Gatecast 350 SGU Gauntlet

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Apr 152017
 

Gauntlet

Well this is Gauntlet the season and alas the series finale of Stargate Universe and while the episode was not specifically written as a series finale it actually works very well and by some miracle doesn’t annoy the viewer with a slap in the face cliffhanger. Of course as we know the final scenes of the series leaves everyone hanging by a thread but it’s done with such style and care you really do not mind, at least not too much.

Gauntlet

The Drones once again are pressuring Destiny and continue to block every single useful star in the immediate flight path of the ship, it’s simply impractical for Destiny to seek out resource rich worlds off the path as laid down by the seed ships so the question is asked what can they do. Eli comes up with another solution, not a good one but it has the benefit of not only preventing further conflict with the drones but maximising the current resources of the ship. His solution is to make use of the recently activates stasis pods, those combined with an energy saving FTL cruise would allow the Destiny to leave this current galaxy and bypass the are of space controlled by the drones. The margin of error is very small and the decision to implement this option would have to be taken very quickly, if Destiny’s power reserves dropped too low while in FTL the ship would be stranded in the intergalactic void with hundreds of years of sublight flight ahead of it. Some of the crew are give the option of a last visit to Earth but a minor hiccup almost derails the endeavour as some of the pods are damaged and a certain mineral is needed to enact a repair. Activating the gate will of course draw a drone command ship to their location but they lay down a diversion with one of the shuttles broadcasting a powerful signal to fool the drones, when they take the bait the shuttle does a kamikaze run and destroys the command ship and Destiny gates to the planet and collects the required material. The pods now working soon fill up and eventually only Eli, Rush and Young are left, it is then they discover one of the final three working pods is still faulty. Young doesn’t trust Rush to not risk the ship if he was unable to fix the pod after he and Eli went into stasis so Young decides to sacrifice himself but Eli makes his stand, he is confident he can fix the pod in the time allowed and will not hesitate to put the ship and crew ahead of himself if he fails in his task. Young and Rush bid their farewells in a manner which truly reflect how they feel about this young man who came onboard as a bit of a bad joke but through adversary has matured into a man that could one day lead others.

Gauntlet was an impressive episode, there is as much action as you would expect from a modern scifi series and far more drama and character work than most, par for the course with Universe but this being the finale really brings it all home. It was quite an achievement to pack so much into this last “hour” of television without sacrificing so many quiet dialogue driven scenes between characters many of which showed how far these people had come. The final situation/obstacle that Eli, Rush and Young had to deal with also summed up the show to perfection, distrust, compromise and acceptance all brought together and allowing one of the youngest members of the crew and one never intended to be part of Icarus to commit himself and his life on his skill and a simple choice to protect his friends even if it meant his life.

I’m already looking forward to watching Universe again in the near future, I really am surprised how much I have enjoyed the series after it had kinda been moved into the “will watch again one day” category whereas SG1 and Atlantis were always ready to go whenever I felt like it. The production levels, CGI and writing were all top notch and even now a few years down the line there is nothing that surpasses the quality of this series, equals yes in the case of say The Expanse but does not eclipse.

Our thanks to Thomas for joining us for Gauntlet and next week we are going to have a roundtable discussion on Stargate Universe as a whole along with the results of the quick favourite episode poll we ran for a few days. This weeks promo is for Nutty Bites and even at this late a stage if you send something in before the 21st I can get into the wrap up show as feedback.

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Stargate Atlantis Season 5 Wrap Up Show

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Apr 302016
 

Stargate Atlantis Season 5

In the fifth and final season of Stargate Atlantis we can honestly say the producers and writers delivered episode after episode of quality science fiction, of course as to be expected one or two of them dipped below the very high standards that were being set but overall this was an excellent season of Stargate Atlantis. In many ways you could argue that it was too good because the loyal viewers who had embraced Woolsey as the commander and enjoyed the changes and growth in the characters this season knew there was so much potential that would remain untapped. Of course opinions abound as to why Atlantis met it’s fate but at the time the DVR and Streaming options had little effect on corporate decision making and live viewing figures were not spectacular and we know cancelling is always the first option for the suits.

Stargate Atlantis Season 5

Anyhow we want to thank everyone that voted in the listener poll to discover our favorite episodes of this final season and we intend to take a look at the whole series again complete with poll for a bonus episode over the christmas holidays, so lots of warning because choosing ten episodes will be tricky:)

SGA S5

We couldn’t have done this season without the support of our guests so a big thank you to Thomas, Andrew, Ian, Brad, Jeff, Matthew and Tim for joining us and our thanks to everyone who sent in feedback directly or via our social media. Next week we are going to be taking a look at the Stargate SG1 movie The Ark of Truth and the week after that we’ll take a look at SG1’s Continuum then we begin Stargate Universe, hope you join us for that adventure.

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  1. Vegas
  2. The Shrine
  3. The Lost Tribe

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Gatecast 310 SGA Enemy At The Gate

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Apr 232016
 

Enemy At The Gate

In the Stargate Atlantis series finale Enemy At The Gate the consequences of the reality breaking signal as seen in the episode Vegas is felt as a Hive ship in “our” reality receives the information. This may not have been too bad but unfortunately an underling of Todd has secured a ZPM and created a Hive that is vastly more powerful than any before it. It is bigger and faster with every subsystem improved, the only upside is that only its sensors were good enough to pick up the signal and the Wraith commanding has no wish to share the location of this new feeding ground. John gates back to Earth to help defend the planet using the Ancient chair and Atlantis is forced to give chase thanks to Todd providing them with his stick pile of ZPM’s. The Hive gets to Earth very quickly and destroys Area 51 which by bad fortune houses the recently relocated Chair but thanks to one of these plot (rabbit out of the hat) points Zelenka gets the wormhole drive to work and Atlantis appears in orbit just in time to intervene, the battle is joined. John in a nuclear equipped 302 gains access to the Hive but is very surprised to find his team already there thanks to the quirk of having two gates in close proximity, together they attempt to fight there way out but time is running out as it and Atlantis trade blows above the Earth.

SGA Finale (39)Enemy At The Gate is a good episode of Stargate Atlantis and for the most part is not a bad season finale however it is not a good series finale, the story was rushed and plot issues not really addressed, maybe if the TV movies had been made they would have taken the sting out of being left with that final scene but we’ll never know. That said the production value of the episode is excellent, there is some stunning visual effects and full use is made of the standing Hive sets which have never looked better but there were still stories to be told and that will forever colour opinion on this episode.

Many thanks to Thomas for joining us for the final episode of Atlantis, he’ll return for a few episodes of Stargate Universe. Thank to everyone that left the feedback for Vegas and other things, always appreciated. This weeks promo is for the Legends of S.H.I.E.L.D. podcast and next week we are going to be taking a look back at the final season of Atlantis in the wrap up show and announce the results of the listener poll.

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Gatecast 270 SGA First Strike

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May 232015
 

avatar The new Apollo commanded by Colonel Abe Ellis arrives at Atlantis equipped with a weapons delivery system called “Horizon” armed with six naquadah enhanced mark 9 nuclear warheads, fly by data over the Asuran homeworld indicates they are building a fleet of ships and the belief is that their target will be Earth itself so a pre-emptive strike has been ordered by the President, SGC and IOA. The mission with reservations goes well with the vast majority of the targets destroyed but soon after an object appears in the Atlantis system and within a Stargate is activated, the “satellite” fires on the Apollo and the energy beam sweeps around to target the city from orbit and it soon becomes apparent nothing will stop this beam from wearing it the cities shields and destroying Atlantis. The single ZPM will not sustain the shield and even submerging the city only gains them a small respite but in an out of the box solution they drive an asteroid into the path of the energy beam and use the energy from the geothermal complex to initiate the star drive and launch the city. Initially it all goes well but the city starts to stall the shield is dropped and the city once agains powers upwards and as the leave the atmosphere the shield is once again raised but moments from full coverage the energy beam strikes causing damage to the tower. The city enters hyperspace but soon after the star drive shuts down and they are left floating in normal space light years from anywhere and anyone with no immediate means to call for help and with many injured including Elizabeth who is in critical condition.

Duck & Cover

Duck & Cover

First Strike is a pretty epic third season finale and yet has no direct input from the Wraith which seems strange on the surface but it is part of the desire to deal with the Asuran “replicators” and we do get to see the ingenuity of the Ancients through their creation as they deploy a Stargate equipped satellite very very quickly which would in time have destroyed the city if not for the hail mary solution which itself has consequences. The episode also always a soft introduction to the new chief medical officer Dr Jennifer Keeler (Jewel Staite) and sets the stage for the departure of Elizabeth (Torri Higginson) as a full time character for good or bad depending upon your point of view. All that aside the writers and production staff put together a fantastic episode and there is no question a lot of money was spent especially as the episode is very effects heavy, you don’t get to see the city fly that often and well the final stunt work performed by Ky Furneaux doubling Elizabeth was if anything more impressive than any of the CGI. It was good to see the ship builders are still hard at work as the Apollo makes her debut along with her new commander Colonel Abraham Ellis played by Michael Beach and the dynamic was certainly an interesting approach to take but it made a lot of sense, the civilian and military will always be at odds over the Stargate programme.

First Strike is a great episode and gave us a quality cliffhanger as the fate of some characters and the city itself hangs in the balance.

So that’s the final season three episode done and dusted, thank you to everyone who has been directly involved or supported us via all the ways social media allows. Many thanks to Brad for joining us for First Strike and he will be back from the two wrap up shows the first of which will be for Atlantis and that is due to be released on the 30th of May. This weeks promo is for the Sci-Fi Movie Podcast who have just celebrated their 100th episode with a look at Return of the Jedi, great podcast well worth listening too.

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Gatecast 269 SG1 Unending

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May 162015
 

avatar The Odyssey with General Landry and SG1 onboard travel to the Asgard homeworld where Thor informs them that as a race they are no longer able to resist the ravages of time, their cloning technology has hit a critical juncture and with no future capability to sustain their forms and no way to ascend they as a species have decided to remove their world and themselves from existence. Their final parting gift to the humans who for the most part they accept as the Fifth race is the fruits of their technology, every scrap of data is incorporated into a core piece of tech which they retrofit to the Odyssey and for the first time a human ship has the full resources of the Asgard military. As it turns out pretty sweet timing as ORI starships jump into the system and as the Asgard world is vaporised the Odyssey engages the ORI and proves victorious and jumps into hyperspace for the return to Earth.

Little did they know but that was just the beginning of their problems, the ORI continue to harass the Odyssey and they come to the conclusion that the Asgard tech itself is somehow being detected within hyperspace but it can not be removed or powered down without a time consuming procedure which leaves then open to attack but something has to change. The next time the ORI attack the Odyssey has time to beam most of her crew to a nearby world which has a Stargate and then she retaliates but as the end looks to be drawing near and weapons fire approaches the ship Sam throws the dice and engages the time dilation field and to those on board time outside the ship seems to have stopped with the energy beam frozen just off the starboard bow. Sam continues to seek a solution to avoiding their fate if and when the time dilation field is turned off but she can not find a solution as the years and decades flow by and
they all grow old and then maybe just maybe…

Unending (26)

Well what do you know a very different type of story to wrap up the Stargate SG1 series, the writers knew they had to conclude some elements of the show and perhaps the Asgard leaving the picture was unexpected especially given the limitations that become apparent before the SGC even got to exploit the windfall. However Unending is an out and out character piece with the members of SG1 and their General, we watch them grow older and deal with the isolation and depression that comes with their circumstance and how they interact with each other, sometimes with surprising and emotive results. I’m still not quite sure if the finale is satisfying, it certainly has some very interesting scenes and no question the CGI as always blew your socks off but I think the fact that these characters return in The Ark of Truth gives the finale a much needed positive slant and for fans the warm embrace they were probably hoping for. A huge thankyou to Thomas who once again made talking about Stargate lots more fun, always a great guest and if you fancy joining us then get in touch and we’ll see what episode of Atlantis is open and sort out a time to chat over skype while watching the episode. Oh, I also included my short review of the Stargate SG1 novel “Murder at the SGC” written by Amy Griswold entitled , spoiler free:)

This weeks promo was for the SciFi Diner podcast an excellent show with lots of interviews and features, well worth a listen and thanks for all the support for our coverage of Stargate SG1, the two movies will be covered in due time and in the short term we have the Stargate Atlantis S3 finale next week and then the two wrap up shows. After that we jump into the fourth season of Atlantis and there are still episodes open if you fancy joining us on the show, check the schedule and get in touch.

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Stargate TV Spot – Continuum

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Jul 062014
 

So I watched the season 3 finale of Continuum this evening, it was waiting for a week or so as football and other things limited my tv viewing time so imagine the nice surprise when I saw Ty Olsson (Colonel Barnes & Jaffa on SG1) making a guest appearance in the show playing Marcellus a military commander from one of the future timelines. It was also gratifying to see that the episodes was directed by William Waring a name that should be familiar to Stargate fans for his long work operating cameras and directing episodes of the show, this was his sixth time directing Continuum. The episode itself “Last Minute” was a cracking finale and along with the familiar regular and recurring cast who have Stargate in their resume it left us hanging with some plot points resolved and many others left up in the air and just to spice things up a few more unexpected events occurring, hopefully a fourth season will be ordered.

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Gatecast 230 SG1 Camelot

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Jun 282014
 

avatar2 SG1 continue their search for the weapon mentioned by Merlin when as an Ancient he went against the wishes of his people to search a way to protect not only the Milky Way but the Ancients themselves. Arriving on a world whose address was given within the Mantle they discover a low technology community whose inhabitants call it Camelot and within one dwelling are the hidden treasures of Merlin including a holographic message, database and another Knight created as a guard to protect the knowledge from the unworthy. Daniel manages to access some of the data but has to sacrifice the machine to protect Cameron who is battling one of the Knights and even with another of the fables swords from the stone he is on the verge of failure before Daniel saves the day. The Odyssey takes SG1 to the location of a recently discovered Supergate with Jaffa forces already present standing guard, Teal’c leaves the fleet on a secret mission and Sam comes up with a means to dial the gate to the Ori galaxy to prevent an incoming wormhole but they are too late, the gate activates and four Ori starships arrive and the battle is joined. The Odyssey and the newly minted Russian 304 Korolev along with a number of Jaffa Ha’tak and Asgard ships engage the Ori vessels but the invaders have superior shields and fire power, Sam floating near the gate can only watch in horror as the first battle is easily won by the Ori despite Teal’c bringing 3 more Lucian Alliance Ha’tak to the party.

Guys, you need more ships!

Guys, you need more ships!

Camelot is a fantastic season finale, we get a very good combination of location work at the village known as Camelot and of course John Noble guest starring which was and still is quite an achievement,  Katharine Isabelle also guest stars in the episode and it was a nice idea to have one of the local young women seemingly the strongest and most competent fighter despite tradition giving that role only to the men. It was a pity they didn’t have Valencia fight the Knight rather than just draw the sword from the stone and throw it to Cameron to do the day and then he only survives thanks to Daniel. In a full 180 we then have the other half of the story dealing with the very high tech side of the franchise, lots of very impressive CGI work and full use of the standing Daedalus (redressed) sets and the Gou’ald sets not to mention throwing in an Asgard just to spice things up a but. The battle once joined looks stunning and it is rather disturbing to see how easy the Ori cut through the lines of the defenders and are so strong they can casually leave survivors behind who can then spread the glory of Origin.

Thomas joined us for Camelot the season 9 finale of SG1 and we thank him for spending some of his day off work with us, not always easy arranging a time to bridge the USA, UK and Finland over Skype but we can always get it done and we are rewarding with good conversation, the same applies to our other guest hosts both previous, current and future:) We got some feedback for last weeks Stargate Atlantis episode Inferno over on our G+ and Facebook page as well the always busy Twitter so many thanks for that and touchwood we get to hear your thoughts on Camelot. This weeks promo is for the Resurrection Revealed Podcast which deals with the recently aired ABC series Resurrection a show I only just watched and thoroughly enjoyed and the podcast just added icing. Next week we are going to be discussing the Stargate Atlantis season 2 finale “Allies” and Brad will be joining us for that, we hope you all join us as well.

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Gatecast 189 SG1 Moebius Part 2

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Jul 272013
 

avatar2 The members of SG1 are stuck 5000 years in the past but in this alternate timeline dorky Daniel and Sam after helping to discover the location of the second gate are put onto the expedition thanks to Jack returning to the military which in turn is thanks to Major Kawalsky his long time friend and compatriot. The use the jumper to travel to Chulak in search of Tealc who they believe will be open to helping them but on arrival they are captured by the Jaffa of Apophis and Daniel is take for interrogation and then when they escape he reveals that his no longer the Daniel we knew for such a short space of time. In a clever tactic they take the jumper 5000 years into the past of Chulak and use the gate to travel to Earth and they appear shortly after the original SG1 arrived but find that well they did not fare very well. Only Daniel survived which means once again we have a full compliment of SG1 to rally the natives to rebel and over throw Ra but this time to use the Jumper and it’s cloak to secure the gate and make sure it will be discovered under the cover stones 5 millennia later. A blink of an eye later here is a SG1 watching the video of themselves recovered from a dig site and well everything seems to have worked out so lets all go fishing and they do including Sam but there shouldn’t be any fish in this pond…

Close enough?

Moebius Part 2 is a fantastic season finale and watch together the two parter is brilliant time travel science fiction. It was great to see “evil” Teal’c once again as the First Prime to a snazzy looking Apophis played by Peter Williams who refused to cut his hair hence the use of the fancy hat. We lost Daniel and gained Daniel and lost Teal’c, Sam and Jack but hey we are back to a full compliment of SG1, come on don’t you love time travel tales:)

Who is Missing?

Who is Missing?

The episode has for the most part stunning levels of location shots, composite scenes and set pieces although one or two shots were a little sub-standard as Peter commented on in the episode commentary, budget and practical limits played a part but next season a full size location jumper will solve many of these mainly for Atlantis.

As a season finale the episode was awesome and a lot of the credit goes to the final fishing scene and slow pull back across the pond and we’ve seen that shot before but it doesn’t matter it works so well. If this had been the series finale it would have worked just as well, the story and conclusion providing a fitting end to SG1 and passing the torch full time to Atlantis.

As it should be

As it should be

Once again we have to thank Scott and Miles for joining us in the recording of this show, they were excellent and with fewer audio issues the final result was more to my liking. We may have to try to convince them to make another appearance some time in the future:)

Next week we take a leap at the Stargate Atlantis season 1 finale “The Siege Part 1” with Jeff from the states joining us for that recording, hope you can join us and maybe leave a comment, review or any sort of feedback I can’t tell you how much it means to us. Thanks to Brad for posting his mini-feature on Gatecast 106 “Menace” over on the Facebook Group and thanks to everyone that we interact with us on twitter and Stephen for the email:)

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TV Spot – Amanda Tapping

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May 252013
 

I watched the season finale of Motive yesterday which starred Amanda Tapping. She wasn’t one of the identified players in the story (the show tells you who the victim and murderer are) but it was an excellent role and performance plus some good makeup work to age her where appropriate. Motive is now being aired in the US on ABC and comes to the UK on the  13th June at nine o’clock on Universal.

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