The Weekly Geekly Lives! - Adrift
Between real life, pixilated life, and some really annoying fandom harpies, I haven't messed with the Weekly Geeklies for a while. But since the season 4 premiere was so groovy, I figured I'd shirk my responsibilities, unplug from WoW and say "frell the screeching fandom harpies" for just a little while. So here's "Adrift".
Previously on Stargate: Atlantis…
Some of the best writing ever done for Weir.
Things are completely screwed, but don't worry, Chuck's on it!
So, still screwed.
"This can't be right. We're losing massive amounts of power." The Ancients should have invested in solar or something, because their stuff, it's always losing power. They didn't lose the war because there were too many Wraith, they lost because they couldn't fire drones at the same time someone was running a blender.
Meanwhile, back at the infirmary, Ronon is being manly…
"Yeah, I get it, you're a tough guy. If you want to pull it out, go ahead." Must be a new guy.
Dr. Kaylee Keller seems like a decent character so far, but it's hard to get around the fact that she looks about fifteen and sounds like she's working at a gas station in Wisconsin instead of as head of the medical department. I gotta tell ya, that fuel pump won't be in 'til Tuesday!
Some more great writing for Weir.
Yep, we're screwed.
The parallel stories of the city being in trouble and Weir being in trouble is in theory a nifty idea. It switches back and forth far too often, though, and like the scenes with Carter and Lee, it slows things down. Yes, they need the setup, but they really didn't need to flip back and forth half a dozen times before the starting credits. Speaking of which…
Wow, that was fast. Torri Higginson is already a guest star and Amanda Tapping is second in the credits. I'm sure it's a) in her contract and b) an attempt to get Sg-1 fans to watch Atlantis, but it's still kind of tacky. Don't get me wrong, I like her. On Sg-1. Giving her other actors' salaries space and placing her in the credits before folks who have been on the show longer and who please for the love of all that's holy are likely to have more screen time…Well, let's just hope they write better for her than they did for Weir.
John reminds Rodney that while Mom's incapacitated, he's in charge and Rodney might, you know, want to tell him stuff.
"I’ll give you the Cole’s Notes."
"The what?"
"Uh, the Cliff Notes?"
"Why didn’t you just say that?"
Those kooky Canadians with their different names for stuff.
And then - Rodney launches into the Technical Explanation of the Week….
"Imagine them as leaky pipes, okay?"
"Okay."
"So, you pump water through them, they leak."
"Dumb this down any more and you’re gonna get hit."
He explains that the city is cranking up the ZPM to make sure enough power gets past the leaky spots in the power conduits. So not only can't you run your blender and fire drones at the same time, there are no backup generators on the super advanced flying city of Atlantis.
Everyone watches the totally not-phallic-looking display as the city makes the shield smaller to save power and folks get caught on the wrong side of it. No blenders, no backups, and hey! no warning when the place is going to shut your ass out in the cold. Go Ancients!
Just because they're hot.
Meanwhile, at the Midway model Station…
…we receive a reminder that Sam Carter is going to be on this show as she enters boobs name-tag first into her first scene.
Poor Dr. Lee. He'd rather be playing WoW.
Hey, we lost an entire city. In space.
Oh, kthxbai.
In an almost totally pointless moment, a medtech explains to the audience Ronon what's wrong with Weir and what they might have to do to fix it. Almost totally pointless, because Jason is wearing that tiny little shirt.
Rodney proposes that to save power, they collapse the shield to just around the tower. Thus creating - The Giant Glowing Space Dildo!
And we're back to Weir. We get it. Not doing well. One more of these bits and I'm going to have brain damage.
More fine writing for…aw screw it.
In about an hour, we will be here.
Dr. Keller explains to John that Weir isn't doing well, in case all the tubes and wires and brain surgery hadn't clued him in. And seriously…"Her head got knocked around pretty good"? That's the kind of professional demeanor that'll give folks confidence. How come she doesn't get hit for dumbing it down? Yeesh.
Oh crap. I'm gonna be stuck in charge forever. Good thing forever's only going to be about 24 hours or so.
Because lost in space and losing power isn't bad enough, we're going to hit an asteroid belt in ten minutes! Thanks for pointing that out at the last minute, Not Chuck!
The big plan: Get everyone with an ATA gene to fly a jumper, in formation, through an asteroid belt and shoot enough stuff to clear a path. Where's Lorne when we need him? Oh yeah, on The 4400. I love that John has a special Speaking Calmly So as Not to Alarm the Civlians voice. If you notice he generally has a completely different tone when he's talking to the marines and airmen than when he's talking to scientists.
"It's like the old video game, asteroids."
"Whatever works for you."
"I was terrible at asteroids. I actually scored zero once."
Oh Rodney.
Geeeeeeeeks innnnnn spaaaaaace!
Flying in an almost-straight line.
Of course they miss a few. And of course those hit something to do with the hyper drive.
Larry, Moe and Curly discuss how to fix it.
Whoo! Spacewalk!
Does this suit make my ass look big?
Oh, hey, there you are, Dr. McKay, I’ve been trying to reach you so I could interrupt your efforts to save the city to pose a solution to Elizabeth's problem that will endanger us all.
The reason I wasn't all that fond of Carson is that he was a scientific lunatic with severely flexible ethics who didn't think through to the consequences part of his pet projects. Just a couple weeks on the job and we've already got Miss Hey Let's Do Some Shit That Will Get Us All Screwed Just to Save One Person. I know it's all to get Weir out of the way so Carter can move into her office set-up for the next episode, but hopefully it won't be a trend.
Weve got this idea...
No.
. o O (Neener neener, gonna do it anyway.)
Zelenka agrees that turning on Elizabeth's nanites is a bad idea. This is why I love him.
Meanwhile, back at Midway…
Ms. Been There Done That Smarter Than You rolls her eyes at Dr. Lee's suggestions and reminds me why I'm not excited about her addition to the cast.
"The damage in this area seems to be quite minimal."
Well, you know, except for that.
Sheppard does some dwarf-tossing and gets them both across the gap.
Radek Zelenka, Danger Geek.
Rodney and Keller continue to discuss their Very Bad Idea.
Ever the Anti-Rodney brave little toaster, Zelenka gets hit with a micro-asteroid and continues working. Without whining. Go Radek.
Ronon gets all mushy and thanks Weir for letting him stay. Yay for letting Jason act. (And thanks to the wardrobe dept for that shirt. Seriously. Love you guys.)
Hey, remember that plot device really bad idea we had? We need to do that now.
Even when I have a really stupid idea, I still get to be right! I love being me!
Yay, we fixed it!
Crap it doesn't matter.
I see hot people.
Busted. Uh, yeah, remember that thing you explicitly told us not to do…?
I liked a lot of things about this scene. The argument was awesome. McKay was uncertain and he even flinches as he says he's sure it's going to work. And John being all in-chargey (I know it's not a word, shut up) is way groovy. And let's face it, he hot when he's angry. If you think John's being an asshole about the whole thing, just think back to when Rodney said "trust me I can do this" and then blew up 5/6ths of a solar system.
You can't see it well in the stills, but I love that the first thing John does when he walks into the room with Weir is draw his gun. Everyone else may have lost their minds, but at least he's still got his shit together.
I'm not just the president of the Nanite Hair Club, I'm a member.
For what it's worth (if you're keeping score at home, that's "nothing"), Rodney apologizes. Angrily. I really wanted John to punch him right in the damn face a couple of times this episode. This would be one of those times.
Even Weir thinks it was a bad idea, but Teyla, in one of those squishy-touchy-feely moments that reminds me how much the show needs a female writer on staff, says "it was worth the risk". And somewhere the Athosian people breathe a sigh of relief that she's no longer in charge.
Hey, remember that plot device experimental jumper that the audience may or may not remember being mentioned ever that I was working on when I was super-smart?
Uhhhh…
Since I'm all about bad ideas today, let's take it and rip off some ZPMs from the Replicator homeworld!
Random note: This is the first episode in which Rodney refers to Sheppard as "John". Blink and you'll miss it (which is a dumb thing to say considering it's heard and not seen but shut up, you know what I mean) because they just kind of threw it in there.
10pm tonight on Sci-Fi and next week in the Weekly Geekly - "Lifeline". Be there or be octagonal.
Screencaps courtesy of tehshroom.
Previously on Stargate: Atlantis…
Some of the best writing ever done for Weir.
Things are completely screwed, but don't worry, Chuck's on it!
So, still screwed.
"This can't be right. We're losing massive amounts of power." The Ancients should have invested in solar or something, because their stuff, it's always losing power. They didn't lose the war because there were too many Wraith, they lost because they couldn't fire drones at the same time someone was running a blender.
Meanwhile, back at the infirmary, Ronon is being manly…
"Yeah, I get it, you're a tough guy. If you want to pull it out, go ahead." Must be a new guy.
Dr. Kaylee Keller seems like a decent character so far, but it's hard to get around the fact that she looks about fifteen and sounds like she's working at a gas station in Wisconsin instead of as head of the medical department. I gotta tell ya, that fuel pump won't be in 'til Tuesday!
Some more great writing for Weir.
Yep, we're screwed.
The parallel stories of the city being in trouble and Weir being in trouble is in theory a nifty idea. It switches back and forth far too often, though, and like the scenes with Carter and Lee, it slows things down. Yes, they need the setup, but they really didn't need to flip back and forth half a dozen times before the starting credits. Speaking of which…
Wow, that was fast. Torri Higginson is already a guest star and Amanda Tapping is second in the credits. I'm sure it's a) in her contract and b) an attempt to get Sg-1 fans to watch Atlantis, but it's still kind of tacky. Don't get me wrong, I like her. On Sg-1. Giving her other actors' salaries space and placing her in the credits before folks who have been on the show longer and who please for the love of all that's holy are likely to have more screen time…Well, let's just hope they write better for her than they did for Weir.
John reminds Rodney that while Mom's incapacitated, he's in charge and Rodney might, you know, want to tell him stuff.
"I’ll give you the Cole’s Notes."
"The what?"
"Uh, the Cliff Notes?"
"Why didn’t you just say that?"
Those kooky Canadians with their different names for stuff.
And then - Rodney launches into the Technical Explanation of the Week….
"Imagine them as leaky pipes, okay?"
"Okay."
"So, you pump water through them, they leak."
"Dumb this down any more and you’re gonna get hit."
He explains that the city is cranking up the ZPM to make sure enough power gets past the leaky spots in the power conduits. So not only can't you run your blender and fire drones at the same time, there are no backup generators on the super advanced flying city of Atlantis.
Everyone watches the totally not-phallic-looking display as the city makes the shield smaller to save power and folks get caught on the wrong side of it. No blenders, no backups, and hey! no warning when the place is going to shut your ass out in the cold. Go Ancients!
Just because they're hot.
Meanwhile, at the Midway model Station…
…we receive a reminder that Sam Carter is going to be on this show as she enters boobs name-tag first into her first scene.
Poor Dr. Lee. He'd rather be playing WoW.
Hey, we lost an entire city. In space.
Oh, kthxbai.
In an almost totally pointless moment, a medtech explains to the audience Ronon what's wrong with Weir and what they might have to do to fix it. Almost totally pointless, because Jason is wearing that tiny little shirt.
Rodney proposes that to save power, they collapse the shield to just around the tower. Thus creating - The Giant Glowing Space Dildo!
And we're back to Weir. We get it. Not doing well. One more of these bits and I'm going to have brain damage.
More fine writing for…aw screw it.
In about an hour, we will be here.
Dr. Keller explains to John that Weir isn't doing well, in case all the tubes and wires and brain surgery hadn't clued him in. And seriously…"Her head got knocked around pretty good"? That's the kind of professional demeanor that'll give folks confidence. How come she doesn't get hit for dumbing it down? Yeesh.
Oh crap. I'm gonna be stuck in charge forever. Good thing forever's only going to be about 24 hours or so.
Because lost in space and losing power isn't bad enough, we're going to hit an asteroid belt in ten minutes! Thanks for pointing that out at the last minute, Not Chuck!
The big plan: Get everyone with an ATA gene to fly a jumper, in formation, through an asteroid belt and shoot enough stuff to clear a path. Where's Lorne when we need him? Oh yeah, on The 4400. I love that John has a special Speaking Calmly So as Not to Alarm the Civlians voice. If you notice he generally has a completely different tone when he's talking to the marines and airmen than when he's talking to scientists.
"It's like the old video game, asteroids."
"Whatever works for you."
"I was terrible at asteroids. I actually scored zero once."
Oh Rodney.
Geeeeeeeeks innnnnn spaaaaaace!
Flying in an almost-straight line.
Of course they miss a few. And of course those hit something to do with the hyper drive.
Larry, Moe and Curly discuss how to fix it.
Whoo! Spacewalk!
Does this suit make my ass look big?
Oh, hey, there you are, Dr. McKay, I’ve been trying to reach you so I could interrupt your efforts to save the city to pose a solution to Elizabeth's problem that will endanger us all.
The reason I wasn't all that fond of Carson is that he was a scientific lunatic with severely flexible ethics who didn't think through to the consequences part of his pet projects. Just a couple weeks on the job and we've already got Miss Hey Let's Do Some Shit That Will Get Us All Screwed Just to Save One Person. I know it's all to get Weir out of the way so Carter can move into her office set-up for the next episode, but hopefully it won't be a trend.
Weve got this idea...
No.
. o O (Neener neener, gonna do it anyway.)
Zelenka agrees that turning on Elizabeth's nanites is a bad idea. This is why I love him.
Meanwhile, back at Midway…
Ms. Been There Done That Smarter Than You rolls her eyes at Dr. Lee's suggestions and reminds me why I'm not excited about her addition to the cast.
"The damage in this area seems to be quite minimal."
Well, you know, except for that.
Sheppard does some dwarf-tossing and gets them both across the gap.
Radek Zelenka, Danger Geek.
Rodney and Keller continue to discuss their Very Bad Idea.
Ever the Anti-Rodney brave little toaster, Zelenka gets hit with a micro-asteroid and continues working. Without whining. Go Radek.
Ronon gets all mushy and thanks Weir for letting him stay. Yay for letting Jason act. (And thanks to the wardrobe dept for that shirt. Seriously. Love you guys.)
Hey, remember that plot device really bad idea we had? We need to do that now.
Even when I have a really stupid idea, I still get to be right! I love being me!
Yay, we fixed it!
Crap it doesn't matter.
I see hot people.
Busted. Uh, yeah, remember that thing you explicitly told us not to do…?
I liked a lot of things about this scene. The argument was awesome. McKay was uncertain and he even flinches as he says he's sure it's going to work. And John being all in-chargey (I know it's not a word, shut up) is way groovy. And let's face it, he hot when he's angry. If you think John's being an asshole about the whole thing, just think back to when Rodney said "trust me I can do this" and then blew up 5/6ths of a solar system.
You can't see it well in the stills, but I love that the first thing John does when he walks into the room with Weir is draw his gun. Everyone else may have lost their minds, but at least he's still got his shit together.
I'm not just the president of the Nanite Hair Club, I'm a member.
For what it's worth (if you're keeping score at home, that's "nothing"), Rodney apologizes. Angrily. I really wanted John to punch him right in the damn face a couple of times this episode. This would be one of those times.
Even Weir thinks it was a bad idea, but Teyla, in one of those squishy-touchy-feely moments that reminds me how much the show needs a female writer on staff, says "it was worth the risk". And somewhere the Athosian people breathe a sigh of relief that she's no longer in charge.
Hey, remember that plot device experimental jumper that the audience may or may not remember being mentioned ever that I was working on when I was super-smart?
Uhhhh…
Since I'm all about bad ideas today, let's take it and rip off some ZPMs from the Replicator homeworld!
Random note: This is the first episode in which Rodney refers to Sheppard as "John". Blink and you'll miss it (which is a dumb thing to say considering it's heard and not seen but shut up, you know what I mean) because they just kind of threw it in there.
10pm tonight on Sci-Fi and next week in the Weekly Geekly - "Lifeline". Be there or be octagonal.
Screencaps courtesy of tehshroom.