Okay, no suprise but I liked the episode. No shock that Jack is stumbling through his first few weeks of being base commander. However, everyone (save for Sgt. Walter Whatshislastname?) seems to have confidence in his abilities and will back him. Yet another appearance of Sgt. Siler, and he's not sent to the infirmary! And Gate Boy (Walter) says a lot more than just "Chevron 7 locked".
They now have another functioning ZPM (50% full), but they have to figure out how to un-booby trap it first. Don't want to blow up the planet - scratch that - entire SOLAR SYSTEM! Talk about overkill! So, will they use it to power the ancient defense base, or call Atlantis? Or maybe they can to both? Too bad Jack sent the Goa'uld defector off since he was the one who booby-trapped it.
So I see Baal has Anubis' holo-projector now. Wonder what else he has?
B.J.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
"Walter Norman Davis", according to the actor. His outfit, at least for the first few seasons, was labelled "N. Davis" or somesuch. Only in "2010" did O'Neil call him "Walter", which was an ad-lib by Richard Dean Anderson (and rumoured to be a tip of the hat to Gary Jones' resemblance to Walter "Radar" O'Reilly from M*A*S*H).
I also really liked this episode - which is also proof positive that they can make a Jack-centered episode while having the actor for only three days a week. This one must have been shot over at least two weeks. This whole season has been pretty good so far, actually.
As for the ZPM, we now have a reason why no one has called Atlantis yet at least to say hello - they don't have the power for it, and the ZPM they found in "Lost City" is now drained. While the notion of sending a large team of humans with no safe contingency plan for return is a still kinda dubious to me, they are at least backing the choice up by emphatically stating that there's no way there or back, at least for now. Still wondering about the Asgard, though...
Mark
PS - Thanks for starting this thread! Let's do one for every episode. And Mods - pleaaaaase might we have a Stargate forum? Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Though, I don't think the energy requirements for dialing an extragalactic gate are so immense that they can only be fulfilled by ZPMs. I mean, if the power cell of a measly staff weapon holds a big enough charge to do it (Well, OK, not without being inserted into that Ancient reactor gizmo. ((Why haven't they built more of those things, anyway? The one O'Neill built must have been turned upside down and inside out more times than there are gate chevron permutations, and it's not like there ever was a shortage of dead Jaffa to steal LN batteries from. (((Also, nested parentheses are the ugliest style element ever.)))))), then the output of a few naquadah generators should surely be more than adequate as well, no?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Apparently not... I think the thing that O'Neil built WAS a ZPM, just a poor-man's version. It may have used a staff weapon cell for power, but only to create the actual zero-point energy field. They could have replaced the battery, but the actual crcuitry would have burned out, only to be fixed later by dual-Carter. Plus, they apparently left the whole contraption in the alternate dimension, thus removing it from future storylines when they destroyed the quantum mirror.
Why couldn't O'Neil have just built another of those things to power the Ancient outpost weapons, while he was all smartified again? Probably whatever was needed to power the weapons couldn't be concocted with whatever he used last time. Different kind of energy, or a different interface. In any case, they've got another - just gotta figger out how to use it.
Also odd is that they let Camulus go... I thought he was supposed to be used more than this? As it stands, he's barely more present than that Vorta guy on DS9, who came to an unceremonious end thanks to Quark's magnificent seven...
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, there's no reason to think he won't show up again.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Okay, shouldn't Earth have TWO empty ZPMs? One they retrieved from an ancient base some distance away, but wasn't there a dead one already in the Antarctic base?
Best line?
"Camel-ass."
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Looks like they forgot about the other dead one. However, it looked charred or darker than the "live" ZPM (though it could have been the dark lighting on the set)... Perhaps they gave Camulus the more recently emptied one because it at least didn't LOOK empty.
Mark
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
I think O'Neill let "Camel-ass" go simply because he was POed that he lied to them. Okay, it was a lie of omission, but he should have told them about the booby-trap he put on the ZPM.
B.J.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: PS - Thanks for starting this thread! Let's do one for every episode. And Mods - pleaaaaase might we have a Stargate forum?
PS - You're welcome! (Someone had to do it!)
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
I thought O'Neill always wanted his own command too. As a career officer he would know that the position he holds now is more adminstrative than running SG-1. On the one hand he's been long overdue for a promotion after all he's been a colonel for who knows how long his career seemed to hit a halt. On the other hand, his skills seem best out in the field saving Earth once a week. Also, why does he still wear his fatigues or whatever they're called instead of his blues like Hammond always wore?
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Seems to me in early seasons Hammond had the full uniform on whereas later on in the show he just had on the t-shirt type deal. All depends on the CO, I guess. Even Sgt. Walter wore a full uniform in the start but then switched over to coveralls.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Isn't the number of general officers controlled by Congress? And a Colonel who's spent the past ten years engaged in top-secret stuff like the Stargate project likely wouldn't pop up on their radar as a candidate for promotion.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
True and true - there are a fixed number of Generals in the command structure, no?
Also, O'Neil was a proponent at one point for a permenant offworld base that he would command. It was refused several times, but it may have been a ruse for a particular episode. In any case, they eventually got the Alpha Site running as a permenant facility.
Mark
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
The only other reason for why O'Neill was promoted sooner would because of all the court-martialable offenses he's made. Although I doubt General Hammond ever reported them to his superiors, I wonder if they were in his service record though. One thing's for certain, saving the world a hundred times over, and the Asgard's world as well, would look great in his fitreps.
I suppose for the sake of the show though, you couldn't have O'Neill promoted while Hammond was still around. Nor would you have a general leading a team out in the field.
I don't know how both the Air Force and officers go up for promotion. I think the way it works though is there's a promotion selection committee. They look at all the candidates, say there's 10 but only 4 open slots for promotion, and evaluate their fitreps to pick which of the 10 would get a promotion.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Okay, another ZPM thought has occured to me. The Torment of Tantalus, there was an Ancient facility with a working device, with a working POWER SUPPLY. It's presumably still there, and we can get to it with Prometheus rather quickly, given that that world was close to ours in the network. Daniel'd probably still throw a hissy fit, though.
Just a thought.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
I highly doubt that single holoprojector was powered by a ZPM (actually, from what I remember, the device seemed to resemble a DHD, and we know those aren't either), and it's probably buried under tons of rubble by now, so...
[ August 04, 2004, 12:20 PM: Message edited by: Cartman ]
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Yah... that one little machine didn't look like it needed an uberPower supply. And that whole castle is likely at the bottom of the ocean.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Besides that, they don't exactly have Prometheus at their disposal to go galavanting around the galaxy. It's needed for Homeworld Security. That's probably another reason they didn't let Jack name it "Enterprise", because they're not going to use it to "boldly go..."!
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