Grace Under Pressure (214)

[Linzi]

You know this from experience?

I don't, so please enlighten me.

Yes actually I do. You believe what you see is real until it's over and when you're recovered you obviously realise it wasn't real. Even then the memories still seem real. You don't rationalize at the time, it's not an hallucination otherwise! That's why they can be so frightening and disturbing.

Screw originality, it's entertaining.

In YOUR opinion, not mine.

It's not Carter, it's McKay's view of Carter, which in this case fit perfectly.

How do you know what McKay's view of Carter is?

Bottom line - I found the episode boring.

[gooner_diva]

It's the quote from Suspicion that's incorrect. The Pegasus Dwarf Irregular is somewhere between 3.25 and 3.5 million light years away.

It hasn't been made clear if the Pegasus Galaxy they're referring to is Pegasus Dwarf Spheroidal or Irregular. Daniel just said "it's the name of a dwarf galaxy in the Local Group". In any case, neither of them is 300 million light years away so McKay was wrong in Suspicion. I mean, that kind of distance would take you outside the Virgo Supercluster. I doubt the Z.P.M. could provide enough power to dial the Stargate or that the Daedalus could get there so fast.

[maxbo]

Add me to the growing list of fans who can't understand the "why" of this episode. What did we learn about McKay that we didn't already know? Answer - NOTHING! We learned absolutely nothing new about this already heavily featured character, so why did TPTB believe it was necessary to write an episode that featured him to the exclusion of 3 other regular, but barely featured, characters?

Teyla, Carson and Ronon have had so little development, compared to Rodney, that often they are just a part of the background. Although I love Rodney, enough is enough. This is supposed to be a show with an ensemble cast, not the Rodney McKay hour. This dependence on Rodney to carry the show is not fair to any of the characters, including McKay. He's been featured so much that he's already becoming stale, IMO, and we're only half way through Season 2.

[Linzi]

Add me to the growing list of fans who can't understand the "why" of this episode. What did we learn about McKay that we didn't already know? Answer - NOTHING! We learned absolutely nothing new about this already heavily featured character, so why did TPTB believe it was necessary to write an episode that featured him to the exclusion of 3 other regular, but barely featured, characters?

Teyla, Carson and Ronon have had so little development, compared to Rodney, that often they are just a part of the background. Although I love Rodney, enough is enough. This is supposed to be a show with an ensemble cast, not the Rodney McKay hour. This dependence on Rodney to carry the show is not fair to any of the characters, including McKay. He's been featured so much that he's already becoming stale, IMO, and we're only half way through Season 2.

I agree. It is an ensemble cast. I missed the other 3 regulars here too. In Epiphany they all featured, but then again it didn't have as much Sheppard as GUP had of McKay, which is why Epiphany felt more balanced IMO.
McKay is becoming a bit of a one trick pony,IMO, which is a terrible shame for such a great character.
I love McKay best when he's in quieter, less frenetic scenes and I adore him in his interactions with Sheppard or Zelenka. By himself, for so long as in GUP, when he was constantly freaking out, really made me cringe and I was bored too. This could have been a good episode, quite simply, IMO, it was a showcase for an over-used character and a poor one at that.

[Merlin7]

Add me to the growing list of fans who can't understand the "why" of this episode. What did we learn about McKay that we didn't already know? Answer - NOTHING! We learned absolutely nothing new about this already heavily featured character, so why did TPTB believe it was necessary to write an episode that featured him to the exclusion of 3 other regular, but barely featured, characters?

Teyla, Carson and Ronon have had so little development, compared to Rodney, that often they are just a part of the background. Although I love Rodney, enough is enough. This is supposed to be a show with an ensemble cast, not the Rodney McKay hour. This dependence on Rodney to carry the show is not fair to any of the characters, including McKay. He's been featured so much that he's already becoming stale, IMO, and we're only half way through Season 2.

Word. And I would love to see an ep where Rodney is back at SG1 and Carson and Rodney joined Shep's team and the FIVE of them were what the ep was about. ANd yes..I know Shep is featured in every ep second only to Rodney...but he's not developed. Quantity screen time does NOT make up for quality screen time.

IMage Zelenka and Carson on Shep's team. Them offworld and dealing with a dangerous situation and what intense drama we could get. Especially say if shep got injured/incapacitated. Teyla would probably call the shots. Beckett would have to deal with treating Shep in a dangerous/life threatening situation. Zelenka would have to brainstorm them out of there and back to Atlantis and Ronon could be the one to keep them safe. That would be freaking cool.

[Linzi]

Word. And I would love to see an ep where Rodney is back at SG1 and Carson and Rodney joined Shep's team and the FIVE of them were what the ep was about. ANd yes..I know Shep is featured in every ep second only to Rodney...but he's not developed. Quantity screen time does NOT make up for quality screen time.

IMage Zelenka and Carson on Shep's team. Them offworld and dealing with a dangerous situation and what intense drama we could get. Especially say if shep got injured/incapacitated. Teyla would probably call the shots. Beckett would have to deal with treating Shep in a dangerous/life threatening situation. Zelenka would have to brainstorm them out of there and back to Atlantis and Ronon could be the one to keep them safe. That would be freaking cool.

I feel a FF plot bunny is emerging here. Why can't the writers write something like that? How cool would that be? It'd be awesome! See, FF writers CAN do a better job than the writers.....

[maxbo]

Linzi, I agree with you about why Epiphany worked for me and Grace Under Pressure (GUP) didn't. Although I would have loved more Shep back story in Epiphany, I enjoyed what we got. GUP was just too much of out-of-control Rodney to be entertaining to me. In a more balanced episode (like Epiphany) there's usually someone around to calm him down - or at least distract him.

Merlin7, I love your story idea. It's truly sad that the fans can come up with more interesting storylines than the professionals. *sigh* I also agree with you about Shep. Yes, he's on screen alot, but we know almost nothing about him. Too bad Epiphany didn't quite live up to its promise and didn't give us anything meaty about his background.

Until The Tower, I wasn't too concerned about this oversight because I figured that we would get more Shep development later, however, after seeing The Tower, I'm not sure if we'll ever know more about who Shep is because it appears that TPTB can't be bothered to consider him as more than the guy who hooks up with the babe of the week.

[PG15]

How do you know what McKay's view of Carter is?

Easy, I watched this episode.

Come on, considering how McKay acts (ie, with the Aurora first officer), this is very very consistant.

[prion]

IMage Zelenka and Carson on Shep's team. Them offworld and dealing with a dangerous situation and what intense drama we could get. Especially say if shep got injured/incapacitated. Teyla would probably call the shots. Beckett would have to deal with treating Shep in a dangerous/life threatening situation. Zelenka would have to brainstorm them out of there and back to Atlantis and Ronon could be the one to keep them safe. That would be freaking cool.

Yup. That's what fan fiction is for! I'd love to see some more team episodes. They've been splitting them up too much lately.

[Arlessiar]

There are some new (at least for me) Behind the scenes pics of this episode here, you just have to a scroll down a little bit to see them:

GUP pics

I wonder where they filmed this episode. That looks like a lot of water around them in the first pic, but it's very clear and obviously not that cold since Martin Wood is even walking around shirtless!

And the kiss pics are posed because Rodney didn't kiss Sam on the mouth when she was still wearing the pink jacket, but they are cute nonetheless!

Bye, A.

[Schrodinger82]

SHEPPARD: When the Wraith attacked the city, you were able to turn the shield into a cloak.
ZELENKA: Yes.
SHEPPARD: Why can’t we do the opposite?
WEIR: Turn the Jumper’s cloak into a shield.
SHEPPARD: That’s right.

Was anyone else bothered by Sheppard's line of reasoning?

They didn't turn the shield into the cloak by fiddling with a few controls and changing the settings and what not. They turned the shield into a cloak by unplugging the shield and physically installing a cloak generator from one of the puddlejumpers. Ergo, the plan that Sheppard was describing shouldn't have worked.

[prion]

I wonder where they filmed this episode. That looks like a lot of water around them in the first pic, but it's very clear and obviously not that cold since Martin Wood is even walking around shirtless!

Usually whenever you film a water scene like that they simply build a tank (inside a warehouse) wherever is controlled. Heck, if they could make an ocean for JAWS 3, a little submerged puddle jumper is easy)

[xfkirsten]

Usually whenever you film a water scene like that they simply build a tank (inside a warehouse) wherever is controlled. Heck, if they could make an ocean for JAWS 3, a little submerged puddle jumper is easy)

Jaws 3 cheated and used SeaWorld.

[AGateFan]

Too bad they will kill this random pilot He’s amusing.
Zelenka!!!
Wow, pilot guy sacrificed himself for Rodney. Not only was he amusing he was very very cool… too bad he got killed off.
Communications are down…yep, your scrwd.
Its like Surface meets SGA Except this is a really, really high tech tin can.

Yelling at the ship is just using oxygen there Rodney. Stop hyperventilating and get back to work. Took you long enough to figure that out. But considering the circumstances….

Chocolate and peanut butter, cool.
Monster?... Nimh? Really cool.

Hey , Mckay Carter fantasy.
“Good to see you Mckay”?… well obviously a fantasy. He secretly thinks that Carter is smarter than him and is arguing with himself over it…hahaha

You can’t order him Shep, he’s a civilian. But we knew he would come through didn’t we.
Mckay knows his team cares awe…Come on Mckay, when has Shep ever abandoned anyone.
Hey speaking of abandon, where’s Teyla and Ronan?

“I am a mindgame” …. Hahaha
Good you came to a stop…. Uh oh you got a leak.

Sheppard is such a kid.
“Make death as long and drawn out as possible”.
That was sure a funny “sure”.
Poor Rodney has a low opinion of himself.
Uh oh… kissing himself.. “worst hallucination ever”. Hahaha

Doh, blaming poor Zelenka.. guys getting beat up in this ep.
Uh, oh… now the shippy\cringworthy stuff starts…. He must be really losing it now.
Hahaha … so it was all a plan to slow him down… ok then I am ok with it.

Doh, didn’t work.
Good thinking with the sea monster Shep.
Poor, poor Rodney.
Extend shield between two jumpers? Hmmm so what, Mckay can walk to the other jumper? Sure its not a hallucination? Just kidding. Doh, he did think of that.. oops.
Dang, nothing is going right for him today.
OK, that was cool… Nice whale.

Good ep. MUCH better then I expected it to be.

[Cinephilic TV Addict]

Holy crap - this episode was fantastic. all the minor problems were overcome by the message of the episode, and, although it was a bit predictable (or maybe that's just because i've taken too many tv writing classes that they might be starting to sink in finally), it was remarkable.

3 1/2 stars.