SGU 103, Air Part 3 (Spoilers)

[JME2]

Eh for all we know the Destiny and her sister ship where what the Alterans fled the Ori galaxy in, and were left on a programmed course dumping stargates and generally sending up red flags to distract the Ori while the ancients went to our galaxy, never intended to be seen again.

The Destiny's design doesn't match the ship that lifted off from Ortus Mallum in The Ark of Truth. And Destiny's flight path began in the Milky Way, not the Alteran galaxy. Of course, that's not to say that the Alterans may have had a convoy of reuggee ships including Destiny -- or that Amelius tried a more steampunk gate design before settling on his original concept as seen in TAOT, on a side note.

[Ragnarok]

Eh for all we know the Destiny and her sister ship where what the Alterans fled the Ori galaxy in, and were left on a programmed course dumping stargates and generally sending up red flags to distract the Ori while the ancients went to our galaxy, never intended to be seen again.

The Destiny's design doesn't match the ship that lifted off from Ortus Mallum in The Ark of Truth. And Destiny's flight path began in the Milky Way, not the Alteran galaxy. Of course, that's not to say that the Alterans may have had a convoy of reuggee ships including Destiny -- or that Amelius tried a more steampunk gate design before settling on his original concept as seen in TAOT, on a side note.

I think its more like.

-Alterrans flee Ori galaxy, get to Milky Way after travelling for a while.
-Alterrans settle Earth and Dakara.
-Construct Gate Network in Milky Way and Ida (They're the same type).
-Destiny is launched as part of an expansion of the gate network towards the Universe. New gate design made.
-Atlantis fucks off the Pegasus, uses digital gates from 4 million years ago to present time.

If you look at the Destiny, you just get the idea that its definitely older than Atlantis. Plus, as i've said on SB.com, it seems to jive well with Ancient technology development for the Destiny to have just FTL instead of Hyperdrive due to the speed differences.

[Chris OFarrell]

I've given you a bit of an (imprecise) answer over on SB.com, but I much preffer to discuss it here, so, I'll bite:

I know, but I didn't want to bump that thread when it fell down so I posted over here, in a cunning plan, as I knew you would have to come back!

A ZPM can barely lift Atlantis on its own.

I would contend that this is not a factor of the ZPM not being able to output power, as the fact that Atlantis was NOT designed to fly on a single ZPM. Its stated clearly by Janus that Atlantis was designed to run with 3 ZPM's in parallel, not serial. I would say that the Stardrive was simply built with a link to each of the ZPMs, with each of the ZPM's designed to provide a third of the power needed, and the power conduits designed along those lines.

We KNOW that Atlantis DOES have very heavy duty power conduits from the ZPMs that can handle gigantic levels of energy; recall when McKay floored the ZPM output into the inter-universal bridge? The ZPM went from something like 60% total power capacity to completely emtpy in about 20 seconds, thats a CRAPLOAD of energy blasted out. The Atlantis shields are better in that they can hold at full power for several days until the Wraith bombardment takes them out, the only limiting factor being the ZPM's total power, though the ZPM UberHive shows over a much shorter time with a lot more power, they can overcome this drain factor or whatever you want to call it, and collapse well short of ZPM power.

It's astounding that such a thing could have the many megatons per second output to do that, but why should a whole planet with a naquadriah core have a lower power output?

Mostly because its a Naquadriah CORE, not a planet sized Naquadriah reactor A ZPM, at least in theory, IS a power supply of titantic magnitude where the power is readily accessible. 99% or more of the Naquadah/Naquadriah in the planet quite literally isn't going to be DOING anything, however the SGC is drawing the power from the planet -probably turning an isolated pocket of Naquadriah into a new Naquadriah reactor ala the X303's- its not like the entire planet is contributing.

The only time it DID start giving off energy across the entire planet was, of course, when we went 'boom boom'.

It's a much, much larger facility. Less convinient, of course, but there's no reason the Ancients shouldn't have had bigger power sources down the years.

To me real question is why the hell all stargates have nine chevrons.

Biggest f*(#ing waste of a Chevron ever, UNLESS we find out that the 9th Chevron and the Destiny address is NOT linked ONLY to the destiny, but that there are a lot of 'secret' 9 Chevron addresses which are stored in the DHD system deep down, each of which is a code to a specific Stargate and an uber secret Stargate that the Ancients seeded for whatever reason. And we might even find that some sites we know with their regular spatial 7 or even 8 Chevron addresses, also have a second 9 Chevron address for that matter, which is completely different to their 'actual' address, plus, requires a LOT of power as another layer of security, so only Ancients or someone with the same tech level can connect to them...

Thats the only way I can see the 9 Chevrons on every gate being there...or at least my pet theory.

I find it a contrivance that Atlantis can't dial nine chevrons, of course.

Thats putting it rather lightly. But more then that, the fact that they didn't bother to MENTION anything about it. I mean even the Atlantis pilot had a whole heap of setup over S7 of SG1, and Lost City 1/2 to lead into it, which formed the continuity basis for Atlantis.

Here, we just get zilch.

[NecronLord]

I congratulate you on your manipulation of me, then.


I think that some distinction should be made between what a ZPM puts out when it goes bang, and a ZPM's total energy in normal use. Reasons: We see a number of depleated ZPMs in the series a number of times; almost everything but the shield itself on Atlantis was supposedly shut down, but it managed to deplete itself holding back the ocean. Where would it dump a supernova level of energy? 1e44 J over 3500 years is 1e44/(3500*365*24*60*60)=9e32W. Lantea would be destroyed. Every single second. For thousands of years. Leaks that caused loss of power as in Adrift would be radiating planet levelling energies.

I think the only way to reconcile their explosive power with their actual performance is to say the actual energy you draw to deplete a ZPM is less than it releases as it goes bang. Presumably when it's discharged normally it uses up the power in it. When it is blown up, perhaps it causes some chain reaction or tears a hole in space or some such?

In a couple of episodes, notably First Strike the inability to take off was addressed as a power issue, though some (much) of that is the shield.


As I suggested in the other thread, I think it may be that the Naquadriah core in this case would have been replicated on Asuras, as a power source creating their ZPMs, and breaching it with the 'blob' would actually be what caused the planet to explode. Your mileage may vary, but I'm quite fond of the hypothesis.


I can see a good analogy for how they could have Atlantis and reach Destiny - you can have Washington DC, and not reach the International Space Station with its resources easily. The Icarus planet may have been the Ancients' equivalent of Kennedy Space Center. This would imply that perhaps there are more sites.

An interesting question is, how would the Ancients get back from the Destiny? When operational, did it have vast resources in order to dial back? That's not unreasonable, as a special project, but it would seem a bit odd. Did they perhaps plan to land on a naquadah rich planet and convert it to Naquadriah (did Thanatos run across their means for doing so and use it on Kewlona? I'm reluctant to say he did as he seems to be a sane goa'uld scientist from what we know, and they need to have some) in order to power a bridge back home? That could be why all stargates have nine-chevrons; any planet can potentially become an Icarus one; and they need the capacity to be upgraded.

Obviously the ninth chevron goes other places. I assume that other ships like Destiny existed but were occupied and eventually decommissioned, and thus removed from the database on Atlantis. And that to get very far out (say, to that desert planet) would also be a nine-chevron address, but whatever archive held such addresses wasn't part of the main one.

[Revy]

Well I finally saw this episode. Quite liked it. Agree with those who thought Greer wasn't too annoying. Hell, when Rush tells him to shoot the scientist guy, Greer barely hesitates, and then gives the guy a nonlethal shot, which seems intentional as he soon after says 'He'll live'. If it had been Jack or Sheppard, they would probably have looked at Rush and said 'What?!', and the guy would have gone through the gate and been stranded. He may well have saved that guys life. Rush is still a jackass though, as has been pointed when he blames Greer and doesn't even explain why the guy was shot. It's interesting that Greer did as Rush said with barely a pause, even though he hates the guy.

As for Scott (was that his name? It's gonna take me a while to get all the names right) I wouldn't have said he was definitely a religious person. He tells us his parents died in a crash when he was young, and the priest who raised him drank himself to death. That isn't exactly the kind of circumstances that inspire faith in someone. Maybe in the die-hard fanatics, but since he isn't quoting the bible every five seconds I'd say he isn't one of those. In fact I'd peg him as being less religious inclined than Mitchell based on what I've seen of him so far. Mitchell and the SGC general (damn, forgot his name as well) pissed me off a lot more with their higher-power Christian crap than this series has so far.

I do think that Atlantis will be able to dial the Destiny, just that they don't realise it yet. Remember that the magic 9 chevron address was meant to be dialled from earth, implying that there either is or was a sufficient power supply on earth. Atlantis was on earth, can support 3 ZPM's at once, and has suddenly been shoehorned by the final Atlantis episode back onto earth, and why? Maybe because the creators knew that Atlantis would be used to reach the Destiny later in the Universe series, and needed it back on earth in the Milky Way for that very reason. So don't write off Atlantis being able to dial Destiny just yet, because I think it can.

Keep in mind though that it'll be a one-way trip if it can - I doubt even the Odyssey could fly there in a reasonable amount of time. So they can get help and supplies (if Atlantis can dial them) but they can't use it to get back home.

[JME2]

I do think that Atlantis will be able to dial the Destiny, just that they don't realise it yet. Remember that the magic 9 chevron address was meant to be dialled from earth, implying that there either is or was a sufficient power supply on earth. Atlantis was on earth, can support 3 ZPM's at once, and has suddenly been shoehorned by the final Atlantis episode back onto earth, and why? Maybe because the creators knew that Atlantis would be used to reach the Destiny later in the Universe series, and needed it back on earth in the Milky Way for that very reason. So don't write off Atlantis being able to dial Destiny just yet, because I think it can.

You're probably right. But aside from the nods in the pilot, I doubt we're going to see any direct appearances either by SGA tech, locales, or characters on SGU until after the DTV is made (if ever).

[Imperial Overlord]

It's interesting that Greer did as Rush said with barely a pause, even though he hates the guy.

Remember that Scott and Rush had already discussed the matter and Scott had sent Rush and Greer back to stop them from using the gate. At that point Greer really has no other way of stopping the guy other than shooting him. He's not so much taking orders from Rush but agreeing with Rush that there is no other way to stop the guy except for shooting him. Whatever Greer's problems with Rush and whatever got him locked up in the stockade, so far we've seen him carry out his orders from his superiors as best as he is able.

[Bilbo]

It's interesting that Greer did as Rush said with barely a pause, even though he hates the guy.

Remember that Scott and Rush had already discussed the matter and Scott had sent Rush and Greer back to stop them from using the gate. At that point Greer really has no other way of stopping the guy other than shooting him. He's not so much taking orders from Rush but agreeing with Rush that there is no other way to stop the guy except for shooting him. Whatever Greer's problems with Rush and whatever got him locked up in the stockade, so far we've seen him carry out his orders from his superiors as best as he is able.

The guy that got shot was about to walk through the gate with the only DHD on planet. EVen if Rush had not told him I expect that Greer would have put a bullet in him just to make sure they were not stranded on the planet.

[PREDATOR490]

Actually the plot device that allows the Destiny to get home was demonstrated in the last episode of Atlantis: Wormhole drive
If the home team are serious about trying to get the Destiny back then they should be searching for power sources to allow Atlantis to jump to the Destiny OR Use the power sources to simply dial up the Destiny and send stuff through.
Either way I suspect this 'Get home quick card' will appear somewhere towards season 5 of SGU if it makes it that far.

These 'magic' stones also strike me as a rather intriguing way of getting guest stars from previous series into the mix. Want Daniel to appear, have him use the stone and 'take over' the person on the Destiny end while we see him doing his thing. Of course that brings up an issue about simply having the soldiers on the base volunteer to permanantly swap bodies with someone like Daniel, Carter etc. so they can have access to much better personnel for getting the Destiny back home.
I foresee writers fiat handwaving these stones A) Getting destroyed B) Being jammable or C) having limits on how much they can be used.

The slower looking FTL leaves me with the impression this is going to be akin to Voyager being stuck in the DQ slowboating its way back home with sidetrips along the way once they manage to turn the autopilot off. Something I expect to happen soon since they are going to have to overcome that 12 hour gimick and take actual control of the vessel eventually. Unless the series really intends to have some poor sucker standing at a gate with his arm in the vortex to keep the ship from leaving whenever they have someone trapped / lost or captured beyond that 12 hour window.

[Anarchist Bunny]

It's interesting that Greer did as Rush said with barely a pause, even though he hates the guy.

Remember that Scott and Rush had already discussed the matter and Scott had sent Rush and Greer back to stop them from using the gate. At that point Greer really has no other way of stopping the guy other than shooting him. He's not so much taking orders from Rush but agreeing with Rush that there is no other way to stop the guy except for shooting him. Whatever Greer's problems with Rush and whatever got him locked up in the stockade, so far we've seen him carry out his orders from his superiors as best as he is able.

The guy that got shot was about to walk through the gate with the only DHD on planet. EVen if Rush had not told him I expect that Greer would have put a bullet in him just to make sure they were not stranded on the planet.

I actually took that scene as kind a joke, since the last couple of minutes were Greer blatantly disobeying everything Rush said, but when it came to shooting some other dickhead he responded almost without hesitation.

[Themightytom]

I think its more like.

-Alterrans flee Ori galaxy, get to Milky Way after travelling for a while.
-Alterrans settle Earth and Dakara.
-Construct Gate Network in Milky Way and Ida (They're the same type).
-Destiny is launched as part of an expansion of the gate network towards the Universe. New gate design made.
-Atlantis fucks off the Pegasus, uses digital gates from 4 million years ago to present time.

If you look at the Destiny, you just get the idea that its definitely older than Atlantis. Plus, as i've said on SB.com, it seems to jive well with Ancient technology development for the Destiny to have just FTL instead of Hyperdrive due to the speed differences.

According to the Ark of Truth, Stargates weren't invented as of the time the Alterans blasted off from the ori homeworld.

On the other hand there are stargates in the ori galaxy so WTF...

[Ragnarok]

I think its more like.

-Alterrans flee Ori galaxy, get to Milky Way after travelling for a while.
-Alterrans settle Earth and Dakara.
-Construct Gate Network in Milky Way and Ida (They're the same type).
-Destiny is launched as part of an expansion of the gate network towards the Universe. New gate design made.
-Atlantis fucks off the Pegasus, uses digital gates from 4 million years ago to present time.

If you look at the Destiny, you just get the idea that its definitely older than Atlantis. Plus, as i've said on SB.com, it seems to jive well with Ancient technology development for the Destiny to have just FTL instead of Hyperdrive due to the speed differences.

According to the Ark of Truth, Stargates weren't invented as of the time the Alterans blasted off from the ori homeworld.

On the other hand there are stargates in the ori galaxy so WTF...

I had posted some speculative history based on what was on the show over at SB.com. It basically makes sense that for the Plague that ravaged the Ancients to have been around 4 million years ago, that the Ori must've had contact with the Ancients around that time. The Stargate Network had already been built and was probably being expanded with ships such as the Destiny before even that time (which was the height of their civilization), so it might be possible that the Ori took the design of the Gates they encountered, and went on from there. Its been proven that once you're sufficiently advanced, you can build Stargates yourself (Asgard, Nox, Tollan, ect). So that discrepancy can be rationalized.

[Gramzamber]

The Ori and Alterans came from a similar tech base anyway, the only difference was the Alterans used technology for their entire society while the Ori repressed it from the masses.
I don't see why both groups couldn't independantly invent stargates at some point, again the only difference being the Ori had no interest in seeding the galaxies with gates.

[Chris OFarrell]

I congratulate you on your manipulation of me, then.

Yes, it is my most fiendish plan since...sometime yesterday afternoon when I managed to swipe the M&Ms without anyone knowing...

I think that some distinction should be made between what a ZPM puts out when it goes bang, and a ZPM's total energy in normal use. Reasons: We see a number of depleated ZPMs in the series a number of times; almost everything but the shield itself on Atlantis was supposedly shut down, but it managed to deplete itself holding back the ocean. Where would it dump a supernova level of energy? 1e44 J over 3500 years is 1e44/(3500*365*24*60*60)=9e32W. Lantea would be destroyed. Every single second. For thousands of years. Leaks that caused loss of power as in Adrift would be radiating planet levelling energies.

Two points. Firstly, we don't know how badly depleted the three ZPMs were when the Ancients left Atlantis. I always thought they were, in terms of total ZPM energy, almost out, given that they abandoned the city, rather then just flying it out and into hyperspace.

And in Adrift, clearly the ZPMs were leaking energy, where exactly we don't know, but we were talking about significant fractions of ZPM energy were being lost. If it was being lost directly into realspace, then *even* if we're talking about say low KT or MT levels of energy transfered, we should see Atlantis with nuclear bomb levels of energy going off continually, so that doesn't hold water either.

I think the only way to reconcile their explosive power with their actual performance is to say the actual energy you draw to deplete a ZPM is less than it releases as it goes bang. Presumably when it's discharged normally it uses up the power in it. When it is blown up, perhaps it causes some chain reaction or tears a hole in space or some such?

Not impossible, but IMHO there is enough evidence to suggest that the ZPM has a power output capacity of considerably more then say the Atlantis Stardrive was designed to take.

In a couple of episodes, notably First Strike the inability to take off was addressed as a power issue, though some (much) of that is the shield.

Yes, but as I suggest, I think that there is a decent amount of evidence to suggest that the Ancients designed Atlantis to run on 3 ZPM's in parallel, and with only one, the systems like the Stardrive are just not designed to cope. And it doesn't help that the Asuran beam appeared to be designed to suck the power right out of the shield, indirectly to drain the ZPM itself. I mean without the beam, they had no problem landing on their new planet and flying through space with shields and stardrive, at least when they repaired their conduits.

As I suggested in the other thread, I think it may be that the Naquadriah core in this case would have been replicated on Asuras, as a power source creating their ZPMs, and breaching it with the 'blob' would actually be what caused the planet to explode. Your mileage may vary, but I'm quite fond of the hypothesis.

Works well enough, though you think Sam would have mentioned that fact instead of the 'Netronium' though
Would have been great if that HAD been the case and we could have deployed that Chain Reaction supernuke deal on Asuras...

I can see a good analogy for how they could have Atlantis and reach Destiny - you can have Washington DC, and not reach the International Space Station with its resources easily. The Icarus planet may have been the Ancients' equivalent of Kennedy Space Center. This would imply that perhaps there are more sites.

Um, IIRC the Icarus planet was one selected by the SGC and they established the base there to use the core for power, it was in no way inhabited by the Ancients or used by them as any kind of launch pad...

An interesting question is, how would the Ancients get back from the Destiny? When operational, did it have vast resources in order to dial back? That's not unreasonable, as a special project, but it would seem a bit odd. Did they perhaps plan to land on a naquadah rich planet and convert it to Naquadriah (did Thanatos run across their means for doing so and use it on Kewlona? I'm reluctant to say he did as he seems to be a sane goa'uld scientist from what we know, and they need to have some) in order to power a bridge back home? That could be why all stargates have nine-chevrons; any planet can potentially become an Icarus one; and they need the capacity to be upgraded.

Or, they just bring along a bag of ZPM's, plug them in to the engineering section with its 'insert new power module here' bit, and bang, they Gate home?

Obviously the ninth chevron goes other places. I assume that other ships like Destiny existed but were occupied and eventually decommissioned, and thus removed from the database on Atlantis. And that to get very far out (say, to that desert planet) would also be a nine-chevron address, but whatever archive held such addresses wasn't part of the main one.

It would have been an interesting possibility and subplot if when Atlantis came back to the MW, the correlative update program re-established its connection locally and THATS when it updated with the Destiny Address, something found by McKay a few weeks after the chaos of the UberHive, and that in turn lead to the whole 9 Chevron team...

[NecronLord]

There's no reason for the ZPMs to have been seriously depleated when the Ancients left Atlantis. Yes, the war was on but it can probably be assumed they had access to more given that Janus provided addresses for five others.

Now, all that said, I'll grant that the 'leak' in Adrift makes no sense. But as to the other bit there; descending from orbit is a net energy gain (they're going down) taking off is not. Therefore running the shields and thrusters would be the only worries there. Liftoff (especially under fire from dozens of hives) is another matter entirely.

Also, I'm thinking you might be correct in the limiting factor being how much the systems can take - recall McKay blowing up the Asuran city ship by 'overloading its ZPMs' - presumably using them to output more power than the city's systems could handle.

And as you rightly point out, I've been assuming that the ancients modified the stargate there and so on, while there's nothing to suggest that in the episode (though as far as we know, naquadriah does not occur in nature). Nonetheless, the same point stands; there's no reason long range travel to Destiny and things like it couldn't be done from some facility (on earth?) with more than three ZPMs or some other power source. If ZPMs were even invented at the time.

[Zac Naloen]

I'm struggling to comprehend how Naquadriah could possibly exist in nature, it's seems so easy to send into an explosive chain reaction, it could certainly never develop into the core of planet naturally what with all the collisions and the like that happen in the formation of a planet.

[White Haven]

What makes you think the Naquadriah core is natural? What's more probably, the Ancients finding a planet rigged to explore at the drop of a hat and saying 'Brilliant! Let's build a starport here!' or an Ancient research project coming up against the need for a stupendous amount of energy and tinkering up a power source somewhere.

[Zac Naloen]

What makes you think the Naquadriah core is natural? What's more probably, the Ancients finding a planet rigged to explore at the drop of a hat and saying 'Brilliant! Let's build a starport here!' or an Ancient research project coming up against the need for a stupendous amount of energy and tinkering up a power source somewhere.

Kind of what I was alluding to yeh.

[CaptJodan]

There's no reason for the ZPMs to have been seriously depleated when the Ancients left Atlantis.

Oh I think there's plenty of reason to think the ZPMs were less than at full capacity, possibly less than half. The city had been said to be under siege by the wraith for years. When they finally ran out of drones (for all intents and purposes, they left Atlantis with so few drones as to basically call it "out of drones") is anyone's guess, but the city was effectively defenseless, save for the shield, which was probably under considerable strain for a while.

Yes, the war was on but it can probably be assumed they had access to more given that Janus provided addresses for five others.

And the Ancients didn't likely have the resources to make those planets secure enough to raid them for their ZPMs. They couldn't even provide safe passage for transports of their people arriving at Atlantis. The Wraith at that time were likely everywhere, and those worlds may well have been overrun by Wraith. Plus, they simply saw no way to victory, so why risk lives to retrieve ZPMs when they knew it wouldn't do them any good in the long run?

[JME2]

What makes you think the Naquadriah core is natural? What's more probably, the Ancients finding a planet rigged to explore at the drop of a hat and saying 'Brilliant! Let's build a starport here!' or an Ancient research project coming up against the need for a stupendous amount of energy and tinkering up a power source somewhere.

Kind of what I was alluding to yeh.

That or somebody else had plans for the planet, somebody who either posed as, or manipulated the Lucian alliance into attacking Icarus base so as to prevent the Tau'ri from using the core.

[Ragnarok]

The Ori and Alterans came from a similar tech base anyway, the only difference was the Alterans used technology for their entire society while the Ori repressed it from the masses.
I don't see why both groups couldn't independantly invent stargates at some point, again the only difference being the Ori had no interest in seeding the galaxies with gates.

True, but the thing is that (IIRC) the Stargates looked similar in design. So... how probable is it that the same race, but seperated by tens of millions of years of development would develop the same type of technology and make it look the same? Its more probable that one (The Ori) simply just used the designs of gates already encountered, since we know that the Ancients were the original gate builders.

[Gramzamber]

The Ori and Alterans came from a similar tech base anyway, the only difference was the Alterans used technology for their entire society while the Ori repressed it from the masses.
I don't see why both groups couldn't independantly invent stargates at some point, again the only difference being the Ori had no interest in seeding the galaxies with gates.

True, but the thing is that (IIRC) the Stargates looked similar in design. So... how probable is it that the same race, but seperated by tens of millions of years of development would develop the same type of technology and make it look the same? Its more probable that one (The Ori) simply just used the designs of gates already encountered, since we know that the Ancients were the original gate builders.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe we've ever seen an Ori gate on screen, only the supergate which is only similar to Alteran gates in that it's a ring.
All normal gates have been Alteran designs seperated by different eras.

So I don't see why the Ori couldn't independantly come up with gates, as they did with transport rings and staff weapons.

[Revy]

The ZPM wasn't 'leaking' in Adrift. If I remember correctly, the power conduits were damaged. As the ZPM tried to pump power through them, power was lost due to the damage and only a tiny percentage reached its destination. In order to compensate, the ZPM tried to force more power down the lines to make up for the loss, which only increased the rate at which power was being drained. Leaky pipes was the description they used. The ZPM was undamaged. It was the system that forced the ZPM to pump out more power to compensate for the loss due to the damaged conduits, and even though that was bad, they couldn't override it as doing so would prevent *any* power from getting to the key systems, which would result in the shields and life support stopping.

Edit2 - That still doesn't explain why the energy leaking out of the conduits wasn't so much that it made big explosions. So where all that lost energy went, I have no idea.

Edit - As to the Ori developing Stargates, aren't you overlooking a fairly major point? The Ori were ascended. Surely this would have easily have allowed them access to knowledge of stargate design? It was my understanding that the Ori shunned science and technology, and were only able to give the super advanced stuff to their followers that they did through the fairly massive increase in scientific knowledge they gained through ascension, hence the Ori ships being able to outclass everything around until the Asgard made a whole new weapon system that could kick their ass.

[Gramzamber]

Edit - As to the Ori developing Stargates, aren't you overlooking a fairly major point? The Ori were ascended. Surely this would have easily have allowed them access to knowledge of stargate design? It was my understanding that the Ori shunned science and technology, and were only able to give the super advanced stuff to their followers that they did through the fairly massive increase in scientific knowledge they gained through ascension, hence the Ori ships being able to outclass everything around until the Asgard made a whole new weapon system that could kick their ass.

I don't believe that's the case, otherwise they would never have been a threat to the Alterans before they ascended.
The Ori don't shun technology, they simply withold it from the masses like the goa'uld.

[DarkAscendant]

I'm not surprised by the BSG influence. It was a popular, critically acclaimed show and it is going to influence the genre. An stronger emphasis on characterization and realistic instead of technobabble problem solving is good.

Four seasons is hardly a success story.