that part where sheppard was telling the girl about the war with teh clowns was great, plus mckay on drugs is always funny

wraith worshipers? now thats scary, is that kinda like voodoo or devil worshiping or something?

This post has been edited by togar: Jan 6th 2006, 11:26 PM

Good episode. It's taken me awhile to really like SG:A. This season has hooked me.
I'd give it an 8. Actually liked it better than the episode of SG1.

Ford appearing out of nowhere to save Shep' Pure 'rabbit out of the hat'.
Why would they write a two-hour episode without thinking up a way to help Sheppard escape that doesn't involve having a 'pull the rabbit out of the hat' resolution? They could have at least shown something rather than have Ford show up?
When Ford showed up I thought he might have been either an abberation or was mind controled, something or whatever, it just didn't seem right that he would pop out of nowherre when he was originally unconscious and out of the enzyme.

Second, why would the wraiths be concerned with human slaves when they're competing over food? That's like starving yourself so you can't eat your butler?
And these wraith worshippers?
Are they serious?
These people couldn't possibly be comfortable about this? What happens when there's a lean month and the nearest wraith starts drooling as they walk past? These people have to realize their lives are hanging on by a thread?
There's going to have to be a much better explanation of why anyone would or could be able to worship the wraith when they know these people they worship LIKE TO EAT THEM?!!!!

MYOB'
.

maybe its a self esteem issue, i doubt the wraith friendships go very deep, you dont really form bonds as a kid feeding on people and destroying planets, it makes them feel better, and powerful

and why do you keep saying "rabbit out of the hat"?

This post has been edited by togar: Jan 7th 2006, 2:17 AM

actually if you look at the right hyperdrive engine (left lookin at the picture) its situated over the docking bay

This post has been edited by stargate loyal fan: Jan 7th 2006, 11:41 AM

That's not the hyperdrive, it's one of the Daedalus' docking bays. It's not over the docking area. You can see the lights at the edge of the city platform beneath the Daedalus' docking bay.

Nice conclusion of episode 210.

Question: Why are some of the Wraith wearing masks ?? It looks like their warrior class, but why ??

This was a good episode. I really liked it a lot.

I thought all of the characters were good. What can I say, once again, Ford is a good character this season. I guess you can't keep him down, LOL! Even Sheppard is beginning to think that Ford is indestructible. When everyone was saying he's dead, Shep wouldn't admit it. The last we saw of Ford the Wraith were taking him to cocoon him. to keep her available for feeding. Then the next time, Ford saves Shep's life. We don't know how he got away, but he did. Shep even asked, and Ford said, "that was the easy part, finding more enzyme was harder." You knew that Ford was once again high on the drug.

One thing I noticed while Ford was having withdrawals from the drug, he truly remembered his military training. Did anyone else pick up on the fact that Ford when spoken to by Shep kept saying, "yes, sir." And he also remembered to call him John. At that point when the drug was not so prevelent in his system, Ford remembered that he was "part of the "team."

McKay on drugs has to be one of the funniest moments. Once again, Beckett is right with him to play the straight man to him.

Caldwell, Weir, Ronon and Teyla were good supporting characters in this episode. And I got me some Major Lorne.

I'm so glad that Shep is as smart as I want him to be. When that girl, Neera was playing him, I said, "don't trust her." He didn't. He knew that she had been planted by the Wraith.

I'm glad that they now know about the animosity between the Wraiths and can use it to their advantage.

Nice summary, IndyJan. Couldn't have said it better myself. I was laughing myself to tears from the moment Rodney said "Lock and load." Then he was muttering, "Biiig dose. Big big dose!" at the gate while he was dialing. And his, "You shoulda seen me - I was amazing!" in the gateroom was priceless. His withdrawal scenes scenes were golden too. I have nothing but kudos for David Hewlett. His acting range continues to surprise me. In fact, what made the episode the most enjoyable for me were his scenes. I still would've watched but I don't think I would've rated it above sg-1 if it hadn't been for his scenes.

My theory on why McKay's withdrawal was so bad compared to the others is that he took such a big dose where as Teyla and Ronan were on a more gradual regimen. Ford probably didn't want to give them too much in order to keep them from overpowering his little band. A dose McKay's size should've been more gradually let down. However, that was not possible since they didn't have any enzyme. He had to come down real far real fast. Honestly, I'm surprised it didn't kill him. I hold the belief that his system wasn't as used to being dependent on the enzyme because he'd only recently started it. His body was able to return to normal functionality rather than crashing because it could remember how to function. A more long term user's body might just sit there and go, "Duuuh... what am I supposed to do again?" and just crash. So that's my theory.

Great episode, superb acting on DH's part can't wait for more of that. Next week's ep looks a little lame to me but I'll reserve judgement until I see it.

Saying "pulling a rabbit out of the hat" is a more distinquished and less profane way of saying "pulling it out of their ass" in reference to the writers spending 59 minutes of the episode setting it up and then pull a solution to the problem at the last moment and then leave it up to the actors/actresses explaining things like a narrative in the final seconds like they did in SG-1 when the doc has to explain to the general how they got the cure when the telecast already said that the cure was being widespread around the globe already. It was just a cop out on the writers part to solve a problem and not have to actually film a scene of them doing it or solving the problem of how they were going to do it. It's a sign of lazy writing and it's been very common place on SG since SG-1 season 5. A lot of my friends watch this show and they too bring up this fact.

MYOB'
.

awesome ep! loved the bit with the clowns and all of ronan's knives (one in his HAIR?!) . rodney on the drug was so funny! i was laughing so hard as he was dialing the dhd.
i wonder if ford is still alive. he does have an amazing knack for...living.
looks like its going to be a great season

MYOB - careful with the spoilers. I noticed you commented on the most recent episode of SG-1, whereas most of the world hasn't seen it yet. The UK I believe is a week or more behind, as is Canada when it comes to SG-1. You wouldn't want me going and posting information on episode 16 of Atlantis in the SG-1 episode discussion just because I have seen it and you have not. It could ruin it for you. So just try and be careful next time and use spoiler tags

Great ep one of the best IMO the fact that ford was in it was even better I still belive that that Ford is way
better then Ronan TPTB should have left ronan on the ship and ford should have come to Atlantis .
On a side note I loved the joke Sheppard made about the clowns you could see the girl had a WTF look
on her face and the joke ford made about the knife vary funny . over all vary good ep and once again Atlantis has out done SG1 .

This post has been edited by gatenut: Jan 8th 2006, 4:16 PM

ITA Samara Draven.... I'm glad to see the writers taking advantage of David Hewlett's talents. The character has grown so much more than I ever saw coming.

You know, I just came up with an interesting comparison. Please don't shoot me if you don't like it. OK. Here goes: SG-1 has Daniel, a.k.a. Spacemonkey: Death Defyer Extraordinaire! You just can't keep a good Spacemonkey down! Ford's knack for doing the same has me thinking he's the equivelant Atlantis Spacemonkey... and he more looks the part! No, seriously, sometimes when I look at him I see Curious George. That's a good thing! To me anyway, I liked Curious George. Anyhoo, just a thought.

I just want a Wraith in the future to say: "Now... we want to know about this enemy of yours... the Clowns! And their advanced Volkswagen technology!!"

This post has been edited by Atlantians: Jan 9th 2006, 1:34 AM

I forgot to mention the clown enemy by Sheppard. More and more shows are having episodes like that. They did it on Boston Legal with James Spader's character (movie Daniel Jackson). I pick up on these things because my daughter has a fear of them also. Shep's comment, "Lock and load" is something that Denny Crane (William Shatner) says on Boston Legal every week. I'm wondering if the writers of Atlantis are tipping their hats to Spader and Shatner.

Oh my goodness, the Clowns! That was too funny. "They just keep sending them in..." And McKay was great. "That's what happens when you back a genius into a corner!" Hope I got that right...loved it!

Wow! I used to like SG-1 even more than Atlantis, but Atlantis episodes have become so good they're on the same level. I was starting to get fed up with Ford's antics as a crazy man souped up on a wraith enzyme, but after McKay injected himself and took out a couple of Ford's men, then came back to Atlantis and became super paranoid, I kinda felt for Ford. Then seeing that not having the enzyme can kill him, see his dilemma; crazy super guy, or death! And Sheppard proved again he's smarter than you think by causing the wraith to fire at each other, as well as figuring the wraith queen used a wraith spy to get his home planet location from him.

"Thousands of them pouring out of Volkswagons."
Shepherd said grimicing,
"We do our best to fight them off... but they just keep sending them in."

have they replaced the f-302's w/ jumpers on the daedalus?

No, a Puddle Jumper was taken because it could cloak.

Not a bad episode. I thought it was a little slow. I mean everything seemed to happen quickly in 'The Lost Boys' but very little happened in this episode. McKay's comments to himself as he was putting the control crystals back in the DHD were brilliant.
I think it was obvious that the woman in the cell with Sheppard was there to gather information, she didnt seem right to begin with.
I like the way that the Wraith are now more territorial, it adds more depth to them. Has it been said that Ford is definitely dead? If they hadnt said anything about then I would have believed he was dead but when Sheppard said he will probably show up again it is a gaurantee that he will be back.

60% Did the job, with some flare but didn't match the charisma of 'The Lost Boys'.

EUNUCH OF THE WEEK: I guess the first hive ship they encountered belonged to a particularly sadistic queen, because this queen seemed slower to turn to Wraith-sucking, instead preferring the beautiful mole cliche. Maybe she just didn't want to mess up her chambers, which do seem to have a minimalist decor compared to the other one (not that I mind the decor being different from hive to hive at all).

DECEPTION OF THE WEEK: Of course, while I was watching it, I was thinking of things I would say in this review. One of them was how contrived the jail break was with no guards and an accessible panel. Another was how B movie crappy the poor pod victim was. In the end it turned out that all these things was staged by the Wraith for their purposes. In retrospect, that explains this crapiness, but what made the deception convincing for me was that I found it plausible that this could be chalked up to bad writing and production. Fortunately, the writers and producers are better than I gave them credit for on this point (although it should be stressed I would never have been so cynical during the golden age of SG-1). This is somewhat similar to a point the Cynic himself made in a Voyager review.

WRAITH UNINTELLIGENCE OF THE WEEK: So the easy jail break is explained in the context of the story, but I just hope the Wraith in future make sure opening the cell is harder than playing a game of darts. They could also do better to give the plant a more distressed look. As I said, she was like something out of an old crappy B movie rather than plausibly the victim of a Wraith culling.

BAD TACTICS OF THE WEEK: I'm waiting for sci-fi series to actually depict realistic space combat. Having two ship line up beside each other and blast each other with side cannons like 16th century galleons is so lame. The Daedalus is officially the most powerful ship in the Pegasus galaxy because it is the only one that seems to have and use long range weapons. The stupidity of this strategy is brought home when you consider that the explosion of one hive ship took out the other.

BAD ENGINEERING OF THE WEEK: Why are spaceships always so highly combustible anyway?

A fair episode, but still, I preferred The Lost Boys.

Major Gripes:

Too much time spent in the hive cells - can you say boring? Didn't really advance the plot, and it slowed down the pace of the show.

Not enough time spent on the enzyme withdrawl - I didn't buy how quickly they all returned to normal. I realise there was the constraint of fitting it into a single episode, but it almost made light of the situation.

The Wraith turning on each other - don't get me wrong, I love the theme of territorial Wraith, and the setting up of the paranoia between the ships was well done, but the actual moment when they turned on each other was ludicrous! The ships just sat there, taking a beating, not trying to get into any sort of tactical position, and were they not aware that the victor would be destroyed in the explosion? Geez...

Super Rodney - the comedy value of his scuffle with the henchmen was pretty good (hands in the face! ), but the madness was a bit much - I'm not blaming Hewlett's acting, I just think the general situation could've been written better. Once he went into withdrawl it was spot on, but the initial insanity was naff.

Sheppard's last line - I had so hoped Ford would never, ever be coming back...

Bring on Epiphany!

[Edit] Damn you glom! You always steal my good points! [/Edit]

This post has been edited by Parmenides: Jan 11th 2006, 4:53 PM