Anyone got any opinions on the most recent couple of episodes of Stargate Atlantis?
I just watched the episode with Nicole DeBoer in it. Wasn't too bad. I like the All-sexy-female group!
I liked Sergeant Dusty Mehra.
Who was the one who was in the first episode this season? One of them popped up out of no-where to go on the rescuse mission - and had that big-arse gun at one stage.
Still gotta watch the next two.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Come back when you've seen the one with Janus's "unforseen side effects". That was fun.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I didn't like the all-sexy-female group. It felt like "dur look women soldiers we're hip and PC" to me. I also don't think any good female commander would purposely pick all women just so she could go "Ha ha, look, I picked the best team. Oh, wait, are they all women? Ha ha I didn't notice."
She's probably a lesbian. There I said it.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Well, the character was portrayed by Christina Cox...
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Back in the real world; believe it or not, most of the dykes I've known and worked with tend not to prefer the company of pretty girls in the work place. They get surprisingly hostile and catty and prefer the company of men and ugly women. Don't ask me why, it's just there.
As for the all girl team, it didn't bother me and let's be honest, it it was an all male team of soldiers and scientists nobody would even notice.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Come back when you've seen the one with Janus's "unforseen side effects". That was fun.
The cliffhanger!?! I just watched it! What a RIPPER of a cliffhanger! OMG!!
I think that must be one of the best Atlantis cliffhangers. Not endings - the best ending would be the end of the replicator-melting-blob episode where Weir shows up in the debris of the Replicator homeworld.
Hmm that storyline had potential - but sorta went sucky this season.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Well, Torri Higginson's feelings towards the show following her removal from the cast sorta prevented that.
Mark
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Actually I thought the other actress (forgot her name) did a reasonably good impersonation of Weir. For a second there I wondered if they might bring back the original Weir actress and pretend that she always looked like that. Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Back in the real world; believe it or not, most of the dykes I've known and worked with tend not to prefer the company of pretty girls in the work place. They get surprisingly hostile and catty and prefer the company of men and ugly women. Don't ask me why, it's just there.
As for the all girl team, it didn't bother me and let's be honest, it it was an all male team of soldiers and scientists nobody would even notice.
1) Aren't gay men the same way? I mean, don't they prefer the company of women to straight men? Sides, I was joking about the lesbian bit
2) Because all-male teams are normal, though, which is why the all-female team bugged - it's out of the ordinary. In fact, in real life, aren't women barred from being front-liners? Unless they give them medical training and call them a nurse but give them a gun, or something like that. I dunno, this is all hearsay for me, from a woman who was a lieutenant in the Marines and then decided to teach English at the university level. And in any case Stargate's never held to that idea at all.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Edit window closed! Apologies myriad for double posting!
Saw the last two eps. Question: How the hell did the runner have the time to build those big-ass complicated traps? How long would it take you to affix that many spikes to various logs, let alone bury them in a hole, make them rotate freely, and add a roof?
Muahahah, subspace static, bad bad wormhole boom. This is actually a very cool idea and quite original. I especially liked the shield being used to contain the explosion; it sort of reminds me of a Yamato cannon from Starcraft.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:2) Because all-male teams are normal, though, which is why the all-female team bugged - it's out of the ordinary. In fact, in real life, aren't women barred from being front-liners? Unless they give them medical training and call them a nurse but give them a gun, or something like that. I dunno, this is all hearsay for me, from a woman who was a lieutenant in the Marines and then decided to teach English at the university level. And in any case Stargate's never held to that idea at all.
You did notice Carter carrying a gun yes? Also note she wasn't a nurse but (among other things) was a trained combat pilot.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
quote:Originally said by me: And in any case Stargate's never held to that idea at all.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
I haven't been a big fan of Atlantis lately, all women team episode included. As cute as Nicole DeBeor is...not so much.
And what was with bringing Beckett back for an episode and then just popping off again? Lame.
But tonight's episode, much better.
==SPOILERS==
Now there's a cameo worth it's salt.
I for one was a fan of Woolsey being put in charge of Atlantis. I thought it offered the chance to really shake things up while adding an element that every viewer could relate to. Who hasn't had a boss they couldn't stand and just didn't get the place they were supposed to be running? Imagine it, Michael Scott running an extra-galactic outpost! And from Woolsey's perspective, how must it feel to be a regular paper-pushing guy like him, suddenly thrust into leading a bunch of death defying action hero super geniuses? But, like Carter, we go whole episodes without seeing him at all, and when we do, little of that dynamic actually gets explored. It actually did in this last episode, to some extent, and not in a shallow jokey way that it has been touched on in the past.
Jewel Staite continues to be adorable without being Kaylee and adding a lot of likability and a compelling quality that is completely lacking from the character as written.
In this episode we actually make progress. It's felt like so many of these episodes have been place holders - and bad ones at that. Somehow, I imagine this is the episode that was at the beginning of the production line or close to it when word was handed down they were canned.
And things get shaken up. For a story to be compelling, it has to continually raise the stakes, which can be tough to do on an open ended show like this. But they finally did and did so wonderfully.
All enemies have to evolve, and the Wraith have actually done it rather compellingly in my opinion. Todd's moment, "What will we do? Who will we be?" was excellent.
Re: Daniel's line, "I'd hate to think this is what heaven looks like." Um, aren't you the one that's died half a dozen times over already? Shouldn't you have a pretty good idea about the afterlife at this point?
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I think he was joking about the heaven thing...
I'm liking the effects a lot more since I started watching this in HD. The hyperspace window opening over the ocean surface (this is the first time we've seen a hyperjump in atmosphere isn't it??) was really cool, as was the detail of the Atlantis shield. I suppose it's always been that cool but I haven't been able to see it ;P
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
I really enjoyed the panouts to various portions of the city, too.
The good thing about this cliffhanger is that we only have to wait until 10 October to see the resolution... guess they're cutting back on the mid-season break to get the show done and over with... although, as per usual, important information is given away in the little plot blurbs; we know Shepherd survives.
The guys in the suits... Daniel was on to something. Maybe the suits are a way for the Ascended to interact on this plane?
And how much you wanna bet they're going to fly Atlantis to an unpopulated planet with a stargate and nick it?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Well the Daedelus could just pick up a gate (once they deal with thier current situation). The gate might not be destroyed though - it takes a lot to physically destroy a Stargate.
Haven't read plot blurbs so didn't know Shepherd survived. Thanks.
The panouts have been used before - was it the ?finale of season 2? the first time we saw them?
Are these new aliens in anyway similar to the aliens we saw in "The Daedelus Variations"?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
NOpe, not at all. The armor, tech, and the fact that they actually SPEAK are all giveaways. THey also usa ship which is very reminiscent of the puddle jumpers... I'm thinking they're also ancients of a sort. Perhaps they're sealed in their suits to stay away from their plague?
Mark
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Or they're somehow culturally related to the Ancients or the Ori, but are not Ancients physically. They could pass through the Atlantis shield, and as Female Technician noted, Ancient ships can do that (we saw it in the opening shot of the series premiere actually, when a jumper passed through the shield). I thought it was cool how they opened a window on the *other side* of the shield *before* passing through it, as if the shield's presence simply didn't matter to them. That's rather worrisome as (aside, as noted, from Ancient ships themselves) nothing has ever been shown to be able to penetrate an Ancient force field until it's depleted and shuts off. And I note the suited guy they shot to death had an arm-shield that was able to be depleted.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
quote:Originally posted by Daniel Butler: I think he was joking about the heaven thing...
Well, yes, but given the character the joke didn't fit very well. It would've been nice if his line was something like, "I don't think so, I don't remember the afterlife looking like this..."
I don't know, something like that, but maybe that would've been too much of an in joke that the casual viewer (are there any?) would've missed.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Well if you really want to pick that offhand joke apart, Daniel never really 'died', he ascended and even then he had his memories wiped of the experience.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Besides, that all happened YEARS ago. He's been through much worse since. Like the time he had to read scripts for "Wormhole X-Treme!" the movie. That was far more painful!
Anyway, they've accidentally let the identity of the armored aliens slip on Gateworld, where they show one guy stepping out. I won't spoil it here - but blimey, I didn't see that one coming.
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Furlings!?! Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Holy shit! That's a big one, all right... never suspected! Makes a lot more sense...
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Um...I can't find anything about it. How bout a link? That wouldn't ruin it for anyone who didn't click.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
Damn you all and your temptalizing.
Must...resist...
EDIT: Yeah, what's the deal. Couldn't find anything.
Also, what's the deal with naming a space cruiser after Apollo? Even though SG-1 may never have fought him, isn't he probably a System Lord? What with all the gods from human mythology being evil alien overlords and everything? What's next, the USS Anubis?
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Maybe Apollo was a Tok'ra or something...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Also, what's the deal with naming a space cruiser after Apollo? Even though SG-1 may never have fought him, isn't he probably a System Lord? What with all the gods from human mythology being evil alien overlords and everything? What's next, the USS Anubis?"
The Goa'uld assumed the identities of some Earth deities, not all of them. That would have been a lot of System Lords.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Or a lot of Goa'uld - not every god-named Goa'uld was a System Lord. All the Goa'uld were supposed to be gods.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
The Asgard also assumed deity names... probably Tok'ra, too. Maybe even the Nox and Furlings, who knows?
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
NO WAY!
Man, that's totally why I don't do spoilers. I suck.
Anyway, re Apollo:
It's true that we don't know for sure. But it just seems odd given the nature of Apollo and the rest of the Greco-Roman and Mesopotamian gods, since they all liked to torture and mess with humans. Conversely, using Norse for the Asgard made sense, since IIRC, they were much more beneficial figures to mankind than Mediterranean and Mesopotamian gods.
Anyway, it's not a huge thing, but you'd think given what they know, they'd be more likely to name their ship Thor or Freya or similar.
Random final thought: Do we know how the Titans from Greek mythology play into the Stargate mythos, if at all? Prometheus was a titan that gave mankind fire and who was then punished by Zeus, so it makes sense a) to name a ship for him and b) that he was an Ancient, Tokra, or similar friendly figure who defied a System Lord and was punished. I'd be interested in seeing a story based on the Titan/Olympian struggle myth. Maybe the Titans were remnants of the Ancients that were ultimately defeated by the emerging System Lords?
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
About Daniel's afterlife quip - I just watched The Nox again from season 1, and he made a similar joke. To paraphrase:
Daniel: "I felt that blast killed me. We were dead, weren't we dead?" Carter: "I thought so." (or similar.) Daniel: "Well I thought heaven would be a little more...upscale."
I wonder if there was supposed to be an homage there or if it was random.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
I think that expecting the writing staff to remember a line from that long ago is a bit much.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Well...maybe. If I'd written it I'd like to think I'd remember it, if I liked the joke.
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