Rising, Part 1 (101)

[nugglebugget]

The dude looked a lot like Apophis though... he was looking at her weird too.

My son kept insisting that was "Apophis" & I thought so too.He certainly gave her the "Apophis" gaze.

[Persephone]

He did resemble Apophis, so I can see how people would think that.

I was SOOO excited to see Ona Grauer, though! "Frozen" is one of my favorite SG-1 episodes.

I very much enjoyed the pilot. I think they did a superb job of establishing Weir, Sheppard, Beckett, and McKay. Teyla and Ford were both a little fuzzy in the development arena, but I'm sure they'll come about as very strong, too.

Not quite sure what I think of the Wraith yet. Creepy and intriguing, certainly, but at this point I think I prefer the Goa'uld and the Replicators as villains. Still, I'm not shutting the door of my opinion on any element of Atlantis just yet.

Special effects- great!

EDIT: This sort of goes for both parts of the pilot. I'm having a hard time all-around thinking of it as two separate things.

[Newbie]

yep i also thought he looked like Apophis...but oh well...
Anyway...they didn't speak to eachother...i think there is a reason for that...and we might get to know it later in the show or not...
Now about ATL - I Loved IT!!! And it's a new show in my TO WATCH list!!!

[Archivekeepr]

If I were to be completely honest, I would probably only give "Rising" 5 out 10 points, along with the comment that had Stargate: Atlantis not been the spin-off of Stargate: SG-1, I would probably not be tuning in every week to watch it. (Yes, this does mean that I will continue to watch/tape the new episodes. Even if I'm mostly doing so for neat special effects.) I know that this opinion may seem harsh, but it's what I feel. If any other posters feel that I'm completely whacked out of my gourd, that's okay.

Now, instead just spraying the entire thing with gasoline and burning it to the ground, I've gotta give them credit for the conceptual idea- Had they execute it differently, the show could conceivably be something that I could fall in love with for years to come. But, as it was shown, a lot of little things were off, mostly due to artistic laziness, I think. For example, every issue below could have been taken care of with better structure:

• The Universal English issue- They could have just taken 30 seconds and just added a scene about finding a universal translator. That would have taken care of all the *****ing. But, since I'm not entirely bothered by this issue, I'll leave that bomb alone for the most part.
• Mega!Sheppard- As much as I have to give them props for their choice of Joe Flanigan as male lead- He's definitely adorable in my book. I mean, not cute enough for me ignore all the plotholes and errors, but still cute. I personally think that the evolution of lowly pilot to superhero was done a bit too rapidly for my liking. It should have been staged differently and not have him be so super so fast. Also, not to anger all the jackophile here, but I probably would have prefered if they designed a new personality for the new male lead.
• I don't really worship at the altar of the Ancients. I have a bone to pick with TPTB about the fact that they just keep rolling out the "Use Ancient Tech!" deus ex machina over and over."Can't defeat Anubis?" "Use Ancient tech!" "Can't defeat the replicators?" "Use Ancient Tech!" Sorry, RCC and BW- That's one too many time for me. Can't there be some other way to accomplish the impossible for once?
• Teyla Emmagan- Not a bad idea, but why in the hell would she fall for Shepard right off? I mean, last time I checked, this is not Stargate: Romeo & Juliet. You want shippahoy, fine! Take time to develop it. Write a scene about how maybe she finds him cute (I found the rehash of Daniel cave scene a bit silly. That scene worked for D&E in the first place BECAUSE she had to communicate with him primitively. Take that away, it doesn't really have a purpose.)
• What about the city that Teyla's ancestors used to live in? Did I miss something or did they just drop it like that, after make all that hoopla about needing to explore it?
• About Elizabeth Weir objecting the relocation of the Athosians. I know that the scene was done to show that Sheppard's got all the rightness about him, even morally. But, they really shouldn't have given the line to Weir. She's an international diplomat, she would have understand the importance about allies, especially after Jinto noted that he knew of gate addresses. Had they give that line to McKay or a soldier guy, that would have been fine. They would have been the few who immediately thought that security was being compromised.
• What the hell was Ayiana, her guy friend, Holo!Ancient and the female Wraith wearing?! Where does it say that every advanced alien species must wear the fugly silver outfit with the should pads of power? And if you're a half lizard, half vampire thing- Why are you wearing a DKNY wedding dress? It really just didn't work too well.
• The Wraith wasn't as bad as I'd hoped, but I'd definitely cringe if I bumped into one in a dark alley. Mostly because they're ugly and kind of gross, what with all the slime and teeth. Also, what was up with the whole "human inhibiting protein cells" thing? I mean, I'm not a biologist by any means, but that even sounds messed up to my mother! BW should have either hired a biology advisor or just read up on some stuff before writing about this kind of thing. Had they mentioned the whole wraith immortality thing with regards to telomeres, I'd be fine with it, even if they were BSing.
• The dead Wraith was really lame. If you're going to herald a species with advanced instant healing ability, then do so. Make it so that they are incapacitied by the shots. Also, why did Sheppard stab the female Wraith?! If that worked, wouldn't shooting her also do it? isn't stabbing based on the same principle as being shot, in which a foreign object penetrates the skin and goes where it shouldn't go?
• Colonel Sumner dying wasn't a bad idea, but I personally would have kept him around. But just all aged and can't go on missions anymore. That would probably angst Sheppard up even more and been even better of a drama.

Whew. In order to cool myself down from all that flame spitting, I guess I have to account for the good parts as well:

• "Rising's" pace was pretty good for a TV movie; it got the audience in the mood to cheer for the SGA team and didn't let us wait for too long to do that. It wasn't the tightest line-up, but it didn't leave us hanging too much.
• The city coming up out of the coean- I was actually was smiling when that happened. I don't know how much they spent on it, but however much, it was probably worth it.
• Mckay, Beckett and Ford- The comedy relief trio. Although these three didn't get much to do besides run away and yelling about how they're all gonna die, they weren't bad. I liked the fact that Mckay was toned down, but he still annoys me slightly.

Overall, it wasn't the best, but it wasn't the absolute worst either.

[Erik Pasternak]

I think the real reason they didn't use universal translators in this episode because Teyla's a series regular and they wanted her to speak English, just like everyone else. I think they'll introduce the UT's later on.

[sshspooky]

The show will not do good in the ratings. It can't. Network execs need to realize that quality cannot be bought by the advertizing dollar.

Well, so far it's done alright!

Unfortunately, living in the Uk i depend on sites to provide downloadable versions of the episodes to see thme a few days afterwards. I have seen the first part, but not the second, so I will just post a few comments here and then a my full thoughts in the other thread when i've seen the whole thing.

Firstly, I liked the guest appearances from O'Neill and Daniel. I'm sort of glad they didn't have Teal'c and Sam in it as well as that may have confused new audiences a bit, but Jack as the in charge guy and Daniel the brains behind the address and everything was good.

New Wormhole - pretty cool. it certainly makes a nice change, and was a pretty good sequence.

The Atlantis Gate - Amazing. The force field Iris is great, and how it dials is just brilliant.

The Characters - Perfect. great characters who are interesting, funny, and have some backstory to them to be epxlored in the future.

Simon/Narim - many people have moaned about this, however to me while they looked the same you could tell it was a different character, by his stance and everything, so i have no problem with this.

All in all, a good start, let's hope it can continue that way!

[buuzero]

I really enjoyed the episode. The new gate is cool, but did it feel small to anyone else? When inside the control room, I think the camera angle needs to be changed, because it doesn't feel like the scale is great as the one on SG-1. Might just take some time to get used to.

Some good action sequences in there though.

Oh yeah, what's up with the guards (the guys with the weird looking things on their faces) are they Wraith too? They seemed easier to take down than the female one.

[Newbie]

I really enjoyed the episode. The new gate is cool, but did it feel small to anyone else? When inside the control room, I think the camera angle needs to be changed, because it doesn't feel like the scale is great as the one on SG-1. Might just take some time to get used to.

Some good action sequences in there though.

Oh yeah, what's up with the guards (the guys with the weird looking things on their faces) are they Wraith too? They seemed easier to take down than the female one.

SG1 gate looks HUGE because the room it's in is SMALL...but ATLATNIS is HUGE...so there is more room...but it doesn't matter, PJ fits thru so that's big enough!

[Mio]

I really enjoyed the episode. The new gate is cool, but did it feel small to anyone else? When inside the control room, I think the camera angle needs to be changed, because it doesn't feel like the scale is great as the one on SG-1. Might just take some time to get used to.

Some good action sequences in there though.

Oh yeah, what's up with the guards (the guys with the weird looking things on their faces) are they Wraith too? They seemed easier to take down than the female one.

The female was able to regenerate better because she was sucking the life out someone.

[aAnubiSs]

The SGC gateroom is also grey and boring, while Atlantis is in pretty colors. That's why one doesn't look so much at the gate, and hence the Atlantis gate looks smaller

[Anubis]

The premier looks exciting, can't wait

[Danny-boy]

But I would love if MS and AT went on to Atlantis after SG1

Yeah, that would be cool. Even though im already having fun with the new characters, i wouldn't want to stop seeing Daniel and Sam every week.

[Jafana]

My major Irk in this ep. was that Sam wasn't there.

the top most expert on Gate technology and she's not there to see the team embark through an inter-galactical (sp?) wormhole?

I'm aware that there were apparently legal reasons or whatever for the lack of the characters.. but still.. it seemed wrong.

Otherwise I thought the ep was great, with fantastic potential.

[Ugly Pig]

The absence of Sam (and Teal'c) didn't really bother me. They could be anywhere, possibly on a mission which didn't require Daniel to be there. Maybe assisting another SG team.

[greytop]

They could be on leave(vacation).