Coup D'etat (217)

[darman]

Episode was great. I have an idea, cause Genii are such a pain, next time Daedalus comes to Pegasus, send it to Genii homeworld and beam their stargate into orbit. That way they can't cause more trouble and if necessary we can get to them.

[Yeade]

That was my only complaint about the episode was why would you send most of the people with the gene for a mission like this? If they all were killed then the ability to run the city would be severly hindered, as Weir said herself in this episode. They need to be more selective on who goes on missions. If someone wanted to really hurt Atlantis, they would just have killed all the people who go off-world with the gene. Where would they be left if that happened?

IIRC, Weir was speculating about the Genii strategy in general when she made her comment about the loss of ATA gene carriers crippling the city. That is, she thinks this is what the Genii believe but isn't saying much about how effective their efforts are or would be.

From "Hot Zone," we know the gene therapy is successful in 48% of recipients. If nearly everyone on the expedition has taken the therapy--and I think most scientists and military personnel would for the obvious benefits in accessing Atlantis for research and defense purposes, respectively--Atlantis should have at least 100 gene carriers.

As I said somewhere up-thread, the Genii are more likely to know of military gene carriers because these are the people who go routinely off-world, and it's simply bad luck that the team Sheppard took with him for the ZPM raid included many of these. However, even if the Genii managed to capture or kill all the military gene carriers, with the few scientists who both often go off-world and have the gene, without the Atlanteans catching on and putting a stop to it, they wouldn't be able to hurt Atlantis beyond recovery. Any number of people with the gene might still remain in the city--all scientists, who are the ones really in charge of keeping Atlantis up and running--and, with the expedition in contact with Earth, reinforcements can be sent without much delay and given the gene therapy.

The only real worry I can think of in the Genii targeting Atlanteans with the ATA gene is that they'll manage to get their hands on Sheppard, who besides being military commander is also the one with the strongest natural expression of the Ancient gene. That would hurt Atlantis because it's likely no one else has nearly the degree of control Sheppard's shown but, again, I imagine Sheppard's ATA gene would be a relatively minor consideration to him being the highest ranked military officer and expedition hero.

Besides, I'm not sure the Genii even know about the variances in gene expression between individuals. That they're developing their own ATA gene therapy is a concern but a) their medical technology might not be up to it in the end, b) the only test subject they had access to, so far as I can tell, was Lorne, who might or might not be a natural gene carrier and has an unknown gene strength, and c) it might have been a lie.

What's more, I'd say the vast majority of systems in Atlantis would run for anyone once they've been initialized by someone with the gene, and a number of others can be accessed directly with a bit of rewiring. The only two pieces of Atlantis technology we've seen that require the ATA gene to run are the jumpers--to clarify, I mean actually piloting them--and the control chair. The Genii don't know about the latter and haven't a clue the expedition's got the Deddy.

edit: The Genii perhaps have a skewed view of how important the ATA gene is. Remember that all their information about the gene's use in Atlantis comes from the vague comments Weir made to Kolya during "The Storm," and she was plainly exaggerating to convince Kolya to leave the city alone. Unless the Genii do indeed have contacts with the people from "The Tower," lol.

Er. I didn't mean to write so much, but the ATA gene is a pet topic of mine.

[GatetheWay]

Don't forget you need the ATA gene for the lifesigns detectors too.

[Yeade]

Oh. Point. I was thinking big.

So. Piloting the jumpers, the control chair, and the life signs detector. Maybe also the hologram projection room, as we've only seen Beckett and Sheppard accessing it. Plus whatever other unexplored technologies the Ancients deemed too sensitive to allow any other but their kind to use.

OTOH, pretty much all control room functions--including the stargate, the shield, the various sensors, the engines and related systems--the transporters, and other mundane things (e.g. lights, doors) are open to all.

That doesn't seem too bad, right?

[McSwift]

Episode was great. I have an idea, cause Genii are such a pain, next time Daedalus comes to Pegasus, send it to Genii homeworld and beam their stargate into orbit. That way they can't cause more trouble and if necessary we can get to them.

Well, that would definitely be a fix, but it would totally just make a villan in the Atlantis universe go away.

Personally with

Spoiler:

Laydon (sp?) becoming the new leader of the Genii, and his sister being saved, hopefully the Genii would become more like allies instead of a rival

Would be nice to finally see an ally.

[SmallTimePerson]

Would be nice to finally see an ally.

that doesn't use bow and arrows
having the gennii as an ally under the old regime would be risky, but there is still all those spy camps that would still be allied with the old regime...right? I don't know, maybe the gennii may split now, the old regime and the new. We could safely be allies with the new i think.

[McSwift]

I think that having the new Genii as allies will be great. Their technology is well-developed, for a galaxy that doesn't advance in technology due to the Wraith.

Personally, I think that having the Genii as an ally, but more of a cautious step with them would be better than that of straight-all-out being allies with them. Who knows, power corrupts people. Laydon may end up doing what Cowen did (Try to steal Jumpers from Atlantis).

If they become allies with Atlantis, I think it will be great.

[Wraith_Hunter]

One bad thing about this episode is that they get naively caught out again. They could have sent some human scanners through with the MALP. While watching on the camera, they could have instructed him what to do, then when the scans were finished. Had him hold it up to the camera & read the results in real time. They would have known instantly if there was anything in the ZPM or not.

That said, it was a pretty good episode overall & a big improvement over a few earlier episodes. Such as 'Epiphany' & 'The Tower'.

One thing strikes me though, these people are supposed to be the brightest & most skilled humans from Earth. Yet in what seems almost every episode, their naivety seems to shine through above all else. Especially when you consider what happens in 'Michael', & 'Allies'. Realistically, there should be a new leadership regime in Atlantis in S3. Which is what I think will happen myself. Probably Caldwell will be brought in as the senior military officer & everything Weir does will have to go through him.

[Tok'Ra Hostess]

All right! That's more like it!

Very good ep, IMO, though I was terribly taken aback that Lorne had been killed off. Whew! Don't DO that to me! (actually, I take it back; yes, by all means, keep doing this. This was good drama. )

The Genii are worthy opponents - and could we please keep them that way? Hopefully the new leader will be just as crafty and give plenty of problems to the Atlantis team.

Rodney was... well, he was just perfect, this week!
He was a team player rather than a sniping pain-in-the-butt. Keep it up Rodney/DH.

I like that Teyla and Ronan got to do some detectivating(and what do you suppose those wanted poster props are gonna go for on ebay? ).

Weir was good, too, IMO; very much in charge, but it looks like she's inching toward the dark side. Of course, she's dealing with a people who only do dark, so....

PTB, eps like this one are what I want to see. Keep it up, please!

[darman]

Well, that would definitely be a fix, but it would totally just make a villan in the Atlantis universe go away.

Personally with

Spoiler:

Laydon (sp?) becoming the new leader of the Genii, and his sister being saved, hopefully the Genii would become more like allies instead of a rival

Would be nice to finally see an ally.

Actually I was just kidding around. I was trying to make a point to people who thought that Daedalus should've beamed the team to rescue them. It would've just made the whole episode waste of time, same if they got rid of their stargate for the long run.

[Battousai the Manslayer]

Man, this was an excellant episode with many twists and turns. This is definetly one I was happy was NOT spoiled for me since I had no idea what was going to happen throughout the entire episode. I loved it, very cool multilayered plot with cool lines from Ronon and a great performance by the main Genii bad guy (forgot his name).

Spoiler:

the new head of the Genii, not the next gen, deep space nine guy

[GatetheWay]

Laden was his name. The only thing that disapointed me about this episode was that Kolya is presumed dead. I hope that isn't true I loved Kolya as a villian.

[prion]

Laden was his name. The only think that disapointed me about this episode was that Kolya is presumed dead. I hope that isn't true I loved Kolya as a villian.

Well, Kolya is only PRESUMEd dead, which is great, cuz nobody knows if he is dead. In scifi, if you don' thave a body, you're not dead, and even then, you're not necessarily dead. I suspect the script could have been written with Kolya in mind in a different venue, but the actor was unavailable, so they blew up Colm Meaney instead, which is sorta sad, as Cowen made a good dictator type.

Oh, and it's Ladon with an 'o', just for any nitpickers out there

[GatetheWay]

Laden, Ladon, Layden, I've seen it spelled every whicha way on this thread. I just picked the one I liked.

[Vicious]

This was an awesome episode, nuff said.