The Real World (306)

[rarocks24]

I liked this episode. Whilst not the greatest episode, it did give Torri the chance to act, and we found out a little bit more about the character. Whilst this episode was a little cliché, I found it to be far more enjoyable than the 200th episode, actually. I suspected Torri first got her suspicions when that woman claimed that there were aliens from Saturn that fed on blood. Even she saw something in that claim to make her think this may just be in her mind.

RDA being in it, was I the only one to pick up on another ship (Jack/Weir), and then the more obvious ship of (Weir/John). Anyways, this episode was good, and did manage to frighten me a bit (the mystery thing raising up in her bed and through the hospital curtains was very creepy). All in all, whilst not the best episode, was a decent enough episode that I'll give it a 7 or 8.

[-Jules-]

I really loved this episode. I thought they did a really good job with this one as well. All around a great Stargate night. I thought Richard Dean Anderson did a fab job in this, but it was a little weird to see him as the antagonist "bad guy". I always love the stories that mess with the mind because it can be the greatest enemy. I also loved Sheppard in this. (though, I pretty much always do...) He's the best!

[Chailyn]

That would be like saying you can fight the flu by sheer will power... unlikely. You do not have that kind of control over specific cells in your body so why would getting past the delusion cause her white blood cells to suddenly do a better job? Were her cells in on the delusion too? Were they just hanging out until they received orders?

Yeah, I wondered about this too. I think they should have added more scenes with the team just so Beckett could give us some exposition. The way I took it, in my limited way , was that after the nanites started replicating as organic brain tissue that brain tissue turned the problem from a biological one into a more psychological one. It became an issue of multiple personalities, which enabled Weir to become the dominant one and repress the Niam personality. What happened to the Niam personality, I don't know. I don't think that brain tissue could have just disappeared when she "beat him", so I'm assuming those cells are still in her head somewhere. Maybe after Niam realized that he had been repressed, he allowed the cells to die? Ack, I don't know. Anyway, this is all just a theory now. Hopefully, we'll get more details about the nanities and how they work in upcoming eps.

I did like that the Asurans chose to infest Weir with the nanities since they know she's the leader of the expedition. Niam didn't grab just anyone. Smart little buggers.

Missing info aside, I still enjoyed this one. I thought the direction/editing was really on target and I enjoyed Torri. Not one of my favorites, but something different.

[Mitchell82]

I'm delurking to put in my two-cents worth.

Everyone seemed to have Loved the episode or they were bored (probably from the lack of explosions). I enjoyed watching an excellent actress stretch her wings a bit and it was lovely.

Well done, Torri.

Also, I'd like to address the ending, which most people seem to think was the writers taking the easy way out regarding

Spoiler:

Elizabeth defeating the nanites through willpower. I thought that was addressed early on when Carson mentioned her white blood cells.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I'm sure you will) but didn't Carson state that Elizabeth's white blood cells destroyed the nanites in the petri dish, but that the nanites had somehow convinced her body that they were not a threat?

All John had to do was get Elizabeth to recognize the threat and start fighting back. Then her brain/body would recognize the danger and send in the white blood cells.

Right?

I agree 100%. You are right about the ending. This was a great episode Tori did an excellent job. About time she got to showcase her talents.

[Mitchell82]

That would be like saying you can fight the flu by sheer will power... unlikely. You do not have that kind of control over specific cells in your body so why would getting past the delusion cause her white blood cells to suddenly do a better job? Were her cells in on the delusion too? Were they just hanging out until they received orders?

I have to disagree on this one. This is compleatly different than the Flu. The naninites were trying to take over Elizabeth, so she needed to fight to regain control. It was beleivable given the unique situation.

[immhotep]

This was the best character development episode stargate has produced in years, it was incredible. It had everything that makes CD eps great, torri was soo strong and portrayed the confusion and the feeling of being lost really well.
The science was kept to a minimum and the whole episode was complete and fufilling to watch. if the SGA team contiue to do CD in this manor during S3 then it might not be a lost cause after all, we can only hope the rest of the spinoff's episode are given this much care by the PTB.

[Mitchell82]

This was the best character development episode stargate has produced in years, it was incredible. It had everything that makes CD eps great, torri was soo strong and portrayed the confusion and the feeling of being lost really well.
The science was kept to a minimum and the whole episode was complete and fufilling to watch. if the SGA team contiue to do CD in this manor during S3 then it might not be a lost cause after all, we can only hope the rest of the spinoff's episode are given this much care by the PTB.

I happen to think all the episodes past and present have been great but this one does take the cake IMO. It was a great CD episode. I absolutly loved it great job Tori!

[Krendoshazin]

The whole "reality isn't reality" thing has been done so many times, even breaking from the false reality into another false reality has been done, so I can't give any points for originality, however it fitted in well with the replicator storyline, and the episode was well done.
They didn't spend the entire episode trying to convince you that the false reality really was reality and then at the end we suddenly find out the truth, they already did that when the team believed they had returned to earth, only to find out that the energy beings on the planet had fooled them, so I liked the fact they focused on the strength of the struggle in order to regain control of your mind.

With this in mind it did present some originality, but I felt John could have played more of a role in it, since nobody was fooled by the false reality, they should have let the cat out of the bag sooner, and then focused on John refusing to give up on her while she fought for her life, in a subtle "we're more than friends" way. This would certainly have given more depth to the characters and taken the focus away from the dead and buried "reality isn't reality" storyline.

The acting was good, and the storyline fitted in well, I give it 3 stars.

[Iyouboushi]

The problem with an episode like this (no matter what series it's from; as this type of episode has been done in both Stargates, Star Trek, Buffy, et al) is that we already know how it's going to end. The viewer knows that it's not real. We know that somehow or another the character is going to break out of the false reality and return to his or her life ultimately as if it never happened.

Yes, these eps are interesting in the sense that we see how a character goes through their fake life but just once I'd love to see an episode like this be used as a series finale. And without any real resolution. That way we're not sure. Was the whole show a fake? In this case it would have worked great as a season finale if they had modified it just a little bit so that there was no resolution at the end, there were no cuts to the Atlantis team talking about what happened to Weir and that O'Neill knew of the Stargate program in the fake reality but the whole Atlantis expedition was fake. At least then we can wonder "well, maybe Atlantis never happened." Though using it for a season finale ends up the same as using it in the middle of a season--the audience already knows the outcome.

Still, it was interesting.

[AGateFan]

I would give a review. But honestly the episode was so pointless and boreing I barely remember what happened now.

Just IMHO of course.

[Apophis87]

Yeah, this has been done before. In SG1, when Daniel was infected with Machello's anti-goauld weapon thing, and especially in ST:TNG, when Riker was captured by those aliens who tried to make him think the Enterprise wasn't real, and members of the Enterprise crew would appear to him, trying to tell him what was going on.

I don't really have a problem with that, though. However, this episode just wasn't very good. As I was watching it, I glanced over at a clock, and saw that it was half way over in no time. It seemed to go by VERY quickly. RDA should have saved the episode, just by being there, but after seeing him in 200, his presence lost a bit of the novelty. I mean, it was like "Oh, ok, RDA's here. That's cool. But I just saw him in 200, so I don't really care as much as I normally would."

One thing I don't get though. When Weir is going back to the treaty talks, and Jack says something about taking short shifts before jumping back to the first line, Weir says she doesn't know anything about Football, and Jack says "or hockey, apparently". My question is, if this was all in her mind, and she didn't know anything about hockey, why would fake Jack know about it?

[coolove]

I enjoyed the first half of the episode much more then I thought I would. Torri was just amazing. Though as soon as they showed Atlantis, I got bored.

[Descent]

This episode was a lot better than I thought it would be, even though I knew what was going on it still freaked me out a bit. Finally Wier fans, heres your backstory! Now we just need to work on Sheppard, Carson and Teyla. Torri was just amazing in all this and O'Neill was a welcome addition to the fantasy.

8/10 from me!

[gambit]

Finally Wier fans, heres your backstory!

This episode wasn't backstory, we found out some small bits but that was it. And besides out of all the Atlantis characters, Weir probably has the most backstory already, especially if you saw her intro in SG-1.

[Descent]

This episode wasn't backstory, we found out some small bits but that was it. And besides out of all the Atlantis characters, Weir probably has the most backstory already, especially if you saw her intro in SG-1.

You got to see her relationship with her mother, the locket and other things. Thats a lot more than we have on Teyla and Carson. You people apparently want this show to turn into Lost or something.