Stargate Atlantis 08/01/08 "The Daedalus Variations"

[Anubys]

so...I hope I'm not starting a duplicate thread...can't find another, though...

eh...not a bad ep...not good, either...shooting at the weird ship was such BS, though...getting into a fight when you don't have the power and you have no clue about the enemy's capabilities was an amazingly stupid decision...

but it's always fun to see how Rodney can destroy universes ;)

[jpwoof]

the conversation between the 2 Shepperds is awkward.

[RGM1138]

That green, hulking thing that was tossing Ronin around like a rag doll - I'd hate to meet him in a dark universe.

Maybe they'll come back during some upcoming transdimensional rip ep.

Bob

[jking]

That green, hulking thing that was tossing Ronin around like a rag doll - I'd hate to meet him in a dark universe.

Maybe they'll come back during some upcoming transdimensional rip ep.

Bob

Considering the universe they were in at the time seemed somewhat similar to our own, I was thinking they might not have to come back through a dimensional rip. This species might also exist in our universe as well. As a matter of fact, this might have been the writers' way of introducing a new future enemy.

When Ronin first encountered that guy, my first thought was "it's the Borg".

[justen_m]

When Ronin first encountered that guy, my first thought was "it's the Borg".
+1
I thought the exact same thing.

I liked all the battles in this episode. Lots of action. Usually that would turn me off a bit, but I really don't expect any original sci-fi, so I have low expectations to begin with.

[jking]

..shooting at the weird ship was such BS, though...getting into a fight when you don't have the power and you have no clue about the enemy's capabilities was an amazingly stupid decision...

I agree. Monumentally stupid.

Did anyone else think Rodney was extremely annoying in this episode? He was constantly yelling and being a general smarta** to everyone. I know that's what he does, but for some reason in this episode it seemed to stand out more. He seemed to have more of a mean tone to his demeanor, rather than his usual tone of superiority.

[newsposter]

burying yourself sucks..but i guess they are used to it. I guess they have plot possibilities if rod decides to make this thing behind closed doors and is experimenting etc.

[danieljanderson]

This was a good episode of Sliders.

[sushikitten]

DAMN ****ING CABLE COMPANY, DOING A SYSTEM UPDATE. It always turns the box off, and we never notice. We missed this, and there don't seem to be any repeats yet. GRRR.

[Rob Helmerichs]

DAMN ****ING CABLE COMPANY, DOING A SYSTEM UPDATE. It always turns the box off, and we never notice. We missed this, and there don't seem to be any repeats yet. GRRR.
I remember the good old days when Sci-Fi used to rerun all their original shows multiple times through the week. USA still does that--granted, not tons of showings, but a few--so it can't be a corporate thing. I can't believe they can't find a few time slots that would be better served by Stargate or whatever than by the filler they put in now...

[Sherminator]

This was a good episode of Sliders.:up:

Also, when you manage to disarm a more powerful enemy, WHY DON'T YOU USE THEIR WEAPON????

If you create what you believe to be the most powerful hand gun in existence, then you should create the armor to be able to resist it. So if you come across a weapon greater than yours, then the armor would most likely be greater also.

[drew2k]

I agree. Monumentally stupid.

Did anyone else think Rodney was extremely annoying in this episode? He was constantly yelling and being a general smarta** to everyone. I know that's what he does, but for some reason in this episode it seemed to stand out more. He seemed to have more of a mean tone to his demeanor, rather than his usual tone of superiority.
I thought the same, right from the start when he snapped at Teyla.

Hey ... there was a first in this episode, for me, at least. John Sheppard smiled! Who knew all it would require was a conversation with himself! :p

[Amnesia]

They lost another jumper. How many is that so far in the series? When I saw the other jumper in the ship, at first I thought: well, finally, they'll get one back, but no...

[cheesesteak]

Also, when you manage to disarm a more powerful enemy, WHY DON'T YOU USE THEIR WEAPON????
Bingo. I kept wondering why they didn't keep the dead bad guys' blasters. Even if it wasn't much more powerful than Ronon's, it came from another universe and might yield some technological goodies.

They keep landing in alternate universes with exact parallels of themselves. By chance they should jump to an alternate universe where Rodney is a crackhead or works in McDonalds or died in a car crash or never existed.

[Anubys]

well, they did land in a universe where the Atlantis planet did not exist...

[Amnesia]

They keep landing in alternate universes with exact parallels of themselves. By chance they should jump to an alternate universe where Rodney is a crackhead or works in McDonalds or died in a car crash or never existed.How do you know they haven't? Maybe in the aliens-attacking-Atlantis universe, Rodney died in a car crash on his way to McDonalds...

[Rob Helmerichs]

How do you know they haven't? Maybe in the aliens-attacking-Atlantis universe, Rodney died in a car crash on his way to McDonalds...
If only he hadn't made that detour to buy crack...

[Anubys]

How do you know they haven't? Maybe in the aliens-attacking-Atlantis universe, Rodney died in a car crash on his way to McDonalds...

no, no, no...the aliens were attacking Atlantis because Rodney was there!

[gchance]

When Ronin first encountered that guy, my first thought was "it's the Borg".

+1
I thought the exact same thing.

Oh, same here. These bad guys weren't exactly original.

Did anyone else think Rodney was extremely annoying in this episode? He was constantly yelling and being a general smarta** to everyone. I know that's what he does, but for some reason in this episode it seemed to stand out more. He seemed to have more of a mean tone to his demeanor, rather than his usual tone of superiority.

I specifically told my wife, you'd think that after what, 4 years (or is it 5), Rodney would have changed enough as a human being to realize that he's really not doing anybody any good when he's like that. I would think that he'd have his attitude in his own lab, but when on a mission he'd know how to A) keep it at bay and B) not be so amazingly whiny. It used to be funny, now it's just annoying.

Bingo. I kept wondering why they didn't keep the dead bad guys' blasters. Even if it wasn't much more powerful than Ronon's, it came from another universe and might yield some technological goodies.

It doesn't matter if it isn't much more powerful than Ronon's, Sheppard wants one just as good or better. He should have kept it. :)

Greg

[Jonathan_S]

They lost another jumper. How many is that so far in the series? When I saw the other jumper in the ship, at first I thought: well, finally, they'll get one back, but no...
Well I spent a decent part of the episode wondering why they forgot about the pair of jumpers in the landing bay.

(paraphrased)
McKay - 'We need more power, I've tapped into everything the ship has'
me - 'except the pair of jumpers; you could spare at least one's power source'
---
Shepard - 'The fighters are closing, there's nothing we can do'
me - 'don't those jumpers carry drones? Take it just outside and kill of some of the approaching fighters'

[pkscout]

Shepard - 'The fighters are closing, there's nothing we can do'
me - 'don't those jumpers carry drones? Take it just outside and kill of some of the approaching fighters'

For this one they kind of explained it at the beginning. They had no idea when the ship would jump again, so they didn't want to leave it for fear of getting stranded. Good point on the first one though.

[BitbyBlit]

McKay - 'We need more power, I've tapped into everything the ship has'
me - 'except the pair of jumpers; you could spare at least one's power source'

Well, we don't know that the other jumper had any power left. The first Atlantis team might have used it up for something. Also, the last 2 percent of power didn't take that long to charge up on its own, so it would have likely taken longer to wire up a jumper to utilize its power than to simply wait for the device to charge up.

I think Rodney just meant that he had redirected all the power he could, not that he had literally tapped into all the power available on the ship. I'm sure there were lots of portable devices laying around that had power in them as well, but Rodney only had time to do so much, and redirecting power would have the biggest benefit.

[Jonathan_S]

For this one they kind of explained it at the beginning. They had no idea when the ship would jump again, so they didn't want to leave it for fear of getting stranded. Good point on the first one though.But by the point of the 2nd shoot-out with the fighters they did have a way to estimate the time left. Kind of a rough estimate, but if you're at 50% charge you've got time to pop out fire off all your drones and duck back aboard. Even with the patented Rodney 'fast charge' it takes more that a few minutes to charge up and it doesn't take long at all to fire off all the drones a jumper can carry.

[Jonathan_S]

Well, we don't know that the other jumper had any power left. The first Atlantis team might have used it up for something. Also, the last 2 percent of power didn't take that long to charge up on its own, so it would have likely taken longer to wire up a jumper to utilize its power than to simply wait for the device to charge up.
Yeah, but at least their jumper should have had near full power levels, and they could have investigated draining its power before draining the shields into the capacitor.

Heck, knowing they were going to end up back in the red giant again, they could have gotten it wired up while manuvering away in the furthest alternate universe, prior to even jumping back to the red giant.

[Church AV Guy]

I thought this was a pretty bad episode. It was uninspired, and derivitive, and to me, sounded like a rejected script written in season 1 or 2, rewritten for the currrent season. Nearly everything seemed a bit off. I was unimpressed. I sure hope Atlantis doesn't spin out to nowhere like Galactica did.

Ronan seems to have completely recovered very quickly.

Teyla seems to have learned pretty quickly from that brief lesson into the ship's operation. Luckily, THAT part of the alternate universe was identical. Poor writing.

The only thing that could redeem this is if it is a springboard for future stories: the redevelopment of the dimensional drive, the discovery of the Borg-type enemy, the sun exploding? (Nah!).

[Amnesia]

Ronan seems to have completely recovered very quickly.How do you know? It could have been months since the last episode...

[jking]

A small nitpick, but when the fighters were chasing them the second time and they went to "impulse" power or whatever they call it, when they ran out of power the ship appeared to start slowing down. But it shouldn't have; inertia and all.

[pkscout]

But by the point of the 2nd shoot-out with the fighters they did have a way to estimate the time left. Kind of a rough estimate, but if you're at 50% charge you've got time to pop out fire off all your drones and duck back aboard. Even with the patented Rodney 'fast charge' it takes more that a few minutes to charge up and it doesn't take long at all to fire off all the drones a jumper can carry.

The only person dumb enough to take on that job would be a guy in a red shirt. ;)

[Johncv]

DAMN ****ING CABLE COMPANY, DOING A SYSTEM UPDATE. It always turns the box off, and we never notice. We missed this, and there don't seem to be any repeats yet. GRRR.

It can be downloaded from Amazon. Just rent it.

[Amnesia]

[W]hen they ran out of power the ship appeared to start slowing down. But it shouldn't have; inertia and all.Maybe, maybe not. We don't know how the drive works.

But in any case, what made you think that it was slowing down? Because the fighters were catching up? Perhaps with no power, the ship's acceleration dropped to zero while the fighters' kept increasing...

[Sherminator]

A small nitpick, but when the fighters were chasing them the second time and they went to "impulse" power or whatever they call it, when they ran out of power the ship appeared to start slowing down. But it shouldn't have; inertia and all.Yes it should have.

The Daedalus may not have continued to accelerate because it had no more thrust.

But the enemy fighters still had thrusters so would be able to increase their speed towards the Daedalus, making it appear that it was slowing down.

[busyba]

A small nitpick, but when the fighters were chasing them the second time and they went to "impulse" power or whatever they call it, when they ran out of power the ship appeared to start slowing down. But it shouldn't have; inertia and all.

Well, out in space there's really no frame of reference by which you can judge that the ship was slowing down. ;)

All we see is that the fighters start to gain ground, and that would happen since the fighters are still accelerating and the ship is going at a constant velocity.

[jking]

Maybe, maybe not. We don't know how the drive works.

But in any case, what made you think that it was slowing down? Because the fighters were catching up? Perhaps with no power, the ship's acceleration dropped to zero while the fighters' kept increasing...

Yes it should have.

The Daedalus may not have continued to accelerate because it had no more thrust.

But the enemy fighters still had thrusters so would be able to increase their speed towards the Daedalus, making it appear that it was slowing down.

Well, out in space there's really no frame of reference by which you can judge that the ship was slowing down. ;)

All we see is that the fighters start to gain ground, and that would happen since the fighters are still accelerating and the ship is going at a constant velocity.

Obviously the fighters would have caught up anyway, I'm not saying they wouldn't have. And I took that into account as I was watching. But something about that scene (perhaps something else in the background, I can't say because I no longer have the ep) gave me the impression that the ship was slowing to the point that it actually stopped. But of course you are all correct. This is consistently such a well written show, there's no way the writers might have made a mistake.

[busyba]

Obviously the fighters would have caught up anyway, I'm not saying they wouldn't have. And I took that into account as I was watching. But something about that scene (perhaps something else in the background, I can't say because I no longer have the ep) gave me the impression that the ship was slowing to the point that it actually stopped. But of course you are all correct. This is consistently such a well written show, there's no way the writers might have made a mistake.

Apology accepted.



:p

[Sherminator]

Obviously the fighters would have caught up anyway, I'm not saying they wouldn't have. And I took that into account as I was watching. But something about that scene (perhaps something else in the background, I can't say because I no longer have the ep) gave me the impression that the ship was slowing to the point that it actually stopped. But of course you are all correct. This is consistently such a well written show, there's no way the writers might have made a mistake.You have also forgotten that the camera ship was also accelerating, but at a rate slower than the attacking fighters, along with the camera using a star in the background as a pivot point, whilst still focusing on the Daedalus, it would appear that it was stopping. ;) :p

Anyway, SG:A isn't the first to incorporate the physics of friction in a near frictionless environment, and it won't be the last, so why complain about it now?

[sushikitten]

Did anyone else think Rodney was extremely annoying in this episode? He was constantly yelling and being a general smarta** to everyone. I know that's what he does, but for some reason in this episode it seemed to stand out more. He seemed to have more of a mean tone to his demeanor, rather than his usual tone of superiority.

I might be a smarta$$ as well if I was expected to save the crew/expedition/planet/Atlantis/universe every episode...or a few times an episode! :p