That was not 600-700 people they rescued.

[Zamboni]

they could of had digital people...

First off, "they could HAVE", not "could of".

Second, realistic digital actors cost a lot more than random extras at close range.

Third, I think we should just all assume that McKay *somehow* accidentally caused a build up when he disabled the weapons on the Hive and seconds after they went through the gate, the Hive exploded and all the Darts fell out of the sky for no apparent raisin.

And then the villagers ate up all that raisin while they waited for Shep's return.

[Ouroboros]

It wouldn't cost anything to take out the line about there being 600 to 700 people in the villiage, except the cost of paying attention of course. It could have been done at any one of a number of stages. The initial script, on set when the thing was being shot, in editing.

As it stands now, it seems as if they saved about 10% of the people in that villiage if you're generous, leaving the rest of them to deal with the hiveship they enraged.

[Lythisrose]

For some reason I got the impression that the only people they were taking through the gate were the people from the mine. So a lot less than 600-700.
Guess I'll have to go watch it again?

[Celesto]

jap, i think too its all about the money. Well, the main persons were the outsiders and ok, some of the village s administrators. But its right that there should have been more people around. Nevertheless, it was a good episode .

[prion]

For some reason I got the impression that the only people they were taking through the gate were the people from the mine. So a lot less than 600-700.
Guess I'll have to go watch it again?

no, they only took a handful of people through, so, not sure about the 600-700 people in the village... i mean, the wraith ship above probably culled them.

[garhkal]

It looked like around 60 to me went through the gate....

[Ouroboros]

So only about 90% casualties then.

Good work team!

[Brain_Child]

Ha!

Perhaps they left a scene out where Ronon goes mad and kills several hundred villagers spontaneously before regaining sanity?

[Callie]

I think it was just poor filming caused by lack of budget. I got the distinct impression that they took everyone, not just the Balarans.

The main reasons why I think this:
After Team Sheppard and some of the villagers gun down the Wraith around the Stargate, John goes over to Elson who's hiding with a few people, and Elson says, "This is the first group. There are more coming." But all the Balarans were in the mine and so would presumably have stayed together when they left the mine. It seemed to me, therefore, that this was the first group from the village.

In the final scene Rodney tells Carson that they've found a planet "for the villagers". All through the episode there's been a distinction between the "villagers" i.e. the people who have always lived on that planet and "the Balarans" i.e. the refugees.

So I do think that everyone from the planet went to Atlantis, which is what made me smirk when we saw all of a dozen of them at the Gate!

I was actually more concerned about the "villagers" earlier in the episode when, as the Balarans were taken to the safety of the mine, everybody else was just left to their fate in the village while the Wraith were all tramping around and possibly getting peckish!

[dasNdanger]

So I guess we can just assume that the rest of them were abandoned by the heroes at the end to perish under a hail of dart shots and/or be collected for culling.

Wow, I guess they should have listened to evil "I don't trust them" guy after all.

I love you.


das

[FallenAngelII]

Stuff.

Their fate is ultimately ambiguous. After all, they did say that that was only the first group. Then the Darts came and our heroes jumped through the gate. What, did they re-dial, close it down, re-dial again and restart evacuation?

It's quite possible they tried to get everyone out but failed.

[SoulReaver]

we see a few dozen or so ppl being saved

the full operation where all of the 700 villagers are rescued will feature in a special director's cut
the resulting episode will be about double the length of the original, 40 minutes of it being devoted exclusively to said rescue operation

[nx01a]

The villagers escaping should have been stretched out, a line about 'We've gotten most of them, there're just some stragglers left" might have given the feeling that more people had gone through the gate. Instead, it seemed like they got 600-700 people through the gate in under 2 minutes.

[Mister Oragahn]

The villagers escaping should have been stretched out, a line about 'We've gotten most of them, there're just some stragglers left" might have given the feeling that more people had gone through the gate. Instead, it seemed like they got 600-700 people through the gate in under 2 minutes.

You didn't spot the Atlantis sponsored tourist buses, did you?

[Candy88]

I agree with Callie that story-wise they did get them all out even though only one group of a few dozen villagers seemed to travel to the gate. They couldn't have dialled back because by then hundreds would have been taken or killed.

It seemed to me to be one of those cases of continuality & realism falling victim to the need for a dramatic finale. After all, the 'diving through the stargate at the last moment' move is a favorite of Sheppard's.

The episode won't go down as a favorite for me but Carson's presence made it still well worth watching!