SGA 5x13 "Inqusition" Talkback (Spoilers)

[JME2]

A new coalition of human worlds puts the Atlantis team on trial for their alleged crimes against the Pegasus Galaxy.

***

Sorry for not posting the usual talkback thread earlier; I was out all day.

[Strider]

Bleh. Flashback ep alert, though it wasn't as flashback-y as the SG1 flashback eps used to be. It had maybe 80% (?) new footage. That's about all the good that can be said about it though.

The whole set up just seemed sort of contrived, as flashback eps. often are. They were essentially basing their charges on the expedition being rash and selfish; yet they at the same time took actions which a rash and selfish expedition would surely respond to with violence. Also, the inability of Atlantis to produce a single working subspace tracker was sort of astonishing, seeing as Terran-Asgard technology has been shown time and time again to curbstomp Wraith tech. This was easily the low point of Season, IMO.

[CaptainChewbacca]

This was, by my count, the third time an SG-team member has been put on trial. Weak.

[NecronLord]

Six worlds?

That's all the Asurans did? Kill six worlds worth of people... a few tens of thousands?

That makes no logical sense; the idea that they were denying the wraith a food source must have been wrong. Randomly doing it for spite makes more sense.

[Zac Naloen]

Six worlds?

That's all the Asurans did? Kill six worlds worth of people... a few tens of thousands?

That makes no logical sense; the idea that they were denying the wraith a food source must have been wrong. Randomly doing it for spite makes more sense.

That they know of, and you do not know the populations of those particular worlds.

It makes sense they'd go for the heavily populated planets first.


I don't think the episode was that bad it's not like I was bored like i have been with some of the really bad episodes, but it is obviously the "Save money for the finale" episode of the season.

[CaptainChewbacca]

You know, now that I think of it, SG1 and SGA have always done really awesome clip shows. Not like TNG, which did one that sucked so bad they never tried a second one.

[JME2]

You know, now that I think of it, SG1 and SGA have always done really awesome clip shows. Not like TNG, which did one that sucked so bad they never tried a second one.

Yeah, I've always liked the SG approach as well as it's managed to set up key stories/characters (ex. the introduction of Senator Kinsey, the US government bringing the rest of the world leaders into the loop, etc).

[[R_H]]

The room that they were taken into to wait for the council (the one they got gassed in), what was with the door? When Ronin shot it with his pistol, it dissipated the shot (if I remember correctly).

[NecronLord]

That they know of, and you do not know the populations of those particular worlds.

Two such worlds' populations were stated in season four. They were tens of thousands.

WOOLSEY: How do we know the Wraith didn't do that?

McKAY: The M.A.L.P.'s detecting residual radiation. Energy signature's consistent with Replicator weapons fire. He's telling the truth.

TEYLA: How many people lived on that planet?

McKAY: Estimated somewhere between fifty and seventy-five thousand.

CHUCK: Can't get a lock.

SHEPPARD: They must have taken out the Gate.

DEX: How many people were left on that settlement?

TEYLA: Just under two thousand.

Most of the planet had been evacuated by stargate; but it can't be that much, given the limited size of a stargate, and the limited travel capacity of a lot of these cultures.

[NecronLord]

The room that they were taken into to wait for the council (the one they got gassed in), what was with the door? When Ronin shot it with his pistol, it dissipated the shot (if I remember correctly).

Yeah, it looked like a forcefield to me, too. I kept on expecting that the asgard would be supporting these guys.

[Bilbo]

Six worlds?

That's all the Asurans did? Kill six worlds worth of people... a few tens of thousands?

That makes no logical sense; the idea that they were denying the wraith a food source must have been wrong. Randomly doing it for spite makes more sense.

As someone else mentioned they may have gone after the most populated worlds in the glaxy to start.

Another rather perverse thought is that once the Wraith saw the Replicators attacking human worlds they actually started defending them with hive ships.

Guess the alliance of planets didnt have enough time to realize that the exploding stargates was something that could be blamed on Atlantis as well.

[[R_H]]

The room that they were taken into to wait for the council (the one they got gassed in), what was with the door? When Ronin shot it with his pistol, it dissipated the shot (if I remember correctly).

Yeah, it looked like a forcefield to me, too. I kept on expecting that the asgard would be supporting these guys.

Just watched the scene where he shoots the door again. No visible damage done to the door, he shot it twice, to the middle of the door, first shot hit towards the hinge side of it, second was close to where the bolt/closing mechanism might be.

[Bilbo]

The room that they were taken into to wait for the council (the one they got gassed in), what was with the door? When Ronin shot it with his pistol, it dissipated the shot (if I remember correctly).

Yeah, it looked like a forcefield to me, too. I kept on expecting that the asgard would be supporting these guys.

From the sounds of thing the Asgard would be just behind the ancient tech in Atlantis for tech level in the Pegasus galaxy. Considering how paranoid the Asgard were shown I doubt they would start working with humans, too much fear that the Wraith will learn of their existance.

One thing about the Asgard bothers me though. They hid on a toxic planet. That makes no sense. Toxic or not the Wraith could have bombed them to oblivian from orbit. Which means that they werent chased to the planet but instead ran their unseen. If that is the case then why didnt the Asgard after a few years scout out a much better planet away from the Wraith or one without a stargate. There are lots of planets that cannot support human life and would thus be ignored by the Wraith but would still be stable enough for the Asgard to live on without the planet eating their supersuits.

Either bad writing or there is something else going on here in regard to the Asgard.

[NecronLord]

From the sounds of thing the Asgard would be just behind the ancient tech in Atlantis for tech level in the Pegasus galaxy. Considering how paranoid the Asgard were shown I doubt they would start working with humans, too much fear that the Wraith will learn of their existance.

The wraith will find them eventually anyway. If, however, they were to arm the local humans, and it wouldn't take much on their part; advising the locals on weapons production and use, then the wraith would be busy for a time.

One thing about the Asgard bothers me though. They hid on a toxic planet. That makes no sense. Toxic or not the Wraith could have bombed them to oblivian from orbit.

The planet was unknown to the wraith; and the wraith would have no interest in exploring it once they saw the atmosphere, it'd be clear that there'd be no food there.

Which means that they werent chased to the planet but instead ran their unseen. If that is the case then why didnt the Asgard after a few years scout out a much better planet away from the Wraith or one without a stargate. There are lots of planets that cannot support human life and would thus be ignored by the Wraith but would still be stable enough for the Asgard to live on without the planet eating their supersuits.

Either bad writing or there is something else going on here in regard to the Asgard.

It's sorta bad writing, in that you'd expect the Asgard would eventually just move somewhere else, bury the stargate, and hope the wraith don't notice, and be ready to evacuate if they do.

[NecronLord]

Six worlds?

That's all the Asurans did? Kill six worlds worth of people... a few tens of thousands?

That makes no logical sense; the idea that they were denying the wraith a food source must have been wrong. Randomly doing it for spite makes more sense.

As someone else mentioned they may have gone after the most populated worlds in the glaxy to start.

While I suppose seventy thousand could be the most populous, that's not saying much, is it?

Another rather perverse thought is that once the Wraith saw the Replicators attacking human worlds they actually started defending them with hive ships.

Guess the alliance of planets didnt have enough time to realize that the exploding stargates was something that could be blamed on Atlantis as well.

They're probably just worlds that they lost contact with. They've no way of knowing what happened yet.

[Stargate Nerd]

The whole set up just seemed sort of contrived,.

Definitely. Not to mention very anti-climatic. I was actually looking forward to this episode and was pretty disappointed, I had actually expected technologically advanced humans/cultures to put the team on trial, rather than tribals, as Woolsey called them.

[Bilbo]

From the sounds of thing the Asgard would be just behind the ancient tech in Atlantis for tech level in the Pegasus galaxy. Considering how paranoid the Asgard were shown I doubt they would start working with humans, too much fear that the Wraith will learn of their existance.

The wraith will find them eventually anyway. If, however, they were to arm the local humans, and it wouldn't take much on their part; advising the locals on weapons production and use, then the wraith would be busy for a time.

One thing about the Asgard bothers me though. They hid on a toxic planet. That makes no sense. Toxic or not the Wraith could have bombed them to oblivian from orbit.

The planet was unknown to the wraith; and the wraith would have no interest in exploring it once they saw the atmosphere, it'd be clear that there'd be no food there.

Which means that they werent chased to the planet but instead ran their unseen. If that is the case then why didnt the Asgard after a few years scout out a much better planet away from the Wraith or one without a stargate. There are lots of planets that cannot support human life and would thus be ignored by the Wraith but would still be stable enough for the Asgard to live on without the planet eating their supersuits.

Either bad writing or there is something else going on here in regard to the Asgard.

It's sorta bad writing, in that you'd expect the Asgard would eventually just move somewhere else, bury the stargate, and hope the wraith don't notice, and be ready to evacuate if they do.

Dont even need to go to a world with a Stargate. Find a world like Mars. It cannot support human life so the Wraith will ignore it but the environment wont be all that hostile.

[NecronLord]

Well, Mars would have them optically and thermally visible to passing ships. I imagine it's rather more like Venus, where they come from.

[Bilbo]

Well, Mars would have them optically and thermally visible to passing ships. I imagine it's rather more like Venus, where they come from.

That is where you love scale. Its an entire galaxy. Are the Wraith going to regularly search planets like Mars when the Wraith do their best to keep any humans from getting advanced enough to even get into space.

[Bilbo]

I noticed something else in the episode.

The council were all angry that the Atlantis team had woken the Wraith early. Yet we know not all of the Wraith sleep and in fact some entire Hives are still awake.

Ronin's planet was culled to the point of absolute destruction before Atlantis had ever been occupied by the expedition team. So while Atlantis woke up some Wraith they did not wake them all up.

[NecronLord]

Ronan's world would have warranted the awakening of a hive when they were discovered. They had industrialisation. That couldn't be allowed to spread, or within five generations (the normal sleeping time) it could spread all the way across the galaxy, and they could be dealing with races that make the Tau'ri look feeble (after all, aside from the asgard technologies Earth has, there's nothing a Pegasus culture couldn't replicate from scavenging off the Ancients, if they had a hundred years and a few lucky breaks)

[Braedley]

I like the fact that this sets up a nice possible story arc for the rest of the season (all 7 episodes ), but did they really need a clip show? It wasn't bad, but few clip shows are every really great.

[NecronLord]

Well, SG has usually used its clip shows to save up money for big episodes yet to come...

[Braedley]

Well, SG has usually used its clip shows to save up money for big episodes yet to come...

I realize this, as there usually aren't any totally new sets and one off SFX. And to the credit of the SG writers, they usually manage to advance the season plot in a clip show. But forgive me for wanting more.