Epiphany (212)

[Dannygirl]

Thanks AGateFan for clearing that up. That makes a lot more sense.

This was a great episode - malp on a stick was good. Also from what has been said before, If they were in dire need of a zpm in theory they could go back and get it. From the rules that they will be forced to follow they can't stop Rodney from taking it in theory.

Actually, the only time you need to follow the rules is if the Ancients helped you to ascend. They ascended on their own so they don't need to follow Ancient rules.

[Traveler Enroute1]

I must be the only person who doesn't think ST:TNG but instead thinks of Forbidden Planet (the first invisible beast, which was from the id).

My thought, too, prion. The fact that 1) this was a place where people were into meditating, using their minds to reach a higher level, and 2) for all the beat down Shep got, he was always healed by the people. Even the look of the entity made me think of the Bellerophon (sp?), although that ST:TNG was a fave episode.

Just sayin', yep, their own monsters from the id! Off to watch both eps again!

[prion]

This was a great episode - malp on a stick was good. Also from what has been said before, If they were in dire need of a zpm in theory they could go back and get it. From the rules that they will be forced to follow they can't stop Rodney from taking it in theory.

Oh, I think if Rodney tried to purloin the ZedPM that the Ascended folk would just take it right back, or zap him (just enough to scare the wits out of him). They do protect thier own, like Chaya protects her planet and people.

[MarshAngel]

It was good right up to the point where it was anticlimactic. It just kind of stopped for me. Not much learned or gained for the people who most need learning and gain. woohoo they ascend... what have we learned? nothing really.

I was a little confused about the remaining people. Time flows at a regular pace for them but they all manage to ascend in their lifetimes, and they weren't descendants of the ancients(??) so they somehow managed to accomplish what the Ancients seemed to have been trying to do for oh about 50+ million years. So after a few hundred/thousand years or so inside I'm going to have to assume that a percentage of each generation either ascended or died leaving fewer and fewer people behind and in the mean time they've been committing incest? or do they just live for much longer than the regular humans?

And did I miss something with the invitation for Shepphard to join them? He's enlightened? Or were they going to just carry him along? and if they could do that then no one should be left because whether you manage it on your own or not, after all that meditation you deserve to be glowy and powerful.

[FoolishPleasure]

The good:

Rodney, MALP on a stick, Conon and Xena, the first 20 minutes.

The bad:

The last 40 minutes.

Teyla can now sense. . EVERYTHING? That's convenient.

Ooooh, more peasant people, all wearing the same color! (they don't have any other dyes in this village?)

The beast shows up in the village. . on to a Cialis commercial. . return to find little girl healing severely injured Shep. WTF?

Sheph0r makes out with hot alien chick of the week. Again. *yawn*

Brief mention that Shep has made numerous treks back to the cave. He did? I saw him bring in a pack, once. But we didn't see what was in it because hot chick decides that was the time to make-out.

"I've seen you in my dreams. .you were meant to be here. . I know you". .whatever Teer said. Didn't Chaya say basically same the same thing?

I made a terrible mistake before watching this - that was to watch SG1, which was quite good, and gave us a good deal of backstory on Cameron Mitchell. Then it was on to a Shep-centric episode where his lack of backstory after TWO years became painfully apparent. His little temper tantrums and whiney fits of being left behind made Shep appear immature, next to Mitchell, who an hour earlier seemed quite the superb officer.

Thumbs down. Hopefully SOMEONE will do something to develop Sheppard one of these days.

[Osiris-RA]

Good ep! Though it did remind me a bit of that ep when Jack was stranded on that boring colonial planet. But better. I daresay Shep's getting an actual personality! He should keep the beard. Makes him look tough and interesting.

1. Is it just me, or are they trying to dumb down Dex? Mckay's always snapping at him, then Dex says something absurdly stupid, or acts like 'well, uh, duh, you do something or I'll grind you into powdered sugar!" Come on! The guy's been running from the Wraith, you have have to be kind of smart to do that. Not..appreciating.

2. Teyla: "It disappeared." Oh, thank you Eagle Eye.

3. Mckay...does anyone have a gopher hole and a mallet to spare? Lets play Whack'a'Mckay!

While some of the story blew by a tad quickly, it held my interest - and mum's too surprisingly - more than SG1. More props for that.

[Droops]

First half of show very well written and very interesting.

Second half . . . . not so interesting.

Loved the Shep-0r! stuff! Yea, bring on the babes!!!!

Ahem . . . . .

Anyway, Rodney had the lines of the night. Great stuff from him. Teyla put him in his place though at one point, which brought a smile to my face.

No real character development though, or interesting action, so in the end it left you feeling a bit empty.

[MasySyma]

It was a pretty good episode.

Admittedly, between reading spoilers and the anti-Kirking thread in the Gen. Disc. folder, I was dreading this episode; however, I was very pleasantly suprised tonight.

While I didn't like the Conan and Xena line, I thought the character interaction was well done. Rodney and Ronan just take different approaches to the same cause. The episode shows that they need further interaction, but Sheppard's team is starting to mesh.

About the romance:

I think many of the folks complaining about Kirking need to remember what Kirking is: Kirk meets hot alien girl, knows her for five minutes, seduces hot alien girl, the plot does not move, and Kirk leaves the hot alien girl. Tonight's episode did not fit those parameters. Sheppard thought he was stranded on the planet, and in his world, he had been there for six months. He has a choice: move on or pine. He chose move on. He knew the girl for six months. They had a friendship that turned into a relationship. The plot needed the romance because her faith in Sheppard leads to the ascension of her people, and although we won't see a wedding in Sheppard's future, the romance was done well. I agree that it was a bit awkward given the hot alien chick hit on Sheppard last week and will probably do so as the season continues, but the writers handled this episode and its romantic side well.

I give the episode 9/10 because while it was good I'm waiting for Grace Under Pressure and Michael. Atlantis still isn't rising (no pun intended) to its full potential for me; however, this episode gives me hope for what is to come.

[FoolishPleasure]

About the romance:

I think many of the folks complaining about Kirking need to remember what Kirking is: Kirk meets hot alien girl, knows her for five minutes, seduces hot alien girl, the plot does not move, and Kirk leaves the hot alien girl. Tonight's episode did not fit those parameters. Sheppard thought he was stranded on the planet, and in his world, he had been there for six months. He has a choice: move on or pine. He chose move on. He knew the girl for six months. They had a friendship that turned into a relationship. The plot needed the romance because her faith in Sheppard leads to the ascension of her people, and although we won't see a wedding in Sheppard's future, the romance was done well. I agree that it was a bit awkward given the hot alien chick hit on Sheppard last week and will probably do so as the season continues, but the writers handled this episode and its romantic side well.
.

I saw it a bit differently. Obviously there are comparisons to SG1's "100 Days". The difference being:

Jack was stranded and after several months figured there was no hope of going home. No one had contacted him, and he DID fit in with the society. He was helping to build structures, repair equipment, catch food, even partied with the group. He LIKED the people and truly cared for Laira. He did not sleep with her until he had decided he was going to STAY with her.

Sheppard was completely UNHAPPY all the way through this episode. He never seemed to care for these people and consistenly complained about being stuck there. He finally found a backpack at the cave with items from his friends - he KNEW they were trying to get to him. So what does he do? He has make-out session with GF of the week. I never got the feeling that he loved her, or even liked her. So why the heck is he sleeping with her when he had no intention of staying with her and he had just discovered his friends were coming to save him?

THAT is "kirking"

[MasySyma]

Sheppard was completely UNHAPPY all the way through this episode. He never seemed to care for these people and consistenly complained about being stuck there. He finally found a backpack at the cave with items from his friends - he KNEW they were trying to get to him. So what does he do? He has make-out session with GF of the week. I never got the feeling that he loved her, or even liked her. So why the heck is he sleeping with her when he had no intention of staying with her and he had just discovered his friends were coming to save him?

THAT is "kirking"

I can see your point, but just because he knew that his friends were coming did not mean that it would be soon. The delay in items would have alerted him to a larger problem preventing his team for saving him, so one can assume that he might think that he would not be rescued for many additional months. I may not agree with his relationship ethics in the episode for the reasons you suggest, but part of Kirking is a lack of emotional connection between Kirk and the hot alien girl of the week. Sheppard already had a relationship with this woman and her family. He is human, so while I didn't cheer and say that Sheppard needed a romance as I might for Daniel, I can acknowledge that the writers did not take the short cut used too often in the scifi world: Kirking. I mainly picture the last few years of Andromeda when I think of this, and nothing in Sheppard's behavior corresponded to Dylan Hunt's seduction of the girl of the week.

As soon as the writers chose this type of plot, a romance was inevitable. At least the writers handled it with class.

[Michelle05]

On rewatching I liked it more. I loved how completely frantic Rodney was to get to Shep, and how he towed everyone in his wake until they got it for themselves. Their level of concern, urgency, and tension would be very refreshing on SG-1 now and then.

I didn't object to Sheppard becoming romantic with the woman. What I didn't like was that we never got to see his angst about being abandoned play out, to really see the psychological toll that would take on a person. Sure he must have believed they were trying to rescue him, but part of him must have wondered if they'd had to give up on him.

JF's original idea had him going into a void alone. Given how powerful the cave scenes were, I think it would have been better to keep him largely alone. Maybe with a volleyball or something to talk to :-) Then a longer reconciliation with his team as he came to accept he'd only been gone for hours.

Well, I've already read fan fics like this so I must not be the only one thinking of it :-)

[Hatusu]

Two derivative episodes today. Sg1 borrowed from several sources and Atlantis ripped off "Star Trek TNG's" "The Inner Light" and "The Forbidden Planet's" Id monster. This episode lacked the emotion of "The Inner Light" (The famous flute episode) and the surprise of "The Forbidden Planet". I already knew about the Id monster. Why didn't Sheppard? Boring.

I was much more interested in the the rescue team from Atlantis headed up by McKay who was at his frantic best. I loved the Xena and Conan line. I noticed that they're finally using Weir's language abilities in the field. She translated some Ancient inscriptions............................

Sorry, I had a Daniel moment there.

Overall. Watchable, but don't do it again. You might get sued.

After I read O-Ra's comment, I realized that this episode ripped off SG1's "100 Days", which stole from STTNG's "The Inner Light". Do we have a cross-eyed smiley?

[Hatusu]

JF's original idea had him going into a void alone. Given how powerful the cave scenes were, I think it would have been better to keep him largely alone. Maybe with a volleyball or something to talk to :-) Then a longer reconciliation with his team as he came to accept he'd only been gone for hours.

I agree with you and JF. It would have been much more powerful. And I laughed out loud at the volleyball line.

[Lieutenant Colonel Davis]

Best part: McKay,"And can you find a good jumper pilot? I don't trust him, (Beckett) and I can't fly the thing in a straight line."

[mindfire]

Actually, the only time you need to follow the rules is if the Ancients helped you to ascend. They ascended on their own so they don't need to follow Ancient rules.

We probably will never know for sure, but after what we've learned on sg1 the Ancients might enforce this rule of strict none interference on anyone who ascends, for fear of corruption - Ori - And it doesn't matter how good your intentions are.

But again Dr. Weir will never let him try to take the zpm.