Gatecast 217 SGA Critical Mass

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Mar 292014
 

avatar2 Intelligence is provided to the SGC that a explosive device has been placed on Atlantis by members of the Trust who have been infiltrated by remnants of the System Lords. The bomb is believed to be triggered by dialling the Earth address and the next scheduled contact is within hours, Dr Lee comes up with a solution to use a far long SG unit to pass on a message to the Daedalus who can then contact Atlantis without using the gate. Safe for the moment Atlantis breaths in but the secondary protocol is activated and a distress signal is sent out and noticed by two Wraith cruisers but more problems arise with the key to the destruction of the city lies with the ZPM which is needed to power the cloak to hide the city from the soon to arrive Wraith. The secondary story is Teyla themed, her friend and mentor the ancient Charin is dying and is worthy of an age of ceremony which is going to take place regardless of the threat of the bomb and the Wraith. Lets not forget Zelenka who was volunteered by McKay to visit M7G-677 the world populated by children, even the bomb threat wouldn’t have made that job any more appealing.

Cadman has Rodney whipped!

Cadman has Rodney whipped!

Critical Mass is good episode making full use of the benefits of a crossover in characters and standing sets, we get drama and humour from the SG1 side merged very well with the ongoing Atlantis dynamic including the return of a number of characters to have played well to the story and fans in earlier episodes. The threat to Atlantis was a little complex but no question it was clever but you do wonder if those behind the implementation were being painted as too clever, this level of complexity and intelligence didn’t really blend well with what we’ve known of the Goa’uld. That aside the musical and creative aspect of the story was a breath of fresh air and overlaid the more intense and dramatic bomb elements and of course lots of humour despite the circumstances.

A big gold star to Brad for his voice mail and homage to the Prometheus and Ethon and also for joining us this week, it’s always appreciated and thanks to everyone else especially Facebook contributors for the feedback. Love to hear any thing about Stargate and Gatecast via the usual portals so feel free to chat with us and if you have a minute a rating/review on itunes or stitcher would be most welcome. This weeks promo is for The Dune Saga Podcast which is taking a in-depth but entertaining look at the books within the Dune franchise both old and new and next week we are at the SGC with the episode Stronghold, hope you can join us for that.

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Episode 155 SG1 New Order Part 2

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Nov 102012
 

 Thor returns to Earth and picks up the frozen Jack and the cool Tealc and heads to the new Asgard homeworld in the hopes that the Ancient knowledge held in Jacks head will help devise a defence once and for all. Meanwhile Fifth is playing mind games with Sam both to punish her betrayal but also venting his own immature rage against the one that spurned him. A showdown is imminent and armed with technology created by Jack who once revived has no real idea what it is or how it works the defence of the Asgard begins even if it means sacrificing Sam.

New Order Part 2 was aired as a separate episode in the UK but was part of the feature presentation of the season opener in the states. We have three stories ongoing all of which get a decent amount of screen time both to develop and for the characters to play their part, the Asgard find a solution to their long term problem with the replicators, Sam is saved although released is perhaps a more accurate term and the system lords and by extension Ba’al are put aside for another day. The request for asylum by Camulus comes out of the blue and of course Goa’uld rarely do anything that doesn’t serve a purpose, we’ll find out that purpose in due time.

It’s like looking in a mirror

New Order Part 2 is a very satisfying conclusion to the season premiere, we get solutions to the problems which make some sense while setting up potential problems in the future. The changes in the SGC and SG1 are significant but again they make a lot of sense especially given RDA’s limited time on set during the last season and saving the planet is a young persons game:)

The SG spin off – Pete & Sam by a Farm

Thanks for the continued support of the podcast especially via twitter and facebook, always good to see the discussions going on in those arenas but we would love here from you directly via email especially a voice recording. Lets hope as we embrace all that is Atlantis in next weeks episode it’ll encourage more interaction and speaking of which we’re just about to wrap up the itunes promotion so get those reviews in and the draw for the Ronon signed figure will be done maybe next week. This weeks promo is from Trek News & Views a Star Trek podcast, well worth listening to if you have any interest in the excellent scifi franchise.

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Episode 150 Resurrection

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Sep 222012
 

 A frantic call to the authorities has the NID and SGC investigating a run down factory unit which houses a secret research facility and oh yes around 30 dead bodies all killed it seems by a young woman housed in what amounts to a secure cage in the building. The sole surviving scientist a truly scummy individual plays silly buggers with NID agent Barrett and Sam Carter who are interrogating him about the woman and the cache of Egyptian artefacts which were believe to be sourced from the ill gotten gains of the Nazi regime.
Things take a turn for the worse when a device with the symbols of Ra is discovered and identified as a large scale explosive device and combined with indications that the Sekhmet symbiote was also part of the cache points to a wild and whacky DNA splicing experiment to create a human/goa’uld hybrid with access to the genetic memory. The young woman Anna has no memory of the bloodshed despite video evidence showing her cold bloodly shooting some scientists and Daniel believes her body does indeed house two souls, one an innocent human the other a millenia old symbiote.
Dr Keffler attempts to barter for his freedom until Daniel discovers what he had been doing behind the backs of his now dead colleagues and the sponsoring NID but the clock is still ticking on the bomb and the only way to disarm it is to bring out Sekhmet.

Finally Friends with Meditation

Resurrection is the one and only episode of Stargate that Amanda Tapping directed although she did go on to direct a number of episodes of Sanctuary. The episode was written by Michael Shanks and was the final episode produced in the seventh season adding more pressure to the cast and crew to get the episode done before production shut down. Two things are missing, the first is Richard Dean Anderson who had already packed his bags and returned home, the perks of being a producer I guess and of course the Stargate itself:)

Where’s Jack?

The episode was alas not that memorable to me, I couldn’t place it by name and it took a good 10 minutes plus before the plot was retrived from long term memory storage in my brain but there was excellent set piece shots created by Amanda from the initial ultra long crane/steady cam shot to the quite magnificent shots and lighting of Anna’s cage in the huge empty warehouse.

It was good to see Agent Barrett back again and there is even a little flirtation although Sam does inform him she has a fella even though we haven’t seen much of Pete recently and some obvious ramping up of the Jack/Sam dynamic. Teal’c and Dr Bill have some laughs which are used to lighten what is a rather dark episode dealing with genetic manipulation and murder not to mention trying to defuse a bomb which could take out Orange County.

This weeks promo is from Trek News & Views and next week we will be covering the 20th episode of the season “Inaugreation” in which the new President is given the top top secret briefing and Kinsey makes his move. Keep the feedback coming via any means that takes your fancy and we are due to record our season 7 wrap up show but could do with a guest host to spice the conversation up a little, if you are interested let us know soon and we’ll try to sort out a time that works for everyone.

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Episode 145 Fallout

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Aug 182012
 

Jonas Quinn returns to the SGC asking for help as his world is under threat from a chain reaction of the Naquadria buried in it’s core, faced with the ongoing eruptions and tremors a hail mary plan is devised to evacuate as many people from the three nations as possible. Sam discovers the cause of the minerals instability and it explains why this material is so rare and what eventually led to the Goa’uld originally leaving this world in ruins. Jack, Daniel and the General do the diplomacy thing with the three representatives of Langara and if anything have more problems and head/table thumping than Sam, Teal’c and Jonas have in their Core or even Thunderbirds inspired mining machine.

The return of Jonas (Corin Nemec) to the series was always planned and he came up with the story which was then handled by the writing duo of Paul and Joseph and it fits right into the overall arc of Jonas and his people. It has to be said that not escaping from Anubis really did cause unaccounted problems for everyone opposed to his plans for galactic domination, the fact his planet and his people are still there speaks volumes for the capabilities of his friends from the SGC.

First against the wall…

Putting aside the obvious shades of The Core it was an entertaining episode with some nice twists, Jack going ballistic with the heads of state was priceless as were both Daniels and the Generals reactions. The manipulation and subterfuge by the Goa’uld again added a lot of depth even if that story line was left kinda hanging but it’s not as if you can’t put two and two together and maybe get five.

The Brains Trust and Teal’c at the back

Fallout has a lot to recommend, some nice retro technology combined with advanced tech, some mystery and surprises and Jonas certainly deserved more of his story being told and maybe just maybe the three nations will finally get along but I doubt it.

As you know we’ve had website and feed issues most of which were of our own making so this episode is a little truncated but a big thank you to Colin of Trek News & Views for the excellent audio feedback from last weeks episode “Grace” and our friends over at Tuning Into Scifi TV for the promo. Next week it’s “Chimera” and Daniel gets a surprise visit and Sams gets jiggy with it but not with Jack!

News…

Finally some good news, the website is up and running and if you are reading this then you are here but more importantly the RSS feed is now live and picking up the last 25 episodes, we’ll be doing a proper archive page on the site to make it easier to access older episodes.

For now just enter gatecast.co.uk/feed/podcast into your podcatcher or click on the RSS button in the right hand sidebar and you should be in business, the old feed is no longer active.

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A Stargate Water Feature

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Jul 012012
 

Now doesn’t this little beauty look familiar, if you need a hint than it’s from a season 7 episode well two technically and we haven’t covered them yet. Thanks to @StargateAtlas for tweeting the image.

Episode 119 Cure

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Feb 112012
 

 First contact is made with the people of Pangar a society that is technology wise a few decades behind the Earth but with a stable culture albeit not exactly a fair and just one. SG1 as representatives of the Earth pay them a visit and are offered access to a drug (Tretonin) which the Pangarian people use to combat all forms of disease with almost god like success and in return they ask for training and information on gate travel, granted access to Goauld worlds is their goal but even that makes some sense based on their as yet undisclosed circumstance. It’s always nice to see airships in alien cultures even those that may be advanced enough to have moved passed that solution to air travel.

A very nice view

Jack is at his diplomatic best as he tries to point out the “stupidity” of these people going to any of the Goa’uld homeworlds whilst Jonas and Teal’c investigate the ruins which provided these people with their Stargate lore. It’s here the discovery is made which reveals the secret Pangar is hiding and opens up a whole new can of worms and brings the Tok’ra into the mix. Cure is pretty much a standalone episode but is vital for two reasons, the first is the importance to the long running Tok’ra storyline and the second to the future of the series which becomes more apparant as we go along:)

Expecting Guests

As always there is some very nice location work and for once it didn’t look like it was raining, the guest stars and their characters were well suited to the story and while overall the episode was nothing special it’s well worth repeated viewings especially in light of what comes later in the series.

I’ve got a secret

This weeks promo is from Pulp Audio Weekly and we’ll be covering “Prometheus” next week so any all feedback is appreciated and if anyone fancies joining us for an episode drop us a line.

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Episode 114 Nightwalkers

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Jan 072012
 

  A desperate call for help has Sam leading an investigation into the death of Dr Richard Flemming a former employee of Immunitech a concern with links to Adrian Conrad and may have had access to Goa’uld research. Finding evidence of a conspiracy a more indepth look into the town reveals some strange behaviour by the inhabitants and a startling discovery and double cross.

Studying, Jack is notably absent.

Nightwalkers is an unusal SG1 episode, it’s style is different to the bulk of the series and it’s also the first episode Richard Dean Anderson does not appear in which may have been the impetus to try something new. The direction and photography is reminiscent of the X-Files and includes homages to a number of offbeat shows and noir features and boasts some nice costuming and a strong guest cast.

This can’t be good, pretend we’re not in.

The episode does offer up a fine supporting cast and ultimately it is rewarding even though it’s not high on any viewer popularity list but it starts the ball rolling on one of the pivotal events of the series which we will be covering at the appropriate time.

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Episode 98 Desperate Measures

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Aug 272011
 

  An assault on a Russian convoy and the capture of a Jaffa gets the ball rolling and leads to the kidnapping of Sam while she is off duty. Jack does his own investigation working around the limitations of his status in law enforcement but being more open to the unusual he takes as gospel the eye witness who claimed to have seen “ninjas”. They rope in Maybourne who as it turned out may not be involved with Sam but certainly played a part in the whole situation but can Jack trust him or even put any faith in Simmons another aspect of the NID who have proven to be dodgy to say the least. Finally the truth is revealed and in essence it’s an old tale of those with power and influence plus a ton of cash willing to do anything to survive but with this case some good intentions which went out the window when others started making the choices.

Stargate kills Russians.. a lot!

Desperate Measures is a pretty good addition to the NID/Political arc of the show which is beginning to make it’s presence felt. As the series goes on we get a lot more of this sort of complexity between competing factions on Earth (human and maybe not so much) and in the case Conrad while not really being a bad guy puts the pieces in place so when his direct influence is removed the desires of others (the doctor, girlfriend, NID) take over and well it doesn’t end well.

Danny is the MAN

It’s always good to see Harry Maybourne and of course Colonel Simmons is as greasy as always and a seriously creepy Doctor almost overloads the episodes with potential bad ‘uns even before we get the girlfriend who puts common sense to one side or the humans willing to kill for money. When you think about it then it’s pretty much a good example of how corrupt and depraved elements of out world are and how easy it could be for the Goa’uld and others to insert themselves.

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Episode 33 Tokra Part 2

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Apr 102010
 

In the second part of the story Sam has returned to Earth to visit her dying father with the slim chance that Jacob could not only survive but serve his country once more by helping the Tokra Selmak. Meanwhile the system lords are on the way and the coincidence is too much, is there a spy amongst the Tokra and can the planet be evacuated before the Goauld ships arrive.

While the first part of this story was very talkie there is more action in the second but surprisingly doesn’t feel any faster, talking heads can still be very fascinating when the script is good and in this case the two parter has been excellent.  The long term ramifications of this alliance are felt over the next few seasons but as we discussed the Tokra never really became big players but they did tend to pop in the right place at the right time.

We have feedback from Stephen via Facebook, cheers:)

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Episode 32 The Tok’ra Part 1

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Apr 022010
 

Sam is plagued by the memories of Jolinar and in one vision the gate address of a world is seen and SG1 visits in the hopes of finding the Tokra and making them an ally. Alas the mindset of the Tokra sees no benefit in joining the people of the Tauri and with security in mind the members of the SGC will not be allowed to return home.

The Tok’ra at least the first of the double bill is pretty heavy in dialogue both as the SGC and Tok’ra get to know eachother but also the B plot with Hammond interacting with Jacob whose health has taken a turn for the worse. Both Sarah Douglas and JR Bourne are both excellent guest stars who play the merged characters of  Garshaw and Lantash very well and Carmen Argenziano again proving to be a strong presence.

Ars Gratia Artis

Art for art’s sake

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