Fata Morgana (103)

[Krissie678]

i'm very glad they've worked on mellowing ashley. she's a much more likeable person. my mom was woo hooing while ash was kicking butt.

Yeah I like how her character has been handled a lot.

the black guy that was the head of the organization that wanted the witches back, we've seen him before on sg1. and he was being snarky to amanda/character then too!

I knew I recognized him from somewhere.

very cool scene of ashley hanging out at the end of the brooklyn bridge... really curious on what happened to the bridge and society for that to happen.

Yeah I've been trying to get my mom into the show and she asked me about the bridge, and I honestly couldn't tell her.

i liked the allowance line as well, but i think they're trying to soften the helen/ashley relationship, so maybe that's why they changed it. but it didn't take anything away from the ep for me at all.

I can see trying to lighten the relationship up, but the line they put in its place didn't seem to work for me for some reason.

Overall loved the ep. I can't wait for next week.

[lunarleviathan]

This episode was very hit and miss for me.

On the one hand, the premise was excellent. The acting was generally excellent with one exception (see below). I liked the introduction of The Cabal, it adds another potentially interesting dynamic to the show and it's mythos. The many possibilities about who/what the Morrigan are that were discussed was refreshing -- I like it when they protagonists don't always get it right first time. It was great to see the logical mind of Will butt up against the fantastical reality of the situation, until he ultimately had to stop trying to reason with logic and just deal with it.

On the other hand, Ashley continues to be one of the worst written and acted characters in any show ever. Her dialogue is always bad and often cheesey, her fight sequences are beyond stupid, her whole image is as cliché as it gets. Take a bad character, add in bad acting, and the result is not pretty. She really brings the whole show down -- kill her ASAP.

Another problem was the rather obvious error Will made of stepping on the symbol in the crypt without even noticing or considering it. That was pretty inconsistent with the pilot where he noticed small details in the apartment. An obvious symbol surrounded by 3 stone coffins radiating from it would seem easy to spot by comparison. I suppose a minor niggle though really.

Overall, pretty enjoyable with a few low points, but quite a few high points.

[Skydiver]

i do see your point abouot will, but i do think, in this case, it's a matter of reusing the webby and its premise, and will - in the webby - wasn't a super attentive ex csi/fbi, he was a slightly fumbling/bumbling psychiotherapist that had never dealt with anything like this.

we'll see if it continues and if he is again 'stupid to further the plot'

Ashley, she does need to find her nitch and she needs some humanization.

I think, to see the 'full' extent of the character changes/tweakages, we'll have to wait for Folding Man and the other episodes. this coming friday will be the first 100% new (except for any flashbacks from the webbies that they might use)

[Amalthea]

I liked this episode a lot. I missed the Arthurian references, but this works too. I think the Morgana are going to be back, that's for sure, and they're probably going to make that group pay for what they did.

I'm definitely looking forward to next week's episode since I think it will be all new plot and all that. The old stuff was pretty obvious in this episode. I kept noticing the pink streak in her hair that was there in the Webisodes but not in the new stuff. Not that it matters, but it made me chuckle a little.

[CarnalPIE]

So how many more web episodes were turned into full episodes? Is all of season 1 going to be filled with discussions of the differences and missing "allowance lines" or is it going to be just the first couple?

Anyway, I never saw any web episodes so I took this as it was. And what it was, was excellent! I am really enjoying this series. It has that Stargate flavor (no surprise there) but with a new direction and new characters. I'm already hooked.

Specifically for this episode, I enjoyed this different take on a witch story. I mean, compare this to the first Buffy witch story or many others on other shows. Witch doesn't always have to mean straight evil so it was nice to see a different take.

Question: That electric shield we saw in the pilot. Is that effective ONLY against Helen's old flame? I was expecting it to cause problems with this invading force this week and it didn't.

Which brings up another point. Two episodes and two home invasions. Not good. Helen's security is about as bad as Smallville's Lex Luthor mansion.

[ann_sgcfan]

So how many more web episodes were turned into full episodes? Is all of season 1 going to be filled with discussions of the differences and missing "allowance lines" or is it going to be just the first couple?

Anyway, I never saw any web episodes so I took this as it was. And what it was, was excellent! I am really enjoying this series. It has that Stargate flavor (no surprise there) but with a new direction and new characters. I'm already hooked.

Specifically for this episode, I enjoyed this different take on a witch story. I mean, compare this to the first Buffy witch story or many others on other shows. Witch doesn't always have to mean straight evil so it was nice to see a different take.

Question: That electric shield we saw in the pilot. Is that effective ONLY against Helen's old flame? I was expecting it to cause problems with this invading force this week and it didn't.

Which brings up another point. Two episodes and two home invasions. Not good. Helen's security is about as bad as Smallville's Lex Luthor mansion.

Nope that's it for the webisodes. From here on out it's new... there may be some flashbacks that they haven't shown yet of Helen ... but it's only enough for a few scenes not an entire episode.

I enjoyed the episodes as well!

The reason the force field didn't work is because when the sisters/witches were flying around in the lab they fried all the electrical equipment there and damaged the Sanctuary's external shield... That is what Henry was doing outside trying to fix it.

I've seen a few screen shots from later eppy's so I don't think it will always be an invasion on the Sanctuary.

[EvenstarSRV]

So how many more web episodes were turned into full episodes? Is all of season 1 going to be filled with discussions of the differences and missing "allowance lines" or is it going to be just the first couple?

Just these two episodes had footage and storylines from the webisodes. There were 8 webisodes total, 1-4 were altered/expanded and became Sanctuary for All (101 and 102), and 5-8 were altered/expanded to become Fata Morgana (103).

Starting with Folding Man (104) there will be all-new footage and storylines. The only thing left from the webisodes that they might reuse are a few flashbacks to Magnus's past in Victorian England.

Anyway, I never saw any web episodes so I took this as it was. And what it was, was excellent! I am really enjoying this series. It has that Stargate flavor (no surprise there) but with a new direction and new characters. I'm already hooked.

I'm loving the series too, and now I kinda wish I hadn't seen the webisodes because then I'd be able to watch it with fresh eyes like you could. I can't wait for the all-new stuff next week.

EDIT: Do'h! ann_sgcfan beat me to the answer.

[SamJackShipper93]

Just wanted to say how much I like the character of Ashley.

It's very nice to see a girl who's fearless, courageous, sharp-witted and smart, and while she could very well have that rebellious teenage personality, she's not at all sarcastic or disrespectful to Helen. They seem to have a wonderful relationship, working and personal, and I don't think we see that enough on TV (or in real life) today!

Loved Fata Morgana, can't wait til next week's ep!

[AutumnDream]

I am actually enjoying this show. I never saw the internet version, but yeah. I'm just sorta watching it without being critical and enjoying the very pretty gothic visuals and humor which is actually pretty amusing, quite unlike SG's humor in recent years which is basically OH HEY WE MADE A CUTE POP CULTURE REFERENCE HA HA.

Erm, yeah. Enjoyable show. Will is cool. Good job.

[majorsal]

Just wanted to say how much I like the character of Ashley.

It's very nice to see a girl who's fearless, courageous, sharp-witted and smart, and while she could very well have that rebellious teenage personality, she's not at all sarcastic or disrespectful to Helen. They seem to have a wonderful relationship, working and personal, and I don't think we see that enough on TV (or in real life) today!

Loved Fata Morgana, can't wait til next week's ep!

i loved their interactions in the ep too! like, when helen's in ashley's room (and holding her cup of tea ), and just wanting to make sure her daughter would be careful and safe. and their loving kiss goodbye. i also chuckled when helen called her while ash was on the roof of some building (or ash called her), and when helen asked ashley if she got hurt and ash said no, helen said she'd change the bandages when she got home.

[mr_kennedy]

pretty good episode

as a new fan, i still havent gotten use to amanda tappings voice, but its no biggie

i really like ashley's character, kind of reminds of o'niell (kind of)

[hisg1fans]

my thoughts on 'fata mogana'.

loved it!
..............snip..........
very cool scene of ashley hanging out at the end of the brooklyn bridge... really curious on what happened to the bridge and society for that to happen.

..........snip.........
sally

I liked the bridge scene too.

In the webisodes, didn't we see Ashley driving her bike all the way across the bridge? Can't wait to see what happened to the bridge either.

[jasminaGo]

Well, I liked most of the changes, but some not so much. Over all it was a good ep. My favourite part was definitely the Helen/Ashley interaction. I like this version of Ashley much better then the "hate the world" attitude she had before, although she's just as dangerous as she was then. The changes in the witch story were also very good, it leaves an open door for them to come back in the future and it made for a nice introduction of the new bad guys. Also love the bada$$ Helen act, you do not want to get on her bad side. What I didn't like so much was the cut out humour that made me snicker in the webs. Hopefully they'll be adding it up in the future eps.

And I'm glad the old material is basically over, now I can just sit back and enjoy the show for what it is, not what it was, because no matter how much I tried not to, I just went back to comparing the two versions.

[Frostfox]

Didn't like it as much as the premier.

Mythology was a bit of a mishmash.

Morrigan is Irish Celtic.
Music was Irish Celtic.
Girls found in Scotland, not in Ireland.
Girls last battle at Baden Hill (Somerset) about 350 miles from Scotland.
Girls home in Scotland? Or Ireland? Or Somerset?

Morrigan is a battle field goddess but Danu isn't one of her names (different goddess entirely). I should look up the other girls names, but The White Goddess is still about and there are plenty of other lists online of Her names, shouldn't have been hard to find a suitable one.

This is the one which really puzzled me, Morrigan has no connection (bar the similarity of name, though the names have different roots) with Morgan/Fata Morgana/Arthurian myth cycle (Welsh/English with a healthy dose of later French romance). So why Fata Morgana as the episode title and why bring Arthurian myths in at all?

Last dose of plague in Scotland, 1900, not 900. Even a Canadian school boy should know about the Great Plague in 1665, decimated most of Europe, including Scotland.

Ashley needs more work, more personality beyond her proto-Buffy fight skills. Great shot of her coming up through the water.
I was more aware of CGI this week, assume it was earlier CGI from webisodes re-used.
Helen is morally ambiguous, hope this leads to more conflict with Wil.
Liked the addition of another group with interests in supernatural creatures, wonder what their agenda is?

Hope my disappointment with this week is just a blip (due to knowing way too much about Celtic mythology and goddess' in particular) still looking forward to next week and new material not on the webisodes.

FF

[suse]

Overall I liked the ep. It had some ups and downs that I hope will be taken care of when they have all new footage. ( I'm gonna miss Helen's red streak.)

I rather liked the wep versions of the sisters - a bit darker, not malleable like they are in the ep.

Ashley was much better. Not so bratty.

Loved Helen kicking butt when needed.

I'm gonna have to find another (legal) way to get the episodes. Streaming from scifi and hulu isn't working isn't working. Well, it is, but not...well. Dialogue and video don't mesh well. Old computer...

suse