SGA Re-Watch Post No. 3
SGA Re-watch Masterlist
Episode Summary: Childhood's End
The SGA-1 team in their Jumper is on a reconnaissance mission to a new planet, one that not even Teyla's people have visited prior. Everything seems quite ordinary, until the ship's sensors pick up on an energy reading that McKay thinks is worth looking into.
Sheppard: You think it's worth checking out?
McKay: Any significant energy emission generally indicates technological civilization.
Sheppard: So, you think it's worth checking out.
McKay: I'm sorry. Yes. Energy field good.
As they come closer, however, Sheppard looses control of the Jumper, in fact all Atlantean equipment is affected, and they crash land on a forest clearing.
Thanks to Lt. Ford bringing along a compass, they find out that the mysterious energy field must be electromagnetic in nature and it is emanating from the planet's surface.
Ford: Check it out, sir. I think my compass has gone wonky.
McKay: You brought a magnetic compass to another planet in another galaxy? Heh. You have absolutely no way of knowing if this planet's magnetic field is- Wait a second. Let me see that.
McKay: Lt. Ford's compass is acting weird. It might be on to something.
Ford: I'm glad I brought it along.
McKay: How prescient of you.
On the way back on foot to the Stargate they came from, they come across the ruins of a city and McKay thinks that the source of the field must be close by, so they decide that it's worth a look.
As they come closer, they are suddenly surrounded by a group of children and teenagers wielding bows and arrows, who are pretty disbelieving to find so many “full-growns” trespassing near their village.
The leader of the group decides that they must meet the village's elders; brought there Sheppard's team is surprised to find the remnants a downed Wraith Dart set up like a shrine in the towns square, together with the skeleton of the former pilot. They are told it just dropped from the sky - like their Jumper did. So it seems the electromagnetic field is what has kept the planet save from the culling.
Keras: And you're all... older than 24?
Sheppard: Ford, how old are you?
Ford: 25, sir.
Sheppard: Hm, I guess so.
Facing the 'elder' Keras, who is only 24 years old, though, is far more of a shock.
He tells Sheppard and the others that, 500 years ago, their people were culled like all the others. In order to stop them from doing so, they decided to form a suicide pact: No one is allowed to be older than 24 years, to keep the crop so low in numbers that the Wraith won't bother to come pick them. Keras himself will turn 25 tomorrow, so tonight he has to commit suicide.
Ford: Never in my life have I ever felt so... old.
Sheppard: This is without a doubt the most screwed-up way of life I can imagine.
McKay: Hmm.
Teyla: They seem to accept it.
Sheppard: They're kids. What the hell do they know?
Ford: They can't be right, can they? Would the Wraith just ignore them... because they're young? I mean, I don't eat veal. It can't be the same thing, can it?
McKay: Of course it's not the same. Veal is delicious.
While Keras is friendly and helpful and allows the team to stay until their ship is fixed, the other 'elders' think that the 'full-growns' will make the Wraith return.
Sheppard asks Keras to allow McKay and Lt. Ford to investigate the power force, which they are allowed to, but only under the watchful eyes of two civilians: the children Cleo and Casta, who lead them to the ruins, while the others stay in the village.
McKay: Hey, hey, coming through. Thank you.
Cleo: What's that?
McKay: It's a compass.
Cleo: What's that?
McKay: Used for determining direction on Earth. I'm using it to-
Casta: Where's Earth?
McKay: Listen, Cleo-
Casta: Casta.
McKay: Whatever. Aren't you supposed to be observing? You understand what that means, observing?
Casta: Observing?
McKay: It means you're supposed to watch. You're supposed to stay out of my way and watch.
Casta: Why?
McKay: Because.
Cleo: Because why?
McKay: Because I say so.
Cleo: Why?
McKay: Because I can't get any work done with you two buzzing around asking stupid questions in your stupid little voices. Now sit down and shut up!
(Cleo begins to cry.)
McKay: Oh, don't. Don- don't.
Casta (hitting McKay in the stomach repeatedly): You're mean!
McKay: Ow. Ow. Thank you for finally noticing. (Starts to fight Casta back.) Okay. You wanna go? You wanna go, huh? I'll take-
Ford: Okay, okay. You got a real gift with kids. You do birthday parties?
Ford: It's okay. It's okay. He's just upset because you're smarter than him. You guys know what chocolate is? (Casta and Cleo shake their heads no.) No? This is going to be huge! Okay, come over here. We're going to go over here, and we'll leave the old, mean man alone.
McKay discovers the ZPM powered device. He turns it off and takes the ZPM back to Atlantis, despite the fact that the children will be defenseless, thinking that a few hours won't do any harm. Sadly, they are wrong, because the homing device on the Wraith pilots corpse starts transmitting as soon as the field is off line.
Keras, in the meantime, has started a ritual to prepare himself for honoring the suicide pact, asking Sheppard to be there, as his witness.
Seeing the ominous blinking and recognizing it from previous encounters with the Wraith, Sheppard rushes over and destroys it, which leads to Aries, another 'elder' wanting to punish him, but Keras promises he will escort them to the Stargate himself.
Back in Atlantis Dr. Weir suggests that the suicide pact and the field might be connected. First dismissing this, McKay soon comes to realize that it's true, it was meant to be a method of population control, since the energy field could not cover the whole planet, and the ZPM would deplete over time. - As a matter of fact, it is at such a low level that it is useless to Atlantis, so McKay and Ford leave to return it.
Weir: Rodney, we can't just visit planets, take away their defenses, uproot their cultures, and bring them all back here to Atlantis.
McKay: If they have a ZPM, yes, we can.
Weir: Oh, my God, how morally superior you must feel.
McKay: Elizabeth, they live in trees. Atlantis would be a big step up for them.
Weir: So the suicide pact is-
McKay: Population control.
Weir: Wow. That's a little severe.
McKay: A little?
Sadly, McKay has to learn the hard way that it is sometimes easier to turn a device off than on. While he tries, the rest of the team with Keras arrive, and they tell him the truth about the shield that protects them from the Wraith.
Aries shows up with the other hunters. Sheppard lies that McKay is waiting at the Jumper to buy him time to fix the device, so they leave, while Rodney hides in the ruins and resumes his work.
A Wraith probe appears, to check the signal out they received. Aries is convinced that it is all the 'full-growns' fault for leading it here. The situation gets worse, it comes to a standoff, with Sheppard's team facing off against the hunters, with Keras caught in the middle trying to placate.
Keras is shot, but then McKay activates the device with hunter witnesses nearby, that see how the Wraith probe falls down, inert. They rush over in time to stop a bloodbath by telling Aries that the device works and that Sheppard told them the truth.
Some time later, McKay has successfully managed to increase the ZPM's power output and the range the shield protects, allowing the planets society to grow, and thus ending the suicide pacts.
Sheppard: In fact, Ford would be happy to come back and explain how to be a 25-year-old.
Keras, for the first time, gets a birthday present, a bag full of chocolate that he shares with the younger children.
Me no meta, me just ranting
1) This episode is chilling, because it really drives home the point how people in the Pegasus galaxy suffer under the Wraith, considering that this whole planet has decided to form a suicide pact - that lasted over 500 years so far, no less! - to keep their population small and thus uninteresting for the Wraith. It is not explored in depth, sadly, this horror of young adults killing themselves to enter their “eternal rest” afterlife peacefully and for the survival of the many, but it really moved me. - On a lesser level, it's quite the adult fear, a bunch of children/teenagers living all alone in the forest Robin Hood style...
2) I really like Keras. How composed he faces his fate, his willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good, even though he obviously wants to live and forms a quick instant-friendship with Sheppard, who makes no secret of what he thinks of this kind of lifestyle... Though I'm always wondering: why exactly does Keras take to John so quickly? Aside from the really young kids like Casta, all the others are keen on keeping their distance...
3) The groups reaction when faced with kids are pretty telling - the combo “Rodney-Casta-Cleo” is comedy gold, while Sheppard and Ford both have no problems. Only Teyla has no real interaction with the younger kids, which I find weird - are we to assume that it is implied that women are good with kids or what?
4) “It'd have to be really necessary.” - Oh John, you fool, we all know that you would sacrifice yourself in a heartbeat without looking back for everyone on Atlantis, your team and anyone else you take a shine to or who is necessary to carry out a mission. Though I really don't think he's suicidal because of that; to me it's the mark of a great leader.
5) The most heartwarming moment is Keras getting the first birthday present of his life - and he shares it with the younger kids. It works especially well because only moments before that, we have seen another standoff between the bow and arrow carrying teenagers and Sheppard's team with their P-90's; I'm so glad that it didn't come to Ford having actually to shoot!
Episode Summary: Childhood's End
The SGA-1 team in their Jumper is on a reconnaissance mission to a new planet, one that not even Teyla's people have visited prior. Everything seems quite ordinary, until the ship's sensors pick up on an energy reading that McKay thinks is worth looking into.
Sheppard: You think it's worth checking out?
McKay: Any significant energy emission generally indicates technological civilization.
Sheppard: So, you think it's worth checking out.
McKay: I'm sorry. Yes. Energy field good.
As they come closer, however, Sheppard looses control of the Jumper, in fact all Atlantean equipment is affected, and they crash land on a forest clearing.
Thanks to Lt. Ford bringing along a compass, they find out that the mysterious energy field must be electromagnetic in nature and it is emanating from the planet's surface.
Ford: Check it out, sir. I think my compass has gone wonky.
McKay: You brought a magnetic compass to another planet in another galaxy? Heh. You have absolutely no way of knowing if this planet's magnetic field is- Wait a second. Let me see that.
McKay: Lt. Ford's compass is acting weird. It might be on to something.
Ford: I'm glad I brought it along.
McKay: How prescient of you.
On the way back on foot to the Stargate they came from, they come across the ruins of a city and McKay thinks that the source of the field must be close by, so they decide that it's worth a look.
As they come closer, they are suddenly surrounded by a group of children and teenagers wielding bows and arrows, who are pretty disbelieving to find so many “full-growns” trespassing near their village.
The leader of the group decides that they must meet the village's elders; brought there Sheppard's team is surprised to find the remnants a downed Wraith Dart set up like a shrine in the towns square, together with the skeleton of the former pilot. They are told it just dropped from the sky - like their Jumper did. So it seems the electromagnetic field is what has kept the planet save from the culling.
Keras: And you're all... older than 24?
Sheppard: Ford, how old are you?
Ford: 25, sir.
Sheppard: Hm, I guess so.
Facing the 'elder' Keras, who is only 24 years old, though, is far more of a shock.
He tells Sheppard and the others that, 500 years ago, their people were culled like all the others. In order to stop them from doing so, they decided to form a suicide pact: No one is allowed to be older than 24 years, to keep the crop so low in numbers that the Wraith won't bother to come pick them. Keras himself will turn 25 tomorrow, so tonight he has to commit suicide.
Ford: Never in my life have I ever felt so... old.
Sheppard: This is without a doubt the most screwed-up way of life I can imagine.
McKay: Hmm.
Teyla: They seem to accept it.
Sheppard: They're kids. What the hell do they know?
Ford: They can't be right, can they? Would the Wraith just ignore them... because they're young? I mean, I don't eat veal. It can't be the same thing, can it?
McKay: Of course it's not the same. Veal is delicious.
While Keras is friendly and helpful and allows the team to stay until their ship is fixed, the other 'elders' think that the 'full-growns' will make the Wraith return.
Sheppard asks Keras to allow McKay and Lt. Ford to investigate the power force, which they are allowed to, but only under the watchful eyes of two civilians: the children Cleo and Casta, who lead them to the ruins, while the others stay in the village.
McKay: Hey, hey, coming through. Thank you.
Cleo: What's that?
McKay: It's a compass.
Cleo: What's that?
McKay: Used for determining direction on Earth. I'm using it to-
Casta: Where's Earth?
McKay: Listen, Cleo-
Casta: Casta.
McKay: Whatever. Aren't you supposed to be observing? You understand what that means, observing?
Casta: Observing?
McKay: It means you're supposed to watch. You're supposed to stay out of my way and watch.
Casta: Why?
McKay: Because.
Cleo: Because why?
McKay: Because I say so.
Cleo: Why?
McKay: Because I can't get any work done with you two buzzing around asking stupid questions in your stupid little voices. Now sit down and shut up!
(Cleo begins to cry.)
McKay: Oh, don't. Don- don't.
Casta (hitting McKay in the stomach repeatedly): You're mean!
McKay: Ow. Ow. Thank you for finally noticing. (Starts to fight Casta back.) Okay. You wanna go? You wanna go, huh? I'll take-
Ford: Okay, okay. You got a real gift with kids. You do birthday parties?
Ford: It's okay. It's okay. He's just upset because you're smarter than him. You guys know what chocolate is? (Casta and Cleo shake their heads no.) No? This is going to be huge! Okay, come over here. We're going to go over here, and we'll leave the old, mean man alone.
McKay discovers the ZPM powered device. He turns it off and takes the ZPM back to Atlantis, despite the fact that the children will be defenseless, thinking that a few hours won't do any harm. Sadly, they are wrong, because the homing device on the Wraith pilots corpse starts transmitting as soon as the field is off line.
Keras, in the meantime, has started a ritual to prepare himself for honoring the suicide pact, asking Sheppard to be there, as his witness.
Seeing the ominous blinking and recognizing it from previous encounters with the Wraith, Sheppard rushes over and destroys it, which leads to Aries, another 'elder' wanting to punish him, but Keras promises he will escort them to the Stargate himself.
Back in Atlantis Dr. Weir suggests that the suicide pact and the field might be connected. First dismissing this, McKay soon comes to realize that it's true, it was meant to be a method of population control, since the energy field could not cover the whole planet, and the ZPM would deplete over time. - As a matter of fact, it is at such a low level that it is useless to Atlantis, so McKay and Ford leave to return it.
Weir: Rodney, we can't just visit planets, take away their defenses, uproot their cultures, and bring them all back here to Atlantis.
McKay: If they have a ZPM, yes, we can.
Weir: Oh, my God, how morally superior you must feel.
McKay: Elizabeth, they live in trees. Atlantis would be a big step up for them.
Weir: So the suicide pact is-
McKay: Population control.
Weir: Wow. That's a little severe.
McKay: A little?
Sadly, McKay has to learn the hard way that it is sometimes easier to turn a device off than on. While he tries, the rest of the team with Keras arrive, and they tell him the truth about the shield that protects them from the Wraith.
Aries shows up with the other hunters. Sheppard lies that McKay is waiting at the Jumper to buy him time to fix the device, so they leave, while Rodney hides in the ruins and resumes his work.
A Wraith probe appears, to check the signal out they received. Aries is convinced that it is all the 'full-growns' fault for leading it here. The situation gets worse, it comes to a standoff, with Sheppard's team facing off against the hunters, with Keras caught in the middle trying to placate.
Keras is shot, but then McKay activates the device with hunter witnesses nearby, that see how the Wraith probe falls down, inert. They rush over in time to stop a bloodbath by telling Aries that the device works and that Sheppard told them the truth.
Some time later, McKay has successfully managed to increase the ZPM's power output and the range the shield protects, allowing the planets society to grow, and thus ending the suicide pacts.
Sheppard: In fact, Ford would be happy to come back and explain how to be a 25-year-old.
Keras, for the first time, gets a birthday present, a bag full of chocolate that he shares with the younger children.
Me no meta, me just ranting
1) This episode is chilling, because it really drives home the point how people in the Pegasus galaxy suffer under the Wraith, considering that this whole planet has decided to form a suicide pact - that lasted over 500 years so far, no less! - to keep their population small and thus uninteresting for the Wraith. It is not explored in depth, sadly, this horror of young adults killing themselves to enter their “eternal rest” afterlife peacefully and for the survival of the many, but it really moved me. - On a lesser level, it's quite the adult fear, a bunch of children/teenagers living all alone in the forest Robin Hood style...
2) I really like Keras. How composed he faces his fate, his willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good, even though he obviously wants to live and forms a quick instant-friendship with Sheppard, who makes no secret of what he thinks of this kind of lifestyle... Though I'm always wondering: why exactly does Keras take to John so quickly? Aside from the really young kids like Casta, all the others are keen on keeping their distance...
3) The groups reaction when faced with kids are pretty telling - the combo “Rodney-Casta-Cleo” is comedy gold, while Sheppard and Ford both have no problems. Only Teyla has no real interaction with the younger kids, which I find weird - are we to assume that it is implied that women are good with kids or what?
4) “It'd have to be really necessary.” - Oh John, you fool, we all know that you would sacrifice yourself in a heartbeat without looking back for everyone on Atlantis, your team and anyone else you take a shine to or who is necessary to carry out a mission. Though I really don't think he's suicidal because of that; to me it's the mark of a great leader.
5) The most heartwarming moment is Keras getting the first birthday present of his life - and he shares it with the younger kids. It works especially well because only moments before that, we have seen another standoff between the bow and arrow carrying teenagers and Sheppard's team with their P-90's; I'm so glad that it didn't come to Ford having actually to shoot!