Well, it took a little over a year, but we've finally made it all the way through the complete series of Stargate Atlantis. I want to extend a big "thank you" to everyone who has joined me on this journey. It was a lot of fun and a great chance to revisit the show with a slightly more critical eye than I usually lend it.
Stargate Atlantis is, in all seriousness, my favorite television show pretty much of all time. The show was, in many ways, a life-changing event for me. It introduced me to the concepts of fandom, fan fiction, and fan art. It was the first time I ever really considered myself as part of an online community. I have had a lot of fun sharing some of the reasons for that with you guys. I thought I'd wrap things up by listing some of the best of the best, as it were.
First off, here are my favorite episodes from each season:
Season One: The Brotherhood
Season Two: Duet
Season Three: McKay and Mrs. Miller
Season Four: Tabula Rasa
Season Five: Brain Storm
Don't ask me to pick a favorite episode for the whole series though, I don't think I could. (*cough*McKay and Mrs. Miller*cough*)
My obvious favorite characters going into the rewatch were McKay and Lorne. After all is said and done, I think that Ronon and Todd have emerged with distinction as well, however.
What about you guys? Did any of you have any favorites coming in? Did any of those change, or did watching the episodes again just reinforce why you loved what you did in the first place?
Now, it seems unlikely that the already written follow-up movie to the series, Stargate: Extinction, will ever actually see the light of day, but if you want more Stargate Atlantis don't despair! There are still other places to get your fix.
Tie-In Novels: I've mentioned this several times throughout my rewatch but here you go one last time. Fandemonium has released (and continues to do so) several wonderfully written novels set within the events of the series and beyond. Each novel is like its own self-contained episode.
Audio Stories: Big Finish Audio has released several short audio stories (each about 50 minutes long) in the Stargate Atlantis universe. They are told from the point of view of different characters and read by the actor who portrayed that character. It's actually a nice way to explore some of the other characters on the base, aside from the main team.
Fan Fiction: If it is your thing, my favorite archive of Stargate Atlantis fan fiction is over at Wraithbait. It's not quite as active a community as it used to be, but it is a huge repository of stories set within this world. Wraithbait also has some fairly stringent policies on what they will accept/post quality-wise, so as far as fan fiction goes, the writing is better than you find in a lot of places.
So...I think that's about it. Thank you again, so so very much, for coming along with me on this ride. I hope that you will join me on the next. Come back Wednesday when I announce the new rewatch!
Showing posts with label Wraithbait. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wraithbait. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Fanfic Friday (Because Why Not?)
Howdy folks! Happy Friday! So, it turns out that the story I posted yesterday wasn't the only thing I ended up writing this week. I also managed to write a sort piece of fan fiction. I seem to have been getting back into that a little bit lately. I haven't written any in years, but this past week I finally had a story that I just had to get out of my head.
It combines my two biggest obsessions: Stargate Atlantis and Dragon Age. Thematically it contains some elements similar to "Above the Clouds," but it is definitely a different type of story. To me, the Eluvian mirrors in Dragon Age have always triggered thoughts of the Quantum Mirrors from Stargate. I also have always thought that Alistair would get along well in Atlantis. So I decided to take those two elements and put them together and see what happened. I am pretty happy with the result. I even went ahead and submitted it to Wraithbait (although I had completely forgotten that you have to put in html tags for anything like italics or, you know, line breaks when submitting a story there--that was fun, let me tell you). If I get any sort of positive feedback on the story, I might write some more adventures in this universe.
Spoilers disclaimer: MAJOR spoilers for the end of Dragon Age: Origins and hints of characters and events from DAO: Awakening. No real spoilers for Stargate Atlantis, provided you are aware of who is actually in the city as of season five.
Other disclaimer: Please note that Alistair and all things Dragon Age belong to Bioware and EA, while all things Stargate belong to MGM. Just the idea for the story is mine.
I hope you enjoy!
Alistair paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. Despite the chill of the vicious winds this high in the mountains the exertion of the climb was getting to him. This pass had clearly been carved out by Chasind with a sadistic streak. Or a very disoriented dragon, he thought, smirking to himself. Really it barely qualified as a pass at all, but it was the only known way through this stretch of the Frostback Mountains, and he would complete his assignment or die trying. Looks like the dying part of that is getting more and more likely though. He winced as a new blast of frigid air swept through the range, almost knocking him off of the narrow ledge. Alistair pressed himself against the wall of rock that the ledge followed and steadied himself with a few deep breaths as he waited for the wind to die down again.
He continued to make his way through the treacherous pass once nature seemed to have calmed back down. Not for the first time, he allowed himself to wonder what his life would be like now if he had accepted the crown of Ferelden after the archdemon had been slain. I wouldn't be trekking out here in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure, he thought to himself. He still firmly believed that letting Anora remain queen had been the right thing to do, but he had grown convinced that she didn't accept that he believed it. Every time he had call to go to court she could not even stand to be around him, and he knew better than to think it was his resemblance to Cailan. No, his very existence was a threat to her rule and so he made her uncomfortable. As a result, she had somehow managed to convince the new Warden Commander to relegate him to all of the tasks that required extensive (and dangerous) travel throughout the damned country.
Such line of thought twisted a double-edged blade right into his heart, however. Alistair had no quarrel with the Orlesians, nor with the new Commander that the Wardens in Orlais had sent to help rebuild the order after the Blight. But every time he saw the man it was a reminder of the woman who should be Commander of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. The love of Alistair's life, his brave and fiery elven mage, the hero who sacrificed herself to kill the archdemon. All because Alistair had refused to swallow his pride, his honor, to grant her one simple request. He had meant to take the final blow himself, of course, but a hurlock, an alpha, had distracted him just long enough for her to strike the dragon first, and with one final spell the Blight was over and she was gone. Thinking of Cailan was no better. Ever since Anora had admitted that Alistair's half-brother had been fully aware of his existence, he couldn't help but wonder why the man had never acknowledged him once they had met, at least in private. He couldn't help but wonder if Cailan had lived, perhaps they might have eventually come to be true brothers to each other after all.... Then again, maybe Cailan would have been just as bad as Goldanna, wanting nothing to do with Alistair unless it was of benefit to her.
So here he was, all alone in the mountains, risking his neck to find some elven artifact that the Commander had heard rumors existed. Always alone, even among the other Wardens. None of the faces in Amaranthine were familiar to him these days, save that of Oghren, and the dwarf had his own concerns to deal with. At least out here in the wilds it was less awkward. Alistair tried to shake his depressing ruminations and focused instead on the land around him. By the time the sun had begun to fall from its zenith he realized that the land was leveling out. Shortly after that, it began to descend. He had crossed through the pass and was on his way down into a basin between this range and the next. It appeared to be heavily wooded, which he hoped meant it was his destination. At the very least, he should be able to find a good place to make camp for the evening.
As he entered the woods he increased his guard. Likely there would be predators he would need to watch out for, but also, if what he sought was here, then there should be signs of a previous civilization. Even in the shade of the trees, the woods were practically cozy after the winds he had endured in the pass. Alistair soaked up the warmth gratefully as he searched, ever an eye out for signs of his quarry, a likely spot to rest for the evening, or even potential dinner.
He almost missed it, the first sign that he was in the right place. He was resting in a small clearing and thinking it would be a good place to stop for the day when a nearby stone caught his eye. Its shape was just a little bit too regular, the moss covering it seeming to follow too decorative a pattern, as if it was filling in crevices that had been put there intentionally. He moved across the clearing and examined the stone, unsurprised to realize that it was part of some larger structure--a paving stone, perhaps, or part of a building. His weariness forgotten, Alistair searched the area for more stones and after a short time found one, and then another, each embedded in the ground. He stepped back and looked at the area in front of him carefully, and after a few moments he could see that the trees in this part of the woods ran a little bit straighter, and there seemed to be two parallel lines of them, evenly spaced. A road had run through here once upon a time, long long ago.
Alistair followed the remnants of the road for two hours before he found the ruins. There wasn't very much left to be found, truth be told. But he could see where the foundation had been, and it took little for him to imagine the building that once stood here, centuries ago, when the elves were in their height of power. It hadn't been a very large building, probably just a way-station for travelers coming through the mountains, he guessed. The ruins in and of themselves were an incredible find, and he knew he would have to carefully mark them on his map before he returned. Likely other Wardens, or maybe even the Dalish, would want to come here to study them. But he had not been sent to find the ruins, he had been sent to find something in the ruins, and he feared his luck had just run out. There were no traces of the artifact for which he searched. Still, night was falling and he was tired. He would make camp here and get some rest. Maybe in the morning he would be better able to examine the area.
He expected a restless night but perhaps some trace of the magic of the ancient elves still lingered in the ruins. No predators came anywhere near Alistair and he slept far more soundly than he had since joining the Wardens. Even when he didn't hear the darkspawn in his dreams, he remained plagued by nightmares, or even worse, memories of the few happy moments he and his love had spent together before her death. This night, however, he did not dream at all.
When he wakes the next day he sets to work combing over every bit of the ruins. His diligence is rewarded when he discovers that a flat round stone tablet set into the ground near the back of what had once been the building moves to reveal an underground room. He can make out the first few rungs of a ladder, as well as an unlit torch hanging on the stone-lined wall. He climbs down far enough to retrieve the torch and brings it aboveground so he can light it, then carefully makes his way down into the cavern. He looks around in awe, sensing from the stale feel to the air that no one has been down here in a very long time. Perhaps not since the fall of Arlathan. Alistair walks to the center of the room, illuminating as much of it as possible with the torch. It is not much smaller than the ruins indicate the building above once was. Probably it was used for storage. A glint catches his eye and he turns to find the source. There, tucked carefully in a corner and draped with a sheet of cloth that looks as if it would crumble at his very touch, is an object that can only be what he was sent here to find.
Alistair glances around and notices that there are more torches lining the walls. He lights the one nearest the artifact and replaces the torch in his hands back in its bracket. Then he carefully approaches the object and brushes aside the cloth. He registers a moment of surprise when it doesn't disintegrate, but then he is distracted by the object itself. An Eluvian. The mirror is slightly larger than he is and set in an extremely ornate stone framework. The stone has been carved to quite realistically mimic living trees. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The mirror itself does not give a reflection but instead shows a grey smoky haze. Alistair can practically feel the magic radiating from it.
He has done his duty and located the Eluvian. Even better, it is already secured in a very safe location, and he knows that once he leaves it will not be disturbed again until he tells his Commander where it can be found. He knows he should cover the mirror up with the cloth once more, extinguish the torches, return to the surface, mark his map and return home.
But he doesn't.
Instead, he reaches out a tentative hand and lightly grazes the surface of the Eluvian with his fingertips. A soft warm tingle spreads throughout his body, starting where he touched the mirror and working quickly into the very heart of him. He feels a stirring deep inside, in the part of him that was once used by the Templars to dispel and deny magic. Only this time he does not deny it, this time he accepts it wholeheartedly. His eyes reflect the light of the elven script set into the frame as the words begin to glow. Without any further thought Alistair places both palms flat against the mirror. For the briefest of moments the haze clears and he sees the reflection of a room similar to the one in which he stands. Then he is jerked forward and all he knows is the blinding sensation of pain consuming his entire body.
He doesn't know how long he lies on the floor before consciousness returns to him, but when he comes to he realizes he is not alone. He can hear a heated argument--one side of it at least--from nearby as he groggily sits up and tries to blink his vision clear. He feels as if he has just been rammed by an ogre, then picked up and slammed into the ground repeatedly by said beast. Every muscle and bone in his body aches. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady himself, wondering if he is about to have to defend himself from the intruders. As he tries to get a grip on the situation some of the conversation catches his attention.
"Look, I don't know where he came from, alright? Why do you always look at me for an explanation, huh?" There is a mumbled response to the question but Alistair can't make it out. The speaker he can hear continues in a very fast, very irritated tirade, "Look, just because I know more than, well, everyone else, doesn't mean I know everything there is to know, okay? One minute I was studying the device and then he was just falling through it. He almost landed on me. Have you seen him?! He's wearing a full suit of medieval armor! Can you imagine the kind of damage that would have done to my delicate structure?"
Alistair has to resist the urge to chuckle. The speaker certainly doesn't sound very delicate. He frowns as what the man said sinks in. Why are the intruders trying to determine where he came from? They showed up after he had...after he had touched the mirror. The conversation outside continues but Alistair has stopped listening. He takes a good look at his surroundings. When he woke up he had just assumed that he was in the underground room in the ruins. But now that he looks around he sees that he is not. It is very similar, but the surfaces are not lined with rock, instead they are a smooth uniform material, like stone but not. The torches are gone, replaced by glowing orbs affixed to the walls. Instead of a few fragile shelves, the room contains a series of strange devices the like of which Alistair has never seen. They appear similar to desks but they are not made of wood, or any material he is familiar with. One directly in front of him is covered with blinking lights and glass panels that are covered in some sort of glowing script. The ladder is gone, instead there is a doorway in the far wall of the room, open to reveal daylight streaming in. Not underground then. The others must be standing just outside the door.
Gingerly he stands and turns around, finding a mirror, but not the one that he discovered in the ruins. This one is roughly the same shape and size, but its frame is wholly different. It is made of a similar material to the desks in the room, and it lacks the decorative carvings of the Eluvian that clearly brought him to this strange place. He vaguely remembers Duncan mentioning once that scholars believed Eluvians to be ancient portals, used by the elves to transport themselves across Thedas. Apparently the scholars were right. As he examines this other mirror he becomes aware of the voices from outside getting louder.
Alistair turns just in time to see two men enter through the doorway. They are both looking at something one is holding and he realizes it is a tablet that resembles another panel like those on the desk, covered in glowing script. As they cross the threshold the man without the tablet looks up and tenses as he sees Alistair standing in front of the mirror. Alistair senses instantly that this man is a soldier, despite his lack of armor, and a dangerous one at that. He tries to look as non-threatening as possible. The other man does not notice, however, and keeps on walking. He begins to speak and Alistair identifies him as the angry man who thinks he knows everything. He doesn't look delicate at all, Alistair notes.
"Look, even if it is a Quantum Mirror, and I have to admit, from the evidence, that is looking more likely, we can't really do anything with that information now. Whatever our friend did to get here burned it out. I mean, completely. Used up all of the juice. I mean, yes, I was running a diagnostic at the time, and I guess that could have contributed somewhat, but even if it did--"
"Rodney," the soldier says cutting off his companion's rant. He says it very softly and Alistair knows he was right to call this one dangerous.
"What?" The one called Rodney asks in an exasperated tone. He finally stops walking and looks up from the tablet in his hands, his blue eyes going wide as he sees Alistair, just a few feet away. The other man's hand drops to an object strapped to his thigh. Alistair doesn't recognize it, but he'd be willing to bet his last silver it is a weapon. Very slowly he raises his hands in the air, palms up, trying to indicate he means no threat to these people. Rodney lets out a strangled yelp and jumps back about a foot. The sound brings two more people into the room, a wild looking young man only a few years older than Alistair and a beautiful woman that he realizes is just as dangerous as the soldier. Both are brandishing weapons like the one the soldier wears.
"Um, hello." Alistair says after a tense moment of silence. When no one says anything in reply he adds, "I'm Alistair. I seem to have gotten a bit lost. Maybe one of you could, um, tell me where I am?" The wild man and the woman keep their weapons trained on him but they glance at the soldier as if waiting for the command. He's the one in charge, then. Alistair is relieved to see that he has not yet drawn his weapon. The man stares at him closely, clearly trying to assess the level of threat he represents to their group.
"At ease," he says in that same quiet tone after a few moments. The other two drop their weapons and Rodney relaxes visibly, though not completely. He tilts his head and then gestures to himself, saying "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. This is Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex." He gestures to Rodney, the woman, and the wild man. "As for where you are, well, it's more or less the same place you were, just..." he runs a hand through his hair as he trails off and Rodney pipes up to finish his sentence.
"...just in a different reality. Well, most likely. I'll need to go over some data to know for sure." Alistair frowns at this answer. A different reality?
"You mean, like in the Fade?" he asks, trying to make some sense of what he's been told. That would explain a lot. The Fade is known to contain strange, often inaccurate reflections of real places.
"Hmm, maybe, maybe," Rodney answers, looking down at his pad. "Depends on what you think this 'Fade' is, but...hmm." He wanders over to one of the desks and begins tapping his fingers against what turn out to be buttons of some sort. The soldier, Sheppard, shakes his head and looks at his companion with a sort of resigned bemusement.
"You'll have to forgive Doctor McKay," Teyla says quietly, moving to stand next to him. Her voice is calm and reassuring, although he can see that she is visibly trying to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "He tends to get...absorbed in his work. Perhaps it would help if you tell us of how you came to be here?" Alistair starts to protest that he doesn't know but she stops him to clarify. "I mean, what do you remember before you woke up here?"
So Alistair tells them of finding the ruins and the Eluvian, explaining that he was looking for it and what his people knew of the artifact. He doesn't tell them everything, there are many details they don't really need, but he tells them more than he would under normal circumstances. He finds himself trusting them almost immediately for some reason. Rodney occasionally jumps in to the conversation to ask him about the elves or the Eluvian or what he means by "magic," about which he clearly feels dubious. Alistair can't imagine why, given the lighting in the room and the objects that Rodney manipulates with such ease. Those seem to reek of magic to him. But perhaps they call it something else here. After a while he tires of standing in the middle of the room and moves to lean against one of the desks. As he does the lights on its surface begin to glow and he can feel the whole of it hum with a soft vibration. That tingle he felt when he first touched the mirror returns. Rodney looks up in surprise when the desk lights up and then glances questioningly at Sheppard.
"I hadn't initialized that one yet."
"Not me," Sheppard answers.
"Huh," Rodney says, giving Alistair a hard look of his own. "Well that's interesting." As no explanation is forthcoming Alistair doesn't give it any further thought. The room falls silent save for Rodney muttering to himself, but it is a companionable silence and Alistair finds he rather enjoys it. After a while Rodney slams his tablet down on a flat surface and huffs in frustration, rubbing his eyes.
"Rodney?" Teyla asks tentatively. "What have you found?"
"Nothing," he answers tersely. "That's the problem. There's not a damn thing in here about how to activate the mirror or how to dial the right reality. We already know there's no remote, we went over the place three times looking for it before Astaire here showed up--"
"Alistair," he interrupts, wondering how the man could have forgotten his name already.
"Whatever," Rodney huffs, "the point is, we didn't find a remote, and there's no reference to one that I can find anyway. I mean, maybe if I could download the whole database and go through it in my lab with a team of scientists we could figure out how to get it to work. But there's still the problem of powering the damn thing."
"Wait a minute," Sheppard says, frowning. "Back up. What do you mean 'how to dial the right reality?' Nobody's touched it since Alistair came through. Shouldn't it still be set on the correct channel or whatever? I say we go grab a naquadah generator and hook it up to the mirror. This thing can't require that much power, can it?"
"Oh, by all means John, do my job for me, please. Yeesh. Are you kidding me? Just hook it up to a naquadah generator? Seriously?"
"Rodney," Sheppard says with a warning tone, "you're avoiding the question. Why do you need to know how to find Alistair's reality again?"
"Oh, um, well. Remember that diagnostic I said I was running? Well, it might have triggered something that cycled the different realities this thing is connected to and, well, it seems to have kept going for a few minutes after he came through."
"Rodney..." Sheppard says.
"Look, we were all caught off guard when he showed up!" He jerks his thumb at Alistair, who isn't even trying to make sense of their words. He furrows his brow as the gist of the conversation begins to become clear though. "Our scans showed this planet to be completely uninhabited, and we know no one has come through the gate since we arrived!"
"So we download the database and take it back with us," Ronon speaks up. Alistair jumps. It is the first time he has heard the man speak since he arrived. "You have your people go through it and figure out how to turn it on and get it to the right channel, then we come back, hook up a generator, and Alistair can go home."
"Um, no." Rodney answers, chagrined.
"Why not?" Sheppard asks.
"For one thing, I don't have nearly enough memory to copy the whole database right now. For another, there are almost an infinite number of realities that thing could be hooked up to, and it's not like they're listed in any sort of order. Also, the naquadah generator isn't going to work. In fact, it's probably the worst possible thing we can do because, well, according to the diagnostic, it is broken. Really broken. Any attempt to bypass it and provide an alternate energy source is more than likely going to cause the whole thing to blow up." The room falls into silence once more as everyone digests this new information.
"So I'm stuck here." Alistair says at last. He is surprised to find that he isn't upset at this revelation.
"Um, yes?" Rodney says tentatively. Alistair walks over to the mirror and reaches up to touch it. "What are you doing?!" Rodney cries.
"All I had to do was touch the other one," Alistair answers. But he knows even before he makes contact with the mirror that there will be no reaction to his touch this time.
"Well, yes, clearly the mirror in your reality is working just fine." Rodney sounds a little testy now. "The problem is that you need this one to be working in order to get back, and well," he falters, "it isn't."
"Alright then." Alistair says. "So, what now?" There is another long moment of silence and he can't bring himself to turn around and face them. After a few moments, Sheppard is the one to break the silence.
"Now, you come and stay with us."
"Really?" Rodney asks in surprise as Alistair turns at last. Sheppard's face is serious, and a bit sad. Alistair suspects he feels a little bit responsible for their current predicament. Teyla is nodding in approval, however, and Ronon is giving him an assessing look. Alistair meets Ronon's gaze and after another moment the young man nods just once and looks back to Sheppard. Alistair looks at Rodney who glances at the desk that lit up at Alistair's touch and then shrugs and says to Sheppard. "Might not be a bad idea." He gives a little bit of a chuckle and adds, "Woolsey is gonna love this."
They gather up their belongings and Alistair follows the group out of the building and along an overgrown path. There are no woods, but the mountains could be identical to those he came through at the start of this strange journey. Before they get to the pass that would lead back to Ferelden (or whatever stands in its place on this side of the mirror) they come upon a large ring standing up against the mountain face. In front of it is a small podium of some sort that Rodney walks up to. He presses a sequence of buttons and there is a rumbling from the ring. Alistair jumps backwards as there is a loud "whoosh" sound and a jet of something resembling water shoots out horizontally from the center of the ring before settling back and leaving what looks like a standing pool shimmering across its surface. It is beautiful. Teyla places a reassuring hand on his arm and promises him this will not hurt, although it might feel a bit strange his first time through. He sees Sheppard talking to thin air and hears him identify himself and say something about clearance and a visitor. After a few seconds Sheppard nods and gestures toward the ring and one by one, they step through.
This sensation is no less strange than his journey through the mirror, but much more pleasant at least, and when he emerges he is still standing and fully conscious. A fact he is quickly glad of as he looks around and finds himself inside a gleaming building bustling with people and more objects like those in the room and Rodney's tablet. A feeling of belonging, a sense of home, unlike anything Alistair has ever felt in his life washes over him. He looks at Sheppard and sees that the other man is watching him take it all in with an open grin.
"Welcome to Atlantis Alistair," he says.
It combines my two biggest obsessions: Stargate Atlantis and Dragon Age. Thematically it contains some elements similar to "Above the Clouds," but it is definitely a different type of story. To me, the Eluvian mirrors in Dragon Age have always triggered thoughts of the Quantum Mirrors from Stargate. I also have always thought that Alistair would get along well in Atlantis. So I decided to take those two elements and put them together and see what happened. I am pretty happy with the result. I even went ahead and submitted it to Wraithbait (although I had completely forgotten that you have to put in html tags for anything like italics or, you know, line breaks when submitting a story there--that was fun, let me tell you). If I get any sort of positive feedback on the story, I might write some more adventures in this universe.
Spoilers disclaimer: MAJOR spoilers for the end of Dragon Age: Origins and hints of characters and events from DAO: Awakening. No real spoilers for Stargate Atlantis, provided you are aware of who is actually in the city as of season five.
Other disclaimer: Please note that Alistair and all things Dragon Age belong to Bioware and EA, while all things Stargate belong to MGM. Just the idea for the story is mine.
I hope you enjoy!
Finding Home
Alistair paused to wipe the sweat from his eyes. Despite the chill of the vicious winds this high in the mountains the exertion of the climb was getting to him. This pass had clearly been carved out by Chasind with a sadistic streak. Or a very disoriented dragon, he thought, smirking to himself. Really it barely qualified as a pass at all, but it was the only known way through this stretch of the Frostback Mountains, and he would complete his assignment or die trying. Looks like the dying part of that is getting more and more likely though. He winced as a new blast of frigid air swept through the range, almost knocking him off of the narrow ledge. Alistair pressed himself against the wall of rock that the ledge followed and steadied himself with a few deep breaths as he waited for the wind to die down again.
He continued to make his way through the treacherous pass once nature seemed to have calmed back down. Not for the first time, he allowed himself to wonder what his life would be like now if he had accepted the crown of Ferelden after the archdemon had been slain. I wouldn't be trekking out here in the middle of nowhere, that's for sure, he thought to himself. He still firmly believed that letting Anora remain queen had been the right thing to do, but he had grown convinced that she didn't accept that he believed it. Every time he had call to go to court she could not even stand to be around him, and he knew better than to think it was his resemblance to Cailan. No, his very existence was a threat to her rule and so he made her uncomfortable. As a result, she had somehow managed to convince the new Warden Commander to relegate him to all of the tasks that required extensive (and dangerous) travel throughout the damned country.
Such line of thought twisted a double-edged blade right into his heart, however. Alistair had no quarrel with the Orlesians, nor with the new Commander that the Wardens in Orlais had sent to help rebuild the order after the Blight. But every time he saw the man it was a reminder of the woman who should be Commander of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. The love of Alistair's life, his brave and fiery elven mage, the hero who sacrificed herself to kill the archdemon. All because Alistair had refused to swallow his pride, his honor, to grant her one simple request. He had meant to take the final blow himself, of course, but a hurlock, an alpha, had distracted him just long enough for her to strike the dragon first, and with one final spell the Blight was over and she was gone. Thinking of Cailan was no better. Ever since Anora had admitted that Alistair's half-brother had been fully aware of his existence, he couldn't help but wonder why the man had never acknowledged him once they had met, at least in private. He couldn't help but wonder if Cailan had lived, perhaps they might have eventually come to be true brothers to each other after all.... Then again, maybe Cailan would have been just as bad as Goldanna, wanting nothing to do with Alistair unless it was of benefit to her.
So here he was, all alone in the mountains, risking his neck to find some elven artifact that the Commander had heard rumors existed. Always alone, even among the other Wardens. None of the faces in Amaranthine were familiar to him these days, save that of Oghren, and the dwarf had his own concerns to deal with. At least out here in the wilds it was less awkward. Alistair tried to shake his depressing ruminations and focused instead on the land around him. By the time the sun had begun to fall from its zenith he realized that the land was leveling out. Shortly after that, it began to descend. He had crossed through the pass and was on his way down into a basin between this range and the next. It appeared to be heavily wooded, which he hoped meant it was his destination. At the very least, he should be able to find a good place to make camp for the evening.
As he entered the woods he increased his guard. Likely there would be predators he would need to watch out for, but also, if what he sought was here, then there should be signs of a previous civilization. Even in the shade of the trees, the woods were practically cozy after the winds he had endured in the pass. Alistair soaked up the warmth gratefully as he searched, ever an eye out for signs of his quarry, a likely spot to rest for the evening, or even potential dinner.
He almost missed it, the first sign that he was in the right place. He was resting in a small clearing and thinking it would be a good place to stop for the day when a nearby stone caught his eye. Its shape was just a little bit too regular, the moss covering it seeming to follow too decorative a pattern, as if it was filling in crevices that had been put there intentionally. He moved across the clearing and examined the stone, unsurprised to realize that it was part of some larger structure--a paving stone, perhaps, or part of a building. His weariness forgotten, Alistair searched the area for more stones and after a short time found one, and then another, each embedded in the ground. He stepped back and looked at the area in front of him carefully, and after a few moments he could see that the trees in this part of the woods ran a little bit straighter, and there seemed to be two parallel lines of them, evenly spaced. A road had run through here once upon a time, long long ago.
Alistair followed the remnants of the road for two hours before he found the ruins. There wasn't very much left to be found, truth be told. But he could see where the foundation had been, and it took little for him to imagine the building that once stood here, centuries ago, when the elves were in their height of power. It hadn't been a very large building, probably just a way-station for travelers coming through the mountains, he guessed. The ruins in and of themselves were an incredible find, and he knew he would have to carefully mark them on his map before he returned. Likely other Wardens, or maybe even the Dalish, would want to come here to study them. But he had not been sent to find the ruins, he had been sent to find something in the ruins, and he feared his luck had just run out. There were no traces of the artifact for which he searched. Still, night was falling and he was tired. He would make camp here and get some rest. Maybe in the morning he would be better able to examine the area.
He expected a restless night but perhaps some trace of the magic of the ancient elves still lingered in the ruins. No predators came anywhere near Alistair and he slept far more soundly than he had since joining the Wardens. Even when he didn't hear the darkspawn in his dreams, he remained plagued by nightmares, or even worse, memories of the few happy moments he and his love had spent together before her death. This night, however, he did not dream at all.
When he wakes the next day he sets to work combing over every bit of the ruins. His diligence is rewarded when he discovers that a flat round stone tablet set into the ground near the back of what had once been the building moves to reveal an underground room. He can make out the first few rungs of a ladder, as well as an unlit torch hanging on the stone-lined wall. He climbs down far enough to retrieve the torch and brings it aboveground so he can light it, then carefully makes his way down into the cavern. He looks around in awe, sensing from the stale feel to the air that no one has been down here in a very long time. Perhaps not since the fall of Arlathan. Alistair walks to the center of the room, illuminating as much of it as possible with the torch. It is not much smaller than the ruins indicate the building above once was. Probably it was used for storage. A glint catches his eye and he turns to find the source. There, tucked carefully in a corner and draped with a sheet of cloth that looks as if it would crumble at his very touch, is an object that can only be what he was sent here to find.
Alistair glances around and notices that there are more torches lining the walls. He lights the one nearest the artifact and replaces the torch in his hands back in its bracket. Then he carefully approaches the object and brushes aside the cloth. He registers a moment of surprise when it doesn't disintegrate, but then he is distracted by the object itself. An Eluvian. The mirror is slightly larger than he is and set in an extremely ornate stone framework. The stone has been carved to quite realistically mimic living trees. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The mirror itself does not give a reflection but instead shows a grey smoky haze. Alistair can practically feel the magic radiating from it.
He has done his duty and located the Eluvian. Even better, it is already secured in a very safe location, and he knows that once he leaves it will not be disturbed again until he tells his Commander where it can be found. He knows he should cover the mirror up with the cloth once more, extinguish the torches, return to the surface, mark his map and return home.
But he doesn't.
Instead, he reaches out a tentative hand and lightly grazes the surface of the Eluvian with his fingertips. A soft warm tingle spreads throughout his body, starting where he touched the mirror and working quickly into the very heart of him. He feels a stirring deep inside, in the part of him that was once used by the Templars to dispel and deny magic. Only this time he does not deny it, this time he accepts it wholeheartedly. His eyes reflect the light of the elven script set into the frame as the words begin to glow. Without any further thought Alistair places both palms flat against the mirror. For the briefest of moments the haze clears and he sees the reflection of a room similar to the one in which he stands. Then he is jerked forward and all he knows is the blinding sensation of pain consuming his entire body.
He doesn't know how long he lies on the floor before consciousness returns to him, but when he comes to he realizes he is not alone. He can hear a heated argument--one side of it at least--from nearby as he groggily sits up and tries to blink his vision clear. He feels as if he has just been rammed by an ogre, then picked up and slammed into the ground repeatedly by said beast. Every muscle and bone in his body aches. He takes a few deep breaths, trying to steady himself, wondering if he is about to have to defend himself from the intruders. As he tries to get a grip on the situation some of the conversation catches his attention.
"Look, I don't know where he came from, alright? Why do you always look at me for an explanation, huh?" There is a mumbled response to the question but Alistair can't make it out. The speaker he can hear continues in a very fast, very irritated tirade, "Look, just because I know more than, well, everyone else, doesn't mean I know everything there is to know, okay? One minute I was studying the device and then he was just falling through it. He almost landed on me. Have you seen him?! He's wearing a full suit of medieval armor! Can you imagine the kind of damage that would have done to my delicate structure?"
Alistair has to resist the urge to chuckle. The speaker certainly doesn't sound very delicate. He frowns as what the man said sinks in. Why are the intruders trying to determine where he came from? They showed up after he had...after he had touched the mirror. The conversation outside continues but Alistair has stopped listening. He takes a good look at his surroundings. When he woke up he had just assumed that he was in the underground room in the ruins. But now that he looks around he sees that he is not. It is very similar, but the surfaces are not lined with rock, instead they are a smooth uniform material, like stone but not. The torches are gone, replaced by glowing orbs affixed to the walls. Instead of a few fragile shelves, the room contains a series of strange devices the like of which Alistair has never seen. They appear similar to desks but they are not made of wood, or any material he is familiar with. One directly in front of him is covered with blinking lights and glass panels that are covered in some sort of glowing script. The ladder is gone, instead there is a doorway in the far wall of the room, open to reveal daylight streaming in. Not underground then. The others must be standing just outside the door.
Gingerly he stands and turns around, finding a mirror, but not the one that he discovered in the ruins. This one is roughly the same shape and size, but its frame is wholly different. It is made of a similar material to the desks in the room, and it lacks the decorative carvings of the Eluvian that clearly brought him to this strange place. He vaguely remembers Duncan mentioning once that scholars believed Eluvians to be ancient portals, used by the elves to transport themselves across Thedas. Apparently the scholars were right. As he examines this other mirror he becomes aware of the voices from outside getting louder.
Alistair turns just in time to see two men enter through the doorway. They are both looking at something one is holding and he realizes it is a tablet that resembles another panel like those on the desk, covered in glowing script. As they cross the threshold the man without the tablet looks up and tenses as he sees Alistair standing in front of the mirror. Alistair senses instantly that this man is a soldier, despite his lack of armor, and a dangerous one at that. He tries to look as non-threatening as possible. The other man does not notice, however, and keeps on walking. He begins to speak and Alistair identifies him as the angry man who thinks he knows everything. He doesn't look delicate at all, Alistair notes.
"Look, even if it is a Quantum Mirror, and I have to admit, from the evidence, that is looking more likely, we can't really do anything with that information now. Whatever our friend did to get here burned it out. I mean, completely. Used up all of the juice. I mean, yes, I was running a diagnostic at the time, and I guess that could have contributed somewhat, but even if it did--"
"Rodney," the soldier says cutting off his companion's rant. He says it very softly and Alistair knows he was right to call this one dangerous.
"What?" The one called Rodney asks in an exasperated tone. He finally stops walking and looks up from the tablet in his hands, his blue eyes going wide as he sees Alistair, just a few feet away. The other man's hand drops to an object strapped to his thigh. Alistair doesn't recognize it, but he'd be willing to bet his last silver it is a weapon. Very slowly he raises his hands in the air, palms up, trying to indicate he means no threat to these people. Rodney lets out a strangled yelp and jumps back about a foot. The sound brings two more people into the room, a wild looking young man only a few years older than Alistair and a beautiful woman that he realizes is just as dangerous as the soldier. Both are brandishing weapons like the one the soldier wears.
"Um, hello." Alistair says after a tense moment of silence. When no one says anything in reply he adds, "I'm Alistair. I seem to have gotten a bit lost. Maybe one of you could, um, tell me where I am?" The wild man and the woman keep their weapons trained on him but they glance at the soldier as if waiting for the command. He's the one in charge, then. Alistair is relieved to see that he has not yet drawn his weapon. The man stares at him closely, clearly trying to assess the level of threat he represents to their group.
"At ease," he says in that same quiet tone after a few moments. The other two drop their weapons and Rodney relaxes visibly, though not completely. He tilts his head and then gestures to himself, saying "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. This is Doctor Rodney McKay, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex." He gestures to Rodney, the woman, and the wild man. "As for where you are, well, it's more or less the same place you were, just..." he runs a hand through his hair as he trails off and Rodney pipes up to finish his sentence.
"...just in a different reality. Well, most likely. I'll need to go over some data to know for sure." Alistair frowns at this answer. A different reality?
"You mean, like in the Fade?" he asks, trying to make some sense of what he's been told. That would explain a lot. The Fade is known to contain strange, often inaccurate reflections of real places.
"Hmm, maybe, maybe," Rodney answers, looking down at his pad. "Depends on what you think this 'Fade' is, but...hmm." He wanders over to one of the desks and begins tapping his fingers against what turn out to be buttons of some sort. The soldier, Sheppard, shakes his head and looks at his companion with a sort of resigned bemusement.
"You'll have to forgive Doctor McKay," Teyla says quietly, moving to stand next to him. Her voice is calm and reassuring, although he can see that she is visibly trying to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. "He tends to get...absorbed in his work. Perhaps it would help if you tell us of how you came to be here?" Alistair starts to protest that he doesn't know but she stops him to clarify. "I mean, what do you remember before you woke up here?"
So Alistair tells them of finding the ruins and the Eluvian, explaining that he was looking for it and what his people knew of the artifact. He doesn't tell them everything, there are many details they don't really need, but he tells them more than he would under normal circumstances. He finds himself trusting them almost immediately for some reason. Rodney occasionally jumps in to the conversation to ask him about the elves or the Eluvian or what he means by "magic," about which he clearly feels dubious. Alistair can't imagine why, given the lighting in the room and the objects that Rodney manipulates with such ease. Those seem to reek of magic to him. But perhaps they call it something else here. After a while he tires of standing in the middle of the room and moves to lean against one of the desks. As he does the lights on its surface begin to glow and he can feel the whole of it hum with a soft vibration. That tingle he felt when he first touched the mirror returns. Rodney looks up in surprise when the desk lights up and then glances questioningly at Sheppard.
"I hadn't initialized that one yet."
"Not me," Sheppard answers.
"Huh," Rodney says, giving Alistair a hard look of his own. "Well that's interesting." As no explanation is forthcoming Alistair doesn't give it any further thought. The room falls silent save for Rodney muttering to himself, but it is a companionable silence and Alistair finds he rather enjoys it. After a while Rodney slams his tablet down on a flat surface and huffs in frustration, rubbing his eyes.
"Rodney?" Teyla asks tentatively. "What have you found?"
"Nothing," he answers tersely. "That's the problem. There's not a damn thing in here about how to activate the mirror or how to dial the right reality. We already know there's no remote, we went over the place three times looking for it before Astaire here showed up--"
"Alistair," he interrupts, wondering how the man could have forgotten his name already.
"Whatever," Rodney huffs, "the point is, we didn't find a remote, and there's no reference to one that I can find anyway. I mean, maybe if I could download the whole database and go through it in my lab with a team of scientists we could figure out how to get it to work. But there's still the problem of powering the damn thing."
"Wait a minute," Sheppard says, frowning. "Back up. What do you mean 'how to dial the right reality?' Nobody's touched it since Alistair came through. Shouldn't it still be set on the correct channel or whatever? I say we go grab a naquadah generator and hook it up to the mirror. This thing can't require that much power, can it?"
"Oh, by all means John, do my job for me, please. Yeesh. Are you kidding me? Just hook it up to a naquadah generator? Seriously?"
"Rodney," Sheppard says with a warning tone, "you're avoiding the question. Why do you need to know how to find Alistair's reality again?"
"Oh, um, well. Remember that diagnostic I said I was running? Well, it might have triggered something that cycled the different realities this thing is connected to and, well, it seems to have kept going for a few minutes after he came through."
"Rodney..." Sheppard says.
"Look, we were all caught off guard when he showed up!" He jerks his thumb at Alistair, who isn't even trying to make sense of their words. He furrows his brow as the gist of the conversation begins to become clear though. "Our scans showed this planet to be completely uninhabited, and we know no one has come through the gate since we arrived!"
"So we download the database and take it back with us," Ronon speaks up. Alistair jumps. It is the first time he has heard the man speak since he arrived. "You have your people go through it and figure out how to turn it on and get it to the right channel, then we come back, hook up a generator, and Alistair can go home."
"Um, no." Rodney answers, chagrined.
"Why not?" Sheppard asks.
"For one thing, I don't have nearly enough memory to copy the whole database right now. For another, there are almost an infinite number of realities that thing could be hooked up to, and it's not like they're listed in any sort of order. Also, the naquadah generator isn't going to work. In fact, it's probably the worst possible thing we can do because, well, according to the diagnostic, it is broken. Really broken. Any attempt to bypass it and provide an alternate energy source is more than likely going to cause the whole thing to blow up." The room falls into silence once more as everyone digests this new information.
"So I'm stuck here." Alistair says at last. He is surprised to find that he isn't upset at this revelation.
"Um, yes?" Rodney says tentatively. Alistair walks over to the mirror and reaches up to touch it. "What are you doing?!" Rodney cries.
"All I had to do was touch the other one," Alistair answers. But he knows even before he makes contact with the mirror that there will be no reaction to his touch this time.
"Well, yes, clearly the mirror in your reality is working just fine." Rodney sounds a little testy now. "The problem is that you need this one to be working in order to get back, and well," he falters, "it isn't."
"Alright then." Alistair says. "So, what now?" There is another long moment of silence and he can't bring himself to turn around and face them. After a few moments, Sheppard is the one to break the silence.
"Now, you come and stay with us."
"Really?" Rodney asks in surprise as Alistair turns at last. Sheppard's face is serious, and a bit sad. Alistair suspects he feels a little bit responsible for their current predicament. Teyla is nodding in approval, however, and Ronon is giving him an assessing look. Alistair meets Ronon's gaze and after another moment the young man nods just once and looks back to Sheppard. Alistair looks at Rodney who glances at the desk that lit up at Alistair's touch and then shrugs and says to Sheppard. "Might not be a bad idea." He gives a little bit of a chuckle and adds, "Woolsey is gonna love this."
They gather up their belongings and Alistair follows the group out of the building and along an overgrown path. There are no woods, but the mountains could be identical to those he came through at the start of this strange journey. Before they get to the pass that would lead back to Ferelden (or whatever stands in its place on this side of the mirror) they come upon a large ring standing up against the mountain face. In front of it is a small podium of some sort that Rodney walks up to. He presses a sequence of buttons and there is a rumbling from the ring. Alistair jumps backwards as there is a loud "whoosh" sound and a jet of something resembling water shoots out horizontally from the center of the ring before settling back and leaving what looks like a standing pool shimmering across its surface. It is beautiful. Teyla places a reassuring hand on his arm and promises him this will not hurt, although it might feel a bit strange his first time through. He sees Sheppard talking to thin air and hears him identify himself and say something about clearance and a visitor. After a few seconds Sheppard nods and gestures toward the ring and one by one, they step through.
This sensation is no less strange than his journey through the mirror, but much more pleasant at least, and when he emerges he is still standing and fully conscious. A fact he is quickly glad of as he looks around and finds himself inside a gleaming building bustling with people and more objects like those in the room and Rodney's tablet. A feeling of belonging, a sense of home, unlike anything Alistair has ever felt in his life washes over him. He looks at Sheppard and sees that the other man is watching him take it all in with an open grin.
"Welcome to Atlantis Alistair," he says.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
SGA Rewatch: Sanctuary
Oh, hey, look, it's another entry in the Stargate Atlantis rewatch, yay! Today I'll tell you all about the season one episode "Sanctuary." Be wary of spoilers for all of season one up to and through this episode. Ready? Cool, here we go!
What Happened
The episode opens with the team in a puddle jumper being chased around a planet by some Wraith ships. They are starting to take on some pretty heavy damage when all of a sudden a massive burst of energy comes from the planet and takes out all of the Wraith ships, leaving the puddle jumper alone completely. Obviously, something capable of doing what that energy burst did warrants investigation, so the team heads on down to the planet.
They see only one inhabited area and set down outside of it. As they approach the settled area, they note that the civilization seems way too primitive to have built such a weapon, or even possibly to have used it if it is leftover Ancient tech. It is kind of a tribal Buddhist vibe that they are giving off. Rodney scans the area for energy readings, hoping to get a direction for the weapon, but his scans come up empty. No energy readings at all.
A man in a red robe approaches the team and greets them. He says he is an abbot of Proculus and they are very welcome. They are the first visitors from other lands he has ever heard of or seen in his lifetime (and he's no spring chicken). They speak with the abbot and learn that the people of Proculus are completely unaware of the stargates and the Wraith. They have lived for thousands of years in undisturbed peace, which he attributes to their deity, Athar. He says he will take them to speak to the high priestess, Chaya, and leaves to make preparations. The team all grasp the possibilities of this place, but none more so than Teyla. They speculate that the defense system must be automated, some remnant the Ancients left behind that has kept this world safe and untouched. If that is the case, this world could very well serve as a sanctuary for those displaced by the Wraith, and a retreat for Atlantis in the event of attack.
They go to meet Chaya (who, as it turns out, is a total babe, which Sheppard definitely does not fail to notice) and speak to her of their situation, assuming that she, at least will know of the weapon. She claims she knows of no such thing and that if they were saved it was Athar who saved them. She is clearly troubled to learn of the Wraith and the plight of the other worlds in the galaxy, but it is equally clear that she is hesitant to open up Proculus to refugees. She tells them she must consult with Athar on the matter and leaves them for a while. When she returns she tells them that she is very sorry but that she cannot help their people. Athar has made it clear she must first think of her own people. Rodney gets pretty belligerent and starts dismissing Chaya's religion, so Sheppard sends him back to the jumper, remaining behind to try once more to convince Chaya. He suggests that maybe she could ask Athar to consider that they, too, are her people. In a last ditch effort, he invites her to come back to Atlantis with them so she can learn more about their people, maybe convince Athar they are worthy of help. Chaya jumps at the offer.
On Atlantis Weir welcomes Chaya and tells her that she will have to undergo a quick medical exam, it is protocol. Chaya accedes to the request and Carson declares her to be in perfect health. She wonders at the machines while he asks her a few questions, and she reveals that everyone on her planet is as healthy as she. They do not suffer from disease or illness, and injuries are rare and heal quickly. Sheppard then takes her on a tour of the city.
Meanwhile, Rodney tries to convince Weir that they are wasting their time with Chaya. Either she knows more than she lets on and is just stringing them along, or she really doesn't know anything and therefore is of no real use to them. He also thinks they shouldn't trust her so readily. He wants to take a jumper back to her planet while she is busy and do some scans from orbit but Weir denies the request, saying she's not done with trying diplomacy just yet. Carson calls Weir and Rodney down to the med lab to discuss Chaya's medical results. He doesn't know what they mean, but her perfect health is just too perfect. It's not natural, he tells them, not for their level of development or for humanity in general.
On the tour, Chaya leans on a piece of Ancient tech that Grodin is fiddling with and it lights up like a Christmas tree. Grodin looks up in surprise and informs them that they had just brought that piece up from another part of the city and it hadn't even been initialized yet. He declares that Chaya must have the ATA gene.
After this, Chaya sits down for a meeting with Weir, Sheppard, Rodney, and Teyla. Weir proposes a "land lease" situation, where they could have access to part of the world to relocate displaced refugees or evacuate the city in the event of a Wraith attack. In return, they would help the people of Proculus with advances in agriculture and industry at a sustainable pace. Chaya declines the offer, stating her people have no need for that. Everything they need or could want is provided by Athar, they are happy the way they are. When pressed, she allows that her people value spiritual knowledge. Weir tells her that there are many religions on Earth, and seeing Chaya's interest in the subject gives her access to material on the subject.
Meanwhile, Grodin has figured out what that tech that Chaya initiated actually does. He tells Rodney it is a biometrics sensor. It was designed to detect and warn against alien lifeforms in the city (to prevent the Wraith from sneaking in, presumably). Rodney starts to freak out a little, realizing that Chaya got a reaction out of it. What if it was already initialized and what she did was actually set it off? He goes to Weir about his suspicions, telling her that Chaya set off the alien alarm. He wants to kick her out of the city immediately but Weir isn't ready to be so hasty. She argues that just because Chaya is different doesn't mean that she's a threat. At the moment, the potential benefits of an alliance are more than worth the risk of having her in the city.
That night Teyla runs into Sheppard in a corridor carrying a picnic basket. He hastily explains that Chaya had asked about the best view in the city, and he was just going to show her his favorite spot. Teyla chides him gently and then eases up. She tells him it is perfectly okay for him to have feelings without having to justify them to anyone else. She smiles sagely and bids him a good evening. At the picnic, Chaya admits that she has been rather lonely on Proculus and she and Sheppard make with the romance. Afterwards, Sheppard runs into Rodney who calls him Captain Kirk and advises that he should be careful, Chaya can't be trusted. Sheppard gets offended and Rodney argues that she isn't what she says he is and it is only a matter of time until he proves it. Of course, right then Chaya walks in on their argument.
The next morning a disheveled Rodney shows Weir the biometric data he had spent the entire night going over. Chaya's readings are radically different from those of everyone else in the city. They can't be excused just by her being from another planet either, because Teyla's don't differ anywhere near as much from their own as Chaya's.He convinces Weir to let him secretly take scans of Chaya under the table during their next meeting with her to see if he can figure out what she is hiding.
At the meeting Chaya says that she is very disturbed by what she has learned of the people on Earth, particularly all of their wars and the hatred they seem to feel for each other. Teyla suggests that this can be said of humans everywhere, sadly, but Chaya disagrees, claiming her people have no such problems. She states that while there are some people on Atlantis (looks at Sheppard) she knows Athar would gladly welcome to Proculus, there are others (looks at Rodney), not so much. She then asks Rodney if his scans have found anything. Weir and Rodney get their "busted" faces on and Sheppard reacts with shocked indignation Weir starts to apologize but Rodney cuts her off, telling her not to bother. Chaya is an Ancient.
Everyone is very surprised by this declaration but Chaya does not deny it, only glares at Rodney stonily. He asks her what is up with the act. Why lie, when she must realize how much it would mean to them to meet one of her kind and actually be able to sit down and talk to her? She replies that she is indeed what they call an Ancient and perhaps she shouldn't have come. She has always known she could not offer them the help they asked for. She only came because of Sheppard. Meeting him on Proculus made her realize just how lonely she had become. She leaves the room. Sheppard goes after her and finds her staggering outside the conference room, then she almost faints. He asks her what is going on and she says she should never have left Proculus. The Wraith are there. She apologizes to Sheppard and turns all glowy, then takes off through the gate.
Everyone else comes out of the conference room and Weir wants to know what the hell is going on. Sheppard tells her he is taking a jumper to Proculus and he goes after Chaya. He goes through the gate to find the planet under attack and starts firing. Chaya appears in the jumper and asks what he is doing there. He tells her that he came to help. She says she will take care of the Wraith and disappears in a big glowy ball again. The energy burst reappears and takes out all of the wraith. Sheppard turns the jumper for the planet and touches down at Chaya's place.
She appears in human form again and tells him that when she was mortal she lived on Proculus. When her people ascended they took on the law not to interfere with the affairs of mortals, but she could not stand by while the Wraith destroyed her home planet. She took out a group of them and the Others exiled her as punishment. She is now stuck serving as Proculus' protector--but the catch is she can only protect Proculus and its people. She could never have helped Atlantis. If new people came to the planet, the Others would stop her from defending them.
Sheppard says that doesn't mean they still can't learn from each other, but Chaya tells him they are too different. As a parting, she offers to do an ascended sharing ritual with him, and they are both enveloped in a glowy ball, with Sheppard remarking how cool it is as the screen fades to black.
Commentary
This episode marks the start of a pattern for Sheppard. Ancient/ascended women seem to be drawn to him for some reason. It is kind of his thing, I guess? Also, from this point on, Sheppard is firmly Captain Kirk in Rodney's eyes. He gives Sheppard crap about this for the rest of the series--and honestly, it's not all undeserved.
I am not sure what the actual purpose of this episode is, other than to lay down why the ascended Ancients aren't willing to help the galaxy out of the mess that they left it in. Mostly what it does is to reinforce that the policies of the ascended beings are pretty crappy in general, as well as that the expedition is unlikely to find help from the Ancients at all.
It also serves to spawn an insane amount of fan fiction--largely about Rodney and Sheppard and how jealous Rodney was acting of Chaya. I'm not really gonna say anything more on that topic, though. If you're truly curious, go over to Wraithbait. You can do a search for the episode title or probably Chaya as a character and should get plenty of results.
I have to say, watching it again, I was completely floored with how easy everyone (except Rodney, good on him) was about letting Chaya just waltz into the city and look at everything. They also were insanely free with the information they shared with her throughout. I don't think they have or will ever meet anyone else that they are so trusting of without some sort of outside influence acting on them. It's crazy! I know they want a safe haven, but man, play it a little close to the vest, guys. And Sheppard. Dude. You can't be that hard up. Where was Bates in this episode? He must have been off-world. Or in a coma. Those are the only possible explanations for him failing to jump all over the situation.
I do really like the little moment with Sheppard and Teyla. I like that she already sees about Sheppard how hard it is for him to admit his feelings for people, and she was willing to be supportive of him and his happiness. That was sweet.
Favorite Quotes
"Let's just try to stay on our best behavior." (Sheppard)
"I'm always on my best behavior!" (Rodney)
"Rodney, best behavior!" (Sheppard)
"This is as good as it gets, Major!" (Rodney)
"Chaya's people won't have a clue what we're doing from orbit unless they're a technically advanced race that are pretending not to be, which...has happened before..." (Rodney)
"The Lanteans were good at lots of things, but writing instruction manuals wasn't one of them." (Sheppard)
"I am an ambassador and she is a diplomat." (Sheppard)
"On a late night...picnic?" (Teyla)
"Romancing the alien priestess? That's very 1967 of you!" (Rodney)
"Oh my god. He is Kirk!" (Rodney)
That's it for the rewatch this week, cats and kittens. See you back here next week for two of my favorite episodes of the entire season, starting on Monday with "Before I Sleep."
What Happened
The episode opens with the team in a puddle jumper being chased around a planet by some Wraith ships. They are starting to take on some pretty heavy damage when all of a sudden a massive burst of energy comes from the planet and takes out all of the Wraith ships, leaving the puddle jumper alone completely. Obviously, something capable of doing what that energy burst did warrants investigation, so the team heads on down to the planet.
They see only one inhabited area and set down outside of it. As they approach the settled area, they note that the civilization seems way too primitive to have built such a weapon, or even possibly to have used it if it is leftover Ancient tech. It is kind of a tribal Buddhist vibe that they are giving off. Rodney scans the area for energy readings, hoping to get a direction for the weapon, but his scans come up empty. No energy readings at all.
A man in a red robe approaches the team and greets them. He says he is an abbot of Proculus and they are very welcome. They are the first visitors from other lands he has ever heard of or seen in his lifetime (and he's no spring chicken). They speak with the abbot and learn that the people of Proculus are completely unaware of the stargates and the Wraith. They have lived for thousands of years in undisturbed peace, which he attributes to their deity, Athar. He says he will take them to speak to the high priestess, Chaya, and leaves to make preparations. The team all grasp the possibilities of this place, but none more so than Teyla. They speculate that the defense system must be automated, some remnant the Ancients left behind that has kept this world safe and untouched. If that is the case, this world could very well serve as a sanctuary for those displaced by the Wraith, and a retreat for Atlantis in the event of attack.
They go to meet Chaya (who, as it turns out, is a total babe, which Sheppard definitely does not fail to notice) and speak to her of their situation, assuming that she, at least will know of the weapon. She claims she knows of no such thing and that if they were saved it was Athar who saved them. She is clearly troubled to learn of the Wraith and the plight of the other worlds in the galaxy, but it is equally clear that she is hesitant to open up Proculus to refugees. She tells them she must consult with Athar on the matter and leaves them for a while. When she returns she tells them that she is very sorry but that she cannot help their people. Athar has made it clear she must first think of her own people. Rodney gets pretty belligerent and starts dismissing Chaya's religion, so Sheppard sends him back to the jumper, remaining behind to try once more to convince Chaya. He suggests that maybe she could ask Athar to consider that they, too, are her people. In a last ditch effort, he invites her to come back to Atlantis with them so she can learn more about their people, maybe convince Athar they are worthy of help. Chaya jumps at the offer.
On Atlantis Weir welcomes Chaya and tells her that she will have to undergo a quick medical exam, it is protocol. Chaya accedes to the request and Carson declares her to be in perfect health. She wonders at the machines while he asks her a few questions, and she reveals that everyone on her planet is as healthy as she. They do not suffer from disease or illness, and injuries are rare and heal quickly. Sheppard then takes her on a tour of the city.
Meanwhile, Rodney tries to convince Weir that they are wasting their time with Chaya. Either she knows more than she lets on and is just stringing them along, or she really doesn't know anything and therefore is of no real use to them. He also thinks they shouldn't trust her so readily. He wants to take a jumper back to her planet while she is busy and do some scans from orbit but Weir denies the request, saying she's not done with trying diplomacy just yet. Carson calls Weir and Rodney down to the med lab to discuss Chaya's medical results. He doesn't know what they mean, but her perfect health is just too perfect. It's not natural, he tells them, not for their level of development or for humanity in general.
On the tour, Chaya leans on a piece of Ancient tech that Grodin is fiddling with and it lights up like a Christmas tree. Grodin looks up in surprise and informs them that they had just brought that piece up from another part of the city and it hadn't even been initialized yet. He declares that Chaya must have the ATA gene.
After this, Chaya sits down for a meeting with Weir, Sheppard, Rodney, and Teyla. Weir proposes a "land lease" situation, where they could have access to part of the world to relocate displaced refugees or evacuate the city in the event of a Wraith attack. In return, they would help the people of Proculus with advances in agriculture and industry at a sustainable pace. Chaya declines the offer, stating her people have no need for that. Everything they need or could want is provided by Athar, they are happy the way they are. When pressed, she allows that her people value spiritual knowledge. Weir tells her that there are many religions on Earth, and seeing Chaya's interest in the subject gives her access to material on the subject.
Meanwhile, Grodin has figured out what that tech that Chaya initiated actually does. He tells Rodney it is a biometrics sensor. It was designed to detect and warn against alien lifeforms in the city (to prevent the Wraith from sneaking in, presumably). Rodney starts to freak out a little, realizing that Chaya got a reaction out of it. What if it was already initialized and what she did was actually set it off? He goes to Weir about his suspicions, telling her that Chaya set off the alien alarm. He wants to kick her out of the city immediately but Weir isn't ready to be so hasty. She argues that just because Chaya is different doesn't mean that she's a threat. At the moment, the potential benefits of an alliance are more than worth the risk of having her in the city.
That night Teyla runs into Sheppard in a corridor carrying a picnic basket. He hastily explains that Chaya had asked about the best view in the city, and he was just going to show her his favorite spot. Teyla chides him gently and then eases up. She tells him it is perfectly okay for him to have feelings without having to justify them to anyone else. She smiles sagely and bids him a good evening. At the picnic, Chaya admits that she has been rather lonely on Proculus and she and Sheppard make with the romance. Afterwards, Sheppard runs into Rodney who calls him Captain Kirk and advises that he should be careful, Chaya can't be trusted. Sheppard gets offended and Rodney argues that she isn't what she says he is and it is only a matter of time until he proves it. Of course, right then Chaya walks in on their argument.
The next morning a disheveled Rodney shows Weir the biometric data he had spent the entire night going over. Chaya's readings are radically different from those of everyone else in the city. They can't be excused just by her being from another planet either, because Teyla's don't differ anywhere near as much from their own as Chaya's.He convinces Weir to let him secretly take scans of Chaya under the table during their next meeting with her to see if he can figure out what she is hiding.
At the meeting Chaya says that she is very disturbed by what she has learned of the people on Earth, particularly all of their wars and the hatred they seem to feel for each other. Teyla suggests that this can be said of humans everywhere, sadly, but Chaya disagrees, claiming her people have no such problems. She states that while there are some people on Atlantis (looks at Sheppard) she knows Athar would gladly welcome to Proculus, there are others (looks at Rodney), not so much. She then asks Rodney if his scans have found anything. Weir and Rodney get their "busted" faces on and Sheppard reacts with shocked indignation Weir starts to apologize but Rodney cuts her off, telling her not to bother. Chaya is an Ancient.
Everyone is very surprised by this declaration but Chaya does not deny it, only glares at Rodney stonily. He asks her what is up with the act. Why lie, when she must realize how much it would mean to them to meet one of her kind and actually be able to sit down and talk to her? She replies that she is indeed what they call an Ancient and perhaps she shouldn't have come. She has always known she could not offer them the help they asked for. She only came because of Sheppard. Meeting him on Proculus made her realize just how lonely she had become. She leaves the room. Sheppard goes after her and finds her staggering outside the conference room, then she almost faints. He asks her what is going on and she says she should never have left Proculus. The Wraith are there. She apologizes to Sheppard and turns all glowy, then takes off through the gate.
Everyone else comes out of the conference room and Weir wants to know what the hell is going on. Sheppard tells her he is taking a jumper to Proculus and he goes after Chaya. He goes through the gate to find the planet under attack and starts firing. Chaya appears in the jumper and asks what he is doing there. He tells her that he came to help. She says she will take care of the Wraith and disappears in a big glowy ball again. The energy burst reappears and takes out all of the wraith. Sheppard turns the jumper for the planet and touches down at Chaya's place.
She appears in human form again and tells him that when she was mortal she lived on Proculus. When her people ascended they took on the law not to interfere with the affairs of mortals, but she could not stand by while the Wraith destroyed her home planet. She took out a group of them and the Others exiled her as punishment. She is now stuck serving as Proculus' protector--but the catch is she can only protect Proculus and its people. She could never have helped Atlantis. If new people came to the planet, the Others would stop her from defending them.
Sheppard says that doesn't mean they still can't learn from each other, but Chaya tells him they are too different. As a parting, she offers to do an ascended sharing ritual with him, and they are both enveloped in a glowy ball, with Sheppard remarking how cool it is as the screen fades to black.
Commentary
This episode marks the start of a pattern for Sheppard. Ancient/ascended women seem to be drawn to him for some reason. It is kind of his thing, I guess? Also, from this point on, Sheppard is firmly Captain Kirk in Rodney's eyes. He gives Sheppard crap about this for the rest of the series--and honestly, it's not all undeserved.
I am not sure what the actual purpose of this episode is, other than to lay down why the ascended Ancients aren't willing to help the galaxy out of the mess that they left it in. Mostly what it does is to reinforce that the policies of the ascended beings are pretty crappy in general, as well as that the expedition is unlikely to find help from the Ancients at all.
It also serves to spawn an insane amount of fan fiction--largely about Rodney and Sheppard and how jealous Rodney was acting of Chaya. I'm not really gonna say anything more on that topic, though. If you're truly curious, go over to Wraithbait. You can do a search for the episode title or probably Chaya as a character and should get plenty of results.
I have to say, watching it again, I was completely floored with how easy everyone (except Rodney, good on him) was about letting Chaya just waltz into the city and look at everything. They also were insanely free with the information they shared with her throughout. I don't think they have or will ever meet anyone else that they are so trusting of without some sort of outside influence acting on them. It's crazy! I know they want a safe haven, but man, play it a little close to the vest, guys. And Sheppard. Dude. You can't be that hard up. Where was Bates in this episode? He must have been off-world. Or in a coma. Those are the only possible explanations for him failing to jump all over the situation.
I do really like the little moment with Sheppard and Teyla. I like that she already sees about Sheppard how hard it is for him to admit his feelings for people, and she was willing to be supportive of him and his happiness. That was sweet.
Favorite Quotes
"Let's just try to stay on our best behavior." (Sheppard)
"I'm always on my best behavior!" (Rodney)
"Rodney, best behavior!" (Sheppard)
"This is as good as it gets, Major!" (Rodney)
"Chaya's people won't have a clue what we're doing from orbit unless they're a technically advanced race that are pretending not to be, which...has happened before..." (Rodney)
"The Lanteans were good at lots of things, but writing instruction manuals wasn't one of them." (Sheppard)
"I am an ambassador and she is a diplomat." (Sheppard)
"On a late night...picnic?" (Teyla)
"Romancing the alien priestess? That's very 1967 of you!" (Rodney)
"Oh my god. He is Kirk!" (Rodney)
That's it for the rewatch this week, cats and kittens. See you back here next week for two of my favorite episodes of the entire season, starting on Monday with "Before I Sleep."
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
SGA Rewatch: Thirty Eight Minutes
Hello and welcome back to my Stargate Atlantis rewatch! Today we'll be talking about the third episode in season one, "Thirty Eight Minutes." (Yes, I know, there should be a hyphen there, but the official title doesn't seem to have one. Yes, I am actually rather irritated about that. I have issues.)
As always, spoilers for the episode and any that came before, with mild references (but theoretically no spoilers) to Stargate SG-1 from time to time. Now, on to the episode!
What Happened
Sheppard's team (Major Sheppard, Lieutenant Ford, Dr. McKay, and Teyla) along with Sergeants Markham and Stackhouse head back to the Wraith's planet from the pilot in order to do some recon. Unfortunately, when they get there, the Wraith base is just...gone. What they had thought was a facility in the side of a mountain turned out to actually be a massively huge space ship (a hive ship) that had been parked there so long it had become overgrown with centuries worth of trees and such.
The Wraith may have taken their ship and left, but they did leave a small force of their soldiers on the planet (I am not actually sure why. Housekeeping, maybe?) and Sheppard and team encounter the Wraith shortly after discovering that the base is gone. While hightailing it back to their puddle jumper, Sheppard runs into a giant web and is attacked by a big ugly bug, which attaches itself to his neck and starts trying to feed on him. Ford and crew find him and get Sheppard back to the jumper. While they are heading for the gate in orbit the jumper is hit by some of the Wraith's weapon fire. This results in one of the jumper's drive pods failing to retract as it goes through the stargate, causing the jumper to get stuck in the gate.
Markham and Stackhouse, in the front half of the ship, have gone through the event horizon and are demolecularized already. Meanwhile, Team Shep is stuck in the rear compartment, still whole, and freaking out. No part of the jumper can rematerialize in Atlantis until all of the jumper has gone through the gate. Stargates have a default setting that detects whether matter is being transmitted through a gate or not, and will usually automatically shut down if nothing is going through after a set time has elapsed (they can be manually shut down from the dialing or receiving end as well). A gate will remain open if it senses something is only partly transmitted, but it can only do so for thirty-eight minutes. That is the longest time a gate will remain open (on its own, there is a list of extenuating circumstances that can keep a gate open longer, but none of them are good things).
So from the moment that the ship gets stuck in the gate, the clock is ticking.
If it shuts down before they manage to get the jumper unstuck, the ship will be severed in half by the closing gate. Markham and Stackhouse, as a partial transmission, will be lost (i.e., dead) and Team Shep will be exposed to the vacuum of space and subject to explosive decompression. Fun, eh?
McKay quickly gets to work on trying to find a way to get the ship the rest of the way through the gate. The first thing he does is to close the bulkhead doors, which are thankfully behind the event horizon line. It won't save them completely if the gate shuts down, but it will buy Atlantis time to try to send a rescue of some sort. Meanwhile, Sheppard is still being fed on by the killer bug he picked up planetside. Things look pretty bleak for our heroes.
On Atlantis Dr. Weir is running between three groups trying to solve the two problems:
Just another day on Atlantis, really.
On Atlantis Dr. Weir is running between three groups trying to solve the two problems:
- Doctor Zelenka and team are in the jumper bay running simulations to determine if there is a way to close the drive pods manually from within the rear compartment of a jumper.
- Doctors Grodin, Kavanagh, and Simpson are heading up a team to try brainstorming another solution.
- Doctor Beckett working with a medical team and over the radio with Ford and Teyla to try to get the dang bug off of Sheppard before it kills him.
Just another day on Atlantis, really.
Zelenka (yay, Zelenka!!) manages to find a schematic of the command crystals in the rear compartment and sends them to Rodney (radio transmissions through the gate are still working just fine). Rodney thinks this takes the chances of getting the pod closed in time down from one in a million to more like one in a thousand, so that's something at least.
Beckett asks Ford and Teyla what they have on hand in the jumper so that they can try to MacGyver a solution to the bug problem. He gets a description of the critter and also asks what they have tried so far to remove the bug. Ford reveals that they have tried to burn it, cut it, and even shoot it off, all to no avail. Teyla says she believes the creature might be related to the Wraith in some way because with each attempt it just sucked some of Major Sheppard's energy to heal itself. McKay theorizes that the Wraith had to evolve from somewhere, so maybe this is an ancestral species. They go through a bunch of trials with the items on hand (iodine, salt, water, alcohol, etc.) but none of them help. In fact, they manage to piss off the bug and it digs even deeper into Sheppard's neck. This also results in Ford getting thrown back from a flailing Sheppard, distracting Rodney and causing him to accidentally hit a circuit that fires the ship's thrusters briefly. Unfortunately, this moves the ship just a little bit further in to the event horizon, breaching the bulkhead doors, which now means instant death for the team in the back of the jumper if the gate shuts down.
Weir goes to check on Kavanagh and Simpson to find them having a huge argument. Kavanagh (thbbt) is convinced that McKay's poking around in the ship's systems will cause a catastrophic overload, making the jumper explode and sending a force equivalent to that of a very large bomb back through the stargate, which would be bad for Atlantis. He wants to raise the gate's shield immediately to protect the city in case this happens. Simpson and the rest of the team agree that overload is a possibility, but a very slim one. They feel that raising the shield should be a last resort as doing so would likely kill Markham and Stackhouse, stuck in limbo. Weir defers to Simpson and the rest of the team and Kavanagh throws a huge hissy fit. He tracks her down and berates her for not being better than the military (he left the SGC for the Atlantis expedition because he was sick of being under military command and wanted to work with a civilian leader). She in return calls him out for wasting time and being an egotistical asshat, more worried about his own hide than those of the people he is supposed to be working on saving.
In the midst of all of this, Halling and a group of Athosians come to Weir. Halling explains that among their people it is very rare indeed to know when one's time of death approaches, and they have a special ritual for those situations. He would like to get on the radio and perform the ritual with Teyla. Weir flat out refuses this request. She explains that her people do not embrace death but do everything they can to stave it off. Halling protests and she apologizes for stepping on his toes and traditions but goes on to explain that she will not send the jumper team the message that they should expect to die.
Sheppard starts to get all maudlin and says he is a goner. He explains that before the team found him, a Wraith came across him and, seeing the bug on his neck, just left him there. He believes the Wraith wouldn't have done that if there was a way to get it off. He starts to make a final speech to Weir when Ford interrupts with the suggestion that maybe they can send him through the event horizon, putting him in suspended animation until they can get the jumper back to Atlantis and the waiting medical team. Carson is against this idea, having heard more about the bug. He is worried that the shock of going through the gate will cause the bug to kill Sheppard.
Sheppard then gets a brainstorm. He suggests using the portable defibrillator they have on hand to give him a shock. Ford is appalled, stating this will kill the Major, which Carson responds, cottoning on, is the point. If the creature is related to the Wraith and the subject is it feeding on dies, it will likely stop feeding and let go. Acting quickly, they can then shock Sheppard one more time to revive him, and failing that, throw him in suspended animation to try to revive him in the city. They go for it and manage to get the bug off. Ford shoots the thing up and then they try to shock Sheppard back awake. Of course, that doesn't work so Teyla drags him back through the event horizon to await revival in Atlantis.
Rodney and Ford are now down to seven minutes left to get the ship back through the gate. With two minutes to spare, Rodney manages to close the drive pods but the ship doesn't move. It lost all forward momentum when it got stuck in the gate, so they have to figure out how to push it through. Kavanagh pipes up that if they blow the rear hatch, the resulting depressurization should give the jumper just enough thrust to nudge it through. The only problem is the hatch switch is right by the door. Ford pushes McKay through the event horizon and blows the hatch, holding on for dear life as everything not tied down (including a just starting to wake up bug) vents out into space. The jumper slides through the gate and the medical team races to save Sheppard, successfully.
Yup. Just another day on Atlantis. The episode closes with the team and Weir visiting Sheppard in the infirmary, the first of many, many similar scenes.
Commentary
I like how the writers used the first couple of episodes as a sort of Stargate 101 for people who didn't watch SG-1. The thirty-eight minute window was explored quite a few times on the other series, but this was a good way to get it across to noob viewers (as well as members of the expedition who hadn't come across this particular problem before). The early part of season one does a good job of establishing the preexisting rules of the universe while also giving new and old viewers an introduction into the new setting (Pegasus galaxy) and its own unique set of rules. This episode is a pretty stellar example of this, taking a classic Stargate scenario and turning it on its head to give it a uniquely Atlantis flair. It also introduces the Iratus bug, which becomes quite an important element in the mythology of the series.
I think that this episode was also mostly in real-time which was pretty neat. That's a hard concept for most shows to pull off, but I feel like it worked quite well in this case.
Doctor Zelenka makes his first appearance in this episode, yay! I love Zelenka! We don't get any of his interaction with Rodney yet, but we get hints of what is to come (Rodney being unable to remember Zelenka's name, for instance).
Kavanagh. Oh, Kavanagh. I am not sure if the writers actually intended to make him the benevolent villain (is that a thing? I am making that a thing) of the series. The fact that he is the one that came up with the "blow the hatch" solution makes me think they were trying to redeem him, but it was too little, too late. He became a favorite for fans to hate on. Seriously, if you are brave, go check out a Stargate Atlantis fanfic archive (Wraithbait is my favorite, but you can also check out Atlantica) and do a search for stories involving Kavanagh. I think about ninety-eight percent of them involve him getting soundly pummeled in one way or another (the other two percent involve him hooking up with Bates, another fan favorite to hate, but I don't want to think about those).
I truly love how much Ford steps up in this episode. It is so easy to forget that he was the original second-in-command of the expedition, under Sumner, and resumed the position once Sheppard was in charge. He is just usually such a happy-go-lucky puppy. But with Sheppard out of commission, McKay occupied trying to fix the jumper, and Teyla out of her element, he really had a chance to shine as he stepped up kept everyone together. You can really see the potential in him to become a great leader right here.
The other thing I really noticed about this episode was the diversity of clothing. Weir is wearing this really cool (though kind of weird stylistically) shirt throughout most of the episode, and we never see it ever again. Then at the end, she's got a completely different outfit on and Rodney, McKay, and Teyla are all dressed in civvies as well. It was actually almost disorienting. By the second half of the season, at the latest, each character pretty much has a set uniform/outfit and it is a very rare occasion that you see them in something else (though later in the series Teyla does get to branch out a bit, and Sheppard and McKay at least get updated uniforms from time to time). You would think, with limited resources, each team member would only have three or four outfits each (with the military of course being in uniform) that they would rotate. I would expect a couple of sets of clothing for each character that we see regularly, not just one. But these outfits never appear again. It's weird. My guess is that the show ran over budget somewhere and ended up cutting out further costuming for the main characters. But what happened to what they wear in this episode, huh? It's a mystery I guess.
Also, yes, I am a girly girl at the weirdest times.
Favorite Quotes
"The cockpit is, uh, regrettably demolecularized at the moment..." (McKay)
"I'm told you have something of a cling-on." (Beckett to Sheppard--think Star Trek for a second and you'll get it.)
That's it for this week folks! See you next Monday for "Suspicion."
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Amendment
So yesterday I read a a really interesting article about fan fiction, from the perspective of someone who writes it, and has written it for quite some time. It was up on Pink Raygun (which is a fabulous site for fans of genre) and looks to be the beginning entry in a series on the topic. After reading the first article I am definitely looking forward to more. This is partly due to the fact that it was well written and about a topic that I have some personal experience with. But my anticipation is largely due to the fact that this article once more got me thinking something I have been thinking for quite some time.
I need to start writing fan fiction again.
Some of you might be nodding your heads in understanding with this, others might be wondering if I have completely lost my marbles. Fan fiction, in my experience, is something that people either understand or don't. Most of the people in my life don't get it. I am at peace with that. As far as I know, nobody I love enough to really care about their opinion on the matter has judged me for my involvement in the activity. My husband, in fact, has always been quite supportive of my writing fan fiction. He has had some minimal exposure to fan fiction in the past, but mostly, he understands the two things that are most important to me about it: It is an incredible way to practice and improve upon my writing, while sharing it with a group of peers who will give me feedback; and it is a way to delve deeper into a community of people who love something that I also love, as deeply (or more so) as I do.
My drug of choice was Stargate Atlantis. It was my gateway into fan fiction and I never really strayed far from the fold. That is, honestly, the only fandom I have ever been so involved with that I wanted to write more stories for it, and read what other people had to say as well. It was a way of getting more SGA during the breaks between seasons, or, increasingly, the ridiculously long hiatus between season halves. Sure, I have toyed with writing a few crossover stories involving the characters from Buffy or Bones (I love crossovers), but they would have been set largely in Atlantis.
Once I stumbled across the SGA fan fiction, I was, quite simply, hooked. Finding the archive site Wraithbait was a revelation of sorts for me. You see, hardly anyone I know watched SGA. My husband, if home, would watch the occasional episode with me (and we are currently watching the whole series together), but he isn't that big at sitting down and watching serialized television, so I couldn't have the kind of in-depth speculative conversations with him about the series that I wanted to have (though he is kind and patient enough to have listened to me ramble on about the topic ad nauseam on more than one occasion, to be sure). Fan fiction gave me that outlet, though, and I will always love it for that.
I'll admit, when I say I was hooked, I mean, I was spending hours a day poring over every new story added to the site, and would get antsy whenever there wasn't anything new to read available. Then a series of stuff happened that caused me to get so far behind that there was no way to get caught up again, especially when some other stuff happened that cut significantly into my reading time. So it has been a few years since I have spent much time on Wraithbait, or since I have written my own story. I have a few started stories or story ideas hanging out in my writing folder though, and I think the time has finally come to get back to them.
I don't know that I will ever get back into fan fiction with the same fervor of that original experience. That's probably okay. But I have realized that I do miss that community, and I would like to go back, even if it is only for a brief visit once or twice a year.
One of my goals for this brand new year is to work on my writing, and today I would like to make an amendment to it. I would like to dust off and finish one or two of those fan fiction stories that are waiting oh so patiently on my hard drive. I may or may not upload them to Wraithbait. I definitely think that my November novel may be a fan fiction story this year, if one of my ideas seems like it might lend itself to the length (you'd be amazed at some of the novel-length fan fiction stories I have come across over the years). It seems like a perfect fit, to me. I will be able to dive right into the characters and setting without the need to worry about world-building and without getting too bogged down in descriptive text. This will leave my non-November writing time free to focus on the world-building, character development, research, and story plotting that I would like to devote to my original story. The more I think about it, the more I like this idea.
I love this feeling, when my brain is all afire with new inspiration and ideas are just racing around like particles in the LHC. This year I will not fear the blank page. I will instead look upon it as the on-ramp to the highway that will lead me directly to becoming the writer I want to be.
I need to start writing fan fiction again.
Some of you might be nodding your heads in understanding with this, others might be wondering if I have completely lost my marbles. Fan fiction, in my experience, is something that people either understand or don't. Most of the people in my life don't get it. I am at peace with that. As far as I know, nobody I love enough to really care about their opinion on the matter has judged me for my involvement in the activity. My husband, in fact, has always been quite supportive of my writing fan fiction. He has had some minimal exposure to fan fiction in the past, but mostly, he understands the two things that are most important to me about it: It is an incredible way to practice and improve upon my writing, while sharing it with a group of peers who will give me feedback; and it is a way to delve deeper into a community of people who love something that I also love, as deeply (or more so) as I do.
My drug of choice was Stargate Atlantis. It was my gateway into fan fiction and I never really strayed far from the fold. That is, honestly, the only fandom I have ever been so involved with that I wanted to write more stories for it, and read what other people had to say as well. It was a way of getting more SGA during the breaks between seasons, or, increasingly, the ridiculously long hiatus between season halves. Sure, I have toyed with writing a few crossover stories involving the characters from Buffy or Bones (I love crossovers), but they would have been set largely in Atlantis.
Once I stumbled across the SGA fan fiction, I was, quite simply, hooked. Finding the archive site Wraithbait was a revelation of sorts for me. You see, hardly anyone I know watched SGA. My husband, if home, would watch the occasional episode with me (and we are currently watching the whole series together), but he isn't that big at sitting down and watching serialized television, so I couldn't have the kind of in-depth speculative conversations with him about the series that I wanted to have (though he is kind and patient enough to have listened to me ramble on about the topic ad nauseam on more than one occasion, to be sure). Fan fiction gave me that outlet, though, and I will always love it for that.
I'll admit, when I say I was hooked, I mean, I was spending hours a day poring over every new story added to the site, and would get antsy whenever there wasn't anything new to read available. Then a series of stuff happened that caused me to get so far behind that there was no way to get caught up again, especially when some other stuff happened that cut significantly into my reading time. So it has been a few years since I have spent much time on Wraithbait, or since I have written my own story. I have a few started stories or story ideas hanging out in my writing folder though, and I think the time has finally come to get back to them.
I don't know that I will ever get back into fan fiction with the same fervor of that original experience. That's probably okay. But I have realized that I do miss that community, and I would like to go back, even if it is only for a brief visit once or twice a year.
One of my goals for this brand new year is to work on my writing, and today I would like to make an amendment to it. I would like to dust off and finish one or two of those fan fiction stories that are waiting oh so patiently on my hard drive. I may or may not upload them to Wraithbait. I definitely think that my November novel may be a fan fiction story this year, if one of my ideas seems like it might lend itself to the length (you'd be amazed at some of the novel-length fan fiction stories I have come across over the years). It seems like a perfect fit, to me. I will be able to dive right into the characters and setting without the need to worry about world-building and without getting too bogged down in descriptive text. This will leave my non-November writing time free to focus on the world-building, character development, research, and story plotting that I would like to devote to my original story. The more I think about it, the more I like this idea.
I love this feeling, when my brain is all afire with new inspiration and ideas are just racing around like particles in the LHC. This year I will not fear the blank page. I will instead look upon it as the on-ramp to the highway that will lead me directly to becoming the writer I want to be.
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