Podcast: Download SSG264: The three-part season-four opener for Stargate Atlantis reaches its conclusion in “Lifeline” (S4E2), and the price of getting out is Dr. Elizabeth Weir. The mission looked contained: use Weir’s nanite connection to navigate the Asuran city, grab the ZPM Atlantis needs, and go. Then McKay finds a buried base code that can redirect the entire Asuran fleet … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG263: Atlantis is dead in space. After the Asuran attack in the Season 3 finale, the city drops out of hyperspace with its power draining fast, drifting straight toward an asteroid field — and its leader is dying in the infirmary. Stargate Atlantis Season 4 opens with “Adrift,” and the clock never stops ticking. Lisa … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG262: The Asurans have been watching. Hours after the Apollo destroys their shipyard, a satellite arrives over Atlantis carrying a stargate that fires a continuous laser beam at the city’s shields. There’s no way to attack it. There’s no way to dial out. There’s just a countdown. Jeff Haecker, Lisa Jones, and Victor Lams work through … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG261: The Ori arc ran for two full seasons of Stargate SG-1, and when the show was cancelled before wrapping it, the producers had one shot to close the story: a direct-to-DVD film called The Ark of Truth. The premise is almost philosophically discomforting. The Ancients — who refused to interfere with lesser civilizations … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG260: The Asgard chose to end their civilization rather than let the Ori claim their technology. They gave SG-1 everything they knew, then blew up their planet and themselves. That’s the opening of the Stargate SG-1 series finale, “Unending,” and it sets the tone for what follows. Trapped inside a time dilation field … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG259: The Atlantis team investigates an abandoned Taranian settlement and walks into something far worse than an empty planet. Underground, they find a room full of bodies, hybrid creatures built from Iratus bug DNA, and Michael — the Wraith they remade and then abandoned — calmly explaining that this lab is one of many. Lisa … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG258: A trap within a trap — and then Ba’al walks in and ruins everything. In the penultimate episode of Stargate SG-1, SG-1 uses the Galaran memory device to implant false memories in Vala, convincing her she’s been rejected by the SGC in order to sell a deception to Adria. It almost works. Then Ba’al’s Jaffa beam … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG257: A ten-thousand-year-old Wraith Queen at the bottom of the ocean. No rescue coming. No way out. Victor Lams, Jeff Haecker, and Lisa Jones descend into Stargate Atlantis Season 3, Episode 18 — “Submersion” — an episode its own director, Brenton Spencer, called the show’s haunted-house episode. The Atlantis team travels by puddle jumper to investigate an ancient … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG256: What happens when Stargate Command lets a notorious con artist through the gate — and gives him an apartment? “Family Ties,” episode 18 of Stargate SG-1‘s final season, answers that question with Fred Willard at full throttle, improvising bingo scams and infomercials for intergalactic “Stardust” while Vala Mal Doran quietly guards a box of trinkets she swore … Read more
Podcast: Download SSG255: A mandatory day of rest on Atlantis becomes the worst day in the city’s history. Victor Lams, Jeff Haecker, and Lisa Jones take on “Sunday,” season 3 episode 17 of Stargate Atlantis — the episode that says goodbye to Dr. Carson Beckett. The decision didn’t come from actor Paul McGillion. The network wanted to shake the show up … Read more