SGA Rewatch: First Contact

Well hello there. Welcome to another edition of the Stargate Atlantis Rewatch. Today's episode, season five's "First Contact," brings us to the midway point of the season. It also brings back a familiar Stargate face. Spoilers for the episode and any that came before it!

What Happened


John and Rodney head to the gate to meet a visiting dignitary. Rodney complains about it and that he has been pulled away from his work for the reception. They meet Woolsey and Chuck declares that the visitor is ready to beam in. There is a flash of light and Daniel Jackson is standing in front of them. Woolsey welcomes him and he says hello. Rodney grumbles.

Daniel says he would like to get started right away and Rodney asks him what he's there for. Daniel says that he thinks he's figured out the location of the Ancient Janus' secret lab and it's on Atlantis. Apparently Daniel found the journals of some of Janus' assistants and thinks he's found mention of where Janus might have been conducting his unauthorized research.

Meanwhile, Woolsey is gearing up to take the Daedalus to meet up with Todd so Jennifer can get to work on testing her wraith treatment. John doesn't want to stay behind but Woolsey says that since he has to go, that means that per protocol John has to remain behind in command of the city. Ronon finds Jennifer packing up to go and says he thinks he should go along too, just in case. Because, you know, wraith. Jennifer sees through his thin excuse to accompany her but doesn't mind and as they head out they see Rodney. She says goodbye and tells him to wish them luck. The "us" gives him pause and he sees that Ronon is going too. Ronon catches his eye and smirks at him as Rodney looks on in disappointment.

Daniel and Rodney head to the described corridor. It is in a part of the city that was damaged by flooding the first year so is more or less abandoned. Daniel notices where three light fixtures would have been hung on the wall and asks Rodney if they were saved. Rodney says probably and they check the inventory. Daniel wants to go claim them and put them back in place, saying he thinks he's on to something. Daniel gets them plugged in and notices that each light makes a different tone when it is plugged in. He asks Rodney if that's normal and Rodney says no. Daniel is in his element with a puzzle to solve and gets to trying to figure out the right sequence of tones to reveal the entrance to the lab. Rodney is looking at the wall at the end of the corridor and he tells Daniel to wait a moment.

Rodney switches places with Daniel and tells him on the count of three to push up against the wall as hard as he can. Daniel does so and Rodney hits the three lights in quick order. Daniel falls through the wall. Rodney's face lights up and he hits the lights again then follows Daniel through. He finds himself in a dark room with a disgruntled Daniel on the floor. Rodney explains that the wall was specially designed to destabilize when a specific frequency (the tones) is introduced. He says it was something similar to what Tesla was working on before Edison "trashed his lab."

They turn on the lights and look around, awed to find themselves indeed in Janus' secret lab. They do not notice a light on a device that begins blinking when they enter.  On another planet somewhere a light on a Ancient console begins flashing as well. An armored being barks out an order to alert the others that "the device" has been activated.

On the Daedalus Jennifer finds Woolsey in the mess. He comments that it is a rare sight these days to see her without her "burly protector" Ronon and she replies that Ronon is still in the lab. She asks Woolsey what he is working on. He tells her he is writing a speech to recognize the historic nature of their new venture. He hasn't gotten very far with it though.

John steps into the secret lab, impressed by the hidden doorway. John asks what happens if the sound stops while someone is in the wall and Rodney answers that the wall would break apart that someone's body. But he's already set up a generator to keep the tone going so that doesn't happen. John asks how their progress is going. They say that all of the data is pretty encrypted but they are working on it. John comments that Rodney and Daniel seem make a great team and they both look a little askew at the comment.

The wraith and the Daedalus meet up and a delegation of wraith arrive on the human ship. Woolsey greets them and begins his speech but Todd interrupts him and says he's like to get started as soon as possible so Woolsey defers to Jennifer and they head to the lab, escorted by Ronon and several soldiers.

Rodney and Daniel work late into the night and have a bonding moment. Over the ocean a hyperspace window opens and a small ship speeds across the water towards the city. Chuck picks it up and when he looks at the readings he pages John to the control room. Amelia tells him a small ship is closing in on the city. John orders the shields up and the jumpers ready, but the ship just flies right through the shield. Amelia remarks that Ancient ships can pass through their shield.

The ship stops over one of the piers and John has Teyla and a team of marines gear up and meet him there. Three figures with jet packs drop out of the ship and make their way into the city. They are each holding a piece of a metal disk and they assemble it on the floor. As John's team arrives they stand on the disk and before anyone can get a shot off, a shield protects the three intruders and the disk burrows through the floor and drops down out of sight. John and Teyla run to the hole and John asks what is at the bottom of this tower. Teyla answers, "Rodney."

John radios Rodney in the lab and tells him he needs to get out of there immediately. Before he can explain however, the intruders come into the lab. They stun Rodney and Daniel and grab them and the device with the blinking light. John and Teyla get to the corridor but one of the intruders fends them off with an energy shield while the others take their prizes right back up through the hole they bored and into the ship. They manage to kill the third intruder but not before the ship escapes with Rodney and Daniel aboard.

John calls for Radek to come investigate the intruder. He doesn't get any coherent readings from the creature and suggests a medical scanner to see if it is actually dead. As the intruder is carried away John comments that they knew exactly where they were going. Teyla says one of them was carrying a device when they came out of the lab. They go into the lab to try to figure out what was taken. The scenes cut between Rodney, in a cell with Daniel on the ship, and John in the lab figuring out that initializing the Ancient equipment in the lab must have activated a device connected to another ancient device by a subspace signal, which alerted the intruders and led them to Atlantis.

Radek tries to scan the intruder but it is emitting some kind of EM signal that is interfering with the equipment. He says all he knows for sure is they've never seen anything like it before. John orders him to try cutting open the armor. The armor proves impenetrable but John notices the neck is a different material and has Radek try cutting there. He manages to penetrate it, but it sets off a signal and they realize that they've activated a self-destruct. They all manage to make it out of the lab before the intruder explodes, but they've lost any evidence they might have gotten to track its origins.

On the Daedalus Jennifer tells Todd they've run simulations based on scans they've taken of wraith that they've held in captivity and they have all been successful. Todd points out that simulations and live trials are very different, but Jennifer defends her research. She wonders aloud if Todd even wants the treatment to work. Todd says he does see the benefits, even if it is only administered to part of his army, to those who are expendable. Jennifer argues it is for their benefit as well, it would end the war between wraith and humans. He acknowledges that might be so but asks then what would the wraith do? Who would they be?

The alien ship arrives at a base on a snow-covered blizzardy planet. The aliens toss Daniel and Rodney in a lab that also appears to be of Lantean construction and order the pair to get the device working, locking them in when they leave. They guess that they are probably in another one of Janus' secret labs, which means hope of rescue is small.

In Atlantis John has marines on standby in the hopes they get some contact from Rodney or a lead on where he and Daniel have been taken. Radek takes John's theory about the subspace signal and starts going over the logs to try to extrapolate the signal that drew the aliens there and perhaps to where it had been broadcasting.

Daniel notes that the facility is drawing an unusually large amount of power and Rodney, looking over some other data, says he thinks he knows why. He tells Daniel he thinks he's figured out what the device does. It's an endgame machine. If it works, it would completely stop the wraith in their tracks, leading to their eventual destruction. It creates a type of subspace static that targets the wraith hyperdrive technology (apparently every culture's hyperdrive technology operates at a unique frequency). Basically, if the device is turned on, every time a wraith ship enters hyperdrive it self-destructs. Daniel asks what the catch is. Rodney says Janus ran a three-day test and then shut it down due to "unforeseen side effects," which he helpfully gives no specifics of in his notes. He took the key to making the device work back with him to Atlantis, and that is what the aliens retrieved when they took Daniel and Rodney. Rodney tells Daniel that he probably can make the device work without any problems, the question is whether or not they should. They both kind of agree that it's a bad idea. Daniel suggests they reason with the aliens to convince them not to use the device.

They call one of the aliens and Daniel tries his whole spiel. When his "the device isn't safe" speech doesn't seem to work he tries saying they need to call in a larger team in order to fix the device. The alien turns to Rodney and tells him to get the device working in an hour or he will kill Daniel, then he leaves. As he goes, Daniel starts to ponder why the aliens are still in their armor, wondering if they are protective suits of some kind. Rodney really isn't interested in his speculation, however, preferring instead to find a way to keep them alive.

On Atlantis Radek thinks he has found the aliens' planet, which of course doesn't have a stargate. The Daedalus is out of communications range and the rendezvous point with the wraith isn't gate-convenient either. John tells Radek to boost the subspace communicator in one of the jumpers. He wants to gate as close as he can to where the Daedalus is and try to hail them on the radio to come pick them up and take them to the planet.

Rodney gets the device operational, though he doesn't turn it on. It wasn't actually broken, just shut down. Daniel tries to tell him he doesn't have to do this but Rodney doesn't want them to kill Daniel (or himself, but also Daniel). He turns it on and checks the readings. Everything is in the green and no sign of the unforeseen side-effects. The men each breath a sigh of relief.

Woolsey finds Todd and tells him he has an urgent message from one of his ships. He hands him a comm so he can take it in private. Todd takes the call and says that one of his hives is under attack. Two of his ships will leave to deal with the situation, though he will stay behind to continue the work with Jennifer. The hives prepare to jump away and disintegrate as the crew watches in shock. Todd demands to know how they did that and Woolsey tries to catch up. Todd claims that they tricked him and this was their plan all along, he pulls a weapon of some sort out of his sleeve. He says they have somehow found the Attero device. Before they can protest their innocence he activates his weapon and everyone is knocked unconscious. His hive that remained behind contacts him and asks what they should do. Todd replies that he has taken control of the Daedalus and will begin beaming his people over soon, they are going to take the ship.

Ronon, unaware of what has happened, walks through the ship and comes across a group of wraith being beamed in. They do not see him so he works his way to the lab and grabs Jennifer. He takes her down to the armory to get her a gun while Todd's people get to work locking down the ships systems and moving the crew to confinement.  Todd sees Jennifer and Ronon on the ship's sensors and with the press of a few buttons, they are locked in a corridor.

Rodney finds a log that reveals the side-effect of the device. He says it is going to affect the rest of the galaxy, including Atlantis. He moves to shut it down but the aliens come in and order them away from the device, stunning them when they refuse.

John gets his jumper loaded up and he and Teyla prepare to leave with a team of marines. Radek goes down to the control room and orders the gate dialed up. Chuck notices a power spike when they activate the gate, it is coming from within the event horizon. They try to shut down the gate but are unable. John heads down to find out what's up and Radek tells him that if the power continues to build the gate will explode. They have ninety seconds maybe. Amelia chimes in more like sixty. There is no way to evacuate the tower in that time, let alone the whole city, which would definitely be affected by such an explosion.

John orders Radek to collapse the city's shield around the gate to contain the explosion. The blast is contained but the energy needs to be diffused before they can let the shield down. It needs about a minute but the emitters are fried and it won't last that long. John orders everyone but him and Radek out and tells them to start falling back to the edge of the city while Radek works to keep the shields up. It looks like they are going to make it but Radek says it's not enough. Zoom out to the exterior of the tower and an explosion blows out the windows of the control room.

TO BE CONTINUED...


Commentary


So. Much. Happening in this episode. And it really seems like a lot of random plot threads, but they honestly do all tie together quite nicely. It's kind of impressive, actually. Let me see if I can run this down:

Janus invented this "endgame" device, which Todd called the Attero device, but after testing it for three days during the war with the wraith he shut it down and removed a key component to keep anyone from stumbling across it and activating it. This was because of "unforeseen side-effects" which you know have something to do with Atlantis' gate exploding. Anything that makes stargates explode is Not Good. Some as yet unknown race did manage to discover Janus' lab and learn about the device but realized that they are missing that key component to make it work. So they have been keeping an eye out hoping someone would activate said device so they could find it. Which Daniel and Rodney did when they found Janus' secret lab on Atlantis.

Meanwhile Jennifer and Todd are getting underway on trying to make her treatment work to cure (at least some of) the wraith of the need to feed on humans. This is great progress towards ending the millennia-long war between humans and wraith. Though it is clear that Todd has some reservations about that particular outcome, unsure of what it would mean for the identity of his race. When the Attero device is activated, however, he fears he has been double-crossed (knowing that the device was of Ancient origins) and realizing that his ships can't travel through hyperspace anymore he decides to hijack the Daedalus. Luckily for Jennifer, Ronon tagged along to get into her good graces and so the two of them have managed to elude capture by the wraith and have a shot at getting out of the situation.

John, knowing where Rodney is, just needs a way to get to him. Unfortunately, he seems to have been exploded, so that is going to put a damper on his progress. At the very least, he now has no access to either a stargate or a hyperspace-capable ship because of everything else going on so any rescue attempt is kind of on hold until that gets sorted out.

Whew. And this is only the first half of a two-parter.

It's crazy that the first half of the season has been almost calm, slowly getting all of the characters into position and establishing new relationships (working and personal) so that everything was in place for events to completely explode all at once here at mid-season. Because now? Yeah, things are definitely moving forward.

I do have to say that Daniel Jackson is probably my all-time favorite character from Stargate SG-1, and having Michael Shanks show up on Atlantis to reprise the role just fills me with delight. First off, it is quite obvious that Daniel is in his element in Atlantis. This is where he belongs. This is where the story should have brought him long before. Oh my mind is full of an alternate version of this series where that happened and it is magical. Plus, Daniel + Rodney = much head exploding glee. Those two together, well, let's just say that I agree with John's assessment that they make a great team, precisely because of the reasons that they don't. Their bickering and banter is almost as amusing as what John and Rodney have going.

On a semi-related note, I love that there is a whole emerging group of people who are starting to realize what a complete dick Thomas Edison was to Nikola Tesla and working to get that information out into the world. That just tickles me any time I see mention of it. Because, seriously, Tesla was on to some cool stuff that could have revolutionized the technological foundations of our very society had he not been so repeatedly screwed over. (Or at least been able to seek proper treatment for some of his mental issues, of which he admittedly had a few.) I bet Steampunk delves into this, actually. But I digress.

Favorite Quotes


"I've been over Janus' data entries with a fine-tooth comb. I never saw any mention of a secret lab." (Rodney)
"Janus was doing a lot of work that wasn't exactly approved by the Ancient Council, so it's not hard to imagine he wouldn't include a full account in this very public database. I mean, do you include all of your research in your official reports?" (Daniel)
"Just get to the point." (Rodney)
"Okay. He never talked about it in his entries, but several of Janus' peers suspected he had a 'bastion of unfettered thought and experimentation' or, as one of his lovers put it..." (Daniel)
"He had lovers?!" (Rodney)
"...'an isle of solitude within the city walls.'" (Daniel)
"Well that could just mean he's hard to talk to. People say things like that about me all the time." (Rodney)

"You're in command here until I get back, understood?" (Woolsey)
"Okay." (John)
"Try not to blow her up while I'm gone." (Woolsey)
"No promises." (John)

"Well, it's remote, that's promising. He wouldn't want anyone around when he came in and out of his lab." (Daniel)
"Ooh, like the Batcave!" (Rodney)

"Seriously, is everything a competition with you?" (Daniel)
"I'm not sure what you're talking about." (Rodney)
"I just found you a secret lab full of really cool Ancient stuff. I kind of think that should score me some points here." (Daniel)
"Okay, I will admit that I may have been a little brusque with you up until now." (Rodney)
"Just a little." (Daniel)
"But the truth is I really didn't think you were gonna find anything." (Rodney)
"Well, that much I actually understand." (Daniel)
"You do?" (Rodney)
"Yeah. I've spent the majority of my professional life being ridiculed for my theories--most of which turned out to be correct by the way. I'm kind of used to it Rodney." (Daniel)
"Doesn't that bother you? I mean, there's no vindication, no recognition, no credit." (Rodney)
"Well, I could probably say the same thing about you. The discoveries you've made, you probably could have won the Nobel Prize five times over by now." (Daniel)
"It's too true. So. I guess none of us signed up to get famous, huh?" (Rodney)
"No, we did it for the money." (Daniel)
"Good one! ....Wait a minute. You don't get paid more than I, do you? ....Do you?" (Rodney)

"What the hell happened?" (Rodney)
"We were attacked." (Daniel)
"That much I got, thanks. By who?" (Rodney)
"I was kinda hoping you could tell me." (Daniel)

"We've got one thing going for us at least." (Rodney)
"What's that?" (Daniel)
"We're not dead yet." (Rodney)

"Well you work on understanding them, I'll work on trying not to get us killed." (Rodney)

"Are we still alive?" (Rodney)
"I think so. I'd hate to think heaven looks like this." (Daniel)
"Who says we went to heaven?" (Rodney)
"Hmm." (Daniel)

~*~

Whew. Well, yeah, I adored the banter, sorry. That means a ton of quotes. See you back here on Monday for the thrilling conclusion to this particular story, "The Lost Tribe."

Also, now that we are halfway through the final season of this series, I think it is time to start considering what my next Rewatch will be. I've put a poll up there over on the right of the screen. Please take a moment to check it out and vote. I'll leave it up for a few more weeks and then make an announcement after we wrap up Stargate Atlantis!

SGA Rewatch: Rising (Parts 1 and 2)

Hello, and welcome to my Stargate Atlantis rewatch! Starting today I will be working my way through my all time favorite television series and will be posting about a new episode every Monday and Wednesday. I will be writing these posts with the assumption that my readers are at least passing familiar with the Stargate universe and with Stargate Atlantis in particular. While each post will be chock full of spoilers about the episode it covers (and all those that have come before), I will try to avoid spoilers for any future episodes or for episodes in Stargate Atlantis' sister series. I will probably point out from time to time, however, when something foreshadows future events, though I will not go into specifics about said future events.

So, are you still here? Yes? Oh yay! Good, I'm glad you're coming with me on this. Now, on to the episode!

What Happens

"Rising," as the series opener sets out to establish the basic premise of the new show. We get an introduction to the characters, a brief background about the stargate program itself, and then we find out what this show will actually be about. The writers fully intended for "Rising" to be a solid jumping on point for people who were unfamiliar with existing Stargate lore, and from my point of view, they did a pretty good job. I jumped into Stargate Atlantis having seen the original movie once years before and only having seen snippets of the original series in commercials up to that point. For all intents and purposes, I was a noob in this world, but still I was able to follow along and found myself quite intrigued (indeed, I enjoyed the show so much I wanted to know more and eventually went back and caught up on the entire original series).

Watching it again now, after many viewings of all three Stargate series, I find "Rising" no less entertaining. Some of the infodumps are more obvious, because to me these are things I know without even thinking about them. They are still fairly amusing though, because we are introduced to the stargate program through Major John Sheppard, who kind of gets thrown into the thick of things while on a routine trip to shuttle a general (our general, General O'Neill) to a research base in Antarctica. While Stargate Atlantis doesn't have any "main" character, per se, it is after all an ensemble cast, Sheppard is the one that newer viewers can identify with the most readily, since we get to learn all about this wondrous new thing right alongside him. From the very beginning of the series, Sheppard finds himself in over his head, yet he somehow finds a way to swim to shore. This is something that recurs not only throughout the episode, but also throughout the entire series. Watching the beginning once more, I am impressed at how consistent that aspect of his character has remained.

As I mentioned, the episode starts off with a research base in Antarctica. This base was once an outpost for a race of beings known to our characters as the Ancients. The Ancients built the network of stargates that pepper our galaxy, and that Stargate Command (the SGC) uses to travel to other worlds. The SGC believes that the Ancient outpost in Antarctica is the key to not only learning more about the Ancients and their technology, but also to finding their original seat of power, referred to as the "lost city." and better known to mythology as Atlantis. Very quickly we learn that the team at the research base has discovered what they think is the gate address to Atlantis. It turns out the reason they were having such a hard time locating the lost city is because they were thinking locally, so to speak. They were looking for a six symbol gate address which when combined with a seventh point-of-origin symbol on the dialing planet would enable them to open a wormhole and travel there. It turns out though that Atlantis is actually in another galaxy, requiring an additional gate symbol. Dialing another galaxy requires a tremendous amount of energy, so Dr. Elizabeth Weir assembles an expedition to Atlantis with the knowledge that their trip will likely be one-way unless her team can find another source of energy in the Pegagus galaxy where Atlantis is located.

The expedition arrives in Atlantis to find the city intact, but abandoned, and submerged at the bottom of an ocean. As they begin exploring the city it starts to power up, sensing their presence. A hologram is found explaining that 10,000 years ago the Ancients found themselves on the losing side of a galactic war. With their city under siege, they submerged it and gated back to Earth (where they had lived before venturing to the Pegasus galaxy) where they lived out the rest of their days. Much of the technology of the Ancients is genetically locked, meaning only an Ancient can initialize operate it. But thankfully some of the long-ago Ancients mixed bloodlines with the people on Earth after their return and some members of the expedition carry the ATA (Ancient Technology Activation) gene, which allows them to make things work. Included in the ATA carriers are Major Sheppard and the chief medical officer, Dr. Carson Beckett. Not included is the chief science officer Dr. Rodney McKay, and boy is he irritated about that.

As the expedition begins to explore the city Dr. McKay and the other scientists realize that doing so is draining the city's power drastically, which is causing the force field holding back the ocean to weaken, and in some areas of the city collapse. They call everyone back to the gate room but the damage has already been done. They need to find either a replacement power source--none have been detected in the city--or a place to evacuate until they can find said power source. Dialing Earth is out of the question (the power requirement is far beyond their capabilities), but dialing an address within the Pegasus galaxy isn't. They pick an address from the city's database at random and Dr. Weir sends a team through, led by the chief military officer Colonel Marshall Sumner (played brilliantly by Robert Patrick). Also on the team are Major Sheppard (whom we quickly learn is not in Sumner's good graces), Lieutenant Aiden Ford, and Sergeant Bates (the security officer).

On the new planet they meet a group of nomadic traders who call themselves Athosians. The Athosians are led by a woman named Teyla Emmagen. We also meet a man named Halling (Christoper Heyerdahl, who is awesome, and plays at least two roles in every television show he is in, this one being no exception) and his son Jinto, along with Jinto's friend Wex. Sumner is kind of a jerk to Teyla but Sheppard smooths it over and they begin the process of getting their two peoples acquainted. It is quickly revealed that the Athosians (and everyone they have ever met) live in constant fear of beings called the Wraith. While Sumner and Bates explore a set of ruins near the Athosian camp (left abandoned because the Athosians believe to return to the city would bring the Wraith upon them), Teyla takes Sheppard to an old system of caves to show him thousands of years of drawings depicting the attacks of the Wraith upon the people of Athos. Teyla explains that the Wraith cull humans as if they are cattle. They return in great numbers every few generations and wipe out anyone they can find, but there are longer periods in between where only small parties come occasionally to keep their prey in line. Those taken by the Wraith never return. Sheppard speculates (correctly) that the Wraith are the beings that drove the Ancients from the galaxy all those years ago.

Of course, once all of this has been dropped on us, who should appear on the planet but the Wraith? They come through the gate in ships and use a kind of transporter beam to capture as many humans as possible. Many people from both groups are taken, including Colonel Sumner, Sergeant Bates, Teyla, and Halling. The Athosians' camp is demolished and Sheppard ushers all of the survivors back through the gate to Atlantis, only to find out that Weir was just about to give the order to evacuate the city. Sheppard sees Jinto and asks if he knows any addresses to safe worlds they can gate to. While they are running to the dialing console, the entire city begins to shake violently. We are then treated to a really stunning visual sequence of the city breaking its moorings on the ocean floor and rising up to the surface. That was pretty cool, not gonna lie.

So. The expedition finds themselves now more or less safely free to explore the city. The generators they brought with them can give the city enough power for day-to-day functioning and to use the gate within the galaxy. Unfortunately they don't have nearly enough power to run the shield, so on the surface they are now more or less sitting ducks if anyone malevolent decides to drop by. Still, they have the advantage of being in a city that had been submerged for more than 10,000 years, so unless they give anyone reason to know that it isn't underwater anymore...yeah, I think you can see where this is going.

Now that the question of whether or not to evacuate has been answered, Sheppard begins to press Weir to let him mount a rescue operation for the missing expedition members and Athosians. He had the foresight to have Ford memorize the symbols the Wraith ships dialed when leaving Athos, so they just need to run the permutations of those symbols to find the right planet. Weir is skeptical, however, not wanting to take the risks unless they can be sure of some sort of tactical advantage. Things begin to look even bleaker when they find the right gate address and it leads to a gate parked not on the Wraith's planet but in orbit around it.

Enter McKay to save the day!

He shows Sheppard a bay of small space shuttles that had been discovered in a room directly over the gate room. They are perfectly sized to fit through a stargate. While figuring out if he can fly it, Sheppard also discovers that the ship has a cloaking device, which will allow them to sneak up on the Wraith undetected. Conceding this is a good enough tactical advantage, Weir gives the rescue mission a go. Sheppard takes Ford and a few other men on a rescue mission to the Wraith base. Sheppard is suitably impressed with the ship, which he christens a "puddle jumper," and which seems to have a kind of telepathic or mental link to its pilot. As he is wondering how they will find their people in the Wraith base, a panel opens up beside him and provides a tracking device he can use for just that purpose. He then tries thinking about how much he'd like a turkey sandwich, but sadly, to no avail.

Once in the base, which seems to be only minimally manned, Sheppard and Ford find their people fairly quickly, only to learn that Sumner had just been taken away by the Wraith. He goes to look for his commanding officer, leaving Ford to guard the prisoners and the rest of his men setting up C4 all around the place in order to create a distraction for their getaway. I will take a moment here to note that I was surprised, though I probably shouldn't have been, at how early in the series C4 makes its debut. This will continue to be one of the go-to tools of the expedition for the entire series. These people love blowing stuff up.

Sumner, meanwhile, has been finding out first hand just how much the Wraith don't care about the humans beyond anything as a source of food. He has been taken to a Wraith queen to be interrogated, since it is clear that his people are new to the neighborhood. The queen uses her mental kung-fu (the Wraith are very skilled at frakking with people's minds) to discover that Sumner is from a planet called Earth, that is not of the Pegasus galaxy. She also learns that Earth is home to billions of humans and declares that the Wraith feeding grounds have not been so rich in over 10,000 years. She tries to find the location of Earth but Sumner fights her. She then attempts to weaken his resistance by feeding on him, but is interrupted when Sheppard starts shooting her.

[Side note: For those unfamiliar, the Wraith have often been called "space vampires" and this is not entirely inaccurate. It is pretty much the same principle. They feed on life force rather than blood, and use a weird mouth thing in their hand rather than fangs. It's really creepy and gruesome.]

The queen just shrugs off Sheppard's shots and siphons off more energy from Sumner to heal herself up, causing him to age and waste away drastically (think the aging scene from the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, though not quite as dramatic). Sheppard is torn on what to do until Sumner gives him a look and a nod, and Sheppard then shoots his commanding officer, a mercy shot to stop his suffering and prevent the Wraith from gaining the location of Earth from the man. The queen then gets hold of Sheppard and is about to feed on him when Ford intervenes and distracts the queen enough for Sheppard to kill her. With her dying words she states that she was merely a caretaker for those who slept. With her death they will all wake up, and they will come looking for the expedition and find a way to the rich new feeding ground of Earth.

Sheppard gathers up his people and gets the heck out of there. Back on Atlantis, Weir tries to reassure him that he did what he had to do and there was no way he could have saved Sumner. He remarks that he is going to have live with that for the rest of his life though. Weir then tells him he should start thinking about who he would like for his gate team. He is now the chief military officer. He is unsure he is fit for the command, worrying that he's brought more trouble upon them than anything else. Weir tells him to look around at all of the new friends he has made them already, indicating the Athosians. Teyla hears this and comes over, agreeing with Weir and promising the help of her people to the expedition.

Commentary

Whoo! That's quite a bit. It is a double episode though, so I guess that's to be expected. It is so odd to me to see some of these characters so early in their development. Carson, for example, seems so timid and unsure of himself, reluctant to take any risk at all. I guess the fact that I haven't thought of him like that in a very long time is a sign that he got some really good character growth and development over the course of the series. We do get a peek at his stubborn side, at least, even this early.

I could be wrong, but I think this episode marks the first time in franchise history that we get to see the Ancients in their native environment, and in their native dress. Which means this is the first time we get to see their truly horrid sense of fashion. I mean, come on. Even the Wraith have better fashion sense than these folks appeared to. I think that sign of poor judgement should have been flashing neon to us in terms of what we could expect to find out about the Ancients the more we delved into their world. I won't say anymore just now, but, yeah, I would consider the crappy clothes foreshadowing, is all.

Speaking of the Wraith. I have seen lots of reviewers over the years deride the Wraith for being over the top, overly dramatic, or just plain cheesy, and I have to day, I do not agree. They are creepy. Even knowing all that I know about them now, seeing the queen interact with Sumner gives me the chills. I think it is the fact that they know humans are a sentient race very similar to themselves in many aspects but still consider them nothing more than food that gets to me. That is just...unsettling.

The Pegasus stargates differed greatly in design from those in the Milky Way, and I have to say, they are just so freaking cool. I love the design of the Pegasus gates so much. Even the DHDs (dial-home-devices, used to enter a gate address from a planet) are snazzier than their Milky Way counterparts. 

I very much enjoyed the interaction between Ford and Sheppard from the start. When Sheppard is about to go through the stargate for the first time and asks Ford what it's like, the younger man quips, with a completely straight face, "Hurts like hell, sir." Then he smirks and lets out a "Woohoo!" as he leaps backwards through the gate. Smartass. There is also the whole bit about Ford being banned from naming things. Ever. Though I do notice that he was the one to come up with "life signs detector" for the tracking device, which stuck. 

We also get a little bit of interaction between Sheppard and McKay (a relationship that will become the heart of this series) early on, and you can already feel how fun it is going to be. From McKay being surprised by Sheppard's quick mental math to the little quibble about what to call the puddle jumpers (McKay and Ford want to go with gateship). It is nice to see that there from the beginning.

The banter! Oh, the banter! It is there even in the first episode, and it is one of the things that made this show so delightful. Even the one-off characters often get their own quip in, and the exchanges between the principle cast (primarily Sheppard and McKay, but the interplay is there with almost everyone) are spectacular things to behold.

One thing that really stands out for me every time I watch this episode again, now that I am familiar with the original series as well as Stargate Atlantis, is Daniel, one of the main characters from SG-1, who makes a guest appearance in the Atlantis pilot. I still giggle every time I see the scene in the beginning where he walks in, sees Weir and McKay, declares, "Just the people I need to see!" and then buggers off, leaving them behind staring at each other in bemusement, before walking back in and saying, "Come with me!" It is good stuff. Then there's the bit where the expedition starts going through the gate and he makes a quick last-minute plea with O'Neill to join them (which O'Neill of course shoots down). I liked these bits before I knew who Daniel was, but after? Man, I am bummed out by them a little bit too. In any sane sense of character development, Daniel Jackson should have been part of the Atlantis expedition. He just should have. From a story point of perspective it made very little sense that O'Neill, moving away from off-world travel, would keep Daniel from going (unless you are a Daniel/Jack shipper in which case, well, there you go, motive explained). This is a prime example of real life interrupting the story. With SG-1 still on for another season, there was no way Michael Shanks could leave the show, and therefore no way Daniel Jackson could go to Atlantis. I would loved to have seen that though, and a part of me will always wonder how differently the series would have played out if Stargate Atlantis had started after Stargate SG-1 ended.

Favorite Quotes

"That was different." (Major Sheppard)

"For me? Not so much." (General O'Neill)

"Let's say we get to the part where you start talking real fast." (O'Neill to Daniel)

"So you can fly that thing. It doesn't mean you can pull off a rescue." (Dr. Weir)

"Doctor, this is why you brought me here." (Major Sheppard)

"We can name it later!" (Sheppard to Ford)

"It's a ship...that goes through the gate..." (McKay)

"We don't require our food to agree with us." (Wraith queen to Colonel Sumner)

"How come I never make friends like that?" (Carson Beckett, observing Sheppard and Teyla)

"You need to get out more." (McKay)

"We're in another galaxy, how much more out can you get?!?" (Beckett)

And that wraps up the first installment of the rewatch. Thanks for stopping by! Join me next week for the next episode, "Hide and Seek."