Here we are. The last post for the Stargate Atlantis watch and read along reviews. It has been wild and I have enjoyed every moment of it.
Hopefully, ya’ll will stick around because of course, though the TV series ended at five seasons, the Legacy series continues the story and I am completely excited for it. Also dreading that it will be way different than what I want to happen, but that’s not stopping me at all.
Enjoy this last, for next week things change!
Episode 10: First Contact. This episode is pretty cool because Todd gains control of the Daedalus, yet doesn’t hurt anyone (that’s mentioned anyways, but I feel like they’d mention it as it would cause friction in the alliance with Todd).
Which just shows how devious he is. With the option of never having to rely on humans for food, it wouldn’t be advantageous to alienate his allies.
Now, another thing revolves around the destruction of his two Hive ships. As Commander, he would have to be in contact (mentally of course) or at least aware of the other Wraith at all times up until the moment they all die.
I can’t imagine that would be anything less than devastating. To have so many lives simply disappear. Blink out of existence.
The fact that he remained in control despite his hatred of the Attero Device (a monstrous creation of the Alteran Janus), and the hundreds if not thousands of Wraith who were just slaughtered, says a lot about him.
Also, this episode literally tells us that he was alive during the war with the Alteran’s which would make him older than ten thousand years old.
Season 5, Episode 15, Remnants
In the midst of a review by the IOA on how Mr. Woolsey is doing, a device is activated and the artificial intelligence begins to manipulate key members of Atlantis.
Including Mr. Woolsey.
While Sheppard is seeing Kolya and under the impression he’s being attacked and tortured by his hated enemy, Woolsey is seeing a beautiful woman who seems to just want to get to know him.
Between the two, the day is a not so good one.
The decision to be made is whether to divest the mysterious device of its information, or to send it on to its target so it can seed the world it was intended for all along.
On the one hand, the knowledge it possesses is immense and extremely valuable.
On the other, what’s contained inside is the last of a race. There is no other chance for the race to survive.
In the end, despite great pressure from the IOA representative, Woolsey does the right thing and gets Daedalus to drop the device off where it belongs.
The funniest, and best part, of this episode is at the end when we find out that Rodney was being manipulated as well. The AI was making him see Zelenka and using their natural banter and competitive attitudes to get Rodney to search for and work on the device.
If you’re squeamish you might want to be careful of this episode. At one-point Sheppard thinks his hand is cut off. There’s nothing graphic, but it is an ick thing.
And now, the last book review for Stargate Atlantis before the Legacy series (again, I threw this one in here at this point because it didn’t have a specific place to read it. It’s up to you where you read it, but this place works quite well because we are close to the season finale and things will heat up soon).
When a moon suddenly changes course towards the systems sun, the team go to investigate what’s happening when records show it used to be an Alteran city.
Sure enough, it’s the exact opposite of Atlantis in the sense that the people there decided not to pursue ascension, but to live as decadently as possible. With gladiator type battles, music, dancing, and other pursuits being found on Admah, who would want to leave?
Not that you have a choice.
Anyone who comes through the Stargate is trapped as the gate will no longer allow that address to be dialed again. Thanks to a change in the system itself done by the leader of Admah. The only choices are to join as a citizen or fight as ‘entertainment’.
Sheppard and the gang are not happy about this, especially since the people have been alive for so long that dying is the only thing they believe will alleviate their ennui.
The moon is heading straight for the sun by choice, not accident, and our team is stuck.
Rodney is able to get a message back through to Atlantis telling them to be ready to pick them up from one of very few addresses that isn’t locked out. Now all they have to do is survive and escape.
With a little help from a native, they manage, but not until both Teyla and Rodney are put in the ring and the others are led to believe they’d died.
(I mean, after defeating a dragon and being thrown through a wall I can understand why they’d think Rodney was dead)
Rodney manages to get Teyla free from where she was trapped under the corpse of the monster she defeated and gets her to the Gate in time for Sheppard to see them and keep it open.
They’re not out of the woods yet though because the planet they end up on is a Wraith controlled one and they have to get the Gate dialed while being shot at.
It’s a good thing they have so much practice at it ya know?
This was an interesting book. Plenty of action and moments of, ‘cool’, but there was a random character with our group that I honestly don’t understand why. He supposedly was a new technician with a photographic memory that used it to help, but in all honestly they would have been fine without him.
Not to be mean here, I enjoyed the book, but considering who is on the team and what they’ve been through up to this point, the dude was just awkwardly there. Not really doing anything and not important enough, I think, to have been on the mission in the first place. But that’s just my opinion.
Well, that’s it ya’ll. Next week will be the first of the StALeR (Stargate Atlantis Legacy Reviews. Pronounced more like ‘stellar’) posts and I can’t wait!!
Alrighty peeps, we are almost to the Legacy series which means we have 20 episodes and two books until then.
What I’ve decided to do since both ‘Hunt and Run’ and ‘Brimstone’ can be read anytime between Season 5 Episode 4 and Season 5 episode 16, is to randomly insert them into the middle of the last season as equally distanced as possible (this will also make it easier to catch ya’ll up without separate posts for it).
Both books are good reads and I wish I could be more specific in placement, but you’ll understand why that’s not possible once you’ve read my posts and the books.
The best information I can give for when to read them is based on the fact that Woolsey is in charge and Teyla has had the baby in the books. Also, considering what happens closer to the end of Season 5, there’s a point where I don’t believe they’d still be going on such missions which is how I chose the last episode to read them by.
I’ll be highlighting my favorite episodes between the books so the post won’t get out of control.
And now, the second to last post before the Legacy series!
Alrighty, so another catch-up post, but since there’s so many episodes left and only two books, I’ll try to keep them short this time.
Enjoy!
Season 4, Episode 9: Miller’s Crossing
When Jeanie is abducted from her home one night, McKay comes to Earth to find her.
Needing help with the nanite programming, McKay has been talking to his sister and blames himself for her abduction.
When he’s captured by the same man, the siblings are forced to work on the nanite program to save the man’s daughter who has terminal cancer.
Rodney, understandably, doesn’t believe the man will let them go when they’re done with the program and tries to get them out. The attempt fails and the father injects Jeanie with the malfunctioning nanites.
Things are far more than desperate when Sheppard finally saves the day. Rodney alone can’t fix the programming and needs some extra help.
Starving, Todd works on the program until he physically can’t stand anymore.
Sheppard is able to convince the grieving father to sacrifice himself so that Todd could complete the work.
And he does (not that he gets any actual points for that).
Jeanie is saved!
Season 4, Episode 10: This Mortal Coil
Replicators made faux humans?!
In this episode we find ourselves supposedly on Atlantis, but our team isn’t so happy with how people have been acting lately.
A group of replicators still believe they can ascend and recreated our team to try and find out how to make a soul. The one thing they don’t have that they think will let them ascend.
When Oberoth discovers their location, he destroys the city (which makes the Seer’s vision come true from a few episodes ago).
The replicator Sheppard’s team is able to get away and meet with the human Sheppard’s team to give them some very important information. The teams are weirded out, on both sides, but are determined to work together.
When the replicators track their location once more, the replicator Sheppard and his team sacrifice themselves to save the others.
Season 4, Episode 11: Be All My Sins Remember’d
Todd and Rodney are back at work on the nanite programming because things are much worse. Even though the Asuran ships can be tracked now, they still have the advantage of making countless more in a very short amount of time.
Both Apollo and Daedalus have new weapons that can destroy the ships quickly, but the Asuran’s fall back to their homeworld (strength in numbers and all that).
Rodney has an ingenious idea to end the replicators once and for all.
However, in order to complete his plan they need to take out about thirty Asuran ships.
They only have two which means they need extra help and the Travelers don’t have enough so guess who they ask for help?
The Wraith!
An alliance between Wraith, Atlantis and Travelers.
With the additional help of a new replicator android Rodney made to assist them, the new fleet goes to battle.
This ends with few casualties and Todd escapes.
All in all, a good day.
Season 4, Episode 12: Spoils of War
Uh oh.
So, remember last episode when Todd escaped? Yeah, well during the battle over the Asuran homeworld he sent Darts down to retrieve a few presents.
Three ZPM’s! (presumably fully charged too) and quite soon we find out what he stole them for.
Back during the war, the Wraith were losing. That is until they were able to steal ZPM’s from Alteran ships and use them to power a cloning facility.
Todd’s plan was to use the facility to make warriors so that he could get the upper hand on the other Wraith in the galaxy.
Unfortunately, Todd is betrayed by one of his crew and is taken prisoner by a rival Queen who plans to use the facility for her own purposes.
Our team must find a way to destroy the facility and get themselves out alive too.
Possibly, they should have been a little more careful because Teyla decides to take over the Queen’s mind and does so in front of Todd. Can you say ammunition for later?
(everyone is fine and they all escape, including Todd)
Season 4, Episode 13: Quarantine
The city goes into lockdown and we spend the episode following different people who are stuck as they try to find a way to make the city disengage the quarantine.
Sheppard climbs the outside of the control tower, while Rodney is stuck in a botany lab because he’d planned on proposing to Katie.
Carter and Zelenka are stuck in a transporter together and Keller and Ronon are in the infirmary.
The system is messed up and starts the self-destruct thinking a disease has breached quarantine.
Zelenka saves the day by climbing through ventilation shafts to the power room and shutting everything off in the nick of time!
Everyone is fine, except for Rodney who realizes he isn’t actually ready for marriage. It’s the end of his relationship with Katie, though I believe they try to go back to the way things were before.
To his credit, Rodney realizes he has problems and I think he didn’t want to saddle Katie with them because he could end up destroying her.
Season 4, Episode 14: Harmony
Sheppard and Rodney are coerced into taking a young princess on a journey to ancient ruins where she will prove she’s worthy to rule.
The trip takes a turn when the Genii shows up and try to abduct the princess, but when Sheppard takes some of them out, they go from abduction to kill on sight.
And with a monster in the woods between them and the ruins, turning back is the best option.
Until it isn’t.
Going forward is the only way and reaching the ruins gives them hope when Rodney recognizes it as a testing site the Alteran’s used to create the Drones.
Mini Drones are unleashed, and the Genii are sent running.
The young princess is confirmed as Queen and all ends well.
(there’s even a painting done to commemorate the heroes actions!)
Season 4, Episode 15: Outcast
When Sheppard’s father dies, he goes home for the funeral and gets far more than he anticipates when a woman comes to him needing help.
Apparently, a scientist was working with nanites and created a replicator. Unable to control it, and not smart enough to have programmed it right, the replicator escapes. Killing people along the way.
Tracking the replicator takes time and along the way they find out that the woman who’s helping them is also a replicator.
In the end, they stop the one that’s killed and are able to trick the female replicator into an artificial environment where she will stay for as long as they can keep her there (hopefully forever).
Season 4, Episode 16: Trio
Rodney, Carter and Keller fall into a mining shaft on their way to convince a settlement to move to safer ground.
Finding a way out is not going to be easy and both Keller and Carter learn a few things about Rodney’s character that they never would have thought possible from the arrogant genius.
Also, Rodney gets pretty badly injured saving them which goes a long way to changing their view of him.
(I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s really good and has humor and all the feels!)
Season 4, Episode 17: Midway
Interviews by the IOA to see if non-Earth members of SG teams can stay, go about as well as can be expected, until it’s Ronon’s turn.
Fearing Ronon won’t be able to get through the interviews without losing his temper, Carter calls on an old friend to come and coach him.
Teal’c arrives and is happy to help, but when he meets Ronon their personalities clash in a big way.
Being forced to travel to Earth together via the Midway station pushes them further until something more than their animosity makes them allies.
Wraith have found a way to infiltrate the gatebridge and use it to get to Earth.
Teal’c and Ronon must set their differences aside to defeat the Wraith and save Earth.
These two are so dang funny together because they’re so alike, but they do get along after this…well, they at least don’t dislike each other so much.
Season 4, Episode 18: The Kindred Part 1
First of all, Todd is back and ya’ll know how happy that makes me!
Todd wants Atlantis’ help with finding a cure for the Hoffan drug that’s made a reappearance.
The Athosian’s have been missing for close to six months now without any hint of their fate when Teyla begins to have visions of her baby’s father, Kanaan.
Tracking down clues takes time and puts Teyla in a dangerous position.
Michael is up to his old tricks again.
Or perhaps he never stopped?
In any case, Teyla is captured because Michael wants her baby. The baby is the product of two parents who come from the ones experimented on by the Wraith so long ago. They both have what they call ‘the gift’.
Baby is a special thing.
But not as special as the gift we get at the very end of the episode!
Season 4, Episode 19: The Kindred Part 2
Carson is back!
You’d think it’s a good thing but there’s something wrong and with Teyla still missing, our team is having a rough time.
Carson is a clone that Michael made to help him with his research. But with the memories of the real Carson Beckett, Atlantis is willing to trust him to a point.
Finding the planet where the Athosian’s are being kept almost gets them Teyla, but Michael manages to escape with Teyla.
Carson is put in stasis to keep his cells from degrading further until they can find out how Michael was keeping him alive.
Season 4, Episode 20: The Last Man
When going through the Stargate, Sheppard returns to Atlantis, just not the one he knows.
A solar flare interfered with the wormhole and sends him several thousand years into the future.
Atlantis is no longer in use and hasn’t been for a very long time.
A hologram of Rodney explains what’s happened and what it’ll take to get him back home. Along with information about Michael and what happened after he disappeared.
Sheppard has to stay in stasis a little longer until another flare occurs to send him back home.
Which happens and the episode ends in a cliffhanger as they go to the planet Teyla will be brought to have her child and inadvertently engage a self-destruct.
Almost halfway through season 4 and we get to see Todd again!
To catch everyone up on a few key details you’ll need to know.
The war between the Asurans and Wraith isn’t going as well is it had to begin with. The Wraith have started to help each other and slowly, the tide is changing once again.
There’s a group of space faring people called the Travelers who have hyperdrive capable ships who have managed to evade the Wraith this long, but population control is becoming an issue. Sheppard is most gracious and lets them keep an Alteran Aurora class ship.
New Athos was found completely emptied out and at first Teyla and Dr. Keller think it’s the Wraith. A fact that a man claiming to be a Genii spy seems to confirm for them. Problem is, that’s not what happened and so for several weeks Teyla has had no idea what’s happened to her people.
Which brings us to this episode and Todd!
Season 4, Episode 8- The Seer
There are people whose leader is said to have the ability to see things, including the future, and Teyla and the gang go to see him in the hopes he’ll have an idea about what happened to the Athosians.
Since Rodney is, understandably, skeptic, the man shows him a vision of the team being taken captive by the Wraith.
Back on Atlantis, Carter gets word from another team that after a culling, a second Wraith Hive showed up asking the humans to relay a message to their Atlantian friends.
The Wraith has valuable information and wants to meet.
It is, of course, our lovely Todd! (looking quite healthy I might add)
However, the team isn’t so trusting and takes him captive.
According to Todd, the replicators have started to target human worlds in an attempt (successful too) to diminish the Wraith’s food source. After verifying he’s telling the truth they decide to ‘trust’ him.
I say that with an incredible amount of sarcasm.
He’s kept in a cell and only let out to help with getting the replicator coding changed back so that the attack code can be shut off. Presumably this would stop the Asurans from their current course and send them back to their home world.
Obviously, ya’ll know I’m a Todd fan and so even though I can see where the expedition is coming from in terms of safety, it’s pretty hypocritical (especially of Carter who’s had firsthand experience) for them to treat Todd like a prisoner when the SGC has allowed Gould and other enemies onto Earth.
On several occasions.
They’ve worked with several former and current enemies for various reasons, though most revolve around destroying a common threat. So the situation is nothing new.
Todd was banking on the fact that the expedition wouldn’t want to leave the humans of Pegasus at the mercy of the replicators. Since the Wraith are the lesser of two evils, working with them makes sense on a temporary bases.
Now, I think I’ll keep a tally of both sides and what each loses from this point on in relation to when they work together. I’m pretty sure I know the answer, but it’d be cool to see if I’m right and that Todd did his best to stay away from the expedition members in case he needed/wanted to work with them in the future.
No sense in eating potential allies.
(also, I feel that their treatment of him ends up being like the Genii. Not sure if Sheppard see’s the parallels, but something to keep an eye on too)
A mysterious sickness is plaguing a planet and Dr. Keller would like to help them even though the reason the team is on the planet to begin with is because of Wraith activity.
The Wraith have sent multiple scout ships to the planet and each has ended up being destroyed. Atlantis would like to know why the Wraith are so interested in the planet and how they’re being destroyed.
Unfortunately, the people are having something of a problem with their leaders’ opposing viewpoints. One leader believes the Aegis will continue to protect them as it has for so long. Another believes they should be questioning the Aegis’s purpose as it takes people and returns them sick.
When Teyla and Ronon are taken by the Aegis, Sheppard is not pleased when the leaders refuse to help him.
Leaving Rodney and Keller in the village he gets reinforcements to search.
Then loses Rodney and Keller when one of the leaders abducts them.
Put in the middle of what could end up being a civil war, Sheppard has enough when he’s lied to and raids a hospital instead of the bunker he’d been told it was. He leaves the people to their own devices and goes back to Atlantis for a Jumper.
While Sheppard and Rodney go about the search, Keller tries to find an answer for the sickness, but is only able to determine what it is.
It’s inert nanites and for a bit it’s considered if the Asurans are behind the sickness, but the technology is too different.
Finally finding the Aegis ship after a firefight (and losing their Jumper), Sheppard and Rodney enter only to find something incredibly familiar about the inside of the ship.
Meanwhile, Teyla and Ronon have already tried to escape, finding starving Wraith in a cell along the way then almost getting themselves blasted into space.
Ronon is infected with the nanites and starts to fall ill.
When Sheppard and Rodney find them, they confront the beings and things change immediately.
The Aegis is the name of the ship, and it’s Asgard.
The Asgard Fenrir was banished for five hundred years after an experiment went wrong and destroyed six inhabited planets. A hyperspace pause to recalibrate landed him in the middle of Wraith ships which he destroyed but not before massive damage was done that left him stranded.
Unable to survive outside of the stasis pod, Fenrir simply wants to go home so his people can help him.
Except that they’re all dead.
To keep the Milky Way replicators from gaining access to their technology, they committed mass suicide.
It isn’t something they want to tell him, fearing how he’ll take it.
While aiding in repairs, a Wraith Hive appears with a Queen and they take the planet. Unable to fight back or mount any kind of defense leaves Fenrir with little option but to send the ship into hyperspace and get to safety.
The Queen, so she says, isn’t interested in the planet. She only wants the Aegis and the weapon onboard that can harness a star and create a blackhole (this would be what got Fenrir in trouble in the first place).
When the Queen calls a truce with Fenrir she tells him about his people being gone and about the Pegasus replicators. Since Fenrir wanted revenge for what the Milky Way replicators had done to his people (why he created the weapon to begin with), that the expedition had kept the existence secret was not good.
In the end, Fenrir decides that he is simply too tired of war and tells the Queen this.
In response, she blows herself up and does too much damage to the stasis pod for Fenrir to survive.
A few things ma peeps.
The Asgard are really cool. If you haven’t watched the original Stargate series, than you should because the Asgard are awesome if only because they don’t treat humans like complete morons (looking at you Alteran’s).
As opposed to just about every other advanced race SGC has encountered, the Asgard not only share their technology (they are selective which is totally understandable and have left massive loopholes open for our peeps to exploit when the need was great) but are the reason Earth has spaceships. The fact that we can adapt just about any race’ technology to suit our needs and to interface with our level of technology impresses them.
I loved this book even though it was a little hard to get through. Not because of the writing style itself or the plot, but because I could see what was going to happen and was excited and didn’t want to wait.
Definitely worth the read, (when have they ever not been?) and I can’t wait to see ya’ll next week!
This is a cool episode because we don’t really know that much about Sateeda in the sense that Ronon’s memories of the place aren’t so good considering what happened. Also, any interactions with other Sateedan’s to this point have been…not so friendly, if you recall.
Stargate Atlantis Season 4, Episode 3: Reunion
Teyla and Ronon head to a planet where rumors abound about a small group of people calling themselves Sateedan’s and bragging about their many, many Wraith kills.
Arriving, they do in fact find two men and a woman in a bar who are Sateedan. In fact, small galaxy that it apparently is, they were part of Ronon’s squad before Sateeda was destroyed.
They were some of his closest friends and he thought they’d all died.
Ronon wants to bring them back to Atlantis because they say they have a plan to destroy a Wraith lab where the Wraith are trying to find a way to turn the attack code off in the Asurans.
Samantha Carter, now the leader of Atlantis since Weir’s ‘death’, says no. It doesn’t have anything to do with Ronon in particular as Atlantis is on a new planet and no one knows its location. It’s a safety thing but he takes it the wrong way when the veiled threat arises that if he wants to leave, he may be considered a threat to Atlantis’ safety and have to be taken care of.
It cannot be easy for him, but he decides to return to his old friends and help them fight the Wraith.
Sheppard and the rest of the team go along to help with the destruction of the Wraith lab and to make sure their friend is okay one last time.
Unfortunately, things are so not what they look like.
Ronon’s Sateedan friends are Wraith worshippers and take Sheppard, Teyla and Rodney hostage to force Rodney to shut the attack code off.
When Ronon finds out about the betrayal, he pretty much loses it.
In Sateedan fashion, they fight each other with Ronon against the three others. The woman is killed by one of the other men before Ronon kills him soon after, but he never wanted to hurt them in the first place so let’s the third one go.
He returns to Atlantis, heartbroken at what’s happened but glad to be back with his friends and new family.
I wonder if he questions Sheppard, Teyla and Rodney’s friendship after this though. Wondering for a time if they’ll betray him too.
Okay, this book was really, really, good, but also really, really, gross with the visuals.
Consider, if you will, an Asuran replicator that’s part human.
Not particularly gross on the surface but think about how they got that way. It ain’t pretty ya’ll.
Essentially what happens is that the Apollo rescues what they think is an Alteran fleeing the Asurans and brings the guy back to Atlantis.
He seems nice, if a little strange compared to the other Alteran’s they’ve met before, but he knows how to make a weapon that will destroy both the Wraith and the Asuran’s which means his value is immense.
The IOA (hate them) decides that Angelus is to be given anything and everything he could possibly desire to make the weapon, and make it clear that if Atlantis has to be sacrificed to either enemy faction to achieve this goal, than so be it.
Carter and a few others have a bad feeling but can’t place it. Trying to stall only works so long before they run out of excuses and Angelus is allowed to work unhindered.
Which is a big problem.
The Asuran’s wanted a way to quickly replicate more of themselves in battle situations. So if one got aboard a Wraith vessel it would be able to ‘eat’ certain materials and make more of itself in the absence of its usual non-organic building blocks.
Theoretically a genius idea, except for the fact that they ‘eat’ living things to accomplish this goal.
Several people are devoured by an abomination that needs their tissues and flesh and organs to make more of itself. The descriptions are very well done and even though you can see where it’s going you can’t look away from the horror.
Presumably, the people eaten don’t suffer long, but there’s no way to really know. Just like there’s no way to know if they keep some semblance of awareness during that time.
Both Atlantis and Apollo have to fight their own versions of the creature and do so successfully, but not until they’ve hit and gone over their limits. It’s hard on everyone and some expedition members decide to leave for good because of the trauma (don’t worry, none of our peeps leave).
I adored this book because it was very well written, suspenseful and the twist at the end was fabulous!
I appreciated how the author chose to make Angelus a tragic character and not just a villain. The authors are all doing a really great job with that aspect where you think you know who the villain is, but a lot of times things aren’t that clear cut.
This book, though disgustingly creepy in description (I loved it!), was a fabulous read and I can’t wait for the next book which should be ‘Nightfall’.
We are gathered here today to find out what’s happened in the latest book.
But first, the ‘episode before’ recap!
Stargate Atlantis Season 3, Episode 19, Vengeance.
Michael is back again!
But we don’t actually know that until halfway through so don’t tell.
The team sets out to check on the Taranin’s (the people whose city was blown up by a super volcano and who gave Atlantis the Alteran ship they’d had) who they haven’t heard form in a while.
The village is completely deserted, but tunnels below suggest they may have gone underground to keep from being detected by the Wraith.
Of course they have to investigate!
Below they find the Taranin’s. Or at least, their bodies.
With suspiciously familiar looking marks on their necks, the Taranin people have been killed by Iratus bugs.
Or have they?
Further investigations show that there is something else down there with them and when they’re attacked and Teyla goes missing, things seem pretty grim.
With the former Wraith, Michael, around, you know things are going to be interesting and he doesn’t disappoint.
Using some of Atlantis’ ideas and information, he’s been working on creating new creatures to do his bidding. And obviously succeeded to a point.
Teyla is rescued, some of the creatures are killed, and they go home to fight another day.
But it doesn’t end there because there’s such a fantastic book after this episode it’s amazing!
Stargate Atlantis: Blood Ties SGA #8 ISBN: 9781905586080
Oh, my word!
Wraith on Earth!!
This book was fantastic (I know I say that about all of them, but when it’s true, it’s true!) and I adored the entire idea of it because it makes so much sense.
Okay, Blood Ties mostly takes place on Earth though we do follow a team to another planet in Pegasus a couple of times to find more answers. Why are we doing this? And why has Sheppard been ordered to stay on Earth instead of going home?
Turns out there was an Alteran scientist (yeah, things always go back to them don’t they?) named Lilith who was experimenting with Wraith and dinosaur DNA (don’t get ahead of me here). The assumption is that she was trying to find a way to make the Wraith ‘feel’ the terror and pain they inflicted when feeding.
So dinosaurs in the Pegasus galaxy were being experimented on (though an Atlantis peep is pretty adamant they evolved naturally, but with what we know of the Alteran’s that’s a pretty hard ‘no’) to give the prey ones the ability to send out empathetic psychic blasts. This would make the predator dinosaurs feel too bad to eat them, at least that was the idea, but that would have created severe issues for the predator type as they would starve to death.
Thankfully for the dinosaurs (who are much bigger than ours because of the planets gravity) they each adapted to the changes and both prey and predator types have their own empathetic psychic abilities.
Rodney, Ronon and Teyla get a close look at some raptors that are far more advanced in some ways than they are. Teyla is able to communicate with them the same way she can with the Wraith, so they don’t get eaten, but they are told to leave the planet and not to come back.
Good thing Rodney was able to download what he needed before they showed up.
Lilith continued her work on Earth, but with Wraith DNA instead and the results are pretty cool!
Two different Wraith groups live on Earth and have for thousands of years. One group believes they have a divine duty (given to them by Lilith of course because the Alteran’s can never just leave the whole god complex behind) to protect all of humanity from the Ori.
The other group believes their duty is to bring the Wraith to the Milky Way so they can combat the Ori and erase them from existence and the humans are merely food for them.
Thing is, Lilith pretty much lost her mind after awhile so both thoughts are probably true depending on how her mind was at the time.
Fast forward to our time and we have the Awakening, where all of the Wraith variants on Earth are being woken up because of ‘signs’ they’ve seen in the last years that foretold when they were to move.
Now, turns out there are a ton of humans who have the Wraith DNA in them, and a solution made from a ginkgo plant can activate the DNA. Good thing there isn’t much on Earth, but there is a ton on the dinosaur planet (we’ll get to that problem in a second).
Interestingly, after so long and after so much careful breeding, there is a third Earth Wraith type that’s appeared. One that can feed off animals and survive just fine.
There is only one such person and both groups want her.
Either dead, or to help them.
The day is saved as it almost always is, but we’re left with some interesting questions, not the least one being where the Earth Wraith disappeared too.
I loved this book because the entire idea of it is fantastic!
There is no way, even after most ascended to escape the Ori, that the Alteran’s would stop their experiments and the fact that one of them thought to use the Wraith to defeat the Ori makes me wonder if that was why they created the Wraith to begin with.
My creationist beliefs aside, the entire idea that the Wraith evolved over millennia because humans were infected with Iratus bug DNA seems just a little too sketchy once you consider what the Alteran’s were like.
They have such a deep disregard for human life that I can completely believe that they are the ones who introduced the Iratus DNA into humans and it didn’t take millennia at all for the Wraith to come into being as a force to be reckoned with.
Now, this book suggests that the Alteran’s have been to Pegasus long before they settled there after the plague that the Ori infected them with on Earth forced them out of the Milky Way.
It would stand to reason that after the first time they left Pegasus (thus leaving their initial experiments to do whatever) that the Wraith become what they are now and that when the Alteran’s returned they went about doing what they do before ever stumbling onto the Wraith and starting the war.
This would explain the hologram in the first episode that tells the expedition about coming to Pegasus, seeding new life (yeah right), and accidentally finding a dark part of the galaxy where the Wraith lived.
I’m curious to know if this will be visited in later books. I certainly would love to know more about the history of the Wraith and not just the Alteran rhetoric.
Guess I’ll just have to keep reading, now won’t I?
With that in mind, next week we shall see how Colonel Carter fairs in our lovely Atlantis and what happens in book 11, ‘Angelus’.
We are here once more to catch-up on the awesomeness!
Buckle up ya’ll, cause these are doozies!
Season 3, Episode 12- Echoes
Teyla begins to see what she believes to be the ghosts of the recently killed Alterans and is particularly distressed by the image of an Alteran man who is badly burned.
Since she hasn’t been getting much sleep lately, Atlantis’ psychologist, Dr. Heightmeyer thinks that it could be the reason for the hallucinations and tells Teyla to take it easy.
Remember quite some time ago when Rodney was stuck under water and an alien whale led Sheppard to him?
He’s back!
And so is his mother.
And father.
And aunt.
And… a whole heck ton of other alien whales are heading straight for Atlantis.
Sheppard and Rodney go to get a closer look and find out quite painfully that the whales are emitting a frequency that is dangerous to humans. Though it’s not malicious as it’s simply the whales talking to each other. (someone dies from an aneurism later on)
Quickly heading back to Atlantis (they’re both pretty much deaf and keep yelling at people because they can’t hear how loud they really are which is hilarious!) they spend some time in the infirmary with Dr. Beckett before convincing Dr. Weir to let them investigate a lab where the Alteran’s were running experiments concerning the whales.
Dr. Weir agrees because she and several other people have started to see the ghosts.
Unable to understand what they’re trying to communicate but agreed it must be something bad and could be a warning about the whales being deadly, the team goes about doing what they do best.
With Daedalus in orbit waiting to give assistance, the mystery begins to unravel.
It isn’t until almost the end of the episode that we find out the whales aren’t the problem. In fact, the hallucinations/ghosts are the whales trying to warn them of the coming danger, but they’re several generations out from the whales the Alteran’s were teaching to ‘speak’ their language and so the translation and ability is a little…wonky.
The danger they’re warning about is the massive solar flare their star is about to burp out.
Every fifteen thousand years, give or take, this occurs, and it was never a problem for the Alteran’s because they always had three ZPM’s to power their shield. In addition, they were able to extend the shield to cover a significant portion of the planet so it wouldn’t be destroyed.
Unfortunately, despite having three ZPM’s to being with after kicking the replicator/Asuran’s butts, two of them have already been sent back to the Milky Way to help defend Earth from attack and to power a new battleship in the fight against the Ori.
One ZPM is not going to do it.
However, Sheppard has a plan and takes both the remaining ZPM and Rodney to Daedalus to save the day.
By situating the ship in front of where the flare is going to be so that the energy is dispersed around the ship and sent off into the system away from Atlantis.
It works and almost immediately the whales start to leave and people get better.
With the exception of Sam who waits to say goodbye to Rodney in his own alien whale way.
It’s a really cute, terrifying and funny episode!
Season 3, Episode 13- Irresponsible
Also an episode where I can say ‘remember such and such?’, this episode we again run into Lucius Lavin, who is the hero of yet another village.
Lucius unknowingly had an Alteran personal shield device in his possession and only knew what it was after his stay on Atlantis.
Now, he is using it to gain fame once more in the form of heroism and feats no human could possibly accomplish.
To keep himself in the villagers favor however, he has hired some Genii mercenaries to play the bad guys he must defeat to keep everyone safe.
All is going well for him and our favorite team still thinks he’s a slime-bucket, but generally harmless, when real trouble shows up in the form of one Acastus Kolya.
He wants the shield for his own purposes but when he finds out Sheppard is there, well, his plans change a little. He takes everyone but Sheppard hostage and threatens to kill them one at a time until Sheppard shows himself.
Sheppard has to rely on Lucius for help and, surprisingly enough, it works. Lucius is able to rally the villagers into taking a stand for themselves against the Genii. The small coup works spectacularly, and the Genii soldiers lay down their weapons.
Leaving Sheppard and Kolya in a face off.
The stakes are pretty high considering every other interaction they’ve ever had with each other, but this time Kolya has no way to slink off to safety.
With barely a second of a difference, Sheppard is able to end Kolya once and for all.
Season 3, Episode 14- Tao of Rodney
Rodney gets superpowers.
Seriously!
Telekinesis, telepathy, and he even gets smarter (yeah, he didn’t think it was possible either).
What happens is yet another mystery lab is discovered on Atlantis and while trying to find a way to shut it off so it would stop using power, it activates and hits Rodney.
Tests show nothing different so everyone thinks he’s okay despite his insistence that there has to be something wrong with him because nothing ever ‘doesn’t’ work when it comes to the Alterans.
A little while later on a mission, he’s proved right when he saves the day by making enemy guns stop working and then, because he couldn’t prove that one, he levitates Carson.
The machine was supposed to help the Alterans ascend by advancing their bodies to the energy state. It doesn’t work of course because there are other things involved with ascending, but it takes awhile for Weir to translate the data.
Meanwhile, Rodney is having a field day working on improvements for the city (which are brilliant), creating a new math, and a whole ton of other things that don’t get brought up in the episode but get mentioned later.
When he finds out the machine is broken and he is dying, he changes.
He doesn’t believe he can ascend for various reasons and so sets out to right wrongs and make amends.
Everything he says and does he means here. The fact he’s dying just pushed him into action.
It’s a really great episode with some very heartfelt moments that you wouldn’t expect Rodney to be the instigator of, but there you have it. Yet another facet of Rodney McKay!
Season 3, Episode 15- The Game
What would you do if a video game you played ended up being real?
Well, Rodney and Sheppard find out in this episode!
Turns out the Alterans were playing god (no surprise) with several different planets by influencing the inhabitants via technology they put in place.
Our boys thought it was a game and have been playing for a year at this point when Major Lorne (on an unrelated mission) finds the planet and sees banners with Rodney’s face on them.
Going to the planet they find that, sure enough, they’ve been influencing two groups of people who live across a river from each other.
Rodney by giving them scientific knowledge to further themselves in that area to make their lives better, and Sheppard in a more militaristic way that’s never the less what he believes to be the best choice for the group.
The problem is that Rodney and Sheppard have been at odds over several issues and trade agreements in the ‘game’ and it’s effected the people who are now on the brink of war.
During the episode, the two have to try and convince the people that they aren’t gods and they should live their own lives without interference from them. Instead, when the people do in fact go to war, they end up simulating a total defeat for both sides.
Rodney’s people think several villages have been completely destroyed and they are being overrun by Sheppard’s group and Sheppard’s people think the same only in reverse.
It’s a brilliant plan and works. They offer aid if they needed but stay away from that room after that.
Season 3, Episode 16- The Ark
Sheppard gets to fly a space shuttle!
Okay, so he doesn’t so much ‘fly’ it as guides it through the atmosphere as it falls from space in a fiery blaze.
When the team finds a base carved into a low orbit moon, they are mostly unimpressed. Rodney being the exception, and forging ahead to power the base up, unintentionally initiates a machine that uses adapted Wraith beaming technology and wakes the occupant.
A scientist from the planets now long dead civilization, the man requests that he be allowed to check the machine he was being stored in as it should also contain several thousand of his people.
Instead, he wakes an official who had sworn that his wife and son would be amongst those chosen to survive in the machine until the Wraith had left for good.
Problem is, the second shuttle that had been carrying the storage device had never left the planet. His family had been dead for thousands of years.
Having spent his entire life working on the project that was supposed to be his people’s salvation, he loses it (understandably, let’s be honest) and attempts to destroy the base by opening it to space.
His death is quick, but Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon and Rodney are now cutoff from each other on a moon that’s getting ever closer to the atmosphere.
Finally being able to get backup should have been the end of it. It should have been easy enough to get to the Jumper and go back to Atlantis.
Except that the official refused to let them leave the storage device.
Apparently, as he tells poor Teyla who is stuck with him in the same compartment, his people had created weapons of mass destruction intentionally so that the Wraith would come in force and wipe them out completely. Or think they did anyways, when in actuality many would have been perfectly safe in the devices on the moon.
Unfortunately, other officials and governing people hadn’t been able to make it to the shuttle before the scheduled take-off and it had been delayed too long.
The selfishness of it cost them thousands of lives otherwise saved.
The Wraith never came back, but that was because the weapons were used and the planet was left uninhabitable for so long.
With the decaying orbit of the moon, the official traps Teyla inside the machine, leaving Sheppard no choice but to pilot the antiquated shuttle to the surface as it’s the only power supply compatible with the storage device.
(don’t worry, the official doesn’t survive because of injuries, so justice is served in the end)
Season 3, Episode 17- Sunday
Another episode you’ll need a few boxes of tissue for.
When everyone is ordered to take a day off simultaneously, our peeps have plans.
Carson and Rodney are supposed to go fishing.
Sheppard and Ronon are going to golf.
Weir had planned on catching up on paperwork and eating lunch with Teyla.
And Teyla had plans with several people.
We follow them individually throughout the episode as they relive the day and how and what they actually did.
Rodney doesn’t want to spend his off-day fishing so begs off when he gets a date set up with botanist Katie. An alarm disturbs his date.
Sheppard shows Ronon how to golf, Ronon finds it incredibly boring and challenges Sheppard to a Sateedan game that Sheppard isn’t too fond of. The same alarm Rodney hears interrupts them.
Weir is asked out by one of the scientist’s and so asks to postpone the lunch with Teyla and has a great time until the alarm sounds.
Teyla is able to get out of learning how to golf because she already has plans and is the only one who actually seems to be able to carry through with some of them until the explosion happens.
A piece of shrapnel hits her and she is very badly injured.
Trying to find out what happened takes time and in the end it takes it all for one of our team.
Two scientists had accidentally turned on a machine that was supposed to create explosive tumors in the Wraith. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work right and creates tumors in any person within proximity.
One of the scientist’s literally explodes in the cafeteria, which is when things get worse because the second scientist is injured and in the infirmary now.
Carson is ordered to clear the infirmary so that a bomb squad can get in and neutralize the scientist.
He refuses and operates to get the tumor out.
He succeeds, but can’t wait for the bomb squad to come to him when his assistant and patient are right there so takes the case holding the bomb and makes to meet halfway.
Right when we think it’ll be okay, the bomb explodes.
Killing Carson and a bomb squad technician.
One of the final scenes is of our team carrying Carson’s coffin through the Stargate.
And the absolute final scene is of Rodney saying goodbye to his friend.
Season 3, Episode 18- Submersion
You just can’t keep a bad Wraith down these days.
This time we find our team on an underground drilling platform that was supposed to get below the crust of the planet on the ocean floor to produce geothermal energy for Atlantis to use in addition to the ZPM.
Easy enough except for the Wraith Queen that shows up and takes Teyla over.
After sabotaging the platform to trap them all inside, the Queen tries to escape via a Jumper but can’t of course because she doesn’t have the gene.
After killing several people, she is apprehended and restrained.
Which is when it’s decided that letting Teyla get into the Queen’s mind is a good idea.
Apparently during the last battle over Atlantis way back when, the Queen’s ship was badly damaged and fell into the ocean. She survived by feeding on the human stores before turning on her own.
Now she wants one of two things.
Off the planet, or everyone to die with her.
The Wraith Hive is sitting not too far from the platform and right above a weak part of the planets crust. The Queen set a self-destruct that will destroy Atlantis along with them because of the added thermal energy that would be added when the ship explodes the crust.
Fooling the Queen into turning the self-destruct off isn’t easy but they’re able to do it in the nick of time!
That was a ton of episodes and all of them SO GOOD!
Next week we shall be back with a book review and the episode that directly preceded it and then another few episodes and another book before several more episodes with no book between.
We are so close to the Legacy series and I am so excited for more Todd!
So…as I was typing up my observations of ‘Common Ground’ I realized that that is a ton of words that was being added to an already big post. Thus, the catch-up episode posts have been made separate.
Here ya go!
Season 3, Episode 8 – McKay and Mrs. Miller
Rodney McKay is annoying and condescending, but the character grows so much that, just like his friends, we simply roll our eyes when he starts up again and listen while he (inevitably) is proven right.
In this episode we get to meet his sister! (fun fact; the actor and actress are siblings in real life which makes this so much better).
Jeanie has been out of the ‘game’ for several years. In fact, she hasn’t published any papers since she got married and had a daughter. She wanted to be a mother more and unfortunately, we find out that Rodney tried to talk her out of it. Considering what he’s like, you can imagine how that went.
Now though, she has a new theory that could revolutionize power modules and make the ZPM’s obsolete.
If she knew what the heck they were.
Which is where Rodney comes in. The SGC needs him to convince his sister to help them out. Despite their differing positions and four-year estrangement, he convinces her, and they go to Atlantis.
Things take a turn for the weird (as they do with our lovely family) and during the experiment a Rodney from an alternate reality pops up and tells them their experiment is destroying his world. Of course, they shut it down immediately, but it leaves the new Rodney stranded.
The new Rodney goes by Rod and is much cooler than our Rodney and has never been estranged from his sister. The differences make Rodney feel like an outsider amongst his own friends and family, which gets worse when it seems they prefer Rod’s company over his.
Turns out, the bridge they’d created between realities is still open and causing problems. The only way to shut it down completely is to send a massive amount of energy (using their only ZPM) through to disrupt it before it kills them all.
Rod asks if Rodney will help him get back to his reality, saying that he envies Rodney for his ability to not care what people think about him and for having the freedom to speak his mind. Rodney, naturally, mentions the possibility that Rod won’t make it through before the bridge collapses, but agrees when Rod insists.
The bridge collapses as planned, but Rodney refuses to shut the power off until he has confirmation Rod’s made it home. He ends up depleting the ZPM completely.
I adore this episode for SO many reasons and the character development and different sides of Rodney we get to see are why.
If you’ll recall, many episodes ago he recorded a message when the city may be lost. The message was full of self-important insights and such, but in the middle of it he records a message for his sister. Sheppard takes it upon himself to share it with Jeanie before she leaves.
Rodney isn’t good with people, not even his own sister, but we get to see that he understands that and isn’t exactly happy about it. When he can’t say the words to repair the rift between him and Jeanie, he grabs her in a hug instead and finally gets the words out.
(we will see Jeanie again!)
Season 3, Episode 9- Phantoms
This is an emotional episode so have the tissues ready.
The team heads out to see why another team is six hours late checking in. Sheppard’s team, Dr. Beckett and three extra Marines go as backup. On the planet they find several dead bodies belonging to the Genii. Some have been dead for months and it’s obvious they killed each other before killing themselves.
Things do not look good for the SGA team they came to rescue.
Rodney has them follow an energy signature and they find a Wraith machine of some kind that the Genii were messing with. Since the priority is the other team, they leave the machine.
Unfortunately, it’s too late for three of the team as they’ve been killed by their CO. You can see how Sheppard is doing with this news when they watch a recording that shows their deaths. Not knowing why he killed them, Sheppard orders everyone back to the Stargate.
Carrying their dead (Rodney complains and asks if they can take a break at one point) Ronon suddenly signals for them to stop when he sees something in the forest around them.
He can’t say what it was though, and they continue to the Gate.
One of the Marines goes to dial the Gate and it blows up, killing him instantly and injuring others, while our missing Marine starts firing on them.
The two remaining Marines are badly injured and there is no way off the planet now because the dialing device crystals are shattered and they don’t have spares.
Rodney insists they go back to the Wraith machine since it’s interfering with their radios so even when Weir dials the planet, they won’t be able to respond.
Remember when I said Rodney complained about carrying the dead Marine earlier? Yeah, well he’s helping carry one of the injured Marines now and the Marine apologizes for the fact (even though he has no reason to) and Rodney tells him it’s not a problem.
I bring this up because of the look Dr. Beckett gives him at his words to the young Marine. It’s really great that the writers took the time to consider such small things.
Think about it. What show/s are on today that care to show such a small detail that is nevertheless so important? When I say they don’t make shows like Stargate anymore, I’m not just talking about the really cool storylines that don’t revolve around sex every other episode.
I’m talking about the characters being the focus and so very obviously driving the story with their lives!
Beckett doesn’t expect Rodney’s response because of his complaining earlier and so it surprises him and it shows on his face.
They make it to the Wraith machine and Beckett does what he can for the injured Marines while Rodney tries to turn the thing off and Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla end up trying to track down the missing Marine.
Turns out the machine was an experiment intended to help the Wraith hone their mental abilities. The Genii messed it up and now it’s emitting some kind of energy that’s affecting their minds and making them hallucinate.
The missing Marine is seeing Super Soldiers from back when he served in the Milky Way (you’d have too watch the first series to understand the backstory there). Ronon starts seeing the others’ as Wraith. Sheppard begins to relive the mission that got him in enough trouble to be sent to McMurdo, while Teyla tries to pull him back (she’s been shot in the leg and her Wraith genes keep her safe from the hallucinations). Dr. Beckett thinks one of his patients stops breathing and gets the other to help revive him.
Rodney is working closely enough to the machine that it doesn’t affect him for quite some time.
The ending is really heartbreaking for our people and I think it’s good that these kinds of episodes were added because it isn’t always the obvious enemy that can be deadly. The original Stargate series was like this too and it gives us time to understand our teams and get to know them better outside of their usual fun and sarcastic selves.
Our missing Marine runs out of ammo and, believing he’s surrounded by the Super Soldiers, takes a grenade and holds it to his chest.
Sheppard and Teyla see him die.
Ronon goes after Sheppard because he thinks he’s a Wraith who’s abducting Teyla.
Sheppard shoots Rodney and Ronon believing they’re terrorists trying to kill him.
Dr. Beckett loses one of his patients without even knowing it and the other is barely holding on.
Teyla has to use Sheppard’s nightmare to get him to turn the machine off and they barely make it before Ronon almost kills him.
A not to miss episode! I don’t care how much it will make you cry, you have to watch it because it is so worth it.
Season 3, Episode 10- The Return: Part 1
Dang Alteran’s.
Apparently, there was an Alteran battleship that has been slightly out of phase with the rest of the galaxy for quite some time. The Daedalus contacts them and agrees to help repair the ship and bring them back to Atlantis.
They arrive and the Alteran leader takes control of Atlantis and kicks our peeps out. Presumably, after awhile they’ll let people back to learn more about them, but not now.
Teyla, Ronon and the Athosians are not allowed to stay either. It’s an interesting thing to hear about because the Athosians pretty much believe the hype about the Alterans (calling them Ancestors in a reverent way) and think they’re the galaxies saviors. So, to be kicked off their new home for no reason is a blow, to say the least but they are most happy to offer Ronon a place with them.
Back on Earth, and not happy about it, Weir is having trouble adjusting and is keeping to herself to the point that Beckett shows up and pretty much bullies her into joining him, Sheppard and Rodney at dinner the following day. Sheppard is with SGC and running missions and having trouble fitting in with them. Beckett is also with SGC and not quite unpacked himself, while Rodney is in Area 51 having the world handed to him and hating it.
They’re at dinner when their phones go off and they’re called into Stargate Command.
General O’Neill and Mr. Woolsey are on Atlantis keeping the lines of communication open with the Alteran’s, when the replicators (also known as the Asurans) attack.
The Alteran’s, in usual stupid and arrogant fashion, don’t believe they’re in any danger because of the no-harm coding in the Asurans base code. So when the Asurans attack, the Alteran’s are killed off quite easily.
O’Neill and Woolsey, however, are still alive and hiding in a previously flooded area that’s impossible to scan. Relatively safe at the moment.
Standing orders are to nuke Atlantis in case of a foothold situation and Colonel Caldwell is on his way to do just that when out Atlantis peeps hear about what’s happened.
Not inclined to leave anyone behind, and also not inclined to let Atlantis be destroyed, Sheppard leads them back to Pegasus.
Which leads us to Part 2!
Season 3, Episode 11- The Return: Part 2
(I may have jumped the gun on when the last episode actually ended, but that’s okay)
Ronon and Teyla are happy to have their friends back and are even happier to help them take Atlantis back.
With the help of O’Neill and Woolsey, they’re able to get into the city and start to set C4 charges in each of the ten shield emitters.
If the Asurans can raise the shields, the nukes Daedalus has won’t make a dent. Take those shields down and they will be able to keep the Asurans from leaving the Pegasus galaxy and coming to the Milky Way.
At least, that’s what they want the Asurans to believe.
In reality, and once again let’s thank the wonderful Dr. Rodney McKay for his genius, they have replaced a certain crystal with the replicator killing energy weapons crystal they brought with them from Earth.
Essentially creating one big replicator killing energy wave when the shield is activated.
In the nick of time they’re able to win the day and contact Caldwell to ask him not to destroy the city and them.
You know, as annoying sometimes as Caldwell is, he really is a good man. Instead of blindly following orders he gives our peeps a chance and, no doubt, gives everyone in two galaxies a chance to survive because without the Atlantis expedition things would get bad real quick.
Alrighty, since ‘Common Ground’ was so long I’ve split the catch up posts’ in two so next week will be the last episodes before the next book.
I didn’t realize how close I was to ‘Common Ground’ after the last book and when the episode queued, I almost scared my mother I was so happy!
I’m calming down now, but not too much cause Todd!!
Okay.
There are going to be, I think, about the same amount of episode catch-up posts as there will be book review posts until the end of Season 5. Unfortunately, there are only about 2-3 books each for Season 4 and 5, but that’s okay because after Season 5 is the ‘Legacy’ series that I’m pretty sure is supposed to wrap the series up.
Can you say, ‘heck to the yeah’!?
And now, what you’ve all been waiting for…Todd! (I fully realize that the review for ‘Common Ground’ will be longer than the others, but I can’t help it!)
In the episode ‘The Real World’ (Season 3, Episode 6), we find Dr. Weir back on Earth and in a psych ward. She’s being treated after having a psychological breakdown at a peace talk at the U.N.
Of course, if we hadn’t followed her with our lovely Atlantis peeps to this point, we might believe the lies she’s being told too. However, we are not so blind to the truth and immediately realize that something is wrong.
To her credit, Dr. Weir realizes this too but allows herself to be convinced to take medication to keep disturbing hallucinations away after General O’Neill makes it seem that he has no idea about the Stargate program, let alone about Atlantis.
She is being told from all sides that Atlantis isn’t real and was all made up by her subconscious to keep her from the reality that Simon (her lover/boyfriend) died in a car crash.
She is eventually released from the ward and returns home, and then goes back to teaching and prepping to conclude the peace talks.
After a supposed relapse, she follows a shadowy figure through the psych ward and it turns out to be Sheppard.
Now, back home on Atlantis we have Dr. Beckett doing his best to find a solution to destroying the nanites that have taken over Dr. Weir’s body and that are trying to destroy her mind so they have control of her body.
Easier said than done.
They try an E.M. pulse and it works but only partially, and the little buggers start multiplying once more.
This is where the ‘hallucinations’ Dr. Weir has been having come into play.
It’s Sheppard talking to her and trying to get her to fight the nanites while she still has a fighting chance.
He breaks the containment barrier (Beckett is NOT happy) and goes in to hold her hand and tell her they’re waiting and know she can do it.
It does the trick and soon she’s able to break from the nanites’ control and regain herself.
All is well!
This episode is fantastic because it messes with your mind. Until almost the very end we are only seeing and experiencing what Weir is and so we don’t actually know what has taken her over this time. Of course, it’s all a ruse and we know that much but is it some entity from Earth? Is it the Wraith? Another enemy entirely?
It’s a lot of fun because she emotionally goes through so much and then when she makes it and wakes, she still doubts reality (which I think would be completely normal).
To say this episode did a number on the feels would be accurate, but it pales in comparison to the book that follows.
Stargate Atlantis: Casualties of War SGA #7 ISBN: 9781905586066
Here we have yet another great example of ‘oh, wow!’.
With the Asurans around every turn and on every planet attempting to gain information from various Atlantis Teams, things are far more dangerous than even the Wraith have ever been.
At least the Wraith can be recognized immediately, but the Asurans human looks let them blend in too well.
Sheppard is tired of sending coffins back to Earth so he suggests his team take another look at a planet previously considered not worth the risk. Weir isn’t happy about it, but when Rodney and the others chime in that things have changed and whatever research the Alterans had been conducting there had to be worth the risk now, she caves and lets them go.
There is, in fact, a research facility on the planet, but than there are also people there who are on the brink of war.
Sheppard suggests Weir come along and mediate. Possibly helping them to see they have more in common and their differences can be overcome will help Atlantis get their hands on an ore with fantastic potential.
Unfortunately, it’s never that easy for our team.
The ore has a massive drawback to it. Anyone without the ATA Gene very quickly falls to its influence and begin to forget things. Short term memory loss is one of the first things to go shortly after feelings of disorientation hit people exposed.
That is only part of the problem as tensions between the two groups of people have run too high over supposed raids by the other. In reality, the raids are being conducted by an outside force. A group called the Cadre are into black market workings and have been stealing things from the research facility for several years now.
The first encounter does not go well. Both Ronon and Teyla are considered to be dead when an interruption of the Stargate leaves readings that say the wormhole was diverted to a Gate in geosynchronous orbit.
It is the last thing Sheppard needs on top of the recent deaths of several Marines.
He hands in his resignation.
When new information comes to light about where, exactly, the second Gate is located, a new search is about to be launched when the Atlantis Stargate activates, and a dummy IDC comes through.
Followed closely by Ronon, Teyla and several of their captors.
The second Stargate had fallen thousands of years ago to the planet, somewhere in the mountains. When the wormhole had been disrupted, the safety features had kicked in and simply spat the two back out on the same planet.
Weir is able, with help from Sheppard and his team, to convince the two leaders to give diplomacy one more chance and success comes at last.
One of the best things about this book is the ending when Ronon, Teyla and Rodney get Sheppard out of his head and back with them on Atlantis.
I absolutely loved the fact that so much of this book dealt with Sheppard and how he was doing both emotionally and psychologically as military commander of Atlantis.
He never asked for the position, but took it as the highest ranking member at the time and even after contact with Earth was reestablished kept the position because no one else was as knowledgeable about the dangers of the Pegasus Galaxy.
In this book we see the toll that it takes on him. He questions his decisions all the time when people are hurt or killed (who doesn’t? there’s always the ‘what if’ hanging around) but this time is different.
Sheppard feels that his desire to gain a new weapon to defeat the Asurans is the reason his teammates are killed. His blind pursuit for it cost him two of the only family he calls his own. Even when they come back through the Stargate a little worse for wear but alive, he can’t get over how screwed up some of his decisions had been.
In the end, it’s his adopted family, his friends, that tell him how it is.
It doesn’t bring the dead back or make him question less, but it does help him cope knowing that others have his back so completely.
Read this one with a box of tissue handy ya’ll, cause it’ll make you cry.
See you in a bit to catch up on episodes again because there are thirteen before the next book!
The Dark Library 