Condemned (205)

[Sela]

Overall good episode. I like the way they are doing different things with the wraiths instead of having them chase humans down and sucking their lifeforce. Very interesting twist with this one.

A few high points:

*Like the way Shep couldn't break the stick.

*Cracked me up when the team was surrounded back at the jumper and even with weapons trained on him, Ronon was so frustrated that he kicked the guy he was fighting with one last time. LOL!

*Very impressed with Weir this episode. I love it when she steps up and shows that she too carries a pair of very large huevos. I almost expected her to b*tch slap the adminstrator when he threatened them.

*The Chewie line was funny, but Shep might want to cool it. Some smart aleck is going to show Ronon a copy of 'Star Wars' one of these days...

[FoolishPleasure]

But the greatest moments of the show went to Shawn the Wraith. I named him, I love him. A highly cultured character, with an outfit different from the standard male Wraith's black leather trenchcoat. It was armor, it was cool. Drinking wine, talking about killing cooks in a way similar to Johnny Depp in Once Apon a Time in Mexico, and just generally putting scariness back into the Wraith. He was so much like Christopher Lee's Dracula. Major kudos to James for the great acting.

Here's to hoping we see more of Shaun!!!

Was that James Lefazanos playing the Wraith again? I thought it was but wasn't sure (I'm still so angry at Sci Fi, that I don't even look at the credits or names anymore ).

Shadowmaat in a thunk thread? I can honestly say I have now seen it all! *LOL*

Aww, forgot the Goldilocks and Braveheart references. Little things like that are what make this show so cool.

[ShadowMaat]

There was something weird about the way Shawn spoke. It was like James's wraith teeth were coming loose and he was forced to enunciate very carefully. Or something. Just didn't warm to this one. Maybe he was TOO cultured for my tastes. I like a bit of growl to my Wraiths. (and "grrr" helps the teeth stay in better, too)

I started thunk threads for Lorne, Jonas, and McKay. I have very refined taste in men, so I don't thunk very often, but when I do you can be damn sure the boys deserve it.

Edit: And Ronon. The anti-Ronon people were pissing me off.

[Sheylafan87]

Condemned was a great team dynamic and interesting to watch.The team working together to get of the island and to hwlp criminals was great.There was so much action involved and alot of fighting.To see WWeir off world and her to get mad when she wanted answers was great.But most of the team was more interesting because Ronon getting angry and John giving him orders and he calsmed down.It was fun watching John,Teyla and Ronon fighting and John tryed to break a stick but couldnt and instead brabed a stick and wacked the bad guys with it and Teyla fighting with sticks was cool and Ronon just fighting with his hands was funny.Overall this one wasa great Team dynamic episode and fun to watch.

[Anubis345]

This was an awesome episode i think that it was great. i loved the civil wraith thing that was funny to see the leader of the people poopin in his pants as he ate with the wraith.

also weir got to go off world that was cool to.

[PsychoPenguin]

addendum to previous comment:

One new flaw, but really it's based more in the fact that myself and several other people have stated that if the world ever goes to s***, we want to be wherever my husband is. While watching the scene where Ronon is trying to break his bonds, he says, "Okay, when you've got a guy as tall as Ronon sitting next to you, here's what you do." He then goes on to describe how Ronon could have kicked the pole Sheppard was tied to and enabled him to slide his bonds off it, then free the others. Very, very cool!

Also, watching this ep a second time, we just noticed that Teyla stays at Sheppard's "wingman" position almost the entire ep. I don't know if that's a choice of Rachel Luttrell's or James Bamford's, but we loved it. She was almost Zoe to Shep's Mal (a "Firefly" reference, for those of you who are wondering) and we absolutely loved it.

*Goes back to reading hubby's copy of Masaaki Hatsumi's "Advanced Stick Fighting" now that the second showing's successfully taped and put away.*

[Hyperspace]

I agree. The Ori is boring and dragging. I thought for while there I was in a philosophy class, not Stargate SG1. I'm glad the Stargate series has Atlantis! Another great episode.

I too am so grateful we have Atlantis on now...as 2d as they sometimes seem, the Wraith are more compelling than the (yawn) Ori. And this ep, with the 'cultured' Wraith, took a small step in fleshing out Atlantis' main villain a bit more.

"Condemned" had humor, action, and interesting sci-fi situation, cool SFX, neat new shots and exposition of the main villain, plus great character moments all around. I liked it.

Glad to see Atlantis' team has been doing some camoflage and misdirection to prevent discovery of their city's (non)destruction.

And poor minister lady at the end!!! I hope she escaped, but I fear that didn't happen...

Also, the Alpha Site is run over with 'criminals'? I wonder how that goes over...how ironic that the outcasts of a society are likely its sole survivors.

[farstrider]

Yeah the wraith was civilized...well...except he eats like a duck and dribbles more than my two-month-old cousin.

[Arative]

I liked this episode, good insight into the wraith society and I really want to learn a lot more of wraith other than just the space vamps we've seen.

Ronon just kicked some major butt. The guy is one tough cookie. Took an arrow through the calf, pulled it out and wasn't walking with even a slight limp. Can tell that Ronon and Mckay are going to have an adversial relationship, Ronon, I think, doesn't quite care for Mckay, evidenced by the "suck it up" comment when he cut Mckays bond. I think he was referencing Mckays stomach, he probably thinks Mckay is just a weak scientist. I think that the head prisoner, sorry I can't remember his name really nailed Mckay's personality. Rodney will do what he can to save his friends and he also loves to be thought a genius who can pull a solution to a problem out of thin air.

Shepard is developing quite a lost puppy syndrome, he picked up Ronon and now the crazy scientist guy but I think that fits into Shepards personality. I liked how Weir took charge and went off world to help her people, saw some growth from her. Its also nice to see a lot of secondary characters being introduced, like Major Lorne and I hope they continue to develop a lot of more secondary characters, certainly gets rid of the red shirts should the TPTB choose to kill any of them off.

One thing I didn't like was the fact that Shep choose to help the prisoners escape knowing full well that rest of the population of the planet would be culled by the Wraith. There were probably a few hundred prisoners most of them probably there for good reasons, while several thousand or tens of thousands of people on the rest of the planet. Shep condemed those people to a culling for the crimes of thier leaders. I think it would be interesting to see the conseqences of that decision, either the prisoners or the Alesians(sp?) coming back to be an enemy of Atlantis.

[Bama]

What a cool ep! Agree with everybody about the 'rushed'/edited ending and I'd loved to see the unedited version but it was so fun the rest of the time that I'll forgive it.

Ronin (however you spell it) is one serious GREAT addition to the cast. He is the B.A. male they've needed. His subtle interaction with Teyla was awesome as was his snarkiness and pokes at John. Made the off world military team much stronger imho.

My favorite parts of the ep were in the second half though. The wraith are just awesome. I completely bought the penal colony wraith feeder area to save the few lucky ones in the main city. I could *almost* empathize with the city leader's dilema. *Almost*. Those suckers are nasty.

And I loved, loved, loved-tough, in your face, don't give me any of your attitude WEIR. She was awesome! With her big boy military men behind her, she stole the ep imo with that portrayal of one pissed off hot lady leader. That is the perfect way to write Weir and to get her off world. The woman is the freakin leader of Atlantis and their spokeman. She should be off world a ton of the time brokering deals with other world big-wigs. Carl Bender just wrote the Elizabeth Weir that Torri Higginson can flat out nail. Way to go Carl! Great teleplay and great story concept too.

And I'm diggin Major Lorne more and more. Enjoyed how he spoke up with Elizabeth and shot down that goob. Great to see him getting to lead a team out even if it's in protection/retreaval mode.

Great job SGA folks! GREAT season so far! Characters are getting stronger and more and more interesting. The actors are feeling their parts better and this thing has outdone the original so far. Keep it up.

[GatetheWay]

Also, the Alpha Site is run over with 'criminals'? I wonder how that goes over...how ironic that the outcasts of a society are likely its sole survivors.

It wasn't THE Alpha site. It was one of the planets that had been a canidate for the Alpha site.

[GatetheWay]

One thing I didn't like was the fact that Shep choose to help the prisoners escape knowing full well that rest of the population of the planet would be culled by the Wraith. There were probably a few hundred prisoners most of them probably there for good reasons, while several thousand or tens of thousands of people on the rest of the planet. Shep condemed those people to a culling for the crimes of thier leaders. I think it would be interesting to see the conseqences of that decision, either the prisoners or the Alesians(sp?) coming back to be an enemy of Atlantis.

TPTB mention in an early spoiler for 'Condemned' that this episode was going to introduce some new human enemies for Atlantis. I think they ment that head prisoner guy is going to be a long standing villian...at least in a couple more ep.s like Koya.

[smushybird]

Not the best plot of the season, but it was so good to see something of Season 1's Sheppard and McKay return, with their fun banter and the interesting way they have of working together. I've really missed seeing that.
It's a big part of why I love Atlantis.

Loved the cultured Wraith with the pink hair. We'll be seeing him soon on Queer Eye, sipping wine and helping the straight Wraith get their acts together.

Loved funny Sheppard! Especially with that stick. They should let him be funny more often. He's as good at it as McKay. Loved his bit about being lazy. The man's adorable.

Weird with Torrell's little character-defining speeches...what was that about?
If it was supposed to be funny, it just came off as bizarre to me.

So absolutely lovely to see our Dr. McKay being himself again.

And good to see Weir starting to show some believable strength at long last.

I am sincerely worried about next week's episode and what they plan on doing to Sheppard and McKay's relationship. Keeping my fingers crossed that whatever changes between them will bring them closer to friendship instead of further away.

[sparklegem]

I do feel bad for all the innocent people of that civilization that probably got culled. The situation at the end was sticky. Sheppard's team wasn't going to escape without helping the prisoners, and we knew many didn't deserve to be there. I really don't have an answer.

I really liked fleshing out Ronan more and Weir is finally(?) off-world!! Ronan told Rodney to suck it up. I really liked the subtle touch when Rodney is told to choose who dies and we see a quick close up of Ronan. Most likely he's thinking he's the obvious choice to go as the stranger.

Is it just me or was that the 4400 Center where Weir was negociating? I'm assuming 4400 is filmed somewhat near Stargate because of the actor crossovers.

I'm curious as to what Teyla thinks of capital punishment and this world's setup. I was trying to read her but she just asked about earth in a curious fashion.

This is the third jumper they've lost, right? How many do you think Atlantis has? We're burning through advanced tech ships pretty fast.

I loved the visual aspect of many of the shots in this episode, especially some of the close ups of the main characters. Some that come to mind are Sheppard when he's saying, "I've been beat up, tied up, and couldn't order a pizza..." and when Rodney was responding "you don't understand broken?" His eyes were pale like ice while everything else around was dirty and brownish.

The exposition on McKay's character by the leader struck me as a little weird and unnecessary. With Gaul, it was different and a plausible discussion between colleagues, but this felt more like "For everybody who thinks McKay is just an annoying dead weight, this is why he's actually a good guy."

I really like the little five second character shots during the commercials. They are very pretty. I wonder why McKay's not in them though.

The preview to next week looks great! It makes me think of the omega thing from Galaxy Quest for some reason, though.

[Atlantis1]

I loved this episode. Was thrilled to see the Puddle Jumpers in action again.

The references to "goldilocks", MacGyver", "Braveheart" and "Star Wars" were alot of fun.

Sheppard seems to be learning the importance of the stick fighting Teyla has been teaching him. Trying to break that
branch that was too thick was priceless. He seems to work well with Ronan and the two are learning from one another.
Teylas' look when Ronan bit open what looke dlike a nut was funny.

I was glad to see Christian Bocher again. I have a computer game with him in it called "The Daedalus Encounter". I enjoy his action

It is good to see Major Loren getting more screen time.

I watched it twice like I always do and enjoyed both airings. SGA is the only show I can do that with. Atlantis is getting better and better with each episode.