posted
One shot from the premiere got me thinking. When they showed a close-up of the Gate floating in space, I counted nine glowing points on the rim (corresponding to the chevron locks). Now...
If 7 coordinates are enough to travel to any point in a galaxy, and eight can open a wormhole to another galaxy, what would the Gate open to if you managed to encode and lock all nine points? Time travel? Interdimensional? We might just see the Ancients someday after all.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
INCOMING wormholes tend to instantaneously light up all nine chevrons, I think...
People have been speculating about the ninth chevron since "The Fifth Race" when we found what number eight does. There has never been any evidence as to what it does.
posted
I'm curious as to why the movie prop was built with 9 in the first place if they knew they were only going to use 7. They had no concept of the TV series at that point and, in the movie, Abydos was already way outside our galaxy. Inother words, there was no need for 9 chevrons on the Gate, so why did they build it with 9?
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I'd guess it had to be radially symmetrical so it wouldn't have a particular "up", and it was easier to divide 360 degrees into nine parts than into seven. But that's just a guess.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yah, but wouldn't someone at some point go, "Hey wait a tic... the story only talks about 7 of these things... and we're building it with 9... what do the other two do?"
It just seems like the logical development of the design would only include 7 markers since having 7 is integral to the working of the Gate (in the movie). As a designer, I can't imagine reading that story, trying to design a Gate that works like the one in the movie does, and somewhere along the line going, "Hell... 9 looks better than 7... I'll just throw two more on there" without asking myself what the other two do.
Now... the fact that the 8th and 9th chevrons are barely visible beneath the ramp could have something to do with it. They knew the bottom would be partially hidden and that all 7 working chevrons would have to visible above it, so they couldn't have just evenly spaced 7 chevrons around the ring and still had them all visible.
As you can see, with only 7 chevrons, the bottom two wouldn't show up under the ramp.
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I've finally got a good version to watch - and I must say, Atlantis itself is pretty darned impressive. There will doubtless be more than one adventure that sees Shepperd and company exploring unexplored or unpowered parts of the city, and hopefully danger and technology along the way. The place is FAR bigger than any good guy starship or station in Trek, with the possible exception of the mushroom starbases. Hey, did anyone notice that the "gate tower" in the middle of the city is actually a suspended building within it, supported by a network of bridges and smaller buildings?
Also notable is the fact that Atlantis itself was designed for intergalactic travel. The Wraith will inevitably find the planet they're on... But hopefully they'll find a way to move it to another planet - or even into orbit or somewhere in the middle of nowhere that no ship could possibly find. The Atlantis gate is integrated into the city ship, so it follows that moving it is no big deal, or possibly operating it outside of the gravity well of a planet or star system. Mind you, if they could find enough power to move the city, they might have the power to gate back home, at least.
posted
Not my own observation, but: I wonder if they brought any Goa'uld technologies with them? Zats, at least, would be handy.
I was sort of thinking it would have been neat to have the defected System Lord from SG-1 on Atlantis, but I can't really think of any logical reason to send him along. Oh well.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yes, zats would be very handy, especially given that they have a limited supply of bullets...
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yeah, but they can presumably be recharged somehow.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
They don't exactly have an unlimited supply of Zats, either. Who knows how many they actually have on hand? The only place they seemed to be getting them from was defeated Goa'ulds and their Jaffa, since the Tok'ra weren't exactly giving them away. Maybe they'll show one having no effect on the Wraith or something.
posted
Zats have no effect on Kull warriors either, which makes them pretty useless these days against the Goa'uld. Besides, they want to get away from the SG-1 standard loadoout. Few, if any, SG teams were ever seen with zat guns besides SG-1 - perhaps it was a specialty thing only select teams get.
In any case, we know that the Wraith rifles can disable as well as kill. Wouldn't surprise me if our heroes start using them once they capture a few, or the inevitable pistol-size versions.
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Second evolution? Poop on that.
I'm sure the Wraith are plenty mean. It's just that an Ancient transport ship seems to do a pretty good job blowing them up, as does a shoulder-mounted surface-to-air missile.
Anyway, I guess we'll see. I wonder why the Ancients couldn't (or didn't) get help from their fancy Four Races alliance?
I was really disapointed in the Wraiths. Anyone see the latest version of The Time Machine? Wraiths are Morlocks with peridontal disease. Their ships are unimpressive: silver Peacekeeper Prowlers that can be taken out my machineguns and rockets.
Mabye these are NOT the ones that destroyed the Aincents after all- I don't think it was confirmed anyway.
Anubis was far tougher.
I like it though....as always, Stargate has good characterizations (okay, the Scotsman/scientist buddy team is a bit too familiar) and I was suprised that all those nomadic hunters stayed in the city....beats living in a tent, I guess.
The second episode was well done also...I wonder if we'll ever see that personal shield again.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Not my own observation, but: I wonder if they brought any Goa'uld technologies with them? Zats, at least, would be handy.
I was sort of thinking it would have been neat to have the defected System Lord from SG-1 on Atlantis, but I can't really think of any logical reason to send him along. Oh well.
Defected system lord!?!?!?!?!
See this is the problem when everyone is on Different seasons. Is this from beyond "The Race" episode of season 7 - which is where they finished up showing SG1 last season in Australia. Should be back anytime now though! PLEASE CHANNEL SEVEN!
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
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