Jen said …
Um… I’ve noticed that she’s been using contractions for a LONG while now. I know she was using them in season four and I’ll have to go back and check a few season 3 episodes to see. She has definitely relaxed a bit since the first couple seasons though. I think I mentioned this before but I couldn’t really even watch her during the first season because she would over enunciate her words and it it made her creepy.

Did she? Wow, I really need to pay attention more! There are still plenty of times when she doesn’t, though, and I think that’s a big part of why it’s been so hard for me to like her — like you, I could barely stand her in the first season eps, at least the first few times I watched them.

Though I have to admit I’m leaning more towards Rodney and Keller friendship rather than romance.

I’m leaning that way too. It figures the one time I would still prefer friendship to something deeper between two characters, they seem to be leaning the other way. XD If only Daniel/Vala and Jack/Sam could have gotten that much! XD

I watched that scene and as Keller walked off and John watched her go my thought was: “Ohhhh she’s pinging his ’something’s wrong with a member of my family’ radar!” – it was nice to see that John has added her to that short list!

Agreed! Happily, so far I’ve actually seen a more positive reaction to her form the fans after that ep.

The last several minutes of the episode – where John goes to save the day – were pretty cool. Though I have to admit that it’s getting old that it’s ALWAYS John that saves the day. Kind of wish they’d let other characters shine a bit – and no I don’t just mean Rodney (because other episodes have been all about him as well). It would have been awesome if Ronon HAD been able to save Keller. Oh well John’s the star of the show so it has to be him I guess.

Yeah, it was a cool scene, but it is getting repetitive. I would have preferred it be Ronon too, but I’m thinking this may actually be a long-term set-up for a story arc …

Lysambre said …

To be honest I thought this was very sensible, and reminded me of Sam telling John they could not search for Elizabeth unless they had a good plan.

I guess I have to concede IOI see some sense in that, I just figure with John’s warning, Michael has proven to be extremely dangerous, and that a special dispensation should be made — especially since they have his hard-drive but he doesn’t know that, so they at least have some hope of figuring out where he may be. Of course, he’s not obligated to go to any of his past haunts, but I imagine he will go for supplies or equipment sooner or later ….

“Hey, why isn’t Teyla confined to quarters too? She spent time on the planet when Sheppard got her out of the buffer, before they went through the ‘Gate!)”
I think the infectious pathogen was in the compound itself, not all over the planet.

Ah, I assumed the gate was *right near* the compound, but perhaps not then ….

“Carson starts up chest-compressions (the most unconvincing ones I’ve ever seen, I might add).”
Hum nope, they were admittedly bad (especially since you’re supposed to count to 5 and not 3) but have a look at the Doppelganger one done by Keller, those where truly horrific, I’m not even talking about the fact the she then shocked Sheppard’s intestines instead of his heart. I’m thinking a medical advisor would be good on the set from time to time.

Really? Hm. I’ll have to go back and re-watch “Doppelgagner” (heh, like that’s a chore!). My problem with Carson’s was that they were a very light touch and from the side — no weight behind them at all. He should have gotten up on the bed, like Keller got onto Liz’ gurney in “Adrift”, and been *above* Sheppard.

Re: John’s heroics, see my answer to Jen. As a Shep-whumper, I have to admit I enjoyed it, but yeah, that is coming awfully hard and fast on the heals of his last injury — and odd that it was pretty much the same injury, just the opposite side! XD They should have let it be Ronon, and let him have a sweet moment with Keller, since Rodney hogged her all ep — or even let it be Rodney, so that he could say goodbye to Carson!! And also because he would have been the one least likely to save the day in that scenario, and John had already had his heroic spotlight as the guinea pig.

Another plot hole. Earlier Carson cut about 2 cm of a tendril and Keller went into cardiac arrest, now Teyla shoots a whole bunch of it and nothing ? Right.</I?

“It makes me want to remind him that the US Constitution was designed as rules that could be altered to fit the times.”
He might not be following this at all since the IOA is international. So they might very well have their own set of rules that cannot be changed whenever the need arise (or at least not without a whole lot of talks and paperwork).

Oh, I didn’t mean that he had to follow the US Constitution, I was using that as an example — one he should be well familiar with, unless he’s actually Canadian — of how rules need to be fluid.

Robin said …

It’s been established for a while (since season 2, I think) that they can gate from Atlantis to Earth because there’s a much greater number of ZPMs in Pegasus that they can salvage. Since the Ancients fled the Milky Way shortly after they developed the technology, there aren’t as many ZPMs here and the ones we have found are mostly depleted of their power. Hence the need for the gate bridge (R.I.P.) or the Daedelus to act as a shuttle bus (poor Caldwell).

Yes, but they also established that those kinds of dial-ups are very quick — three seconds. They just used them to send data bursts, not people. They’d mentioned people going home on the Daedalus before, so why not do the same with Carson?

Maybe, but if it’s still just a “baby” and small enough to fit inside part of a single building, then the conduits/corridors probably weren’t big enough for people to fit through yet. Especially someone as not-small as Ronon.

Ooh, I hadn’t thought of that, that the parts might actually expand!

Thanks again, everyone!

It’s been established for a while (since season 2, I think) that they can gate from Atlantis to Earth because there’s a much greater number of ZPMs in Pegasus that they can salvage. Since the Ancients fled the Milky Way shortly after they developed the technology, there aren’t as many ZPMs here and the ones we have found are mostly depleted of their power. Hence the need for the gate bridge (R.I.P.) or the Daedelus to act as a shuttle bus (poor Caldwell).

“…the table that they’re used to has been replaced with a conference table much like the one at the SGC. (Aww, but I liked the other one…”

I did too, but the DVD commentaries make it pretty clear that the cast and crew found the modular table a nightmare to film with. It took up too much of the room, was hard to establish people’s relative positions at, and had sticky-outy bits that the actors kept snagging themselves on.

“…Carson’s hair. People have said it’s just that it’s longer and not spikey, but the colour seems a bit different to me, too. “

This was the subject of great debate over at Mallozzi’s blog. He posted pictures while they were filming (like he does) and confirmed that the hair and makeup people had a hard time matching McGillion’s look from last year. Apparently he got a little too “California” while he was working in L.A.

“— depends on how you mean the word “hives”, I guess …”

Oh! Good catch. I didn’t pick up on that bit of foreshadowing/wordplay.

“Well, if it’s a ship being born, there has to be a way for the crew to reach the control area, right, for possible repairs?”

Maybe, but if it’s still just a “baby” and small enough to fit inside part of a single building, then the conduits/corridors probably weren’t big enough for people to fit through yet. Especially someone as not-small as Ronon.

I have to agree that ‘The Seed’ isn’t their strongest episode ever, but it had some good character moments and made a nice start at developing the new relationships among all the main personnel. (And on a purely aesthetic note, the fact that most of the special effect were practical meant that we got two new gorgeous nighttime establishing shots from the CGI folks.) It’s a bit too similar to SG-1‘s ‘Zero Hour’ (8.04) as an establish-the-new-base-commander episode, since that had an alien plant run amok that necessitated turning off the power, but I’m willing to overlook that since there are plenty of Atlantis fans who haven’t watched SG-1.

I can sort of see what you’re get it at – but I’m not sure I totally agree that it’s being “forced” on anyone. Okay yes it probably would have made more sense if Carson went in instead of Rodney but you could argue that since Rodney and Keller are obviously close already it makes sense for him to go in and try to comfort her a bit while Carson keeps working on the medical stuff. At least that was my take on it.

Of course my problem is I have a bad habit of ignoring overt romance/ship moments since I find it all boring anyway. I really don’t care who is paired with who – it’s the overall character moments that do it for me.

“Woolsey counters that even if he knew for sure that Michael was alive, he wouldn’t waste resources on searching for one man across an entire galaxy unless they had credible evidence of his whereabouts. ”
To be honest I thought this was very sensible, and reminded me of Sam telling John they could not search for Elizabeth unless they had a good plan.
On Earth they have the greatest difficulties tracking a few terrorist across a couple of countries, I can’t even imagine trying to find someone across the galaxy, especially when it’s so easy to travel from one planet to another in the blink of an eye.

“Also, I immediately notice the weirdness of Carson’s hair. People have said it’s just that it’s longer and not spikey, but the colour seems a bit different to me, too. Someone suggested it’s because of McGillion’s role in the new Star Trek movie .…”
The hair… I thought it looked awful, they dyed it wrong and should just have done it again. I also noticed something with his face. I can’t pinpoint it (and it was the same in the previous episode he was in) but there is something wrong. I don’t know if it’s the teeth, or the fact that he looks like he has a make-up allergy or something; but if you look back to a season and a half ago, he did not look like that. I don’t know.

“Carson reveals that she’s infected with an “unknown alien pathogen”. (As a few other fans have asked, why didn’t the city go into a quarantine lockdown as soon as she set foot in the city with it?)”
Especially since the alien pathogen is of obvious wraith origin. Big plot hole there.

“Rodney goes into the room in a hazmat (since they haven’t yet confirmed that he’s infected, I guess) to talk to her. (Okay, I understand that they want to further establish Rodney/Keller, but could we have had some stated reason as to why it was Rodney going in there instead of Carson?”
I was very disappointed by this. The writers are trying to force a ship onto us instead of being subtle about it. I don’t mind other ships than mine but I do mind when they are going at it with a hammer. I was finding the Keller/McKay thing kind of cute as long as it was subtle, now I’m already completely fed up with it, badly.

“Hey, why isn’t Teyla confined to quarters too? She spent time on the planet when Sheppard got her out of the buffer, before they went through the ‘Gate!)”
I think the infectious pathogen was in the compound itself, not all over the planet.

“she says she’s coming over to him. He steps close, trying to use a scanner to see how much power it’s draining, and is attacked by the tendrils, which pull him to the ground. Teyla shows up and shoots the tendrils away; she then helps Zelenka to his feet and hurries him out”
Another plot hole. Earlier Carson cut about 2 cm of a tendril and Keller went into cardiac arrest, now Teyla shoots a whole bunch of it and nothing ? Right.

“Carson starts up chest-compressions (the most unconvincing ones I’ve ever seen, I might add).”
Hum nope, they were admittedly bad (especially since you’re supposed to count to 5 and not 3) but have a look at the Doppelganger one done by Keller, those where truly horrific, I’m not even talking about the fact the she then shocked Sheppard’s intestines instead of his heart. I’m thinking a medical advisor would be good on the set from time to time.

The whole thing about Shep saving the day.
I like John, I love John, but way too many plot holes there, just to make him the ultimate saviour. I wish they had let Ronon do the deal for once. As much as I like Sheppard sometimes it would be nice to see someone else save the day. And why the need to stab him in the gut AGAIN ? Malozzi has been reading too many of his blog commentaries asking for Shep!Whump and he’s making it cheap. SGA + cheap = not so good.

“It makes me want to remind him that the US Constitution was designed as rules that could be altered to fit the times.”
He might not be following this at all since the IOA is international. So they might very well have their own set of rules that cannot be changed whenever the need arise (or at least not without a whole lot of talks and paperwork).

(Whoa, hold the phone — did Teyla just use a contraction?? Has she been using them periodically now and I just haven’t noticed? Again, like at the end of the last ep, I’m struck by a sensation of this being Rachel, the actress behind the character, not Teyla — her speech is a bit different, and not just regarding the contraction. It’s like her voice sounds more natural.

Um… I’ve noticed that she’s been using contractions for a LONG while now. I know she was using them in season four and I’ll have to go back and check a few season 3 episodes to see. She has definitely relaxed a bit since the first couple seasons though. I think I mentioned this before but I couldn’t really even watch her during the first season because she would over enunciate her words and it it made her creepy.

Anyway, As a fan of Woolsey I can tell you that the episode was just as forced and flat for me as it was for you. It wasn’t my least favorite episode but it’s down near the bottom of the list. Though there were some pretty cool moments throughout the episode.

On the other hand I DID like the introduction to Woolsey – maybe it was to much Woolsey all at once but I think since the rest of the episode was so flat and boring his presence was more noticeable.

I think what bugs people so much about Woolsey is that he really is actually “right” most of the time. It’s just that no one wants to hear his “truth”.

Either way that conference room scene was my favorite of the whole episode :O)

I also think this episode didn’t do Keller any favors in terms of fans liking her. Even though it was stated that she was being influenced by the entity before it started growing I think people are STILL going to blame her for everything simply because they hate the character. Having it happen to her probably wasn’t the best choice even though in the context of the story it NEEDED to happen to her so there would be a reason for Carson to sick around. If hat happened to someone else then both doctors would have been there and again it would have been Carson vs. Keller in terms of who’s the best doctor.

On the other hand I DID like the Keller/Rodney moments. I have to admit that pairing is rather nice and I like what she does for Rodney – much better than Rodney/Katie. Though I have to admit I’m leaning more towards Rodney and Keller friendship rather than romance.

John follows her a few feet off and compliments her; she mentions that “it’s not a permanent fix.”… It’s good enough for the time being, John assures her, telling her to get some rest. She agrees and goes to her quarters…

I watched that scene and as Keller walked off and John watched her go my thought was: “Ohhhh she’s pinging his ‘something’s wrong with a member of my family’ radar!” – it was nice to see that John has added her to that short list!

The last several minutes of the episode – where John goes to save the day – were pretty cool. Though I have to admit that it’s getting old that it’s ALWAYS John that saves the day. Kind of wish they’d let other characters shine a bit – and no I don’t just mean Rodney (because other episodes have been all about him as well). It would have been awesome if Ronon HAD been able to save Keller. Oh well John’s the star of the show so it has to be him I guess.

Loved the last scene with Woolsey and John. My Dad and I both agree he’s going to end up fitting right in with the rest of the misfits :O)