'Midway' (417) General Discussion

[duelingZATS13]

That was hands down one of the best episodes of season 4. Tons of action and
intensity. I especially liked my boy Teal'c being in it. I think for season 5 they should bring more SG-1 members to Atlantis because it is compelling.

[Pegasus_SGA]

All of it. I'm a frighteningly losing touch with SG I think now. SG-1 was great for eight seasons, but SGA, for me, is just utter crap. I will watch the next episode and determine whether I will watch anymore afterwards.

What I hated about Midway;

- The stupidity of the Midway station's security (the wraith boarded easily by just roping together a few cables), as, just for simple security reasons, the midway station should have had an iris.
- The utter cliche's that the wraith have become. (Thier leader interrogating one of the scientists and then immediately yelling 'SILENCE!' after to enforce the fact that he is, in fact, a baddy).

How I see it is, people use their authorities in different ways, be you a baddy or a goody, and the voice commands authority and respect. So, for me in a way this wraith was letting everyone know that he was in command and it lets the audience know who the leader is. Not that we wouldn't have known.

I know the Iris bit was added later on as it wasn't in the original (that we heard. My thinking behind there being no iris is that the PJ just zips through the stargate, you'd have had to have one iris for every single stargate, woth lock out codes, security. And we know that ships can't pass through the 'gate, and maybe through 'ignorance' they never believed that the wraith would get access to certain systems.

- The fact that the wraith use a stun bomb type weapon to knock out everyone at the SGC when we have NEVER seen that kind of technology before....EVER.

We'd never seen wraith re-production cycle either, it doesn't mean that they haven't got the technology, just that we've not seen it. I'm sure there's lots more we haven't seen, and as PG15 said, you can't stay stagnant where inventions of new technology is involved.

-

Walter's ignorance when the alien weapon comes rolling down the ramp as he just stares in amazement and doesn't close the blast doors.
- The fact that the government are stupid in sending a nuke to destroy the SGC because of a small group of wraith...Wraith have been proven, in almost every episode, not to be much of a threat if you're carrying around a P90 or just a normal pistol. A simple squad of marines would have handled all of them.

Some people are just muppets. *sends apologies to Walter fans* And let's face it, the government aren't much better.

How can they deal with them if they were all unconscious?

- Ronon and Teal'c's primate-like attitude; 'WE IS MUSCLES. WE IS ARE CAN TAKE ON WRAITH ALL BY OURSELVES'.
- Ronon and Teal'c's utter ignorance to run up to Landry's office immediately upon arriving on Earth and using the red phone to contact the president and let him know about the situation.

But that's who they are, we've seen that side of their personality from day one, it's nothing new. had they acted differently in this, people would have said they were out of character. And Teal'cs been in the SGC to know about certain foothold situations and what the protocol is.

- The predictable and stupid scripting that the first person who wakes up happens to be the exact person whom Ronon was sent to impress in the first place.

I read somewhere in thise many pages of posts about that theory. It's because he's a jerk, and jerks have different brain chemistry's. But I see your point.

- The fact that the wraith were, once again, portrayed as being crappy Over-The-Top cliche'd super-villains instead of the creepy and fantastic creatures seen in 'Rising'. Their inability to overwhelm their prey (humans_ is stupid and pathetic. The only strong wraith featured in the episode were the two that appeared right at the end, with the one throwing around Ronon and the one feeding on Teal'c - ALL WRAITH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HARD.

Thing is the Wraith love to play, they like to pursue in blood sports, literally and figuratively. We've seen it consistantly throughtout SGA, they think of it as a sport to chase their victims, and it's like training for them. Hence the reasons they have runners. They enjoy the thrill of the chase it makes them better hunters. Overtime we've got to know that each of them (apart from the drones) have different personalities, some will just be after your blood/life force, others like Todd/Queens are willing to strike up allegiance only to stab the team in the back at the first time they get. Some are just hunters, some are scientist and some just want to feed. But for me if all you had was a tonne of Wraith feeding on people then where's the development for the Wraith. We want to get inside their heads, what makes them tick, what their goals are, why are they like that. SO for me, I think if I just saw the wraith sucking the life out people in every single episode i'd get bored. I need to see that they have a purpose and what that purpose is.

- As soon as Ronon and Teal'c arrive at the SGC, the blast doors are sealed. 1) How did the wraith get them open and 2) Why did they seal them again after opening them and 3) Why didn't they go to the control room so that they could get 'control' of the entire facility? = Stupid writing...

Maybe Walter's hand touched the thingy as he slumped on the control panel. Maybe they (Ronon and Teal'c) sealed them again to shield them from any more Balls of Doom They were heading for the control room weren't they? Teal'c mentioned it, to shut down the 'gate.

- They had a wasted opportunity. Teal'c is a good character, so why did they write him out to be Ronon's sidekick when, lets face it, it should be entirely the other way around. Teal'c is over a hundred years old and has lived way longer than Ronon - he should be as hard as Bra'tak almost by now. Ronon is only a human, so why did he and Teal'c seem to be on equal footing in thier duel?

I never saw Teal'c as Ronon's side kick at all. Yes Teal'c is wiser and knows his way around the SGC hence the reason he told Ronon where they needed to go to shut down the 'gate. Both of them were working together. And come on, it was an SGA ep, not an SG1 ep, it allowed Teal'c to see Ronon in action, but as I saw it, BOTH men were working together. If they hadn't been then there would have still been that animosity between them. The fact that they were working together suggests that Ronon was listening to Teal'c and taking in his knowledge and expertise and wisdom. If he hadn't taken into account all those things, then there wouldn't have been that nice scene between them.

- The fact that John was almost suffocated by the lack of oxygen during the airlock opening sequence, and yet somehow due to a massive amount of character shielding managed to crawl up to a space suit, stand up, take it all apart, build it back up again around himself and get the oxygen flowing in it.

It was the gel. He smoothered it all over his body instead of in his hair and so slid into his sut. Plus, he is Mr Fantastic.

- The fact that the SGC was so easily infiltrated, since it is the most important place on Planet Earth with the stargate being the fastest way to communicate with off world allies as well as keeping track of alien enemies. They have ALIEN TECHNOLOGY (zat guns, goa'uld force fields, beaming tech, etc...) and therefore they should be far better prepared than portrayed during the wraith infiltration scene. The SGC needs to be protected, it needs to be safe. It should have an almost impenetrable security, and an outpost or several above on the surface (on Cheyenne Mountain itself or whatever) where people can check to see if anything goes wrong immediately and send a strike team (by beaming them directly to the control room since they do have the technology) in to sort the mess out.

I'd like to know how they got hold of the IDC.

The episode just made me angry. Especially since I've been watching Firefly a lot recently which, in my opinion, is far superior in its single season than Atlantis has been in four... Now that is saying something.

I don't watch Firefly, and refuse to compare eps, it's not a good comparison and it's unfair. But didn't FF finish after one series? Or was it two?

Nah. It should have been used sometime earlier, in another episode when it didn't matter, just so we'd know they had them, and so that other people could complain that we should have had a counter-action for it. LOL

I couldn't have said it better myself

[ciannwn]

Do you guys realize that this seems to be the most posted about episode in recent ATlantis and it is barely a week old?

It just shows how good it is.

How good an episode it was depends on whose posts you're reading.

[Integrabyte]

There goes Peg with her novels

[Jill_Ion]

How good an episode it was depends on whose posts you're reading.

At the very least, it's an ep worth commenting about (pos or neg)!

[Lythisrose]

place.
- The fact that John was almost suffocated by the lack of oxygen during the airlock opening sequence, and yet somehow due to a massive amount of character shielding managed to crawl up to a space suit, stand up, take it all apart, build it back up again around himself and get the oxygen flowing in it.

Not even Rodney could figure that out - and he's a Super Genius.
(it's magic)

[Matt G]

OK...

1. Liked the idea of the Wraith hacking into the bridge.

2. Liked the Teal'c and Ronan show.

3. "What the hell is that bowling ball thing...ah that's what it's for".

4. Kavanagh is 'still' a moron!

5. And that scene at the end was cool!

Trashes Trio, best ep since mid season two parter!

[Integrabyte]

Sheppard is a Luxan and can live without breathing for a quarter of an arn

[suse]

A question:

Why do we need a 24 hour quarentine for those going thru midway station but not for those making the direct journey using the ZPM? Does using the ZPM have a transporter(a la Star Trek)-type filter to screen the nasty little PG bugs? I'd have expected them to have better physical barriers also.


Also, Kavannaugh? Oy. Though I didn't even recognise him at first with short hair. Him pushing Rodney out of the way to save himself was typical behavior. That faint was a bit long there. Amusing and it got bigmouth out of the way, but he was out for a very long time.

I also was amused by how Rodney became much more 'Shep-esque' when he was dealing with scientists who had little experience with combat situations. the bit at the end complaining about the babbling was classic. McKay walked a mile in Shep's shoes. Not that I expect him to learn anything from the experience.

Loved how Ronon just pushed him aside to get to his teammates. But how utterly convenient that the new hard-nose IOA guy was saved by the one most likely to blow up at him.

Finally a Sam and Teyla scene. "Call me Sam." Sam was finally fitting in. Bummer. (But not so much as I'm really pleased for Amanda.)

suse

[garhkal]

I never understood that either...

[suse]

Actually Kavanaugh set off the self-destruct accidentally by blundering into a Wraith boobytrap in the coding.

Yes he lives and Dr Lee lives. Only redshirts and Wraith die.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't a Wraith trap, but a Earth trap.

suse

[suse]

Midway this was a pretty good ep.

Well, I was afraid they would destroy the Carter character on Atlantis as TPTB likes to destroy all things good in stargate. I have less respect for her now that she said she liked Teal'cs hair.... of course they made her say she liked the uniforms earlier in the season but I think I had blocked that out. I am sure they will finish her off in these last 3 eps.

I don't recall her actually saying she likes the hair. I thought the voice (and look) said something else. She kinda skirted around it.

I can't see Teal'c getting a perm. Or sitting with a hot comb to get those locks. Then again, we are talking about a man who made up his eyes for years.

suse

[Ruffles]

A question:

Why do we need a 24 hour quarentine for those going thru midway station but not for those making the direct journey using the ZPM? Does using the ZPM have a transporter(a la Star Trek)-type filter to screen the nasty little PG bugs? I'd have expected them to have better physical barriers also.

It was set up after the events in Tabula Rasa to prevent transferring any Pegasus diseases to Earth.

[Integrabyte]

It was set up after the events in Tabula Rasa to prevent transferring any Pegasus diseases to Earth.

This quarantine idea is weird. If you travel to the SGC via Midway you get to stay on the station 24 hours. If you dial with the ZPM you get quarantined at the SGC. I doubt Midway has better quarantine facilities than the SGC. So why do you keep people on midway for 24 hours? Send them home via Midway and quarantine them at the SGC like you do when you dial with a ZPM...

[morjana]

This quarantine idea is weird. If you travel to the SGC via Midway you get to stay on the station 24 hours. If you dial with the ZPM you get quarantined at the SGC. I doubt Midway has better quarantine facilities than the SGC. So why do you keep people on midway for 24 hours? Send them home via Midway and quarantine them at the SGC like you do when you dial with a ZPM...

Perhaps the "quarantine" is also another safeguard to "catch" any misdirected travelers from the Pegasus Galaxy arriving by accident to the SGC.

The SGC has introduced a variety of protocols over the years to protect Earth from incoming travelers -- Ultrasounds or MRI's to make sure they weren't Goa'uldified [In the Line of Duty] as one example.

Perhaps it's a plot point just to make sure fans discuss it?

Morjana