Hot Zone (113)

[somme]

I wanna know who that enemy is. I thought the ancients to start with, but the built up the "mystery" to much at the end for it to be them. I can't really see two years down the line, "Yeah it was the ancients who built those nanites, eh well, anyone got a something without lemon in it?"

[Z_2]

Well, that's a good point if she's in a holding cell; I didn't think about that. But Sheppard quipped that he saw that Teyla had made a 'friend' at the end of The Eye. So could it be since she helped bring back Beckett that she might have had a change of heart? Or would she have to "serve time", if she's still there at Atlantis, for her past actions?

And should Atlantis be run with more respect for the various leaders and their responsibilities like in Battlestar Galactica's Litmus? Or is the informal-ness between Weir and Sheppard good enough? At least it isn't as unorganized as the group in ABC's Lost!

[Melyanna]

I suspect that it was created by a non-human race who, much like the Retu encountered in SG-1 were trying to deprive the Goa'uld of hosts, were trying to quell the power of the Wraith by denying them a food source. And I'm really hoping, unlike McKay, that they're still out there and this thread doesn't get tied off in just one episode.

Mel

[Liv]

I am so loving this show! This was another wonderful episode, filled with suspense, great acting and a side of humor throughout.

The opening with McKay, Zelenka and the prime number challenge was funny; and I can't help but wonder exactly how long they had asked Ford to contribute with his guesses, because he was a bit on the grumpy side there.

McKay really took charge from the very beginning of this episode. Loved that. And nice to see a bit more of Grodin, Zelenka and Bates too. Speaking of Bates; I thought it was a nice touch to have him follow Sheppard's orders and not Weir's. I like that they're keeping his character somewhat unpredictable.

I thought the stick fighting sequence with Sheppard and Teyla was pretty funny. In a good way.

Sheppard: "If this was really a fight, I would have shot you by now."

Teyla looked close to rolling her eyes at that statement.

McKay's "Interesting?!" in response to Zelenka saying the same thing, when they'd found out Rodney was going to be okay, was just hysterical to me. That look on his face and the tone of his voice is what had me nearly ROFL. Loved all the things he was telling Zelenka and Ford to think of when he tought he was dying. DH just continues to impress me. He can go from funny to emotional in the blink of an eye.

Oh, and the best line of the episode belonged to Sheppard:

- "Get as far away from the nuclear explosion as possible... That's good advice, Rodney." Heh.

What else? Well, the infected people in the mess hall were flailing about a bit too much, I thought. A bit on the comical side there; but it's no big deal really, since the rest of the episode was so amazing.

And oh yeah, the virus. Scary, obviously, but I'm curious about the visions that accompanied them. McKay mentioned something about that and it just made me wonder if that is any sort of a clue to who's behind it. Not that I have any theories on that.

Also; I liked that we got to see some conflict between Sheppard and Weir. Makes things interesting.

[ColdZero]

Wait a minute, if the Ancients were the only ones living on atlantis and the ancients were unaffected by this disease, then....why did Atlantis seal everybody off? If you can't get infected by the diesase, why stop people who have it from walking around. If anything, thats proof of a few possibilities I can think of right now:

1. There were humans living on Atlantis and the Ancients designed this feature into the city to protect anybody who was living there from this.

2. The Ancients were trying to cure the disease and brought some humans to Atlantis and did not want it to spread to others.

3. The Ancients designed the city for humans as well knowing they may return one day to awaken the city.

The fact that the city sealed itself to protect the humans is proof that the Ancients were not malevolent towards the humans and built this feature into the city thinking ahead. Its strange that Atlantis, with all its protective measures didn't just create an EMP when it detected the virus was loose. You'd think the Ancients would have thought of a way to get rid of the virus when the the method to do so is so simple. Unless it knew it would destroy their computers....those silly Ancients always thinking of everything.

[kashi]

Presuppose for the moment that it was the Ancients who created it. Might it be a biological weapon for use against humans who rebelled or attacked them? I've long been suggesting there is an Alpha/Beta relationship between the Ancients and the humans they seeded. Perhaps some movement of humans did not view their creators so kindly?

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The virus makes humans see horrible nightmarish ghosts. It's designed to torture them. The Ancients were not that evil.

[kashi]

Wait a minute, if the Ancients were the only ones living on atlantis and the ancients were unaffected by this disease, then....why did Atlantis seal everybody off? If you can't get infected by the diesase, why stop people who have it from walking around. If anything, thats proof of a few possibilities I can think of right now:

1. There were humans living on Atlantis and the Ancients designed this feature into the city to protect anybody who was living there from this.

2. The Ancients were trying to cure the disease and brought some humans to Atlantis and did not want it to spread to others.

3. The Ancients designed the city for humans as well knowing they may return one day to awaken the city.

The fact that the city sealed itself to protect the humans is proof that the Ancients were not malevolent towards the humans and built this feature into the city thinking ahead. Its strange that Atlantis, with all its protective measures didn't just create an EMP when it detected the virus was loose. You'd think the Ancients would have thought of a way to get rid of the virus when the the method to do so is so simple. Unless it knew it would destroy their computers....those silly Ancients always thinking of everything.

Not at all. It might just react this way to the presence of nanobots in general. There may well be other nanobots designed to kill Ancients.

[Gothann]

I'm guessing that the nanites were most likely a dumbed-down version of what may be a foreshadowing of the REAL virus, one that would kill Ancients.

Now this is wild theory, but it COULD tie up loose ends: The Ancients were studying and working on the bugs; Ancients wanted to protect their race from a plague; the Ancients happened to fail in their attempts to protect humans from the virus.

First case: The Atlantean Ancients most likely had been infected by this virus. Something stranger even, it may have been released on the City when it was on Earth. This is cause for the outbreak caused by Ayiana, which she could cure herself, probably because her manipulation through her mind could destroy the nanites within someone else's body.

Second case: The plague affected the Ancients to the point that they had to Ascend. The ones left to fight it were "wiped out" by it, but I'm theorizing that the plague happened before Atlantis left Earth. Now, the Ancient physiology is proven to be similar to that of Humans, only with vastly superior abilities. That, coupled with self-regeneration, could lead to the Atlanteans being able to fend off the Nanite virus long enough to find a way for it to be dumbed down from affecting the Atlanteans.

Third case: I'm quite sure that they did NOT test the nanites on the Humans they brought to seed the Pegasus galaxy. That would suggest that they DID make Ancients resistant to it yet since the humans don't have the same advanced physiology, they can't resist the virus. What's worse, it affects them at a faster rate.

Through all of this, it still keeps the arc of a "new and more terrifying" enemy set up by the episode.

Now feel free to pick my theory apart if you wish.

[Major Fischer]

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The virus makes humans see horrible nightmarish ghosts. It's designed to torture them. The Ancients were not that evil.

We have no idea what the Ancients were like. Our experiances with the Ascended is mostly with a renegade group that may or may not even involve Ascended Ancients.

Our experiance with the Ancients themselves is for the most part what they said about themselves.

[aAnubiSs]

I guess it could've been created by an advanced alien race that decided that having regular humans in the galaxy would only make the Wraith stronger, but killing the Ancients wasn't needed since they are very powerful.

We know that Pegasus is a drawf-galaxy in the Andromeda galaxy, so it is possible that the Wraith started out (and still are there) in Andromeda and has an old enemy there. (60+ Hive Ships sounds little for a race that has been around for a very, very long time) Could be the Furlings for example, they created the virus as a last resort.

Although I don't believe it's either Ancient nor Furling. The writers screwed up when they made the nanites with chips and wires and therefore being effected by an EMP. Any technological race would've dumped chips&wires a long time ago.

If we forget about the EMP bit we have much more options.

1. Furlings or someone else as I said before.
2. Ancient Atlantis defensive weapon (We don't know that it doesn't affect the Wraith. The halucinations might be anti-Wraith stuff kicking in).

There are a near infinite number of possibilities if one forgets the EMP part

[Gothann]

Yet there are a million possibilities if one KEEPS the EMP part, too.

A race that has achieved nano-tech wiring can eventually lead into a whole different race specialty. We all know that wires are what makes everything computer or electric-related weak to magnets and EM fields, yet they offer one reliable source of routing command transfer in a concrete manner.

It may be that whoever made that virus has evolved their technology past the nano-tech point into smaller things.

[ColdZero]

From the Torment of Tantalus we know that there was an aliance with the Nox, the Asgard and the Furlings. We don't know about the Furlings, but both the Nox and the Asgard are peaceful races. I don't think either of them would associate with the Ancients if they were evil. Aiyala decided to heal the rest of the team in Anarctica from the plague she was carrying rather than just save herself, which she could have done very easily. Also, the Ancients were this all powerful race, they have no reason to decieve us. Malevelent or not, there is nothing anybody in the galaxy could do to stop them. If they wanted to conquer us, there is no reason to play the "good guy" part to trick us into accepting them. On the same note, there is no reason to leave a note to us at Atlantis telling us of what they did and how they awoke the Wraith.

I think from what we've seen we can assume that the Ancients were a benevolent race that tried to help the humans where they could. We haven't seen anything to suggest that the Ancients were evil or had alterior motives.

[Mr. Seven]

Well the thing is, the Ancients might have been trying to figure out a way to combat the nanites. Just because they were in their lab doesn't mean that they created the virus. Although their built in immunity does raise an eyebrow. Which pretty much throws out the possibility that they were trying to find out how to prevent humans from becoming infected with it.

I dunno, it was kind of close to the images that the Wraith sometimes make. Probably a connection in there somewhere.

Oh and I think that they need to get Sora out of the brig soon...it doesn't make sense to just let her sit in there rotting away. Sure Shepperd probably wants to treat her as an enemy solider, but she could be very useful to them.

I could see her and Ford hooking up.

[Gothann]

Mr. Seven, as I suggested, the Ancients might have been fighting the virus in order to save their race. With my semi-broken timeline it would also show how no humans were infected due to the nanites being contained and hidden away in the outskirts of the city.

I'm guessing the Ancients either knew that the humans would get infected and harvested the bugs from their bodies and in the air, then hid them away. AFTER that they brought humans here. The improbability that a human would find the nanites and break a vial became very probable, 10 THOUSAND years later...

As for the people who made the nanites, since they are unknown as of yet, it's safe to assume that they are NOT the Wraith and it's nearly safe to assume that it's not the Ancients. This foreshadowing of a bigger threat could lead to somewhat of a helpless battle to gain a foothold in Atlantis...

If my storyline layout is the most accurate, that could spell the end for the Atlantis Expedition within a few years, IF they don't get help from an outside source (Furlings, more Nox, Asguard... or Ancients)

[kodamawu]

Oh and yeah Teyla was looking great in this episode. Although they had to ruin it and put her in that baggy clunky hazmat suit.

i know!! i thought she was sooo hot in that dress, i was hoping that her and shep would get locked in the gym and start getting it on! *drools*