$$$SGA 5x07 “Whispers” – Review and Discussion Thread (spoilers)$$$

[Jimi James]

An all female SG team with Nicole de Boer as the science member?  Stargate Atlantis must be saved!  Who has a petition I can sign.

[TNC]

It was an okay episode.  I wonder what all "Micheal" used to make those things.

I hope that at least the crazy one (the one who joined Atlantis because things were too boring in the Milky Way) and Nicole's character show up again.

[Bond, James Bond]

An all female SG team with Nicole de Boer as the science member? Stargate Atlantis must be saved!

[Jimi James]

Oh, admit it...you liked it too.

Anyway, they'll probably wind up getting about as much screen time as the Russian team did on SG-1, which won't be more then this one episode, before they disappear, never to be seen again.

[Xero]

An all female SG team with Nicole de Boer as the science member?  Stargate Atlantis must be saved!  Who has a petition I can sign.

AR team, not SG 

So they' ve added a new AR team, cool.

[TNC]

Anyway, they'll probably wind up getting about as much screen time as the Russian team did on SG-1, which won't be more then this one episode, before they disappear, never to be seen again.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they kill all the Russian SG team members during their one episode?

So they' ve added a new AR team, cool.

AR team?  What, Anti-Replicator team?   
(I know it's supposed to stand for Atlantis Recon...)

[Xero]

That was a one off Russian team sent in to look for another team the Russians sent when there was a short lived Russian SGC being run. There was a reference to a Russian team in season7 & 8 IIRC. I think a Russian team was involved in the first batle with Anubis' super soldiers.

[TNC]

^The first one you mentioned had one survivor.  In season 6 (I think) they got a replacement gate from the Russians after Anubis kerploded their gate.  Part of the deal was that they the Russians would have their own SG team.  Later in season 6, the Russian team found Nerti's hideout where she was using an Ancient device to try to develop Hok'taur's (advanced humans).  At the very least the leader of the Russian team was reduced to a puddle of water by the Ancient device (I can't remember what happened to the rest of the Russian team).

Then there was that Col. that was possesed by Anubis who sacrificed himself to get Anubis off the base.  Then they blew up the Korelev.  I'm seeing a trend here....

[Broken Subspace Scene]

Yay for Nicole de Boer!


Was anyone else kind of surprised/disappointed that Vega was apparently killed? 

At the start of the season, there was some press about her and talk of her being a 'female Lorne', and it seemed like she would be a cool recurring character.  Not so much, I guess.

It's a shame, they've never really had a notable female military member on Atlantis.  Cadman's run was also very brief.

[Greg]

Vega survived, she was the one always eating and who had to babysit Beckett and Esri.

[Bond, James Bond]

Vega survived, she was the one always eating and who had to babysit Beckett and Esri.

That was uberhottie Sgt. Mehra (second from the left in the pic below). Capt. Vega was the one that was grabbed from behind and then they found her dead in the mist. Which makes all the pre-season promotion for her character and build-up she received in 'Search & Rescue' seem completely pointless now.

Oh, admit it...you liked it too.

Oh hell yeah.

I definitely want to see more of Sgt. Mehra, not just because she's hot but also because she had an entertaining personality and brought a lot of humor to the episode. Maybe they felt she could be developed more than Vega, but it just seems really lame to kill off Vega's character so nonchalantly after promoting her like a major new addition to the series.

The episode stole from or was an homage to (depending on your attitude) about a dozen different scifi-horror films, but they still managed to pull off a decent slasher ep with a very high creepiness factor.

I liked that the in-genre references they made, like Shep's joke. And the hapless villager was so obviously going to die it wasn't even funny. I knew as soon as he started screaming and edged near the wall it was all over.

If you want to see more of Janina Gavankar, look here. NSFW though.

[edit] So what's the deal with Shep, the military commander of Atlantis, not knowing that there's an all-female AR-team? I know it was done for the cute intro and to have him and Beckett share a fist bump, but still, that was pretty ridiculous.   

[Greg]

Oh, I could have sworn she was the one introduced as Vega... well, I was rather distracted when they were introduced, drooling takes a lot of concentration ya know.

[Fiery Little One]

Of the 3 survivors from the all girl team, I think I'll jump on the band wagon and say that if they can only bring one character back that I'd want it to be Mehra.

[Xero]

[edit] So what's the deal with Shep, the military commander of Atlantis, not knowing that there's an all-female AR-team? I know it was done for the cute intro and to have him and Beckett share a fist bump, but still, that was pretty ridiculous.   

It may have been a one off team. For the past 4 seasons there was only 3 AR teams AR1- Shepperd's team,  AR2- Stackhouse's team, and AR3 - Lorne's team, every other team was created as needed. But if they did create a AR4 it's odd Sheppered didn't know it was all female, unless Woolsey had it put together, and Shepperd isn't 100% up to date on it's members, for some reason.

[Jimi James]

Yeah, Shep was my one problem with this episodes.  There were several scenes where he just seemed as if he had no idea what to do or how to be a leader.  Maybe he was just off his game, but not knowing about a new team, who being under his command, would probably have been selected by him, or at the very least he would have been briefed about each member...it certainly didn't help matters any.

[Jimi James]

Going back to the Russian SG team for a moment, have we seen any Russians on Atlantis?  My memory may be faulty, but I don't recall seeing any, or even hearing any being mentioned. 

It seems strange that they would be left out, certainly when considering the fuss they made over using the Stargate on Earth and being included in the SG program.

[TNC]

I may be misremembering things, but I think I saw a person with a Russian flag on their sholder during the first episode.  He might have been holding an AK too but I don't remember very well.  Then again, I could have been some other country's flag. 

[Fiery Little One]

I think the closest we've ever gotten to Russian on Atlantis is Zelenka, which is a little odd since as you said, Jimi, they were the ones up in arms about what the SGC was upto.

[caisson2delta]

Wasn't a bad episode. The mutant wraith were a little creepy and the whole fog thing was kind of cool.