Orion Archives - Gatecast

Gatecast 233 SGA No Man’s Land

Aug 022014

Well here we are for the premiere episode of the third season of Stargate Atlantis No Man’s Land and we pick up after the two Wraith Hive ships double crossed the rather short sighted humans and set sail towards the Milky Way with the navigation data and specs on an upgraded hyperdrive, oh they also have McKay and Ronon just in case they get peckish on the trip. Meanwhile Weir is ordered back to Earth to face the consequences of her actions as once again the IOA flex their muscles after the fact but thankfully she has allies in the General and to a lesser degree Woolsey himself. The Daedalus and Orion are ordered to intercept the hive ships despite both being well under par but with Earth as the target there is no other option and the chase is on. As the battle is joined the Daedalus fires all it’s nukes and even though one gets through the Hive survives but as Major Lorne commanding the Orion engages he has to sacrifice his ships shield to route power to it’s drones but is successful is taking the hive down leaving the Daedalus to take on the remaining Hive with an epic stalemate the result but there is one last role of the dice.

Way to make an entrance

No Man’s Land is a gem of a season opener, we just straight back into the drama of McKay and Ronon stuck on the hive but with the brains and brawn that won’t last too long and of course it helps Michael is helping John who managed to get a ride on the Hive when it entered hyperspace, it was a good choice to have his fighter damaged even though in reality he should be space dust but at least we get plenty of fun and games as the four of them are running around the hive ship avoiding some very upset Wraith. The orders to Caldwell and Lorne were epic, they had to engage the hives no matter what the consequences and the visual effects studios did the show proud with some stunning space combat and some even better set piece more refined slower moving shots, the spinning view of the Daedalus and the galactic background is to die for. Meanwhile we get more Woolsey and the IOA but that gives us a fantastic scene with General Landry and Elizabeth which once again shows she can act alongside anyone and has been criminally wasted on the show.

So the decision to use the retrovirus once again, granted not much option as life support on the Daedalus has failed but the consequences will be far reaching and maybe with mixed results for the this and the following seasons.
Many thanks to Brad for joining us even though he was tight on free time and thanks to **ECM** for the excellent five star review over on the US itunes site. Thanks for the discussion over on the Facebook group, chat over on our G+ page and as always the constant banter on twitter which concentrates on Stargate but can cover so many topics in and out of genre. This weeks promo is for Nutty Bites and next week we are back with SG1 for the episode Morpheus so we hope you join us for that and please feel free to get in touch, we would love to hear from you about any aspect of our show and more importantly Stargate:)

Promo…

Nutty Bites

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Gatecast 229 SGA Inferno

Episodes No Responses »

Jun 212014

A cry for help from the planet of Taranis has the team visiting the world which is the site of an Ancient outpost. It seems the ancients built an advanced defensive shield powered by geo-thermal energy to protect the base and the local inhabitants since the fall of Atlantis have used the facility although not to any great extent but with the rise of the Wraith and the ongoing culling the shield has been activated but there are consequences. Rodney while examining the systems realises that the continued full power use of the shield has strained the geo-thermal vents that supply the raw power and the super volcano is close to eruption and by close he means days which isn’t good. While Rodney is working with the alien scientist Norina the chancellor reveals the great secret of Taranis, the outpost was the home base for an Aurora class Ancient warship and it’s still there fully intact albeit currently unable to fly but hey Rodney is close at hand. As the super volcano becomes more active and Rodney finally convinces everyone that the imminent eruption is a global killer and part way through the initial evacuation the gate is lost as lava wells up from the ground leaving the team and the locals with no escape except for the Ancient ship and the hope that the Daedalus can reach them quickly despite it’s limited life support which means they could only take a few people on board as the inferno rages below.

Great view, from a distance.

Inferno has it’s flaws but at heart it’s a fun story making good use of the chemistry between Rodney and John and particularly the energy David brings to his role, he really makes the combination of genius and egotistical hothead work so well and add in the awkwardness around an attractive woman, no any woman just adds the icing to this episode. Strangely enough Norina (Brandy Ledford) does seem interested, it may be his intelligence rather than his character but it certainly knocks Rodney off his center where as John lays on the charm with a gusto. The special effects for the super volcano is fairly good, not fantastic but as we see with the “Orion” and Deadealus the CGI has really been perfected for more manufactured objects where as more fluid effects are at that time just a little beyond the scope of a tv budget. The natural scepticism of the Chancellor played by Kevin McNulty rings true but this episode is all about the dynamic of the main characters when under extreme pressure and in that regard we can’t forget once again Teyla and Ronon being paired up and facing death as they become stranded in a local village as the volcanic ash falls.

One again many thanks to Thomas for joining us for Inferno and this weeks podcast promo was for Flash Pulp an excellent source of short form pulp themed audio productions, many thanks for the feedback over on Facebook, Google+ and of course Twitter and next week we are going to return to SG1 for it’s season 9 finale “Camelot”, hope you join us for that and don’t forget we are keen to get people on the show for S10 of SG1 and S3 of Atlantis, please get in touch if you are interested as hopefully as times passes the episodes will be allocated:)