FORD AND THE JUMPER – A CLARIFICATION, by Martin Gero (SPOILERS)

[Quinn Mallory]

Well, thanks for the clarification.

For those who said that the puddle jumper needs the Ancient genes to be activated, I think this rule was not broken in this episode as Ford took the jumper that was already ON (the one that Dr. Zelanka (sp?) was working on).

I did thought that there may had been some problem had what I said above happened to be the case, since Atlantis was using the cloaking device out of the puddle jumper that had Dr. Zelanka which looks to me to be the one that Ford took.

I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this as well.

[White Knight]

Along those lines, I do remember a rumor where

Spoiler:

the wraith enzyme is treated as an addictive drug of sorts for offworld people in a later ep, which sounds interesting.

Didn't it establish in the episode that the enzyme was addictive, or did I just get the wrong impression?

[Qasim]

Thanks for the clarification - I thought that he might have had the gene therapy

[ShadowMaat]

For those who said that the puddle jumper needs the Ancient genes to be activated, I think this rule was not broken in this episode as Ford took the jumper that was already ON (the one that Dr. Zelanka (sp?) was working on).

I did thought that there may had been some problem had what I said above happened to be the case, since Atlantis was using the cloaking device out of the puddle jumper that had Dr. Zelanka which looks to me to be the one that Ford took.

I did wonder about that, actually- if Ford was using the jumper Zelenka was working on. But wouldn't that mean that the cloaking device would fail as soon as the jumper moved/went through the gate? Or do they know enough about jumper systems to successfully remove the entire cloaking system from the jumper and it's Zelenka's fault for leaving the engine running (so to speak), allowing Ford to escape?

And poor Zelenka. I forgot he was clobbered. I guess Ford got his payback for the "Prime, Not Prime" stuff after all. LOL

[Melyanna]

I did wonder about that, actually- if Ford was using the jumper Zelenka was working on. But wouldn't that mean that the cloaking device would fail as soon as the jumper moved/went through the gate? Or do they know enough about jumper systems to successfully remove the entire cloaking system from the jumper and it's Zelenka's fault for leaving the engine running (so to speak), allowing Ford to escape?

And poor Zelenka. I forgot he was clobbered. I guess Ford got his payback for the "Prime, Not Prime" stuff after all. LOL

He hit Zelenka, grabbed a bag from the floor, and ran into the jumper next to the one Zelenka was working on. Had Zelenka not been stepping out of the first jumper when Ford came in, Ford probably would have walked into his jumper without even knowing Zelenka was there.

[Hatcheter]

I did wonder about that, actually- if Ford was using the jumper Zelenka was working on. But wouldn't that mean that the cloaking device would fail as soon as the jumper moved/went through the gate? Or do they know enough about jumper systems to successfully remove the entire cloaking system from the jumper and it's Zelenka's fault for leaving the engine running (so to speak), allowing Ford to escape?

And poor Zelenka. I forgot he was clobbered. I guess Ford got his payback for the "Prime, Not Prime" stuff after all. LOL

There were actually two jumpers parked side by side, with their ramps down. Zelenka walked out of one, Ford decked him, then ran into the other one.

On a production note, I had figured that there was really only one jumper prop/set used in each episode. It seems there are two now.

and melyanna beats me to it

[purpletoo1]

Thanks Martin, for clearing that up, I was wondering.

[Lida]

Yes Martin, that part was troubling me, but thank you for taking the time from your very busy schedule, to clear up the "Ford/Puddle jumper" issue and also the infamous "hug".

The season opener was fantastic, and I'm looking forward to more!

[SGalisa]

Hi Martin,
The Siege was an excellent "edge of the seat" story! I liked all three parts, BTW. Very well composed (in spite of what the TV critics wrote).


However, since the subject of Ford not receiving any Ancient therapy, and not being turned Wraith, there are now new questions being raised... (just curious).

1) An explanation in Ford's physical facial transformations
2) How the PJ could go on autopilot if it requires the ATA gene marker to start the engines in the first place.

Originally posted by ShadowMaat:
But if the enzyme is just like a steroid, how come the left side of Ford's face is all Wraith-y? Or is that just a coincidence?

yes, as mentioned above...
How could the Wraith enzyme turn his left eye into looking like that of a possessed person and also alter his cheekbone characteristics? I could understand his skin getting wrinkly from the feeding process, but the whole transformation shift in his eye is a mystery. Unless the grenade blast had something to do with it, but that wouldn't explain why his eye looks bigger and all dark without an iris. He never looked in the mirror, but everyone else on Atlantis who saw him, noticed these significant differences in his appearance.

Puddle Jumper: if Sam and Daniel could only turn on the lights and a few minor other things, but required seeking further assistance from Jack (being recognized as the only known person at the SGC who had the ancient gene) to start up the PJ's engines in Season 8's SG-1 "Moebius", and as also mentioned:

Originally posted by ÜberSG-1Fan:
In Moebius 1, Sam made it pretty clear that since Ra didn't have the Ancient gene, he couldn't so much as turn the puddle jumper on.

So then how would Ford be able to even turn the PJ on so that the autopilot could kick in since he also does not possess the Ancient gene?

If the Wraith DNA marker is blocked by Ancient technology, can the autopilot still be started (by anyone else) without the PJ's engines requiring a booster ignition *key* signal? In other words...

If Ford is truly without the Ancient gene, and *not* having any Wraith DNA put into his body, and the PJ's engines *require* the ATA gene to activate them, thus then turning ON the autopilot (at least that's what logic would dictate based on previous SG stories), how did the PJ get turned on in the first place? (Did Ford threaten someone who had the ATA gene, to start its engines? or take the one that Zelenka already had up and running?)

Based on what viewers did see, it wasn't clear if Zelenka was simply boosting the signal for the PJ's cloak to cover the entire city, or transferring the cloak to some other location. Also, was more than one PJ used to cloak the city?

...and if one of the PJ's already had its engines started by the ATA gene and that PJ was cloaking the city with the cloak still attached to the PJ -if that (already operational) PJ was stolen by Ford, wouldn't that have an obvious adverse effect for the nuke bomb fallout? The timing behind these things wasn't actually revealed... only that it seemed that the city re-appeared shortly after the nuke cloud started to clear, which also seemed to happen shortly after Ford took off with the operational PJ.

It must drive you writers nuts at seeing: leave it to us *detailed* viewers at noticing these -hanging in the balance- unexplained *mysteries*.

[Tok'Ra Hostess]

Just wanted to point out, folks, that MG never said that the enzyme was "just like" a steroid. He said it was "kinda like" a steroid. Big, huge difference, there.

And remember, too, that Dr. Beckett has never run into such a thing before(and I seriously doubt the Wraith have, either), so he's using frames of reference familiar to him.