Hot Zone (113)

[SeaBee]

Yep, liked this ep.

I suspect that with the virus things are being set up for another bada** race to appear, after the Wraith are all used up and old, rather like the replicators did.

[Panther]

Why didn't Sheppard have his balls handed to him on a plate? Why wasn't he court martialed for disobeying the commanding authority. Why wasn't Bates FFS?

[Matt G]

Mainly because no one from Atlantis had even made contact with Earth by this point! Weir gave him a rap on the knuckles but couldn't court martial him as she's not military!

[Panther]

Um. She is the head of the expedition. We don't know the exact legal ground of how the expedition is run, who has what power, and who can do what (thank you Atlantis writers!). I'm assuming (and probably making an ass out of myself too) that it's run on the basis that it's an international expedition with Weir having command authority. She probably also has the authority of CINC (like the POTUS does over AFOTUS), and Sheppard would have to obey her under military law. Therefore she has every right to court martial his arse and throw him in the brig.

[ToasterOnFire]

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.

Actually, that end scene was the most frustrating part for me.
Shep directly disobeyed Weir, made it worse by getting Bates involved in a big scene in the control room, and actually ended up spread the contamination by his actions. Weir had every right to chew him out in that last scene. However, it came off as rather weak to me, largely because it was interrupted and possibly never finished. We have no idea how and if that conversation continued, but by not showing it and having everything seem normal in the next ep it made it seem like Shep got off with minimal reprimand.

I felt, and still feel, like Shep has a habit of walking over Weir when it comes to big decisions and she doesn't seem to stand up for herself as much as I'd like. It bugs the crud out of me.

To my understanding, this conflict is not really touched upon again this season. If anything, we see Shep defend Weir later in Siege 2, so everything appears to be hunky-dory. I found this plot drop especially bothersome, which is why I asked Martin whether their conflict would be examined next season. He answered

Spoiler:

that it would be, so hopefully I'll be more satisfied with how they deal with this later.

[Egeanin]

I was watching the ep last night and it got me thinking about the race that made the virus. They all thought it was the Wraith until the end, but it was found in an Ancient lab. So i thought, spoilers for season nine of sg-1

Spoiler:

what if the people who made the virus were the Orii, you know the bad Ancients. What if the reason they were given the boot was because they were trying to wipe out the human race?

Just something to think about.

[TechnoWraith]

An interesting thoery, and it sounds plausible, too.

[Egeanin]

An interesting thoery, and it sounds plausible, too.

Wow, I thought I was just reading to much into things. I'm glad someone thinks I'm sane.

[david2708]

Another mediocre episode.totally derivative and not all that interesting. They're sure piling up the number of mediocre eps in Season one of Atlantis. It's looking not all that more entertaining than the awful season eight of SG-1. Well, I suppose nothing can be as bad as S8 of SG-1.

[ShadowMaat]

You know you've been watching too much Atlantis when... You see a poster advertising a movie called Prime and you immediately think of Prime/Not Prime and wonder if the movie is about math. ...And you're disappointed when it isn't.

[Beckmen]

I had the same thought just now while watching Hot Zone on DVD. It would be a nice little link.

Maybe the virus was originally meant to wipe out Ancients, and the Ancients (Alterans) founds a way to innoculate themselves on a genetic level? I dunno. I am trying to justify the theory. Because as we will soon find out

Spoiler:

The Orii's final goal is to wipe out the Alterans

...

[SG1Atlantis]

Hey. I know this issue has probably already been mentioned on here but I don't feel like reading all the posts, so I'm just gona ask. At the end of the ep when Ford says
Ford: The pulse wont make it down here?
and Mckay responds
McKay: If it works, it'll simply be a matter of walking you down to my lab, sitting you down in front of the machine and repeating the process.

How can Ford and the rest of the infected personel that are down w/Mckay and Beckket walk to McKay's lab without the city taking control and quarentining them again once they reach the area of the city that can detect the infected?

[SmallTimePerson]

hmmm... interesting. I uppose they could just get closer. remember the city only quarinteened if it detected a risk to the rest of the population, so take them up in hazmat suits, or teleport them closer using the cupboard

[captain jake]

the "cupboard" as you call it was completely shut down even to sheppard who was in a hazmat suit.

[harsiesis child]

For a "virus"-type episode it was very well treated! I really liked it, though being suspicious, due to the large use of viruses in sg , it was a nano-virus: well found! and the way to destroy it, well found too!