Aurora (209)

[ShadowMaat]

Almost forgot... that has to be some of the most brilliant dialogue Teyla has ever uttered! Go Carl!

I'm still not too keen on Teyla, but she's been shaping up fairly well this season and that whole bit with her and Ronon making up stuff to stall Caldwell... brilliant. She had good dialogue in general this time around. It was nice to see. Or hear, I suppose.

[FoolishPleasure]

Not my fav episode of the season - I found myself strangely detached from the whole thing.

Shep was awfully pretty to look at, but come on. .he walks into a room full of Ancients and first thing he does is get flirty with a pretty girl? He does think "above" the waist sometimes doesn't he?

Knew immediately something was "off" with the "oh I'm so hot in my hip hugger belt" 1st officer right away, but originally I thought she was on a power trip to take the captain's seat. So she's a Wraith in disguise. For some reason that discovery wasn't as suspenseful as it should have been.

The toast to the crew of the Aurora? Well, I saw the Captain, a Wraith pretending to be the 1st officer, and a guard. I never had any connection to this crew so how could I have any feelings for what happened to them?

The uniforms - bah. Did Wardrobe raid the circus costume trunks? The big buttons have to GO!

Best scene - Teyla and Ronon making up excuses for why McKay wasn't around. That was worth the price of admission. More Ronon/Teyla scenes please.

[Shep'sSocks]

Almost forgot... that has to be some of the most brilliant dialogue Teyla has ever uttered! Go Carl!

I'm still not too keen on Teyla, but she's been shaping up fairly well this season and that whole bit with her and Ronon making up stuff to stall Caldwell... brilliant. She had good dialogue in general this time around. It was nice to see. Or hear, I suppose.

I got the impression that she was just repeating what she'd heard the others say without really understanding it.

[warmbeachbrat]

This was my favorite Atlantis episode. I'm aware of the plot holes and disappointments others have expressed, but it was the character moments that just blew me away. I loved McKay, Teyla, and Caldwell in this episode. And I'm with ShadowMaat--need to see more of the hottie sitting nest to Caldwell.

Teyla's and Ronan's stalling was just great--I think that might have been my favorite part. And Teyla also displayed some great psychological manuevering with Rodney and with Caldwell. I've been worried about her this season--but she was in fine form tonight. And for once, I didn't mind Ronon--he did a great job backing Teyla up.

McKay and Sheppard's interaction was also very fun. They reminded me a little of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis at their best--and I don't mean that in a bad way (I know, I know--I'm dating myself).

It wasn't just the character moments, though. I thought the general idea of the episode was very interesting and I liked the look of it and how it played out. I thought that the team managed to work together very well to find out what was happening and to fly by the seat of their pants, so to speak, to get out of a tricky situation.

Anyway, like I said, my favorite episode of the season.

[SnoggingPicard]

Yeah, Ronon/Teyla scenes really made this episode. Those two characters have chemistry, and they really light up the screen when they're together. Not sure if I'm in on 'shipping for them (meh...), but their relationship is growing, and it's wonderful to watch.

[smushybird]

McKay and Sheppard's interaction was also very fun. They reminded me a little of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis at their best--and I don't mean that in a bad way (I know, I know--I'm dating myself).

Ha. Can't we stick with the Hope and Crosby comparison? It feels more apt. And Jerry Lewis always makes me cringe.

[Samuel J. Tilden]

Wow. This was an incredible episode. I consider myself an SG-1 fan first and foremost but this ep. blew away anything SG-1 has done in the past two and half years and is probably the best episode Atlantis has ever done. Carl Binder has a record of writing good episodes so it shouldn't be too surprising that this one was so good.

First, I loved the distinct lack of technobabble solutions. The whole starship business has never sat well with me ever since the Prometheus debuted especially since the beaming technology makes quick escapes too easy, but the Daedalus did an excellent job of simply transporting the characters to the scene and then backing off. If Stargate must have starships, this is how they should be used. No confusing techo-solution was required to extricate Shep and McKay from the machines, and, remarkably, both men retained the ability to enter and leave the machines at will without any clichéd "we're stuck in the machine" plot twists. This last point was particularly important in distinguishing this episode from any number of similar episodes that Star Trek has done and even well-made SG-1 episodes like "Gamekeeper" and "Avatar".

In fact, one of the major strengths of this episode was its refusal to service the standard genre clichés. Sure we all had the Wraith chick pinned early in the episode, but so did Shep. The dilemma then shifted from a standard (and boring) "who's the traitor" storyline to a far more interesting "how do we expose her" situation. Contrast this with "Threads" where everyone had figured out who Anubis was an hour before an "enlightened" Daniel Jackson did. That was bad television. This was good. Of course, the next most obvious cliché in this situation would be to make the captain or someone unexpected turn out to be the Wraith but this episode played it straight the entire time making our heroes appear both smart and right. How refreshing.

The visual effects were mesmerizing. The whole look of the "virtual environment" was perfect. Bright, but weirdly contrasted in a visually pleasing way. The phase-in and out effect was also really nifty. Whoever conceived the production design for this episode needs a raise.

There were other wonderful moments that made this episode a joy to behold. McKay insisting that it was his turn to save Shep's life. Sheppard disappearing and then reappearing to escape from his cell (one of the most conceptually innovative jailbreak scenes I've ever seen, and nicely staged, too). Very little Weir (sorry!). Caldwell being both forceful and flexible as the situation warranted. Teyla and Ronan providing backup support. The lack of any major plotholes or "Hmmmmm..." moments (that I could discern) was also a nice change of pace.

This was a great episode of Stargate. I've been fairly critical of both shows as of late, but episodes like this remind me why I still watch after all of these years.

[SlytherinGal]

Very good eppy

I loved the interaction between McKay and Shep...they have some of the best interactions with each other...it seems like one of them is saving the other one's life/butt

[immhotep]

i agree that the storyline, would break some cliches such as the ones mentioned by SJT, but it still didnt feel ancient it felt like tauri in 100 years, not the ancients million of years of technology above any other race.
it also prescribed to the 'self destruct as last resort' cliche......a better result would of been that the aurora was refitted by the youngest ancient on baord and set out on a mission to destroy the wraith.....in fact anything but blowing it up......to answer a point from long ago is this what you imagined the ancients more important ship( for it contained the knowledge to destroy the wraith) to look like:

[Seastallion]

i agree that the storyline, would break some cliches such as the ones mentioned by SJT, but it still didnt feel ancient it felt like tauri in 100 years, not the ancients million of years of technology above any other race.
it also prescribed to the 'self destruct as last resort' cliche......a better result would of been that the aurora was refitted by the youngest ancient on baord and set out on a mission to destroy the wraith.....in fact anything but blowing it up......to answer a point from long ago is this what you imagined the ancients more important ship( for it contained the knowledge to destroy the wraith) to look like:

Except that even the youngest crewman on board the Aurora would physically be about a 100 years old. The only thing keeping them alive at all, were the stasis pods. If any of them had left, they'd die almost immediately.

[Steve_the_Wraith]

i agree that the storyline, would break some cliches such as the ones mentioned by SJT, but it still didnt feel ancient it felt like tauri in 100 years, not the ancients million of years of technology above any other race.
it also prescribed to the 'self destruct as last resort' cliche......a better result would of been that the aurora was refitted by the youngest ancient on baord and set out on a mission to destroy the wraith.....in fact anything but blowing it up......to answer a point from long ago is this what you imagined the ancients more important ship( for it contained the knowledge to destroy the wraith) to look like:
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/6371/pdvd0006iv.png

Give it up "immothep" for nearly a week you've been taking every chance to rag on this episode - every couple of pages on this thread, you started a thread to complain and try to work your opinion of Aurora into every post you make.

You wanted the Ancients to be kick ass, the Aurora to be a battleship and to go on a Wraith killing spree. Instead the Ancients were dying of old age, probably senile and the Aurora was a wreck.

None of this was a suprise - time and time again SG:A has said the Ancients are gone, died out, lived out the last of their days on earth. They're not turning up anytime soon to save the galaxy. Its up to the Atlantis team to save the galaxy themselves

[SnoggingPicard]

I finally realized where I recognized the captain of the Aurora -- he was Admiral Jellico in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Chain of Command".

[Erised]

Well it wasn't the best episode ever.. They should have made that a season finale.. this way I wouldn't be crazy about waiting for january

[mindfire]

This was a good episode, I liked seeing what the inside of an ancient ship looked like.

[ShadowMaat]

I got the impression that she was just repeating what she'd heard the others say without really understanding it.

Well, yeah, which made it all the funnier that Caldwell bought it. Guess he didn't understand it, either.