i can't get enough of this local color!
when it came to writing up my reactions to my most recent viewing of SGA season one, i started ranting again about everyone in the pegasus galaxy being JERKS, because i get so worked up during "underground" and "the storm/the eye." PEOPLE IN THE PEGASUS GALAXY ARE JERKS, i wrote in all-caps in my notes. (i took notes! of course i took notes. jules
( Read more... )
"aha!" i thought. "what a great idea! why don't the pegasus humans do that? they're pretty desperate already." and then i remembered that the wraith don't actually use the stargates to descend upon the planets they're culling, they drive their big-ass hive ships through hyperspace and drop from the sky. as seen in "letters from pegasus" they then dial out from the planet's stargate to keep anyone from escaping.
Besides trial-and-error and knowledge passed down through the generations, all I could picture was a trained dog/bird/whatever that would go through the stargate and come back before the wormhole closed. It's that or a boomerang device of some sort...
the MALP was really the logical action on the part of the SGC, a non-human first-toe-in-the-pond. but even animals and boomerangs wouldn't work: wormholes only go one way; you can't go through and then back without waiting for the gate to close and then dialing again.
thanks for the links! honestly, i should do some homework, though their science makes me cringe and the idea of humans being further along the evolutionary path to ancienthood makes me laugh, or possibly cry, or even both at the same time.
Reply
Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. ^^;;
Would explain why-assuming the Wraith are responsible for it in the first place-not every Pegasus stargate is in orbit. I'm thinking maybe certain worlds have spacegates for security reasons. From "Rising," it seems the Wraith land the hive ships on a planet before going into hibernation; perhaps before they do this, they drag that planet's stargate into space to prevent hapless humans from stumbling across hive ships protected by only a Keeper and her guards. Then the spacegate planets we've seen thus far were host to a hibernating hive at some point during the 10,000 years after the Ancients left.
even animals and boomerangs wouldn't work: wormholes only go one way; you can't go through and then back without waiting for the gate to close and then dialing again.
Damn! If a civilization isn't capable of building a MALP equivalent that leaves sending people through with orders to turn around and dial back. The risk of explosive decompression probably discourages exploration, huh?
the idea of humans being further along the evolutionary path to ancienthood makes me laugh, or possibly cry, or even both at the same time.
Personally, I don't feel one or another about this. The science is always going to be bad, so I just accept it, try my best to retcon it away, and move on. It's what I do. ;)
Reply
but that wouldn't totally explain it. i've been trying to think up ways and reasons for the ancients to have established gates in space originally, rather than the wraith removing them there (because i'm contrary like that), and i suppose this might be a reason against the wraith theory&#namely that if the wraith simply took moved *all* the stargates into space, it would effectively isolate every planet without spaceships (which would be ALL THE PLANETS), allow the hive ships to hibernate undisturbed, and leave this awesome means of interplanetary travel for the wraith alone to exploit. so why would they have moved some gates but not all of them?
The risk of explosive decompression probably discourages exploration, huh?
EXACTLY. exactly. which makes me either admire the athosians greatly, or wonder why they have intel other planets don't.
Reply
so why would [the Wraith] have moved some gates but not all of them?
Up-thread, you wrote:
i also think it would take a much more delicate and time-consuming operation to uproot the gate, unharmed, and set it in orbit still functioning...
Assuming this is the case, one possible explanation is that the Wraith are too busy feeding, warring amongst themselves, and hibernating to bother turning every stargate on every planet in the galaxy into a spacegate when chances are most Pegasus civilizations will suffer a major culling before attaining space travel anyways. The spacegates serve only as an added security measure for hibernating Wraith hives. This is perhaps optional, too, because I don't remember the stargate on the planet with the hive in "Underground" being in space-though I suppose that particular hive might not have been hibernating as Sheppard's team and the Genii thought but making a quick stop to feed. Or something. Was the thing covered in vegetation like the one in "Rising"?
Now that I think about it, the Wraith probably don't want the humans to get too isolated. Space travel or any other challenge to Wraith power would be a big no-no, but other technological advancements and cultural exchange would allow humans to proliferate throughout Pegasus, living longer and healthier lives. The Wraith would love that, of course.
On a somewhat related note, I recently watched "Rising" with a friend of mine and noticed an odd protrusion on the spacegate. Perhaps where the stargate was once affixed to the ground?
Regarding the Athosians and stargate exploration, either Teyla's people are very brave and/or an extensive record of safe addresses was left by the advanced race they used to be. That is, if "the city of the ancestors" refers not to the Ancients but to the Athosians as they were before the Wraith drove them to a nomadic lifestyle. I never could figure out which it was.
Reply
Leave a comment