Aurora (209)

[TechnoBoY]

I thought it was a really good ep! One of the best in S2 so far. Just had these little character moments that were kick arse! Like Teylas technobabble thing. Hahaha!

It did have some flaws but every SG ep has flaws nowadays. This ep was much better then Lost Boys for me.

[SBacklin]

I liked this episode. I actually thought it was sad. You spend all that time in a VR world and you end up thinking it's real....only to find out that it's not real and your fake world has been infiltrated by a Wraith then you all have to die. Thats what was sad.

[Macilnar]

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:

Thanks for the pic...small but perfect for what I need it for...

Edit:
Also other then the fact that they didn't show us what the "Aurora" looked like before its battle with the Wraith I thought the episode was great, but then maybe that is because I am happy just to have seen an Ancient ship other then a PJ. Also off of what McKay said when the ZPM was plugged in it sent out a recall signal, this means more ships maybe out there. I don't believe we will ever get an Ancient War ship (I doubt the Atlantis Team will get another ship, I think the Daedalus is it for several seasons at least).

[Samuel J. Tilden]

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".

Captain Jellico was played by Ronny Cox (Senator Kinsey).

[dosed150]

yeh thats what i was about to say but im almost sure he was on star trek once

[Mattathias2.0]

I enjoyed this episode.

It was nice to see some Ancients...

[Jonzey]

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:

Looks a little like Red Dwarf in that picture.

Anyway, I thought the episode was ok. Was entertaining but nothing special. I knew from the moment he entered VR world and met the ancients that the ship would get blown up and they'd all die. Gonna add that first officer women to my already long list of ''Atlantis hotties'' (I don't really have a list. Honest)

Here's what I would have liked to happen at the end:
The hottie was not the wraith (So we can see her again). The ancients are defrosted and use the magic ancient healy powers to revert back to being young (and hot in some cases). They get to work fixing the ship then decide to finish their mission, and head back to where they came from to find the Wraith's weakness. The Daedelus heads back to Atlantis. Then we can hear from the Aurora in a later ep, if they find a weakness (although if SG1 is anything to go by, we would probably never hear from them again ).

[entil2001]

Compared to its parent series, “Atlantis” has been struggling to find its direction this season. Some plot threads have been introduced that will continue to play out over the course of the season, but the strength of the first season arc has given way to something less well defined. The result has been a hit-or-miss season thus far, and this episode is another example.

Like with the “SG-1” summer finale, I’m speaking only of the first hour; episode 2.10 will be covered in another review. In particular, this episode felt very small-scale. While there were some stakes introduced into the story, and the presence of the Wraith in the virtual world was clever, the end result was the preservation of the status quo.

Those kinds of episodes have never been satisfying for me, though I recognize the general necessity. My real concern with this episode is that the majority of the plot elements could have been present even if this were a first season episode. In fact, it was the inclusion of second season elements that kept this from being a sub-par episode.

I like the fact that Caldwell was in the position to demonstrate his priorities and further define his point of view. Just as the SG-1 team always had strife with groups like the NID, seeking to use the gate system for a questionable agenda, it’s better to have someone like Caldwell who can push for a more military approach without being a villain or necessarily negative in his impact.

For all that, Ronon’s presence was something of a waste. He didn’t contribute much to the episode, other than as someone for Teyla to flirt with on occasion. I’m sure he was included on the team just in case there was trouble on the Aurora, but since the trouble was largely left to McKay to resolve, he didn’t have much to contribute.

Teyla wasn’t all that useful either. This is becoming more and more of a concern. It makes sense for Sheppard and McKay to be prominent, given their popularity, but there are other characters to focus on and the first season was a lot better at spreading the joy. I also find it a little predictable for Teyla to be so interested in Ronon, especially since he’s not exactly the most sensitive person on the planet.

The tension over keeping the secret of Atlantis from the Wraith was nice touch, though the writers had to make the actual Ancients within the virtual world rather bland so that Hot!WraithGirl stuck out like a sore thumb. I didn’t figure that she was a Wraith, but it did seem odd that she was the only one with a real attitude about Sheppard.

Other than that, I’m just annoyed that there was nothing for the team to gain from the situation. Sure, they took out two more cruisers, but the Wraith have a ton of ships out there. It’s not hard to believe that the Wraith are trying to overcome the hyperdrive problem, since they are rapidly starving, if earlier episodes are to be believed. But couldn’t Sheppard have gotten a hint about the nature of the Wraiths’ weakness?

Whatever the case, this episode just didn’t do it for me. McKay found some ways to manipulate the virtual world that felt more like plot convenience than something he actually could have accomplished. That sort of thing is normal for this series, but it seemed excessive this time around. Hopefully the second hour of the “summer finale” was a bit more substantial.

[sgcanongirl]

My understanding is that the Ancient's bodies wouldn't have survived being rescusitated. McKay referred to them as moribund, which is virtually dead...

[NotAscended]

As other have noted, plot holes galore, but I still enjoyed the episode. Thing that most caught my attention in the character interactions:

McKay/Shep trust issues: Shep seems to have regained a lot of his trust in Rodney from their last encounter with unknown ancient tech, although Rodney still seems to be overcompensating to try to regain Shep's trust by going into the VR to save him.

Teyla/Caldwell: Could she have been more passive/aggressive in being insubordinate? First, she lies to him with some technobabble about where McKay is. Then after she gets beamed up to the Daedalus, she "suggests" to him that medical crews should be ready when McKay and Shep come out of the VR--something that McKay told her to tell Caldwell. I found all those interactions very odd/interesting because while her loyalty to her team comes across, it isn't clear that her loyalty extends to the whole Earth presence in her galaxy. I'm not criticizing the way they are writing the Teyla character here, just really curious where they are going with it.

[LoveYouBaby]

I'm glad you Americans got a chance to see the full 1 minute version of the opening sequence, the PROPER opening sequence.

So first off, congratulations!

Though this episode was slightly weird in many ways, I still enjoyed this episode, a little more than "The Lost Boys", though it had its fair share of action.

Sheppard and McKay.. watching these 2 guys go at it, reminds me of the good ol' days of Jack and Daniel.

What I didn't get was with the astronaunt suits, what happened to the EV suits that we came to love??

Teyla did a great job at technobabble.

The whole TV-on the fritz ... needed some getting use to...

Nice episode.

Shame we never got to see what the ship was meant to look like.

[SnoggingPicard]

Captain Jellico was played by Ronny Cox (Senator Kinsey).

Crap, I meant Captain Benjamin Maxwell -- he was the one who went berserk over the Cardassians in the TNG episode "The Wounded". My bad.

[SnoggingPicard]

yeh thats what i was about to say but im almost sure he was on star trek once

Sorry about that. But I figured it out. I guess getting only four hours of sleep made my brain go all funky.

[SnoggingPicard]

As other have noted, plot holes galore, but I still enjoyed the episode. Thing that most caught my attention in the character interactions:

Teyla/Caldwell: Could she have been more passive/aggressive in being insubordinate? First, she lies to him with some technobabble about where McKay is. Then after she gets beamed up to the Daedalus, she "suggests" to him that medical crews should be ready when McKay and Shep come out of the VR--something that McKay told her to tell Caldwell. I found all those interactions very odd/interesting because while her loyalty to her team comes across, it isn't clear that her loyalty extends to the whole Earth presence in her galaxy. I'm not criticizing the way they are writing the Teyla character here, just really curious where they are going with it.

Hmmm, good point. I don't think that we've seen enough conflict between Teyla and the rest of the Atlantis staff. There are bound to be gaps between the cultures and their ideas about how to deal with certain problems, but she's been pretty non-confrontational up to this point. Maybe Caldwell's brusque, efficient nature will bring out more of her other points of view, or maybe she isn't too happy with Caldwell over the way her handled the situation with Shep two weeks ago.

[SGalisa]

less than 24 hours, and already 9 pages in here?!! yikes!!
...haven't read anything above yet... (*sigh*) got lots of reading to do...!

I think "Aurora" was the episode Joe Flanigan was referring to as the "(Bob)Hope and (Bing)Crosby" episode.

Scene after Shep got knocked out, and Rodney went into virtual mode-
Leave it to be - Rodney's voice that would wake Shep out of a sound sleep!

Also, *love* Rodney's reactions to exposing his vulnerable, lonesome self to the wraith - after he took it out of being in the virtual environment stasis:

McKay: {realizing the inevitable!} "Oh noooooh!" (*eek!!*)