I've managed to control my Angel Finale blues somewhat by watching the premiere of Stargate Atlantis.

Not bad. One of the main concerns I had for the series was that all the characters that I'd seen from the new series thusfar came across as being pale imitations of their SG1 counterparts. Early days yet but that looks to be unfounded. Weir and Shepherd appear to be two strong leading characters and they're abley supported by a number of subsidiary characters. The Premiere also featured cameos from RDA, Michael Shanks and Robert Patrick. I have to say I've been impressed with the setup for Atlantis, what with Weir appearing in SG1 8x01 & 8x02 followed by RDA and MS returning the compliment in the Atlantis premiere, it's given the whole SG franchise a lot more fluidity kicking off the new show.

The Wraith look pretty sinister, made even more so by the fact that they appear to be under the leadership of Marilyn Manson !! Decent FX, some new ideas, like the Puddle Jumpers and a whole new city (Atlantis) and gate network (Pegasus) to explore.

IMO, it's probably as good a series opener as Children of the Gods was for SG1, although it has to be said, there is the odd moment in RISING that's derivative of COTG.

Looking forward to next week's episode already.

Just watched this - it was okay even if Marilyn was a bit too much.

I enjoy SG-1 when they have big Goa'uld arcs but when it goes alll medieval village I can leave it - to be honest it looks like this could be the same with a different baddie.

I really need to get around to watching the second half of Sg-1 S7 - General O'Neill?

Well, he only just got promoted, so you're not missing that much :)

And of course, the promotion was Season 8 afterall ;)

I has read some general (sic) spoilers for the unwatched portion of S7 (ie the death) but hadn't read that. When he was referred to as General in Atalantis I assumed it had been at the end of the S7 finale so I suppose the start of S8 is virtually the same.

The start of Season 8 is quite well done. It's got both the Goa'uld political shenanighens going off in one corner and the Asgard/Replicators squaring off in the other.

O'Neil's promotion comes at the backend of the opening 2-parter of Season 8.

Half way through watching this - favourite moment so far is when Robert Patrick looks round and sees that Shepherd is coming along on the mission, looks up at Weir, gets a slight head movement as a response, then takes a deep breath . . . and moves out - great stuff. :thumbsup:

The subtle humour has always been one of SG's best assets, nice to see that we'll continue getting that with Atlantis as well :)

Rob Patrick would have been a great addition to the cast, shame they couldn't get him on a permanent basis. Likewise, I'm still slightly annoyed that they didn't pull Jonas back into the fold for the new series.

I didn't think of that, probably too much of a stretch to have him in the right place at the right time, easier to allow Daniel Jackson to go to Atlantis and Jonas Quinn to re-join SG1 ?. Hmmmm

Best line so far <We don't require our food to agree with us . . . > :blink:

I'd given up on the Jonas idea, until Rising aired. Daniel was itching to go through the gate. If they could have used his expertise then I'm sure Jonas would have come in handy as well. Beyond that though, it would have been a fair gesture on the part of the production team to ask Nemec back. He was royally screwed with Shanks' return to the series in Season 7. I guess I'm one of the few people who actually prefered JQ ;)

I agree, Corin Nemec did a pretty seamless job of taking over when Michael Shanks left, which was quite an achievement and I thought his character was more likeable, he actually smiled once or twice !

Did Michael Shanks take a pay cut or did he blackmail someone to get back in ?, it would be interesting to hear how it happened. :)

The budget for the show increased when it moved from Showtime to Sci-Fi. As such they offered the cast more money, including Shanks. As soon as the $ registered he agreed to come back :rolleyes:

I believe they also gave him more input into the stories and promised him more screentime.

Michael Shanks must have a really good agent :rolleyes:

As I recall there was a fairly vocal fan campaign to bring him back after he left the show. There was also (from the same fans) a lot of negativity thrown Nemec's way.

TPTB over there would seem to value their cast quite highly, obviously their most valuable asset on the show. They practically move heaven and earth to keep RDA on board ;)

Found a post on stargate-alpha - “Sci Fi would have us believe he's back because of a fan campaign. But it probably had more to do with Shanks realizing that a passing resemblance to James Spader doesn't make for much of a career outside SG-1.”

Sounds nearer the truth to me :D

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Let's not forget his mighty appearances on Andromeda. ;)

Just seen it, and was rather impressed!

The new gate looks lovely, and I did like the new dialling sequence (although when 'dead' it seems that the gate has a ring of symbols a la the SG-1 gate, however when dialling the each symbol appears under the relevant chevron, so suggesting that there's a dot-matrix set-up or something which displays the constellation when dialled).

One problem though, is the lack of originality with the Wraith, they seem to be a combinaton of the Goa'uld by feeding on humans (the Goa'uld through implantation, the Wraith by physical feeding).

Also, a lack of credits didn't help us by telling us who were 'our heroes'. Weir and McKay were obvious, as we knew them already, and Shepherd's importance was quickly highlighted. Personally I found Summer got too much screen time for someone who went the way of Kawalsky :)

Speaking of COTG similarities, however, I was expecting Shephard to touch the gate before travelling - since this was his first time it would have made sense, and would have been a nice touch.

Oh, and how did they know the address to get back to Atlantis when they went to the first planet? From research elsewhere, I've found there are only 36 symbols on the Pegasus gates, so to expect it to be a like-for-like to the address dialled from Earth (minus the seventh symbol and the Point of Origin) seemed a bit presumptuous...