Gatecast 285 SGA Outcast

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Sep 192015
 

avatar John receives some bad news and returns to Earth for his father’s funeral, Ronon accompanies him. At the funeral/wake they are approached by a young woman named Ava Dixon who reveals that she and her boss Dr. Richard Poole have been working with illicit materials and knowledge to produce a human form replicator which has now got loose and has a very definite military component. They arrest Poole and threaten him with the arrest and prosecution of Ava and he agrees to help, they track the replicator to a industrial facility where things don’t quite go according to plan when Poole pulls a fast one and reveals to the replicator how they tracked him, he dies for his troubles and again the replicator escapes. John talks to his ex-wife who is now working for homeland security, he asks for information on the secret project which is behind the replicators creation and along with insights gleaned from pouring over records they figure out the replicator has gone after a source of Neutronium. However in the records they also discover that Ava Dixon died a year before, the Ava they now know is also a replicator but programmed more inline with a “normal” human being, she escapes which works out ok in the end. The trap is set for the replicator and well the humans even Ronon get slapped silly but Ava turns up and the two artificial beings got hand to hand dishing out some brutal punishment, John gets an opening and jabs a device into the replicator, he is immediately beamed into low earth orbit and reenters the atmosphere burning up in the process. Ava having proven herself still can not be fully trusted so maybe or maybe not with her knowledge they incorporate her core programme into the Ancient artificial world as seen on the starship Aurora and her body is destroyed. John builds bridges with his brother and Dr Lee can go back to sunning himself on the beach.

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Outcast gives us quite a bit of back story for John, it seems he comes from money and had issues with the path that was being laid out for him by his father, he rebelled by joining the military whereas his brother seems to have embraced the corporate calling and looks down on John as kind of the black sheep. We also meet John’s former wife  Nancy played by Kari Wuhrer and well it looks like it wasn’t a bad break up and we learn his commitment to his career may have played a significant part in their breakup. I’m not quite sure if we really needed another replicator episode but this was had merit because of all the character back story and of course we got some excellent stunt work and set pieces as well as a couple of new shots of a 304 in orbit.

Many thanks for the support via twitter, facebook and google+ and especially to Mack who posted some comments on recent episodes. This weeks promo is for The Rusted Robot an always entertaining look at geeky and nerdy pursuits with a sprinkling of all things robot. Next week we are going to be taking a good look at Trio and this episode was recorded many moons ago and it was the first Phil (who I used to work with) joined me on the podcast, hope you join us for that and please feel free to let us know what you think and a review/rating over on itunes or stitcher would be most welcome:)

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Gatecast 281 SGA Be All My Sins Remember’d

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Aug 222015
 

avatarThere is a tragic loss when an Atlantis team and the remaining population of a world are wiped out by an Asuran warship but hope is at hand as the Apollo and the Daedalus arrive in Pegasus newly equipped with the Asgard beam weapons in the hopes that combined with the intelligence provided from the tracking module taken from the Asuran breakaway group they can fight back. The plan is to inflict serious damage on the Asuran ships currently wiping out the human populations of planets within the galaxy and ultimately drive the Asurans back to their homeworld and once again to reach a stalemate. Rodney looks to pimp his own plan for an enhanced virus to nullify the Asurans but he is getting nowhere and so the secondary plan of brute force is given the green light and once the battle is joined the human ships rack up an impressive number of kills. Faced with defeat in large scale operations the Asurans regroup in their home system which forces the humans ships to knowingly enter into a killing zone but Rodney has finally had a breakthrough. He has created his own crippled replicator and once embedded into the replicator city it can trigger a subroutine in its coding which forces the bonds between the nanite building blocks to shrink drawing them ever closer together and to lose their ability to act, eventually they will be a mindless blob of material which can then be wiped out by a synchronised explosion of ZPM modules. To aid in this plan Todd offers support from the Wraith and Larrin brings some of her fleet into the battle, together they engage the Asuran fleet in their own system with the intent to buy time for FRAN (Rodney’s pet replicator) to do her thing. It’s all going to plan but then the power grid fails making the ZPM option moot, Sam correctly surmises that the planet being rich in neutronium (Material replicators use to build themselves) and being highly unstable it could also act as a catalyst and as the replicator blob compresses and sinks ever further into the planet a chain reaction is triggered and with moments to spare the fleet jump out as the planet is destroyed.

Sins (46)

All My Sins Remember’d was a very expensive piece of television at least in terms of the budget for the Stargate live action shows and you can see where the money was spent, credit though to the producers as while they spent a lot on visual effects they also secured the return of some of the recurring actors who only bring status to Stargate. You can not really beat Mitch or Michael in command of a F304 when going into battle this time alongside seven Hives and ships from the Traveller fleet. The pretty pictures aside we got a kick ass story following on from the mid-season finale “This Mortal Coil” and it also wrapped up the Asuran arc within the Atlantis storyline, some fans of the series would not be disappointed to see them go if I was being honest.

Ultimately this episode and it’s first part of you paired them directly together are a highlight of the season, well written with lots of action, some humour and good character pieces sprinkled in within the booms which added greatly to the overall feel good factor of the episode, a credit to everyone involved.

Many thanks to first time guest Andres who joined us on fairly short notice, it was a pleasure to have yet another new voice and nationality on the show. This weeks promo is for Tuning Into SciFi TV and next week we are going to watching episode twelve of this fourth season “Spoils of War” in which the Wraith have a surprise or two for Atlantis, Todd the scamp. We hope you can join us for that and as always we’d like to know what you think about Stargate and our show and of course a rating or review on itunes or Stitcher would be most welcome.

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Gatecast 280 SGA This Mortal Coil

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Aug 152015
 

avatar Atlantis is in a bit of a pickle thanks to McKay and some work on the Stargate which has left them without it’s use for a week now, it gets worse when some sort of probe/device smashes into the city in a smouldering ruin. Scans of the object are inconclusive but as Mckay and Zelenka investigate Rodney is sure he saw evidence of Replicator coding but Zelenka claims he saw nothing. Not long after the object destroys itself and with the laptop also destroyed their is no evidence of anything. John while training with Ronon gets injured and goes to the infirmary where Kellar proclaims there is no damage to his face and the blood must have been on the towel in the first place, John is suspicious and gets a full body scan which is negative and then requests a blood test just in case, Keller reluctantly agrees. This test is also clear but John knows something is wrong and Teyla and Ronon begin to share his feelings, the corner McKay in a lab and cut his hand, it heals itself and his amazement and shock is enough to convince them that whatever is going on they are not part of it and therefore can trust each other. They discover the main computer has no records for John’s scans and tests so they devise a plan to get John and Teyla to the infirmary to do another scan and while they are revealing that John is full of nanites Ronon and Rodney track down another lifeform which turns out to be Elizabeth Weir. At that point Keller and Lorne appear armed and reveal that Atlantis and everyone in it are a construct albeit John, Rodney, Ronon, Elizabeth and Teyla are biologic replications of their alternate selves created by nanites. It turns out that this faction of Asurans are still eager to ascend like their creators and have broken away from the main body of the replicator society but the experiment has failed and the forces of Oberoth have found them and warships begin firing on the city and the five human forms barely escape in a cloaked jumper.

They arrive on a world where an SG team have a base and ring home, the “original” team visit the world and meet their counterparts, McKay is absolutely delighted even more so when he learns of a piece of tech which can be used to track Asuran warships throughout the Pegasus galaxy but time is short and the two Asuran warships begin to fire on the location of the camp, one team flee via the jumper acting as a distraction while the other gates to Atlantis and learns exactly how many ships the Asurans have rampaging around the galaxy.

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This Mortal Coil is the mid-season finale for the fourth season and in the grand tradition has a pretty solid cliffhanger which had the audience on the edge of their seat for the month or so between this and the second part of the two parter “Be All My Sins Remembered”. The twist that is hinted at pretty quickly is very satisfying and has ties to story arcs which began when the expedition first met the Asurans and maybe even further if you factor in the appeal to so many of ascension. Truth be told Keller played by Jewel Staite came across very strange, stunted delivery of lines which made sense when it was revealed she wasn’t the real Keller and the Asuran mimicking her only had limited information on her patterns of behaviour whereas other people in the city were more filled out and acted more like their other selves. It’s never going to get old to see Rodney get all excited about meeting someone as good as himself and well only a copy could ever measure up but this counterpart was even better than Rod from the other universe, happy as clams until the whole question of their futures were addressed by killing these copies off in a valiant and successful diversion. In many ways it was a very good episode and story for Elizabeth to make another appearance, some good scenes especially with John but alas only one more guest spot for Torri in the series.

Overall This Mortal Coil was an excellent episode of Stargate Atlantis and if anything the second part is even better which we’ll be covering next week so we hope you join us for that and feel free to let us know what you think of this episode and the show. You can find us on Facebook and Google + as well as Twitter (links upper right hand side of this website) and we are also carried on itunes and Stitcher Internet Radio, reviews and ratings are most welcome. This weeks promo is for Nutty Bites podcast, Nuchtchas is releasing a new show for each day of the month:)

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Gatecast 173 – SG1 Gemini

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Apr 062013
 

avatar2 The Stargate activates and an old and void IDC code is received, it used to belong to Sam Carter who is obviously mystified but things become a little clearer when the MALP reveals a human form replicator at the other end of the wormhole and she was created in Sam’s image. She requests death at the hands of the SGC using the Asgard/Ancient created weapon but with such a valuable resource within reach Jack with a lot of prompting from Sam agrees to let her interrogate the replicator in the hopes of ultimately defeating this menace to the galaxy.

Damn, always wanted to be a Ginger.

Damn, always wanted to be a Ginger.

Gemini is from a production point of view a highlight of the season, some excellent camera and post-production work to get Amanda looking right when there are two of her on screen using a variety of techniques to make it work. Her own performance is outstanding as well providing two sides to the Sam Carter personality as is the subtle makeup which certainly sets the two women apart. Teal’c has a strong role in this story as well being the counter to Sam’s headlong rush and total belief in repli-carters word, of course knowing oneself makes it easier to deceive by providing all the right answers even to questions not directly asked.
It all goes pear shaped of course more so for the put upon Fifth whose only really two “relationships” both turn around a bite him, few men or man like beings get shafted twice by Sam Carter.

Wireless Samantha.

Wireless Samantha.

We were joined by Brad for this episode, he was up in the wee hours to record with us in our late afternoon, huge appreciation and once again we are always looking for a guest on the show, it works better with three voices at least I think it does.
This weeks promo is from The Saturday B Movie Reel a podcast which reviews and chats about the scifi/creature and disaster features which turn up so often on the Syfy channel, lots of fun if like me you love these sorts of movies:)
We’d love to hear from you so please get in touch, we can be found well here, on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Stitcher and of course itunes which if you would like to leave us a rating/review would be most appreciated.
Next week we are going to discuss the Stargate Atlantis episode The Defiant One, please join us and spread the word.

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