Another good one from Atlantis this week, though I get the impression that they condensed two McKay-centric story ideas (sister and cooler twin) into a single episode. Furthermore, the under-use of Teyla this season is really starting to become obvious. Has she done ANYTHING substantial this year besides shoot stuff?
-MEREDITH RODNEY MCKAY. 'Nuff said.
-Gosh, I think this is the first time that this franchise, made in lower BC, has actually shot a scene that might just BE IN LOWER BC. Good catch using RCMP uniforms behind Carter, too.
-The family resemblance is easily visible, as David Hewlett's real-life sister Kate played Jeannie. It's also pretty clear that she can handle the same idiosyncrasies and technobabble as her brother, both in and out of character.
-The Carter-McKay repartee is as good as ever. It also continues to show how good two concurrently-produced shows can be. Unlike TNG/DS9/VOY, where crossovers were big, special, and often contrived events. Here, the guest role by Tapping is perfectly natural and logical. And no, I don't believe that they have to mention the Ori every time they do.
-Do we Canucks really say "sorry" diffferent than you Americans? And is it really more cute than you?
-Hermiod: "Yea".
-To extract the energy from the parallel universe, Zelenka adapts an existing Atlantis generator to use their single ZPM. Oddly, he does it in a clean room setting, which we've never really seen before.
-When the cooler McKay shows up, he's wearing Sheppard's cooler leather field jacket. This is the main way to distinguish the two McKays, other than the slightly more omnipresent smirk.
-The motion tracking on this show is without parallel, pun intended, to any other show I've seen. Most of the shots cetainly don't LOOK like they came from computer-controlled cameras.
-Usually they don't show any effect that has to do with the closed-circuit transporters they use in Atlantis. Here we see a CG flash, instead of the usual lighting glows.
-Key differences in the Smarter Universe: Earth has a ZPM too, which simplifies travel. Sheppard is much less closet bound regarding his Mensa-level math genius, which is only hinted at here. Rod is an honourary member of the Athosian council. Teyla is antisocial. Ronon is... Ronon. I wonder if Ford's around?
-There's a scene in Shep's quarters that shows Atlantis through a window. This is partially new, as they are using rear projection to show the cityscape, including moving waves and everything.
-Of course, the main thing here is that to save the universe and Rod, they are forced to deplete their only ZPM. Of course, the city can function on their existing naquadah generators (and it's been suggested that the Mark II generators can power the chair), but we're back to hunting for another one or more. Luckily they seem to be in decent supply these days, if inaccessible for now. Also, they mention the intergalactic bridge again, which will still allow practical two-way travel to Earth, if not instantaneous.
-In a throwaway line, Teyla may be attracted to a new marine. We'll see...
Mark
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
I agree, another good episode, let's keep 'em coming.
I liked the way Rod made Rodney feel quite unliked/unwanted till the end of the ep.
I don't think the the Ori need to be mentioned every ep either, since you would think that they get regular reports on the home galaxy's activities anyway.
The McKay-Sheppard switch in the other universe is interesting, in a mirror-mirror sort of way.
Are they starting to treat the Teyla character as they did the Jackson character, when Shanks took his season off?
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
About the Ori references: I'm guessing they're going to be important later somehow. We've still got the Ori supergate dialed from Pegasus and plenty of people there to convert to Origin, yet the Ori (to the best of our knowledge) haven't started sending Priors out there. I'm betting there's some reason why they can't... until we link the Milky Way and Pegasus gate systems. Then all heck breaks loose.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I'm still disappointed that alt-McKay didn't say "Smoke me a kipper...".
Posted by Paladin181 (Member # 833) on :
Yes you do say "sorry" diffently. Often its more of a "surrey".
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I really liked this episode too.
About that intergalactic bridge... how are they supposed to reset the 'coordinates' or constellations etc for the moved gates and what about gates that will be out inbetween galaxies??
I'm guessing they will also be space-gates.
Posted by Chris (Member # 71) on :
I believe they were harvesting gates from the Milky Way so they'll probably have to outfit those themselves... Unless they're gathering gates from the Milky Way to Pegasus and also Pegasus to Milky Way so they'll be half and half...
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by Krenim: I'm betting there's some reason why they can't... until we link the Milky Way and Pegasus gate systems.
Except that the link will be space-based, through many multiple gates. Priors might be able to survive in a vacuum, but how would they move? Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Jet-pack.
So what about the constellation/coordinate-based system of gate addresses - out in the void between galaxies - how will a gate have an address - infact what determines a gate's address - the antarctic gate had a different gate address to the giza gate - it's not like in that episode they dialled 'home' from 'home'.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
No, the two Earth gates had the same address... remember that each time Carter tried to dial Earth from Antarctica, she got a busy signal (so to speak)? The "master" DHD is the determining factor in where an incoming wormhole will go.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Which begs the question, why did the SGC's gate and it's jury rigged dialing system superseed the apparantly functional antarctic gate with a propper DHD all those times people gated back to earth? By the show's own logic O'Neill and the rest of the original team should have wound up in antartica right after they left Abydos the first time.
One can only assume that Ra somehow rigged his replacment earth gate.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
But the DHD wasn't functioning until Carter revived it... right?
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
I'm sure someone else can offer a better explanation, but basically the original gate was hard-wired (presumably by the Ancients) as the primary gate, and the antarctic gate was the secondary one.
Posted by Chris (Member # 71) on :
Was it, though? I was always under the impression that the Antarctic gate was the primary gate. The Ancients put it there, and Atlantis launched from there when it went to Pegasus. The Antarctic gate was then buried, and Ra probably brought the Giza gate from somewhere else...
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Nope, the Antarctic gate was definitely the secondary one. They explain as much in "Watergate", but that episode still leaves the question of how the Russians "turned off" the primary gate when they weren't using it. From what we've seen, incoming wormholes don't really care about the destination gate's power source.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
No, the Russian (originally Giza) gate became the primary because they had the DHD attached, not because of the gate itself. Remember that was how they managed to operate under the radar for several months... because they disconnected the DHD except at scheduled times when they knew that there'd be no SGC activity.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Me silly - I forgot that they didn't actually DIAL the Antarctic gate - the ?solar flare? ?energy spike? caused the matter stream to jump to the nearest gate. Thing is though - it DID have it's own POO symbol. One would also assume that to work it - you'd have all the same 'constellation' symbols too.
So when you take a stargate and move it somewhere else - you have to work out the 'address' for that location based on the local constellations?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Yep, at least that was the original idea. They seem to have worked out a way to do this automatically now, or at least with less reliance on sending a MALP through first. I've chalked various omissions like this over the years with the SGC basically figuring out most of how the gate works by now.
Though there's still that one pesky chevron left...
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Time travel? (Don't think so otherwise that Atlantis episode with Weir going back 10,000 years wouldn't have made a big deal about Time Travel. Or The Groundhog day episode of SG1.
Alternate Reality? We've seen the Mirror and the Bridge between realities etc. This one could fit.
Second gate within the one system - It could be a descriminator for local gates??
A Way to lock the gate??
Anymore ideas?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Self destruct? Reversing the direction of the wormhole? Backdoor to ascention? A way to change the ringtone? A way to block incomming wormholes?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
We'll not likely know, ever. Fan theory is that it would require an exponential power consumption well beyond what even a ZPM can provide. And even if they could find a way to provide enough power and unlock the ninth chevron, they won't be able to go anywhere unless they have a viable address to spin up. So until they can figure out what it does, there's no point in investigating it.
Mind you, as of the Atlantis cliffhanger they've had a bunch of Lanteans occupying their city for weeks. Surely asking someone "hey, what does that ninth chevron do?" was one of McKay's to-ask questions?
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