The Siege, Part 2 (120)

[sshspooky]

i have to say this was an awesome finale. the battle sequences were excellent. the stryline was excellent. people from earth coming was excellent. all the characters were excellent. the cliff hanger was great to see.

it doesn't get much better then this.

[Cronus]

This finale is the result of the last 8 seasons of stargate. They have explored with different ideas, made some mistakes along the way, and come off with an absolutely genius finale.

I think this is the best finale of stargate and probably the best finale we will ever see. It is sheer quality. As mentioned they got every aspect of the episode right. Even with all the technology and support Atlantis is still the underdog, which is essential to stargate, and we are left wondering how anyone in Atlantis will get out alive. I mean we see almost all of them surrendering and Sheppard on a suicide mission. Genius of a cliff hanger.

[SEREN LWCH (MAL)]

This finale is the result of the last 8 seasons of stargate. They have explored with different ideas, made some mistakes along the way, and come off with an absolutely genius finale.

I think this is the best finale of stargate and probably the best finale we will ever see. It is sheer quality. As mentioned they got every aspect of the episode right. Even with all the technology and support Atlantis is still the underdog, which is essential to stargate, and we are left wondering how anyone in Atlantis will get out alive. I mean we see almost all of them surrendering and Sheppard on a suicide mission. Genius of a cliff hanger.

Great episode! I hate tense cliffhangers though (GateGipsy agreed with me via text on that 1 )

LOL though i really think Weir should give sheppard a good telling off! " Ok you decided you had to go on a suicide mission. I can exept that. But why leave a gap of 6-7 months between doing it?!?"

[Cronus]

Great episode! I hate tense cliffhangers though (GateGipsy agreed with me via text on that 1 )

LOL though i really think Weir should give sheppard a good telling off! " Ok you decided you had to go on a suicide mission. I can exept that. But why leave a gap of 6-7 months between doing it?!?"

Fair point. I prefer to have each season end fully and then they start another. The only problem is that I'm always nervous they won't start another season. (I'm paranoid). At least this way they have to do another season.

Good point about that Weir thing. Also, did you see how nervous Beckett looked in the control room; it was because he knew he'd have to pilot the other Puddle Jumper if it works. Poor Guy.

My dad through the remote at the TV because I forgot to tell him that it was the second part of a three parter. He was mad.

[tarnsman]

i have to say this was an awesome finale. the battle sequences were excellent. the stryline was excellent. people from earth coming was excellent. all the characters were excellent. the cliff hanger was great to see.

it doesn't get much better then this.

I totally agree, a stunning finale to a excellent first series...and dont you hate those words "To be Continued"

[Cronus]

Does anyone else think this was movie quality? Personally I thought it was way too good to be made for a TV show. The three parter of the Siege would have made for an excellent film. Everything just seemed to be bigger and more real than a TV show should be able to produce.

Sorry, I just can't get over how brilliant this episode was.

[Anubis]

OUTSTANDING episode. I have absolutely NO idea how this episode could have been done any better than what it has been, all I have left to do is compliment it, and demand some answers to questions.


Loved the opening scenes of the arrival from Earth -- "General O'Neill sends his compliments to a job well done, you are relieved." Great line from Everett there, I wasn't building up to actually LIKE his character, but he did, sort of know what he was doing, with the help from McKay and Zelenka. When it comes to saving the city, you turn to the scientist.

Good scene between Sheppard/Everett -- discussing what he did about Sumner. Really good quality stuff.

Some great action from Teyla AND Ford, for a change, I was really happy to see Ford get some good action. "Next time, you can be bait." Really good stuff.

Enjoyed seeing how Carson portrayed his Ancient gene, thinking he'd cause more trouble like he has before. Poor guy - he must really not like this gene stuff.

Can't get enough of McKay's sarcasm, though. "You turn up with your brush-cuts and your big guns, but when it comes to saving the city, you turn to the scientist." Great line there. Couldn't help but laugh at that.

As usual, some GREAT screen-time for Sheppard, loved the chair scenes where McKay had trouble starting it up. The previous scene with the drones, though - on the first wave, was brilliant. Kind of glad there wasn't many really, added some more impact to the episode.

Those big, honkin' guns are REALLY cool. A great 10,000 shots in one clip, that's a big clip. Great guns, and loved the shots on Ford with the gun.

Great camera perspective around the city, seeing different parts of it - about time, I might add. I hope we'll continue to explore more of the city in season two.

Didn't they finish that nuclear bomb, just a BIT too quick - with perfect timing too? Lucky, yet predicible.

There's a lot of questions posed, too. What will happen to Ford? , What happened to Teyla , What happened to Everett? and Will they actually evacuate? -- VERY interesting stuff.

I have to compliment the special effects .. they are SUPERB. I've never seen better. I don't know how you managed it, really, especially since budgets begin to fall by the end of a season. The ending explains a LOT, and it's just really, really great.


You can't seriously end a season like that ... it's pure evil. "I'm going in." I loved that scene, but I didn't as we have to wait some time for the third installment.

Blown away, great episode. Much better than the SG-1 S8 finale, by FAR.

[Metarock Sam]

OUTSTANDING episode. I have absolutely NO idea how this episode could have been done any better than what it has been, all I have left to do is compliment it, and demand some answers to questions.


Loved the opening scenes of the arrival from Earth -- "General O'Neill sends his compliments to a job well done, you are relieved." Great line from Everett there, I wasn't building up to actually LIKE his character, but he did, sort of know what he was doing, with the help from McKay and Zelenka. When it comes to saving the city, you turn to the scientist.

Good scene between Sheppard/Everett -- discussing what he did about Sumner. Really good quality stuff.

Some great action from Teyla AND Ford, for a change, I was really happy to see Ford get some good action. "Next time, you can be bait." Really good stuff.

Enjoyed seeing how Carson portrayed his Ancient gene, thinking he'd cause more trouble like he has before. Poor guy - he must really not like this gene stuff.

Can't get enough of McKay's sarcasm, though. "You turn up with your brush-cuts and your big guns, but when it comes to saving the city, you turn to the scientist." Great line there. Couldn't help but laugh at that.

As usual, some GREAT screen-time for Sheppard, loved the chair scenes where McKay had trouble starting it up. The previous scene with the drones, though - on the first wave, was brilliant. Kind of glad there wasn't many really, added some more impact to the episode.

Those big, honkin' guns are REALLY cool. A great 10,000 shots in one clip, that's a big clip. Great guns, and loved the shots on Ford with the gun.

Great camera perspective around the city, seeing different parts of it - about time, I might add. I hope we'll continue to explore more of the city in season two.

Didn't they finish that nuclear bomb, just a BIT too quick - with perfect timing too? Lucky, yet predicible.

There's a lot of questions posed, too. What will happen to Ford? , What happened to Teyla , What happened to Everett? and Will they actually evacuate? -- VERY interesting stuff.

I have to compliment the special effects .. they are SUPERB. I've never seen better. I don't know how you managed it, really, especially since budgets begin to fall by the end of a season. The ending explains a LOT, and it's just really, really great.


You can't seriously end a season like that ... it's pure evil. "I'm going in." I loved that scene, but I didn't as we have to wait some time for the third installment.

Blown away, great episode. Much better than the SG-1 S8 finale, by FAR.

What he said. I love this episode s much and it had a great cliffhanger at the end. Now I gotta wait to long noooooo I just cant wait.

[Elinor]

As Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons might say
"Best season finale.... EVER!"

[Major Clanger]

First let me say that I absolutely adored this ep. Fantastic. Wonderful cliffhanger.

But...

It is bad enough that we have to have Bates set up constantly in conflict with Sheppard. I never think it is realistic, and to be honest oftentimes I want to slap Shep. he is an experienced military officer, which is not to say that he should blindly toe the military line, but that he should understand where Bates is coming from.

Colonel E - same thing. I Am soooooooo sick of seeing Cliché-military-person on this show that I am seriously going to pop an artery one time. Sumner was bad enough (the way the writers treated him, not the other actors, and certainly not his actor) but Col.E.... aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh!

Is that really how civilians think that professional military people behave? really? honestly?

I didn't think so. Luckily he sort of softened up, but how the flaming norah could the writers get away with 3rd rate fic-like OCs like Col.E?

I can't even talk about him any more. A lot of what he did was ok though, and finally Liz and Shep realised his worth. which is good.

Loved the effects, the tracer rounds when they were firing at the attacking darts was fantastic. The soldiers didn't really seemed fired up to me though, but nonetheless, fantastic.

Teyla bugged me as usual. But at this stage she only has to be on screen for a nanosecond to bug me. To much to hope that she was on a sandwich for a wraith?

Rodders and Dr.Z were on top form, loved Rodney snarking at Dr. Beckett. Fantastic stuff. I would have liked to see the pair of them hallucinating a bit towards the end of the ep - going without sleep does that for lots of people.

But oh my, what a cliffhanger. Fantastico.

(oh and sooooooooooooooo relieved that there was no "special moment" for Liz and Shep. I probably would have had to swear off Atlantis for life if they had)

[ShadowMaat]

As I said earlier in the thread, I've seen plenty of hard-nose by-the-book jarhead characters to be able to appreciate the good ones when I see them. Col. Jackhole was not good. He was every bad bit of every bad cliche of the military times AT LEAST ten. Ye gods. There was not a single redeemable thing about him as far as I'm concerned and while I am loathe to wish death on ANY characters, I would not miss this guy in the slightest if he never appeared again. This guy makes Kavanagh look like the nicest, friendliest character on the show.

And I still think he sounded like PDL when he first came through the gate.

Teyla... yeah. I used to be content with just finding her boring and ignoring her whenever she was on screen, but now she annoys me every time I see her. She doesn't even have to say anything.

Ye gods, writers, what were you thinking?? Nevermind, I know the answer: T&A. I pity the actress that she is so misused...

And back to the military thing... R Lee Ermey, anyone? Love the guy to pieces, and he knows how to take a hard-ass jarhead and make it his OWN! And you love him for it. He scares the hell out of you, but you love him anyway.

Well, he scares the hell out of ME, anyway.

[Major Clanger]

It just really gets up my nose to see misuse of potentially fantastic and groundbreaking characters like that. I was in the military....

no!!! you all shout, surely not!!!....

... and I have to say that I did encounter a couple of clichés. But they were all no hopers in dead end places.

But then, given the cliché (at that time, at least) about female soldiers, It's somewhat a surprise to me to discover that I am not, in fact, a hairy arsed lesbian in comfortable shoes.

Oh, and I loved that the scientists were not only given the chance, but took it up, to defend Atlantis.

McKay is a bit tasty when he's schlepping a P90 around.

[smallgirl]

I loved this episode BUT I have got to agree with MajorClanger and ShadowMaat that the only bad thing about it was Col. Everett. Not only was his attitude when he first came through the Gate annoying and unrealistic but his voice nearly gave me a migraine. I don't know what sort of accent that is but that actor needs to get a voice coach badly. I know there have been military morons from time to time on SG-1 but they were usually in more bureaucratic and less operational roles and since Hammond or O'Neill usually butted heads with them, I couldn't work out why O'Neill had sent this guy through the Gate to Atlantis. I understand that he was given orders to assume military command and relieve Weir of her position but there was no need to be so abrupt about it. It really shouldn't have taken Sheppard telling him that he would get better co-operation from the Atlantis team if he kept Weir in the loop about it. Besides, surely it makes tactical sense to have a briefing with the former commander of a post when you arrive to take over? Yes, he had Sheppard to appraise him of the current situation but then at first he wasn't really taking much notice of Sheppard either. The SGC had come up with a strategy for defending Atlantis and it needed implementing quickly because the danger was imminent but still you don't get anything done unless you communicate properly with people. It's weird that SGA whilst being soo good at showing how Sheppard has been thrown in at the deep end in taking over military command of Atlantis when he doesn't have all the experience required then chooses to portray a higher ranked and more experienced officer displaying a complete lack of common sense when it comes to command decisions. Is it to make Sheppard look good, I wonder? If so, I think it is counter productive. Sheppard works well because he has believable flaws that are consistent with his character background and personality, it undermines that to try and make out that he is the only one who is capable of having good ideas in military situations. A character comes across as weak if he only looks good in a situation because the opposing character is unrealistically bad. I am glad that at least Everett was shown to be flexible enough to change his attitude when shown that there were alternatives. The other thing was the weird and rather icky conversation that he had with Sheppard about Sumner. It was just highly inappropriate given the circumstances. There is a time and place for that type of conversation and that wasn't it. It was nice from the Sheppard P.O.V to have it confirmed that Sheppard is still thinking about and trying to deal with what he had to do about Sumner. We had already had strong hints all season that it was weighing heavily on his mind and to have it admitted was good. However again, in order to get over a point about Sheppard's character development shouldn't necessitate making another character look stupid. First Everett is all we don't have time to chat about things we need to get on with the business of defending Atlantis and then all of sudden he's taking time out to have a chat about how he is aggrieved with Sheppard for shooting a good mate of his, WHAT?

Anyway enough of what was silly about this episode because everything else rocked! I am constantly amazed at how much they manage to cram into an Atlantis episode without ever feeling overwhelmed or shortchanged on each little bit. I thought the pace was excellent. Loved McKay, Zelenka and Beckett as usual. I am never disappointed whenever any of them are on screen and having scenes with all three just feels like Christmas has come extra early. I loved McKay and Zelenka's little gripe about how the scientists are always ignored til they are needed and they are always needed. Liked the little touch of them spotting the nukes which just confirmed they were right. Very good consistency and realism to show how tired McKay and Zelenka were, since we have seen in previous episodes how McKay has been burning the candle at both ends. Showing Beckett giving them stims to keep them going was great. They may have super brains but their bodies are very human. Poor Beckett and the chair, Major Sheppard is always busy doing something else when the AT gene is required to operate something. It is fun to see Beckett get flustered as usual but it's a shame that we are not seeing Sheppard utilise the reason he was brought to Atlantis in the first place. However I guess that's consistency as well because nothing about Sheppard's Atlantis experience is like what it was intended to be.

Ford being shown in his role as a weapon's specialist was good. It took a whole season to get there but it was a nice touch. He got all interested and excited about the new enhanced weapons Everett's team had brought which made sense. Nice little light moment with him acting as bait for the Wraith with Sheppard too. Also I liked him taking off and replacing the men who had been taken at the gun post.

Weir was very good also. She continued her cool head under pressure stint of the last few episodes. I am very glad she finally got to use her diplomatic skills by going to negotiate with the Genii. She handled that situation extremely well and despite the fact that she was arguing from a position of complete logic, we know from past experience that the Genii aren't the most rational bunch of people so it wasn't easy. Her speach towards the end was very good and echoed last week. She was clearly very unhappy about Sheppard's suicide mission but she aquised quickly because she knew it was the only way and because I think she's had to unfortunately get rather used to losing people of late. McKay was upset also, although I felt his question to Weir was mostly rhetorical, he was just expressing his dismay. Poor Beckett just went rather quiet because he knows it could be him next.

Teyla, well at least Col.Everett showed better judgement at handling her situation. He wasn't over the top in cutting her out of the loop like he was with Weir, and he had very good cause to and was rather polite and respectful about it. After her sensing of the Wraith he warmed up to her remarkably quickly and they were quite chummy by the end of things. You could almost start a Teyla/Everett ship. Except I think the guy is now Wraithbait. As for Teyla going missing and the shots being fired and all the dead people, well maybe Col.Everett should have thawed less quickly? We'll see.

I can't wait for season 2!

[Cronus]

Rather than get a nuke from the genii, why didn't they overload a naquadah generator and fling that up at the Hive ships?

That way Sheppard would have had enough time to get away, we wouldn't need the genii's help and everyone's happy. Surely the explosion would have been big enough, I mean, it was pretty impressive in Hot Zone when they did it.

[Jonzey]

Rather than get a nuke from the genii, why didn't they overload a naquadah generator and fling that up at the Hive ships?

That way Sheppard would have had enough time to get away, we wouldn't need the genii's help and everyone's happy. Surely the explosion would have been big enough, I mean, it was pretty impressive in Hot Zone when they did it.

They need them to power the city.

Anyway I thought it was a great episode. One of the best of the season. Lovely effects and storyline. Didn't think Everett was that bad in the end, hated him first time I saw the epsiode though. Hate cliffhangers though.