The Hive (211)

[watcher652]

Does anybody believe that Ford is dead? It'll be interesting to see how the writers get him out of that situation intact.

If Sheppard is saying he wouldn't be surprised if they run into him again, then, with a set up line like that, you know Ford's not dead. Ford probably did exactly what Sheppard did, grab a Dart and went thru the Gate. He didn't have to stop and try to get the hive ships to blow each other up. We don't know that Ford can't fly a Dart, only that he wanted Sheppard's expert flying ability for the mission.

[AutumnDream]

Hey, who knows? The wraith might keep gates on their ships. We've barely had the chance to explore one.

[Easter Lily]

So the Wraith are territorial... and very hungry... So when there's not enough to go around, they obviously don't like sharing... They do it but grudgingly it would seem. As the title suggests, the Hive is a colony, a ship and a place swarming with activity but interestingly enough though there is some, there isn't a lot of it... activity, I mean. I wonder about that... And I suspect that Carl Binder is more interested in the battle within than the battle from without. The Wraith are numerous and are formidable in strength so fighting on that front is a lost cause. Ultimately to defeat the Wraith (or any other evil), the mind is really the key.

The Wraith is the obvious and immediate evil... they're big, bad and ugly... They rule the roost and overrun the galaxy. Furthermore, they have the upperhand in the hive ship. Along comes another... and sits down beside her and after whispering doubts in the right ears, Sheppard gets them to blow each other away. He works out that hot alien chick #3 is a plant (to pick his brains), at the opportune moment casts aspersions on the other ship's intentions and finally manipulates existing tensions to his advantage. The mind overcomes the adversary.

Then there is there is also the enzyme... another evil which must be battled... Beckett says to Weir that Rodney is alive only through sheer "stubborness"... Ford's paranoia is a battle for lucidity... again the mind...

I really liked this episode... I loved the role reversal. The action-based characters incapacitated by the enzyme (or the lack of it). It was both jarring and amusing to see Rodney in kick ass mode while Ronon and Teyla, with all their skills were trapped and helpless. True, there wasn't much action in it but I liked the character interactions. The little moments between characters. The care and concern. But my favourite was the one between Beckett and Weir... it was strangely moving. In fact, it was a lovely moment to see Beckett sitting at Rodney's bedside watching over him. I also liked that the moment between Sheppard and Ford... "We'll work it out together. As a team, remember?" and Ford saying, "I remember". Very poignant. In fact, just thinking about it... makes me a tad teary...

And it was wonderful to see some semblance of the old Ford at the end...

Call me strange, but I'm glad that the Daedalus was useless in this instance. (Probably a red herring) It's good to see good o'l fashion human ingenuity saving the day rather than the might of brute force.

(The lack of Wraith patrolling the corridors I take it to be the fact that the majority are finding their way to darts and getting ready for the culling. )

To me Atlantis is about flawed human beings trying to find their way in extraordinary situations. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they don't.

[Ouroboros]

Hi, Ouroboros!

Howdy, ready for another marathon thread

I have to agree with you here. The pacing felt... off. Though I think this has a lot to do with the fact that events happened over the course of several days, at the very least. Without resorting to the Musical Montage(tm), I can't think what else might have been done to show the passage of time besides dropping references here and there. Which was done.

Making it all happen in a single day would have done it nicely. 24 can get a whole season with more eps than a Stargate one out of a single day. There wasn't anything here that really needed to take place over a long period of time.

LOL! It really seems more likely that the doors would freeze in place, doesn't it? However, I'm willing to forgive this particular plot device simply because it tends to crop up at some point or another in nearly every sci-fi show I can think of.

This makes it worse not better. I seriously don't know how this dumb idea got started. Shooting the panel to keep guys out like in star wars is one thing and makes sense but shooting it to make the door open.... ugh yeah ok I'll remember that the next time I get stuck in a elevator.

This, I have to admit, I don't remember. The Wraith cells have irregularly shaped bars, yes, but I have the passing impression that the gaps are all too small for Teyla or anyone else to do much else except stick out an arm, maybe a shoulder. Also---a speculation that is only loosely based in canon---I wonder whether the bars are organic and sentient enough to contract if a prisoner attempts to squeeze out. They certainly display an impressive flexibility in retracting. At any rate, maybe a cap would help?

No problemo.





You light some of those hoops on fire and Teyla could jump through them as a circus act.

Agreed. A lost opportunity to up the tension. There did seem to be too much packed into the episode already though.

Yeah but most of what was there taking up all that space was kinda well..... yeah.

Well, I don't think the Wraith enzyme exactly counts as "every drug," and it's the only addiction storyline SGA has pursued. Since nearly everything about the Wraith is completely fictitious, I don't see any reason to deride the fact that the enzyme withdrawal is the way it is.

How many times have you seen someone weened off a drug on Tv and not go through the whole heroin junkie routine. Yeah see, that's what makes it a cliche. The fact that it always happens that way.

IIRC, this is the first time we've been aboard a hive ship and in direct contact with the Wraith (never mind the hive queen) while another hive ship approached in and dropped out of hyperspace. The only other times we've even seen hive ships, they've either been alone ("Rising," "The Lost Boys") or already grouped ("The Siege" and all the episodes leading up to it). Who's to say that it's not the Wraith SOP for hive queens to immediately have a psychic powwow when hive ships meet up. In fact, if the Wraith are as fiercely territorial as they seem, it makes sense that the queens have to establish boundaries as quickly as possible.

Wouldn't it have been nice to see this though, you know as opposed to Ronan and Teyla sweating. That was the core of my complaint really. All of a sudden the evil boss gets interrupted right when she's about to kill the hero and we never find out why. When she ran out of the room like that and then the other hiveship appeared I was expecting them to start fighting right off.

The way she stormed out all of a sudden gave the impression that something very urgent needed her attention. From what we got it looks like this was.... the fact that another hiveship wanted to fly next to them? Sure it would have been great if it was because she was pissed at the other hive trying to mozy in on her planet and we got to see her chew out the other hive keeper about being such a grabby ***** but then we never got to see that did we. No, we didn't, and that's why it sucked.

In defense of the Wraith, they did at least think up and try a more subtle method of questioning Sheppard after it appeared he could resist a mind probe. It's not the hive queen's fault that Neera didn't do all that great a job. Nor could she do anything about Sheppard being more suspicious than most about mysterious hot chicks who want to sex him up. Glad to see he learned something from the Chaya incident.

The wraith didn't even try to do to him what they did to Sumner. The plot couldn't afford it because it would make him into an old man. The solution, make the Wraith take the long way 'round for absolutely no good reason. Also just how exactly did the queen know they would take that specific corridoor or that they would even stop at all.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Neera's evil...

Yeah but you had to be a total sci-fi newb to not know from minute 1 that she was working for them. At least the episode let the chracters notice it though instead of making them act surprised by it.

Right. Anyways. All I can think of is that the Wraith keep a few (thousand) humans around to do the housekeeping---you know, helping with the crowd control after a major cull or something---and to send out in special infiltration cases like Sheppard's.

These are all jobs that noface Wraith can do. You also have limited use for infiltrators when your only goal is to eat primatives. During the war perhaps they'd be useful but there is no war anymore, there's actually a food shortage. Worshippers are just food you're not eating.

Of course, maybe certain queens just find it amusing to toy with the humans this way. I can totally see deviant sexu... Um, never mind, lol.

Yep check another one off the list of cliches "powerful women must be into bondage". They were definately going for that impression here, though it came off with all the grace and subtlety of a 20 ton dumptruck full of shrieking weasels crashing through a Chinease gong factory.

That said though, where do I sign up for this. Better than worshipping some overdressed nimrod with a snake in his head that's for sure. When I get bored of my life of deviant Wraith lovin' I'll just slip out through one of the giant gaps in my holding cell, find a conveiniently placed cash of weapons and fly away in one of their darts you apparently don't need a special interface for afterall.

Again, I think it's hard to tell how much time passed between Ford being taken away and Sheppard's second chat with the hive queen.

Well it couldn't have been that much time since I don't image the Wraith grunts were going to allow him bathroom breaks.

McKay, who according to Beckett (which might not be a point in favor, I realize, lol) had enzyme levels comparable to Ford's, was more or less fully recovered. And it's not clear what effect being cocooned---if Ford was indeed cocooned---would have on Ford's condition.

Would have been nice to know huh. All we saw was a guy that was barely alive be dragged off by 5 armed guards only to later return as Rambo out of nowhere. When that bolt hit the wraith queen before they scrolled off screen I was thinking to myself, ok so how's this not going to end up stupid. I initially expected it was going to be the spy girl who wanted out afterall now that there was hope, you know Teal'c style. That would have been recycling and pretty cliched itself but not as outright stupid as "Hay guys I'm here and I found all our gunz LoL!"

As for Ford retrieving the team's weapons, both Ford and Sheppard knew their way around the hive ship. Remember that the two were studying what appeared to be the layout of a hive in "The Lost Boys."

That layout isn't going to tell them which one of the bazillions of rooms the Wraith locked their gear away in though is it.

Note, also, that while Ford had Ronon's gun, a handgun, a Wraith pistol stunner (which he likely pulled off a Wraith guard somewhere), and vests, he didn't manage to find the P90s or Ronon's badass sword.

I think. I've only watched the episode once, okay?!

He had a P90 across his chest I'm not sure about the sword. It looked like it was pretty much all there to me, or at least as much as he could carry.

Doesn't matter how much physical damage Sheppard could inflict. The point is that the Wraith were so on edge, any little misunderstanding could've driven the two hives to violent infighting.

Yeah but you'd think that the hiveship wouldn't even notice it was under attack in this situation. Much like an aircraft carrier wouldn't notice some guy shooting at it with a 9mm.

I did like how this dart made explosions big enough that they would easily have immolated everyone in the gate room had that dart shots through the gate from rising done the same thing though. That was a nice touch.

I'm betting the hive queen holding Sheppard et al. didn't bother to inform the other queen of her prisoners. So, when Sheppard pulled his stunt, the other queen saw it as an unprovoked attack on her hive. Sheppard had already planted the seed of doubt in the mind of his queen that the other would betray her and, likely not aware of Sheppard's actions as she'd been recently knocked out and had the culling to worry about, she thought Sheppard's talk was validated when the other queen fired upon her hive. Then apply the insect mentality of mobilizing all forces to counter any threat.

Another question to ask is also why were they so on edge. Shep's whole routine about working for the other queen came mere moments before the queen he was talking to got shot. She didn't have time to act on the info unless that shot didn't kill her? It did look like her ship was the one that blew the other one away though. They were in the one on the right right?

Yes, yes. Agreed. I'd argue the two hives were just too carried away with trying to kill each other to notice the danger. IIRC, by that point, the Wraith were ignoring the Deddy as well in favor of what both apparently thought was the greater threat. I imagine it's similar to two mobs getting into a riot fight together---it's difficult to stop once it starts.

Just another cliche. Just what is it in all these sci-fi ships that always make them expode like bombs anyway? This just took it to such a ridiculous extent that it was, as I said, practically a parody of the whole cliched idea. It would have been funny if it were done in a comedy context. "Ha ha we destroyed them!... oh wait.... SH*T!!! **BOOM**"

Another time issue. Once Sheppard finished that initial attack run, i.e. as soon as the hives started firing on each other, he hightailed it out of there. Unknown amount of time passes. Then the hives destroy each other. The stargate must not have been too far from where the battle took place.

It was like one cut though.

Bondage and domination. Yum.

I'd really like a good look at this woman without the spookshow makeup someday. Stop wasting your Wraith cure on former Enterprise grease monkies Beckett...

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

From what I've read so far, this sounds like a pretty sweet episode. For once, I really hate living in the States. Come on January, hurry it up already.

It will be, and I can tell ya, I'm going to watch it when it airs on SciFi in January.

[SGalisa]

Originally posted by TOA:
Oh yeah I forgot about the clowns.... in volkswagons no less... Truely a terrifying foe..

Shep must have watched too many horror movies in his lonely moments...

Originally posted by unknownterra:
Ferris wheels, clowns. Maybe he has some childhood related complexity where something happened at an amusemet park?

Originally posted by Atlantis1:
Sounds something like Stephen Kings IT.

Sounds just like Sheppard to tease someone with a story like that. He told a similar bed-time story about "Freddie" - Nightmare on Elm Street to the newbie (gullible) Athosian kids in Season One, so the *Stephen King* theory seems to fit in this situation too.

Glad to hear Shep was (thinking) a step ahead of Neera.
Just hope that part is true, otherwise, he'd be in big heapa trouble.

[Yeade]

LOL, AutumnDream! Well, Joe Flanigan is real. Though I'm not sure how... He's married with kids, after all.

Anyways, we should probably save all this for the thunk thread.

The only part I didn't get is how soon [McKay] seemed to recover from his massive overdose. It seemed really sudden and complete after the major torment he went thru. I wish we had a better idea how much time passes between scenes. But Teyla and Ronan seem not to have suffered as much as Ford's teammate who died from the withdrawal. One wonders what is the difference in McKay's massive overdose of the processed enzyme and Ford's direct dosage from a living Wraith.

Yeah, the time issue is a real pain in the ass.

I figure it couldn't have taken more than a day, at most, for McKay to get frantic about his overdue team, OD himself on the enzyme, take out Ford's goons, and dial out to Atlantis. Beckett would've gotten McKay to the infirmary immediately, but there's lost time between that, McKay waking up and raising hell, then Beckett's and McKay's later respective conversations with Weir.

(Please, please correct me if I'm remembering the sequence of events wrong.)

Going with my gut feeling about those scenes, I estimate another day, pushing two days, maybe even three, for McKay to come down off his high. Sheppard et al. weren't quite on the same timeline as McKay, but I figure three days, maybe even four, isn't that hard to swallow if you account for all the time spent being shot by stunners, regaining consciousness, being helpless prisoners, playing at darts using knives, and then going right back through another round of the same. The episode gave us all the under-ten-minute highlights.

On the severity of the enzyme withdrawal, I think the only two in danger of dying were Ford and Kanayo (who did die). Ford had arguably better moral support from Sheppard and, probably more important, got another dose of enzyme before the effects got too bad. Being cocooned--assuming he was--might also have slowed the withdrawal. Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.

Teyla and Ronon hadn't been on the enzyme for months and months. And McKay, despite taking the massive dose, was being given less before. So... the three went through withdrawal at about the same pace? I dunno. I really don't.

Finally, I was under the impression Ford could've quit cold turkey in "The Siege" and lived to tell the tale if he hadn't gotten all paranoid and run off. Like McKay then.

Don't the Wraith disarm their prisoners? Maybe they don't get many so they don't know what to look for. It's was kind of a funny joke, but, please, Ronan had that many knives?

God, I didn't even consider that, lol. Yeah, I suppose the Wraith wouldn't think to look for concealed knives just as most Pegasus natives wouldn't think to resist the Wraith with force. Maybe the Wraith didn't see the knives as a threat? Seeing that they can shrug off multiple gunshot wounds, I could understand not bothering with knives. Besides, if it had been anyone else imprisoned in that cell (all narrative pressures aside), I'm pretty sure it would've never occurred to whoever-it-is to throw knives and short the system to escape. Sheppard was working off his experience in "Underground."

Did blowing up the the 2 hive ships also take out the planet's orbiting Stargate (which Sheppard called a Spacegate).

I haven't seen much of SG-1, but stargates are really, really hard to destroy, right? I thought... the stargate was marked on the Deddy's display when McKay was searching for surviving darts? A little circle?

Hey, we got a fully functioning Wraith Dart to take apart instead that crashed one from Duet.

Sadly, I'm afraid that's going to go down as another lost plot point.

Doesn't Sheppard know the address of Ford's hideout? How was he supposed to get back there if he doesn't?

Er. Thought he was told. Otherwise how did Ford expect to get back to his little hideout after his oh-so-successful mission? Surely he thought of that...

Does a victim normally collapse when being restored from a Wraith beam?

I thought the tendency to collapse was the result of the "Duet" dart having been shot down and then hacked into, too. However, in "The Lost Boys," it seems the Wraith expect culling victims to be knocked out for a while after rematerializing. That Ford didn't then, didn't later, and neither did any of the other beamed strike team members, was one of the results of the enzyme. Since we never saw what happened after Sheppard rematerialized Ronon and Teyla the second time around, happily, there's nothing to fix.


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[Cynicat]

Very fun episode, if a little rushed. Great injections of humour into what could have been a very gung-ho/melodramatic episode. Yaaay for the triumphant return of the full credits!

Another great performance from DH - Speeding!McKay was hilarious, his muttering at the DHD gave me "Nothing" flashbacks (Andrew: "What are you doing?" Dave (Gollum-like babbling): "I'm making a trap!" Andrew: "For what?" Dave: "The food! The food, you idiot, the food!"). Withdrawal!McKay was fantastic - all crazy, angsty pain. It's great seeing the cast getting scripts they can really sink their teeth into.

Sheppard's clown ramblings - LMFAO. Clowns, ferris wheels... this man has circus issues.

Beckett's comment about having "an inkling" of the agony McKay was going through was interesting - I wonder if that was a generic doctor-y statement, or something more specific that may be expanded upon later?

I can see the Rockett slashers having a field day with Beckett's little bedside vigil, LOL.

[xfkirsten]

Beckett's comment about having "an inkling" of the agony McKay was going through was interesting - I wonder if that was a generic doctor-y statement, or something more specific that may be expanded upon later?

I wondered about that part a bit, too. The way he said it almost implied a really personal experience, but Beckett doesn't seem the type to have done that in the past. My assumption is that it comes from him having seen a lot of similar cases in his experience as a doctor, but he did seem to imply a very personal understanding of exactly how Rodney felt...

[AutumnDream]

About the doors... if you consider "Underground", McKay had to work pretty hard to get the door open. The thing was right inside the wall. He cut open the wall and messed with something in there to make the door work. It seems like the internal mechanism behind the door is activated by touch. Like when my laptop goes off, I touch the pad and it turns on. I could throw something at it to achieve the same result.

Now, since the Queen wanted the information about the "hot new feeding spot!", she set up the thing with the planted prisoners. Did anyone actually consider that in the episode they said, "That's why they let us escape."? Obviously they put the opening mechanism for that particular cell in the open instead of in the walland left their knives on them so they'd have a means to escape so that whole plan could go through.

Seriously, the hive queens don't really strike me as the stupid type.

About the queen, she didn't need any time to "act" on the info. When Shepp told her that, she could have sent out a quick mental note to the rest of the hive to be cautious about any suspicious actions the other hive might make. About the larger explosions from the dart Sheppard was piloting as opposed to the ones in the gate room on Rising... well, it's been mentioned several times in the series so far that shooting at the dart bays causes "secondary explosions". I'm sure Sheppard aimed there to make absolute sure the hive caught on to the attacks. The larger explosions you were seeing were just secondary.

The ships blowing up so dramatically? Think of what happened when the Arcturus project blew. 5/6th of a solar system went up. McKay said that running at 50%, Arcturus would generate the power of a dozen ZPMs. Assuming when it blew up it did so at full potential, that was with the force of about 24 ZPMs. So we can guess that if even one ZPM were to become agitated and explode it would have quite the drastic effect. Now, I know wraith technology isn't as advanced, but I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that shooting at ships that have high-end power sources such as ZPMs or whatever in them can make some pretty big explosions.

[Atlantis1]

I have no problem with Sheppard flying the dart. He figured out the Puddle jumper on Atlantis. I believe the wraith tech may be simular to ancient tech. He has piloted alot of different types of crafts. I think he could figure it out plus remember some of what happened when he landed in the ship.

This clown thing with Sheppard is going to make January seem far off. I can't wait to see it.

[watcher652]

Stop wasting your Wraith cure on former Enterprise grease monkies Beckett...

OT: Jewel Staite, the actress that played Ellia in "Instinct", is the former Serenity grease monkey from the series Firefly. Sorry, I couldn't let that go uncorrected.

The Enterprise grease monkey would be the chief engineer Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III, played by Connor Trinneer

Spoiler:

who will be the title character in the upcoming Atlantis episode "Michael".

[Yeade]

Howdy, ready for another marathon thread

Why the hell not? Let's scare everybody else off!

Making it all happen in a single day would have done it nicely. [snip] There wasn't anything here that really needed to take place over a long period of time.

Actually, since TPTB went the way they did with the enzyme withdrawal (clichéd though it might be), the episode needed to happen over several days. I make wild guesses at approximately how many days in my previous post.

I seriously don't know how this dumb idea got started. Shooting the panel to keep guys out like in star wars is one thing and makes sense but shooting it to make the door open...

There's really nothing to be done about this, I think. It's a sci-fi convention and, like the drug withdrawal, I think the audience, to a certain extent, expects it.

You light some of those hoops on fire and Teyla could jump through them as a circus act.

ROTFLMAO! Maybe TPTB thought it would be... too undignified? And it looks like--the cap with Teyla standing right there for comparison was especially helpful--it would be a tight squeeze. Falling back on my personal experiences being passed through a rope web during a cheesy outdoor team-building exercise, lol, the gaps higher than waist-height would be difficult, logistically speaking, to send Teyla through when there are only four other people (Ronon aside) to support her. And they're all on one side. It doesn't help that the bars are solid and unyielding; the person going through the hoop, so to speak, doesn't have a lot of control, and nobody would want to be bent over, face up or down, one of those bars. Hmm...

I'm giving this too much thought.

Yeah but most of what was there taking up all that space was kinda well...

See, Ouroboros, while I think you look for your show to provide you with these sorts of plot details--something I also look for, obviously--many others look to SGA for character moments. And that, I think, is what's "taking up all that space."

Wouldn't it have been nice to see this though, you know as opposed to Ronan and Teyla sweating. That was the core of my complaint really. All of a sudden the evil boss gets interrupted right when she's about to kill the hero and we never find out why.

Well, I put one and one and one together to get three.

Hive queen gets annoyed look and runs out of important interrogation. Another hive ship arrives. Hives have worked together without apparent conflict before. Thus, the queen is going off to confer or otherwise deal with the other queen, but the two hives are not going to immediately engage in a fight to the death.

Sure it would have been great if it was because she was pissed at the other hive trying to mozy in on her planet and we got to see her chew out the other hive keeper about being such a grabby ***** but then we never got to see that did we. No, we didn't, and that's why it sucked.

Yeah, that is too bad. Nothing for it, I guess.

The wraith didn't even try to do to him what they did to Sumner. The plot couldn't afford it because it would make him into an old man. The solution, make the Wraith take the long way 'round for absolutely no good reason.

I thought maybe the hive queen got the mistaken impression that Sheppard was going to be more or less completely resistant to her mind probe. I'm not sure she connected Sheppard with Atlantis and, thus, Earth until later. She was questioning him pretty exclusively about the stolen dart at first. Which happened to be the one thing Sheppard honestly didn't know. His ignorance read as a mental block to her? Hence the roundabout way of getting information about Earth.

Also just how exactly did the queen know they would take that specific corridoor or that they would even stop at all.

Could the pursuing guards have been herding them toward that corridor? Not trying to recapture them?

Yeah but you had to be a total sci-fi newb to not know from minute 1 that she was working for them. At least the episode let the chracters notice it though instead of making them act surprised by it.

No, that's not what I meant. If Neera and the other Wraith worshippers acted out of self-preservation, like the Genii, I don't think you can so easily label them "evil."

That layout isn't going to tell them which one of the bazillions of rooms the Wraith locked their gear away in though is it.

Well, Sheppard and Ford could've at least worked out some likely locations, right? Ford got lucky? And searched around more than was shown? Logically checked around where the prisoners were being held? Since he knew where Ronon and Teyla were.

Yeah but you'd think that the hiveship wouldn't even notice it was under attack in this situation.

There's no way to tell. With the Wraith psychic abilities, I imagine the queen could pick up pretty much everything that happens on and happens to her hive.

I did like how this dart made explosions big enough that they would easily have immolated everyone in the gate room had that dart shots through the gate from rising done the same thing though. That was a nice touch.

Eh. Different effects on whatever the hive ship's made of as opposed to Atlantean materials? Would it matter that it was in space? AutumnDream has a good point about secondary explosions and such as well. If anyone would know where to fire for maximum effect, Sheppard would. (And never mind how he managed to fly and fight the dart in the first place! )

Another question to ask is also why were they so on edge. Shep's whole routine about working for the other queen came mere moments before the queen he was talking to got shot. She didn't have time to act on the info unless that shot didn't kill her? It did look like her ship was the one that blew the other one away though. They were in the one on the right right?

That shot most definitely didn't kill the hive queen. IIRC, one shot from Ronon's gun, set on kill presumably, couldn't even stun Ellia unconscious. Ellia was stronger and faster than the normal Wraith, yes, but then again the higher Wraith castes also seem more resilient. At most, I figure the queen was knocked out for a while.

For best effect, imagine she came to as the other hive fired upon hers, already pissed about her prisoners escaping.

It would have been funny if it were done in a comedy context. "Ha ha we destroyed them!... oh wait.... SH*T!!! **BOOM**"

I sort of got that impression, actually, lol. Sheppard's hive queen was so engrossed in blowing the other queen and her damned hive to smithereens that she totally disregarded the safety of her own hive. Only to be successively delighted the other hive went up in flames and mortified to find her own hive had been so damaged it would be destroyed as well. All while the Deddy watches from the sidelines. Going, like the viewers, "WTF? Fine. Whatever. We'll take it."

It was like one cut though.

It was? Er. I forgot.

Atlantis1, I don't mind that Sheppard can work Wraith tech so easily, per se. It's more the lack of any explanation or, indeed, even questions about this ability that gets to me. Though even this depends ultimately on how the Wraith tech works. If it works on anything like the mental/emotional interface of Ancient tech, I'm going to need something more about why Sheppard can do what he can. Ask yourself this: If Sheppard's amazingly steep and largely intuitive learning curve with Ancient tech can be attributed to a combination of his mindset and his magic ATA gene, what then can Sheppard's equally boggling use of Wraith tech be attributed to?


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[starfox]

Beckett's comment about having "an inkling" of the agony McKay was going through was interesting - I wonder if that was a generic doctor-y statement, or something more specific that may be expanded upon later?

Thank you! I was hopin someone else noticed that. My immediate thought was, "and when did *you* shoot up, Carson?" Although he doesn't seem like a junkie to me. Possibly former alcoholic, suffered alcohol poisoning? Who wants to write me junkie!Carson fic?

I can see the Rockett slashers having a field day with Beckett's little bedside vigil, LOL.

Oh, tell me Beckett/McKay shippers don't actually classify themselves as such. Because that is just in no way right. I like that ship, but the name is just...no.



All in all, not my favorite ep. Some good moments yes, but very little cohesion and then there were the time issues. But the bad has already been brought out, so a few of my favorite parts:

When Ronon and Teyla are in the cell and Ronon gives warrior-y advice. Not the words so much (because c'mon, trite as hell) but the way Jason Momoa delivered them. I've been on the fence about Ronon since his introduction; this was the moment I felt that okay, here's a human being capable of thinking of other people, and I can like this guy. Plus, I really think that Ronon and Teyla have a sibling-esque relationship going on, and this was just a great moment of interaction with them.
Also, the fact that Teyla was so visibly worried about Ford was a plus. Way to show us something resembling character with this woman.

John calling Ford Aiden and Ford calling Shep John: just too great. Hearing John come out of Ford's mouth sounded a bit odd, but it showed how they were no longer CO and subordinate, but friends.


Everyone else seemed to love enzyme-d out Rodney, and while I agree that DH did a pretty good job there (although I think it leant a little too far to the humorous, I would have preferred a more frightening freak-out), my favorite Rodney scene was when he was making the decision to take the enzyme. That was a moment that hit me. His sense of self-preservation dueling with his loyalty to the team. I felt that, and it was good.

Minor problem w/McKay in this ep: Writers, we get it, he's a geek. Now can we actually see him a bit more? Make us worry about him for once instead of making us laugh at him. It would expand his dynamic with the other characters so much.

Another problem I had with this ep: Where was McKay's GDO? Are we just supposed to assume that he grabbed that out of Ford's office, too? And I want a radio in the GDO, so even if the earpieces are lost Atlantis can get voice confirmation of an IDC.

Neera curling up with Sheppard: anyone else think, "wow, he really *is* Kirk"?
And Shep looking so adorably awkward and figuring out that Neera is a plant and wanting her to get the hell away from him but not wanting to tip his hand to early...all great.


All in all, a mediocre episode with some good moments. The acting far outshined the writing here. I expected more after a wait this long, but I'll just have to hope "Epiphany" is better.

[watcher652]

Beckett's comment about having "an inkling" of the agony McKay was going through was interesting - I wonder if that was a generic doctor-y statement, or something more specific that may be expanded upon later?

I took it to mean that all those nasty comments Rodney was saying were hurting Carson. Even though he knew Rodney didn't mean it, they had to come from somewhere. And, also Carson's personal pain of seeing a very good friend suffer and being unable to really do anything about it.

I did not take it to mean that Carson had any personal experience with drug withdrawal, although I think drug taking is a bigger problem among doctors than the general population because of their easier access to drugs.