Critical Mass (213)

[freyr's mother]

Rachel has a really good singing voice but it doesnt belong in stargate.

[berenikee]

It was good, I enjoyed Teyla´s singing...

[PG15]

I loved it.

Why doesn't it belong in Stargate?

[Stricken]

Great start to the episode with Zelanka heading off to the kid’s planet, and you could tell that Rodney was glad that it wasn’t him going. And the infighting with the Wraith which was started by us, has got to make you feel proud that the Wraith now cant trust each other so they fight.

When we go to Cheyenne mountain and we have to wonder why as this is Stargate Atlantis and not SG-1, but it is made clear that the Goa’uld have infiltrated the trust at the highest level, but no mention of former vice president Kinsey, and are going to destroy Atlantis with using a bomb, which would have led to a simple storyline with the Atlantis team just having to disarm it but it didn’t which led to a good twist.

Something that didn’t seem too clear was the fact that the Deadalus was going to Earth and had passengers from Atlantis, why??, with the Z.P.M they could be back in a minute, and apparently the Deadalus was about a week away from Atlantis, so how on earth they managed to get back to Atlantis seems impossible. The twilight bark from Dalmatians, seemed to explain how the plan was going to work, but the scientists didn’t get it, but the Lord of the Rings reference and it was “Oh yeah” well at least they got it in the end.

And he is back! What a shock that was, always putting a dampner on events!!! And then Hermoid telling him to shut up, these new Asgard rock!! Then the dial up to Earth on Atlantis, and the STOP which turned some heads just when the eight chevron was about to pressed, the measures taken such as suspending gate travel and removing the Z.P.M seemed logical. Ronon’s reaction to a Goa’uld was what we first thought way back in Season 1 of SG-1 whilst keeping the shows apart is what TPTB have always said they would do, the Goa’uld in Atlantis led to a great episode

Carson and Teyla’s visit to the mainland could have been a happy one, but it wasn’t, Charin who Teyla saw as a Grandmother was dying. She can’t be too ill if she can make a quip about Teyla’s cooking and Beckett seemed to find it funny. Beckett tried to help Charin but she wanted no help she wanted to die and have the “Ring” ceremony, after all not many people reach old age in the Pegasus Galaxy. Teyla pleaded with Charin to let Beckett help but she was having none of it.

Landry was the tough faced military man who was right for this episode although on Earth he could still make a presence felt. And then their was Cadmen’s “tap dancing” line, which while funny wasn’t really needed. The search for the bomb, which we know that the trigger isn’t on Earth, was on, and then the DHD dials itself, and we get to see a glimpse of the dialling computer on Atlantis to draw their attention from the beacon telling the Wraith to come, all of it so far would indicate that Cadmen is the Trust member, always near the action so to speak. McKay thought she was the one, but Sheppard didn’t as he trusted her. Caldwell’s attempt to barge in on the interrogations makes you wonder why he wanted to do them.

Cavanaugh as a Goa’uld, I could see it, its possible. His attack on Weir’s command of Atlantis didn’t make him a Goa’uld, he’s always hated Weir and the way he is treated by her. He really tried to make her feel bad about the decision that she had made over the last year, and it has to be said that some on them were risky ones to say the least.
Dr. Novak (sp) jumpy, hiccups were back and it reminds you of last year in Prometheus Unbound, and the fact that she wanted to get away, but that was her job but she loved her job. And then the sir, mam line.

And then we discover, the Z.P.M is the bomb and Sheppard likens it to a dam and the fail safes to a spillway. The operating system on Atlantis was re-written must have taken a while its Ancient and complicated! Z.P.M needed to power Shield, Shield overloads Z.P.M, Atlantis explodes or no Z.P.M and the Wraith destroy Atlantis. And that is how the Wraith are connected to the bomb
And then Cavanaugh trying to put the focus on McKay and Zelanka being the trust operatives, then the encoded messages to his friends who he said he didn’t have. Then we had the debate on how the get the code, and McKay defending Cavanaugh and the fact that Weir didn’t want to torture him but the others did. Yet again Cadmen’s actions make her seem like the suspect and McKay tries to make her slip up but she doesn’t. The Wraith arrive, the inertial dampers activate and Cadmen is the one who notices!

Teyla’s sinning was beautiful and fitted with what was going on in the rest of Atlantis, all the hustle and bustle trying to stop Atlantis being destroyed. In fact the whole Ring ceremony was beautiful.

In the end we discover much to the shock that its Caldwell who’s the Goa’uld but Ronon hits him, Sheppard “tazers” him, Caldwell comes to and we get the code, Atlantis is saved, and the Wraith go away. We then learn that Hermoid is going to use Asgard transporters to remove the Goa’uld from Caldwell.

Zelanka with all the paint and the hair was brilliant; they really know how to make us laugh. And then seriousness, the fact that Weir feels that we crossed a line in allowing Cavanaugh to be “tortured” even though he had fainted.

Questions

How did Caldwell get become a Goa’uld and work for the trust?

Does Weir know that Ronon didn’t torture Cavanaugh and that he fainted?

Did Weir get to see Zelanka’s face before he washed it off?



Good One off Episode, which will play a part in a clip show in years to come.

Critical Mass recieves a S.G.C rating of 7 out of 9 Chevrons!

[beale947]

Ok we know the goa'uld turned off the failsafes, but why did they delete them, so they know atlantis will be destroyed? Or put in More than one Authorisation Code, that Colonel Cadwell didn't know?

[freyr's mother]

I think they wanted their operative to get out of there. That way he could stay an operative undercover.

[PG15]

Maybe it was too difficult to delete the fail safes without other people noticing?

[Xanderic]

If you delete something so important to the survival of the base that will most likely get noticed upon the next base check, you'd be in pretty big trouble.

In Ripple Effect, the Black SG-1 disabled stuff but didn't delete them.

[Astrofighter]

Most likely they couldn't delete anything. All their program did was turn things on and off and control the ability to turn back on the failsafe. It just basically re-wrote passwords and controls, it didn't alter the program itself, more than likely its all write protected they couldn't delete it.

[Dromag67]

I also doubt it would be too easy to delete ancient failsafes, disabling them would most likely be much easier.

[Bragi]

Simple....

That would've ended the series. Blown-up Atlantis = cancelled show.

[jonno]

13 is your lucky number!

The 13th episodes of both series have been pretty darn good (for those that can't count , that's this and Ripple effect).

I only wish I hadn't seen one or two of the spoilers I had seen (Note to self ... avoid spoilers next year). Certainly a lot of rewatch potential.

Loads of great moments:
1. HERMIOD!!!! You've gotta love him - he's one of the coolest Asgard out there.
2. Kavanagh - despite the fact he's an utter .... he was played really well, and provided some nice moments ... such as fainting at the sight of Ronan.
3. Walter (always good) and Dr. Lee - this was possibly one of his best eps. I admit, when I first saw him, I wondered why hadn't they called Carter back for this, but Lee made me forget about that after a while.
4. Goa'uld glowy eyes!
5. Zelenka at the end. Great makeup
6. STOP!!! Just in time.

Oh dear ... Novak got her hiccups back. Nice bit of character continuity there, along with Agent Barrett being present. It made sense for him to break the news to Landry. Oh yeah - and it was good they used a taser on Caldwell to reduce the Goa'uld control (a la Jack/Klorel back in SG-1). I was wondering how that would happen as they didn't have Zats - just having Ronan beat him up would'nt have been accurate to the shows history.

What wasn't quite continuity was Cadman going from Marines to computer expert??? How did that happen? She must be one smart girl.

Finally - the singing. The music did make the end unique and interesting but (to me anyway), it was obvious it had been done in a studio, particularly as when we were looking at Teyla, some of the lip sinking wasn't quite right.

Oh yeah, and the end felt a little rushed - we could have done with seeing more Goa'uld, and more Caldwell struggling through the Goa'uld to give the access code.

Overall, very nice ep - will rewatch soon!

[The Marovingean]

This was one of my favorite ever Atlantis episodes. Not only did it have a fantastic story that kept the viewers wrapped up in it, but it had a great twist at the end and it had stunning vocals from Rachel Luttrell! What more can you ask for?

[Reefgirl]

This is one of my favourites so far, I felt that it tied up why 'they' wanted Caldwell to take over Atlantis and when he couldn't 'They' gave him command of the Daedalus.

[mckaychick]

This was one of my favorite episodes here in season 2. this was a fantastic story and really kept us viewers wrapped up. Excellent story!!