Stargate Atlantis 02/18/2005 (S01E15) "Before I Sleep"

Jonathan_S · 02-18-2005, 09:13 PM

Hey, the time travel puddle jumper from SG-1 two weeks ago. (Well, ok, technically not the same ship, but Janus built the SG-1 ship as well).

Normally I dislike time travel episodes, but this one was well done. I liked the backstory about the original timeline results of getting to Atlantis, and how the ancients hadn't had to foresight to build in the failsafe to raise the city.

Plus this ties back nicely to the fact that two out of the three ZPMs were drained when the team got to atlantis this time.

Plus, 4 more chances to find a charged ZPM that nobody is using. That should have some interesting results in the next few episodes.

I do sort of wonder about the damage that last transport ship was taking, given that the massive system defence station discovered by Shepard three episodes back should have still been online. I would have thought it would have kept the Wraith futher away from the planet.

super dave · 02-19-2005, 07:25 AM

I enjoyed all of the "Back To The Future" references.

shaunrose · 02-19-2005, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by super dave

I enjoyed all of the "Back To The Future" references.

I liked how Rodney said not to get him started talking about all of the problems with that movie. Reminds me of some of the threads I've seen here!

Anubys · 02-19-2005, 12:51 PM

the banter between all the guys about how they couldn't hack it the first time and died was pretty good.

The old Elizabeth knowing about the birthday present that the young Elizabeth got from Sheppard was an error, though...unless you can assume that they wasted time telling the dying woman all that has happened since they got to Atlantis (which would be stupid)...

MirclMax · 02-19-2005, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anubys

The old Elizabeth knowing about the birthday present that the young Elizabeth got from Sheppard was an error, though...unless you can assume that they wasted time telling the dying woman all that has happened since they got to Atlantis (which would be stupid)...

I don't still have the episode .. but as I recall it, the "old Elizabeth" just references their birthday (as things the "young Elizabeth" should just learn to chill and enjoy) .. not a direct reference to the birthday present. "Young Elizabeth" then makes a comment about Sheppard .. the presumption I had was that Sheppard wished the "old Elizabeth" a happy birthday as well.. and thus "old Elizabeth" knew what day she was back on.

Nothing seems "wrong" about any of that to me.

newswatcher · 02-19-2005, 01:22 PM

Still can't figure out why the consoles at Atlantis need to be tarp covered. Could it be that dusty there? Especially underwater (initially) and even after it has surfaced...

I did like this episode but they talk so fast (as they do on so many other shows like Numb3rs,
and expecially with Atlantis) that I am compelled to turn on the caption feature. Slow it down folks: is there a race here to see how many words you can fit into an episode?

lordrichter · 02-19-2005, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan_S

Hey, the time travel puddle jumper from SG-1 two weeks ago. (Well, ok, technically not the same ship, but Janus built the SG-1 ship as well).

Despite evidence to the contrary, I believe that it is too coincidental that two puddle jumpers with time devices on them exist in two different times in two different universes. Sure he took his research material with him, but where did he get the puddle jumper to mount his new time device in?

No, there were 10,000 years for the "destroyed" puddle jumper to get to our galaxy, and I think it did.

It would not surprise me if he PLANNED to come back to get it, given the fact that he knew that the city would remain powered for 10,000 years.

It's not like Wehr would run into him...

Kamakzie · 02-19-2005, 03:06 PM

I really enjoyed the episode. I guess I am in the minority but I generally enjoy time travel episodes.

atrac · 02-19-2005, 04:40 PM

Is it just me or is Torri Higginson HOT!?!?! I like her a lot. And for some reason she reminds me of Debrah Farentino from "Earth 2." I'm not sure why though. Maybe it's the whole matriarchal aspect of both characters that are similar.

bobbi · 02-19-2005, 08:22 PM

My initial instinct had been that this was going to be lousy, since I figured out pretty early that the old lady was Dr. Weir, but I actually thought this was a great episode. Really well done, and a lot of fun to watch. Nothing deep, but nothing on Atlantis HAS been so far, so it's not like I expected that.

jeepair · 02-19-2005, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan_S

I do sort of wonder about the damage that last transport ship was taking, given that the massive system defence station discovered by Shepard three episodes back should have still been online. I would have thought it would have kept the Wraith futher away from the planet.

Was that the same planet as the one Atlantis is on? I thought that was a different planet. The night was long and cold etc.

Nice to see some exploring of Atlantis going on.

edhara · 02-19-2005, 08:49 PM

The one thing that I had an issue with is the fact that I thought the Atlanteans were supposed to have ascended and disappeared, not left for earth never to return - which doesn't quite jive with what I understood from last week's episode. Or am I missing something?

IndyJones1023 · 02-19-2005, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newswatcher

Still can't figure out why the consoles at Atlantis need to be tarp covered.

They didn't. That was just an "Earth thing" Dr. Weir did. Coming from our timeframe and traditions, when she was closing up shop, so to speak, she naturally covered the consoles just as someone would on Earth who was boarding up a house. It's funny, because when they were showing the flashback of the team untarping the consoles, I too wondered why the Atlanteans would do that. Then, half an hour later, we see Weir tarping the consoles herself, a very Earth thing to do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by atrac

Is it just me or is Torri Higginson HOT!?!?! I like her a lot. And for some reason she reminds me of Debrah Farentino from "Earth 2." I'm not sure why though. Maybe it's the whole matriarchal aspect of both characters that are similar.

Ummm, I think it's just you. She's certainly no dog, but I wouldn't place her in the hot category. She absolutely reminds me of Farentino from Earth 2, however.

And my thoughts about this episode: wow! Really great writing, especially for a time travel/mini-clip episode. I couldn't tell where the new clips departed from the old ones. Very effective use, IMHO.

I also am loving the interplay between Sheppard and McKay more and more. Man, this show has great humor embedded within fun storytelling. Here's to 10,000 more years of Atlantis!

wedgecon · 02-19-2005, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by edhara

The one thing that I had an issue with is the fact that I thought the Atlanteans were supposed to have ascended and disappeared, not left for earth never to return - which doesn't quite jive with what I understood from last week's episode. Or am I missing something?

I don't think the full story on that has been revealed. The Altanteans of 10,000 years ago seem to already have been in decline for some time. I think the majority of the Atlanteans had already "Ascended" by then.

There are other questions such as why have the Asgard not ascended as they are almost as old as the Atlanteans? Is it because of their beliefs or mistakes they made such as cloning?

Also they have never revealed who the furlings are and what their role might have been. We know about the Nox and it seems some of them may have ascended but there are still some of them around also.

newswatcher · 02-20-2005, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndyJones1023

They didn't. That was just an "Earth thing" Dr. Weir did. Coming from our timeframe and traditions, when she was closing up shop, so to speak, she naturally covered the consoles just as someone would on Earth who was boarding up a house. It's funny, because when they were showing the flashback of the team untarping the consoles, I too wondered why the Atlanteans would do that. Then, half an hour later, we see Weir tarping the consoles herself, a very Earth thing to do.

Yeah, but she obviously wasn't on earth, which I think she knew.

Just seemed kind of strange since the city was under water when she originally
tarped them. I think she tarped them due to the construction that was taking
place on the set. Don't believe I said that! Anyway, I found it (the event itself,
the tarping) to be ludicrous. Maybe she wanted to protect the equipment from
water leakage. Or, maybe she didn't want to mess up the timeline for events to
follow 10,000 years later.

And yes, I've got the hots for Torri Higginson. Goes all the way back to "Storm of the Century." Very attractive lady. She could easily pass (except for height) for Sigourney Weaver's sister...

A little trivia from imdb.com:

Has appeared in two different, completely unrelated productions which featured a character named Janus: "TekWar" (1994) and "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004).

atrac · 02-20-2005, 01:31 AM

Hubba hubba!

cheesesteak · 02-20-2005, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Is it just me or is Torri Higginson HOT!?!?!

I thought so this episode, too. I also wondered if anyone has ever seen her and Pierce Brosnan at the same time and place.

IndyJones1023 · 02-20-2005, 06:47 AM

Be careful, ulkanda is a spammer.

lordrichter · 02-20-2005, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndyJones1023

They didn't. That was just an "Earth thing" Dr. Weir did. Coming from our timeframe and traditions, when she was closing up shop, so to speak, she naturally covered the consoles just as someone would on Earth who was boarding up a house. It's funny, because when they were showing the flashback of the team untarping the consoles, I too wondered why the Atlanteans would do that. Then, half an hour later, we see Weir tarping the consoles herself, a very Earth thing to do.

And a point for the editing team and writers in that the original Atlantis party did not take plastic off the consoles but they did show the "second" Atlantis party doing just that.

zync · 02-20-2005, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndyJones1023

It's funny, because when they were showing the flashback of the team untarping the consoles, I too wondered why the Atlanteans would do that. Then, half an hour later, we see Weir tarping the consoles herself, a very Earth thing to do.

Except that the 1st time there was no Weir to do the tarping, so the Atlanteans did the tarping originally, and Weir did it the 2nd time.

BrettStah · 02-20-2005, 03:15 PM

OK, this just came to me while reading this thread, and not while watching the episode. I'm guessing I'm forgetting/missing something that makes this seem like a really stupid question...

The Ancients find out (thanks to Dr. Weir's sudden appearance from the future) that Atlantis will most likely survive underwater for the next 10,000 years, right? So why the big rush to evacuate, and to (presumably) never come back? Seems to me that they should alter their plans, and just hang tight underwater, until the Wraith hibernate again.

IndyJones1023 · 02-20-2005, 03:22 PM

The Wraith probably didn't bother with Atlantis once it was evacuated because there was no more food there.

Amnesia · 02-20-2005, 03:50 PM

How would the Wraith know whether or not there was food in Atlantis?

ADent · 02-20-2005, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnesia

How would the Wraith know whether or not there was food in Atlantis?

Do you really need the Treknobabble explanation?

Take your pick:

- They hooked up a Tachyon field emittor and created a Gravimetric distortion so their sensor arrays could see into the water.

- They noticed nothing coming in/out of the place materially or via communication bands for awhile

- The sent some dude down in a diving bell and noticed the lights were off

lordrichter · 02-20-2005, 04:35 PM

No No No. You recalibrate the deflector array, then channel the warp drive directly into the deflector to generate a tachyon pulse that resonates in the frequency of life forms. Of course, this blows the deflector array and causes Beverly to be sucked into a transdimensional unstable warp bubble, but everything has side effects.

IndyJones1023 · 02-20-2005, 04:39 PM

And don't forget, that could cause several crew members to reverse age back to adolescence.

atrac · 02-20-2005, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnesia

How would the Wraith know whether or not there was food in Atlantis?

Or even more simply put, since the Atlantians ARE the food and they've left, then the Wraith would see that they are gone and thus the food is gone.

IndyJones1023 · 02-20-2005, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atrac

Or even more simply put, since the Atlantians ARE the food and they've left, then the Wraith would see that they are gone and thus the food is gone.

Uh, yeah, that's what I was getting at. To the Wraith, people are food. They like Soylent Green. No people, no food.

Amnesia · 02-20-2005, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atrac

then the Wraith would see that they are gone

That was the whole question. If the Ancients just stayed underwater, would the Wraith know they were there?

IndyJones1023 · 02-20-2005, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnesia

That was the whole question. If the Ancients just stayed underwater, would the Wraith know they were there?

Why wouldn't they? A huge metalic structure under a mere couple hundred feet of water with not only a huge power signature but 10s of thousands of biosigns? Not only that, they were sworn enemies, so I think the Wraith would be actively searching for the home base.