Phantoms (309)

[rarocks24]

Well...that was a great big HONKIN disappointment. Sheppard backstory? Where? I already knew he went back for someone against orders. And I had figured out the angst of it being the guy didn't make it back in season one. So...waste of time. No Shep whump. No Ronon and Shep confrontation as in FIGHTING and BLOOD between them and cripes. Everyone gets shot BUT Sheppard? Blech.

Xfiles did this SL way WAY better.

It perhaps would have been better if there were more scenes between Shep and his friend. Instead, there wasn't. It would have done a lot better had it been vignettes instead of how it was. Either way, this episode was still good.

[Infernorhythm]

10/10.

I didn't think they could top Sateda or Common Ground, but this came close. Everything about this episode was perfect. The camera work was great, with some tight closeups on Crazy-Shep and Crazy-Ronan, the Blair-Witch style forest scenes, and a great in scenary with the Afghanistan fight scenes. The way each character started hallucinating was great. I figured out the Ronan and Shep ones easily, but I was pretty close on the Rodney ones. It was the Beckett scenes that really got me. When we found out that Sgt. was really dead: shocker.

Major kudos go out to the fight choriographer. This was as good as in Sateda, and without the annoying slow-mo. True, it didn't top Ronan's infared Wraith Goggles fight, but when Leonard ambushed them, to the Ronan/Sheppard fight, and even the scene where Rodney was shot (that made me jump) were all wonderful.

Favorite parts:
-Zelenka. He rules.

-The dead soldier reveal. That shocked me as much as Beckett.

-The arrow-in-Rodney's-butt reference. Nice.

-The flashbacks. You know, I'm wondering how much of that was true.

-Teyla getting a good bit of dialogue.

-Kull Warriors. Didn't see that coming. Leonard, man, must suck to be him.

-The single best line of the episode, the season, and probably the series: "I'm sorry for shooting everybody."

Again, perfect. 10/10.

[Descent]

I repeat, this season has kicked ass! And next week's episode looks like it could be like "The Storm/The Eye," personally my favorite Atlantis episodes ever.

I agree, this has been Atlantis' best season yet. The show is able to stand on its own legs finally. Its such a breath of fresh air after how S2 turned out.

[rarocks24]

Good episode.

Ill give it a 8.5/10

Good points-
Sheps backstory
Everyone going nuts was cool to see
Beckett
Shep/Teyla scences

It was a good episode but definately not the seasons best.

Season's best would have to be, in my mind, Sateda. No Man's Land a close second with this episode a third. It doesn't really tie like I said it does, but then again, the excitement.

Really, I think this episode was one of the best, but it wasn't the best.

[prion]

Okay, I had the sneaking suspicion Shep woudln't get shot because well, he was up against Ronon and that weapon is lethal! However... Shep shot ROdney! Just shot him! Aieee... if that's not good for some major league angst/guilt in a tag, I don't know what is, plus reliving the failure of a botched rescue mission which basically tanked his career.

Poor Carson - people dead, not dead, dead again. Not to mention COVERING the live body thinking he was a corpse. Talk about a medical disaster...And the one soldier died and went into rigor mortis and Beckett was so into the 'hallucination' that he didn't even see it happen, which is probably going to give him nightmares.

And Teyla got shot and heck, she actually saved the day, even though Rodney was 99% done with doing it until he snapped.

Hm, don't see how Hagan survived all that but well, this is scifi and Beckett's a damned good doctor, and, er, still don't know how the guy survive.

Gotta admit, I love how they use the close-up lens on Sheppard when he was going off into la-la land of Afghanistan. It's sort of a classic camera angle used since the B&W tv days but I still love it.

And we FINALLY, finally got some backstory on his 'black mark' - that despite his best heroic efforts, the men he went after died. I was wondering about that

[Descent]

I loved how Teyla *gasp* played an important part finally, FINALLY!

Ronon laughing at Mckay was a great touch as well.

[lirenel]

This was an awesome ep! I know things like this have probably been done before on SG-1, but I have a very faulty memory so I can't remember ever seeing an ep like this, which makes it more enjoyable for me.

The bad: Didn't like the poor red-shirts dying. I have a very hard time watching war movies with soldiers being killed, probably becuase it's an all too real reality in our time. It's a good story, but sad.

Also, I didn't really feel Ronon's hallucinations. maybe because they took place on that planet, but I wasn't getting anything from it.

The good:
Sheppard- finally, we have backstory! That was so sad about his friend, but it was pretty cool to see him in his pre-stargate days. JF did a very good job acting crazy.

Ronon- like I said before, I didn't really feel his hallucinations, but I like how he was seeing things that could have been there. It was a nice lead in. Plus his laughter at the end, and "he shot me too!"

Carson- I felt so bad for him! It must be awful for a doctor to not know if he's saving or harming someone. And I can't imagine how he feels knowing he could have saved that one man if he hadn't hallucinated him being alright. I was a little confused when the hallucination told him to leave and get away from Rodney. Were the hallucinations sentient or something? Did it somehow know that Rodney and Carson might be able to stop the machine together?

Teyla- I'm so glad she got an actual part! RL really showed how frustrated Teyla was when Sheppard wouldn't listen to her and was trying to kill the rest of her team. And the part when she's looking at McKay's work and says "Rodney, you were almost there, why did you stop?!" was almost heart-breaking. She sounded close to tears. I can imagine she needs a little time with her team to get over all that.

Rodney- Wonderful, wonderful. Thank goodness this time he wasn't just the comic relief. He had a few lines, and the flinging himself out of the cave was a little overdramatic, but in all he was just the frustrated scientist we all know and love. Also I thought it was interesting how his hallucination resembled what happened in

Spoiler:

Trinity with the 'weapon' overloading to explode. Some lingering fears perhaps?

. And I actually gasped outloud when Sheppard shot him! Finally some whump that isn't made fun of!


All in all, I'd rate this a 9.5/10. I think I may try and watch it again at 12 even though I have to get up early tomorrow.

[coolove]

Well...that was a great big HONKIN disappointment. Sheppard backstory? Where? I already knew he went back for someone against orders. And I had figured out the angst of it being the guy didn't make it back in season one. So...waste of time. No Shep whump. No Ronon and Shep confrontation as in FIGHTING and BLOOD between them and cripes. Everyone gets shot BUT Sheppard? Blech.

Xfiles did this SL way WAY better.

Yeah, I wouldn't call it backstory either. They just showed us what we already knew. I thought it nice to actually see it but it didn't add anything.

[TattertotLove]

Great episode! It was good to see Shepps background but I read somewhere that his background was a little different. Like in this episode he saved one guy in the war when I read that he saved two. Oh well.
I was having so much fun predicting everything that was happening. I can't wait to see this episode agian tonight.
Poor Teyla got caught up in the nut case episode. She held up well though.

Anyone know why they didn't air the code tonight? Last week Sci-Fi was having some problems with the website so I'm thinking that's part of the problem.

Great Episode!

[DANIquinn]

Mixed feelings about this episode, though I think it really came together in the last 10 minutes or so with all that explosive tension. So I'd give it a 7/10. Great to see a lot of Beckett given he was completely missing in the last episode. And Teyla...I have to wonder why see wasn't affected by the generator. Probably something to do with her Wraith DNA. Anyway, overall a decent episode.

[rarocks24]

Great episode! It was good to see Shepps background but I read somewhere that his background was a little different. Like in this episode he saved one guy in the war when I read that he saved two. Oh well.
I was having so much fun predicting everything that was happening. I can't wait to see this episode agian tonight.
Poor Teyla got caught up in the nut case episode. She held up well though.

Anyone know why they didn't air the code tonight? Last week Sci-Fi was having some problems with the website so I'm thinking that's part of the problem.

Great Episode!

Well, it was a flashback. Perhaps Sheppard didn't encounter the other guy until later? And BTW, Teyla did change the course of the hallucination.

[Descent]

And Teyla...I have to wonder why see wasn't affected by the generator. Probably something to do with her Wraith DNA.

Yes, this was pointed out when Shep and her first found Edward's hut.

[vaberella]

UNRATEABLE

Okay so I couldn't come up with a viable rating. What do I say, lots of action, finally a bit of John's backstory. Emotionally driven moments, lots of dead bodies...it's like Blair Witch + Predator + Merc battle. Overall great ep, I think the *Holy Sh*t* moments were what kept me at the edge of my seat. John was shooting at everyone but Teyla. But that says a lot. He even shot Rodney, poor guy---says a lot about how high in esteem Teyla is...or it could just say it was handy she got shot at the time.

I was a bit boggled when I saw a moment of zombies added to things like this, but hey it was effective.

So let's hit it by character:

JF was bloody great, it was a great moment for him, his facial expressions and his actiosn were believable and realistic. I liked that, and I liked where we see 'we never leave people behind' it was great to see that.

It was weird, its' like Teyla and that guy...so I don't know how to really rate it. I did think she was frustrated (had to correct that misspelling)..and I have to say for a woman who got shot, she sucked up the pain very well. That poor Marine who died was crying like crazy. And the way she fought off the unconciousness...respect!! Then I also liked how she was able to sort of break through John's haze enough to get the job done. Not only that, it says a lot that she was the one he sort of confided too, once again!! And she saw him at his worst and sort of helped him through relatively. Non-judgemental but supportive coolness. Personally, I think she dealt well with a crazy!!


My man lost his damn mind. I don't know what to say, he was funny when he got shot. Plus when he was dealing with Beckett, not to much to add.

He went chasing after Donner and Blitzen (i.e. Teyla/John who looked like wraith). It was just funny calling the wraith Donner and Blitzen..but other than that..he gets shot again, not sure he was cool.

He was the star of the ep...he's a doctor had an emotional moment, at least Kagan (black Marine?) is still alive. He needs a thunk thread, did a good job poor guy. Hmmmm...I liked Beckett a lot, he did his duty as a doctor, he came across as affected perfectly and the termoil was great. Not only that I got to saw pecs and muscles..fantastic.


Not much to say there, she was hovering around doing her duty as leader worried about her elite team out there and with no response which happens to hold the head doctor, head scientist, and head military---what a disaster. But I can see her worried. One question...what's up with the musckrat on her head?! I was a bit distracted by it when I saw the hair. My sis called it a mullet, others said a bad weave...I think her curling iron broke down before she could finish.

He was much like Weir...hovering, he should have ripped the muskrat off of Weir's neck.

It's so funny!! Her hair was great just for the distraction. Reminds me of Shep's hair in Inferno...I can't handle hair distractions...Teyla had one of those, think it was in Sateda it was like all sexy and stuff!! Ronon had his own in Runner...nice hair!! Long live hair!


I mean the action was great, the scenes were great...everythng was edge of the scene, I mean I saw it was 10:53, and I literally only thought 30 minutes went by in the ep. It was more of an ep for Beckett and Teyla overall, with added John. I think they're the two that stood out for me, in seeing how they deal in situations and their reactions and their interactions with others...more so Teyla and John and McKay (she deciphered McKay's mumbo jumbo...Respect!)

It was great, but just not worth rating it was that good. It's just unrateable.

Great writing by Binder, but he always produces eps I like and he definitely likes the characters because he managed to sucessfully give everyone some kind of play and not more than others in this ep. It was extremely well balanced, unlike Common Ground and for that it gets far more Kudos than CG. I have no clue why not all the writers are able to sucessfully give all the characters some kind of action, even minute. I liked this ep and I can't wait for some new eps.

UNRATEABLE

in a
I think she's lovin' it!!

[ToasterOnFire]

Solid ep. I knew that the team was going to hallucinate so no surprise there, but it kept my interest and I was happy to see more of Teyla and Carson.


-Shep did say that Teyla's wraith DNA might protect her from the "machine", is that what we're supposed to assume did happen? I enjoyed seeing her as the voice of reason while the guys ran around shooting each other. It carrying over her role in other eps like Allies.

-Once again, TPTB make it seem like Elizabeth just waits around Atlantis until the team returns. Come on, couldn't Zelenka interrupt her in the middle of one of her many meetings or something?

-Did Rodney say he had an arrow in his ass? I wasn't aware that Stargate used that term.

-Ah Rodney, back to snarking and being pissy after a chance for some growth post-M&MM. Still, his hand on Carson's shoulder was quite touching. And I loved his flying leap to avoid the explosion that...never happened.

-I also don't know how Hagan survived, especially since Beckett picked him up and carried him. That's practically a death sentence for someone with so recent and significant chest wounds.

-On that note, there's no way that Leonard or whoever would blow himself up with a grenade and not hurl...bits everywhere.

-What was the military guy's name who Beckett thought was helping him? I thought he was great, too bad he had to be killed off.

-When the team watched the camera replay (blatant Sony placement!), I immediately thought of the Blair Witch Project. Thankfully snot-free this time.


Did anyone catch the trailer for the mid season finale? And would they be so kind as to post it somewhere? Way too many screenshots way too fast - I'd like to slow things down.

[vaberella]

Mixed feelings about this episode, though I think it really came together in the last 10 minutes or so with all that explosive tension. So I'd give it a 7/10. Great to see a lot of Beckett given he was completely missing in the last episode. And Teyla...I have to wonder why see wasn't affected by the generator. Probably something to do with her Wraith DNA. Anyway, overall a decent episode.

Not much to wonder about, check back to Rising II, she's unaffected by wraith tech!! It was established in that ep. If Wraith are unaffected she would be by it. So it is safe to assume because of her Wraith DNA---I thought The Gift clarified that...?!