posted
Episode 13 was supposed to be "Sanctuary", but it got switched with this one for some reason. Anyhoo, interesting tech episode.
--The ancients were studying a nanite virus in a viral lab isolated from the main database in an area of the city that suffered flood damage.
--The virus is targeted specifically to humans, has an incubation time of exactly 6 hours. Targets an area of the brain above the visual cortex causing visions and in the end hemorrage or aneurysm.
--McKay is due to die, but doesn't because he's undergone Ancient gene therapy
--Atlantis detecs the virus when an infected person transports to an active part of the city and automatically goes into lockdown. People in hazmat suits are free to move around.
--An EMP blast can disable the nanites. The EMP generator McKay has in his lab isn't big enough. Sheppard takes a naquadah generator 20km's above the city and detonates it, creating the requisite EMP blast, disabling the nanites.
--McKay and Beckett analyze the nanites, discover they've all been disabled. The determine that it wasn't the Wraith that created them, but they don't know who did it, and hope that they're not still around.... *cue dramatic music*
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Or hopefully they are and there's a much more interesting enemy. Funny that I consider a bunch of mechanical bugs more threatening than those guys.
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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posted
Its interesting actually. So we know that the nanites are mostly likely non-Ancient, definitely non-Wraith, cause death in a relatively short time (6 hours?), cause terrifying images, yet do not affect people with the Ancient gene and presumably Ancients.
This tends to point towards the existence of a third party in the struggle against the Wraith that wanted to wipe out their food supply. The terrifying images seem sadistic, but as the episode points out, they tend to cause people to seek out the comfort of others which increases the infection rate, which makes sense.
The question is, why recognise and ignore Ancients? This has two possibilities, a race allied with the Ancients that was not above killing humans or a race that was neutral towards the Ancients and simply did not want to piss them off while fighting the wraith.
Anyways, we might be dealing with a neat twist on the Asgard. While this race is similarly advanced and a contemporary of the Ancients, they have no hestitation towards killing humans to further their cause against the Wraith.
Obviously, this is all speculation
Note: I agree that the Ford character isn't doing so well. With Sheppard cherry-picking the obvious humour and bad-ass military traits, the writers do not seem to really know what to do with Ford.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Doesn't seem like the Asgard's style. Probably not the Nox either. Furlings?
-------------------- "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
I'm banking on a new race we haven't heard from. People who haven't been impressed with the Wraith (I'm not one of them) are quick to point out that the "really cool enemy" that defeated the Ancients may not be them. While events in "The Defiant One" and the forthcoming "Before I Sleep" seem to poke holes in this theory, there's still plenty of space for new bad guys. After all, what would SG-1 have been like had we stuck with the Goa'uld for eight years, and not added new villains like Replicators or the NID, or new allies like the Tok'Ra, Asgard or Tollan? This COULD be an offshoot of the Ancients, who decided to put something together not using their technology (or in concert with another race that had).
As for Ford, while he hasn't really DONE much in the past few episodes (and doesn't look like he'll have a starring role for the rest of this season), I hope they'll still give him a chance. Francks may not be a very good dramatic actor from what we've seen, but he is capable in a military role. I'm just wondering that they gave a starring role to the Doctor before Ford.
I'm not quite ready to send Ford to the same bar where people like Mayweather, Kim, Checkov and the like hang out... The generic "young enthusiastic (often minority) secondary character" curse may yet not be the case here.
Technical notes:
-The mess hall contained 12-15 extras, which Sheppard notes is about a third of the expedition team. Counting this episode, we've lost nine people so far. Do the math from there.
-They had five naquadah reactors, losing one in the course of this episode. McKay notes that after a year on Atlantis, they'd have to institute a series of rolling blackouts to conserve power. It'll be less now that they've lost a generator, but rumour has it that won't be much of an issue soon enough. They've not mentioned anything about prospecting for or mining naquadah, but there may not be much of it in this galaxy.
-Likewise, McKay says he's got an idea to charge a "dummy" ZPM. I don't know how you can recharge a zero-point reaction, but what the hey - he's brilliant.
-Why were Sheppard and Teyla a whole mile away from the central towers? Is that where the quarters were? And isn't the place a whole lot more empty without the Athosians?
posted
Mabye there was a splinter faction of the Aincents that decided to eliminate all the non-Aincent food supply for the Wraith.
Think about it: if- at one time- the Wraith outnumbered the Aincents 20-1 and then the Aincents killed off 90% of the Wraith food supply, the remianing Wraiths would have been so severely weakened that they might have gone into the hybernation we see them in during SGA's premiere. This would have been sometime after the Aincents were forced to retreat all the way back to Atlantis and had their backs to the proverbial wall- desperate people doing immoral things in the name of survival while another faction of Aincents went back their old stomping grounds (the Earth-Stargate network- seeding worlds with their genetic material- in hopes odf survival that way.
It's also possible thta not ALL of the Aincents evolved into that "higher plane of existance" and that they'll make an appearance someday.
I really do like what I've seen of this show so far -more than SG1 even!- but I wish the Aincents were a LOT less human ( a bit physically diffrent in particular).....some higher morality and some impossible to decipher technology would be nice: it's all been waaaaay to user-friendly for the SGA humans to figure out how everything works so far.
Easier than say, understanding how a Roman Aquaduct worked- and that was low tech, welll documented nad from our OWN recent past- much less from some aincent (basically alien) race with thoudands of years worth of tech on us.
Imagine any of us knowing what a transporter is but then having to OPERATE it in a crisis situation
There should be entire sections of Atlantis labled "WTF" because they make zero sense to function, form or design.
Heck, there could be entire sections of the city that were always submerged to accaomidate modified Aincents....
[ November 24, 2004, 02:38 PM: Message edited by: Jason Abbadon ]
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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"The mess hall contained 12-15 extras, which Sheppard notes is about a third of the expedition team. Counting this episode, we've lost nine people so far. Do the math from there."
I didn't catch the "one third" comment, but I do know Weir mentioned that there were actually very few people there.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: Doesn't seem like the Asgard's style. Probably not the Nox either. Furlings?
Sorry, little slip. I forgot to add in the word "dynamic", as in a "neat twist on the Asgard dynamic." As Mark pointed out, Atlantis is going to need allies. While SG1 had the Asgard who started from an aloof but protective stance, we could have another race that does not mind getting into the nitty-gritty of things and does not mind killing humans. However, as the story drags on, they could change towards a similar dynamic that SG1 has with the Asgard, a technologically advanced ally with its own ability to give/need help.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
As long as they dont go the hackened route of introducing some new uber-villian and having the Wraith and humans have to team up to stop them....
Naaaaa...the writers of Stargate would never stoop to such acheap ploy as storylines dried up.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Upon re-watching, the "one-third" statment probably doesn't just mean everyone in the mess hall. I believe that Shep was talking instead about the fact that just over half of the team won't accept the Ancient gene therapy. Add that to everyone who's died plus the people in the mess hall, and counting the people who already have the gene or who've taken therapy, and you've got a third of the total population. Sheppard says that it's inevitable - this is part of his "closet mathematical genius" thing as mentioned in his character description.
I don't believe this gives us a ballpark for the total population, but counting everyone who was killed or dying, it's safe to say that it's at LEAST 50-60 people.
Daniel Butler
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posted
Three-year old thread, I know - but I came across this and wondered, did we find out for certain that the nanites in this ep were related to the Replicators?
Registered: Jul 2005
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They've not mentioned anything about prospecting for or mining naquadah, but there may not be much of it in this galaxy.
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