Critical Mass (213)

[Sheppard]

yeah teyla's singing is quite good i hope we see her doing it again

[mgbland]

yeah teyla's singing is quite good i hope we see her doing it again

I read somewhere that they had to get her to record the music a second time, because she was too good the first time!

[Descent]

I read somewhere that they had to get her to record the music a second time, because she was too good the first time!

Interesting.

CM was my personal favorite from the Season for various reasons. GW giving it a *1/2 sure did surprise me, oh well.

[maxbo]

Interesting.

CM was my personal favorite from the Season for various reasons. GW giving it a *1/2 sure did surprise me, oh well.

GW gave this a *1/2! I believe that's the same rating it gave Irresistible. Amazing.

Until recently, I thought the GW ratings system was based on fan reviews. Now that I realize that it's not, it would be great if GW also included a written review, explaining the "why" of how they rate each episode. I understand that written reviews can be time consuming, but it's strange to see GW assign a low rating to an episode that fans loved, or a high rating to an episode that fans hated, without knowing why. At least with the fan poll we can go to the Episode thread to get a sense of why the fans loved or hated an episode.

[beale947]

Kvanagah in this episode, even though he was a idiot. He was correct.

[rarocks24]

The thing that bothered me about this episode was:

Spoiler for Progeny

Spoiler:

Okay, in Progeny Mckay says it would take three ZPMs overloading to destroy the city. Yet, in this episode, it would only take one? Why? In fact, if that was the case, we might as well go get that defective ZPM and install it in Atlantis if Atlantis would be able to handle the power output of the faulty device.

[mckaychick]

Kvanagah in this episode, even though he was a idiot. He was correct.

Yeah thats the sad part

[Serebii]

Actually I found the Review Link and they gave it 3 stars

http://gateworld.net/atlantis/s2/reviews/213.shtml

[david2708]

Agree with the GW review rating. Terrible episode. 43 minutes of all our lives that we'll never get back. The singing part was ridiculous-the story derivative. 2nd worst episode of the season behind the awful Duet.

[borgprincess]

Wow, you have such a different opinion to me! I loved this episode. As a popcorn ep, it worked quite well, I found it exciting and entertaining. I loved the singing, and the way it threaded through the other scenes, it heightened the tension and enhanced my enjoyment of the ep. But then, I love Cold Case and the other shows where they incorporate music [especially when it's contemporary music that I know and like] into the show regularly. I couldn't believe it was Rachel who was singing! My cynical mind told me the actress would have gotten someone else to dub the singing, but the commentary said that it was her voice, so whoa!

In analysis, the ep raised a lot of questions- for instance, as someone else said, when was Caldwell taken host? Is the person we saw all this while the real Caldwell? I'd be disappointed if the guy who played chess with Weir was the goa'uld. I appreciate SG and SGA as a humorous dramatic sci-fi show, but one that steers clear of dumb parody, and this ep achieved that. There was the moral dilemma...about the torture, obviously. I like the fact that Kavanagh fainted. Kavanagh collapsing was a neat method to get out of torturing him. Since Ronon did not hurt the innocent dude, it avoided the horrible consequences of that fact and the blame that would be spread over all their shoulders. It was getting way too 'Lost' on me, I could see Sayiid in Ronon's character when he was like, 'Let me in that room with him! I'll get answers'...

Someone commented on Weir's lack of support for Sheppard, but really, that's more of a reflection on the writers, they seem to avoid scenes with them two unless strictly necessary, even when the nature of the characters demand it. I would've liked to see her supporting him, but that'd be dreaming...

[John W]

Now that I've seen the rest of Season 2, I think I've found the answer to the question about "How long was Caldwell a Goa'uld?"

Starting from the next episode he's in, there's a definite character change. He seems a lot nicer, softly-spoken, friendly and with a sense of humour. So, since he was none of these before (he's always been serious, distrustful and loud), I think it's safe to say that he's been a Goa'uld since before we first saw him.

[PG15]

Or maybe he was shaken by the whole ordeal and changed because of that.

[John W]

Maybe, that's a good point. He may have wanted to make relations better with the Atlantis team after what the Goa'uld did to them.

[borgprincess]

I hope so. The chess playing scene was cool with Weir, I like seeing friendships between the characters, and that it made him appear not such an uptight strictly military dude. I wish the writers had been a little clearer on this point, because it makes us question what we knew of the character. I know the Goa'uld are sneaky things, but there are certain characteristics that breed true and I have a hard time believing he'd been host that long without someone noticing. They can't survive very long without doing the whole 'bow before your god' routine. I snickered at the 'I have the strength of ten men' line and then Ronon bowls him over like a...a...someone that's very easy to beat up and definitely not that powerful at all!

[meredithchandler73]

I'm slowly but surely getting through the second season episodes. I can't wait to be totally caught up with the series so I don't have to worry about spoilers!

My thoughts on this episode:
--Interesting crossover episode, considering that no one from SG-1 actually interacted with anyone from SGA. I like the idea that life in Milky Way can still "intrude" on the Pegasus galaxy.
--Not a big Cavanaugh fan (but I guess that's the point). I was sure he wasn't the bad guy - too obvious, right? - until closer to the end when I started to think that his obviousness was supposed to throw you off. (I know that you know that I know that you know...) In any case, he wasn't the baddie, which makes for more interesting TV. The fact is, there's a guy who isn't a villain that Weir and most of the Atlantis team thoroughly dislike. But now that Weir "crossed that line" and allowed Ronan to use whatever means necessary to get the access code (though Cavanaugh wasn't ever harmed), I kinda hope we never see Cavanaugh again. Actually, after what he was being accused of and what Ronan almost did to him, I can't imagine why Cavanaugh would ever return to Atlantis!
--Nice to bring back Cadman. (Totally off-topic - in the opening credits I saw her name and was thinking that I had just seen that name somewhere else. She was in some Christmas TV movie with Michael Shanks! I think it was on the Lifetime channel or something.)
--I liked the whole idea of the ring ceremony - celebrating someone who lived a full life in spite of the Wraith threat. Rachel Luttrell has a lovely voice. I couldn't help but be reminded of an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess where Xena sings at a funeral. I just wish sometimes that it could be a bit more realistic sounding - not so orchestral. If the actress has a nice voice, let them sing with a simple accompaniment or even a cappella. Something you might really hear. Ah well, maybe I'm the only person that thinks that way.