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Condemned (205)

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    Originally posted by Jae'a View Post
    I wanted to see a Wraith actually feed on that Magistrate guy though!
    Yeah same here. His look of utter fear at the end will have to suffice haha.

    It was an alright ep. Nothing fantastic.

    Eww gross at Ronan trying that stew. That could have been anything.

    If I had a dollar for every time the cloak on the puddle jumpers has been damaged. I would be rich!

    I so love Ronan's gun. It's almost as classic as the P-90 I reckon.

    And that Wraith eating human feed. That was a creepy scene.
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      Condemned

      Ah, the Stargate team vising an unknowingly advanced civilization, the basis for many of Stargates finest episodes... This is what they do here, working as a team in order to explore the latest planet that they've come across and getting themselves into a conundrum involving something regarding capital punishment, the legal system, shifty figures and an island of prisoners.

      It's a pretty decent plot for Stargate; the whole island thing is a nice basis for what could be some pretty good sci-fi metaphorical stuff that the genre is known for, making us think who is truly guilty or whether their legal system is truly perfect and how far are they willing to go to make sure that the island is populated. The fact that it also involves the Wraith also sets it apart from the other plots in that it adds another side, a side of fear and a side of urgency that many of the other plots lack. The Wraith cull worlds so to see the Wraith directly affect the status of a civilization is truly something unique indeed; especially considering how the planet is connected to the system and all.

      The civilization that is portrayed is decent; they seem like someone who has a working functioning society with a ton of people and it's interesting at first to see this advanced society with technological advances that aren't possible because of the Wraith, who knows how it would of benefited Atlantis and who knows how it would of helped in their battle against the Wraith. Unfortunately the guys behind the society seem poorly acted and poorly constructed; it doesn't seem like they know subtly, seeming obvious with every word about their intentions and true colors; while the Atlantis crew doesn't seem to realize this, it's almost distracting to the point where it threatens to unravel the seemingly tangible world that the episode has began to create for itself. There are some points in time where they do seem beneficial but for the most part, they're poorly constructed.


      Rebels are they...

      The island is a different story though; it serves as a place for SGA to homage the rebellious colony films of our time where the rebellious people capture the crew and use them as hostages in order to get what they want. The inhabitants of the island seem to have more personality then the people of the civilization; Elden in particular, the whole shyness and intellectual thing actually works and it helps to play a part in the whole capital punishment thing that the episode is so well known for; he an enjoyable fellow who helps the scenes he's in and makes for one of the good things of the episode. The leader of the rebels is somewhat generic but he manages to create somewhat of a personality for himself so I'll let that slide; he really feels like he's homaging the role well, utilizing the opportunity to create tons of cool lines, cool moments and cool postures. It doesn't seem like he's funny in the episode but I can imagine that he had tons of fun acting out those cool moments, he served to pretty entertaining in both plot terms and episode terms.

      And the crew handle themselves well; as I said before actually working like a team. I believe this is Ronan's first tour of action with the crew and as it shows he does pretty well for himself, acting like the rebel we all know and love with the sheer strength, martial arts skills he possess; though there are times where he acts like a barbarian who counteracts what we've seen in "Runner", he's an effective replacement to someone I already miss dearly ("Ford"). I also believe this is Weir's first time off-world and she also does well for herself; leading, exploring around, interacting with the natives and even managing to save the crew at one occasion, truly she is the leader to end all leaders. The other guys do well enough, Sheppard manages to play his usual role well enough but Rodney manages to be surprisingly contributive with his pop culture references and his suspicions; though there were some time where he was annoying, that was toned down so that his intellectual, engineer side could shine through; that was nice...


      As good as ever...

      There is tons of action to satisfy people but for an episode about capital punishment, it doesn't have that much of a deep argument. As mentioned before, it's kind of obvious what their intentions are and in the later part of the episode it's pretty obvious what they're doing; some moral ambiguity would of been nice, It would of made the moments where they mention what the society is doing regarding the prisoners impactful as there would of been a grey area where people could question their actions. There is one benefit though, a scene which shows a deeper side to the Wraith, one people thought would never exist... It's satisfying to see a Wraith do things that aren't possible for them and for him to be menacing in a different way; I can just imagine how many of those Wraiths are out there and how many of them have their own story to tell, that's just one of the greatest things about this show. They way it ends is morally questionable but then again, the Atlantis crew did decide to give an offensive insult when they saw their true colors and I've seen an episode of Babar where they were delighted to see the fires head towards someone so I don't know...

      It's nice to see an entertaining episode after such a bad one but this doesn't feel like the best of SGA; it feels alright. It's got a decent plot, decent characters, decent action and Ronan's first tour of action is impressive. If you're managing to ignore the certain lacking aspects of the episode then yeah, it could be a good investment of your 44 minutes.

      6.5/10
      Back from the grave.

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        Not a bad episode but not a great one. The idea of an advanced civilization who use threat of death by Wraith is an interesting way to run a society. It was interesting to see that the people of this civilization actually have an alliance with the Wraith. One thing that bothers me is that Shepphard saw them attack the first time and on his return trip to Atlantis he was kind of stupid to no take precautions against the villagers when the Jumper approached the gate. It seems like making your characters stupid to suit the plot. Besides that I liked it. I especially like seeing Ronon on his first mission and how it was intergrated into the team for the first time
        Originally posted by aretood2
        Jelgate is right

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          I always wondered why they didn;t cloak the ship?

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            Originally posted by garhkal View Post
            I always wondered why they didn;t cloak the ship?
            By the time they think about doing it, it has already been damaged.
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              Originally posted by Lieutenant Sparrow View Post
              By the time they think about doing it, it has already been damaged.
              They should have thought of it the second they left the mainland knowing thier were hostiles on the island
              Originally posted by aretood2
              Jelgate is right

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                Either that, or they were overly optimistic that the convicts on the island could not damage them.

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                  Stupidity is not an excuse. Making the people idiots to serve the plot is a bad idea
                  Originally posted by aretood2
                  Jelgate is right

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                    I liked the episode except for the end. Most of the people didn't know what the government was doing. At the end when you see the wraith ship coming down and bad man is looking on in fear all I could think about is what the other people would look like that had nothing to do with this. It was a mistake to try place a moral judgment on the rescue of prisoners with the cost of sacrificing the city.

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                      True, we did ruin the 'good thing they had'. But would the other wraith waking up have honored the deal made??

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                        Originally posted by Jae'a View Post
                        My LiveJournal post

                        Not a bad eppy. Not great, not bad. I wanted to see a Wraith actually feed on that Magistrate guy though!
                        That would have been a good ending
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                          Green teeth are so creepy; this episode was so high on the creep factor. Scary and unnerving.

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                            On a re-watch and thought this episode, esp. the ending particularly troubling. Yes, it was important for the team to get out of there, but they left an entire civilization to be murdered. They should have returned perhaps and fought?? The look on the magistrate's face as the wraith ship was looming was haunting.....

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                              Originally posted by Ilana View Post
                              On a re-watch and thought this episode, esp. the ending particularly troubling. Yes, it was important for the team to get out of there, but they left an entire civilization to be murdered. They should have returned perhaps and fought?? The look on the magistrate's face as the wraith ship was looming was haunting.....
                              Fought, how? The Daedalus and their limited supply of jumpers/drones may have been able to take on the initial cruiser, but keep in mind that there were "several more" on approach. Even if the Daedalus could have gotten there in time (it takes a day or more for it to traverse the Pegasus galaxy), Earth was not able to fight off multiple Wraith ships at that point in time.

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                                Yes, of course you're right... the whole thing just troubled me as I said. Too bad they couldn't have snatched that young woman and taken her along.

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