Hot Zone (113)

[Keffler]

They dont have zats and the wraith stunners work differently.

Did anyone else think it was stupid that the ancients systems could be affected by flooding and yet they put the city ontop (or underneath) the ocean?

[ShadowMaat]

Did anyone else think it was stupid that the ancients systems could be affected by flooding and yet they put the city ontop (or underneath) the ocean?

No. As I recall, they didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. And there are very few things that aren't affected by something like flooding. But if the choice is to have a few flooded hallways and wrecked sections of the city or have the wraith come in and destroy everything and/or possibly use the city for dire purposes, I'm guessing a few soggy socks are worth it.

[SmartFox]

^^^
Someone above mentioned that Peterson should have been zapped. Do they have zat guns on Atlantis? I suppose the Wraith guns...

And what's the total population of Atlantis and the body count so far in Season 1?

I dont think they brought any Goa'uld weapons or technology with them. I dont why though. Several times a zat would be useful. Also i would like to see what effect a staff weapon would have on the Wraith.

As for the body count im uncertain.

[GatetheWay]

Body count so far in Atlantis (only up to Hot Zone):

Rising: 1 (Col. Sumner)

The Storm: 2 (the two soldiers who were guarding the gate)

The Defiant One: 2 (Abrams and Gaul)

Hot Zone: 5 (Johnson, Wagner, Dumai (sp?), Hayes, and Peterson)

So thats 10 so far...

[Bastet11191967]

I missed the first four minutes of the show, since my satellite blacked out on me, so I didn't see that part. I thought Shepard went too far in disobeying Weir's orders. He seemed to come across as too much of a hot-head in this episode. I liked that Teyla scolded him for doing it. I think Teyla understands Weir's burden of responsibility for everyone's safety, since she had been the former leader of the Athosians. The ending of the show seems to point to continued conflict between Weir and Shepard, which would be unfortunate. However, it would be totally fake and unrealistic if they were both all smiles and blowing the incident off casually, like in a sitcom. It'll be interesting to see how the upcoming episodes and season two play that part out.

[greytop]

I missed the first four minutes of the show, since my satellite blacked out on me, so I didn't see that part.

If it was on Scifi, it wasn't your satellite. I have cable and Scifi did it on. Btw, the blackout has been descuss earlier in this thread.

[GhostPoet]

So I take it that new alien tech they discovered could possibly be made by the aliens who will be the new enemy of season 9 for SG-1?

[aAnubiSs]

Any race making technology with chips and wires would be crushed in a second

[Jeril]

For those who saw the first two minutes of the episode. Was the prime number game McKay and Zelenka playing a reference to DH's movie Cube or was is it just a coincidence?

It might've been a nod or a coincidence, as you said. I suppose the only ones who know are TPTB. Maybe they'll tell us someday...
I was thinking though; it'd be interesting if they took that bit about how Ford was missing every time he guessed although it was nigh-impossible because of statistics or whatnot, and made something out of it later on. I don't know how they'd do it, but it'd be interesting, nonetheless.

[SmartFox]

The Ford thing was just a plot filler and most likely wont come up again.

[Historywiz]

While the episode is quite long, I'd rather give a short summary of what I have right now since I ran out of tape mid-episode.

Starts out with McKay and a full science team and a military team in a flooded area of the city, then, they recieve a message from two scientists who are being "attacked" by something. When they arrive, one is dead and the other is in shock. After a few moments, the other scientist dies in Zelenka's arms of what seems to be hallucinations.
After that, McKay orders everyone to stay where they are, for fear that they are infected, and contacts Weir telling her of the situation. He then proceeds to go out of where he was and try and find where the two first scientists were when they were infected. He then finds what seems to be a small lab and goes in with Ford covering his six.
Next, we see Sheppard and Teyla training with what seems to be short sticks, after which they recieve the city-wide warning that the city is in lockdown. Sheppard searches for a radio.
Switch back to McKay, he asks for Beckett's medical team, in full Hazard suits, in order to examine everyone. As that happens, one more scientist dies and seemingly throws herself on one of the more jumpy scientists there, who proceeds to have a hallucination and runs away.
Weir sees him running and closes all doors in his way and powers down everything. McKay tells Weir that the guy has just as much knowlege about Ancient technology as he does, and doing those door locks will only slow him down.
Sheppard talks to Weir, demanding that he go get the runaway, Weir says no. Sheppard orders Sargeant Bates to open the door, who is now torn between Sheppard and Weir ordering him to do opposite things. He finally caves in and opens the door, apologizing to Dr. Weir.
Beckett's team gets to McKay, they examine everyone, they learn that the deaths were caused by hemorrages behind the visual center of the brain. Meanwhile McKay has been having hallucinations, alongside another scientist.
Sheppard goes to the med lab, gets a Hazard suit, and goes in search for the guy.
The scientist who was infected dies, and McKay goes into a very emotional speech, thinking they are his last words. When he's done, he notices that he's not dead, wherein he SHOULD have died at the same time as the other. Beckett is intrigued by this and wonders what happened.
Sheppard and Teyla find the runaway man in a hallway, and corner him against a door he just barely opened to go through. As they force him to give up, he runs to a transporter and goes into the Mess Hall of the main tower, but not before being shot by Sheppard's P90. He falls down and dies in the mess hall, with the people there in a panic. Then, the whole city goes into lockdown, where every door closes and all commands cease working.
It's then that Sheppard tries to go back to the main tower, noticing that he can go through a door. He then asks Weir if she can use the doors, who says no, then procedes to yell at Sheppard for having even considered doing what he just did, resulting in the infection of EVERYONE in the control tower.
Ford starts panicking back at the Ancient lab, because he has only an hour left to live.
Sheppard and Teyla reach the Mess Hall and start acessing the infection, then McKay radios in and says that he should go to his lab.
Sheppard then goes there, ordered to initiate an EMP. After doing so, nothing happens, Ford and Zelenka start getting desperate. McKay and Beckett find out that the virus is a nanovirus and that it's made to target solely humans. Since McKay has ATA innoculation, he didn't die, but since Zelenka's body rejected it, his time is clocked at 29 minutes left to live. We now learn that only 48% of people who are innoculated have a lasting effect.
The people in the mess hall have their first hallucination, they panic. Teyla tries to calm them down, but is thrown on glass. She notices that her Hazard suit is cut open, and then gets hit by the knowlege that she's now infected.
McKay thinks of a way to destroy the nanites, by making a nuclear explosion detonate 20 miles over the city. At that point, Weir contests the loss of a Naquadah generator, but Sheppard says it's the only and last shot they all have at survival. She gives the OK. Sheppard makes it go into overload and runs quickly to a PJ. Once inside, he takes the generator to a 20-mile vertical distance and starts to run away from it with 30 seconds to spare, the bomb explodes and everyone waits...

Then, all ancient systems go back online for all humans, the nanobots are all disabled.

Dr.Weir calls Sheppard to talk with her when he gets back, and then points out that General O'Neill and Colonel Sumner had warned her that Major Sheppard has a hard time grasping command structure. Then, McKay and Zelenka go in and talk about the nanovirus, and how they ruled out the implication of the Wraith in it's creation.

McKay notices how it was in an Ancient lab that this thing was being studied... He then asks who made it and why... But he just hopes that the people who made it aren't still around...

End Short Synopsis.

EDIT: Crap, just noticed that I spent half an hour on that one. BEWARE: some of the timeline in my text is very likely out of order by about one or two scenes. Sorry for that, but how do you expect me to remember something I saw fifteen minutes before starting my writing, AND without the tape to guide me.

That's a short summary?

[SmartFox]

Considering thats almost 40 mins yea pretty short but detailed.

[the dancer of spaz]

Yeah, I gotta say... As much as I love Sheppard, he acted like a weasel, and lost a few *points* in this episode. That's alright... He'll gain them back. Anyway, I thought his behavior was a bit immature. I'm sure Weir has been wrong before, and Sheppard will be wrong again - however John was just so forceful about it! I mean, he put a lot of people's lives in jeopardy, but I think he probably realized what Elizabeth was saying when she called him up on it.

Sheppard's a great guy. His behavior, if you'll excuse me, reminds me of Jack A LOT! Jack, at times, has (had) the ability to do whatever seems right to him. Some would call this fool-hardy pig-headedness, and maybe they're right. However, there have been times when Jack was right about his instincts, and there have been times when John was right about his. Unfortunately, because John Sheppard tends to be pretty right, he didn't take into consideration that Weir actually might have a valid point this time.

Plus, whether she was right or not, his undermining her authority was pretty messed up - and I'm TOTALLY glad that Teyla brought it to his attention. It's times like these where I like to put all ship-speculation aside and look at the situation from a "friends" standpoint. Sheppard was disobeying the direct order of the Atlantis Base Commander, a person whom he happens to consider a friend. When the time was appropriate, and when she was ready, another friend brought it to his attention honestly and forcefully.

Teyla also is more likely to be neutral than perhaps anyone, considering McKay/Weir are doctors and civilians, and Sheppard/Ford are military. Anyway, I liked the episode a lot. I think it adds more depth when you've got these people interacting in such a way. Shep ticks off Weir a lot, Teyla ticks off Shep a bit... McKay ticks off everyone...

It reminds me of SG-1's Season Four's "The Other Side." If you've never seen it, you should. It shows some great character conflicts alongside the action, and something akin to a reconciliation near the end.

[Ham]

I thought this episode was great in setting up the potential future conflict between Shepard and Weir. Perhaps the best scene was after he undermined her, John was calling Weir on the radio and she remained furious while looking at the comp screen and he had to call her again before she answered. Weir's quiet anger there was extremely believable and well played.

But the absolute best part for me was at the end when Weir & John were talking about the issue and the writers slyly had McKay come in with the info about the nano-virus. This immediately shifted the focus from S/W to whom created the virus. I liked the fact that rather than tying everything up nice and neat, TPTB left the issue between S/W unresolved. This is something that can be used again in a future episode.

Since I'm in the US, I'm not sure (and don't want to know) if this issue is brought up again, but kudos to a great episode nonetheless.

[greytop]

Just seen the last half of this one on a tape that I had. (I had taped over the 1st half.)

Rodney had said that the nanovirus wasn't created by the Wraith and he didn't know who had. I was thinking, could it have been

Spoiler:

the Orii

?