Stargate Atlantis

There haven't been many Stargate threads here at all. No complaints, I guess.

I was really impressed. A lot more than I had expected to be. The city going up was just fantastic, but it has to be part of a bigger picture somewhere down the line. Somehow, I don't think the Atlantians have died out.

Yeah, the cast was a bit stiff. I think that if I were on the set I could have shouted 'boo' and scared the crap out of them, but I'm sure they'll be better soon enough.

The only 'downer' was that Daniel Jackson didn't go along. You'd think that after all of the work that he has done looking for it that he'd be the first one in.

Glenn

I was really impressed as well. Joe Flanigan was especially strong as Sheppard. He combines some of the good nature of Daniel Jackson and the smart-ass-ness of Jack O'Neill

Overall a great start to a new series. I really liked the Wraith...they should be a great bunch of villains.

I don't have time to type a fitting review but I wanted to chime in to say that I am impressed! Yeah the cast was a bit stiff, but think back to the first season of Star Trek!

The characters are great, the Wraith are well imagined but can't stay all powerful for too long or it will be a short season so there will have to be some breakthroughs made on the part of the SG-A team.

All in all, great show! It looks like MGM will be getting some more money from me for this DVD collection!

Spence

The Wraith are some of the scariest looking TV villians in a long time. Nightmare inducing. Someone who came up with them has some serious issues.

The cast and crew were excellent, even in the few parts they were stiff. I really like the Sheppard charector and im glad to see they finally used a international team

capt

I liked it as well but if the Wraiths feed through the organ on the hand, why do they have teeth?

I was totally amazed at this premier. I felt that it defined the characters and their inter-relationships very well. The interplay between Shepherd and Weir seems to indicate good dramatic potential. I will be tuning in to see how this one develops. I found the humor between the two science geeks to be very entertaining. "We're in a totally new galaxy, how far out do we have to go?"

Shepherd definitely seems to be modeled after O'Neill. "We're from a galaxy far, far away." Good stuff.

I am eager to learn about the Wraith. Did the ancients just hide under the sea hoping for the Wraiths to just die out or did they find another place in another far off galaxy?

I guess we will all have to watch and see.

I liked it okay...

But gosh, that lead actress is just very annoying. (and very stiff) Otherwise I liked the canadian and irish scientists, but I fear that the major may become a walking plot device with his Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

And maybe the SG-1 series has had a good explanation for this (I only watch sometimes), but why is english the universal language - even for the ancients, across millions of years and multiple galaxies? They could at least have had to learn the language of the ancients from the "new girl" or something like that.

I liked the wraiths except for the "leader". Bad makeup, bad acting. And they should have used all-black eyes IMO.

Overall I suppose I'll tune in a few more times, but it certainly didn't "hook" me directly.

Some random observations:

1. Yes the cast was a bit stiff and Dr. Weir needs to loosen up but that should work out. I think she realizes she is in over her head.

2. The Wraith are pretty nasty and I doubt that they will be reasonable. Their fighters are just plain cool.

3. Loved the use of the Stargate as a jumpgate for spaceships.

4. I liked how Sheppard handled the "rescue" of COL Sumner. Glad Sheppard acknowledged the moral price he had to pay in doing the right thing.

5. Don't care much for Dr. Mckay. Acts like LT COL Carter on speed. He should have taken "smart ass" lessons from Jack O'Neill.

6. Since a lot of folks were brought over from Earth there is a good opportunity to develop stories based on these secondary folks.

My one hope: They have a story on paper on how to end the series in case it gets canceled so that it is self contained.

All in all another reason to watch TV on Friday. SG-1 and SG-A; not a bad line up.

Because it is a convention that moves the plot. In some of the early episodes of SG-1 aliens spoke their language with Dr. Jackson or Teal'c translating but I am sure that became cumbersome. I just accept it as a convenient plot device and move on. If I had to question everything I see in a SF show I'd go crazy.

I am alway suprised how perfect the "universal translator" is in most of the Star Trek universe. At least on "Enterprise" they have a linguist on board who has to sample the language to get the device to work properly.

Lars_J wrote (post #8):


The scientist who sat in the chair and activated the device had a heavy Scottish accent, not Irish.


Since she was the only one to talk, you may be in for a big disappointment in future episodes when the others have dialog. I thought the acting was fine for the part that had to be played. And the make-up, well, again, we got to see the teeth of the only one of them that talked. They looked appropriately decadent, in my opinion. And I hate to tell you this, but I've seen young people on today's urban streets and at malls that look pretty much like this woman.

Doug Wallen wrote (post #7)


A real "groaner", in my book.

RickGr wrote (post #6):


Not to defend the inconsistency, but a possible explanation could be that the teeth are vestigial (much as the appendix is supposed to be vestigial in human beings), leftovers from a time when these beings fed through their mouths.

SpenceJT wrote (post #4):


They're not "all-powerful", as we saw them being killed by humans in various ways. Their ships were even shot down by plain old fire arms.

Wraiths = space vampires. Not bad.

I was mildly disappointed by this. It has potential, but, man, have they ever cribbed a lot from Star Trek and its ilk, with "shields", "jump points", "transporters", etc. At one point didn't one of the crew ask to be "beamed up"?

I too was curious as to whether they actually tried to explain the English, or if they -- perhaps wisely -- just ignored the question altogether.

For some reason, I guessed he would ask for a sandwich. I do like it when the characters played by well-known actors get killed off; makes things interesting. But now, there are no big names left....

We had a group together to watch the premiere, and that was the consensus, the wraiths were somehow the source of our vampire legends.
That makes the solution obvious, get back to Earth and track down Buffy.

I watched it and I'm now ready to judge it solely on the premiere episode. But it does have me wondering about this season's Stargate series and I don't feel good about that. However, I'll watch the entire season before I pass judgement.
I'll just be glad when SciFi runs that "documentary" on
Shamaylan because I'm sick of the wall to wall promos for it.

I love, love, love Dr. Carson Beckett!! I thought his whole Shaggy/Scooby shtick was fantastic and not something you usually see in SciFi (the only other TV character I can think of in this type is Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf). Hopefully his character will be in many more episodes. Go Scotland!

I really liked most of the other characters... Ford didn't really make an impression on me and I hope the powers that be let his character shine in an upcoming ep. I didn't care for Robert Patrick's Colonel Sumner. There really wasn't much to his character besides being a stock uptight ass from central casting. I was glad to see his character get the life sucked out of him (and the sfx were really good). The Wraiths are very interesting space vampires that look a scarily amount too much like Marilyn Manson.

I missed out on S7 of Stargate SG-1 but I'll be catching up shortly with the dvd set. But I'm really glad that they had the new Dr. Weir on the first episode of S8. It really helped me to get used to her character as a focal point to jump into the new series.

My only big fear with this series is that it will fall victim to Voyager reset syndrome and its related conditions. I trust the creators to arc out a S1 story (I hope they find those ZPM modules quickly!), but there are so many inherent traps for their type of story. The Atlantis crew only have x amount of personnell, material goods, power, etc. that the writers will really have to be on top of their game to avoid the pitfalls.

I'm ready for the next ep!

I planned on watching this, but missed it. Does anyone know if the premiere will be shown (soon) again?

I missed this too. Anyone have any screen shots of the wraiths?

I came here to see what everyone thought because I TIVOd it and hadn't watched it yet but this sounds like a Spoiler to me.



My friend was over last night and talking about how scary the villians were. Looking forward to them.

Looking forward to watching it.

I watched this last night (tivo), and was surprised how much fun I found it to be. I never watched a single episode of SG-1 because I don't like Richard Dean Anderson, thus I can't compare the two.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)




I just checked the SCIfi Channel web-site and it does not appear that it will be back on anytime in the next 2 months. Surprised the hell out of me, I thought it was an unwritten law that cable channels had to show episodes of their original shows no less tha 500 times a week.

I thought the rule is that once the show has been broadcast (in the East?), it's fair game.

A lot of it was protected by the force field, so that makes sense. But some sections were not, so... yeah

IIRC, ever since SG1 moved from Showtime to SciFi the show only airs twice each week. One for the East Coast and a second airing later that night for the Pacific time zone. I assume it's because they don't want to dilute the ratings for a first run series.

Actually, SciFi like most cable channels has a separate West coast feed that is 3 hrs delayed, and has had one for several years now. So that used to be one of the reasons to repeat new episodes later that night, but other reasons remain. It certainly is helpful to people in the middle two timezones, and for people who prefer (or are only able) to watch later at night.

I think the pilot repeated again on Saturday, but you asked too late for that.

I think your best bet is that it should be repeated again on Sept. 3rd, the first Friday in Sept., as both of them should go on reruns for the rest of this year.

Why I mentioned before that there is something else about the Atlantians that we don't know about yet was because when the city broke free, there were more cities in the background. I don't think that they'd have stargates too, so why were they still down there? What will it take to get them to rise too?

Glenn

For some reason this show is reminding me of Babylon 5 but with space vampires.

I am sure the city will fill with all kinds of beings from around the galaxy and Dr. Weir will be the Mayor or what ever you'd like to call it.

So far I'm extremely happy with the way it has turned out and will be looking forward to each Friday evening. SciFi really has been stacking the shows lately:

1. Stargate Atlantis
2. Stargate SG-1
3. Andromeda
4. Farscape (even if it will only be a few episodes)
5. Earthsea

Count me in a someone who really enjoyed the premiere. I was hoping Atlantis would set a different and distinct tone from SG-1 and for the most part it succeeded. As someone mentioned we have a Bablyon 5-esque setup with Atlantis as our home base/melting pot. I really like the cast with the Sheppard, Weir and Teyla charaters standing out. The wraith seem like a formidable enemy and looking forward to learning more of their origin/history.

I was wondering if I should watch SG Atlantis or not. I haven't watched the SG-1 serries but find myself thinking that I missed a good show. I have been wanting to pick it up but not till I could see it from the start. I am wondering if I should jump on board with Atlantis or hold off on that one til I see the original serries? What do you guys recomend?

Thanks!

I agree that at times it was stiff, but overall I enjoyed it. The only thing that bothered me was easily they were able to figure out the Ancient's technology. Yes, they've been studying the output for a few months, but they made little progress. Yet, once they get to Atlantis, they're able to figure out the command consoles that run the various city. Even worse, was Shepard who was just made aware of the whole Stargate, was able to fly the ship with such ease. How long did it take Carter and O'Neil to proficiently fly alien ships?

I think that you can just jump in and start watching SGA, kinda like I started watching Star Trek TNG & Voyager without watching the orignal. Although I would recommend watching at least the first season of SG just to understand the SG universe. I guess you could do that with the movie, though I couldn't stand the movie, but I enjoy the series.

Yeah, but he missed the pilot. No, it isn't vital, but it does help. Will, what I would do if I was you would be to tape it if you can, but don't watch it. When the reruns start up the pilot should be on, and then you can sit down and enjoy. If you find out that it isn't what you want, just hit the stop button.

Glenn