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Childhood's End (106)

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    Originally posted by mathpiglet View Post
    McKay exhibits many of the same character traits as Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. They are so wrapped up in themselves that empathy of others is completely foreign.
    McKay is definitely as self absorbed, but not nearly as compulsive.

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      Pretty boring ep imo.

      McKay isn't the character who I grew to love just yet.

      Ending your life when you turn 25? Bugger that for a joke. Glad we put an end to that.

      We never see those Wraith drones again.

      So what I got from this ep. Life's short but not that short thankfully, don't get McKay to baby sit your kids and chocolate chocolate chocolate.
      sigpic

      Comment


        My LiveJournal post
        It's an alright episode, not one of my faves so far though.

        Originally posted by Lieutenant Sparrow View Post
        So what I got from this ep. Life's short but not that short thankfully, don't get McKay to baby sit your kids and chocolate chocolate chocolate.
        I like that last point.
        "Thanks to denial, I'm immortal."
        "A big 'Hello' to all intelligent life out there, and for everyone else, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys!"
        "Excuse me, barmaid? You seem to have brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fishbone!"
        "I'm Jack. It means... what's in the box?"

        sigpic
        >-- Czechs Rock! >--

        Comment


          Boring one for me. Kids and McKay in one episode, too much!!! Although it's funny how kids are like cats to people who would rather avoid them, they just don't leave them alone!

          What I'm being reminded of again is how little is happening on Atlantis! They found Atlantis, the lost city of the Ancients for crying out loud!!!! Again they are off everywhere but Atlantis. I know they have to find food, but there must be so much stuff there to explore! I want to know what's on Atlantis!!!

          I've noticed Ford a bit more with this re-watch. He's quite funny and personable, his wide eyed innocent take on things is great when he gets some screen time, he could be SGA's Daniel.

          Comment


            Joe Mallozzi's memories of this episode:
            CHILDHOOD’S END (106)

            Enter Golden boy Martin Gero, a young freelancer who, on the strength of his script for Childhood’s End, won himself a well-deserved staff position and then proceeded to run the table by taking ownership of the series through his multitudinous scripts (I don’t think anyone wrote more). By the end of the show’s run, he had earned the title Mr. Atlantis.

            I remember the first draft of the script included a foppish royal named Lord Smeadon who Martin had to excise for the second draft after the first round of notes. Interestingly, Lord Smeadon was gone but not forgotten, making a curious guest appearance in The Storm, coincidentally also written by Mr. Gero. I also remember watching the dailies one day and hearing one of the young actors utter the now infamous line “Death bird fall from sky”. Death bird fall from sky? Why was he delivering his dialogue like the incredible Hulk? This was also the episode where a line from one of the walla performers left us scratching our heads. For those of you who don’t know, “walla” is the background murmurings, usually unintelligible, you hear amongst some onscreen crowd. In the scene in which Sheppard destroys the shrine, amidst the unintelligible murmurings, we hear one performer clearly mutter: “This has never happened before!”. Really? You’ve never had a stranger walk through the stargate and blast your shrine away with his machine gun? First time? Needless to say, that particular line of walla did not make the final cut.

            Anyway, Martin ended up commemorating his very first Stargate: Atlantis episode by gifting the writing staff these awesome t-shirts:
            http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/...hildhoods-end/
            sigpic

            Comment


              MIdweek another ep of Atlantis...

              1. Rewatched this not that long back before the actual Rewatch.

              2. The kids as observers was still strange as hell.

              3. McKay had a point, the way they lived was fracked up.

              Still solid.
              I SURF FOR THE FREEDOM!

              Comment


                This one is kind of boring. It just goes through the motions of a generic Stargate script. We come into a society that is sucidal because they think it prevents Wraith cullings. And in typical Stargate fashion we convinvce the planet that their culture appraoch to death is wrong. I have always disliked when Stargate does this. It seems arrogant of us to impose our values on the culture and judge their way is wrong. I kind of liked the energy dampening field. I wish their had been more to that instead of just the is dampers Wraith technology and the ethics of stealing the ZPM. Yes Weir mentioned it but it was kind of glossed over
                Originally posted by aretood2
                Jelgate is right

                Comment


                  Childhood's End

                  As with every Stargate series there has to be plots where the team either visits or get themselves trapped on an unknown planet so surprise surprise, here comes a plot that the folks at SG1 probably glossed over then gave to Atlantis; one that involves kids, sacrificial rituals, a treehouse community similar to the one seen in Star Wars VI and something about the Wraith.

                  For the most part, the Atlantis team manage to serve the roles normally served by SG1 well; they have their purpose, they explore and they have the chemistry that makes these types of things possible... There are no scenes that overly grow their character nor serve as something groundbreaking but the purpose here isn't to grow characters, it's to have a classic Stargate adventure that serves to please. Shephard plays kind of the O'Neill role here and he does it decently, providing insight, leadership values and even a sense of involvement when it comes to the people at hand; sure he lacks the pizazz that RDA has but he more them makes up for it with his dedication and modesty, two things that make Shephard what he is. Rodney plays a more annoying Dr. Daniel Jackson; many scenes involve him being annoying, especially the one where he's with kids. (terrible, I'd bet he'd easily break under water torture.) I will admit there are scenes where he's somewhat heroic and tolerable but for the most part he's annoying and picky. Ford and Taylor are just kind of there, playing their roles but I will admit that Ford is proving to be one of the more underrated characters out there, his enthusiasm is something SGA should focus more on.


                  Yup, the SG1 SGA crew fully equipped.

                  The village of people under 25 is interesting to say the least; to see everybody as either a teen, a young adult or a kid with bows is both cute and deadly at that, who knew there'd be such a society acting with adult issues while at the same time looking like teens? I'm guessing the intentions of the episode were to show the fun the writers could have working with such a situation and attempting to make a bunch of kids into a deadly force and while some of the scenes do click, many do not; leaving the writer's intentions to be desired... For many of the scenes, it doesn't feel like a bunch of kids trying to act like adults, more so it feels like the roles of adults being played by kids taking their roles seriously and the initial aspect of kids playing adult roles wears out quickly if they don't have some fun with it. The village itself is decently constructed with wood houses, bridges, a sense of fun and wonder that would likely exist more on a children's show then SGA; it's detailed, natural, easygoing and it just seems like what a group of these people would build. As a plus, a lot of shots showcase the beauty of the village, especially the trees which I thought was my favorite part; it isn't the most imaginative of villages but in the context of the episode, it works just fine.

                  The episode explores a fine line between religiously taking your own life and whether or not the life taken is necessary and the moments in life that exist after age 24; it's an interesting concept and regarding the Wraith, it certainly provides an interesting discussion regarding whether or not what they're doing is actually doing anything at all. Is what your doing actually doing what you think your doing or is it something else entirely? It is explored decently, fueling the twisted society that they live in and forming the basis for some decent sci-fi but unfortunately it doesn't have much depth as the life argument runs out of stream within the halfway point of the episode; don't get me wrong, it's a good concept but there isn't much subject matter available to use in this episode. Now the moral implications of taking someone else's ZPM that was clearly defending an entire planet, that contains a lot of subject matter. I mean think about it, is it right to take the ZPM out of something that was defending the planet, is it right to alert them of their existence and possibly threaten the plans of the elders, should we let things go on the way they're intended and not interfere, no matter how twisted it is? This is pretty interesting stuff that could of fueled this episode but instead it's merely hinted at by Dr. Weir in a small cameo appearance. I understand what the writers were trying to do but this could of made the episode into so much more.


                  Even Dr. Rodney McKay wonders about the ZPM's possibilities.

                  As expected there is a conflict that's afoot and it involves a sensible guy who's an elder, a guy who has negative thoughts against the visitors that soon corrupts him and the village in general. The sensible guy is serviceable, he plays his role well and he even gives thoughtful insight for a 24 year old, he's kind and inviting but there isn't anything that makes his role memorable, same goes to the evil guy; he also plays his role well and it is somewhat interesting earlier on but the constant appearances and mentions take their toll and with every subsequent appearance he becomes less and less interesting to the point where it's hard to see him as something else other then a usual generic SG1 bad guy, he does serve a purpose in providing the conflict (which is okay but...) but there isn't much depth to him at all. There doesn't seem to be anything more but I will add that the lack of music that they had during some of the scenes was a nice touch, the electromagnetism thing was decent (don't know if it predated Lost or if they watched an early version of the Lost pilot and decided to copy that) and some of the tension the episode provided later on was good.

                  In the end however, this just feels like one of SG1's castoffs/rejects; don't get me wrong, it's a decent episode but it treads well-known territory and at many times feels boring and dull; there are some times where it's enjoyable but for the most part, you'll be wishing that Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'q were there instead of Shephard, Rodney, Taylor and Ford; there are episodes which showcases Atlantis's potential, this is not one of them.

                  6.5/10
                  Back from the grave.

                  Comment


                    I disliked this one. It was under avarage.

                    The plot with the ZPM was allright, and it kept me watching, but a typical sg1 episode, as others have said.

                    Comment


                      This ep is definitely a filler ep. I still enjoyed it. I always find it interesting seeing characters that where played in the other series. Like the kid that was shot and how he was in the SG1 ep [I]Proving Ground[I].

                      Anyone else notice that Camcam Gigandet played a small roll in the ep?

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                        I liked this episode. Didn't notice some the actors from SG1 were in this one until it was pointed out. Normally i hate kid actors but these were good. Mckay with the kids was the best part for me.

                        Comment


                          I'm going to skip reading earlier comments in this thread because I feel that my opinion strongly contrasts with the majority.

                          This belief that aging and inevitable decay of the body is acceptable or even desirable is strong in the Western culture. The story of this episode was one of the many to promote it. The SG-1 episode with the child "rocket scientists" was just like this one. I felt that by using the Earth units for age measurement, it was established that other rules of Earth culture shall be obeyed.

                          Dr Weir did well in balancing the usual "moral superiority" by raising her objections. I liked her even though she is the leader and the law.

                          The society under the zed-pm shield (I'm bad with names like McKay...) is more likely to fall apart now that it has been "uprooted". These people do not know how to be 25 and 26. Their body will change, their strength and beauty will go away, their desires will shift. If the season had come out now, I'd expect another episode where this new reality is portrayed. Perhaps the people could form gangs and join the grouping fueled by the Enzyme, because their natural strength isn't there anymore and they have hatred towards the Wraith.

                          Comment


                            Originally posted by jelgate View Post
                            This one is kind of boring. It just goes through the motions of a generic Stargate script. We come into a society that is sucidal because they think it prevents Wraith cullings. And in typical Stargate fashion we convinvce the planet that their culture appraoch to death is wrong. I have always disliked when Stargate does this. It seems arrogant of us to impose our values on the culture and judge their way is wrong.
                            I agree. I think they were trying for some kind of moral lesson maybe overall I just thought meh.
                            sigpic

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by DarkQuee1 View Post
                              One thing that especially annoyed me: they had the potential for a thorny moral issue and they blew it. We(meaning Earth expatriates) need a ZPM to power the city and/or get home. They (meaning inhabitants of the planet) need it to power the shield. It could have been a real *choice* for the Earthers: their needs vs. the inhabitants, and what we have the right to do to survive.

                              Instead, they make the ZPM useless for us--moral dilemma now goes away. We can't use it, so we no longer have to make the choice.

                              J.
                              This ^

                              Really a very interesting observation that I never really pondered

                              Originally posted by GATEGOD View Post
                              This upsets me to no end on the commentary Rainbow Sun Franks is freaking epic and happy and everything and there even joking about teyla and Ford having a relationship and all the while they're plotting ways to kick him off the show because he's bland and is no character... yet in every other episode him rodney or sheppard are all switching spots in saving the day. BLAH He should have beein all 5 seasons. /grr. I'm angry haha ugh so much could have been different.
                              I do have to say, after my many re-watches of this series, Ford did grow on me eventually as well. It's interesting to think about how the series may have differed had he still been present.. but then again, we probably never would have been given Ronon Dex. Unfortunately for Ford, Ronon is going to with that battle to me every time.

                              Ford + Ronon long term.. now that could be fun


                              I personally don't find too much issue with how easily the natives were able to give up their ritual - most people don't actually want to die after all. I'm sure after the initial shock, I would feel relief.

                              This episode still holds it's ground in the 'middle of the range' pile. Not one of my loved or most loved but still okay. I find most of the weaknesses can be forgiven & put down to teething issues.

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