Inferno (219)

[MinOs]

Best episode yet, in my opinion. It was funny, had plenty of suspense and we got a warship in the end of it. Very well done

[JackGyver]

Excellent episode. Atlantis keeps renewing my faith in the writing staff. It was a surprisingly interesting episode with a very satisfying and clever resolution. It's also nice to see the Asgard beaming technology not being used as an easy out at the climax. (But that's more of an SG-1 issue.)

For those of you complaining about Rodney being too egocentric and selfish, let's try to remember how he started on SG-1. Throughout these two seasons, I don't think he's once come close to being the - hmm... can't think of a G-rated word - jerk that he was on SG-1. I'm not really sure I want him to get anymore modest or selfless.

About the ship, they said it was a warship. This could explain the unusually bulky design.

I didn't mind "Scientist Barbie." Personally, I attribute her density to her race being unaccustomed to such advanced technology. The "blinking lights" line sounded a little silly, but I could understand her not knowing what to do. I do, however, get tired of Sheppard and his weekly Kirking. And, honestly, I'd really like to see some ugly - or, dare i say normal-looking - people on these shows. Just once or twice. Caldwell's a nice start, buuuut...

An all-around ideal episode. A little bit of everything.

[Tealcfan]

The scene with the caldera blowing and the ship coming out into space, that was so very cool. Some really talented people doing the work on this show.

wasn't it awesome!!!?

[Captain-Peregrine]

I LOVED this episode! I have to say that this was one of my favorite episodes from the entire season. Probably one of the main reasons is that I am a HUGE lover of volcanos. I have been studying volcanos since I was in the second grade and I already knew all about Pompeii and I learned about Yellowstone Park a few years ago. I think that is the reason I loved this episode so much--not only is it McKay and volcanos, but it was McKay talking about volcanos!

I watched this episode twice already and I swear that I will buy season two JUST for this episode... I mean, I would have bought it anyway, but even if the rest of the season had sucked--which it didn't--I still would have bought this season just for Inferno.

I loved McKay in this episode. His brilliance really showed through in Inferno. And I loved his little relationship with the scientist woman--whose name, of course, I cannot remember. All in all, I thought he was frakkin' great. He was funny as... heck... in this episode, but not stupid-funny. I honestly thought that he was totally brilliant--mind-boggeling so. That hyperspace jump idea that he came up with was awesome! I was cheering by the end, even though I totally knew they would escape.

This was one of the best, if not THE best episode that I have seen all year. I am so glad that we taped it! My spring break just started this week, so I'll probably watch this episode at least once more before the week is out--and I'm guessing a lot more often than that.

[FoolishPleasure]

I really liked this episode a lot - it was good. Could have been great, BUT, Barbie flirts with McKay, McKay obviously thinks she is hot, but Sheppard eyes "Barbie" like prime meat at the grocers and seems like he wants to lure her away from McKay. WTF? Someone please put the Sheppard Babe Hour on in the afternoons along with "General Hospital" and give us our scifi hour back with a decent lead character. My husband gave up on this show after "The Tower" - I'm trying to hold on, but "pretty boy with no past" is becoming difficult to stay with. I would really like to see a few episodes minus Sheppard and see how it goes. Maybe we really don't need him anymore.

I liked the Teyla and Ronon scenes, the new Orion is cool, Zelenka is always good to see, the effects were the usual top quality, Hermy rocks, but the little Shep flirty bits took something away.

On to next week.

[GateTrek2004]

I had not seen the episode at all, when it came time for the scene with weir and sheppard in atlantis and sheppard saying he needed to get back because mckay was distracted and told weir about BL character and weir said Hot, i said it before she did and laughed at it. overall it was a great eppy! at least we got a new ship now! Onward Orion, make it to S3!

[Cherriey]

It was great fun to watch! =0) Beckett's and Sheppard's expressions when McKay actually came up with a good plan was priceless. =0)

[SGalisa]

alright! I'm ready to buy my SGA Season 2 DVD

lots of tension and complications in this ep...

Originally posted by Jelmer:
And to those complaining about Sheppard going after the pretty woman again, apart from that one could hardly blame him in this case , it felt more like a writer's joke when she fell into Sheppard's arms and McKay rolling his eyes at it.

a *directorial/writer's joke* exactly! (except that she didn't "fall into his arms") this is one of those infamous SG visual/plot devices.

sort of like in SG1 ...
("Disclosure"?) when Senator Kinsey wags his pointed index finger at Thor:
Kinsey: "Commander Thor..."
Thor, pointing his *own* index finger back:
......."That's SUPREME Commander Thor"

and the SG1 theme intro where Daniel faces Anubis and throws some sort of energy "whoosh" at Anubis... and then the next visual cut is the actual stargate energy field doing the "ka-woosh"...
those were two more of my favorite best remembered examples of this particular technique from SG...

Originally posted by starfox:
The innuendo!
"Perhaps one day I could study under you."
(Shep eye-roll!!!!!)
"...But first we need to get off - ah, first we need to get off the planet, and then you can be under me - "
And then the tremor, and she ends up in Shep's arms, and Rodney just rolls his eye and walks away.
The eye-rolling! and the innuendo!...

*pauses to contemplate Shep's arms*

Originally posted by mmu_man:
She actually ended up *under Shep* instead of Rodney, as he bent on her to protect her from possibly falling stuff.

that's what really happened - Shep bent over her to shield her from potential harm. But it was (also) deliberately inserted into the plot for a double feature on timing of words with action and to annoy the "H" out of everyone who doesn't want Shep with anyone but their own favorite *image* character.

anyway... Narina- Brandy's (previous and current) characters:
* poisoned while being a Tok'ra agent (SG-1, Season 8 "Endgame")
* then rebuilt by *Shameless* (Shamus) Harper the genius as a perfect android with a troubled personality "Doyle" (in ANDROMEDA, last season)
* and now as Narina, another blonde scientist for McKay to get all flustered over in SGA.

Except, tho I think she likes Rodney for his brilliant brains, she has more of a crush on Sheppard. Aww, that triangle relationship just isn't fair to Rodney (Shep - Narina - Rodney)...

Originally posted by Agent_Dark:
Shep and Rodney were trying to compete with each other to see who would get to score with the chick.

I didn't think so. Shep just did the natural emergency protocol on evac procedures (like he usually does), even when he went looking for Ronon and Teyla, while Shep knew Rodney fixing the Orion ship was their *only* last resort hope OUT of that place. Shep has a natural rescuer trait within his own personality... it's a natural (inborn) part of him (so, how many rescue missions has he done since being grounded in the Antartic vs. before then).

Whatever Narina thought of Shep, started when he protected her (while shielding her) "under" him during the volcanic tremor (as a handsome *shining knight* in black armor). I felt sorry for Rodney, cause he could clearly see Narina had more of a crush on Shep, than her liking Rodney beyond his saving them all from impending doom, yet again. I do think she genuinely felt deep compassion for Rodney (when he freaked out at the very end), but not much more than that level of respect for him.

additional notes:
* SGA's TPTB needed Narina's beauty image to support Rodney's broken fingernail scene... yes, and she was more sarcastic to it -NOT sympathetic- even if she understood exactly what he meant.

* volcano: think Mount St. Helen's... or the volcanoes of Hawaii.
I didn't know Yellowstone National park was a "super-volcano" variety. Volcano yeah, but *super* volcano? that would make ol'Faithful's geiser what?

Originally posted by darman:
...the funniest moment for me was when the volcano was about to erupt.Beckett was scrambling around the ship's bridge to find a seat and Shep's face was priceless when he saw him running.

heehee! I think I had tears in my eyes after seeing that! *Musical chairs* anyone?? Beckett's the last one to find a chair...!!

[GateLadyM]

* volcano: think Mount St. Helen's... or the volcanoes of Hawaii.
I didn't know Yellowstone National park was a "super-volcano" variety. Volcano yeah, but *super* volcano? that would make ol'Faithful's geiser what?

heehee! I think I had tears in my eyes after seeing that! *Musical chairs* anyone?? Beckett's the last one to find a chair...!!

The remarks about Yellowstone were correct. Most of the park sits within a giant ancient caldera with lava sitting very close to the surface - hence the hot springs, geysers, bubbling mud, etc. The National Park Service refers to this caldera as a "super volcano" and any eruption would blanket most of the U.S. with ash. Kudos to TPTB for their research.

I found the show to be quite entertaining and Norina, the Barbie scientist, didn't bother me. There was a remark early in the episode that the Ancient technology was far beyond them and they had no idea what half the equipment and buttons were for, which caused the problem in the first place. Norina was a scientist, but out of her league, which is why she wanted to follow McKay and learn as much as she could.

The Shep flirt stuff just took away a bit. There could have been a bit more useful dialog, but I guess its more important for our lead guy to scan a woman's chest.

I liked the scenes with Teyla and Ronon trying to help the villagers. Ronon showed a more compasionate side, and Teyla has become so much more interesting this year.

Now where are we going to park the Orion? I hope TPTB intend to showcase it later on, and hopefully we can learn a lot from it.

[Mattathias2.0]

I loved this episode - classic.

Great special effects...

However, the Taranians may want their ship back.

Mattathias

[Barca]

I liked the episode except the whole Shep/McKay fawning over Doyle thing. I know that when doing costumes they are meant to highlight the features of the particular actor's body,

At least it wasn't the pepto-pink outfit. In fact I thought the uniform fit the situation and local population.
It is nice to see all the people who are new to the SciFi channel. When I saw Brandi, I was thinking ah-oh, Atlantis is going the way of the Invisible Man and Andromeda. And trying to stave off cancellation by playing the Ledford card.

[CalmStorm]

However, the Taranians may want their ship back.

I wonder what the implications of that would be? They would have no ship if the Atlantis expedition didn't save it. It would have been lost to them regardless under molten lava. They would have lost a good majority of their population if the Atlantis expedition were not to have risked their lives saving everyone they could. It would seem poor character on their part to ask for it back, especially when you consider they have no clue as to how to operate it (at least I'm speculating since I was under the impression they found it in the hangar and that's where it remained). A war ship, that you have no clue how to use, for saving an entire society seems a reasonable trade....or at least a reasonable token of thanks.

I kind of think it would be like what we saw in the most recent SG-1 episode...can't think of the name right now so I'll go ahead and put spoiler warnings for anyone who has seen it

Spoiler:

It would be like the Russians demanding the return of the Stargate that has been in essence leased to the US. I do not see the US handing over the stargate regardless of the demands.

[ToasterOnFire]

The remarks about Yellowstone were correct. Most of the park sits within a giant ancient caldera with lava sitting very close to the surface - hence the hot springs, geysers, bubbling mud, etc. The National Park Service refers to this caldera as a "super volcano" and any eruption would blanket most of the U.S. with ash. Kudos to TPTB for their research.

Yep, the supervolcano in Yellowstone rates a 8 on the 1-8 scale of volcanic badassery. There's only one other volcano that rates the same magnitude - Toba in Sumatra. If one of those went off we'd be looking at the equivalent of a nuclear winter worldwide thanks to the massive ash deposits. Scary.

On topic, the idea of Shep and Rodney flirting with an offworld woman isn't a bad idea if taken by itself. However, thanks to the overkill of Shep flirting with women or having women throw themselves at him over the second half of the season it ended up more tired than humorous for me. It would be nice for the writers to stop pounding that particular drum next season.

[SciFiGeek]

I never thought I would say this, but I hated the Sheppard-McKay banter in this episode. I'm watching sadly as many of my favorite aspects of the first season are being mutiliated by the writers as they take their good things too far--to the point of being outright annoying and downright frustrating. Please, I hope Carl Binder never writes another episode that involves a lot of interaction between those two--because if he does, I will likely throw an axe at the television.

The best reminder it gave me of was Menace--when some of the Jack quips to Daniel (which I normally loved) came off as genuinely cruel and mean-spirited. But at least Menace had a great plot, and we got to hear Daniel call Jack a "stupid son of a *****." This episode had practically no redeeming qualities, sadly. While episodes like Before I Sleep and Defiant One had McKay-Sheppard banter, it was fun, and it felt more like two friends who get a kick out of pushing each others buttons. In this episode, it felt genuinely mean-spirited, and I cringed every time one of them spoke to the other.

What does it say about the quality of a series when I found my two favorite characters so annoying, I cringed every time they exchanged conversation, and felt myself relieved when they were off-screen? And since when is Stargate predictable? Second season, in particular, has just been a re-hasing of storylines that always lead to what seems to be the obvious outcome or easy way out. Within moments of them finding the Orion, I called that they were going to escape from the planet on the ship on account of the volcano (stupide episode teasers). And the problem seems to be that they wrote this whole episode just so that Atlantis could get the Orion, and needed a plot to go around it--hence the catalyzing event of the super-volcano. *sigh* There's a reason why I don't watch disaster movies.

Which is also a great reflection of the other most irritating aspect of the episode--the woman. Please--having a character whose sole purpose and personality trait was that she was hot just so we could have Sheppard and McKay fighting over her? Please don't ever, ever, ever do that again...or I will swear off Stargate forever.

So now, my favorite characte of season one has been degenerated to the point of one-dimensional comic relief whose sole personality trait is his ego, and my favorite character relationship has been turned into one that is more cruel than it is funny. And they write disasters-with-special-effects for no other reason than setting up the season finale with a brand new Ancient ship. *sigh* I really want to like you so much, Atlantis. I just wish that second season hadn't really let me down so far.

On a positive note, I'm really starting to like the character of Teyla quite a bit. I've been noticing recently (and even in rewatching episodes) how enjoyable it is to have someone so intelligent and cool-headed as she is. I think the introduction of Ronon really turned me onto that trait in her (and I don't mean this just as a bash on Ronon's character) in that he has a tendency to rush head-forward and emotionally-charged, and not very rationally into most situations. Whereas Teyla is even more level-headed than Sheppard and more diplomatic than Weir. And I'm really liking that about her! I liked the fact that she was spear-heading the evacuation of the survivors, since she was much better at talking people down (even if they didn't always listen). If Ronon had been doing it by himself, he probably would've waved his gun around and told everyone to shut up and do as he says, or he would shoot them.

[SGalisa]

thank yous to everyone for the volcano details on Yellowstone. I've never been there, but my sister was and saw ol' Faithful. Some of my *favorite* scenic (calendar) pix are of the Yellowstone winter scenes: of the waterfall and evergreens.

Originally posted by GateLadyM:
There could have been a bit more useful dialog, but I guess its more important for our lead guy to scan a woman's chest.

Actually, she was covered up the entire time (same dress), and in sort of looser style (not tightly fitted as) than her Andromeda silk/spandex gear. I thought the *Inferno* ep dress was surprisingly conservative, tho strange for a scientist, unless that's how the people on her planet dress up when providing tours to new (invited) visitors (a form of business dress).

Personally, any female with *that* amount of cleavage -if exposed- is a distracting attribute, when being talked to or with. And I'm female who knows other females who don't realize how distracting that is -even for another female! (so stare at their hair...)

Brandy does have a very attractive face, too... I think McKay was more distracted by Narina's presence than Shep. Of course, maybe that's why both of them were left sort of speechless (Rodney stammered a lot when attempting to find the right words, while he was specifically flirting with Narina, until he sort of gave up after seeing Narina oogle-eye Shep.).