'Tracker' (509) General Discussion

[EvenstarSRV]

I liked this episode, aside from missing the last 10 minutes.

It was nice to see the change in Keller from Missing, where after a year in the Pegasus galaxy she's experienced enough to not panic at being captured. I think it showed solid character development, especially when she had the steel to basically order her kidnapper to turn around. Though it helps that her kidnapper turned out to be a good guy and not cannibals.

It was great to see so much McKay/Ronon interaction, since they usually don't get scenes or plotlines that involve just the two of them from what I've seen. I'm with those who think Ronon is pulling Rodney's leg about Keller, since I think he's shown he likes to mock McKay when given the chance.

As a paramedic in-training I chuckled at some of Keller's first aid technique (especially the 'CPR' after she defibrillated the guy), but the writers got it close enough for a TV show.

[Alan Wake]

Question...

Spoiler:

Did Keller need to really remove the tracking device? couldn't she have simply " deactivated" it?

But all in all, not such a bad episode. Better then last weeks, but not the highlight of the season so far.

[beneaththeblue]

Question...

Spoiler:

Did Keller need to really remove the tracking device? couldn't she have simply " deactivated" it?

But all in all, not such a bad episode. Better then last weeks, but not the highlight of the season so far.

That's what happened. But my question is

Spoiler:

How could zapping the tracker while it's attached to his spine and brain stem not have caused serious damage to him?

[Shan Bruce Lee]

Question...

Spoiler:

Did Keller need to really remove the tracking device? couldn't she have simply " deactivated" it?

That's what she did.

[jelgate]

Jelgate's Two Cents

With Season 5 in my opinion being the best season since season 1 of Atlantis, it’s hard to have a great episode week. And unfortunately Tracker falls victim to that scenario. It’s by no way as good as some of the episodes I have seen this season but then again it’s a lot better then some of the episodes I've seen. In fact when I watch the episode I am reminded of early SG1. Nothing is more classic Stargate then running around the woods with guns.

Anyway this episode had one of the longer teasers I have seen in awhile. I couldn't help but laugh seeing McKay want to look nice for Keller and then get his hopes crushed seeing Ronon with Keller at the gate. It was a nice to change for me anyway that we didn't actually see Keller being kidnapped. I think if I wasn't a spoiler fanatic, I wouldn't have seen that one coming.

As I watched this episode it wasn't really a love triangle to me but the differences in McKay's and Ronon's personalities. They are both driven by completely different morals and ideologies. Take the scene after McKay and Ronon find out Keller has been kidnapped. McKay would rather radio Atlantis while Ronon thinks it would better to track Keller. Both ideas are very separate but are also very logical choices

Come on can't we do a little better than. It was pretty predictable not to mention a huge cocidence that the minute McKay starts dialing the DHD that Wraith come though the Stargate. Also notice during the whole the Wraith never said a single word. Can you say canon fodder? I had a little Déj?* Vu. I seem to recall McKay running away shooting a gun like that in Runner. Also it was funny to see McKay's reaction when he stepped up from that stump and see a Wraith looking right at him. I never knew that Wraith that chase after runners had their own name

I know I might get flamed for saying this but Keller was top notch in this episode. She didn't seem like a whiner or a whim in this episode. I sure someone will be calling this a plothole but look at the comparisons. A year has passed since Missing supposedly took place. How much had McKay changed in a year or Daniel for you SG1 fans? I don't think that the Missing Keller would have been brave enough to run away from Kir’yak (sp) like she did. To me it shows some good character development.

Speaking of Kir'yak he was interesting runner who to me was very similar to Ronon. I guess it would make sense that the Wraith use people with similar physical and mental abilities as runners. It seems like every runner is allowed an advanced piece of technology. Ronon got his Traveler's gun and Kir’yak got a teleportation device. The question is where did he get such an advanced piece of technology? I wonder if it could be some hint about the aliens that will appear in First Contact or just some random plot device.

Another thing that reminded me of Ronon is how Kir'yak had taken care of this little girl whose world had been culled because he had a visit their. It just shows how deeply it hurts the runners when their actions cause a planet to be culled.

One last thing that made the runner similar was how they treated the Atlantis doctors. Kir'yak was skeptical that Keller could remove the tracking device in the same way Ronon was in Runner. I am curious on how long Kir'yak has been a runner. I'm thinking when the Wraith learned that the Atlantis expedition found a way to remove the tracking device; the Wraith became smart and inserted the device into the brain stem. If I remember my anatomy correctly, the brain stem controls involuntary process like the lungs breathing or the heart pumping.

If my review readers would allow me (all two of you) I forgot to comment on Ronon's tracking abilities. This episode was called Tracker after all. Their really isn't much to say. It seems like after four years on Atlantis Ronon is still good at being a runner even if he no longer has a device in his back. I loved seeing him notice the traps. As I watched the dialogue between Ronon and McKay I can't be help comment as I said earlier their wasn't too much of a love triangle. It was more about how the people have completely different lifestyles.

Keller has some weird bedside manner when it comes to patients. I thought a doctor would have told the little girl to go to sleep versus talking about it. I guess that really doesn't matter too much as Keller knew what she was doing with the girl. I thought the Wraith fight with Kir'yak was chirographer brilliantly. Too bad he got beaten but then again the Wraith are some pretty strong fighters. The scene where the lone Wraith had me surprised. I honestly thought the writers would go with the cliché and have Kir'yak survive and kill the lone Wraith. Imagine my surprise when Keller used a sword to kill the Wraith.

Once again I have to wonder if using a defiblirater to overload a device is medically sound. It seem like in reality (I have to stop going back to that place) that would have never worked. Maybe I am wrong but wouldn't have doing that fried Kir'yak's brain. Couldn't their have been a more medically sound way to disarm the device. Once again I must give credit to the stunt coordinator. The fight between Ronon and Kir'yak followed by the fight between with the Wraith was fantastic. I think Keller's fighting ability was a little stretched. I understand they wanted to show Keller having some fighting skills but she shouldn't have been that good.

The scene at Stargate was predictable and entertaining at the same time. I knew Kir'yak would risk his life and die fighting the Wraith to save the little girl. But the thing that surprised me was his method. I guess I didn't expect Kir'yak to jump through the wormhole.

The end was cliché and cheesy I almost threw up. The whole McKay and Ronon saying they had feelings made me sick. Is their anything more disgusting then saying we will let Keller decide?

Kir'yak saved the day this time

[jelgate]

SG1 had something like that. You went outta phase and could move around. Its just copying SG1 again.

Completly different things Arthur's Mantle/Sodan cloak took you ougt phase and walk around for an infinite amount of time. This device only allowed you to teleport short distances. and used a lot of power.

[lissad27]

Solidly written little episode. Wasn't the best, but it's better than most. And the romance wasn't the focus, which I was glad to see. (Although, I thought the romance would have been better on the cutting room floor - it felt tacked on. I don't like romances between main characters (on certain types of show), as a rule.)

The plot was simple, and they stuck to it. Each character stuck to his/her part without detracting from one another. Some of the characterizations bothered me, but not enough not to enjoy the show.

Ronon and Rodney together was nice - I was afraid they were going to botch that with the whole awkward tavern thing. (That scene felt like R & R had just met, not known one another for 4 years.) But the writers moved quickly past to the tracking business, and they reverted to character.

Keller wasn't ... as grating as usual. I would have liked to see this type of writing for her last season. She came across as a doctor. Finally. As for the She-Ra moment: I find the fighting a little incredulous - and thought Teyla would have been a better sparing partner. But I do understand the romance angle is the reasoning for her sparing with Ronon.

Romance bit aside: the scene at the end was funny. Ronon is clearly teasing Rodney.

Again, well written episode.

[Aurora24]

I suprised myself by actually liking this ep more than I thought I would in the beginning. I'll admit that I cringed at the whole Rodney/Ronon competing over Keller aspect. However I did like the Keller storyline.
I also wish they'd given more insight as to why humans are used as Runners. This was another generalized the Wraith hunt some humans story.

All in all not too bad. I still wish that they would put the opening credits back though.

[Shipperahoy]

I was pleasantly surprised with this episode. I generally don't care for the episodes that don't feature the whole team. I know that's probably not very fair of me but I can't help what I like.

Still, we don't get much chance to see Ronon and McKay interacting so that was actually a lot of fun. They're relationship is so different from their relationships with Shep so it's interesting to watch. They're like bickering siblings.

I'm also relieved that it wasn't a whole episode of them fighting over Keller, which is something that concerned me when I first read the episode descpription. I find love triangles to generally be very trite and wasn't looking forward to it. It was very subtle though and hopefully that keeps up.

It was nice to see Keller outside of Atlantis and with something to do. She's come a long way from the whining scared spitless character she seemed on her first off world excursion. I am a big fan of Jewel Staite so I'm glad that they've given her a chance to do something with the character.

I don't have any idea how to spell the Runner guys name and I know I can probably look it up somewhere but it's late and I'm tired so I'm going to be lazy and just call him the Runner guy. I really liked him. I hope he's not dead. For a bit I was wondering if they were going to do a love quadrangle there but then off he went...Wraith-bait. Thank goodness. Not the Wraith-bait bit but that there was no more players in the Rodney/Keller/Ronon lovefest.

I mean, it's pretty evident that I don't mind romance in my sci-fi. In fact, done right, I'm all for it. I just don't enjoy the triangle drama. It's too soapy.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Two-thirds of the way into the episode now, and so far, not at all disappointed. Having set my standards relatively low based on what I'd heard, I'm quite pleasantly satisfied with what I've had so far. That's the funny thing; sometimes the episode you think are going to be subpar end up being some of your favorites, because you didn't go into them expecting four-star material, so two-and-a-half is just as well.

[Lythisrose]

Not bad, not great, kinda cute in a way.
Probably my least favorite ep so far, just running around in the woods and whacking Wraith. Actually it was kind of like watching someone play a video game where the goal is to kill the most Wraith.
I honestly liked Whispers a lot more than this one.
Did like Ronon and Rodney together and Keller was just fine too, and the little interchanges between the characters were fun, but I found that I got a little bored at the end and wanted them go home quickly.
The end scene with Rodney and Ronon was great, I do think Ronon was kidding.
And I really felt bad for Kyryk(sp?)
I really have liked all the episodes so far though, so I can't be too critical. Just not my cup of tea this time.
Looking forward eagerly to next week.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Well, as a follow-up to the previous little insight, I'll conclude by saying that the last third didn't change my opinion one way or the other from the first two-thirds. A solid episode; tightly-written and altogether avoiding much in the way of contrivances. That I can appreciate. A simpler piece, yet poignant in its own right.

I can't say I'm too fond of how the Wraith were portrayed, though. Killing them seemed entirely too easy, and I know this has been a complaint for years now but some episodes make them look even sillier than others. This was no exception.

The writing involving Jennifer has picked up quite a bit in this script. I've never been Anti-Keller, but I've found some of the lines, and some of the general direction, they've been taken her since introduction to be... painstaking. Such a fine actress, at times reduced to drivel. That was simply not so this time around. I was not let down.

The 'love triangle' thing is exactly what I was dreading, like so many others. It's what gave 'Tracker' its place with the other episodes this season that didn't sound like anything I'd write home about. 'The Seed', 'Whispers', 'Tracker', 'Brain Storm', 'Identity' and 'Vegas' are the six culprits, and while I still won't necessarily write home, as they say, about 'Tracker', it's impressed me more than the previous two lower-tier contenders. Significantly, at that.

I didn't think I'd end up liking Kiryk so much, either. It might be a long shot, but I hope they make room for him in the upcoming telefilm, or another one later on. Maybe a Ronon-centered movie could see him in a spotlight. I felt Ronon's pain when he departed. Jason pulled that little fadeout-fade into bit quite well.

Speaking of fadeout-fade intos, anyone else notice they used a lot of them this episode? I've never been a fan of them, but I'm weird and picky. Not something to reduce points over, really.

I'd write more, but as some of you already know, I'm very sleep-deprived. So if any of this didn't make sense, that's why. All in all, 'Tracker' scored some underdog points for pulling through what sounded like an iffy premise with relative flying colors. The writing and impressive array of special effects and fight scenes pulled us through what could have been a bad episode if done differently; namely, in such a way as what I had feared.

Kudos to Jewel Staite for really stepping up to the plate in this episode, and the guy who played Kiryk (sorry, just too damn tired to look it up tonight) also won me over for sure. Oh, and that Wraith that Rodney got up from the log to find staring right at him? Yeah, that expression of its will haunt me all night, so good job there, too.

**1/2

[Empress Vajnraa]

Another thing about keller is, a "few sparring sessions" is enough to take out a wraith hunter? Not believable at all.

Actually, in a way it is sort of believable. In "Runner", it was stated that the reason the Wraith hunt runners was not certain. It was stated that they might have used runners for sport, to learn how humans fight, or for training. If these Wraith were using Runners for Training then maybe they were be inexperienced. Just a thought.

[Browncoat1984]

I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable episode. I wasn't sure about the whole love trianlge aspect of this season when they announced it, but I think its actually working and turning out to be fun, rather than sappy like I feared. Usually when S/F tries this sort of thing (Voyager - Doctor & Seven anyone?) it fails miserably

I also found the guest characters of the runner and his girl to be interesting characters, and while I was sad to see him disappear I was at least happy that he wasn't killed. I enjoyed the banter between Rodney and Ronon.

Keller also had some pretty good scenes in this ep. Its nice to see her gain in her confidence, yet nice that she retains a little bit of that "unsure of myself" aspect of the character. It would have seemed off to me if she suddenly gained the same kind of confidence that we see in Ronon, Shep, or Teyla, or that we saw in Janet or Beckett. I think that that aspect of her character is what separates her from the other doctors we've seen on SG so far...she's great at her job, but she was thrust into a completely alien situation.

Great action scenes and choreography, including a great fight scene with Keller. Some interesting developments with the whole Runner aspect of the series, I thought it made sense that after two failed attempts at turning Ronon into a Runner that they would develope more sophisticated technology.

Overall I rate it a 9/10 because very few episode are good enough to warrant a 10 in my book.

What does everyone think of that teleportation device? Who developed it? At first I thought it was Asuran because he said that it grafted onto his skin (similar to Rodney and the personal forcefield) but when we actually saw it graft on at the end it looked more organic than a lot of ancient tech I recall seeing.

Definitely coolset gadget they've come up with in years. I thought it was a personal cloaking device at first. Too bad Rodney didn't get to keep it to study it.

On a side note, am I the only one whose sick of sci-fi's previews completely and totally taking episodes out of context? While it isn't unsual for previews to take episodes out of context, and I never pre-judge an episode based off of a preview, the previews for this weeks episode and last weeks episode really made me go "wtf?" when I saw them. And why did they remove the intro? That seems kind of out of the blue too.

And to add to the previous comment regarding Keller and the hunter...wasn't it Rodney who killed the Wraith she was fighting? She seemed like she wasn't going to be able to hold her own much longer there...

[Khentkawes]

Okay, I guess I'm in the minority on this one. Overall, I thought it was pathetic. I lost count of the number of times I did a face palm.

But first, on the good side there was Keller. She started out a little weak. A couple of times she got this wide-eyed/frightened expression that just looked hysterically funny. But she quickly became a much stronger character. She was determined to save the little girl and help the runner, and she even stabbed the Wraith in the back. All in all, she turned into a character that I actually enjoyed watching. A lot. Which surprised me, but in a good way.

But then there were Rodney and Ronon, both of whom I normally like, but who were just pathetic tonight. I never understand why Rodney occasionally reverts to a blundering idiot. They seem to play up all of the socially-inept cliches. As someone else commented, he seemed too much like comic relief. I was even irritated with the way he felt he had to justify his usefulness to Ronon by explaining that he could solve the problems Ronon couldn't. They just played up Rodney's insecurities a bit too much for my tastes.

And Ronon... well, for some reason I got really bored with the tracker routine. If you've seen "The Princess Bride," I had images of Humperdink tracking the Man in Black: "There was a great duel..." Yeah, anyway. That's probably just my warped mind.
To be fair, I'm sure that as a runner, Ronon would have developed great tracking skills. But listening to him narrate each clue he found and whine that Rodney was slowing him down was basically a cure for insomnia. And then Ronon pulled the whole hyper-rage thing when he attacked the runner, only to turn around later and sympathize with the guy (just in case the audience didn't notice the similarities between Ronon and this new runner-dude).

But still, Keller was great. This was easily the best I've seen her. And both the runner and the girl he was protecting were interesting characters. The plot was pretty predictable, but not too bad. Keller's solution for deactivating the tracking device, and the way she saved the girl from the Wraith were both minor twists that kept the plot interesting. Basically, if you removed Rodney and Ronon from this, I would have liked it. Which again, is odd since I really like both of their characters.

The end was cliché and cheesy I almost threw up. The whole McKay and Ronon saying they had feelings made me sick. Is their anything more disgusting then saying we will let Keller decide?

Yep. The ending was painful. And predictable. Ronon's humor almost saved it. But it still felt immature, like I was watching a couple of awkward teenagers. And did I mention predictable?

On a side note, am I the only one whose sick of sci-fi's previews completely and totally taking episodes out of context? While it isn't unsual for previews to take episodes out of context, and I never pre-judge an episode based off of a preview, the previews for this weeks episode and last weeks episode really made me go "wtf?"

Yeah, I don't think the people who make the previews for sci-fi are actually watching the episodes. It's really quite entertaining to see how far off base the previews can get.

By the way, where's Woolsey? I'm starting to miss him. Two... no, three(?) episodes with no Bob Picardo is just plain sad.