Ronon's planet. Advanced or not? (possible slight spoilers)

[Avatar28]

When I first saw Ronon's planet, it seemed like a pretty advanced happening place. They had what appeared to be elevated roadways, tall spires of buildings and the weapons seemed to be some sort of energy weapons. Also the weapons that Ronon uses later seem to be of a fairly advanced make.

Yet when Ronon hears Shep's radios he seems confused and wants to know what it is. Later at the end when Atlantis sends a malp through to his home planet before letting him return, he seemed puzzled at seeing it on the screen.

These two things seem contradictory. Someone from an advanced civilization would surely not be surprised by audio/video transmissions. This leads me to believe that the energy weapons were NOT products of his people but were acquired elsewhere. As to the appearance of the cities, well, I suppose it's conceivable that they were built without the benefit of high tech and weren't as advanced as they appeared.

I suppose two other possibilities are that the buildings (and possibly the weapons) are the remains of an older civilization. Not sure why the wraith left it intact though in that case.

[Lida]

When I first saw Ronon's planet, it seemed like a pretty advanced happening place. They had what appeared to be elevated roadways, tall spires of buildings and the weapons seemed to be some sort of energy weapons. Also the weapons that Ronon uses later seem to be of a fairly advanced make.

Yet when Ronon hears Shep's radios he seems confused and wants to know what it is. Later at the end when Atlantis sends a malp through to his home planet before letting him return, he seemed puzzled at seeing it on the screen.

These two things seem contradictory. Someone from an advanced civilization would surely not be surprised by audio/video transmissions. This leads me to believe that the energy weapons were NOT products of his people but were acquired elsewhere. As to the appearance of the cities, well, I suppose it's conceivable that they were built without the benefit of high tech and weren't as advanced as they appeared.

I suppose two other possibilities are that the buildings (and possibly the weapons) are the remains of an older civilization. Not sure why the wraith left it intact though in that case.

Good points, but from the pics I've seen of Dex fighting on his homeworld, before he got culled, it appeared that he and his fellow military "types" were using advanced weapons and the city looked at least comparable to 21st century Earth.

Perhaps his confusion about the MALP, was mixed with his confusion and grief at seeing his homeworld of Atteria, in ruins.

He was aware of Ancient tech, because he asked Dr. Beckett if the sensor he was using was Ancient (not certain if he used that exact term) technology. So I'm unsure about his "confusion" about the radio. I'll have to watch the episode again.

Good post!

[CovertOperative]

When I first saw Ronon's planet, it seemed like a pretty advanced happening place. They had what appeared to be elevated roadways, tall spires of buildings and the weapons seemed to be some sort of energy weapons. Also the weapons that Ronon uses later seem to be of a fairly advanced make.

Yet when Ronon hears Shep's radios he seems confused and wants to know what it is. Later at the end when Atlantis sends a malp through to his home planet before letting him return, he seemed puzzled at seeing it on the screen.

These two things seem contradictory. Someone from an advanced civilization would surely not be surprised by audio/video transmissions. This leads me to believe that the energy weapons were NOT products of his people but were acquired elsewhere. As to the appearance of the cities, well, I suppose it's conceivable that they were built without the benefit of high tech and weren't as advanced as they appeared.

I suppose two other possibilities are that the buildings (and possibly the weapons) are the remains of an older civilization. Not sure why the wraith left it intact though in that case.

Excellent post, I was thinking the same thing.

Perhaps the reason he was confused about the audio/video signals is because his people use something MORE advanced (e.g. mental telepathy or something). And yes, he did mention Ancestor technology in "Runner," so apparently he is somewhat familiar with the Ancients.

[Avatar28]

Excellent post, I was thinking the same thing.

Perhaps the reason he was confused about the audio/video signals is because his people use something MORE advanced (e.g. mental telepathy or something). And yes, he did mention Ancestor technology in "Runner," so apparently he is somewhat familiar with the Ancients.

True, but outside of Atlantis I don't think we've seen any Ancient a/v technology.

Well, maybe the next episode will shed more light on it.

[Giantevilhead]

Ronan was only confused about the radio because it made some static noise. He was confused about the MALP image because he didn't know it was his planet, he thought that they were just showing him an image of a destroyed city for no reason.

[Blue007]

Good point. Not sure it was his city, he seemed very confused by the picture and stunned to find out it was his home.

[Lightsabre]

Good point. Not sure it was his city, he seemed very confused by the picture and stunned to find out it was his home.

What I would like to know is how did his planet get to that level??
I agree that he was most likely confused cause he'd never seen a radio like that and that he was shocked it was his planet,not at the screen.
But, I thought the Wraith kept human populations from advancing too far??
I mean, it looks like Atteria put up a damn good fight 7 years ago.
It would have been a simple culling too, not a strip the planet bare feeding.
How could that be??

[TheCorpulent1]

I think the best bet for explaining his confusion is that his communication technology simply worked differently. Maybe he never had static announce the beginning of a transmission like a radio does. If you heard something weird, like a metallic ping or something, followed by a disembodied human voice coming from a vest, wouldn't you be confused even though you know what a radio is? You'd expect the static noise and expect a communication device to work a certain way.

Same thing with the MALP. Maybe the Atterians hadn't thought of building machines to send through the gate and transmit data back. Just because they seem fairly advanced, doesn't mean they necessarily thought of everything we have.

The sidearm that Dex uses, however, is (as someone suggested in another thread) probably scavenged tech that he cobbled together using his weapons training. It seemed more advanced than the weapons in his flashback but at the same time it looks pretty MacGyvered to me, like it's made of parts that weren't designed to go together.

What I would like to know is how did his planet get to that level??
I agree that he was most likely confused cause he'd never seen a radio like that and that he was shocked it was his planet,not at the screen.
But, I thought the Wraith kept human populations from advancing too far??
I mean, it looks like Atteria put up a damn good fight 7 years ago.
It would have been a simple culling too, not a strip the planet bare feeding.
How could that be??

Yeah, that occurred to me too. Maybe the Wraith lost track of his world for a few hundred years, enabling them to advance to a higher-than-average level of technology for the Pegasus galaxy, or maybe the Atterians at some point packed up and moved to another world that the Wraith thought was uninhabited for a few centuries. That also explains why his world was stripped bare as opposed to simply being culled: The Wraith, once they found the level of civilization present on his world, decided it was too big a risk to keep around.

[Helo]

Good points, but from the pics I've seen of Dex fighting on his homeworld, before he got culled, it appeared that he and his fellow military "types" were using advanced weapons and the city looked at least comparable to 21st century Earth.

Perhaps his confusion about the MALP, was mixed with his confusion and grief at seeing his homeworld of Atteria, in ruins.

He was aware of Ancient tech, because he asked Dr. Beckett if the sensor he was using was Ancient (not certain if he used that exact term) technology. So I'm unsure about his "confusion" about the radio. I'll have to watch the episode again.

Good post!

I'm pretty sure he said ancestor. Because he calls the gate the ring of the ancestors.

[TheCorpulent1]

He does. He asks Beckett, "That Ancestor technology?" and Beckett replies, "That it is."

[¤Denial-OF-Life¤]

Different enviroments tend to bring about different tech advances, That planet cound have been a rare one with unusual minerals. OR perhaps it had a sort of device to protect the planet from the wraith from the Ancestors that the energy source depleted , maybe during a hibernation and once the wraith went to cull they said "oh frack" how did this happen? then wiped it clean.

[Xanderic]

I said it in the 'Ronan's gun' thread and I'll say it again:
I think the Atterians created a weapon to kill the wraith. They sent a team to a Wraith occupied planet to test it out. It works but the team gets culled and interrogated. Atteria is found out. The Wraith go to Atteria and not only cull the planet but destroy it because it was a threat to them. The weapon wasn't being produced yet because they didn't know if the prototypes worked because the team didn't return. Ronan was a weapons specialist but he probably wasn't in the loop on how to make that weapon.

[valha'lla]

The goauld were advanced but they did not use malps untill they encountered us. Also if his race had been avoding the wraith cullings they may have only travled to world that they new had humans that they traded on in oder to aviod the wraith so would not need a malp. As for the destruction probably the same as with thoes who had wraith DNA put in them they did not want any suviours so they levled his plannet. His people probaly either moved from another plannet to that one, lived in an are that the wraith could not get to for a while for some reason or the periviouse culling had feed their popualtion before they got to the plannet so decided to leave his population so they would have a large food source for next time.

[Cycrow]

The goauld were advanced but they did not use malps untill they encountered us. Also if his race had been avoding the wraith cullings they may have only travled to world that they new had humans that they traded on in oder to aviod the wraith so would not need a malp. As for the destruction probably the same as with thoes who had wraith DNA put in them they did not want any suviours so they levled his plannet. His people probaly either moved from another plannet to that one, lived in an are that the wraith could not get to for a while for some reason or the periviouse culling had feed their popualtion before they got to the plannet so decided to leave his population so they would have a large food source for next time.

hiddening from the wrath would be a good idea for having a malp type thing, as they can scout out the planet to check if there are any wraith there b4 they go thru the gate

if the wraith were there, they wouldn't know where the malp had come from, so they would still remain unknown

[Lida]

He does. He asks Beckett, "That Ancestor technology?" and Beckett replies, "That it is."

Thanks, I knew he didn't use the term Ancient, but I couldn't remember which word he did use, so thanks Helo and TheCorpulent1.

Xanderic, very interesting theory about Dex's people and homeworld.