA episode , but I think they could have done more ...
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 17th 2006, 6:55 AM
I didn't like it that much ....
I though McKay's whining about how he can't fix it and don't put all the pressure on the mad genius was annoing and not that funny.... and since when does Teyla know how to shut down a wraith complicated device? I mean it took McKay a while to figure out what it even does and she comes along in the end ..oh pull that and it shuts down. I know they were all suppose to be under it's influence but it seemed a little unrealistic to me
I was so sorry for Beckett ....he was trying so hard to save that lt.'s life and because of the effects of the machine he didn't even notice the other guy died right next to him
Other than that, it's always nice to see a SGA episode
, but I think they could have done more ...No, it wasn't unrealistic... McKay knew from the beginning what he had to do, and he explained it to Teyla. The fact is that, whenever he entered the core to do what he had to do, he started having visions, and didn't proceed as he intended. Teyla was not affected, so she could operate what McKay told her to operate with a clear mind.
Posted by: Sylver Sep 17th 2006, 8:37 AM
No, it wasn't unrealistic... McKay knew from the beginning what he had to do, and he explained it to Teyla. The fact is that, whenever he entered the core to do what he had to do, he started having visions, and didn't proceed as he intended. Teyla was not affected, so she could operate what McKay told her to operate with a clear mind.
Agreed. But this brought a new question to mind: Wouldn't McKay have hallucinated the effects of the machine/cave exploding? Apparently not, plus I don't think the machine was meant to go so far as to kill the Wraith's prey, but then wouldn't the last person alive realize something was amiss? Well, no, obviously not. I think I have to watch it again for those little inconsistencies.
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 17th 2006, 9:28 AM
Agreed. But this brought a new question to mind: Wouldn't McKay have hallucinated the effects of the machine/cave exploding? Apparently not, plus I don't think the machine was meant to go so far as to kill the Wraith's prey, but then wouldn't the last person alive realize something was amiss? Well, no, obviously not. I think I have to watch it again for those little inconsistencies.
McKay has halucinated both the fact that he was succeeding in what he was doing, and the effects caused by that. The last person alive was still stuck in a halucinating world, even if he/she didn't have anything real to transform into an enemy, he would still create imaginary ones, thus shooting in thin air what appeared to him as real objects (for example, Sheppard was seeing Taliban in his imagination even if there was nobody there, or hearing jeeps).
Posted by: ancient01 Sep 17th 2006, 10:46 AM
I liked seeing some Sheppard back story. It's been 3 seasons and we really don't know a whole lot about him. This at least helped a little. The next episode, though... oh, my!
Posted by: mithwriter Sep 17th 2006, 12:46 PM
Not too shabby, although I too recognized elements of the vastly superior "Paradise Lost" episode, which was far creepier than this was. I appreciate how the plot started Ronan running away from the team to chase his hallucination, but had him circle around back to the team when his delusions were at their height.
I thought the Beckett arc was the best one of the lot, and I was genuinely surprised that the first soldier was dead for so long, while the other one he thought was dead was still hanging in there. Well done.
I think they missed a great opportunity with the Sheppard/Teyla arc. I think it would've been more interesting if Sheppard had thought he was trying to save someone in another scenario that he really cared about while she doesn't realise that his reactions are for someone else really not there.
Instead, it was sort of a one way street as far as character dynamics go. Oh well.
Posted by: Sibylle Sep 17th 2006, 12:51 PM
Can't figure out why they didn't sent in a cloaked/shielded shuttle.
The sensors are better and it is safe, when something happens to the gate they can use it to get in orbit etc.
but we wouldn't have had a story then
Posted by: Revan Sep 17th 2006, 1:57 PM
Can't figure out why they didn't sent in a cloaked/shielded shuttle.
The sensors are better and it is safe, when something happens to the gate they can use it to get in orbit etc.
but we wouldn't have had a story then
Dense foliage. I thought the same thing, but they may not have been able to get it through the trees. Also, it could have ruined the story.
Posted by: originIsSalvation Sep 17th 2006, 6:47 PM
Can't figure out why they didn't sent in a cloaked/shielded shuttle.
The sensors are better and it is safe, when something happens to the gate they can use it to get in orbit etc.
but we wouldn't have had a story then
Yeah I was thinking that too. After the generator was disabled, why did they have to wait for the Daedelus when Atlantis could have just sent a jumper to get them back through the gate?
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 17th 2006, 7:27 PM
Yeah I was thinking that too. After the generator was disabled, why did they have to wait for the Daedelus when Atlantis could have just sent a jumper to get them back through the gate?
Sorry to do this to you, but with enough attention you would have seen that Revan already gave an answer for this one, and I think it is a good one. It would have been very hard to pilot a Jumper through a dense forest. Maybe the Jumper would have fit in front of the gate, but the manouvers for it to get back through the gate would have been impossible. Wait... just remembered... the Jumper can also be piloted in reverse... ah, but it needs to keep the lateral engines not retracted, so it wouldn't have fit through the gate. So... I guess, a Jumper would have been stuck on that planet.
Or maybe there was a protocol that Atlantis had to follow in this case, given that all team members had halucinations for a period of time.
Posted by: LyaOfTheNox Sep 17th 2006, 7:54 PM
ok, most everyone is posting that they think this episode was boring, but I really liked it (of course, as I've stated before, I like almost all episodes, so I could be a bit biased). I thought it was hillarious and exciting, so poo to everyone that didn't
Not every episode has to deal with the story arc to be good. Filler episodes can be interesting too.
Ronon's laugh at the end was very sweet... Damn you Sci-fi!!! I was perfectly content with my hatred of Ronon and you had to go and make him have actual depth *pout* Fine, I guess I'll finally join in with the Ronon-wub 
And lol, just to prove to all of you who havn't gotten it yet: I am such a goober. When Rodney turned around and Sheppard was there and then just shot him, I gasped out loud. I was "OMG! did he just shoot him? How could he shoot him? IS HE OK?!?!" David Hewlett had a lot of good acting in this one: looking down at the wounded soldier (I forget his name/rank) and saying it was ok, telling Teyla to finnish disabling the wraith device, and "You shot me. I can't believe you shot me!" 'Course I think David would be great just sitting there and reading the phone book, so feel free to ignore me.
So *I* thought it was a cool episode. So nice I watched it twice 
tee hee!
Posted by: originIsSalvation Sep 17th 2006, 9:50 PM
Sorry to do this to you, but with enough attention you would have seen that Revan already gave an answer for this one, and I think it is a good one. It would have been very hard to pilot a Jumper through a dense forest. Maybe the Jumper would have fit in front of the gate, but the manouvers for it to get back through the gate would have been impossible. Wait... just remembered... the Jumper can also be piloted in reverse... ah, but it needs to keep the lateral engines not retracted, so it wouldn't have fit through the gate. So... I guess, a Jumper would have been stuck on that planet.
Or maybe there was a protocol that Atlantis had to follow in this case, given that all team members had halucinations for a period of time.
There wasn't dense forest in the immediate gate area was there? Or maybe I need to watch it again.
Posted by: Revan Sep 17th 2006, 10:42 PM
There wasn't dense forest in the immediate gate area was there? Or maybe I need to watch it again.
They were surrounded by trees. They were surrounded by trees the entire time they were offworld. They were in a forest...
Posted by: Pitry Sep 18th 2006, 11:56 AM
Excellent! Excellent excellent excelent.
Loved every second of Phantoms.
First, finally Becket gets some wel deserved attention! I was beginning to get exasperated. But here he was, Becket that I loved so in season 1. I was compeltely and utterly taken by surprise to find the young lieutenant dead - can't remember his name. And Kegan being alive after all - weird. But the wayt they revealed the lieutenant dead, and that it was all Carson's hallucination and that he died because he didn't get any treatment... creepy. Really creepy.
Sheppard - I actually liked him this episode! Well, there's a first to everything. Okay, second, cos I also liked him a bit in Common Ground. I really enjoyed the Afghanistan bits - and poor Teyla, talking to thin air.
Speaking of Teyla - and Ronon - can they please start paying attention to them too? That would have made the episode truely perfect, had they not ignored these two, yet again. Well, can't get everything.
Ha, the Prometheus... I was sure I heard wrong before Rodney repeated it. ;) And super-soldiers! Bwahahh. Some SGC traumas for the poor marine? OR airman? Or something....?
Rodney! Finally, after he's been sketchy all season, I got back the Rodney I loved from the previous 2 seasons, hooray! *pats Meredith*. And he was so close, too, to figuring it out til it got him. I guess he was relatively shielded in that chamber, but not compeltely - but since when did Teyla start understanding about computers?
Why would the WRaith want to make themselves better at causing halluciantions? They were right, they're doing it quite well on their own already. Perhaps this is the way they originally got that ability, I wonder.
All in all.... loved it.
Posted by: hobo_joe20 Sep 18th 2006, 12:07 PM
Why would the WRaith want to make themselves better at causing halluciantions? They were right, they're doing it quite well on their own already. Perhaps this is the way they originally got that ability, I wonder.
Well, this point about this episode seems moot to me right now anyways ... since we haven't seen the wraith create their own "phantoms" since (or very close to) the pilot anyways. This aspect is one of the things that made the wraith so damn scary in the first place. Not only could they eat your life away from you, they could mess with your mind beforehand!
Posted by: Siderius Sep 19th 2006, 6:12 AM
Not a single mention of the depleted ZPM, full functionality on everything we could see in atlantis, as if the ZPM wasnt depleted at all.
Kind of lame inconsistency I hate in SCI-FI's. Now you can say they put up one of the reactors, but it doesnt cover the severity of the situation. If it was just to put a reactor on and everything was fine they wouldnt have made all the trouble locating ZPM's in the first place.
I really didnt like this ep
Posted by: Jade Sep 19th 2006, 7:41 AM
I agree, you would think everyone at Atlantis, particularly Mackey, would be extremely nervous, considering they have no ZPM, no cloak, no defense. Shouldn't all their focus be turning towards finding a solution, Priorities, ppl. It is just weird to have this episode following last one as if life goes on normally!
I was pretty bore with all the hallucination stuff, the episode was boring apart from the last part, with usual whining by Mackay "you shot me"
And instant back to reality with the machine off, that was too fast, considering the hallucination took sometime to start for everyone, so obviously the brain needed sometime to adjust. Not thats just my opinion
Posted by: Pitry Sep 19th 2006, 12:24 PM
Well, this point about this episode seems moot to me right now anyways ... since we haven't seen the wraith create their own "phantoms" since (or very close to) the pilot anyways. This aspect is one of the things that made the wraith so damn scary in the first place. Not only could they eat your life away from you, they could mess with your mind beforehand!
"Scary".. I woudln't go overboard... ;) But I hope they'll follow it up.
Posted by: hobo_joe20 Sep 19th 2006, 12:55 PM
"Scary".. I woudln't go overboard... ;) But I hope they'll follow it up.
How does "potential to be freakishly scary" sound then?
Because they really could have made them out to be alot worse. Keep the same plot lines, scenes, etc. Just add some stuff where the wraith are in the city/attacking the Atlantis teams that the atlantis keep seeing ghosts and so don't actually have an accurate count of how many wraith are actually out there.
Posted by: CobraBog Sep 19th 2006, 1:05 PM
I liked this episode pretty much. What i didnt like was the fact that they somehow got some super-soldiers into this. Nobody from the Pegasus Galaxy ever encountered super-soldiers. How come they were able to imagine them anyway?
Posted by: hobo_joe20 Sep 19th 2006, 1:08 PM
I liked this episode pretty much. What i didnt like was the fact that they somehow got some super-soldiers into this. Nobody from the Pegasus Galaxy ever encountered super-soldiers. How come they were able to imagine them anyway?
How do you know nobody has ever encountered them? There have been dozens of marines at the SGC who have encountered Super Soldiers. I'm sure at least some of them would have volunteered to go to Atlantis (especially when reinforcements arrived in the Siege pt II). So I would say the opposite. Probably lots of people in the Atlantis have encountered Super soldiers ... and the rest would be well briefed too.
What *I* didn't like about this episode was the whole "there is too much interference. We can't reach the team by radio." "Ok, send in a UAV". How the hell do you think the UAV relays information back to Atlantis ... perhaps through the use of radio waves?? Some interference ... targeted specifically to the radios used by SGA personnel, but not anything else that would require a radio ...
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 19th 2006, 2:39 PM
What *I* didn't like about this episode was the whole "there is too much interference. We can't reach the team by radio." "Ok, send in a UAV". How the hell do you think the UAV relays information back to Atlantis ... perhaps through the use of radio waves?? Some interference ... targeted specifically to the radios used by SGA personnel, but not anything else that would require a radio ...
Hey, I didn't notice that. Although I don't think that this is the case here, the radio wave spectrum is pretty wide. Maybe the UAV relays information using another frequency than that of their radios. Also, since this is Stargate they could use subspace emitters inside the UAVs.
Posted by: hobo_joe20 Sep 19th 2006, 3:12 PM
Hey, I didn't notice that. Although I don't think that this is the case here, the radio wave spectrum is pretty wide. Maybe the UAV relays information using another frequency than that of their radios. Also, since this is Stargate they could use subspace emitters inside the UAVs.
But if they could get the UAVs working, you think they would have tried alternate channels on their radios as soon as they hit the planet ... you know. to try and establish some form of radio link before wondering into the abyss ...
There was that, and the whole "we're 2 feet from the stargate, and you're not getting anything?" dealy. which, I know, is possible if the interference wave had a large enough initial amplitude that it didn't decay through multiple layers of rock and the large distance back to the stargate ....
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 19th 2006, 3:17 PM
There was that, and the whole "we're 2 feet from the stargate, and you're not getting anything?" dealy. which, I know, is possible if the interference wave had a large enough initial amplitude that it didn't decay through multiple layers of rock and the large distance back to the stargate ....
Yes, but that would mean that radio communicatins would not work on all the planets because of the initial amplitude, and we have seen cases where it worked... so the only standing solution to this remains the subspace emitter on a UAV that can help with transmissions. This would make sense, as they would try to communicate via the UAV in any kind of environment, including high in solar activity environments.
Posted by: hobo_joe20 Sep 19th 2006, 3:29 PM
Yes, but that would mean that radio communicatins would not work on all the planets because of the initial amplitude, and we have seen cases where it worked... so the only standing solution to this remains the subspace emitter on a UAV that can help with transmissions. This would make sense, as they would try to communicate via the UAV in any kind of environment, including high in solar activity environments.
That's true ... they never really attempt in any way to tell us how they do communicate with the UAV ... just that they do.
wait a second, didn't they start using the UAVs before they could manipulate stuff in sub-space? or did they just tack on that little bit of tech once they realized they could ...
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 19th 2006, 3:37 PM
That's true ... they never really attempt in any way to tell us how they do communicate with the UAV ... just that they do.
wait a second, didn't they start using the UAVs before they could manipulate stuff in sub-space? or did they just tack on that little bit of tech once they realized they could ...
They've been using UAVs for a long time, but as you suspected they could have added some technology improvements later. Subspace communication would have gave them a great advantage. Perhaps sometime after launching Prometheus for the first time (by force
), they also added this to their UAVs.I wonder if they would have done this to MALPs as well...
Posted by: fan_83 Sep 19th 2006, 3:40 PM
isn;t the reason that they are at that planet is to research the weird energy ouptput..
i suppose thats a oblique reference to the fact that they are looking for new zpms
Posted by: WaterDweller Sep 19th 2006, 3:41 PM
Well, that DHD sure was durable. A little C4, boom, it's gone. And that's after 10,000 years of looking just as nice and shiny while plants grow up it's a**, rain washes over it hundreds of thousands of times. The Stargate can survive nukes, the Ancients built them to last forever. Yet the DHD is appearently made of the cheapest stuff they could find? In SG-1, a DHD appearently survived some 50 million years, several million of which were spendt under the ice of antarctica, being exposed to the tremendous force of shifting glaciers. Don't tell me the Ancient became cheap on their later days?
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 19th 2006, 3:45 PM
Well, that DHD sure was durable. A little C4, boom, it's gone. And that's after 10,000 years of looking just as nice and shiny while plants grow up it's a**, rain washes over it hundreds of thousands of times. The Stargate can survive nukes, the Ancients built them to last forever. Yet the DHD is appearently made of the cheapest stuff they could find? In SG-1, a DHD appearently survived some 50 million years, several million of which were spendt under the ice of antarctica, being exposed to the tremendous force of shifting glaciers. Don't tell me the Ancient became cheap on their later days?
Well, the planet was visited recently by several factions (the Genii being one of them). Perhaps they have helped the DHD look better after 10,000 years...
But you're right, the DHD was too easy to destroy. They wanted a conveniant way to not let the team off the planet, and they found a too conveniant one. And what excuse did they find for not being able to dial manualy? Cause I can't remember...
Posted by: hobo_joe20 Sep 19th 2006, 3:49 PM
And what excuse did they find for not being able to dial manualy? Cause I can't remember...
I believe the answer to that is: a Pegasus Galaxy stargate. It doesn't look like they spin, and so dialing out manually would be an issue.
Not to mention thet couldn't actually power the thing ... at least that's 1 thing they got sort-of right.
Posted by: KillerMarv Sep 19th 2006, 3:54 PM
I believe the answer to that is: a Pegasus Galaxy stargate. It doesn't look like they spin, and so dialing out manually would be an issue.
Not to mention thet couldn't actually power the thing ... at least that's 1 thing they got sort-of right.
I distinctly remember McKay saying something about not being able to dial the gate manually unless they shut down that generator. He said that there was no power going to the gate. Hmmm... but he also said something like "even if you were able to somehow manually dial the gate". I wonder.
Reviewing is remembering.
Posted by: Auntie Em! Sep 19th 2006, 10:14 PM
About the Super Soldier thingy. Don't forget in S8 of SG1 in "Avatar" they were using the Gatekeeper machine to help perfect a virtual reality trainer for the SGC personnel. So even if a member of the SGC had never actually seen a real SS he may have been terrified by the virtual reality version of them.
Posted by: Sylver Sep 19th 2006, 10:33 PM
Speaking of Teyla - and Ronon - can they please start paying attention to them too? That would have made the episode truely perfect, had they not ignored these two, yet again. Well, can't get everything.
I can't agree enough. Really not enough.
Posted by: Pitry Sep 20th 2006, 10:46 AM
How does "potential to be freakishly scary" sound then?
Because they really could have made them out to be alot worse. Keep the same plot lines, scenes, etc. Just add some stuff where the wraith are in the city/attacking the Atlantis teams that the atlantis keep seeing ghosts and so don't actually have an accurate count of how many wraith are actually out there.Much better. ;) The psychological issue is why I enjoy the Orii so much - I hope they'll start paying attention to that side of the Wraith soon, rather than just have life-sucking vampires rummaging around muttering cliches. ;)
(Pitry isn't a big Wraith fan - although they're getting much better now that Christopher Heyerndel (sp?) is doing them!)
As for the DHD discussion - McKay mentioned the reason they can't manually dial-up - they haev no power. False, actually, because it has been established in Stargate that the gate should hold enough excessive power for one more dial up without a DHD, but I can't remember which episode that was. In all others they did need a power source for a manual dial-up -Torment of Tantlaos, Prisoners, New Ground...
I agree, however, that blowing the DHD with c4 is idiotic. So was the UAV ;)
Posted by: seymour Sep 21st 2006, 12:27 AM
Not too shabby, although I too recognized elements of the vastly superior "Paradise Lost" episode, which was far creepier than this was. I appreciate how the plot started Ronan running away from the team to chase his hallucination, but had him circle around back to the team when his delusions were at their height.
I thought the Beckett arc was the best one of the lot, and I was genuinely surprised that the first soldier was dead for so long, while the other one he thought was dead was still hanging in there. Well done.
I think they missed a great opportunity with the Sheppard/Teyla arc. I think it would've been more interesting if Sheppard had thought he was trying to save someone in another scenario that he really cared about while she doesn't realise that his reactions are for someone else really not there.
Instead, it was sort of a one way street as far as character dynamics go. Oh well.
Totally agree.
Teyla is fading away as a character.
Ronon did at least have a recent episode focused on him. Teyla's seems to have lost everything, including that fighting room she used for training!
Posted by: cosmos Sep 26th 2006, 2:00 PM
As for the DHD discussion - McKay mentioned the reason they can't manually dial-up - they haev no power. False, actually, because it has been established in Stargate that the gate should hold enough excessive power for one more dial up without a DHD, but I can't remember which episode that was. In all others they did need a power source for a manual dial-up -Torment of Tantlaos, Prisoners, New Ground...
I agree, however, that blowing the DHD with c4 is idiotic. So was the UAV ;)
There is mention from McKay that the guy that did this; new exactly where to place the C4 in order to assure destruction. He may just as well removed the center piece and placed the explosion between the crystals. The point is that that even an armored car would break up if the grenade is under its hood.
About the manual dial up, it crossed my mind too. However the design of the Stargate in the Pegasus is different; no moving parts. In any other example you have mentioned the team moves the ring and locks the Chevrons by hand. They couldn't have done it with their current gate.
Posted by: Ty_dA_maNn58 Oct 17th 2006, 1:54 PM
This episode was pretty good. I found it a bit boring at times, but I was wondering how the team would make it out of this one (cuz I knew for sure that all 5 of them would make it out alive...as usual) When they found the first few bodies and they said 'this one has been shot' and Teyla said 'several times' or whatever, I immediately thought of Lt. Ford. But saddly I was wrong When Barroso and Kagan were shot I assumed they would both die which kinda made me angry as the show has a knack of just killing off other teams (which I just realized do not have assigned names like SG-5) But I was amazed when Barroso was alive. But whoa!!! he wasn't really alive, it was just Beckett, awesome twist. It threw me off when Leonard called for the Promethus and he saw the Kull warriors. I have never seen him before but I assume that means he had a tie in with a previous stargate sg-1 episode. (did he star in one? or was it just implied that he was involved in an off-camera scene with them)
Correct me if I'm wrong but Wasn't the Taliban at war with Russia and the U.s. was backing the Taliban? So why was Sheppard shooting at them? Unless I'm thinking of a different time...
Posted by: Revan Oct 17th 2006, 4:22 PM
It threw me off when Leonard called for the Promethus and he saw the Kull warriors. I have never seen him before but I assume that means he had a tie in with a previous stargate sg-1 episode. (did he star in one? or was it just implied that he was involved in an off-camera scene with them)
Correct me if I'm wrong but Wasn't the Taliban at war with Russia and the U.s. was backing the Taliban? So why was Sheppard shooting at them? Unless I'm thinking of a different time...
No, it just means he was a member of the SGC when we had to deal with the Kull Warriors.
Not in the Persian Gulf War... 1990.... I think that is where the flashbacks took place...
Posted by: cosmos Oct 18th 2006, 12:18 PM
I guess in this episode they provided the details behind Sheppard's unfavourable transfer to the Atlantic. Despite his experience and training he was sent to fly people back and forth from the station. And also it ties with the comments about not following proper procedure and with his comment in "The Intruder" about knowing many people who thought he'd never go further than Major. I like that continuity of the little things.
I also liked that the escort soldiers were involved in the episode. They usually treat them as non persons. They usually just get killed or beaten up.
Posted by: startreksuite Oct 28th 2006, 6:54 AM
Great episode! Loved the fact that a wraith device messed with everyone's heads, blurring the line of reality for each person! It stunk that so many people died on this episode. It seemed a little strange that the guy with the life threatening injury died and the guy who people ignored died 
The fact that it was able to mess with everyone but Teyla was interesting, it could be the fact she has some Wraith DNA in her! 
Posted by: JTMAG1 Oct 28th 2006, 11:40 AM
Great episode! Loved the fact that a wraith device messed with everyone's heads, blurring the line of reality for each person! It stunk that so many people died on this episode. It seemed a little strange that the guy with the life threatening injury died and the guy who people ignored died
The fact that it was able to mess with everyone but Teyla was interesting, it could be the fact she has some Wraith DNA in her! I think that's specifically why it didn't bother her.
I just wonder who the wraith were fighting where they thought they needed equipment like this...
Posted by: Xen Nov 4th 2006, 3:11 PM
I think the Genii. Since (I used it!) they found them, early in the EP. But, I fail to see why they would need to use that. Unless, it was a test of Tech.
Posted by: JTMAG1 Nov 4th 2006, 4:45 PM
I think the Genii. Since (I used it!) they found them, early in the EP. But, I fail to see why they would need to use that. Unless, it was a test of Tech.
I agree, perhaps this was test equipment left over from a time before they had the ability to use it, because, they were using that trick in Rising weren't they?
Posted by: Xen Nov 5th 2006, 12:02 AM
I don't recall that, but from what I can remember. In rising the Wraith were playing mind games with them. Showing them things that were not there. Yeah, I agree that it was from a time before they could use it.
Posted by: Dafmeister Dec 13th 2006, 5:20 PM
It was a pretty good episode but there was just too much going on. Ronon and McKay's "visions" were virtually abandonned and only thrown back in as a plot device.
I liked the way that McKay bullet wound miraculously moved from the left hand side of his chest, just after Sheppard shot him, to the left hand side of his abdomen as Beckett was bandaging him up.
It seems to me that TPTB are purposely ignoring Ronon and Teyla for some reason. They refer to Teyla's Wraith DNA occasionally but they never do anything with it except have it as a plot device. The majority of the episode revolving around Sheppard is getting boring now. There's a whole city of people in the show, get rid of Sheppard for a while and include the supporting cast for a change.
Posted by: JC1 Dec 14th 2006, 6:27 PM
Another good Atlantis episode. Although, I don't know why Weir just didn't sent a puddle jumper through. They could have used the onboard DHD to dial the gate, instead of waiting around for the Deadalus.
I would have liked to have seen how Shepards Afghanastan mission ended.
Was Shepards Afghanastan hallucination, supposed to be the 'black mark' incident on his record? If so, its different than incident described in "Rising" and it hardly seems like enough for people like Landry, O'Neill and other officers to mistrust Shepard.
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