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fandomhigh_ooc2008-09-07 02:17 pm
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Stargate: Atlantis
Spotlight on Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Spoiler Alert: There are massive spoilers contained within. Since the show is due to go off the air at the end of the current Season 5, I have given up on not spoiling others. Also, I've done this before with far fewer spoilers and more discussion of particular characters.
Premise:
So there’s this show, SG-1. Go read its Spotlight if you want, but it’s not a requirement to enjoy the SGA. Stargate: Atlantis is a spin-off. I know, spin-off is such a dirty word! The main similarity between the two shows are these giant rings known as Stargates. Stargates make wormholes that people can walk through to travel between planets and dimensions. They were built by the Ancients (more ‘bout them later). At the end of Season 7 of SG-1, the team discovers an Ancient Outpost in Antarctica. They find out that the ‘Lost City of the Ancients’ is in the Pegasus Galaxy and they form an expedition to go there through the Stargate. There is a lot of power needed to create a wormhole to another galaxy, so the expedition is heading to Atlantis with no known way of getting home or of getting supplies from Earth, which creates really greatfic episodic drama.
In the pilot episode, Rising, we meet Major John Sheppard, a helicopter pilot stationed at McMurdo base in Antarctica. Through random chance, he activates the Ancient control chair and joins the expedition team as they travel to the Pegasus Galaxy in hopes of finding Atlantis, the lost city of the Ancients.
On the expedition’s first contact with the Pegasus Galaxy, Sheppard accidentally activates a beacon (disguised as local leader Teyla’s necklace) with his Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene, causing theSpace Vampires Wraith (they suck your life out of your chest with their right hand) to come to Teyla’s planet for a dinner party culling. The Atlantis military commander, Col. Sumner, is taken by the Wraith, so Sheppard leads a team to get him and others back. While being interrogated by the pink-haired Wraith, a dying Sumner gives away that the expedition is from Earth (a place with lots and lots of tasty people to eat), and Sheppard shoots him to put him out of his misery and to stop him from giving away more. Then Sheppard proceeds to wake every Wraith in the galaxy by killing the pink-haired one, conveniently giving our heroes someone to fight most weeks. With Sumner dead, Sheppard takes command of the military and starts forming off-world teams to explore the Pegasus Galaxy 'gate addresses.
Things to know about Stargate: Atlantis!
1) No, there is no on-screen resolution of the stuff you're dying to see. What happened when Sheppard came back from his suicide mission? Did Rodney hit him like we hope? Did he make out with Weir in the office? No one knows, but this allows for freaking fantastic fic. Ahem.
2) No, you're not supposed to take it seriously. Let us have story time. Sit at my feet here. Okay, so once upon a time there was a girl named Al. She liked SG-1 and saw SciFi was premiering a new version. Wheee! Al was excited. She watched the first 3 hours of the series and was intrigued. Then came episode 1.04 38 Minutes. Al was horrified. This show lacked logic. It made no sense! Who cared about the pretty boys and their UST? Al wanted the show to be more than it was! Better! Stronger! Faster! So she gave up. Skip ahead six months and we have James. James told Al all about the pretty, pretty fic and look at the incredibly obvious UST! So Al tried again with lower standards, and lo, she came to love a silly little show called Atlantis.
3) John and Rodney have the best UST ever. The end. No, do not talk to me about how Rodney is so sadly straight and John is the gayest gay man to ever do funk aerobics and have sparkly curtains. I know these things. But the show doesn't work without their glorious interactions of adorkable.
Season One
The main arc in Season 1 is finding a Zero Point Module (ZPM) which is an Ancient power device needed to operate shields and weapons on Atlantis and provides enough power to dial Earth on the 'gate. We also meet a lot of fun homespun-wearing groups of people who show us the complete lack of morals possessed by Sheppard and his team. Yes, let us steal ZPMs from the children. That's totes okay. Anyway, the season ends with a dozen Wraith hive ships descending upon Atlantis in a Siege (guess what the three part episode's called?). The season ends on a cliffhanger with Major Sheppard running off in a puddlejumper on a suicide mission to stop at least one of the incoming hive ships. Lucky for Atlantis, SG-1 saves the day again by discovering a ZPM on one of their missions and sends troops, that ZPM, and the Daedalus (a big effin' spaceship) to help save the day in 2.01 The Seige: Part 3.
Favorite Episodes of S1
1.02 Hide and Seek - John and Rodney playing with toys.
1.09 The Storm - The city's taken by Kolya of the Genii and a massive storm threatens to destroy them all.
1.10 The Eye - The storm's here and it's up to John to save the dayand his boyfriend.
1.13 Sanctuary - Oh such a UST ep. John hooks up with an ascended chick and Rodney is Not Pleased.
1.15 The Brotherhood - Kolya's back and wants revenge on John and his team who are close to getting their hands on a ZPM.
Season Two
Season 2 is all about not letting the Wraith know that Atlantis survived the seige. However, our intrepid heroes do nothing to make themselves inconspicuous and the cat is out of the bag pretty fast. Another sort of arc they've got going here revolves around Ford, but he's really boring even with one eye all blacked out, so I'm just going to focus on the part where they replace Ford with the incredible hotness that is Ronon Dex. Mmm. Let's take a minute for that. Okay. So, the major thing that happens this season is the ethically questionable creation of Michael. Know that Michael is the only one who seems to realize that the rational for creating him is sort of faulty. But look, it's Trip from Enterprise and he's hot, so most fans are happy to have Michael. Season 2 ends with an interesting ep where Atlantis works with a Wraith hive ship to attack other Wraith. Why? Because when Sheppard woke all the Wraith at once like he did, it turned out there's just not enough people for them to eat. Ah food supply is lower than the demand. Sounds like scarcity's on the horizon! So, this one Hive (with Michael, naturally) want to help the 'Lanteans with their genocide experimentation, blah blah don't trust the Wraith.
Favorite Episodes of S2
2.3 Runner - We meet Lorne and Ronon! And Rodney makes his own sunscreen.
2.4 Duet - Wacky ensues when Rodney ends up with two consciousnesses in his brain. Also, Ronon is still hot.
2.6 Trinity - Rodney destroys 5/8th of a solar system while Ronon kills an old nemesis.
2.18 Michael - Carson develops a drug that reverts Wraith to human form. So, so messy.
2.20 Allies - John and Rodney perfect their synchronized swimming routine.
Season Three
So, apparently coming up with interesting bad guys is hard. I say this because S3 is all about bringing back the replicators from SG-1 *sighs*, bringing back the Ancients who apparently weren't all dead, killing off a character, and a season-ending cliffhanger that left our heroes floating in space with another potential character death on the horizon. Yeah. What's weird is, as crappy as all that sounds, I really liked a bunch of episodes in S3 for the character development.
Favorite Episodes of S3
3.4 Sateda - Ronon is captured and made a Runner again. Prettiest episode ever.
3.7 Common Ground - Kolya captures John and feeds him to a Wraith prisoner.
3.8 McKay and Mrs. Miller - This ep has an AU Rodney (Rod) and the first appearance of Jeannie, Rodney's sister. Adorkable.
3.10 The Return: Part 1 - A group of Ancients returns to Atlantis and sends the Earthlings packing.
3.14 Tao of Rodney - A machine gives Rodney super human abilities. John teaches him about relaxation.
3.15 The Game - Turns out a video game John and Rodney have played for the last three years is actually linked to real people. Whoops!
Season Four
Season 4 started with the city floating in space with no power and Weir dying of brain trauma. Rodney goes against John to reactivate the nanites (a boring S3 leftover, sigh) to create RepliWeir, which is a nice deus ex machina for them as now she can help get Ronon, John, and Rodney to the Replicator homeworld where they can steal a ZPM to power Atlantis and mess some more with the Replicator base code to start a Replicator/Wraith war. FUN! Except Weir is supposedly lost to the Replicators and now Sam Carter has her job. The rest of S4 is complicated to explain, so let me just say that Teyla is pregnant, the Athosians are kidnapped by Michael, Rodney is a really bad boyfriend, and the Midway station is completed and destroyed, making it rather pointless, yes, before Teyla is kidnapped, EEK! The cliffhanger ending for S4 is very keysmashy to me because the finale ep is based on John being sent 48,000 years into the future by a Stargate malfunction and getting the story of what happened after he 'died' from aged, holographic Rodney. It's sad. There might have been sniffing. Upon his return, John has the knowledge of where Michael is holding Teyla and takes his team there but oh wait, the building explodes in an array of really bad CGI. Yeah.
Favorite Eps of S4
4.4 Doppleganger - A nightmare episode (with clowns and whales and aliens) that culminates in John vs. John, but it takes some Rodney intervention to save him.
4.6 Tabula Rasa - The Pegasus chicken pox makes everyone but Ronon and Teyla forget who they are.
4.9 Miller's Crossing - Jeannie is kidnapped and infected with nanites. John, Rodney, and Todd must work together to save her. Ronon in a suit, guh.
4.15 Outcast - After a rousing viewing of Blades of Glory, Ronon accompanies John to his father's funeral.
4.17 Midway - Teal'c visits to help Ronon pass an IOA interview. And to have the best fight ever.
Season Five
Yes, they are SURROUNDED BY WATER. Let's not ask who was thinking what with that promo shot. Be glad I ddin't include the ones of people floating on stairs, okay? Season 5 started just a few weeks ago, but if any of you have SGA fans friended on your RL LJ, you know it's the last season and they seem to be going out with a bang.
Favorite Eps of S5 (SO FAR)
5.1 Search and Rescue - Rodney delivers Teyla's baby! OT4! John with the baby! MY OVARIES!
5.3 Broken Ties - Ronon is captured by the Wraith and made into a Wraith-worshipper. The team love is so evident it hurts. Also, Rodney takes a bubble bath.
5.6 The Shrine - Rodney loses his mind. This might be one of the best episodes ever.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it? SGA is total crack and I love it like pie. Reruns air on SciFi regularly and S1-S4 are available on DVD. Watch S5 live on Friday nights at 10pm EST!
Spoiler Alert: There are massive spoilers contained within. Since the show is due to go off the air at the end of the current Season 5, I have given up on not spoiling others. Also, I've done this before with far fewer spoilers and more discussion of particular characters.
Premise:
So there’s this show, SG-1. Go read its Spotlight if you want, but it’s not a requirement to enjoy the SGA. Stargate: Atlantis is a spin-off. I know, spin-off is such a dirty word! The main similarity between the two shows are these giant rings known as Stargates. Stargates make wormholes that people can walk through to travel between planets and dimensions. They were built by the Ancients (more ‘bout them later). At the end of Season 7 of SG-1, the team discovers an Ancient Outpost in Antarctica. They find out that the ‘Lost City of the Ancients’ is in the Pegasus Galaxy and they form an expedition to go there through the Stargate. There is a lot of power needed to create a wormhole to another galaxy, so the expedition is heading to Atlantis with no known way of getting home or of getting supplies from Earth, which creates really great
In the pilot episode, Rising, we meet Major John Sheppard, a helicopter pilot stationed at McMurdo base in Antarctica. Through random chance, he activates the Ancient control chair and joins the expedition team as they travel to the Pegasus Galaxy in hopes of finding Atlantis, the lost city of the Ancients.
On the expedition’s first contact with the Pegasus Galaxy, Sheppard accidentally activates a beacon (disguised as local leader Teyla’s necklace) with his Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene, causing the
Things to know about Stargate: Atlantis!
1) No, there is no on-screen resolution of the stuff you're dying to see. What happened when Sheppard came back from his suicide mission? Did Rodney hit him like we hope? Did he make out with Weir in the office? No one knows, but this allows for freaking fantastic fic. Ahem.
2) No, you're not supposed to take it seriously. Let us have story time. Sit at my feet here. Okay, so once upon a time there was a girl named Al. She liked SG-1 and saw SciFi was premiering a new version. Wheee! Al was excited. She watched the first 3 hours of the series and was intrigued. Then came episode 1.04 38 Minutes. Al was horrified. This show lacked logic. It made no sense! Who cared about the pretty boys and their UST? Al wanted the show to be more than it was! Better! Stronger! Faster! So she gave up. Skip ahead six months and we have James. James told Al all about the pretty, pretty fic and look at the incredibly obvious UST! So Al tried again with lower standards, and lo, she came to love a silly little show called Atlantis.
3) John and Rodney have the best UST ever. The end. No, do not talk to me about how Rodney is so sadly straight and John is the gayest gay man to ever do funk aerobics and have sparkly curtains. I know these things. But the show doesn't work without their glorious interactions of adorkable.
Season One
The main arc in Season 1 is finding a Zero Point Module (ZPM) which is an Ancient power device needed to operate shields and weapons on Atlantis and provides enough power to dial Earth on the 'gate. We also meet a lot of fun homespun-wearing groups of people who show us the complete lack of morals possessed by Sheppard and his team. Yes, let us steal ZPMs from the children. That's totes okay. Anyway, the season ends with a dozen Wraith hive ships descending upon Atlantis in a Siege (guess what the three part episode's called?). The season ends on a cliffhanger with Major Sheppard running off in a puddlejumper on a suicide mission to stop at least one of the incoming hive ships. Lucky for Atlantis, SG-1 saves the day again by discovering a ZPM on one of their missions and sends troops, that ZPM, and the Daedalus (a big effin' spaceship) to help save the day in 2.01 The Seige: Part 3.
Favorite Episodes of S1
1.02 Hide and Seek - John and Rodney playing with toys.
1.09 The Storm - The city's taken by Kolya of the Genii and a massive storm threatens to destroy them all.
1.10 The Eye - The storm's here and it's up to John to save the day
1.13 Sanctuary - Oh such a UST ep. John hooks up with an ascended chick and Rodney is Not Pleased.
1.15 The Brotherhood - Kolya's back and wants revenge on John and his team who are close to getting their hands on a ZPM.
Season Two
Season 2 is all about not letting the Wraith know that Atlantis survived the seige. However, our intrepid heroes do nothing to make themselves inconspicuous and the cat is out of the bag pretty fast. Another sort of arc they've got going here revolves around Ford, but he's really boring even with one eye all blacked out, so I'm just going to focus on the part where they replace Ford with the incredible hotness that is Ronon Dex. Mmm. Let's take a minute for that. Okay. So, the major thing that happens this season is the ethically questionable creation of Michael. Know that Michael is the only one who seems to realize that the rational for creating him is sort of faulty. But look, it's Trip from Enterprise and he's hot, so most fans are happy to have Michael. Season 2 ends with an interesting ep where Atlantis works with a Wraith hive ship to attack other Wraith. Why? Because when Sheppard woke all the Wraith at once like he did, it turned out there's just not enough people for them to eat. Ah food supply is lower than the demand. Sounds like scarcity's on the horizon! So, this one Hive (with Michael, naturally) want to help the 'Lanteans with their genocide experimentation, blah blah don't trust the Wraith.
Favorite Episodes of S2
2.3 Runner - We meet Lorne and Ronon! And Rodney makes his own sunscreen.
2.4 Duet - Wacky ensues when Rodney ends up with two consciousnesses in his brain. Also, Ronon is still hot.
2.6 Trinity - Rodney destroys 5/8th of a solar system while Ronon kills an old nemesis.
2.18 Michael - Carson develops a drug that reverts Wraith to human form. So, so messy.
2.20 Allies - John and Rodney perfect their synchronized swimming routine.
Season Three
So, apparently coming up with interesting bad guys is hard. I say this because S3 is all about bringing back the replicators from SG-1 *sighs*, bringing back the Ancients who apparently weren't all dead, killing off a character, and a season-ending cliffhanger that left our heroes floating in space with another potential character death on the horizon. Yeah. What's weird is, as crappy as all that sounds, I really liked a bunch of episodes in S3 for the character development.
Favorite Episodes of S3
3.4 Sateda - Ronon is captured and made a Runner again. Prettiest episode ever.
3.7 Common Ground - Kolya captures John and feeds him to a Wraith prisoner.
3.8 McKay and Mrs. Miller - This ep has an AU Rodney (Rod) and the first appearance of Jeannie, Rodney's sister. Adorkable.
3.10 The Return: Part 1 - A group of Ancients returns to Atlantis and sends the Earthlings packing.
3.14 Tao of Rodney - A machine gives Rodney super human abilities. John teaches him about relaxation.
3.15 The Game - Turns out a video game John and Rodney have played for the last three years is actually linked to real people. Whoops!
Season Four
Season 4 started with the city floating in space with no power and Weir dying of brain trauma. Rodney goes against John to reactivate the nanites (a boring S3 leftover, sigh) to create RepliWeir, which is a nice deus ex machina for them as now she can help get Ronon, John, and Rodney to the Replicator homeworld where they can steal a ZPM to power Atlantis and mess some more with the Replicator base code to start a Replicator/Wraith war. FUN! Except Weir is supposedly lost to the Replicators and now Sam Carter has her job. The rest of S4 is complicated to explain, so let me just say that Teyla is pregnant, the Athosians are kidnapped by Michael, Rodney is a really bad boyfriend, and the Midway station is completed and destroyed, making it rather pointless, yes, before Teyla is kidnapped, EEK! The cliffhanger ending for S4 is very keysmashy to me because the finale ep is based on John being sent 48,000 years into the future by a Stargate malfunction and getting the story of what happened after he 'died' from aged, holographic Rodney. It's sad. There might have been sniffing. Upon his return, John has the knowledge of where Michael is holding Teyla and takes his team there but oh wait, the building explodes in an array of really bad CGI. Yeah.
Favorite Eps of S4
4.4 Doppleganger - A nightmare episode (with clowns and whales and aliens) that culminates in John vs. John, but it takes some Rodney intervention to save him.
4.6 Tabula Rasa - The Pegasus chicken pox makes everyone but Ronon and Teyla forget who they are.
4.9 Miller's Crossing - Jeannie is kidnapped and infected with nanites. John, Rodney, and Todd must work together to save her. Ronon in a suit, guh.
4.15 Outcast - After a rousing viewing of Blades of Glory, Ronon accompanies John to his father's funeral.
4.17 Midway - Teal'c visits to help Ronon pass an IOA interview. And to have the best fight ever.
Season Five
Yes, they are SURROUNDED BY WATER. Let's not ask who was thinking what with that promo shot. Be glad I ddin't include the ones of people floating on stairs, okay? Season 5 started just a few weeks ago, but if any of you have SGA fans friended on your RL LJ, you know it's the last season and they seem to be going out with a bang.
Favorite Eps of S5 (SO FAR)
5.1 Search and Rescue - Rodney delivers Teyla's baby! OT4! John with the baby! MY OVARIES!
5.3 Broken Ties - Ronon is captured by the Wraith and made into a Wraith-worshipper. The team love is so evident it hurts. Also, Rodney takes a bubble bath.
5.6 The Shrine - Rodney loses his mind. This might be one of the best episodes ever.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it? SGA is total crack and I love it like pie. Reruns air on SciFi regularly and S1-S4 are available on DVD. Watch S5 live on Friday nights at 10pm EST!