I absolutely loved this episode! For all those whinging about the weapon and how puny it was, well it wasn't of Ancient design.
Sheppard: "The outpost was ordered by the Ancients in Atlantis to defend the Deranded people using their weapons powered by this new power source."
It was the local people's big honkin space gun, powered by the experimental Ancient power source. It was a chance for the Ancients to experiment as well as try and protect the humans there who were willing to fight. They knew that if it worked there, then they could bring it home and completely defend Atlantis then bring the fight to the Wraith.

The complex kind of reminded me of the Tollan weapons installations, the Ion Cannons. But was disappointed to see what kind of weapons fire it produced. Then again, it wasn't of Ancient design cos they do everything big. If that power source worked, can you imagine the extent of Atlantis' shields enveloping the largest area it's shield emitters could cover as well as the 3 point defence weapons bays in full action spewing like orange fountains never running out of drones. Imaging the upgrades, since the shield would cover a larger area, the satellite weapons would be ground based (on the city) and protected creating a beautiful laser light show!!

Mackay needs to wear a leash, here he was pointing out that the Ancients were rushed doing the experiments being the reason why they failed when he was rushing into things as well. They were in no rush and could have cloaked the facility with a PJ's stealth mode generator on steroids (naquada generators). I'm sure they don't require the no where near the same amount of energy as a shield. They would have had pleanty of time to conduct the tests at very low power outputs like less than 10% to see what they could control, eventually discovering that they wouldn't be able to control it without creating an overload.

Why be greedy for, just take home the data and hide the experiment from the Wraith if possible. They could have taken the weapon home and reinstalled it on Atlantis, then figured out a power source for it later. At least it would be in safe hands, not being of Ancient design I believe that it would not be necessary for a large Ancient power source to power the weapon since the Satellite weapons packed more punch, which in comparision were greatly under powered having to buffer energy before being fired.

Funny to see that the gun was created before the logistics to run it at full potential was created. Just like the Daedalus and it's Asgard Hyperdrive and shields powered by a ZPM. As for the Daedalus, they need to upgrade the tracking and targeting systems for the Asgard transporter beam as well as installing a Stealth Mode Generator. We need to be able to hit a fleet of Wraith ships simultaneously with the element of surprise.

hey dr n tesla howd u see the latest atlantis episode if u live in sydney australia
haha dont worry mate im in the same boat, just saw it then.. episode was okay.. not the best.

We need more episodes like that of the storm and the eye from season 1. Lots of action and that. Most of the episodes in season 1 were dedicated to finding a zpm, so that why they were always travelling around the place. why are they travelling around now? theyve found their zpm... what are they doing now?

i hope it gets better when we find out more about the liutenant ford side of the story.

til next time

Who does McKay think he is? Megalomania anyone? Since the outcome was again a hundred percent (using Rodney's terms) forseeable - "the Ancients couldn't do it for <insert techno babble> so we can't do it either" - the focus of interest was on the characterization of McKay who doesn't have my sympathy this time.

All in all, a series that starts to get old in its second season has a problem.

This post has been edited by ted_simple: Aug 21st 2005, 4:47 AM

i totally agree... same old same old

In regards to weapons fire, the power source was only set to 40%....maybe that was why it didn't have such a devestating effect. They did say that the Ancients used it on full power...

Oh yes he can. It's called playing against the audience's expectations..and more importantly Teyla's. If they had shown Ronin bitching and moaning about this guy and wanting revenge, then chances are it wouldn't have happened with the help of anyone from Atlantis. It also showed that Ronin has several interesting little sides to him. He can be a genuine nice guy to his friends (see the bar scene), but he will also use people to get to a goal that he believes is just. If you notice, even the guys who were working for this guy thought the commander deserved his fate, or they wou;d've shot Ronin then and there.

Well, you have to remember that the first overload "only" cuased the death of a crewmember. I'm sure if Rodney had said "By the way, I could blow up 3/4 of the local solar system if I screw this up." Then he wouldn't have gotten the green light. I think it would be interesting to see later down the line the ramifications of what he did. For example, I bet they'll either end up going to a planet that survived the er...accident or they'll encounter people who got away....and Rodney will have to pay for what he did in other ways besides what happened on Atlantis.


This post has been edited by mithwriter: Aug 21st 2005, 10:38 AM

Good episode from Atlantis here. McKay was so over confident in this episode it was unbelievable, you could just see it coming that he was going to be wrong about the test working. When the weapon was firing it looked really cool, great effects!

About Ronan, it was a big surprise when he just shot dead his military trainer, Kell, but you could sort of tell from the hate in his eyes that he was going to do something shocking. I think we also saw the more humourous side of Ronan when we saw him drinking with his old friend that served with him in the military.

Overall I would rate this episode 8/10, Nice Ep!

This post has been edited by Stargate Master: Aug 21st 2005, 11:30 AM

Hmmm....Why is the name of this episode "trinity"? Maybe it is just me, but I don't see how any trinity has anything to do with the happenings of this episode.

Oh i understand that it was supposed to be out of the blue, im not denying that.
And im NOT talking about the role of Ronin being bad. on the contrary, the role is a great idea. even the background, 7 years in Tibet,oops, jungle running away from the wraith is also a fine idea.
the guys not shooting him, since you reminded me .
if theres a first thing in psychology of the human mind its that those guys a/ after the destruction, wouldnt stay with him or b/ the ones that would and especially the bodyguards, would be a father figure needing suck ups, whod shoot Ronin on the spot. hired mercenary wouldnt know the background and therefore MIGHT not shoot. but it was presented as if they were his people so.. the brain,one of a war tested mercenary does not fuction very well with all the adrenaline pumping and resorts to instinct (trigger . shoot ).
but that doesnt matter that much. its just the fact that it didnt seem convincing to me, not by Ronins behaviour and bad acting ( check out some classic bad guy movies, the last thing neccesary is to be big and fit , you can do all that with character, which the guy playing Ronin is in lack of, perhaps for a romantic comedy )
I dont really have the time to watch it again now and go over what would be good acting, but overall in this time and age , show's views originate from the viewer (cold murder does not fit here,unless...) and you need to explain it somehow. a show is an emotional ride and this episode, the part with the rasta man was not. I just wrote that as an example, that he would talk about this guy , thats just one thing. the other things is that after all that years being alone and now again with people would make him annoyed or sad when alone or whatever and theyd make the audience feel sorry for him, sympathise with him... so that we'd understand his killing. theres a million things they could do. you need to bring the actor closer to the audience, and NOT just by him being a pretty face, who doesnt talk much and tries to looks angry. sh*t ive written enough...
later

Hi newbie here!

Anyway, "Trinity" refers to the Trinity testing site just outside Alamagordo, New Mexico. It's where they conducted the atomic bomb tests of the Manhattan Project.

They actually have the proper Asgard systems on board. It's simply that they can't beam to multiple locations at once. To do that they would need multiple transporter systems. An actual Asgard ship can't do any more than Daedalus could in that regard.



Rodney set it at half, but is spiked & begain to go into overload. He couldn't shutit down & so it was at full power when it began firing.



I honestly knew that's what was going to happen for ages. You could tell when the spoilers were released about Dex being told that his former trainer was still alive. For a start if they had been close then Dex would have went with him & all his other own people, rather than stay on Atlantis. That would have meant no more Dex at all.

The probem is that it might not be possible to scale things down. Remember that McKay only used 40% power for his 2nd try, and that still caused the system to lose control and eventually overload.

So, unless you plan to take out 3/4 of a galaxy, detonating a ZPM would be more scalable.

My likes for this episode:
- Ronan finding some of his kin. Poor guy would have had to mope for a whole season if he was truly the sole survivor.
- McKay's ego getting deflated. His arrogance at this point in the show is unbelievable. He should have seen enough alien technology to acknowledge that he didn't know everything.

My dis-likes:
- Ronan's execution of his former CO. Where did he get off on becoming judge and jury? This sort of vigilante behavior does not make him a reliable team player for the SG:A squad.
- When the reactor overloaded and the weapons fired to discharge the energy, why did it target the Puddlejumper? If this was truly ancient technology, it should have known better than to fire on their own ships. Where was the PJ's cloak?

TJ

This post has been edited by taujin: Aug 21st 2005, 9:03 PM

Very clever.

This post has been edited by SomeEvilGuy: Aug 21st 2005, 8:58 PM

Yes, it would be interesting to deal with the ramifications of McKay "not-so-little" mishap, and I enjoy an episode where everything is not neatly solved in 40plus minutes.

But, Weir is supposed to be in command and there was no immediate threat to Atlantis and therefore no immediate need to rush recklessly into testing the weapon a second time on the word of one (somewhat deranged) scientist against the sound reasoning of the more cautious Zelenka (a great addition to this cast).

The buck stops with Weir. She made a poor decision that was unduley inflenced by her rivalry with the Co. "What's His Name." She made the decision to go ahead with the test.




I'm hopeful. The whole cast has a lot of depth and by spreading the stories around, the show should not get stale. I think the scripts should focus less on Mackay though. Sometimes, it feels like "Mckaygate".

This post has been edited by seymour: Aug 21st 2005, 10:04 PM

ITA Ted, I watched Atlantis last season because it was a spin-off of SG. I continued to watch this season for the same reason. Now, I probably won't unless they make some changes. One being, toning down McKay from his "I'm god complex." They need to let others shine and do things, Zelenka, Beckett, and maybe others. Usually it's medical doctors that end up with a "god complex." They can do no wrong. They can save lives, no matter what, etc. McKay seems to be thinking the same thing. It's always about him. Siege 3, I'm getting tired of him real fast.

OK I just watched this episode and I thought it a HUGE improvement in the SGA series. FINALLY an episode with substance. That made you think deeply. Phew, I was getting scared S2 would suck.

Teyla actress is pregnant. She must be. She looks to be 4 months along. Does anyone know if she is really pregnant?

How cool was it that the D came to the rescue. Awesome. But makes me wonder why some Ancients didn't escape like they did. Maybe some did.

Zelenka was right and Rodney was wrong. So Rodney has been built over the last 5 episodes as the god of technology. People here have been whining about that. Well I think they did that on purpuse so that his fall in this episode would be that much more drastic. He needed to be bitch slapped by fate. Put in his place so that his ego would not get more people killed. Something is going to happen to give even more purpose to this episode.

Very nice. I do not usually rate episodes but I give this one a 10/10.

I liked that Ronan killed that SOB. If I were in his position I too would have done the same thing. I like how Teyla agreed with his action. Ronan only errored in his using Teyla to accomplish his deed. He knew that Telya would cover his 6. This was such a Telya/Ronan shippy episode. Way cool hookup those two would be.

This post has been edited by Auntie Em!: Aug 22nd 2005, 3:57 AM

And the others aren't better. Let me put it this way... the fact that they don't stop him until he blows up a solar system makes it difficult to take Weir and Sheppard seriously any longer. I was just shouting "shut Rodney up NOW!" for the latter half of the episode but again he won and got his way, I guess this is why I am angry, and come on, all that it has cost him was a setback in regards to Sheppards trust and there'll be no further consequences for him.

This is why it all sucked.

Although I understand why Auntie would see this episode as one of substance.

This post has been edited by ted_simple: Aug 22nd 2005, 4:08 AM

My thoughts exactly, Em Finally, an episode this season other than Siege that gets more than a "decent".

I really enjoyed the McKay story. It was obvious tehy're not going to get such a good weapon this early in the show - or at all, cough - I think it did wonders to McKay's character. After the goofy McKay we've seen in the last episodes, the one who was the base for the jokes and puns in the past 4 episodes, we see a real McKay. McKay feeling guilty he sent one of his men to his death - arrogant, insufferable McKay that's sure he knows everything, better than anyone - including the Ancients - putting down Zelenca again, honestly, I don't know why Zelenca puts up with it, I'd have smacked Rodney by now - and finally, McKay humbled down by a huge, huge mistake he made for which he has to take responsibility for. A real blow to his own arrogance. I loved it.

The Ronon Teyla story, not so. It was an improvement on the rest of the Ronon we've seen this season, but it was predictable to the extreme - the second they did that close up on Ronon when his teacher was mention it was obvious the guy's dead the second Ronon sees him. The teenaged vibe I got from the beginning of the episode "can I please go with you?" was painful. I enjoyed one bit about Teyla here. The way she tells Ronon sometimes she needs tog et away from Atlantis, anywhere away. First signs that not all that direntiates her from the Earth people is the fact she wasn't born in the MW. I hope they play a bit on that, this is definitely the kind of character development Teyla desperately needs, 26 episodes into the pilot.

Oh, and thankee for the Trinity explanation. I was wondering where that came from meself

Now I jsut hope the rest of season 2 looks that way, not like Condemned!

OH, I forgot to say. PLEASE. I know they are saving money for cool CGI but why oh heavenly why did they use that house as the house that Teyla and Ronan had to kill that man. It was the same house that Daniel and Vala lived in, in SG"Origin" They covered up the village pretty good and removed the burning alter, but it still was the same village.

I hope this episode gives the writers an opportunity to scale back Rodney's ego. That was his Achilles heel from his SG1 years. Now in Atlantis his ego is growing even more. I was glad to see in previous episodes his ability to step up and put his life on the line a little for his friends. Hopefully this episode will also stand to help develop his character. I guess they needed to push that part of his character to the max before they could start to change it... I enjoyed the episode if only for that reason.

Pretty good ep
Loved seeing the big gun

COmments
Was surprised that the Daedelus was able to take a couple of hits from the gun. I would have that it'll be some massive energy weapon with a one shot kill.

Also think that the weapon whilst difficult to harness for more productive purposes can still be used (hey if u can take out a quarter of an solar system u can do alot of damage)

Great episode! McKay was faced with his ultimate challenge: make a super power source work, one in which killed the ancients, since even they couldn't figure it out! Of course it couldn't be fixed, since it was unstable, unpredictable. Plus, it would ruin the struggle with the wraith, since they could be easily overpowered, and make earth a utopia, no more fossil fuels, as Colonel Caldwell said. Ronan's life is looking up, finding his people have survived the wraith, 300 of them! However, killing the traitor to his people, and possibly damaging negotiations with the people of that planet make it harder for Teyla, maybe adds a twist to the show?

I think that McKay has done such a number on both Weir and Sheppard in regards to what he can and cannot do, they went with him. Plus, they were excited about possibly having a weapon that would defeat the Wraith. They were both idiots just as McKay. But because of what Zelenka told Weir, Weir tried to halt it. Once again, McKay snowed them. Yeah, Sheppard won't trust McKay so easily next time. It may not seem like much, but I'm hoping that the writers use it, and make it so much more difficult for McKay to do anything. I'm hoping that Weir and Sheppard may go more to Zelenka in regards to things now.

Yeah, I know why Em liked the show, and yes it had more depth, but it doesn't mean that I have to like how McKay is and just how large his ego has become.

I loved when you saw Weir screaming at McKay for Destrtoying 3/4 of the solar system, I wish we could of saw her office rather than out, she was pissed, WOW.

I hope McKay learns from this, that just because the Ancients couldn't get it to work, that doesn't mean he can.

It was cool to see Ronin having a good time. That was crazy when he shot his former military trainer, I guess it just shows the badass that he is. He does what he wants, unless he's ordered not to. I don't know, we'll see in future episodes.