Sateda (304)

[ShadowMaat]

I thought they were great personally. What would you have done differently in this episode because I can't really see any significant ways to improve upon what's there.

Well for starters I would have skipped the Village of Plot Device flashbacks entirely. While they may have conveyed that Ronon was taken in by the villagers and they were later attacked by the Wraith, we could have gotten that just fine from Feerless Leader. The flashbacks were too disjointed and didn't convey enough information. Yeah, we get that he was dying- but we don't know why. We get that Nubile Daughter nursed him back to health- but again, we don't know why or what their relationship was like or how the other villagers reacted to Ronon's presence. We know that the village was attacked but, uh... was that supposed to be Nubile Daughter who was screaming as she got wraithed? If so, where was Ronon and if not, what happened to her?

For the Sateda flashbacks I would have done an overlay effect, having the people moving around, past and through Ronon. His memories haunt him, right? What better way to show that than by having the "ghosts" of Sateda surround him? And he can look on with disgust at his past self's behavior, try to stop himself from doing things he knows are going to end badly, try to save the girl from getting fried... And instead of the randomly tossed moments of he and his squad fighting back- and his squadmembers getting killed, how about showing some character moments for the squadmembers so that we feel their deaths a little more succinctly when Ronon comes across their skeletons?

This also felt like a bit of a follow-up (or possibly a lead-in) to Trinity, where Ronon killed Kell. Might have been nice if this ep had been a bit closer to that one rather than dropped randomly into season 3. It might have made the impact of events that much greater.

[Pharaoh Atem]

Very nice episode; probably one of the best I have seen in some time.

I am even watching the rerun now; guess I must have really liked it.

Since I know I am going to be annoying whomever I can with my Blog about tonights episodes I will just say this.........

I was completely and utterly enthralled with Jason's performance. I normally don't watch the second airing of either show since the first airing comes on so late for me.

Tonight I waited just to watch this one again. I was so thrilled with everything about this episode from the lighting to the filming to the acting on everyone's part But Jason...WOW!!

so for any that do read my blog... fair warning ...I will be saying LOTS of nice things this week

I'm 100& percent with the both of you after the first airing i ran in my room and grabbed my VCR and hooked it up to the living room TV (scifi comes in clearer there then in my room for some reason) and make damn sure i got Sateda on tape

[vaberella]

This episode was the best episode this season. It was interesting and had good action sequences. Only two things I can really say, because they nagged me:

Enough time had passed for the bodies to decompose to the point where you could see bone, but all the weapons on the planet were still operational? There should have been so much grime, grit, and dirt in those guns that they could never be fired without extensive cleaning.

And of course Ronon's entire squad was wiped out. That happens when everybody stands in the freaking open!

Ahh your defining guns by Earth standards. Not a good way to define guns. For all the drama Ronon's gun has faced on this show it's still around. I think the guns on Sateda are probably made of really great material. I didn't think they needed cleaning, just blow off a few dust bunies and as ready as ever.

Hmmm...this friend situation is interesting, it looked like his buds were killed out on the open, yet he was in a closed corridor when he saw their bodies. Unless he had to two sets of military buds.

But meh, no need to even bother with them, because it didn't detract from the episode as a whole which was definitely a 100/10!!

[prion]

*eyes thread* Wow, aren't I the odd Wraith out? I had high expectations for this ep and while in some ways those expectations were surpassed, they also failed miserably in some of the more important aspects- namely the background on Ronon.

While I felt we gained a lot of fabulous insights into the rest of the characters, I didn't feel that we learned anything new about Ronon and I had really been looking forward to finding out more about who he is... and who he was.

I was also utterly crushed by the lack of Lorne. Who the frack was Major Buzzcut?

The Shep and Teyla scene was nice, as were the bits between Carson and Rodney. Weir and Caldwell at least got token appearances and it looks like Chuck the Technician has a new 'do.

Loved Rodney getting shot in the ass, but I'd have been happier without the drug-induced rambling which seemed like more of a chance to mock the character than to do anything useful.

I really REALLY need to pay closer attention to the opening credits, although I think I'd probably have watched even if I'd known Lorne wouldn't be in it just because I had such high hopes of learning more about Ronon. Why didn't I know better?

Shadow, I think you need to totally avoid all spoilers as this isn't the first episode you had high expectations for and then you hated.

With the present writing staff, Stargate is never going to have the character depth of other shows, such as BSG, ER, etc.

Lorne - the actor may have been busy - he's been filming a lot of 4400s lately. Quite often a character will get replaced with another hwen an actor isn't available.

I think we did get insight into ROnon and saw another side of him besides the surly runner we're accustomed to. I liked the bits of insight we saw into Shep and the rest of the team as to how they regard each other, even if half the team is incapable of adequately expressing it.

Until the writers lose their fear of character development, we're going to get it in short scenes. And take EVERYTHING the writers say in interviews with a shaker of salt. THey're always telling us how great things was and how much we're going to get in background - hell, SHep fans have been waiting since day one for background on Shep and he's the lead character!

[RobJones]

great episode, loved seeing the characters acting like they are good friends

Season 4 on the horizen

[Hatusu]

Since I know I am going to be annoying whomever I can with my Blog about tonights episodes I will just say this.........
so for any that do read my blog... fair warning ...I will be saying LOTS of nice things this week

I ran right over to look. It's not there yet.

Hatusu ducks one of Tame's bolts of lightning.

[prion]

Ahh your defining guns by Earth standards. Not a good way to define guns. For all the drama Ronon's gun has faced on this show it's still around. I think the guns on Sateda are probably made of really great material. I didn't think they needed cleaning, just blow off a few dust bunies and as ready as ever.

100/10!!

Weapons that work years after lying in dirt don't bother me. You can stillget blown up by buried ordinance in Europe that was set out in WW II. Just cuz it's old doens't mean it won't work, and as pointed out above, these are alien weapons. Whose to say their standard of quality exceeds Earth standards, which can sometimes have the awful tendency to jam.

[SnoggingPicard]

Dude...seriously...DUDE!

That episode was freaking incredible in every sense of the word. All of the pieces just fit together and reminded me why I love Stargate sooooo much. The camera work, the special effects, the humor a la Rodney, the background for Ronon, the character interaction...yup, I'm pretty much speechless. Thanks to all who worked on this episode -- you guys have truly outdone yourselves this time! *happy sigh*

[ShadowMaat]

think we did get insight into ROnon and saw another side of him besides the surly runner we're accustomed to.

Really? When was that? Other than the suicide threat I didn't see an awful lot that was different about him. He still seemed angry in the flashbacks. He was gruff and commanding towards his girlfriend, yelling at her for not escaping when she had the chance; he was all tension and impatience, even in the flashbacks. It would have been nice to see some tender scenes- particularly with his girlfriend- and it would have helped to see him laughing and relaxed at least part of the time, something to juxtapose the wild changes in his character after he became a runner. Instead he seemed to be pretty much the same before and after, with maybe a little more solitariness thrown in.

[vaberella]

Weapons that work years after lying in dirt don't bother me. You can stillget blown up by buried ordinance in Europe that was set out in WW II. Just cuz it's old doens't mean it won't work, and as pointed out above, these are alien weapons. Whose to say their standard of quality exceeds Earth standards, which can sometimes have the awful tendency to jam.

I agree, check out whom and what I was was quoting...you said what I said.

[Sela]

I'm 100& percent with the both of you after the first airing i ran in my room and grabbed my VCR and hooked it up to the living room TV (scifi comes in clearer there then in my room for some reason) and make damn sure i got Sateda on tape

Sadeta is definately one that I'm keeping on tape.

[macktheknife]

Awesome ep.

9 and a half slow motion explosions out of 10.

[Pharaoh Atem]

. He was gruff and commanding towards his girlfriend, yelling at her for not escaping when she had the chance; he was all tension and impatience, even in the flashbacks. It would have been nice to see some tender scenes- particularly with his girlfriend- and it would have helped to see him laughing and relaxed at least part of the time,.

well if you had a love one or someone important to you and you knew there was a chance there where going to die wouldn't you be a little desperate to get them out of harms way

[Sela]

....did the girl who played ronon's wife bother anyone else? i can't figure if it's the actress, or the character/writing.

She bothered me and I'm still trying to figure out why. For a moment at the beginning, I honestly thought maybe she was a kid sister. She came across as a whiny little girl instead of a serious thoughful woman. Maybe it was her voice...maybe she seemed just a bit too delicate. I don't know for sure, but she bothered me.

[Sela]

I found that moment reinforced the state in which Ronon had become lost. It summed up nearly a decade of issues. Think about it. He'd been sent to a planet that used to be home to his people. He was being hunted (again) by the enemy that destroyed his world in every conceivable way. This time he was fighting amid the husks of his former teammates, in what was left of buildings that used to be whole. Those motions and cries just before he took on the uber-Wraith reminded me that between the moment of confrontation with the uber-Wraith and the battle he'd lost on Sateda there had been seven or eight years of bitter isolation ... It communicated primal rage (pure Ronon) and absolute desolation (new Ronon moment for me) in just a few instants and therefore (for me) worked really well.

Well said. Ronon had been carrying around all of this pain, anger and guilt through the whole show. The Wraith had stolen his life and he was taking it back. It was Ronon saying to the wraith that it's enough, it's over and somebody is going to die today. I though it was a powerful moment of reclaimation and rebirth for Ronon and Jason played it well.