The Ark (316)

[LadyBozi]

That was ... urm... yyyyyeah..
Let me give it a nice shiny 2/10 ...ONE OF THE WORST episodes of the seasons. @_@ It was boring and...just a 'WTF' type of episode. There were maybe two or three enjoyable moments...& on top of that.. What happened to some of the Chracters?! -_-;;

[Rootortoise]

Fun episode. I loved Rodney's reactions to the space debris coming toward the window. It was right on. I would have reacted exactly the same way.

Their space shuttle must have tiles that stay on better than ours. As improbable as it was, the shuttle landing, and the build up to it were entertaining.

Alright episode, but we keep getting more and more to see how selfish of a person Sheppard is. He wouldn't save 1000 people but he would save Teyla. He demonstrated this exactly in Sateda where he was willing to risk everyone on the Daedalus for Ronon.

heh yes a lot of people thought the shuttle thing was improbable and people questioned why shep would risk his life to save teyla and not the 1000 people.....but if you look at Ken Is Here's comments in the early stages of this thread (this is Ken Cuperus, the writer of this episode, who was in here after it aired in canada) explains both.

also shep didnt risk the deddy in sateda, in fact he compromised and asked the deddy take them as far as possible and they puddlejumpered the rest of the way. not that this has anything to do with the ep, the ark which i really loved, admittedly some bits bored me but it wasnt enough to detract from my enjoyment of the ep.

[nowvoyager908]

The episode was okay, nothing to write home about. The only bits that made any impression where John's reaction to Ronon's "relocating" his shoulder and the fight to the death comments. LOL. Otherwise. . . meh!

[bluealien]

Excellent episode - one of my favourites from season three.... so many great moments.

[Linzi]

Excellent episode - one of my favourites from season three.... so many great moments.

I loved it too!

[Team SG-1*save the show*]

Rodney was so funny in this ep (the how screwed we are report!!!)

[acdj31]

Rodney was so funny in this ep (the how screwed we are report!!!)

Rodney is the only thing I like about the ep. Other than that I didn't like it at all.

[monkey_man132]

Rodney is the only thing I like about the ep. Other than that I didn't like it at all.

Rodney was so funny in this ep (the how screwed we are report!!!)

Agreed, Rodney was great in the episode. Perhaps the only good thing in the episode.

[Jeyla4ever]

This was an excellent episode. The team moments were wonderful. We got to see John deal with each one of his team members. Loooooved Teyla in this one. She was very supportive and understanding to Jamus's actions and best of all I loved her speech. Great way to show just how much she feels for Jamus and his cause. The bantering between Lorne and Rodney...wonderful. Lorne was excellent...and Carson....Great team moments. The story was very well thought of and I loved the title itself and its significance behind it.

The visual effects were spectacular and that infirmary scene at the end was beautifully done.

It's one of my favorites of the season....Although Sateda is still up there!

[expendable_crewman]

True, I wouldn't mind seeing Caldwell take over, but I wouldn't mind Col Ellis or some other COMPETENT CO to take over the military expedition. I just find it funny he is willing to risk 1000's of lives. He has been doing this since Season 1.

I'm not sure what he's been doing since season one, but I can speak to the 1000 lives, or his willingness to risk them.

He didn't. Risk them.

The merry team found a moon station, found out there were people on it (or in the people box) through two guys. The team was ready to head home, but Ronon thought, well, maybe guy #1 was thinking hard about killing guy # 2, which turned out to be an understatement. Guy # 1 was genocidal. Good insight, though, on Ronon's part.

Sheppard decides to stick around and babysit the landing of the people box, which lends new meaning to the phrase "No good deed goes unpunished."

-- No decision as yet on Sheppard's part to abandon 1000 people. That's because he's sticking around to help them, all of them.

Guy # 1 attempts to commit genocide.

Sheppard deals with the "screwed report" and its ramifications, which leads to a rescue Jumper.

Still haven't heard Sheppard say in the ep what he's going to do about the 1000 people.

McKay, now, he has a definite opinion about the chances of survival for the people in the people box. And this is only in response to Teyla's question, because Teyla is with the distraught Jamus.

Neither Sheppard nor Rodney have had a chance to get close to the people box problem. They're busy figuring out how to keep breathing.

Compartments get sealed, the little station gets repressurized.

Soon as the room with the people box is reachable by Sheppard, he finds out he's dealing with a hostage situation. He said he'd do what he could, but frankly he's talking to a would-be killer who's got a gun on his teammate in a situation taking place in a scenario with limited time. Developing a realistic solution to the people box problem isn't on the back burner because Sheppard's clipping his fingernails. It's on the backburner because Teyla's life is being threatened by a criminal and the people box is on the other side of a locked door in a room with a hostage-taker who's got a gun.

About the time Sheppard can get into the room with the people box ... and the first time what to do about the people box even gets to be a question Sheppard has a friggin minute to deal with, Teyla's in it, Jamus is in it, and he makes his call.

I love the "What's the right thing to do with a box full of 1000 people" question. I really do. But it doesn't have anything to do with Sheppard and this ep. He never got there. As for Rodney, he never got there either, not in the fine crisis-resolution form we're used to, because the ep didn't give him time either.

As for, "What would Caldwell do?"

That cracks me up. Flash to Inferno. Quoting my current 2nd favorite 304 commander: "As usual, Sheppard tried to save everybody ..."

It's a hard job but somebody has to do it.

The Ark rocked.

[joebags]

It is reaching the point where Rodney says, "We are so screwed!" in most episodes. Yawn.

While Lorne was in it a few scenes, and it was good to see him, I wouldn't call him incredible in this episode. We need more of him though.

Teyla looks scared and pleads for her life, again, depending on Sheppard & Co. to come through the door and save her, again. Why do they keep rescuing Teyla? Come on, we keep hearing she is a warrior and a great leader. Think some day they'll actually show this to us?

Sheppard just magically knows how to fly alien ships? That was a bit difficult to believe.

Boring for me. Incredibly boring.

[Hatusu]

It is reaching the point where Rodney says, "We are so screwed!" in most episodes. Yawn.

While Lorne was in it a few scenes, and it was good to see him, I wouldn't call him incredible in this episode. We need more of him though.

Teyla looks scared and pleads for her life, again, depending on Sheppard & Co. to come through the door and save her, again. Why do they keep rescuing Teyla? Come on, we keep hearing she is a warrior and a great leader. Think some day they'll actually show this to us?

Sheppard just magically knows how to fly alien ships? That was a bit difficult to believe.

Boring for me. Incredibly boring.

Luckily, I was interested in the subject enough to ignore the improbabilities in this episode even though I did notice them. It's interesting to me that two episodes were aired on Friday that many fans found to be pedestrian. I agree, yet I disliked SG1 and liked this episode. I'm guessing that for me this episode worked because at least it was science fiction. We had to deal with space and pressurization and that annoying upper atmosphere problem. I thought the 1970s joke was funny, which deflected my suspicion that the moon base's computers came from SG1's lab.

I have to admit that both shows have a lot of recycled elements lately, but at least this episode was inside a moon.

As for Teyla, it's evident to me that most of the present writers have trouble writing for women. I'm starting to believe they think we're a different species. The writers remind me of a guy I knew in high school who thought that when women read books with male lead characters, they couldn't identify with them. Come on guys! Other than biological imperatives, we love, we hate, we work, we supervise, we think about most things exactly as men, good or bad.

Sheesh!

[expendable_crewman]

I'm of the mind the "Teyla's in trouble again" complaint is out of proportion to the stats. What I mean by stats, is, the characters get into trouble. All of them. She gets hers toward the end of the season. Actually, in Phantoms ...

Spoiler:

... she manages to pull a save while shot.

I hear that the writers can't write for women, and I don't want to get into that, because it's too hot a button and the writing history for both shows spans a bucket-load of episodes.

But if I stick to Atlantis and season 3, what if Rodney or Ronon were in the room with Jamus? Would the team's reaction have been any different? In the case we were shown, Teyla chose not to wrestle the pistol away from the wounded man and instead showed compassion.

I didn't see her as frightened for her life.

Rodney's interaction, had he been the hostage, would have been different, if he was written true to his character. Ronon doesn't usually go for compassion for his captors, but in Sateda ...

Spoiler:

... he had one of his captors by the neck and chose to give up that tiny advantage to put a knife to his own throat. He later refused a save (temporarily) in order to protect a village that had put an arrow in Rodney's butt, because he felt something for the people-- call it guilt, empathy, compassion, whatever.

Teyla's reaction to Jamus looked no different to me. Then came the white light.

To me, if it wasn't her, it would have been someone else, because the ep needed the hostage scenario and interplay between the hostage-taker and a main character to move the story. The fact that she was the female member of the team seems IMO to weigh heavier in fandom than in the ep.

[Poltergeist]

I'm of the mind the "Teyla's in trouble again" complaint is out of proportion to the stats. What I mean by stats, is, the characters get into trouble. All of them. She gets hers toward the end of the season. Actually, in Phantoms ...

Spoiler:

... she manages to pull a save while shot.

I hear that the writers can't write for women, and I don't want to get into that, because it's too hot a button and the writing history for both shows spans a bucket-load of episodes.

But if I stick to Atlantis and season 3, what if Rodney or Ronon were in the room with Jamus? Would the team's reaction have been any different? In the case we were shown, Teyla chose not to wrestle the pistol away from the wounded man and instead showed compassion.

I didn't see her as frightened for her life.

Rodney's interaction, had he been the hostage, would have been different, if he was written true to his character. Ronon doesn't usually go for compassion for his captors, but in Sateda ...

Spoiler:

... he had one of his captors by the neck and chose to give up that tiny advantage to put a knife to his own throat. He later refused a save (temporarily) in order to protect a village that had put an arrow in Rodney's butt, because he felt something for the people-- call it guilt, empathy, compassion, whatever.

Teyla's reaction to Jamus looked no different to me. Then came the white light.

To me, if it wasn't her, it would have been someone else, because the ep needed the hostage scenario and interplay between the hostage-taker and a main character to move the story. The fact that she was the female member of the team seems IMO to weigh heavier in fandom than in the ep.

I really think I love you for this, you hit this spot on. I would green you but it won't let me, it says I have to spread my love around.

[GateLadyM]

heh yes a lot of people thought the shuttle thing was improbable and people questioned why shep would risk his life to save teyla and not the 1000 people.....but if you look at Ken Is Here's comments in the early stages of this thread (this is Ken Cuperus, the writer of this episode, who was in here after it aired in canada) explains both
.

The writer never should have had to come out and explain the plot after the fact. The story should have been on the screen. That's just bad writing, and this was a very bad episode.