402 - Lifeline Options Rating

[Arcady]

Season 4, Episode 2 - Lifeline
Air date: October 5, 2007

Lt. Col. Sheppard leads his team on a high risk mission to the core of the Replicator home world. Samantha Carter races against time to locate the city of Atlantis.

Episode Guide | Spoilers | Teaser

(This topic is for people who have seen the episode to discuss it. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this topic.)

[Revan]

I haven't seen it yet... I had my brother tape it tonight though and I intend to watch it tomorrow morning.

I must say I laughed fairly heartily at the "whatever"


I heard the leaked version was crap... no sound effects and no final act or something along those lines?

[jrv]

This was writing at its worst. The show writers really jumped the shark on this one. They successfully complete their mission so they can save the city and the lives of everyone on it and they decide to go for a risky bonus mission which might not even work. Please this was horrible and I can't see anyone making a bad decision like that even in a fictitious show.

Also it appears that they have drained some power from the zpm during the landing and we'll possibly have to deal with more power issues this season.

And next weeks episode looks like filler. An episode revolving around Ronin. Come on writers lets keep advancing the wraith/replicator arcs and ditch the filler episodes.

[Natoma]

This was writing at its worst. The show writers really jumped the shark on this one. They successfully complete their mission so they can save the city and the lives of everyone on it and they decide to go for a risky bonus mission which might not even work. Please this was horrible and I can't see anyone making a bad decision like that even in a fictitious show.

Yea I have to agree wholeheartedly with that one. I said to myself "Ok, so you can save everyone's life in the city, and the city itself, without being detected. The replicators don't know where Atlantis is, but you're going to go for the moon shot??"

Yuck.....

This episode was a letdown after last week for me quite honestly. The one part I didn't anticipate though was Elizabeth turning the tables on Oberroth. That was nice. Everything else, meh.

[jrv]

Yeah turning the tables on Oberroth was interesting but still seemed to be pointless. They ended up in a chase at the end anyway and without the help of the Apollo to conveniently bail them out they would have been in trouble.

This was bad writing. We can pretty much guess how the episodes are going to go at this point.

[wonderland]

Yeah turning the tables on Oberroth was interesting but still seemed to be pointless. They ended up in a chase at the end anyway and without the help of the Apollo to conveniently bail them out they would have been in trouble.

This was bad writing. We can pretty much guess how the episodes are going to go at this point.

The only purpose was to lose Elizabeth, but I have to agree, it could have been done so much better. The teaser ads spoiled any kind of suspense for this one.

[JTMAG1]

Also it appears that they have drained some power from the zpm during the landing and we'll possibly have

Rodney actually said that the ZPM had plenty of power in it.

I also didn't like going for the bonus mission, but they needed to fill out the episode, and like Wonderland pointed out, they had to get rid of Weir.

[Natoma]

Rodney actually said that the ZPM had plenty of power in it.

I also didn't like going for the bonus mission, but they needed to fill out the episode, and like Wonderland pointed out, they had to get rid of Weir.

I think it would've been more believable if they had left, successfully integrated the ZPM, and then went back to the replicator planet to insert the command. Had they lost Weir then, it would've been a hell of a lot easier to believe.

[BigusDickus]

But as they stated, they would not be able to just walk back in the next time with out the replicators expecting it. I thought it was a good episode and i am looking forward to the wraith getting their asses kicked by the asurans

[Hazaa3000]

Why didn't they grab another ZPM while the replicators were frozen instead of standing moaning?

So is this Wier out and Sam in?

Not really impressed by these first two episodes.

[jrv]

Rodney actually said that the ZPM had plenty of power in it.

I think he said they drained some power from the ZPM during the landing but yes they still had plenty of power. I've heard that line before and then in the next scene something unexpectedly drains the ZPM. These plots are stale now.

Next weeks story will be a Ronin Story which is total filler. Then the show after that will be right back to them running out of power.

And Amanda Tapping's roles seem almost pointless. I know they want to ease her in but by the time they do the season will be over.

» Click to Show Spoiler «

Also I think I know where the writers might go in regards to the Replicators finally attacking the wraith. At the end of the episode they looked happy that the command code worked but it will no doubt come back to bite them in the butt. If I'm not mistaken the Replicators were pretty localized to their home world. But now with them engaging the wraith they will be spread out all over the galaxy. The Atlantis team took a localized problem and just scattered it across the galaxy.

This post has been edited by jrv: Oct 6th 2007, 4:12 PM

[JTMAG1]

How was her role pointless, we don't know what her role is yet...

As far as the plot being stale, the whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking of Daniel and replicarter on the ship while Sam and her dad tried to impliment the device at dakara. It was exaclty the same to me, just with the parts played by different characters.

[Natoma]

But as they stated, they would not be able to just walk back in the next time with out the replicators expecting it. I thought it was a good episode and i am looking forward to the wraith getting their asses kicked by the asurans

Quite true. They could've removed that bit of dialogue from the script however. Voila, problem solved. The characters take care of Atlantis first, go back to the replicator world to do their thing, and problems creep up.

Yea it would've made the episode longer, but it would've been more believable imo.

[wonderland]

As far as the plot being stale, the whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking of Daniel and replicarter on the ship while Sam and her dad tried to impliment the device at dakara. It was exaclty the same to me, just with the parts played by different characters.

Oh, me, too! I was comparing them and I suppose that's unfair because I felt like the Weir-Oberoth scenes fell short of the Sam-Daniel ones. But I think that was just because Amanda and Michael have so much history with their characters.
I did figure out that Weir was pulling a Daniel and was in his mind while he was in hers which is very unusual for me because I never figure stuff out until the very end.

[Rogue Ashrak]

This was writing at its worst. The show writers really jumped the shark on this one. They successfully complete their mission so they can save the city and the lives of everyone on it and they decide to go for a risky bonus mission which might not even work. Please this was horrible and I can't see anyone making a bad decision like that even in a fictitious show.

I don't see how that's jumping the shark. Risky all-or-nothing missions in the hopes of saving the galaxy are pretty much standard in Stargate. I'll agree it was somewhat annoying that they had COMPLETED their main mission already and were home free when they decided to go for it...although the "this will be our only chance thing " helped make it a bit more bearable...a bit. I had no problem with them undertaking the mission, but they could have introduced its necessity a bit better.

Also it appears that they have drained some power from the zpm during the landing and we'll possibly have to deal with more power issues this season.

Maybe, maybe not. They do have the Asgard database now, maybe something will come of that (although I hope it doesn't, forming solutions from all that Asgard tech will make things way too easy)
Also, their power levels aren't as critical as they were in S1, and considering that the Wraith and Asurans have no idea where they are right now, the shield wont be needed for the time being. I doubt they're going to have as many power issues as you may think.

And next weeks episode looks like filler. An episode revolving around Ronin. Come on writers lets keep advancing the wraith/replicator arcs and ditch the filler episodes.

Oh come on. There's ALWAYS going to be filler episodes. The writers cant make every single ep an arc ep, they'd run out of storylines too quickly. SG-1 wouldnt have lasted nearly as long as it did had it benn soley made up of the Goa'uld/Replicator/Ori arc eps. There's nothing wrong with filler eps as long as they're written well. And they can potentially open mini-arcs of their own later down the track.

Why didn't they grab another ZPM while the replicators were frozen instead of standing moaning?

Doubt there was another one close by. They wouldn't have been able to get one in time.

I thought the episode was decent. The overall raid on the Asurans was great, and Weir's llittle trick on Oberoth was good, although a tad obvious (there was NO way that Shep's team was getting out of the situation they were in, it had to be a fake scenario). Apollo showing up to save the day at the end was a cheap out though. I would have preferred something brilliant from McKay to save them.
A real shame about Weir, I think the writers could have handled that way better. Sam recurring, and Weir staying on with robot issues would have been more interesting.
I hope the Asuran vs Wraith thing will be handled well, although it seems to me that the Asurans should kick the Wraith easilly *yawn*. Perhaps the reason behind why the Asurans had decided to wait before implementing their plan will come into play, their premature assualt on the Wraith may create some complications.

Temp thread for 402, didn't everyone watch the leaked release a month ago?

Sorry to pry Arc, but I have to ask. Is something wrong? Just trying to figure out why the thread title is what it is, or why it even matters about the incomplete leaked ep

[Ziu]

I am glad that finally others are noticing and/or commenting on reshashed storylines from SG-1.

I wrote about this during Season 1. maybe at the beginning of Season 2, and most folks out there made fun of me and/or said I didn't know what I was talking about.

Now you will understand, especially the new members, that SG-1 will always be superior to SGA.

[Protoziggy90]

I don't know what I could possibly say that hasn't been said already. I am glad though that everyone was in agreement on this and it wasn't just me. I mean almost the entire episode, from the moment Rodney noticed the command code about the Wraith, I was thinking that it was absurd. And next episode certainly appears to be filler in the worst way. I mean how can you have a filler episode as episode 3?!

Also, great thread title.

[fan_83]

this ep kinda suck.. i mean they could have put more man in the jumper and instead of going after one , they oculd have gone after two exp, if weir could multi task...

also isn;t it weird that hte replicators aren;t using drones.. its kinda convenient to use energy blast.. esp in the fight against the apollo

[jrv]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks the Ronin filler episode will be crap. I agree that they can't make every episode one that advances the Wraith/Replicator story but they seem to be in danger of having the show canceled. In this situation they need to come out guns blazing to ensure they even get another season. Worry about running out of ideas then.

And I also found the fact that the Replicators did not use drones to be very odd.


And aren't the Replicators now able to alter their own base code since McKay played with it originally? They re-wrote their base code to allow them to attack the Ancients so can't they just re-write it to remove the command to attack the Wraith? Hopefully this will be explained.

This post has been edited by jrv: Oct 7th 2007, 12:13 AM

[JTMAG1]

Quite true. They could've removed that bit of dialogue from the script however. Voila, problem solved. The characters take care of Atlantis first, go back to the replicator world to do their thing, and problems creep up.

Yea it would've made the episode longer, but it would've been more believable imo.

Then we would be saying, "How did the Asurans not notice a missing ZPM, and missing personell.

I hope the Asuran vs Wraith thing will be handled well, although it seems to me that the Asurans should kick the Wraith easilly *yawn*. Perhaps the reason behind why the Asurans had decided to wait before implementing their plan will come into play, their premature assualt on the Wraith may create some complications.

The part of their programming that made them want to attack the Wraith was dormant. Thats what the whole, "Activate the program at the core" was all about. I don't think they were waiting for the signal that would activate this portion of the base code.

I am glad that finally others are noticing and/or commenting on reshashed storylines from SG-1.

I wrote about this during Season 1. maybe at the beginning of Season 2, and most folks out there made fun of me and/or said I didn't know what I was talking about.

Now you will understand, especially the new members, that SG-1 will always be superior to SGA.

WHAT? Do you read the threads? People have been saying this from day one. You can't take credit for such a widely held idea.

this ep kinda suck.. i mean they could have put more man in the jumper and instead of going after one , they oculd have gone after two exp, if weir could multi task...

also isn;t it weird that hte replicators aren;t using drones.. its kinda convenient to use energy blast.. esp in the fight against the apollo

In Progeny, the Ancient ships that attempted to destroy the Asurans did not use drones...

This post has been edited by JTMAG1: Oct 7th 2007, 12:49 AM

[IndyJan]

The only purpose was to lose Elizabeth, but I have to agree, it could have been done so much better. The teaser ads spoiled any kind of suspense for this one.

I totally agree that the teaser ads ruined whatever suspense they might have had. I have been saying this for quite awhile though. The SCI-FI channel does it for all of there shows.

How was her role pointless, we don't know what her role is yet...

As far as the plot being stale, the whole time I was watching it, I kept thinking of Daniel and replicarter on the ship while Sam and her dad tried to impliment the device at dakara. It was exaclty the same to me, just with the parts played by different characters.

It definitely smacked of Daniel with RepliCarter. For the second episode and knowing who wrote (Binder) and directed (Wood), I was quite unimpressed. It didn't help that I had seen the series 3 ending for Doctor Who, which was quite outstanding.

With stories like this, SGA is not going to last much longer. I posted a long time ago when I found out that M & M were going to be the EPs of the show and being responsible for it, I was very afraid about the outcome of the show.

[Rogue Ashrak]

Then we would be saying, "How did the Asurans not notice a missing ZPM, and missing personell.
The part of their programming that made them want to attack the Wraith was dormant. Thats what the whole, "Activate the program at the core" was all about. I don't think they were waiting for the signal that would activate this portion of the base code.

Well yeah, but I think that was because the Asurans chosenot to activate that command. In Progeny Oberoth mentioned that they already had a plan for dealing with the Wraith, they just weren't ready to implement it yet. It's possible there was a reason they wern't ready to move against the Wraith at that time, and by forcing the Asurans to move against them prematurely, problems will be caused.

[Raxor]

I like this episode, sure the Apollo at the end was a little of a cop out but still it was enjoyable. Would rate it **1/2
I hope they come up with slightly more original plots later in the season didnt mind the rehash too much.

[AtheneBelle]

I'm confused...was "Lifeline" accidentally released online a while back or "Doppelganger?"

As for myself I didn't find this episode to be do bad (unlike a lot of you it seems like)

I thought the show was pretty well done.