What was that woman with the Ancestor ship from again? Which episode I mean?
All their other ships were advanced too, cause they roamed the Galaxy, didn't they?
The emergence of the Asgard weaponry... thought it could have looked a little different.
What is going on back in the Milky Way and around Earth at the moment that doesn't require one of the ?Daedelus Class? Vessels to stay there?
Andrew
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Not to sound flippant but, I kinda did see that coming.
As for the Milkyway, there's still the Daudalus itself with all it's Asgard uberness and cloaking ability so they're hardly defenceless. As for what's going on, we'll have to wait for the Ark of Truth to come out.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I've been increasingly (and very happily) wrapped up in a new relationship of late, so my usual commentaries have been sparse. But THIS episode merits a few comments.
-Larrin is from "Travellers" from earlier this season. The producers wanted to have a potential ally in Pegasus that actually HAD advanced technology, so they created this group which was constantly on the move in generational ships and thus couldn't be culled by the Wraith. They've obviously proven useful here in the GIGANTIC SPACE BATTLE that's arguably the biggest we've seen in the franchise.
-Colonel. Colonel. Colonel. Colonels. Colonel. Colonels. SERIOUSLY?! Hey, it IS the right decorum.
-We haven't seen Colonel Caldwell or the Daedalus in a while, as the actor was busy on another series. Good to show that they not only haven't forgotten him, but are teaming him up with the "replacement". By this point, "The Ark of Truth" will have happened, and there's less need for three BC-304s around the Milky Way. Sparing Daedalus and Apollo for this operation would be viable.
-All BC-304s have been retrofitted with the spiffy new Asgard plasma weapons (even though the Prometheus was supposed to have Asgard guns and shields installed ages ago). This makes them pretty darned powerful against Orion class warships...
-The Apollo has a big fancy crest on her bridge, that I don't think we've seen before. It's not unlike the one in Carter's office.
-Uniform check - Carter is wearing a tighter version of the standard new uniform, that accents her boobs more. Meanwhile, Shep, McKay, and Teyla have taken to wearing the cool leather jacket once limited only to Sheppard on away missions (and Sam wears one too later). The peons are still wearing the older jackets. Frankly, uniforms just aren't cool unless EVERYONE is wearing them, just like, you know, uniforms. Shep's insistence on wearing a black SGC BDU still makes him stick out, since everyone ELSE is wearing military digicamo.
-The Atlantis Wraith (who was supposed to be called "Todd", I think) must have fed while he was on the Wraith ship. We're not sure just how long they can last, but I get the impression that it's every few months.
-"Todd" mentions that not all the hive ships have queens - this is new, and while we're still not really sure about how the Wraith reproduce, the queens are needed for it. There were about 60 hive ships in Pegasus at first count; there must not be many left now, so the seven we see here must be a sizeable fraction of what's left, since we haven't seen them build any in the whole show.
-McKay wants to create a human form replicator, so of COURSE it's a hot woman.
-Everyone finally knows that Teyla's preggers. Now we have an excuse to why she won't be around, as Shep has removed her from active duty. I doubt though that she will stay OFF duty for long.
-Seeing all those ships together is WAY COOL. Very Star Wars, when the Rebel fleet massed at Sullust in ROTJ. The subsequent battle over the Replicator homeworld strongly echoes the Battle of Coruscant in ROTS.
-There was only one real loss in the allied fleet - one of the Traveller ships, which was probably not that powerful in the first place. Still tres cool.
-EVIL WEIR! But is it Evil REPLICATOR Weir, or Evil NORMAL Weir? And why would NORMAL Weir become EVIL?! And why is she wearing an EVIL LEATHER version of the new uniforms???
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Not to sound flippant but, I kinda did see that coming.
The ending? REALLY? You sat there the entire episode and you knew that that would to be the ultimate conclusion of that episode!?!
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Well, as soon as they said the plan was to destroy the planet, yeah.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
So you pictured "possibly-evil-Weir" (PEW) at the end amid the rubble of the planet, saying that?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Pew? What about Repliweir? After all we've already had Replicarter.
As for my lucky guess, if you absolutely insist on pursuing it; no I didn't picture her in the rubble on her own Aurora wearing that costume saying those exact lines with that very music playing with that exact number of hairs out of place. I just thought to myself "I bet in the end, we'll see Weir has survived, in some form", ergo KINDA saw that coming. Lucky guess. It happens.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I realize how clich� this sounds, but sweet frell, this has to be one of the best Atlantis episodes ever. Not only because of the complete orgasm of destruction that was visited upon the replicators with a spectacularicious series of fleet scenes, not just because they managed to tie together every major plot line of the season so far, but also because there were so many legitimate twists and surprises in the last two minutes of the episode.
I have to say that while I was expecting some kind of return of Weir, it was nowhere near in the scenario I was expecting, and I wasn't expecting it in this episode. So though I hadn't written her out, I also had absolutely no expectation that she would be showing up here. Major kudos to the writers and producers for keeping such a good lid on her appearance.
Here's pretty much what I was thinking: first, of course, that McKay's genius would backfire on them, as usual. We'd end up with "Replicator Godzilla" or whatever, and everyone would have to beat a hasty retreat. It would be a victory because the Replicators couldn't continue their campaign of "Destroy All Humans!", but there'd still be a single being left that was somehow impossible to deal with.
Second, as Sheppard was saying his goodbye to Larrin, I figured that she was planning to back-stab him somehow.
Third, after McKay deleted the planet from the database, I figured the icon would pop back up on the screen (either as a joke about it being impossible to delete a planet's entry, or else as an ominous segue to the replicators rebuilding in the final scene).
Fourth, as they zoomed in on the planetary rubble, I of course figured I'd called it correctly. But when we didn't see the replicators re-forming, and saw the Aurora-class ship, I figured that Larrin was planning something sinister. But then came RepliWeir, my jaw literally dropped wide open, and I had to consciously remember to take a breath after the credits started rolling.
What I loved about the entire coda to the episode was that the writers played to the strengths and nuances of the show's characters and factions to give us all sorts of twists until literally the very last seconds.
One relatively minor tidbit that I noticed... were Colonels Caldwell and Jackass (err... Ellis) wearing new uniform patches, or had we seen them previously? Because Ellis' patch distinctively said "USS Apollo"... I'm pretty sure we've never seen the prefix "USS" used so distinctively before. (For some reason, I'd thought they were using USAF instead.)
Tangentially, it also appears that Colonel Caldwell has a Navy background; he briefly mentions running fleet exercises with the Russians after the end of the Cold War.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Star Wars, you thought? I remember murmuring "shades of the Dominion War" to no-one in particular.
This wasn't all that fantastic to me. I dunno...just seemed way too pat and neat. All the replicators dead all at once from some simple solution? I just can't believe it'd be as easy as all that. Don't they have security? Shields? They have Ancient technology and full understanding of it - the Wraith can block Asgard beams - but here they just waltz into a very empty core room and fiddle a bit and he can hack in and get full access to the power grid? Meh. Unbelievable.
Why are we assuming Repliweir is evil just because she was in an Aurora-class ship wearing leather?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The SGC has a firm history of suddenly wrapping everything up in an episode or two. Remember the Ancient anti-replicator weapon that needed ALL the gates to be activated simultaneously? Remember Apophis' first attack on Earth? Remember Anubis' FIRST last stand? Etc.
And in the whole Dominion War, I'm pretty sure that NOT ONE major engagement happened in orbit of a planet (even the battles of Chin'Toka happened far away, passing another large planet). Here, the battle was definitely in low orbit of the Replicator homeworld, which instantly recalls the opening scenes of SW Ep. III. Or Verhoven's Starship Troopers movie.
Mark
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
"All the replicators dead all at once from some simple solution?"
That's essentially how every villain in Stargate goes out.
I thought this was OK. I could snark on the explanation given for McKay's solution (So they've got, like, extra subspace mass from a passing wizard, and then the planet's crust is full of neutron star stuff despite not being a neutron star?) but that feels a little foolish at this stage of the game. I do hope that, if the show is going back to the Wraith again, they find some way to make them interesting/threatening that doesn't involve even greater superweapons, because really at this point everyone in the Stargate world is pretty maxed out in that department.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan:
I have to say that while I was expecting some kind of return of Weir, it was nowhere near in the scenario I was expecting, and I wasn't expecting it in this episode.
Here's pretty much what I was thinking: first, of course, that McKay's genius would backfire on them, as usual. We'd end up with "Replicator Godzilla" or whatever, and everyone would have to beat a hasty retreat. It would be a victory because the Replicators couldn't continue their campaign of "Destroy All Humans!", but there'd still be a single being left that was somehow impossible to deal with.
Second, as Sheppard was saying his goodbye to Larrin, I figured that she was planning to back-stab him somehow.
Third, after McKay deleted the planet from the database, I figured the icon would pop back up on the screen (either as a joke about it being impossible to delete a planet's entry, or else as an ominous segue to the replicators rebuilding in the final scene).
Fourth, as they zoomed in on the planetary rubble, I of course figured I'd called it correctly. But when we didn't see the replicators re-forming, and saw the Aurora-class ship, I figured that Larrin was planning something sinister. But then came RepliWeir, my jaw literally dropped wide open, and I had to consciously remember to take a breath after the credits started rolling.
What I loved about the entire coda to the episode was that the writers played to the strengths and nuances of the show's characters and factions to give us all sorts of twists until literally the very last seconds.
YES! You've summed it up nicely. This also answer's Reverend's... reply about 'guessing it'. Rev from the way you were saying that you "guessed it" I DID assume that you meant that you pictured the ending exactly like that... with Weir, in a ship with that line etc. etc. (Not too over the top as you kept going, with the uniform etc and the hair etc.) all you meant was "Weir would some how be involved"... we'll that is, yes, a lucky guess... cause as MM has said - it played everything out well, to all the character's established traits and yes I WAS expecting a cliche ending with the planet popping back up on the screen, or a zoom in on a few replicator pieces fusing back together etc. etc.
I DEFINATELY didn't expect Weir back so SOON, either. This makes it one damn fine cliffhanger/ending/slight-gradient-hanger. Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: -The Apollo has a big fancy crest on her bridge, that I don't think we've seen before. It's not unlike the one in Carter's office.
Well, I'd seen it before:
I really wish I could remember where I got this from, though.
Posted by Zipacna (Member # 1881) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: And in the whole Dominion War, I'm pretty sure that NOT ONE major engagement happened in orbit of a planet
What about the Battle of Cardassia? That pretty much occurred in orbit of Cardassia Prime...
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Or the Battle of Chin'toka...
I did actually think that the first panning shot of the fleet was an homage to a similar shot from Sacrifice of Angels. It may just be my imagination, but then again it could be one of the CG artists being nostalgic.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Or the Battle of Chin'toka...
Yeah, Chin'toka happened around the planet (remember the ORBITAL defense platforms?). But the Battle of Cardassia did NOT happen in orbit; the only CGI scenes we saw there were of the Dominion wall of ships... there wasn't any battle.
quote:I did actually think that the first panning shot of the fleet was an homage to a similar shot from Sacrifice of Angels. It may just be my imagination, but then again it could be one of the CG artists being nostalgic.
Doesn't Mojo work for Zoic these days? Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Maybe, but Zoic has never had anything to do with Stargate, as far as I know.
I don't see any "homage" in that space battle.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was in orbit of a planet, just of the total ball-chilling coolness of seeing the fleets from all the different powers involved assembled together, ready to kick some major ass. (Of course the Battle of P3Y-hmmn--humn humn did this for me too.)
I too was expecting backstabbage from Larrin.
I've always had a problem with the replicators' base material being neutronium. If they're all made of neutronium, then A) where is it coming from if neutronium is so rare? and B) why aren't they all punching through the surface of everything they try to walk on? and C) what's keeping them from exploding into normally-dense matter? More subspace magic?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Maybe, but Zoic has never had anything to do with Stargate, as far as I know.
After going back to double-check, it turns out that Zoic has indeed done work for Atlantis... but only the opening credits. (I knew I'd seen them listed in the closing credits, but I figured they were doing the main show, too.)
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