02-15 The Tower

[Colonel Carter]

Title: The Tower
Directed by: Andy Mikita
Written by: Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie
Original Air Date: December 19, 2005 (The Movie Network)

Synopsis: The team finds a world that possesses Ancient technology, but only the royal family may be allowed to operate it and lowly villagers are treated with little dignity. When he tries to set things right, Sheppard finds himself a pawn in the rivalry between the heirs to the throne.

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Something about this episode reminded me of the movie "Dune." The original that is, I've nto seen any of the remakes or whatever.

And what is it with making John Sheppard another Captain James T. Kirk? It really is boring to watch and next week he kisses Weir. What is this a contest? He kissed Teyla not long ago, so now Weir has to catch up, how long will this continue?

I could accept the women flirting with him, given the whole situation he was in I think that was normal. What I did not like was his utter acceptance of the girl who took all her clothes off. It made me lose all respect for his character.

And what was that line about "I never get used to this" or whatever. It sounds like he's had a lot of women just randomly drop their clothes off on him. What? Somebody please burst his ego.

Other than Sheppard, I liked the episode. I liked McKay's storyline very much. I liked Ronan coming to that woman's rescue. I loved Dr. Beckett's part. I really liked the bald-headed bad guy who totally had me fooled into thinking he was a good guy until the end.

One thing I was disappointed in was that they never discovered the purpose of an Atlantian city identical to Atlantis on that planet.

[Anissa T]

OMG, that bad guy had me fooled too. While I wasn't totally shocked at the end, I really thought he was good. All though I wasn't completely convinced it was the son who was poisoning his father. That storyline would have been way too easy.

I did really like McKay's role and Ronan.

I wasn't too bothered by what happened with SHep, but that's because I just expect behavior like that from a man. I mean, when you get down to it, he's a man. But still, your right, it was way to James T. Kirk like. That I didn't like.

However, I was mostly disappointed that they didn't explain how or why the city was there. And knowing the writers, they never will. They'll just move right along to the next episode. They do that on SG1 too and it drives me nuts.

That's just like they never explained what happened to Cavanaugh after they found out he had a Goul'd.

Anyhow, even though there were "parts" of the episode I liked, I didn't like it as a whole.

[Colonel Carter]

I mentioned to you in the other thread where I thought about a Weir-Cavanagh hook-up, Cavanagh is the guy with the ponytail. Caldwell is the guy with the Goa'uld. Caldwell being Colonel Caldwell. Just clearing that up.

[Anissa T]

Thanks. I did mess that up and I did mean Col Caldwell.

[cb49747]

I liked this show too. I wonder if there are a bunch of cities all over the place?

Atlantis was just the only one attached to our galaxy. However I did question why the stargate was not in the city where the Atlantis stargate is.

[Anissa T]

You know, I hadn't thought about it. That's a really good question. I'm really curious about that now. That would be interesting if they would address that, plus why there was another city. But, I highly doubt they will make any reference to it again. They rarely do.

Oh well!

[Colonel Carter]

You mean you don't know why the Stargate wasn't in the buried city? Good question. Here's why I think it was outside the city...

Atlantis was clearly the central hub for the Ancients. They may have built other cities on other planets, but Atlantis was the first city, the city which flew to that galaxy from earth, and had the only Stargate capable of dialing back to earth. Atlantis was also on water far from any land, so it would make it a little more complicated to put the Stargate on land, rather it stayed in Atlantis.

They installed a shield for the Stargate in Atlantis. Clearly they had that designed so only their people or friends with perhaps a code could come through. But they didn't put shields on the other Stargates. Probably because they wanted people to be able to pass freely through them, especially if they found other kinds of people in the galaxy and were working to establish relationships.

So then on other planets where they built cities they wouldn't want to put up a shield, so then they wouldn't want the Stargate to be in the city either in case an enemy came through. So the Stargates were not kept in cities but since those cities were build on land, the Stargates could be put outside the cities not too far away.

What I'm more curious about is why with all these earthquakes, no one ever felt them on the surface?

[Anissa T]

I'm thinking either they did and they just didn't show the other people because that part of the show focused on Rodney.

OR

They weren't earthquakes, but instabilities in the catacombs in which they probably wouldn't feel it anyway.

[Colonel Carter]

Another question - how is it that the city survived at all when Atlantis didn't? They had to submerge the city to keep the Wraith from destroying it. Since this planet would have put up a fight with drones any time a Wraith ship came, then why didn't the whole Wraith fleet come like they did to Atlantis?

[Anissa T]

Hmmm....that is a really interesting question. I don't remember them even mentioning it (the villagers that is). Hmmm...do you think it's possible that they used it as a strategic outpost, but the wraith hadn't discovered it yet and then people down the road only used the drones on the villagers for show?

Wow!

You all are coming up with some really good questions.

[Colonel Carter]

I just think the writers, directors, and producers don't think things through as well as they should. But I think that's common with many shows, I've seen it on other shows at least. Fans notice the inconsistencies that the writers, directors, and producers should catch before filming. Just my thought on the matter.

I would love to write for a tv series because I would make sure they always made sense and never contradicted themselves. :)

[cb49747]

I was under the impression that the ancients built the special gate in Atlantis to go to Earth so they could evacuate from there galaxy to ours. This plan would take some time to get everyone back to Atlantis (Remembering to the episode where Weir goes back in time, one of the ships they were waiting on got destroyed by the wraith) and to setup a base on earth.

[Anissa T]

Well, do you think then there is another gate on the mainland somewhere they don't know about.

[cb49747]

Now that is a interesting thought?

Maybe there is, and it's just not in use because the other one takes priority?

Something to think about.

[Colonel Carter]

Why would they put a second gate on the planet when only one can work? You dial Atlantis, you dial the planet's location, they can't narrow it down.

[cb49747]

There were two on earth, and they never really did say why or who put the second one there.

[Colonel Carter]

I think it's safe to assume that the Goa'uld built the Giza Stargate because of these reasons...

1. In the movie on Abydos they found the Abydonians were mining the same mineral that made up the Stargate, a mineral which Ra used for all his power. Since the Ancients Stargate was buried in Antarctica on earth, it would seem likely that Ra saw it was lost and built a new one to replace it. We can assume that the Goa'uld used the original because we saw in the first season when Jack and Sam got trapped there one or two of Ra's men encassed in ice. When something happened and that Stargate became lost in the ice, Ra probably had a new one built. He certainly did possess both the mineral and capability of building it, even if the Goa'uld didn't build them first, they were advanced enough to know how to build one. After all, the Tollan were capable of building their own.

2. The symbol for earth on the Giza Stargate is the pyramid with the sun directly on top. The whole theory behind Stargate which prompted the feature film which then spread into two tv series was that aliens built the great pyramids. Which the movie then established it was Ra's construction. Why would the Ancients have built a Stargate whose point of origin was Ra's temple if Ra's temple did not exist until long after?

[cb49747]

Ra assumed the identity of their god Ra. Thus maybe the symbol was first pyramid with sun on it, The people then started to worship the pyramid because that was their symbol on the Stargate. When Ra wanted them to believe He was their god, he built something on a grand scale that they allready worshiped, the Pyramid.

Ra then wanted to create a faster way to earth. He tried stargating their but never heard from his Jaffa again. They were stuck in a ice cave such Jack and Sam were. He then decided to have a new one made on Earth. He place this gate near where they were mining the mineral. I can't believe if Ra new there was a gate in Atlantis, a little ice would stop him from getting it. Thus I believe Ra never new it was there.

Which brings me to another question. Are the symbols on both stargates the same? If they are than it would seem they were built by the same people. If not than different people.

If they are the same then I would have to say the ancients built both. Leading me to believe that the gate in the ice was a floating city like atlantis that got caught in ice as the earths climate shifted. They ancients than decided to build a new gate in warmer weather. However this doesn't fit with the movie.

[Colonel Carter]

The point of origin on the Antarctica gate was very different.

[cb49747]

I think I mispoke I ment to say go the gate found in Giza and the gate found in the ice have the same symbols on them.

[Colonel Carter]

I understood what you were saying and my answer was that he point of origin is exactly the same on both stargates - the one found at Giza and the one found in Antarctica.

There was a scene in "Solitudes" where Sam said, "That must be the point of origin" and they showed the symbol she pointed to. That symbol was not a pyramid with a circle on top.

The point of origin on the Antarctica gate is a circle next to a long narrow object. Personally I think it looks like a shield next to either a staff or torch. Or maybe it's a gong.

You can take a look for yourself. It's in the episode gallery on my site for that episode. I thought it was interesting enough to put in that episode's gallery.

See it here. (http://www.sg1stargate.com/solitud10.html)