Virus Archives - Gatecast

Gatecast 195 SGA The Intruder

Sep 212013

The Daedalus is returning to Atlantis without the ZPM so it is well into the third week and the passengers are a little bored despite the events which led to their return to Earth and renewal of their charter to continue the exploration of Atlantis and the Pegasus galaxy. A body is discovered which at first looks to have been an accidental death but things don’t add up and during the investigation another crewman dies at the hands of the ships technology. McKay discovers a Wraith sourced virus infecting the ships core systems which has the ability to adapt and survive numerous attempts to remove it, it calls for help and denies the ship the use of it’s hyperdrive engines leaving them stuck in the middle of nowhere.

The Intruder is a good bottle type show making full use of the new Daedalus standing set which is a modification of the original Prometheus set. This isn’t a cheap show though, there is extensive CGI work use to create the space shots and combat scenes plus some top notch matt work to show us the large landing bays complete with ships and forcefields in play. We also have the lead guest star ( Mitch Pileggi ) being made full use of and Beau Bridges appearing in flashbacks so the episode was making the most of the resources available to the producers at the time. In story terms they don’t try to hide the similarity to the SG1 episode Entity and it’s discussed at length within the shows commentary track but there are enough changes to make a much better story and overall a better episodes.

Humans, who needs ’em.

The Intruder is an episode which maintains the pacing of the second season as defined by The Siege trilogy but allows for a breather with it’s use of flashbacks all of which lays down some solid groundwork for the changes that are coming to the story. The flashbacks were also a nice addition and spell out how they affected Elizabeth both in her success job wise and the failure of her relationship, in both cases they were strong scenes for Torri.

Note to designers, polarised glass.

This weeks promo is from The Anomaly Podcast, an excellent show which is hosted by Angela and Jen and has it’s own supplemental show, both of which are worth checking out. Brad joined me for this weeks show as Alan was in the middle of his move to Finland and sorting out his classes and his new home, next week Brad will be back with the SG1 episode Origin. We appreciate all the activity on the media portals especially the Facebook group which is generating some good discussion and Twitter which is always fun when talking to the Stargate community.

Promo…

Anomaly Podcast

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Gatecast 190 SGA The Siege Part 1

Episodes No Responses »

Aug 032013

As the fleet of Wraith Hive ships and cruisers close on the Atlantis star system Rodney and two others take a jumper out to the Ancient satellite with the intent to repair the weapon and then spring a surprise on the Wraith when they enter the system. Rodney draws the short straw and has to don the space suit and re-route some energy conduits but the attempt is a success and the satellite drawing power from a generator is armed and ready. Meanwhile back on Atlantis after failing to locate a suitable new Alpha site Bates is found seriously beaten, with their previous animosity Teyla is the prime suspect but after scanning the DNA remnants on the wounds Carson identifies that presence of a Wraith in the city and so the hunt begins. Bob the Wraith is captured and John interrogates him rather aggressively with no practical results as to why he sneaked into the city or his plans once the fleet arrives and arrive they do. Grodin is alone on the satellite and is successful in taking out the first hive ship but the fix fails and the weapon loses power leaving the other two hives to rip the satellite to pieces as Rodney and Miller watch on from the cloaked jumper.

The Siege is a trilogy of episodes bridging the first and second seasons of Stargate Atlantis.

This is a big story and you can understand why a couple of the previous episodes were bottle shows, the amount of money spent on the sets and CGI would have been significant and while Part 1 isn’t all action there is enough flash and bangs to make you happy with a good bit of drama with Teyla and Bates and then Grodin.

Knife through butter

In all honesty when you watch part 1 you always have to ask yourself why is everyone so confident, it’s not as if full coverage of the star system with multiple weapon satellites prevented the fall of the city ten thousands year previously and while I suppose you could say it’s pure hope and maybe desperation but you do see much in the way of believable worry or trauma. Ok we get a little shock when the satellite is taken out and they lost Peter but Weir as a commander should takes it in her stride and it was good to see Rodney willing to go into the line of fire to attempt a rescue of his colleague. It’s also worth mentioning the use of sort of red shirts and the introduction of a new character who you would assume would be the sacrificial goat of the story, a nice twist.

Ok, who hit Bates?

We got a nice discussion going over on the Facebook group for last weeks episode, plenty of back and forth on twitter and even a +1 and share over on G+ so that’s always rewarding but there can never be too much feedback and listener interaction so in that respect feel free to get in touch about our show or Stargate. We’ve put up the episode list for the next 10 months or so just to make it easier for anyone to find an episode they fancy joining us for and then it can be reserved and closer to the date a time can be arranged along with the bits and bobs required to make the recording possible:)

This weeks promo is from The Book Cave a resource dedicated to the more pulp side of literature, lots of author interviews, news and discussion so if like me you like that sorta thing pay them a visit.
Many thanks to Jeff for joining us for this episode and he’ll be back for part 2 next week. The following two weeks after that will be the domain of the two wrap up shows which include the results of the listener polls.

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