Sateda (304)

[ladysarah]

I loved this episode. It was fantastic, I finally got my SGA squee back on!!

So, I give it, 8/10, deducting two points because...well, some of the effects were slightly off. And umm one other because I'm sure another episode will come along which is better, and I don't want to go too high yet.

Squee.

[andrewag]

Reading the episode spoliers months ago I was not looking forward to this episode but i was totally wrong!

I thought they were just going to be in some crappy village running and hiding in the trees. It was great to see such a developed world and see how easily it was destroyed.

Finally they set up a back story for Ronan!

7.5 for me

[vaberella]

I'll probably get shot for this but I have mixed feelings for this ep, there was alot I liked but alot I disliked aswell.

<snip>

Now the bad unfortunately, even though there isn't that much wrong. Weir got on my nerves in this episode, the fact she was willing to put a whole ship of people at risk for one man seemed really dumb, fair enough if the crew were willing to risk their lifes for ronon but it seemed like she was going to force them into it and let her personal feelings get involved too much.

I think it's safe to say her mistakes and off base (non-thinking) orders are legendary. Not too harp on too much about that, but Caldwell did call her on it, because she did have Caldwell risk the Daedy to save John, Ronon, and McKay---when the Daedy had their arse handed back, and not to mention much of his crew were killed or injured. Even Caldwell was like the lives of his crew for 3 guys. He did and it was successful, but they also almost died. Caldwell was totally right in his statement not to go, and I thought Weir was totally off base and out of control when she said what she said. Again really crappy writing for a character that happens to be leader. But I forgave it, since it wasn't the essential of the ep.

I hate say it but I hated the bonding in this episode (I know it's what atlantis has been lacking), it seemed like too much crammed into one episode for my liking. Also the relationships were too apparent (forced on us if you will), in sg-1 they never said about how close they were but you could just see it from the little things they did and seemed close without needing to say it.

Well it made sense to me. I mean their friend and teammate is not only in danger but John and Teyla saw him risk his own life by his own hand for them. That's a bit intense, so I didn't see it as forced, I just found it as really intense. I mean John will probably suffer something similar. This brings people together, it doesnt' tear them apart. When you lose someone or you have a mutual friend gong through something serious, people tend to band together, so I don't see it as over the top, just realistic. And based on Shep's background and most of the others and their stand point on honor and friendship---this is normal.

The only other thing I didn't like was Ronon's whole ape beating his chest before he took on the wraith king lol.

I've said it once, I'll say it again. It's a battle cry!! I think someone even got a wiki def for it. That's not something really to be laughed at. It's to show intimidation when both warriors are battling...you as a 'civilized' person probably have never experienced it. But if you study martial arts, or if you know basic warrior arts, it's expected and taught. Show's power and strenght and to make the opponent fearful. Also it provides you with intensity to get your cry across. If you notice, where did he hit himself? Exactly where he was mainly hurt...and in his chest and head...makes the cry come from the gut---the moment was great for Ronon an excellent inclusion.

It's like when you hear a baby crying or you hear continous screams, what does that awaken in you...fight or flight and causes you to act...similar reaction to do with the whole battle cry. Works for your own state of mind, focuses you and your goal.

Oh and it didn't like the part where ronon took out all the wraith in the warehouse, he put all the guns in the right positions but how did he know where the wraith were going to go? Bit too convenient.
In all a good episode but for me not the fantastic episode I thought it would be, sorry to be so pessimistic lol .

He's a military specialist..and based on the ep and of course Runner, we know he was probably head of his squadron. What does that mean? He figured out where the Wraith would be based on the room, and he's fought these things before, he was a Runner for YEARS afterall. So it's realistic that he strategized so well where to place the weapons. Also, he used to live in Sateda and new where everything was...it worked out and it was believable.

Wonderful episode. If this doesn't earn an emmy in something then...well, bad stuff will happen.

It seems that Atlantis has stumbled upon the BSG-effect, where mediocre plots are turned into masterpieces thanks to the direcing, the editing, and the music. So a big BRAVO!!! to Rob Cooper!

Ok, the points:

As I said, the directing was THE BEST that Stargate has ever done. The flashbacks were different, kinda like Collateral Damage on steroids. The angle of the shots, the slow motion...just...WOW.

LOVED the conversation between Shep and Teyla, and we finally get a little glimpse into Shep's past (apparently, he has no family). I bet the Shippers had a heart-attack during that scene.

The big Xplosions! Gotta love me some bangs.

Jason Momoa hitted out of the park with this one. Sure, he still acted angry, but that's his personality. Even before the destruction of Sateda he was still an intense person, and I don't think anything can change that. Very well done.

A slight downside, but I just can't get over the fact that they shot this in Vancouver.

Rodney was awesome in this one as well! From his Morphine-induced blathering to his almost-heart-to-heart talk with Carson on the Deddy. It's like the convo between Shep and Teyla, but more McKay-like.

One last thing. I'm afraid that, for me, some parts did indeed slide into soap-opera territory, especially the scenes with Ronon's wife. It appears to be unavoidable though, so no big deal.

Score: 9.5/10

You read my like a bloody book PG15. Heart-attack wasn't the word that went on when we saw that scene. People couldn't type...I think someone called 911. Hallowed is JT!

[Shep'sSocks]

Ronon roaring and beating his chest was also a bit embarrassing. What is he, Tarzan, Lord of the Wraith now?

I thought it was rather haka-ish. Different cultures, etc.

[Michelle05]

I loved it, too. I'll watch the character interactions over and over... The Sheppard and Teyla scene in the diner was so very well acted by Joe Flanigan especially. We rarely see that sort of angst from him. The dialog didn't have a lot of subtlety but it was clearly hard for Sheppard to say all that stuff and great that he finally did. Even the way Sheppard gently reminded Rodney to fly the jumper at the end was nice. The banter was underlaid with fondness, and that's what I think has been too often missing in the show.

The Ronon storyline was very stylish and well acted. It was moving and suspenseful, though I might not watch those bits over and over because Ronon was alone rather than interacting...

Kudos to RCC and to BW for spending the $ needed to make it the way RCC wrote it!

[Blower'sGate]

Fantastic episode, it had everything a good episode needs, action, explosions, drama ( Jason's terrible past, Sheppard crying a little ), comedy ( poor Rodney, nah, I'm glad you took an arrow in the ass, ouch! that must have hurt !!!!

Jason Momoa is just a fascinating actor, now I'm sure the writers can never let him be a background character (like some of you said) like it has been for almost half a season. The show needs this guy!
John opening up was a smart move from the writers. Now I want his back story!!! Even a little.

By the way did you notice that Sateda's city and earth's cities look strangely alike?

[vaberella]

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?

Question, how important do you feel those scenes were that would have made the ep in that part so important. And how unimportant was the flashbacks were to you that you felt they held no purpose when he went to the same village that tried to help him, but he led to a culling?!

I ask this, only because I thought the flashback scenes in the village explained a lot and got the point across. As he's back in the town and he sees the leader, flashes of memory are hitting him. And if we go back to Runner or even earlier in the ep by Teyla's statement, that Ronon went to a lot of planets and probably escaped each planet to get away from the wraith. He was clearly injured and definitely have starved when he ended up on said planet.

The daughter of the leader of the village takes him in and feels a need to help him. There's no need to expand on the relationship only because he didn't spend a long time there and seemed to have only spent a night. Possibly two, if you remember, he had the device on his neck so he was being hunted and going back to Runner it was a daily thing. And her being Wraith, he was definitely on the planet when the wraith came..and saw the destruction. Remember back in Runner, he was talking about how the Wraith came and destroyed a village he was in. So he was there..and saw all this. And likely she was dead, because if you check out the flashback her dad was calling her as she was being wraithed. And she's definitely not in the village now, since the dad is still alive and well; or was.

The village leader obviously did not welcome a stranger and remember most of these villagers are weary of strangers. So why a need to expand on how the village felt about him?! I think that's just nitpicking.

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?

Are you sure your not a shipper?! Cause that's super romanticization of war and death---with memory recaps that way. I'm not saying it's bad, I just think that's a bit waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too dramatic.

We get as he walks bye each corridor, each landmark or he visits someplace, memories hit him, that's the usual way a memory hits you. Your sitting there working on something or you say something or hear something and it brings you back to a past moment. To actions and aspects that were done. It reflects the moment as a regular human would see it. I don't see a person seeing 'ghosts', so to speak, as they visualize memories. I think that would just take away from the story and give it a more glittering affect rather than a rawness that it portrayed as is; I think I saw this done in a few soaps I watch; actually I have...very Days of Our Lives and All My Children-esque. What was done works without being so facetious.

I'm trying to see why all those dramatics would add something, again it sounds so much, that it would have more of a take away affect. I wonder also how you would feel if you saw it? I get the impression you might complain about it being too much!

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.

I could agree with that. But I like how they brought in this new wraith enemy with this new background and a whole differen hive. We have no proof the wraith was killed with that nuke so there's a lot to look into. It's playing in a different direction---and it's clear it takes off of Trinity. I think it fits though...I don't think I would have liked it in S2, because then I would feel overwhelmed with way too much Ronon. And I'm sure a few people would complain about the many Ronon eps in S2 if that was the case. So this worked...and Irresistable was way in left field, but I felt these reflect that SGA is moving back to normal...but unfortunately with new enemies taking over and causing problems.

[Ouroboros]

Was that the only one hive that attacked Sateda or there were some of them. We don't know really what weapons Satedians posessed (except that cool Ronon's guns which for me shows that Sateda wasn't far from Earth's level of technology). Maybe these were the best they posessed or was some railgun stations or something like Stingers too. We don't know how many population was on Sateda. I heard the radio when Ronon talked to his wife that the last culling took place 200 years ago. Maybe there wasn't so much people to defend their planet. If the only one hive ship would attack the Earth I think there would be slim chanse for them to destroy all population on Earth because we are 6.5 billion and could bring total military force that would outnumbered the Wraith easily. There couldn't be any chance for them on the ground (Teyla took out 8 by herself, Sheppard-6), their hives have no shielding technology so we could throw all our atomic bombs on their hive and their gliders would've been taken out easily with railgun stations (like in the season 1 finals), Stingers or russian Iglas. Of course all F-16, F-18 and Russian SU planes could do some job. But maybe they sent there only 1 hive because they knew that the Satedians are not so cool or are not in big numbers and if they would deal with Earth they would sent bunch of hives (because here are many FOOOOD)

The only thing Earth has that would stop a hiveship is the antarctic weapon. Anything launched from the surface is going to have an even harder time getting through than a Daedalus missile and they don't need to send down any troops while our militaries are still intact.

Assuming the Ancient weapon wasn't there or wasn't operational, and the Wraith wanted to just kill everyone on Earth, they could do it with one hive in less than an hour probably.

Take a look at the size of the explosions that get made by the hive's weapons on the planet in misbegotten. Even one of those bolts would completely flatten a modern city and they just need to do that to all the major population centers on Earth. If they wanted to be really cruel they could even keep pouring on the abuse until the whole biosphere was ruined and nothing could ever live on Earth again post nuclear war style.

It's a good thing for us manapes that they're more interested in feeding on us than vaporising us all with their giant spaceguns of doom huh.

More realsitically though they'd just bombard all our military bases and airfields from orbit until the vast majority of people who could fight were dead and out ability to co-ordiante any sort of tactical defence was completely removed. Then the mass culling of the defencless paniced hordes would begin.

[Sci-Fi Sista]

I loved this episode.I really didn't like Ronon until this episode.The character developement was great.I pretty much liked every thing about this episode.
9/10

[Biscuit]

Oh, the love I have for this episode. Team bonding! Explosions! Arrows!! Blow darts! Selfless sacrifice! Grievous bodily injury! Wraith mowed down like bowling pins! So much to love!

* Loved the scene in the cage, where Dex threatens to slit his own throat unless the Village of the Doomed releases his friends. Because, damnit, this show set up a really fascinating premise -- a galaxy of people scraping out an existence as an alien buffet. But we almost never get to see that horror from the perspective of the Pegasus natives. Dex witnessed the destruction of his planet and spent seven years as the object of a sadistic hunting game and until now he's expressed his feelings about those events mainly through dubious wardrobe choices, eating with his fingers and a lot of glowering. So this was a huge treat for me.

* Loved, loved the team bonding. Just the little things -- like Sheppard hunkering down on the floor to hang out with poor broken-butted McKay. Or the way McKay insisted on coming along on the rescue. Or McKay and Beckett saving the day.

* Big Bald Wraith intrigued me. Most of the Wraith we've seen to date seem to be content to eat and sleep, eat and sleep. This one had me wondering. I wonder if he genetically engineered his warriors with those freaky green night-vision eyes. I wonder if he's any relation to the long-ago Wraith who tampered with the DNA of Teyla's ancestors. Oh well, Beckett splattered Big Bald across the Satedan suburbs, so I guess we'll never know. Bald Wraith! We hardly knew ye!

* Aw...Sheppard loves his team! You can hit me over the head with that bit of character exposition as many times as you like! Especially if Teyla's on hand to act, awesomely, as our Sheppard-to-English emotional translator.

* I loved Sheppard in this one. Just because the man is a big damn hero doesn't mean he's not also a big damn dork. (How many Wraith did you shoot again, John?)

* As always, loved McKay, drugged off his gourd, fretting about misplacing Sheppard, Sheppard's hair, the pretty lady and the caveman? Hee!

* And last but not least, mad love to the crack monkeys in the Atlantis costume department. So leather bomber jackets are part of the off-world expeditionary uniform now? Okey doke! (Shut up! He looks pretty! I don't care!) To say nothing of McKay's boxer shorts (what was that pattern? Lemons? Smiley faces? The atomic structure of caffeine?) As an added bonus, we got a flashback of Dex in the Satedan version of street clothes! Apparently, he's always been something of a vest man.

[buzlighty1]

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

Sateda rocked, probably a one of the better episodes to date. but i still think it would've fit better into season 2 replacing the episode the tower! The coolest part was seeing the Wraith wearing the day vision glasses and taking them off in the dark. Plus seeing a male wraith in charge of a hive ship was cool as well.

[PG15]

IMHO it came at the right time. Remember that one of the key plot points in the episode was Shep's supreme friendship in Ronan. If it happened too soon, that level of friendship would've been foolhardy at best.

[JanusAncient]

Shouldn't Ronon have said Ring? In the episode "Runner," he said, that he'd always known the Stargate as the Ring of the Ancestor's, but here he said that Khel's people get to go to the Gate.

[Easter Lily]

I thought it was rather haka-ish. Different cultures, etc.

It's a common martial arts tactic as a way to strike fear into one's opponent. The Wraith do it a lot.
Bruce Lee used to do something similar except he used to make a more screech-like monkey wail.

[vaberella]

Shouldn't Ronon have said Ring? In the episode "Runner," he said, that he'd always known the Stargate as the Ring of the Ancestor's, but here he said that Khel's people get to go to the Gate.

Yeah, I noticed, Teyla also used contractions. Put it down to living with Earthlings for a while. Teyla has lived on Atlantis more than with her people for over 2 years, and Ronon nearly a year. You pick up mannerisms and tone, speech isn't far along. I sounded british after 2 years of living there, my friend after 3 months----when in Rome do as the Romans. It's just something that happens when your submerged in a culture, he learned how to use a spork and knife too.

<---Teyla's in a McShep sandwich!