Phantoms (309)

[Catalase]

y didnt atlantis send a jumper through the gate instead of sending the daedalus? jumpers can dial gates without the dhd and it would have been a lot faster

Power. McKay said there was no power, even if there was a way to dial. Dialing gate is the one that provides power to the connection, and since the DHD was blown...I'm guessing perhaps that the PJ lets you dial but doesn't provide the gate with juice like a normal DHD.

[Kazan]

One question...what's up with the musckrat on her head?! I was a bit distracted by it when I saw the hair. My sis called it a mullet, others said a bad weave...I think her curling iron broke down before she could finish.

Question for you. How is any of that relevant within the context of an episode review / thread?
If you wish to produce large scale reviews each week in the manner you do, then surely you need to try and do so with some balance and objectiveness? Of course any review contains some personal opinion and we all respect and understand that but there is a balance to be struck.

By your own admission there wasn’t much to comment on in respect to Weir this week, so why do so at all let alone in such snide terms, not once but twice within a short number of posts?
You don’t like the character – I think we all know that and the reasons for it, and that is your opinion. But this borders on personal bashing and IMHO is uncalled for. It’s a shame, I like to read your reviews each week. Don’t always agree with everything but they are generally interesting to read and I like to see all sides of the views being expressed.
On that note, I’ll let everyone return to the interesting comments and debate

[Excali5033]

Alright, An A-10 Warthog made an appearance! I've seen that
aircraft in real life and let me tell you that it's one
beautiful sight! Did anyone recognize the crashed Soviet
helicopter? It was an Mi-24 "Hind" gunship.

B model. Well, probably a C model, realistically, but B for story purposes.

[kyriakos]

lacked originality, no plot twist, you knew whats gonna happen from the first 5 minutes, recycled plot from other scifi shows and even stargate itself. by far the worst episode of this season for me.

[shockwave]

good ep, but no way my favourite
had some clever writing
liked the afghanistan stuff
also cool to see the supersoldiers again, they were so cool

[silence]

simple solution to problem of Shep's black mark... he went in, saved three guys (they werent wounded), tried to save wounded one (but failed)... end of story...

since there was only Teyla next to him, they couldn't make three wounded soldiers around him, but since there is NO info on that mission, how the hell anyone knows for how many men Shep went? 1,3 or 4? yes, he saved 3 and he failed to save last of them (which is prolly why that part was most traumatic and it became his hallucination - you did notice that all of them were influenced by their fears/traumas? did you? Shep - blak mark mission, Ronon - Wraith, Backett - not being able to save life, Rodney - dying in any way ). also to those insisting on plot holes... there were TWO choppers shot down (which is clearly stated) in that mission. since i am not aware of ANY single seat US military chopper... thats AT LEAST 4 people all together...

end of story. bloody nitpicking. just enjoy the show and ep (which was great).
sometimes coming here after watching latest ep and reading all the nitpickping ruins that ep more then anythin TPTB could do.... seems i need to cut my time on GW and enjoy the well written and entertaining episodes of this season....

[Easter Lily]

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode... and was surprisingly engrossed in it. I didn't expect originality and was pleasantly surprised to see such a strong team episode after hearing all kinds of "ship" rumours. Paradise Lost was a decent episode but I prefer the way this one was put together, it felt tighter (the way every character was integrated into the story was extremely well done) and there were even a couple of twists to add interest.

I didn't care one iota that we didn't learn anything new about Sheppard... but I was very impressed with the way the Afghanistan incident was worked into his fears about losing fellow soldiers on the field. I don't want any backstory that upsets the overall balance of the episode so I think what we got was enough for now.

Beckett's arc in this episode was noteworthy... The twist with the two marines was a nice touch... We don't get to see Beckett too often as the dedicated medical professional so this episode gave PM a chance to stretch his acting legs.

[Linzi]

I enjoyed Phantoms very much. Not the best of season 3, Common Ground and Sateda are so far for me, but still very strong and incredibly entertaining.
I didn't think this was ANYTHING like any SG1 episode I've ever seen...certainly not Paradise Lost, and definitely not a re-working of it, though nothing is truly original, how can it be?
Okay.The plot. I thought it was good, not exactly what I expected, but tense and disturbing in places.
Sheppard. I liked his backstory here. No, it wasn't anything Earth shattering that was revealed, but I didn't expect it to be! Let's be honest, a lot of us Sheppard fans have hypothesised to death the Afghanistan incident, and it played out pretty much as I expected it to. Still, it's really nice to see it on screen, to see some of what happened in canon. As usual, Joe put in a great performance, and I enjoyed seeing him running around doing the action stuff he loves so much - very entertaining, especially the desert fatigues,lol! I particularly enjoyed Sheppard's interaction with Teyla. Those two have developed a very strong bond, which is nice to see.
I liked Teyla in this episode. It was great to see Rachel Luttrell getting to play an important part here; trying to get through to her friend. I liked the way she did manage to convince Sheppard to help disconnect the wraith device, and in my eyes their mutual trust has been strengthened. Great character stuff.
Ronon didn't get to do much but run around, but that was fine; the emphasis was on Sheppard's hallucinations, and I was happy with that.
Rodney was good. Ireally enjoyed his disbelief at being shot by Sheppard.
Beckett was good here too, though it was a little spooky how the marine's were alive/dead!
I particularly enjoyed the closing scenes. We find out Holland didn't make it, I presumed he had, so that was pretty sad, and explains much about Sheppard and the way he never wants to leave a man behind, always wanting to save everybody. I loved Sheppard's last line to Rodney and the exhasperation in his voice. Very amusing.
On first viewing I give this 8/10, though that may change after subsequent viewings. Another strong episode. Season 3 is shaping up just as I had hoped.
Final note on the hair thing. Personally, I like Weir's longer style, I see it as much more flattering. But, I don't think it matters two hoots what a characters hair looks like, but people are free to comment if they so wish, surely? Seems pretty trivial to me in the scheme of things, though. However, the mods have made it pretty clear over the years that you can say anything you like about a fictional character, and that includes being mean to them if you so wish, as long as the actor is left out of it. At times, ALL of SGA's characters have been torn to shreds here, sometimes some great observations have been made, and it isn't necessarily nice to read things that you find upsetting about your favourite character, is it? But, they aren't real, so what does it matter? I've learned to ignore negative things that I consider petty, unless, of course actors get dragged into the negativity. Perhaps posters should think about that in the future when making 'mean' comments about characters who are not their favourites, before they complain about others criticising their favourites. After all one person's favourite isn't necessarily anothers...

[Southern Red]

Good team episode with lots of action. Great writing and great acting by everyone. It's nice to see that Shep and Teyla have a real friendship. I was beginning to wonder if they had been introduced. Thank the stars that TPTB have realized that considering the lack of romantic chemistry, those two work so much better as friends and teammates.

Now, what exactly did we learn new about Sheppard? *crickets chirping, birds tweeting* I thought so. Nada.

Loved the switching back and forth from the planet to Atlantis. Good to see Elizabeth and Radek working at home to do what good leaders and scientists do. It's her job to wait at home and make decisions and she is damn good at it. And I think her hair is gorgeous. These personal attacks are getting ridiculous and just making the attackers look petty.

[atlantis_babe34]

Good team episode with lots of action. Great writing and great acting by everyone. It's nice to see that Shep and Teyla have a real friendship. I was beginning to wonder if they had been introduced. Thank the stars that TPTB have realized that considering the lack of romantic chemistry, those two work so much better as friends and teammates.

Now, what exactly did we learn new about Sheppard? *crickets chirping, birds tweeting* I thought so. Nada.

Loved the switching back and forth from the planet to Atlantis. Good to see Elizabeth and Radek working at home to do what good leaders and scientists do. It's her job to wait at home and make decisions and she is damn good at it. And I think her hair is gorgeous. These personal attacks are getting ridiculous and just making the attackers look petty.

Wow its been a while.. well i havent seen the episode.. cus Australian TV sucks badly... i jsut wanted to agree with SR (i can call u that right ).. Leave Weir alone.. there is an anti Weir thread in this forum.. post the stuff that other non-weir fans will read.. not in here.. thanks!

good to be back!

[Steve_the_Wraith]

I really enjoyed the episode - it wasn't a big flashy centerrpiece episode like Sateda, or Progeny but it was a well written and creepy character piece

[RecycledFunk]

y didnt atlantis send a jumper through the gate instead of sending the daedalus? jumpers can dial gates without the dhd and it would have been a lot faster

Power. McKay said there was no power, even if there was a way to dial. Dialing gate is the one that provides power to the connection, and since the DHD was blown...I'm guessing perhaps that the PJ lets you dial but doesn't provide the gate with juice like a normal DHD.

Also, the area around the 'gate was pretty heavily wooded. I don't think they would've had enough room to pull up and out if they shot a 'jumper thru.

[Merlin7]

Well, I enjoyed the ep, for the most part. Yet I feel strangely disappointed.
I guess I'm looking for more depth from Stargate Atlantis than there's ever going to be. Certainly more than there's been so far in SGA--and more than there was in SG1.

I should give up hoping for it and just enjoy the show for what it is. It was fun, mildly entertaining, had a few interesting moments with the Carson storyline. He suffered more than anyone (well, except for the guys that died, of course) and Paul McGillion was excellent in conveying Carson's anguish.

The Sheppard backstory seemed predictable and superficial. I would've liked more substance...something to leave me more intrigued with Sheppard than ever. It didn't really work for me that way. Did it work for you guys?

I was very disappointed. I should stop expecting ANYTHING! I already knew this about Shep. That he went back against order, regardless of what mission it was. And I had figured out in season one that Shep's Angst was that he couldn't save all the men he went back for. That at some point he went back, against orders and the guy/guys died. Big surprise...NOT!

I wanted backstory they hadn't already told us. Something, YA KNOW...NEW! I do expect something from teh writers/PTB. Obviously I expect WAY too much but it's hard to just drop my expectations.

Joe was fabulous and very pretty, but that's not enough. I can look at pictures and rewatch the first season for that. I want something more. ::Kicks stupid show::

[Melyanna]

Good episode, overall. The pacing dragged a bit, but after SG-1's exercise in crush-and-rush with the plot, I was okay with that.

And look, a Binder ep with a fair amount of interaction between John and Rodney that didn't annoy me! (Really, that's my one complaint about Carl Binder.)

I have to say, I've been kind of annoyed at how quickly fans have looked at the trailers and pointed at some SG-1 episode and cried foul. Not once during this episode did I think it bore any resemblance to Paradise Lost, which is the one that I saw most often. But anyway.

I nearly squealed out loud when John showed up in desert camo. I'd given up all hope of seeing that anytime in the near future. And more to the point, the explanation of the incident made perfect sense with what we know as the punishment. The disobeying an order, destruction of property, loss of crew, and failure to rescue anyone fits with the idea of not having a court-martial but getting quietly cycled out of the service.

And I have to say, given some of the bizarre rumors I was hearing about this episode, I was highly amused that John spent half the episode thinking Teyla was a guy.

That said, I really liked seeing some proof that John and Teyla are friends. They may not be as close as John and Elizabeth or even John and Rodney, but it was nice to see them actually interact. Over the last two seasons I've occasionally had to wonder if John has any respect at all for her. There have certainly been times when he's been totally dismissive of her and completely disinterested. I like seeing proof that they're friends instead of just being told that they are. I know John has problems expressing emotions, but this story was the perfect vehicle for showing that yeah, they really are friends.

(On a superficial note, I'd like to applaud TPTB's restraint at keeping Teyla's midriff covered through the whole episode. It was so non-distracting that I didn't even realize it till now. )

[caty]

But, I don't think it matters two hoots what a characters hair looks like,

I can't believe you just said that!!!