Atlantis Season 2: The dissapointment! (lots of spoliers up to the tower!)

[keppiezbt]

I've been watching the second half of Atlantis and I'm really starting to get pissed. Season 1 was so good and the beginning of Season 2 held such potentionl that the bakc half has been such a major major let down.

The tower? sucked! Epiphany? sucked! Grace under pressure? sucked!

The hive was pretty good and critcal mass was interesting but overall, what a dissapointment.

I mean in the tower we find a sister city to atlantis and thats treated as a minor thing!! Epiphany we could have learned about ascenion but instead we get "captain kirk" shepperd. I am most pissed at the tower which could have given out a million things on the ancients but instead we get kirk again and a few drones. Hell even the characters arent shocked that there is Atlantis v2. I'd figure at least mckay would be thrilled!

This season had such promise but has really fallen short. No info on the nano virus from season 1. Nothing on the ancients or their history. we find a science ship and it gets blown up, a sister city and we just shrug our shoulders, we have yet to get any ancient tech, or have an episode that really expores the city post zpm.

I've been reading the threads in the episode folders and most people are tearing the back half to peices. I hope JM and MG read these threads and get a wake up call that they need some continuity in the show and if they are gonna do something big like say create another atlantis use it to further our understanding of ancients and the show not make it some campy sheppard love fest.

I'm really hoping the rest of S2 is better and and S3 starts to give us more information. I had such high hopes for atlantis but i'm starting to loose some of my interest in it with the way the episodes keep going.

i'm done gripping. anyone with me?

[PG15]

i'm done gripping. anyone with me?

I'm sure there are...but I'm not.

Epiphany was a little off, yes, and The Tower was...uh...well, not good. But that's it IMHO. GUP was awesome.

We still have 5 episodes left, and me thinks big...BIG things are coming.

[Naughtrish]

I'm with you, keppiezbt. IMO the 2nd half of Season 2 is on a downward spiral. I don't care about the so called kirking, but it pisses me off the lack of character development for Sheppard. He's the leading role, fcol!! And I seriously doubt things will get any better.
Wait and see. I so hope to be wrong.

[gooner_diva]

Trinity, Epiphany, The Tower - abominations. I hope the latter two will unofficially be excluded from canon like Seth and Hathor. Grace Under Pressure just shows why there should never be a Carter crossover *shudders*. The Hive wasn't that bad but I thought it had some pacing issues. The only S2 episode I thought matched the standard of S1 was Critical Mass. Thank you, Carl Binder. I may well end up watching this show just for his episodes. And as for Kirking, *points to the signature*.

[knocknashee]

Epiphany was especially galling for me, since I'm a huge fan of Joe Flanigan, and I wanted the episode to be as good as what he'd pitched. And it seemed the guts had been ripped out of it. Not saying it was the worst episode but there have certainly been better...

I have been very disappointed with a lot of season 2 - even in the first half it was nowhere near as good as season one. I think the game needs to be raised, or SGA will be over before it's even really begun...and that will be such a waste...

[ShadowMaat]

I'm with you, keppiezbt. IMO the 2nd half of Season 2 is on a downward spiral. I don't care about the so called kirking, but it pisses me off the lack of character development for Sheppard. He's the leading role, fcol!! And I seriously doubt things will get any better.
Wait and see. I so hope to be wrong.

Naughtrish, Naughtrish... haven't you learned? As far as TPTB are concerned, sex IS character development! Just look at Sam on SG-1. The past few seasons most of her "character development" has depended entirely upon Pete and Jack. Now it looks as if they're going the same route with Sheppard, except that being a man, he's allowed to be a lot more promiscuous (a LOT more).

What more do you need to know about him except that he has the gene and he's so dead sexy every female in the Pegasus galaxy is willing to spread their... love for him?

[/sarcasm]

[Jarnin]

My biggest complaint is that they're using remarkable discoveries as plot devices to tell minor stories.

I mean the entire plot of The Tower was to get the team more jumpers and drones; pretty boring really. But then they find this whole other Atlantis-like city, which is quite remarkable, and then ignore it completely in order to progress the "scoring drones and jumpers" plot. No offense to TPTB, but the primary story to be told when you find another Lantian city-ship IS the city-ship, not the drones and jumpers.

They should have had The Tower take place in an outpost, like the one on Earth. Outposts have drones, and they have a spot for jumper parking. I guess they don't have much room for all the "nobles" that were in that story though...

[Naughtrish]

Naughtrish, Naughtrish... haven't you learned? As far as TPTB are concerned, sex IS character development! Just look at Sam on SG-1. The past few seasons most of her "character development" has depended entirely upon Pete and Jack. Now it looks as if they're going the same route with Sheppard, except that being a man, he's allowed to be a lot more promiscuous (a LOT more).

What more do you need to know about him except that he has the gene and he's so dead sexy every female in the Pegasus galaxy is willing to spread their... love for him?

[/sarcasm]

My humble apologies... and thanks for putting me back on track

[ShadowMaat]

Oh, but we're supposed to understand how overworked TPTB are, having to wrangle two shows at the same time! So they slip up once in a while (or MORE than once in a while), isn't it better than having no Stargate at all??

Sorry, my sarcasm button seems to be stuck. I just hope that things get better soon, because I'm getting sick of trivialities being treated as significant discoveries/insights and ground-shaking revelations being played off as trivialities. What a complete and utter waste of a good show... and what a waste of a good cast, pandering to pathetic plot devices and 90% of them left to twiddle their thumbs in the background while the spotlight is on RODNEY, RODNEY, RODNEY, with occasional asides for Shep to shag some alien chick.

[gooner_diva]

Now it looks as if they're going the same route with Sheppard, except that being a man, he's allowed to be a lot more promiscuous (a LOT more).

Don't even get me started on that one. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record when it comes to Kirking. But there's one thing for sure, Epiphany and especially The Tower have been slammed by the fans. Unless TPTB seriously reconsider the direction in which they're taking Atlantis, people are going to eventually stop bothering and just change the channel. That way they'll be glad and Atlantis will be cancelled.

[immhotep]

yeah that what irking me: major major oppertunity for them to tell us more about the histroy and race the marvelous ancinet were promised to be, then they give us some crap i could written, with barely a plot, and the most we find out is the ancients built more cities than atlantis and the chair can be used as a camera.
GUP i liked i thought it was pretty gd.
epiphiny we could of easily got the ZPM, because of the no intervention laws...but nooo, man if only daniel had bene there.....that can be his crossover topic next year.
i am amazed at how crappy the lastest episodes of S2 have been, i hope see some major turn arounds plot wise or by the time S3 get here i wont be

[Linzi]

I've really enjoyed the 1st half of season 2, except Duet, which was really OTT and silly in places IMO.
The Hive could've been better. The Wraith Queen was laughable! I didn't dislike it, but AGAIN it lacked a gritty element THe Eye had.
Epiphany- it could have been better. I'd have adored some Sheppard backstory and more character development. I did enjoy it though. It was a subtle, gentle episode. I don''t see Sheppard as Kirk here. He was lonely, stranded and CARED for Teer. If he'd been Kirk he'd have jumped her months before he did!
Critical Mass - I liked. Not sure about the song though - bit cheesey.
Grace Under Pressure was the worst episode I've seen. Boring, McKay love fest. One dimensional acting and character portrayal of McKay. He panics muchly - yes we know that already. Carter - well as much as I love her in SG1- this eppie shows SHE DOES NOT FIT INTO ATLANTIS - even as an hallucination. Flawed story and utter crap, IMO.
Haven't saeen The Tower, so can't comment too much. IMO Sheppard should've sent Mara packing immediately she stripped. He didn't need to kiss her, and I think he behaved out of character here, from what I've read.
I'm seriously worried about the rest of the season. TPTB, pull your heads out of your collective rear-ends and write some decent, thrillling exciting eppies again.
Cut off Atlantis from Earth and give Sheppard some character development - PLEASE!!!!!!!!! He is the leading man, you hired him and should know that!

[Wraith_Hunter]

I totally agree, S1 was pretty good. With the exception of a few lesser eps likit would have been perfect.

S2 has been a huge, huge let down for me! 'Epiphany' & 'The Tower' are two of the worst epsiodes that's ever had StarGate in the title. The only good thing about the tower is that they got Drones & PJ's. With the possible expansion of the second city in S3, hopefully providing some significant upgrades over Atlantis & a reason for building it. It's obviously not for travelling in since it has a Drone chair & no SG on it. However I'd be very surprised if they expand upon it given their past history, of write & forgetting. Then they now have another lost city to contend with, yet nobody seems surprised enough to bat an eyelid. Shep can't say anything because while Deuce is doing his Euro thing, Shep is the intergalactic gigo, McKay is playing hide & seek with blackadder & Ronon & Teyla are off doing their Conan & Red Sonja impressions again.

'Epiphany' had nothing at all, yet it could have provided so much in terms of ascension. Shep spent around 6 months with these people, yet the moment that the friends came through the gate he was off. Surely after spending every waking moment of these people & eventually realising of the possibility that he might never make it back home, so the only reason that he would have of getting out of there was to learn to ascend himself. This conflict inside of him would have made it far better to watch for the fans, will he go or won't he, of course you know he would. BUT at least plant a few doubts in the fans minds, that there could be a slight chance of him leaving. Then there was the beast. Which was aconfusing. This invisible creature is out there for many years attacking the villagers, yet they don't know that it's them that is magically creating it, when they find out they all come out immediately together to face this all together. If it wasn't totally unrealistic & stupid, it'd be sick bags at the ready. After the put their minds to it, this creature, which has now expanded to Godzilla's big brother totally vanishes without a whimper. Then they all go into their little circle & beam themselves into ascension. Worst episode ever, closely followed by 'The Tower'.

Other dissapointments, 'The Intruder', the only good thing about it was Hermy & his Asgard equipment, that & the fact that it was the first & only time so far that we've seen any 302's in action in the Pegasus galaxy.

'Condemned', shows that PJ's can be shot down with pea shooters. That the Wraith weapons couldn't hit a barn door. The Cruiser is firing shots at them that are miles off. Nothing since of whether the Wraith got a hold of the crashed PJ after they went through the gate, or if the Wraith blindly left it alone & let them come back later to reclaim it. Dr.Weir who wouldn't let them take the ZPM from the kids in S1, yet let a woman who risked her life to let them know of what was happening, simply be sent to her eventual death. All without so much of a word. The only good thing out of this, was that we seen another side to the Wraith & gave him a personality. That took the Wraith from 2D to 3D characters.

Other episodes are letdowns because they just aren't believeable. These people are supposed to be the smartest people in the world in their respective fields. Yet end up looking inadquate & totally incompetent in the process.

'Trinity' was another episode that could have finally given them some decent weapons. Like I'm sure everyone suspected would happen did eventually happen, that being the destruction of the ancient weapon. They discovered this structure that house a very powerful weapon & the ultimate power source. They tried to re-activate it & end up killing a team member with their rushing. Then they let them back on a little later on & end up destroying almost an entire solar system. Goodness knows how much life was destroyed in the explosion. Yet nothing happens, Weir is still around to screw up the decision making & McKay let his ego take over. Even more so in the season finale, that should see her & a good few of her team out of a job permanently because of the consequences of their actions. Yet I doubt anything will be done about it asd usual. So anyway, they have an Asgard on board the Daedalus, that is smarter than all of them put together, they have a ZPM in Atlantis, they are 100% safe from the Wraith. So there is no hurry to get going on it. They could have turned on the weapon etc, took the notes/results of the previous tests that the Ancients had been doing on in. Then either let Hermy have a look &/or sent them back for the Asgard/Tok'ra etc to look over before they done a full test. The Daedalus could have picked them up in the MW & brought them to Pegasus for a couple of weeks to have them help out. This would have given the SGA team, a few weeks to scan, test & mess about with the energy weapon using their generators as the power source. Then when the help arrived, they could have went into the started very slowly with the tests on the energy project.

Another one is after the outcome of 'The Siege III', despite the Asgard having already provided weapons to Prometheus in 'Disclosure. SG-1 having saved them single handedly from the Replicators a number of times, they now cannot create a severely dumbed down energy weapons, that wouldn't tickle their shields but give them a little bit more offensive capabilities against other races. However that okay I can let them away with, what irks me is that in episodes like 'Aurora' & 'The Hive'. We all know they can no longer beam the nukes into the Hive ships, their warheads aren't fast enough to reach the ships & their rail guns are only good against Darts. So basically they are defenceless against Hives & Cruisers, yet blindly charge in even though they know that they can't do anything. Should Daedalus be captured then it provides the Wraith with the ability to get to a new feeding ground by providing them with much better HD's & the coordinates of other galaxies. Then there is beaming technology that could beam people direct into their hangars, without needing to do culling runs. It could also beam Wraith directly down into worlds, indise targets etc. As well as Asgard shielding, sensors etc, that would most likely enhance what they have already. So in 'Aurora', they discover an ancient warship on the edge of the galaxy. They send the Daedalus, despite the fact that there is a very good chance that they could encounter enemy ships alongh the way. So they do it anyway & end up having a ship that gave them direct access to living ancients be destroyed without them gaining anything. Oh sorry! They now know that the Wraith have a weakness, they might not know what it is but at least they have one. They jhave crappy weapons on their ships, all it takes is a good shot to the engones & the Wraith would have control of Daedalus. These are supposed to be the smartest people on the planet, yet never find it in themselves or each other, to realise that there is a bay of Puddle Jumpers that can fire, Drones weapons that can take out pretty much anything they are fired against. All it would take is to take a few, park them in the hangar bay alongside the 302's. Should they ever be in trouble, open the bay doors, they could then fire the Drones out from the safety of being behind the Asgard shields. Had they done this, then they could have taken out the cruisers & spent a lot longer conversing with the ancients aboard the Aurora. They could have learned everything from Ancient shields, engines, Ship construction, power sources, ZPM's. Energy weapons like those on the satellites, Drones, ZPM's & cloaking technology etc. Then they could have destroyed the ship only after they had gained lots of valuable technological information. If a numpty like me can immediately think of it, then why can't some of the best military minds or scientific minds think of it also.

If the writers would spend more time fixing their obvious plot holes, instead of worrying about what ice cream flavours to concoct up next with their big expensive machines, then SG might have a longer shelf life than it eventually will, when it's expiry date runs out within the next 2/3 seasons max.

I honestly admit that I couldn't wait for S2 to start up again, in order to see the outcome of what happened in the finale of S1. The only S2 epsiode that I've re-watched is TSIII. The others have come & gone again on TV & I couldn't be bothered ever picking up the remote to change the channel to it.

The only 2 remaining episodes that I am looking forward to is 'Inferno' & 'Allies'. The only valid reason is to see a working Aurora warship & if they get to keep it for longer than an episode or two, or what I suspect will happen, have it be destroyed in the same episode that it's shown in.

All the writers need to do is read their stuff first before starting work on them, hire a couple of fresh proof readers to go through them on behalf of the fans & point out some of the inadequacies & errors that are in them before it's too late. Take S1, McKay says it's 300 million light years away to be back home, yet in S2 it's now only 3 million light years. Those Asgard towing beams must be pretty powerful!

The same writers have been there for too long & it's all going stale now.

Rant Over for the moment!

[captainpash]

I'm with you, keppiezbt. IMO the 2nd half of Season 2 is on a downward spiral. I don't care about the so called kirking, but it pisses me off the lack of character development for Sheppard. He's the leading role, fcol!! And I seriously doubt things will get any better.
Wait and see. I so hope to be wrong.

When the *mod snip* did O'niel ever develope? He never did. You want to know why? Because he was only there to bring people to watch, and because we needed a smart ass. That is Shepards job. Not so much bring people to watch, but more be the smart ass. The character can't be developed because it is so one demionsional. He kills things with guns, and is kinda smart. Nothing more. He is just there for jokes. He didn't develope in the first half of season two from what I have seen. It was all McKay, Ronan, and more Weir. You are pissed about the kirk thing because from your arguement him becoming more Kirkish is the only change.

And about who the two lastest episodes are the wrost stargate ever, can the really be worse than any episode with that two bit hack Jonas? The only episode I ever liked from that entire season was the one with Mckay.

[NakedJehutyV2]

merely forcing more seasons by making fans want more

[Wraith_Hunter]

If that's their gameplan, then I feel sorry for them. In order to get more seasons, they actually have to keep the fans interested in what they're seeing onscreen. So if anything they are killing the number of seasons in the StarGate lifespan, rather than going to get more since Sci-Fi only care about the ratings.

I can understand that they try to spread their stories out over the course of the upcoming season/s. That isn't my gripe these days, it's the ones that they do bring out, they just are badly written & contradict earlier episodes that have been written, haven't been thought through properly before & after they filmed it then ther eis the filler episodes. Ones that are brought in to lazily give them something to make writing the outcome of an upcoming epsiode easier.

The same guys have been there for years & it's all beginning to get stale. Fresh blood needs to be brought into the writing & production staff....A Lot of it before the axeman comes knocking on their door.

[ShadowMaat]

Oh, they'll still get an audience. It just won't be a STARGATE audience. It'll be an audience full of horny teenagers, which is apparently the demographic TPTB are pandering to... or at the very least it's their mentality.

If the audience is more interested in the sex than the plot, then it doesn't matter WHAT the so-called stories are- as long as the guy beds the girl, everyone's happy.

And what WE want doesn't count.

[Naughtrish]

When the F*** did O'niel ever develope? He never did. You want to know why? Because he was only there to bring people to watch, and because we needed a smart ass. That is Shepards job. Not so much bring people to watch, but more be the smart ass. The character can't be developed because it is so one demionsional. He kills things with guns, and is kinda smart. Nothing more. He is just there for jokes. He didn't develope in the first half of season two from what I have seen. It was all McKay, Ronan, and more Weir. You are pissed about the kirk thing because from your arguement him becoming more Kirkish is the only change.

And about who the two lastest episodes are the wrost stargate ever, can the really be worse than any episode with that two bit hack Jonas? The only episode I ever liked from that entire season was the one with Mckay.

You're watching the wrong channel

[knocknashee]

Y'know, the attitudes in the SG camp at the moment kind of remind me of Berman and Braga...I never thought I'd say this, but TPTB are killing their creation faster than B&B killed Star Trek...

It's sad...

[captainpash]

You're watching the wrong channel

You want to expand or is your stupid quip with a smiliy face enough. I watch StarGate because I love Sci-Fi. Yeah sure the plots can be lame some times, but it isn't as bad as what the rest of the world calls TV. My god if you want "Character Developement" watch the O.C. That type of character development is what you want. However, if you want to see someone changed over the course of many episodes through subtle actions the watch StarGate. Also they are experimenting.