Welcome to the final seasonal bonus show, this week we are looking at an episode of Farscape entitled Green Eyed Monster which was written by Ben Browder and deals very heavily with the John and Aeryn relationship, set within the third season the bulk of the story takes place on board Talyn with Crais as an ever present brooding element and one more entity that can easily be overlooked. While it can be considered a very shippy episode lets not forget that at this point John has been cloned or more to the point duplicated, there are literally two of him one on board Talyn and the other on Moya so there is still plenty of scifi involved not least the living ships that inhabit the Farscape universe. We also get plenty of laughs (to offset the drama) thanks to Stark and Rygel on board the shuttle pod who play chicken with the huge Budong after Talyn has been swallowed and may only reappear as a waste by product.
Green Eyed Monster is one of my favourite episodes of Farscape, it’s pretty much a stand alone in the season arc but does become the pivotal point of the relationship between Aeryn and this John who is technically the same John as on board Moya but obviously has his own memories from the point of duplication. Having two Crichtons also means the writers were free to well kill off a major character whenever the mood struck them and as the story progresses here and on Moya that too will complicate the romance within this classic scifi series.
Many thanks to everyone that has listened to our bonus shows, the numbers always dip over the holidays as everyone has better things to do and more time to do them but we’ve been very pleased with the response however next week we are back with the regular Stargate shows and first off for 2015 is The Return parts 1 and 2 in a feature length show, Miles from The Scifi Diner Podcast will be joining us for that so stay tuned.
Here we are again for another bonus episode, we are paying a second visit to the world of RL Stine and The Haunting Hour series for the episode “Sick” which tells the tale of a young lad who is feeling under the weather and finds himself alone in his home as some strange events take place in and around the house. It may be a case of him being delusional thanks to the illness and medication or maybe everything that is happening is exactly what it appears to be, has an alien lifeform taken residence in his home, do the government know all about it and the messages coming from the tv are genuinely offering support and a lifeline is his battle to save the world.
Sick is a season two episode of The Haunting Hour and stars Garrett Ryan as Alex the young lad who talks to himself way too much, has rather bad personal habits and seems to be quite a handful and may be a little too pampered and spoiled for his own good. It could be that once alone his overactive imagination kicks in combined with the smothering of his mother and her talk of “quarantine” all comes to a head and this alien invasion emerges to pretty much ruin his day. The beauty of this episode is that we are left not quite knowing the actual truth, there is evidence that it’s all in his imagination but also we are presented with enough evidence to believe he is the victim of a conspiracy and fighting for his life.
It was just Alan and myself this week and next week we have the final bonus episode and we’ll be looking at Farscape, we’ll let you figure out the episode in question but it’s a good one so we hope you join us for that. Once the Farscape bonus episode is done we will be returning to the regular Stargate shows beginning with the Atlantis episode “The Return” and Miles joined us for that.
Welcome to the third of the current batch of bonus shows we are releasing over the holiday season, this week we have a first time guest host and an episode from a much loved scifi franchise which traditionally doesn’t share a lot of actors with other shows in the genre due to it’s filming in LA and well I expect they pay a lot more but there certainly has been some crossover in guest stars and one major cross franchise performance from Mr Robert Picardo. In this show we will be discussing the Star Trek Voyager episode Message In A Bottle in which Robert plays the holographic Doctor as usual and it’s one of the many Voyager stories which his character takes center stage and makes the most of his talents which as Stargate fans we are familiar with when he played Richard Woolsey on both SG1 and Atlantis.
In Message In A Bottle Seven of Nine discovers a quadrant spanning communications network which seems to be abandoned and has detected at extreme range a Starfleet vessel, they attempt to communicate but the signal is corrupted and they decide to send a holographic encoded signal which will retain it’s integrity for longer and of course they volunteer the Doctor. He appears on board the Prometheus a prototype long range tactical vessel, the human crew are all dead and the ship is controlled by Romulans. The Doctor encourages the ships EMH (a more advanced model) to help recapture the ship and the two of them raise to the challenge with much danger and hilarity. Andy Dick guest stars as the EMH mark 2 and in his way this holographic being is as flawed as the original model but in the short space of time interacting with our Doctor he grows and begins to see himself as a being in how own right not just part of the technology of the ship.
We were fortunate this week to be joined by Michael Clark who is making his first appearance on Gatecast, Michael has hosted and appeared on way too many podcasts to mention and was jointly responsible for creating The Visionary Trek network which currently has three podcasts which deal with all aspects of Star Trek and who excel in interviews, news and features. Michael will be joining us in the new year for an Atlantis episode but the opportunity to get him involved and get his feet wet with style of show was too good to pass up so have a listen and let us know what you think and by all means pay a visit to his own site/shows, they are well worth listening too since I suspect like us your love for scifi covers more than just Stargate.
Here we are with the second bonus show for this season, this week we are looking at the Sanctuary episode Bank Job which features quite a few actors from Stargate beginning with Amanda Tapping and working our way down, it was also directed by Peter DeLuise so there is another strong connection. In this third season episode the Sanctuary team are hot on the trail of a significant abnormal that is due to hatch from it’s egg very soon, they egg is in a safety deposit box in a small town bank but since they have the correct credentials then it should be in and out but when the abnormal is missing and on the loose they decide to fake a robbery to allow them to search for this creature which has now taken residence in a human host.
It was great to see Gary Jones guest starring once more opposite Amanda Tapping, he played the bank teller George who it turned out was to have a more significant impact on the story then expected, we also got former Stargate actors Ryan Robbins, Peter Flemming, Eric Keenleyside, Tobias Slezak and Robin Mossley appearing in the episode so lots of fun trying to remember who they played on Stargate and which episode. We had the time of course because Bank Job has quite a few montages when do kind of slow the episode down and ultimately a single location limits the action of a show and you rely on the drama and character interaction to keep the viewers entertained. I have to say that they do a very good job casting the episode, the characters were interesting and worked well together with both positive and negatives consequences within the story.
Many thanks to Adam for joining us, this was his second guest hosting spot on Gatecast and he will be returning in 2015 for more Stargate, we are as always looking for people to join us for an episode, as you see given enough time we can normally find a date/time to work around very varied locations from the US across Europe and down to Australia. Feedback, ratings and reviews are most welcome, feel free to get in touch about any aspect of our show or maybe more importantly Stargate even if it’s just to say hello or offer some criticism:)
Next week we have a first time guest on that bonus show, we’ll be discussing Robert Picardo in an episode of Voyager and we will be joined by Michael Clark, hope you stick around and have a listen but until then happy holidays and take care.
Welcome to the first of the current batch of Gatecast seasonal bonus shows, this week Brad joins me to watch and comment on R.L. Stines The Haunting Hour season one episode Fear Never Knocks. The episodes stars Christopher Heyerdahl (Stargate SG1 & Atlantis), Matthew Walker (SG1 and Atlantis), Quinn Lord (SG1) and is directed by Peter DeLuise (SG1, Atlantis and Universe). While grandad is out the kids play with his mysterious recording device and unleash the worst terrors and then the original owner of the device comes to collect and well trust me this show would make sure any kid did not sleep soundly after watching it.
Many thanks to Brad for joining me for this bonus episode, Alan was having fun at his Discworld convention so he missed out on this bit of fun, somehow though I think he wouldn’t want to changes places. Next week we have another bonus show and we’ll be looking at an episode of Sanctuary called Bank Job which as as you would expect lots of Stargate connections. We got a voicemail for last weeks show and we’ll save that for when we return with the “proper” Stargate specific shows in the new year but feel free to send us any comments you have, we’d love to have a bumper crop of feedback over the holidays.
The dragon roars and SG1 along with Baal and Adria run away, very quickly but what do you know the dragon bursts forth from the lonely mountain and strafes them with fire before they gain cover in the tree line then it’s time for Cameron to try the man of action approach even though Teal’c is the one that goes on a suicide run but it’s up to Daniel to solve the final puzzle even if again someone else takes the first risk, this time Vala. I think there is a general sacrificial element to some of these characters in this story. The Sangraal is recovered and SG1 along with Ba’al are transported to another location and they find Merlin embedded in a stasis chamber, he’s released but is near death and when the situation is explained to him he reveals his part in the early battle against the potential Ori threat and provides Daniel with the knowledge to build a new weapon but before it can be completed Adria discovers their location within the Stargate / Transporter closed loop and her men launch an attack. Daniel saves the day but is then too weak to protect himself from Adria and is taken aboard an ORI starship, a new pet for the Orici.
The Quest Part 2 is a pretty epic conclusion to this two part story and kicks off the second half of the final season with revelations, action, some humour and a surprising turn of events as SG1 are forced to flee while Daniel uses the inherent ability given to him by the Ancient memory device, alas he is not strong enough or experienced enough to hold Adria for more than a few seconds and well what is she planning on doing with him, we’ll find out next year when the Gatecast has finished with it’s seasonal bonus shows. I’ve got to admit that once again Ba’al played by Cliff Simon is an excellent character to stir things up as even when faced with Adria and her army on their tale he still can not seem to lose the arrogance and joy he taked from needling humans this time Sam who it has to be said responds wonderfully. Of course he then steals the scene once again when he “goes for help” and gets himself killed (again) so no doubt not the original Ba’al who has a little more sense of self preservation it’s been proven time and time again.
A big thank you to Thomas for sticking with us for the whole evening (midday for him) when we recording both parts of The Quest and Thomas will return as a guest in the new year for an Atlantis episode. This weeks promo was for the The Rusted Robot podcast and next week we’ll be beginning the seasonal bonus shows starting with an episode of RL Stines The Haunting Hour called “Fear Never Knocks” and Brad will be joining me for that show, hope you join us. As always thank you to everyone that has talked to use and left feedback, always appreciated even though we would love to get more including a review over on itunes, haven’t had one of them for a good while but not to worry. We hope you keep listening to the show but for now keep watching and talking about Stargate, always more to discover within the movie, novels and live action series.
After a wonderful insight and some Daniel detective work SG1 are away to discover the location of Merlin’s weapon the Sangraal. They arrive at a village and are greeted by the locals who aware of the quest, SG1 are not the first to undertake it but it seems not long before Ba’al had passed through, maybe they are too late. During some research the ORI invade and SG1 are forced to fight and then flee with the local librarian and head towards the lonely mountain and the dragon that protects the Sangraal, fun and games commence.
Well here we are at the first part of a mid-season two parter, the quest for the weapon is nearing conclusion with not only Ba’al sniffing around but the ORI hot on their heels, lets not forget the dragon of lore which is said to protect the treasures left by Merlin but alas the visual effects artists were not firing on all cylinders or maybe the budget was simply stretched too tight just this once. To eb fair it may be the case that the representation of Dragons in particular has come a long way in the last few years but this is perhaps this dragon was expected to deliver and ultimately failed, better in the second part of the episode but in part 1 just a spindly legged lizard. Of course lots more to praise in the episode, Rod Loomis as Osric was exceptional and having Ba’al and Adria on screen at the same time with what amounted to pretty much bickering foreplay was a riot to watch and we also get classic puzzle solving Daniel. As a mid-season finale The Quest Part 1 works very well, maybe a little slow in places but the puzzle solving works well within the story and the character interaction is the icing on the episode and who didn’t smile as Vala pulled the hair dryer out of her backpack, a little trite perhaps but funny.
Thomas joined us for this episode and will also be with us for part two which is going to be released next week, then we are going to do some bonus episodes and return with new Stargate specific episodes in January with The Return Part 1 and Miles will be a guest on that show which I am planning to present as a feature length show. Many thanks for the comments from Mack over on Google + for Phantoms and the ongoing chat on twitter and facebook. This weeks promo is for The Sci-Fi Movie Podcast a very entertaining look at some of the recent and not so recent scifi movies, well worth having a listen too as they cover movies from all across the genre and as always we’d love to hear from you and as a bonus a review/rating over on itunes or Stitcher would be really appreciated but for now keep enjoying Stargate, it binds us all together:)
The Atlantis team follow in the footsteps of unit led by Major Leonard who has failed to maintain contact with the city, they find the dead bodies of some Genii soldiers as well as what appears to be a Wraith device emitting a mysterious signal and unfortunately nearby the dead SG team who it seems may have killed each other at least by the evidence of a video camera found at the scene. Rodney believes the alien device is capable of influencing the minds of those nearby but was damaged by the Genii and soon the reality for some members of the team begins to warp causing Ronon to see Wraith and John to believe he is back on activity duty in the middle east and as for Carson…
He Shot Me!
Phantoms is a good action orientated episode and a side step away from the main season three arcs and while it doesn’t quite hit the quality targets we’ve come to expect it certainly has a lot going for it with some great cinematography and clever use of visual styles to aid in the story telling. Truth be told even with all the death there is quite a bit of dark humour in the episode something Stargate has always done well considering it’s family friendly leanings and yes McKay gets himself shot once again:)
So how great was it to have both of the original podcasts hosts back on the show?
It was good to have Scott return to the Gatecast here by meeting his one episode a year quota and I think given the right encouragement we can get him back for some more episodes next year and that invitation is of course open to anyone that wants to join us for a show, were close to wrapping up SG1 but lots of Atlantis over the next year and a bit then Universe and of course a few bonus shows along the way. It was a lot of fun to see how Twitter exploded last week, Dan seemed to be a very popular guest to have on the show so make a note to have him back sooner rather than later but that aside we didn’t get any direct feedback but never mind the episode was a lot of fun to do. This weeks promo is for the Flash Pulp Podcast a show the presents short form audio drama and next week we will be looking at the Stargate SG1 episode The Quest.
The Odyssey arrives at the coordinates of a reported ORI supergate but they only discover a neutron star which affects the ships shields and sensors and then they come under attack by three alien starships, they evade but run into a minefield, a mayday is sent to the SGC who then lose contact. Onboard Anateo and his men murder Colonel Emerson to force Carter to remove the transponder and repair the damage to the ship and as the transponder broadcasts the position of the Odyssey it allows Vala to use her contacts and secure a less than space worthy cargo vessel but before they make contact the Odyssey as indicated by the transponder moves and they follow, it leads them to a “chop shop” for spacecraft and Vala along with Daniel get captured leaving Teal’c and Cameron to devise a drastic plan to infiltrate the Lucian Alliance who were behind the ambush of the Odyssey. Cameron using the Reol chemical which when injected into a target makes them see who you want them to see plays the part of the major Lucian operative Kefflin who is a friend of Netan the current leader. When Teal’c is captured he is only saved from torture thanks to the intervention of “Kefflin” aka Cameron and things continue to go wrong when the bounty hunter/dodgy dude Tenat arrives and provides the location of the Odyssey but having seen Cameron before he confronts him and for a price agrees to go along with whatever deal Mitchell has got going. Meanwhile Sam has freed some of the captive crew and the retake the ship and Vala takes a risk in beaming Anateo off the bridge and out into space when the plan was to beam Sam to safety, it works but before they can get underway Netan arrives but again the Reol chemical comes in handy and the two Ha’tak begin firing on each other and the Odyssey beams Teal’c and Cameron aboard and jumps into hyperspace.
Oh, the Earth is now at war with the Lucian Alliance…
Company of Thieves is another of the Lucian Alliance episodes but has a lot more meat on it’s bones, this is perhaps the first time we see them as a strong force with some very intelligent people in positions of power but without the communal self interest this “organised” crime syndicate are more interested in their own power bases and that provides the chink required for the SGC to pull their proverbial out of the fire. It’s a pity Anateo played by Rudolf Martin wouldn’t be returning, he played quite an entertaining villain and was perhaps more dangerous than Netan in the big picture but that was the problem, the tenth season had become an ORI arc and the alliance were really only a side show so they always have to be played down or a way found to negate their impact on the Milky Way while the fight for the galaxy continues.
Overall this was a fun and exciting episode, some good call backs and excellent guest and recurring actors, Teal’c got captured and tortured again and they even acknowledgment his issues with his role in these plans and of course the murder of Anateo was quite cold for a scifi show with a firm family audience, quite unexpected but probably deserved after he ordered the death of Emerson. We are going to see more of the Lucian Alliance in the years to come but they never really made their mark on SG1 and this was perhaps their best episode in terms of dramatic effect.
Dan LaRock joined us for the first time for Company of Thieves, he said he was nervous but came through the recording session with everything intact and I believe he will be very happy with the result, hopefully he’ll return at a later date and in that respect if anyone out there wants to join us for an episode then by all means get in touch, we’d love to have you on and we’ve proved timezones and locations can all be worked around. This weeks promo is for The Babylon Project and next week we will be watching the Stargate Atlantis episode Phantoms, we hope you join us for that and feel free to get in touch just as a few of you did by leaving comments on Facebook and Google+ for the last couple of shows, let us know what you think about the show and/or Stargate and if you spot any news we’d love to help pass it amongst the Stargate family of fans.
Jeannie Miller aka Jeannie McKay has an epiphany while playing with her daughter, with a background in maths and physics she creates a theory to explain the process of bridging universes / realities and with the encouragement of her husband (Kaleb) sends it off for oversight and it comes to the attention of Stargate Command and Sam Carter who knows they could solve the problem of energy generation a problem Rodney McKay had been working on. Despite a four year estrangement Rodney goes to visit his sister and the only way to convince her to help is to beam her aboard the Daedalus and prove to her there is a benefit in spending time away from her family and Kaleb agrees so off to Atlantis they go. On arrival Zelenka has built the prototype machine thanks to the information being sent to the city from the ship and once activated it all seems to be working fine until late one evening the energy spikes a man appears inside the chamber who looks remarkably like Rodney.
It turns out that although it was a slim chance they have broken through to a populated universe and the exotic particles being generated as a by product of this “bridge” will tear that realm apart, they agree to turn it off but it turns out it won’t be that easy as the threat to both universes builds when the other side takes pro-active action, the solution is to use a massive amount of energy to disrupt the bridge which could mean depleting the ZPM but it has to be done and maybe at the last second “Rod” will be able to return to his world.
McKay and Mrs Miller is a very good episode of Atlantis, it makes full use of the guest appearances from within the Stargate family as well as bringing in Kate Hewlett to play Jeannie, Kate is David’s real life sister so the chemistry between them on screen was perfection, you could almost believe the reconciliation the two characters go through was part of their real lives. Kaleb played by Brendan Gall was good character, patience of a saint when dealing with his wife’s family and their daughter played by Madison Bell was too cute to mention:) The beauty of this episode of course is the production side in giving us two David Hewlett’s on screen at the same time using a number of different techniques, David then went to town bringing to life “Rod” his alternate self and developing a whole new social dynamic within Atlantis and the rest of the cast can be credited for seamlessly playing off both characters so well, kudos to Martin Gero for such a great script.
Many thanks to Shayne for joining us this week, another guest from Australia which required the usual hoop jumping to get three global time zones to sync and make the recording not just possible but practical:)
We got some feedback for last weeks episode but I finished the edit early this week so I include it next week but as always a great time is had over on twitter and the Stargate community we are part of, so much fun and creativity being shared with the only thing lacking is more direct feedback for our show, we’d certainly love to hear from you so don’t be shy, contact forms and social media options are just a click away. This weeks featured promo was for Nutty Bites a geek friendly podcast hosted by Nuchtchas with some of her friends discussing topics that cover all manner of things we love, give her show a go. Next week we will be taking a look at the Stargate SG1 episode Company of Thieves with a first time guest, stayed tuned.
Daniel takes Vala on a date or as he puts it two friends sharing a meal but it’s a fancy looking restaurant and they both look like they have put a little effort into their appearance so I think it’s safe to say Vala definitely sees it as a romantic possibility and well Daniel is just deluding himself. When Vala takes a trip to the ladies she is accosted by a guy who injects her and then carries out to a car which then speeds away, the helpful waiter who witnessed the “abduction” informs Daniel and the game is on. It turns out elements of the Trust now led by the Goa’uld Athena (former confident of Ba’al) is looking to unlock some information in Vala’s brain from her time as Qetesh using alien technology. The SGC investigate known Trust safe houses and come up with five possible locations and raid all five, it does not go well and in the warehouse where Vala is being kept the SG team are all killed and an injured Vala escapes but the alien tech has damaged her memories and she finds herself wandering aimlessly and finally being drawn to Sol’s Diner where through very good luck she finds employment. After she foils a robbery the police put her photo on the wire and the Trust and the SGC race to find her but the bad guys get her first leading to a car/bike chase which results in Vala capturing an injured Cameron and thanks to her memories still not sure who she can trust.
Vala retraces her steps and returns to the warehouse with the Trust and SGC right on her heels, a fire fight breaks out and eventually she and Daniel are face to face and with a heart felt plea he breaks through her memory blocks and overwhelmed with memories of her friends and new family she embraces Daniel with tears streaming down her face, oh Cameron has put his pants back on for the raid on the warehouse 🙂
Memento Mori is a very good episode for Vala (Claudia Black) and also solidifies her position in Stargate Command, it’s clear despite her lone wolf and mercenary attitude she has found a place she is happy to be and with people she likes and respects. It was a great moment to see her presented with the SG1 patches and of course lots of people seemed to like Cameron hand cuffed to the motel bed as Vala got the low down on her “alien abduction” scenario, lots of fun. The set piece bike and car stunt was very well done, looked very nice and Teal’c interrogating the Trust operative was fantastic. Overall Memento Mori was an entertaining episode, some laughs and lots of action and drama, lets not forget The Usual Suspects homage when Vala was talking to Detective Ryan (Adrian Holmes).
The team are ambushed when following up on some information provided by a Genii contact and John is captured by Koyla who then calls Atlantis and offers to trade John for Ladon Radim the current leader of the Genii who he believes betrayed him. Koyla proceeds to torture John by allowing a capture Wraith to feed upon him but what he doesn’t expect is that the two prisoners will form a bond and when the opportunity appears together they fight their way to freedom. Meanwhile Ladon has been investigating the leak of the Atlantis codes and uncovered Koyla’s supporters in his military and provides the location of John and a rescue mission is launched which arrives just in time to reveal an unknown ability of the Wraith.
Common Ground is a very important episode in the third season as it once again brings back Koyla played by Robert Davi but also introduces us to a Wraith who will become a recurring character and a major player in shaping the Pegasus galaxy both with and against Atlantis, Christopher Heyerdahl returns to the franchise once again playing the new character “Todd” as the Wraith. There is a quite a bit of drama and suspense in this story, not knowing of the Wraith ability to give life energy has you wondering exactly where John’s torture will eventually lead and while death is not always a final thing in scifi neither is killing off main characters for both story and behind the scenes reasons. Ladon (Ryan Robbins) made a welcome return to the show and as we mentioned it was beginning to feel a little like a Sanctuary episode and no question that the casting department and producers went to town to make sure this episode had top notch guest stars which paid off.
We got plenty of tweets and retweets for this episodes and quite a few likes and plus ones but as always we would love to hear comments and feedback in a more direct fashion, emails and voicemails but we are always grateful for any support of the show and more importantly Stargate which despite the reservations of the studios continues to have huge fan support. This weeks promo is for Pulp Audio Weekly and next week we are going to be covering the Stargate SG1 episode Memento Mori so we hope you join us for that and if you do want to get in touch then click on any of the links on this site, we know each method has it’s appeal in this social media world.
SG1 are undercover on an alien world recently taken by the ORI and a now fully grown Adria makes an appearance, after a rousing speech which has the locals aka survivors cheering an energy wave is detected by the Odyssey in orbit, they beam SG1 onboard and watch helplessly as every living thing on the planet is vaporised. Meanwhile back at the SGC Bra’tac arrives to bring news of a new offensive against ORI held planets using the Ancient weapon at Dakara, the current Jaffa council have decided that sacrificing whole worlds to kill the ORI armies is a worthy trade off and with an ORI starship now abandoned the race is on to take control of it. As SG1 investigate the ship they find the bridge and the robes of a Prior which indicates they control the ship which negates the whole premise of the Jaffa believing they can take the ship and use it to fight the ORI but there is no trust and the two groups spend more time fighting each other. The surprise for both of them is that Adria thanks to her connection with Celestis is still very much alive and is perhaps the most advanced being in the galaxy at this time and she takes control of the ship and with the information gained from the “dead” Jaffa she sets course for Dakara to destroy the weapon. Bra’tac and Landry are being held by the Council and their leader Se’tak who is a little paranoid holds up in the bunker and activates the weapon when the ORI ship is in orbit, it kills his men but Adria is again untouched and she fires on the planet ripping apart the ancient technology while Landry and Bra’tac flee through the Stargate.
Counterstrike is a well written episode and delves into the use of a device the Ancients meant as a tool for creation (think the Genesis device from Star Trek 2) but to create it has to manipulate raw material so when used as a weapon the need to create is a by product and the destruction of in this case life forms becomes it’s sole purpose. Of course the moral and ethical dilemma is exposed when every the decision to sacrifice innocents and non-combatants to strike at actual military targets and we get plenty of opportunity to explore that. That said we don’t get a lot of insight into the limitations of the Jaffa decision, piece meal strikes will simply be giving the ORI enough time to eventually discover the technology and source of the weapon and the foolish belief the Jaffa could make use of an ORI ship given that we know the Prior are the key to their technology beyond hand weapons etc. Ultimately the strike against this planet was misguided and achieved little and does kinda indicate that conventional means will not defeat the ORI and even some out of the blue almost mystical technology may not even be a total solution, I guess even Daniel may be wishing on a star in his hope for Merlin’s weapon.
Thanks for the feedback for last weeks episode The Real World and thanks to those that voted in the poll, the results seems to indicate a very pro Elizabeth (Torri) camp within the Stargate Atlantis fanbase and like the character or not she really should have been given more to do or sidelined even more in the way of General Hammond, this middle ground didn’t seem to work for anyone. This weeks promo is for The BatCave Podcast and next week we are going to be covering the Atlantis episode Common Ground where John has a close encounter with an old enemy and gets even closer to a potential friend or at least respected enemy, should be fun. Thanks to Brad for joining us on this episode and given the hoops we were jumping through it didn’t turn out to bad but overall came in a few minutes shorter than normally, could have done with a bit of extra content (reviews, comments etc) yep that’s a hint:)
Elizabeth awakes in a strange rather bleak room, the door is locked and after repeated shouting and raising panic a man approaches and unlocks the door and introduces himself as Dr. Adam Fletcher and that she is in a hospital just outside of Washington, when she queries Atlantis and being back on Earth he doesn’t know what she means and claims she was leading a diplomatic negotiation over nuclear proliferation in Africa when she collapsed. She demands to see General O’Neill who subsequently turns up but again like the Doctor claims ignorance of any military program called Stargate or a secret facility beneath Cheyenne mountain, Elizabeth freaks and tries to make a break for it but is sedated once again and soon falls into the regular sessions with Fletcher and his pharmaceutical regime and when she shows some positive results they bring in her mother who has her fathers watch, the same watch she took to Atlantis. We are not exactly sure how much time has passed but eventually she is released and returns home and Jack turns up asking her to return to the negotiating table but maybe the pressure is too much and the hallucinations of a shadowy figure return.
After relapsing it’s revealed that Elizabeth is being attacked by nanites and is in a sort of coma in the Atlantis medical bay, Carson is trying desperately to find a way to neutralise these small machines without damaging the body but it seems they are more interested in controlling her and John realises it’s a war or will power, her mind is fighting the programming being imposed by the nanites and in a final hail mary John enters quarantine grabs her by the arm leaving himself open to infection tries to provide a sense of hope and direction. In her mindscape Elizabeth is being hunted down by “Jack” but she sees John who tells her to run and leads her through the SGC to the gate and the final barrier, ignoring the threats of the machine entity she enters the wormhole and awakes on Atlantis with a clean bill of health.
The Real World seems to polarise opinion, we’ve had tweets that regard it as a favourite of the entire series and other saying it’s a simple rip off from an SG1 story, either way it’s always good when the writers give Torri something to work with and sideline the rest of the regular cast, she carries this episode with ease supported by the return of Richard Dean Anderson and Alan Ruck guest starring as the Dr. Fletcher. While the episode can be considered as a standalone it does answer an unasked question from the episode Progeny when she was attacked, it made sense nanites would have been transferred over and being what they are be capable of becoming a threat. Overall a solid third season episode but not one geared up for a casual rewatch unless you are a fan of Torri or maybe James Bamford who appears quite a bit on this episode, he’s the stunt co-ordinator but handles Torri with aplomb during her fight scenes:)
Thanks for the comments on Facebook and Google+, Twitter again is the core social media portal for the show with a lot of conversation about the episode and thanks to everyone who favorited and retweeted the show information. A big thank you to Jeff for calling in over Skype from the states and joining us for the episode, he’s getting very busy with his teaching job so it may be a while before he records some more stiff with us, hopefully not too long. This weeks promo is for Tuning Into Scifi Tv and next week we are going to be watching the SG1 episode Counterstrike, hope you join us.
Cameron is all set to celebrate his 200th crossing of the event horizon but before he can gather the team to help him celebrate this mild achievement Martin Lloyd makes an appearance requesting some help with his proposed scifi feature film and as before the Pentagon believes leaking some information in the guise of a piece of media fiction will aid in the protection of the Stargate program and in the long term ease the idea into the public consciousness for when the time was right to reveal all. SG1 start to provide Martin with some ideas but none of them seem to satisfy him and ultimately he gets the dreaded phone call that the production has been cancelled but it’s not all doom and gloom as eventually after a minor glitch the team along with Walter, Landry and Martin use the Stargate and celebrate with Cameron offworld. The episode wraps with a quick ten year jump into the future as Martin and his television shows celebrates their tenth year, cast and crew interviews are presented skewed from what we know of the “real” SGC and the cherry is that Martin gets a call and the movie is back on.
The 200th episode of Stargate SG1 follows on from the 100th episode and expands upon the character of Martin Lloyd the alien who came to Earth and stayed after finding himself a niche in the media world so in what amounts to a series of clips we get to see the various show ideas the members of SG1 came up with and skewed a little towards their personality traits. It was great to see Farscape spoofed both in words and pictures and it didn’t half look good but then again so did their version of Star Trek, we also had fun with a hard boiled almost noir PI show starring Teal’c and of course Vala pimping ideas from shows she had seen although who would be surprised to hear she crash landed her ship on a alien and was revered a local population now freed from tyranny. The CW version of the show was terrifying but then again have you seen The 100 or Star Crossed, if so then you get the idea but the pièce de résistance was surely the puppet sketch which was just too funny for words and underlines the effort the studio and producers put into this milestone episode. Oh and see if you can spot both the credited and uncredited cameos that were included in the episode, there are quite a few.
Alan hosted this episode along with guests Thomas and Adrianna and they had a blast and we hope you have fun when you listen to the podcast and let us know what you think. This weeks promo is for The Babylon Project Podcast and next week we’re back on Atlantis for the Elizabeth centric episode The Real World so join us for that and above all else keep watching and enjoying Stargate.
Welcome to the final seasonal bonus show, this week we are looking at an episode of Farscape entitled Green Eyed Monster which was written by Ben Browder and deals very heavily with the John and Aeryn relationship, set within the third season the bulk of the story takes place on board Talyn with Crais as an ever present brooding element and one more entity that can easily be overlooked. While it can be considered a very shippy episode lets not forget that at this point John has been cloned or more to the point duplicated, there are literally two of him one on board Talyn and the other on Moya so there is still plenty of scifi involved not least the living ships that inhabit the Farscape universe. We also get plenty of laughs (to offset the drama) thanks to Stark and Rygel on board the shuttle pod who play chicken with the huge Budong after Talyn has been swallowed and may only reappear as a waste by product.
