Issues with the Stargate shutting down?

[squeakytoad]

How come it appears to decide to shut down at random?
It can remain open for 38 minutes if things are constantly going through.
However, how come the amount of time it chooses to stay open when nothing is going through seems random?
For instance, in the episode where Michael kidnaps Teyla and takes her through the gate to a Wraith world, why does it close IMMEDIATELY upon their exiting it, so soon that a jumping Sheppard, inches behind them, can't make it through before it shuts down?


Also, how did Jack "hold it open from the other side" in the episode where the NID rogue agents are captured from their base on another world in an ambush organized by Jack and the Asgard? After all, the Gate pushes everything AWAY on the exiting side of the Wormhole, so you couldn't quite keep your arm through to keep it open.

[dboy-2007]

Plot Hole

[Myles]

How come it appears to decide to shut down at random?
It can remain open for 38 minutes if things are constantly going through.
However, how come the amount of time it chooses to stay open when nothing is going through seems random?
For instance, in the episode where Michael kidnaps Teyla and takes her through the gate to a Wraith world, why does it close IMMEDIATELY upon their exiting it, so soon that a jumping Sheppard, inches behind them, can't make it through before it shuts down?


Also, how did Jack "hold it open from the other side" in the episode where the NID rogue agents are captured from their base on another world in an ambush organized by Jack and the Asgard? After all, the Gate pushes everything AWAY on the exiting side of the Wormhole, so you couldn't quite keep your arm through to keep it open.

It's random because it's always for dramatic effect. Sometimes they stand there for minutes doing whatever before they enter the gate and it stays open. If it bothers you, well sorry, but it will always be inconsistent TPTB does it by what works best, not what's most consistent.

Also, about holding it open - the gate might push/pull on you, but it's not hard. Check out the wreath they put in the worm hole, it goes quite slow. So it shouldn't take much strength to keep the gate from pushing out your arm.

[XFire]

Its also like people make references to shutting down the gate when its an incoming wormhole... makes no sense.

[Myles]

Its also like people make references to shutting down the gate when its an incoming wormhole... makes no sense.

Don't remember that...care to elaborate?

[peragrin]

Like plot shields it's the dramtic escape gate shutdown or DEGS.

the NID holding the gate open incident is explained easily. As Oneill steps through he extends his arm back a bit. On the other side he is standing with his arm still in the active wormhole. As soon as the last of the rogue agents come through he dramatically sweeps his arm and gun through the rest of the wormhole and it DEGS miliseconds later.


Personally I think the gate begins a shutdown counter moments after activating. If nothing goes through with in 30-45 seconds it shuts off, otherwise it remains open. After the first 30 seconds it has 5 second limit for the next object to go through or it shuts down.

One could also say that every SG team member's GDO transmitts a low power signal which gets picked up by the gate as traffic. As soon as they step through the signal is lost and as such the gate shut downs.

DEGS is still the best answer though as it explains everyone who dramatically escapes through the gate.

[Calhoun]

Its also like people make references to shutting down the gate when its an incoming wormhole... makes no sense.

I hated that about "Midway"; they kept talking about trying to shut down the incoming wormhole to stop the...

Spoiler:

Wraith from entering Midway, but ten years of Stargate has made it clear that you can only shut down a wormhole from the sending gate, not the receiving one, which is why Midway should have had an iris! It's not as if they don't know how to build them!

[squeakytoad]

It's random because it's always for dramatic effect. Sometimes they stand there for minutes doing whatever before they enter the gate and it stays open. If it bothers you, well sorry, but it will always be inconsistent TPTB does it by what works best, not what's most consistent.

That explains it. The Stargate has a program designed for maximum dramatic effect.
The Ancients were such romantics.

Don't remember that...care to elaborate?

Very often they'll jump through the gate into the SGC and shout, "Shut it down!"
Hammond also has to make the decision to "hold it open" whenever teams are slow or under fire.

[Zatnikitelman]

The Midway shutdown could be covered by explaining that they were disengaging one of the jump-gates using the macro such as telling one of the 'Gates just to not send the matter stream. From what we saw, it looks like the 'Gate still stays operable and normal and such even though it's part of this bridge.

[YodaMate]

The GDO idea is a good one, but more likely it's the base sending a low-frequency signal into the gate, once their people are through they stop the signal, which causes the gate to shut down (it only opens for a few seconds if nothing is going through).

This explains how Michael could escape ; wherever he was heading wasn't sending a signal to keep the gate open.

In the case of Midway, they were using a Pegasus gate. Pegasus gates are more advanced, so it may be easier to interface with them to shut down an incoming wormhole against normal gate protocol.

[umopapisdn]

Very often they'll jump through the gate into the SGC and shout, "Shut it down!"
Hammond also has to make the decision to "hold it open" whenever teams are slow or under fire.

Aren't they talking about the iris?

[Seperated@Birth?]

I think that they have more control over outgoing wormholes with the Earth and possibly the Midway gates due to our shade tree mechanic DHD(s). There is probably a command to disconnect when told whereas a normal DHD shuts down after so many seconds or minutes after the final matter transfer, radio signal or 38 minutes.

One thing comes to mind which is when Teal'c held Kowalski's head in the puddle and the wormhole was shut down...YIKES!

[peragrin]

One thing comes to mind which is when Teal'c held Kowalski's head in the puddle and the wormhole was shut down...YIKES!

That was an outgoing wormhole though. They could just cut power to the gate to force it to close.

It's incoming wormholes there they sometimes are able to shut it down remotely, while other times they can not.