posted
Watched this one on Saturday morning while partially awake. More notes to follow...
-So, we see our first true Ancient of the show, and she's not like any seen before. Unlike Oma Dessala, who was all introspective and mysterious, Chaya Sar is more like Orlin, in that she was punished with exile for protecting the people she loved. Unlike Orlin though, Chaya seemed to have full control over her abilities and transformation, wiping out a whole Wraith attack force.
-The attack force consisted of two hive ships, which I believe is the first time we see them in space. They certainly seem massive, however we don't really get a good look at them.
-Chaya's motivation is a bit suspect - she basically just wanted some nookie. Still, she resigns herself to her exile at the end of the show, which doesn't preclude her showing up again in the future. Unlike previous Ancients, we know where this one is.
-For those wondering, her Ancient hotness was previously a different kind of immortal, playing Nyssa the vampire in "Blade II".
posted
You know, it's too bad we can't just lure all the Wraith ships to that planet...
Though I find it suspicious that the Wraith would show up in force once she left. I mean, they either knew the planet was dangerous and would thus stay away, or they hadn't been before. I suppose it could be a grand coincidence. Fighters see jumper, get destroyed, Wraith decide jumper is a decent target and come to attack the planet. Maybe.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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posted
They were probably closeby already - possibly already in-system. The gang established that from the start, that the Darts were only short-range craft. It was just a coincidence that they stumbled upon a nearby staging area and the planet when Chaya got busy on 'em. The rest of the force shows up to investigate, just in time for her to get back and take 'em out.
Still, there may be a reason for the show to return someday... The planet, while not very advanced, has remained untouched by the Wraith since the Ancients left. There may be artifacts or technology buried under there.
posted
Yes, might end up being one of those key plot points that they may come back to in the future. I'm guessing the ancients that took a last stand at Atlantis and in Antarctica were Ancients that hadn't/couldn't/wouldn't ascend. I'm wondering if there are more of them out there or they just all ended up over the thousands of years being the forebares of populations of people like Teyla's people. Now they are descended from Ancients - but are Ancients humans? in "The Hot Zone" the virus was made to attack humans and not the ancients. Did the ancients bring Humans from Earth? Is it true the ancients were originally FROM Earth - or was Earth just another outpost? Is Teyla just a 'watered down' Ancient/human mix? Like the others from Earth who posses the Ancient gene?
Loved the Kirk references.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Okay, I've got several lines of thought here.
First, pertaining mainly to "Hot Zone" but reinforced this week too: I could've sworn that all of the people in Atlantis' galaxy were supposed to be descended from the Ancients, and were not actually Humans. As I understand it (having not yet seen seasons 6 through 8 of "SG-1"), the Ancients evolved on Earth millions of years ago, and decided to head out to the Pegasus Galaxy some 10,000 years ago (as seen in Atlantis' pilot episode). Now, I suppose that 10,000 years ago is "recent" enough for the Ancients to have taken a bunch of prehistoric Humans with them on their joyride to Pegasus -- especially considering that 10,000 years ago was about the time that the Goa'uld started taking Human slaves, too.
But at the same time, just why would the Ancients want to take a bunch of Humans out to the Pegasus Galaxy in the first place? Resettlement? Hoping to save some of them from the Goa'uld? Cheap labor of a slightly more benevolent sort compared to the Goa'uld, considering the Ancients' probably-severely-declining population at that point in time?
It just seems that there are a whole lot more questions that are raised if most everyone in the Pegasus Galaxy is actually Human, and not from the Ancients.
I'm deeply disturbed by some of the implications of the end of this episode. Chaya spoke as if the Ancients were continuously watching her, and as if they all had the power to do the same kinds of things that she could, i.e. wiping out Wraith ships en masse. And if the Ancients are still watching Chaya, that means that they're still in the Pegasus Galaxy -- and probably never left.
Which raises the extremely troubling possibility that the Wraith never actually defeated the Ancients at all -- instead, the Ancients just decided to pull out and cede the galaxy entirely.
If that's true, we're treading dangerously close to a sort of "Prime Directive"-esque situation... or maybe something more along the lines of the Shadows/Vorlons conflict. Whatever the parallels, it means that the Ancients are apparently not gone at all, and instead are sitting idly by while the Wraith start yet another culling.
(Of course, I don't mean "troubling" in the fact that "Atlantis" is being somewhat derivative, but more concerning the Ancients' apparent lack of ethics. I'm not jumping to conclusions regarding the development of the series arc just yet.)
This last seems trivial by comparison, but I figured I'd toss in my guess as to what was happening around the planet. Based on Chaya's explanation, it seems that the Wraith tried to attack there ten thousand years ago, during the Wraith-Ancient war. Like that planet full of kids, the Wraith probably stayed away, but regularly sent in a couple of fighters to check things out and see if their potential lunch was no longer guarded. I assume that it was just bad luck that the Wraith and the Jumper crossed paths when they did.
Just how the Wraith knew exactly when the planet was no longer protected by Chaya, though, I can't tell. Maybe they had more ships just outside the system (being a staging area or something like Mark suggested), although I'd originally figured that the Wraith fighters came through the Stargate, just like the Jumper did. I suppose it was just one of those "it helps the plot" coincidences.
That just about sums it up. Aside from the fact that I, too, loved those Kirk references.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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They aren't humans but they are. They were around Millions of years ago ("Frozen") but they left the Pegasus Galaxy only 10,000 years ago ("Before I Sleep"). Some Ascended (Oma) some didn't ("Hide and Seek"). Some want to help - Oma and Othara - some don't - the rest of the Ancients. They built the Stargate network - well before the Goa'uld showed up on the scene. They died of a disease? "Frozen" - their last outpost was in Antarctica? Atlantis was originally found IN Antarctica... they moved it to the Pegasus Galaxy... why? Why didn't they just fly the City back to Earth? Or the Milky Way Galaxy? They must have had dealings with the Asgard, the Nox and the Furlings.
*sigh* Is there a guide-to-the-Ancients around anywhere?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
As for the timing of the Ancients, my personal guess is that they didn't leave our galaxy for Pegasus directly. I'm thinking they actually settled lots and lots of galaxies. Pegasus is just the one where they ran into something that could stop them, and thus where they left their city. And the thing where they're exactly like humans, I'm thinking that has something to do with their "restarting" life in the galaxy after the plague. Maybe it included restarting themselves.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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posted
Wait, I thought that all the Humans that SG-1 found scattered around the Milky Way Galaxy had been settled there by the Goa'uld, who had originally taken bunches of Humans from Earth 10,000 years ago? Are you saying that it was actually the Ancients who scattered Humans every which way instead?
(If this is a spoiler for anything in SG-1's sixth, seventh, or eighth seasons, just tell me to wait and see. I just want to make sure that I'm not misinterpreting information that I already heard from earlier episodes.)
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
I don't think we've had any indication that any humans in our galaxy are descendents of the Ancients, they all seem to have come from Earth. So I suppose my theory would be something along the lines of: plague wipes out life in the galaxy, Ancients reboot the galaxy, then go wander around in others for a long time. They eventually reach Pegasus, whence they return to Earth after encountering the Wraith. By this point, their own species has re-evolved, i.e. us.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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"Wait, I thought that all the Humans that SG-1 found scattered around the Milky Way Galaxy had been settled there by the Goa'uld, who had originally taken bunches of Humans from Earth 10,000 years ago?"
Two minor issues there.
One, the Goa'uld took people at many different times, some far more recent than 10 000 years ago. Thus, the reason we have EgyptWorld, GenghisKhanWorld, etc.
Also, it wasn't just the Goa'uld. We know of two planets that were settled by people put there by the Asgard.
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posted
It doesn't necessarily mean that this Genesis Device was meant to re-create HUMAN life. We've seen plenty of humanoid and otherwise intelligent species in SG-1 that could have been the result of the machine.
posted
Well, the idea of a reboot would be to recreate things as they used to be, which would probably include humans and everyone else.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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posted
In "Threads" when "Jim" said, "That device was originally used by the Ancients to create life in the Milky Way. Well, re-create it, after the whole plague thing."
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Still, she resigns herself to her exile at the end of the show, which doesn't preclude her showing up again in the future. Unlike previous Ancients, we know where this one is. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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