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.

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...

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?

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).

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

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

This post has been edited by rkenshin: Sep 16th 2006, 12:28 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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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!

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.....

This post has been edited by Rogue Ashrak: Sep 17th 2006, 12:07 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.

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.

This post has been edited by Sylver: Sep 17th 2006, 8:38 AM

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).

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!

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.

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.