Colonel Sheppard begins to undergo a disturbing physical transformation after being exposed to Beckett's anti-Wraith drug.








Ok I already guessed that Sheppard would be infected but OMG this episode was brilliant :thumbsup:

It was fairly obvious what was going to happen but the emotion and tension in the episode totally made up for that.

The reaction of his friends Weir's in particular at one point almost had me in tears :tear: Weir never overly emotional was finding it extremely hard to cope with John's fate. She almost let Caldwell in as a comrade so to speak and then was shocked by his actions in taking over John's role so quickly. She found it hard to talk to Sheppard about what was happening, lots of awkward comments with sorrow underneath.

The kiss with Teyla didn't have any particular chemistry but showed early signs of the virus taking over. Not sure how she felt about it

:shrug:

:tear: very moving when his friends gathered round unable to sleep for John's last 24 hrs - at this point it made me realise how much I'd miss him as a character if he died :tear: and then Weir telling them they could say their goodbyes sniffle sniffle.

John's own struggle retaining his cognitive thinking while the virus took over his body was also well played. It reminded me a little of DNA Mad Scientist Farscape when Aeryn undergoes a similar transformation, how he was ashamed wanting the lights off, hiding his face and hand and ultimately cloaking himself as Aeryn does.

Lots of fantastic scenes and an emotional ride for once :thumbsup: loved it :D

I wouldn't go that far, but it was a decent ep.

Joe Flanigan showed that he can act. His transformation was the best he's been since Atlantis started. He really came across as sinister, but at the same time, trying to fight what he was turning in to. If only he could do irreverant as well as menacing.

I liked the erratus bug cave. Really made my flesh crawl. I didn't realise they were a hive insect. I can't w**k out why they didn't just go in there with flamethrowers, or just sprays of salt water for the matter. Do they really care if they had to wipe out the colony?

The scenes where Sheppard was transforming were done quite well too. His stick fight with Teyla was good (they do have some good fight scenes in atlantis), as was his tantrum in weirs office.

Not sure about Torri Higginson though. One of the biggest problems with Atlantis is the overall standard of acting isn't that great. Sheppard and Weir are both pretty poor IMHO (Jury is still out on Ronen). Torri Higginson seems to be suffering from not knowing how to play a strong female character who is in charge, but at the same time is emotional and compassionate. I think this is exactly the problem that Kate Mulgrew had in Voyager. She never got it right either.

On the other hand, Mary McDonnell on BSG has got it completely sussed, as had Mira Furlan on B5. Both of them are totally feminine and compassionate, even mumsie at times, but can suddenly become very strong when they have too.

I hope Torri Higginson gets more of a handle on this. It was OK for her to seem out of her depth in series one, but she should be getting more confident by now.

:ponder: I thought that was just her personality though, although I can't warm to her but she is much less annoying than Kate Mulgrew :lol: she isn't as patronising and defends her staff rather than snooty miss know it all :)

To be honest the acting isn't great but it is getting much better, I'm not cringing this season. :) The scenes between Weir and Caldwell were great.

I can only assume they didn't attack the hive in case one of them was bitten. :shrug:

Oh yes, she must better than Janeway. I was just drawing a comparison. I give her the benefit of the doubt sometimes, and assume its her personality too.

One thing I forgot to mention when talking about the standard of acting is McKay. I think he is fantastic, and could even be better than RDA and Michael Shanks. Almost every line he has cracks me up.

Some of the more emotional scenes during this episode (like the one that Alex mentions above) almost had me worried that Sheppard would die :tear: I'm going into this series (and Stargate) completely unspoiled, and as they have brought another male warrior character and another military commander into the show I thought it could be a possibility. Glad I was so horribly wrong :lol:

Great episode, Sheppards struggle to retain his humanity was painful to watch, as was his friends struggle to accept that they might lose him :tear:

And, was it just me or did he seem even hotter as he began to turn :drool: :lol: Before he became all blue/grey and knobbly of course ;)

:lol: He was hotness itself :drool:

But still not as hot as BB ;)

It's all about Ben :drool: :lol:

Sadly on the Ben scale Sheppard would only measure 1 or 2 where Ben is 10 but it's a tough scale :lol:

I really like Weir. In fact, when I caught a few episodes on Sky Two before starting to actually watch the show, she was one of the characters that drew me into it. She's got a kind of Sigourney Weaver quality which I find pretty damn sexy :naughty: Probably something to do with my age... :lol:

Re this episode and the preceding one, both very good, imo. I'm really liking Ronon - he's got (at the moment) a very subtle sense of humour which comes through in his eyes more than anything else :)

I'm catching up gradually :lol:

Agree about Ronon, arguably the best character on the show IMO. Jason Momoa plays him ever so well.

I don't really like, or really dislike Weir. She's alright, just not great. To be honest, I actually preferred the original Weir on SG1, played by Jessica Steen.

Must be your age :lol:

Same here, nothing against Teri at all but having started with Jessica it would have been nice to keep her :thumbsup:

Not having seen those SG-1 episodes I'm coming at it from completely the opposite direction. Fairly standard for me :lol:

I thought the original Weir was good at the time, but once we got to know Torri's character she grew on me. She's really good in this episode, i actually watched it yesterday, cos i really like this ep, even if Sheppard is looking like a monster.

I decided to google Jessica Steen. Yuck :snooty: :lol: