Okay, so first a rant: Just as BSG finally stops doing that stupid "8 Hours Earlier..." dramatic cop-out, now we get SG-1 doing it!
I found this episode to be disappointing for several reasons. First, the whole concept of addicting a whole bunch of worlds to a drugged crop seems like it should be a major plot that bears much more attention, yet it all got shoved to the side because of the theft of the Stargate.
Second, why the hell did Colonel Whats-His-Name think it was a good idea to start shooting at the Alliance's warships? They were both there for the same reason, to get back the 'gates that Baal had stolen, and shooting at the Alliance wasn't going to stop them from blowing up Baal's ship! (Of course, blowing up Baal's ship was decidedly not a good way to guarantee that they get their 'gate back... but I'm willing to grant the writers the benefit of the doubt concerning the pirates' stupidity.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
I don't think its a "dramatic cop out", I just think its something that can get worn out quite quickly if used too often.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Just watched. Notes made before reading the earlier posts, so apologies for any overlap.
-Check those new guns! I'm told that the smaller ones are the MP7, a new model in the H&K product line as the MP5s that SG-1 used for years before the P-90. Meanwhile, Mitchell later uses the new G36 assault rifle. There's no real explanation for the switch - perhaps to use unfamiliar weapons so the Lucians won't know offhand if they're Tau'ri? Even then, they keep using them when they do the surgical strike. Complete or not, there HAS to be a locker full of P-90s on board, so...
-Only Mitchell acknowledges his fancy new gun at the end of the episode.
-The Lucians, btw, use existing submachine pistols too - including what looks to be Blade's modified MAC-10!
-Mary Poppins?
-The new USS Odyssey (you can see USS on the ship's patch) is commanded by Colonel Emmerson. It's the stock Prometheus sets in the Daedalus configuration, with red lighting (Prometheus was blue, Daedalus was neutral or blue) and green jumpsuits. There seems to be a ladder on the starboard fore of the bridge that was not apparently on Daedalus, though; who knows if it'll suddenly appear there too.
-The Odyssey patch has "DEEP SPACE CARRIER" and "PB3865" on the lower half. Finally, a reg number for a USAF starship?
-I'm fairly certain that the other Odyssey crewman was the Captain we saw last week aboard Prometheus, who wrenched his arm. There's some continuity for you.
-Ahh, Nerus is still fat and not forgotten. Oddly though, he's not really "underground" as Landry promised. The repartee between the two was cutem and makes me a little sorry that he had to bite it this time.
-So Baal's looking to start over as a god, re-establishing a small empire by establishing links between isolated planets whose stargates are removed from the network. They do this by using the same tech that allowed Baal to activate all the stargates at once.
-Baal's Jaffa does include some guys from other Goa'uld, including Imhotep, Muto, and Heru'ur.
-Oddly, the three clones that walk by Nerus' Baal are all wearing the same turtleneck. One of them was wearing the same jacket that the last murdered Baal was wearing.
-So... With all these Baal clones, do they all have the snake in the head somehow? Goa'uld are supposed to be able to sense one another by the naquadah markers in their tissues.
-When Odyssey saves SG-1 in the requisite nick of time, they beam out sitting down, and beam IN standing up. This isn't the first time they've done this, either. God bless them Asgard transporters!
-Teal'c has apparently been playing Halo 2 with double-wield.
-Odyssey comes home with a cargo bay full of stargates. What will they do with 'em? Will they put at least some of them back where they were reported missing?
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
That was impressive.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Alrighty, after some housecleaning there with Mark's posts....
A cap of the lower portion of the Odyssey patch. Makes me wonder what the Daedalus's registry is.
Also, is it just me or is the Odyssey's tower off to one side rather than in the center?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Externally, Odyssey and Daedalus are identical... The bridge is located on the centerline, though.
Additional tidbit on how stargates work - when someone moves a gate to a new planet, upon activation it will automatically transmit its location to the remainder of the gates in the network. This is how gates compensate for the stellar drift - and presumably a function that had been disabled on Earth's original alpha gate, thus explaining the inital premise for the show spitting out compensated addresses. Nerus had figured out a way to intentionally disable the feature, allowing Baal to set up a network of gates (and therefore planets) that were literally "off the grid" of the other stargates, thus letting him start anew to rebuild his forces without outside interference. Unless someone were to figure out the locations of these planets and send a ship, of course.
Speaking of which, even the Lucian Alliance, having inherited at least a few Ha'tak and Al'kesh ships, need the gates as a method of commerce. Their corn is best sent directly, of course, and not take days or weeks by ship.
Oh, and dialogue confirms that Captain Marks from "Ethon" has recovered, and is the Major to Colonel Emerson's right on Odyssey.
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
OK I haven't seen this episode - infact nothing past The Fourth Horseman Part 1. If the Odyssey has a cargo bay full of Stargates and is in orbit of Earth - which one gets activated with an incoming wormhole? That is As long as none have a DHD - what happens if MORE than one has a DHD!?!
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
This is addressed in episodes like "Touchstone" and "Watergate", way back in the second and fourth seasons. It gets a little complicated, but generally what happens is that in the case where a gate with a DHD is connected, it has priority over a gate using the Earth dialing computer. This is how the Russians used their stargate for their program. So, should the Odyssey bring a batch of gates home, they should be disconnected from their DHDs to keep the earth primary gate as the master.
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
True - but actually thinking about it - If the Gate network doesn't recognise the original Alpha Gate when it's not connected to a DHD - why then should it override the other gate (or gates) when they TOO aren't connected to a DHD. Do SGC computers hold some PARTIAL sway over the gate that the presence of an actual DHD override? Casue if it's just the DHD that is the deciding factor and NONE of them have DHDs connected - what gate do you come out of?
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
It might help that, without the DHD, the other gates also have no power source.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Oh yeah, the rescued gates... I forgot to mention that, too. Obviously it might not be 100% ethical, but wouldn't it be great if the SGC just "somehow" couldn't determine all of the planets that Baal had stolen the gates from? That would mean that the SGC would finally be able to use their own DHD.
Oh wait, that's a bad thing... poor Walter would be out of a job then! Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The writers have said that the SGC specifcally sticks to the dialing computer, since with that they KNOW what happens when they press a button. In nine years, they've gotten over pretty much everything that could go wrong, with help from the Asgard and people with the Ancients' library in their heads. I think the last time something went really wrong was in "Red Sky", back in the fifth season.
Mark
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I'm not sure I buy that. Multiple characters � including Carter � have commented many times on the durability, adaptability, and versatility of the Stargate system. It's designed to be as simple as possible for the user, but it's incredibly complex under the shell. It's the ultimate example of the "It Just Works" principle. So it seems to me that installing a DHD at the SGC would make things a whole lot less complex � no need for the lengthy "Chevron One encoded..." sequence (they made a little joke about this in the pilot episode of Atlantis, too). Also, considering the thousands of little variables, wouldn't it make sense that there is still the possibility of another "Red Sky"-type incident, where the use of the non-standard gate controls causes danger of some sort? It seems obvious to me that the SGC could easily still use the iris and the IDC controls and all that. Hell, given Carter's experience, they could even retrofit the control room so that the DHD itself is still tucked away in a closet, providing power to the Stargate (and there's a tax money-saving measure, too!), but there's a more customized control interface in the room itself for Walter to push the buttons.
Also, think of the time back in "There But For the Grace of God..." where everyone almost got trapped because Carter's dialing program wasn't fast enough? There wouldn't be that problem with a DHD controlling things!
As a result, I find it hard to believe that the computer program and ad hoc wired connections that Carter managed to MacGyver� together are actually better than a ten-thousand-year-old, single-box unit that anyone in the galaxy can use once they figure out the right selection of symbols.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Security. Any one can just come along and dial the DHD. We know that the SGC has multiple security measures to stop just any intruder from dialing a gate and leaving. Also they have logs of what gates are dialled and when - with the DHD - you have to look at the pattern before the gate shuts off.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
And yet, Apophis manages to get off of Earth in the very first episode without any of that.
Mark
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Something else to consider: wouldn't all of these gates have different point-of-origin symbols associated with them? That would probably help in determining which planets they came from.
Also, they got a report from the Tok'ra about missing gates, so presumably the Tok'ra know where some of the gates are supposed to be. But, they were surprised by the amount of gates in the hold when they got there, so they may end up with a few spares.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
In dialogues, Daniel stopped counting at fifteen, and there could concievably be more of them in there too (I counted fourteen).
Each gate SHOULD have a unique point of origin symbol, plus usually one ore more symbols different from that of Earth's gate. This latter detail is usually disregarded in production (the prop or GCI gates have never been altered AFAIK, and they don't do unique POO symbols on the DHD anymore.
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Without any computer? Hey - yeah! How did he dial the gate? Don't forget - security like the hand print ID were added later on - to stop enemies like the Ree-tu from just coming and going.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Fandom and some writers think that Poppy had a "quick return" device of non-Goa'uld design (possibly Ancient) which would retun him to whatever gate he just came from. The address should be stored in the computer, the gate itself, or could be pre-programmed. The Nox and a future Earth have been shown to have this technology (which also dispenses with the "kawoosh", thus also explaining why Apophis can activate the gate without apparently having to get out of the way), so Apophis having some sort of portable DHD device that can do this is hardly farfetched.
Mark
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I just had a thought of a plot issue: When Baal's ship was blown up, was Baal himself killed? (The original, that is?) Baal is my favorite Goa'uld, but I'm not sure I can think of a way to have him escape. And it seemed as if the "original" Baal was on that ship... didn't we see him flash his eyes at one point? Oh, and we heard him talking with the trademark Deep Goa'uld Voice�... could that be something that the clones would be able to do?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I guess it depends upon whether he merely cloned his human host, or somehow cloned himself, too.
Of course, the eye-flashing and voice could probably be faked. But Fatty McRomangod (can't be bothered to look up his name) probably would have been able to tell if he was near a real Goa'uld or not.
Posted by Ra (Member # 1824) on :
Every one of his clones that were killed had glowing eyes and the voice so all of them did and maybe he is in season 10 we will find out mid year
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Oh, thank you so much. Now I'm going to have a Boney M song in my head all bloody day. Oh, those Russians. . .
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
But the guy who plays Baal is from South Africa...
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