Stargate: Atlantis 5/11/2007 (S03E15) "The Game"

[dswallow]

As this episode was getting underway and they discovered the game was controlling events in real life, it immediately reminded me of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series. It's certainly not as rip-off; just influenced by, I think.

Considering it had to fit within a one-hour episode, it wasn't too bad. Entertaining, at least. More Rodney, unfortunately. :)

[Anubys]

is that were the kids are training in a simulation game to fight the bugs from another planet?

if so, great book but I say the resemblance is tenuous at best...I just thought "sim city" for real...which is pretty cool, actually...

[drew2k]

As this episode was getting underway and they discovered the game was controlling events in real life, it immediately reminded me of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series. It's certainly not as rip-off; just influenced by, I think.

Considering it had to fit within a one-hour episode, it wasn't too bad. Entertaining, at least. More Rodney, unfortunately. :)I thought it was horrible. The Atlantis team went to the planet, discovered the "game" was real and that the two nations were no longer allies and that tensions were running high between them. As soon as they learned this, the team should have hopped back in the puddle jumper, returned to Atlantis, and resumed the "game" ... this time with the intent on mending fences between the two neighboring nations. Rodney should have instructed Daisy (Geldar's leader) to accept the damned oranges. Shepard should have instructed baldie's nation to start scaling back the armed forces. Etc.

Once they returned the two nations to trading partners, then they should have turned off the game and walked away. They needed to undo three years of meddling with a focused plan, but instead we got ... what we got.

I hated this episode.

[justen_m]

As this episode was getting underway and they discovered the game was controlling events in real life, it immediately reminded me of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series. It's certainly not as rip-off; just influenced by, I think.

Considering it had to fit within a one-hour episode, it wasn't too bad. Entertaining, at least. More Rodney, unfortunately. :)

"How about Global Thermonuclear War.
Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?
Later. Right now lets play Global Thermonuclear War.
Fine. "

Combo of Ender's Game(book), Wargames(movie), Civilization/SimCity/MiscGodGames(computer games).

Good story. I don't recall reading/watching anything quite like this before. Not all the elements together. I thought the ending was a bit trite. I would've liked a darker ending, where the two civs end up destroying each other.

[zordude]

I thought it was ok.

I found it pretty unlikely that the other two guys would start playing the game after they knew the impact, and had been expressly forbidden to do it.

Z

[cheesesteak]

I think a high school student wrote this episode. It stank.

As soon as I saw Rodney's portrait, I groaned "Another Rodney episode?"

This show seriously, seriously, seriously needs to change its off-world sets.

[Anubys]

This show seriously, seriously, seriously needs to change its off-world sets.

well, now we're starting to discover why all the worlds look the same (just like we found out why that is on SG-1...all these worlds are created by the Atlantians...

[drew2k]

Just how bad was this episode? It's 48 hours later and only 6 people have bothered to post in this thread ...

[quango]

I don't think it was bad.

As for "why didn't they go back and de-screw everything?" I think there are two issues: one, Weir seems to think she's under the Prime Directive, and two, it's not obvious that it would have worked (both sides were ignoring Rodney and Sheppard towards the end).

[danterner]

It wasn't one of their better episodes, IMHO. Like Doug mentioned, it reminded me of Ender's Game - the plots were divergent, but the general conceit was the same. One thing that I did like, though, had to do with the final "twist" at the end of the episode where it is revealed that

the all-out war was just being simulated for the villages, to show them what it would be like. As I was watching the show and saw some of the explosions in the background, I thought to myself "wow that's bad CG work - normally SG:A does better" - it was nice to see that it was intentionally bad, because they were only simulated explosions.

One part that bothered me was Weir's reaction to Zalenka and [whatever-his-name-is] disobeying a direct order, when they started playing the game themselves. She fumed a little bit, and then that was that? Talk about undermining your own authority...

Next week looks better, I think.

[Jonathan_S]

I don't think it was bad.

As for "why didn't they go back and de-screw everything?" I think there are two issues: one, Weir seems to think she's under the Prime Directive, and two, it's not obvious that it would have worked (both sides were ignoring Rodney and Sheppard towards the end).
But they were ignoring Rodney and Sheppard after both of them had revealed themselves to be human, and after each had specifically told their side that they had to start thinking for themselves.

That doesn't mean that the sides would have ignored orders from their Oracles that would have led to reduced tensions, assuming that the Oracles had just continued as before, but with a different aim in mind.


Picky technical note.
The bit about the bomb being "able to take out a whole village" was really dumb.
Do you have any idea how large a conventional bomb would need to be to take out a village? And how heavy? A modern 2000 lbs high explosive bomb probably wouldn't do it (depending on village size).
How exactly is something that large and heavy going to be lifted by a primitive zeppelin that is moved by hand cranked propellers?

[7thton]

I enjoyed this episode, but thought that it was dumb that they were trying to convince the 2 sides to live in peace when they could easily just force them to by telling them to via the game. In other words, just log in to the game and tell the 2 cities to live peacefully. Problem solved!

[retrodog]

I thought it was pretty stooopid. But I guess it was a lesson on not messing with things that you don't really understand.

Guess I'll leave that red button, under my desk, alone.

:p

[dswallow]

Guess I'll leave that red button, under my desk, alone.
http://www.staples.com/sbd/img/cat/std/s0105150_std.jpg

[DouglasPHill]

This show was boring.

[danterner]

Originally posted by retrodog
Guess I'll leave that red button, under my desk, alone.

Nah, Doug - I'm pretty sure he means:

http://wow.danterner.promessage.com/RedButtons.jpg

[ZeoTiVo]

I thought it was pretty stooopid. But I guess it was a lesson on not messing with things that you don't really understand.

Guess I'll leave that red button, under my desk, alone.

:p
I agree. I was thinking the same thing. Just a simple plot for the writers to explore human relations without any thought as to how Wier as a commander should really handle the whole situation. Maybe those guys from the oversight committe were right all along about her and she will be replaced soon, but who could they get to replace her? hhmmm.........

[retrodog]

I agree. I was thinking the same thing. Just a simple plot for the writers to explore human relations without any thought as to how Wier as a commander should really handle the whole situation. Maybe those guys from the oversight committe were right all along about her and she will be replaced soon, but who could they get to replace her? hhmmm.........
I hope it's not the doctor from Voyager. What a tool.

[dylking]

One part that bothered me was Weir's reaction to Zalenka and [whatever-his-name-is] disobeying a direct order, when they started playing the game themselves. She fumed a little bit, and then that was that? Talk about undermining your own authority...
Yeah - my thought there was that the next line was going to be:

"Now go to your rooms and think about what you've done".

[marrone]

Ya know, this isn't an ethical move by the ancients.

I'm beginning to think the Ori are actually the good guys.

-Mike

[Amnesia]

I'm beginning to think the Ori are actually the good guys.You mean the people whose followers destroy planets that refuse to worship them?

[dcheesi]

A little OT, but: I understand that not everyone cares for Rodney; what I can't fathom is why you would watch this show in spite of him? :confused: Personally, Rodney McKay is the only reason I've watched this show lately!

Maybe I'm missing something, but the show, and most of the characters, just don't grab me the way SG-1 does (/did :(). But I like McKay, and find it worth watching an episode just for his humorous interactions.

[mportuesi]

Ya know, this isn't an ethical move by the ancients.

The "civilization game" was built by pre-ascension ancients. Perhaps they developed their code of ethics further after they ascended.

[Anubys]

The "civilization game" was built by pre-ascension ancients. Perhaps they developed their code of ethics further after they ascended.

I have a different spin on that...who says it's not ethical to interfere? I know about the "prime directive", but I doubt they heard about Star Trek ;)

as far as social experimentation goes, it's perfectly legit...we continue to do the same thing with tribes in Africa, for example...

I don't see where making people's lives advance and prosper guided by a more advanced civilization as unethical behavior...

and yes, I love Rodney :p