Critical Mass (Stargate Atlantis)
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| Stargate Atlantis episode | |
|---|---|
| “Critical Mass” | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 13 |
| Guest star(s) | Beau Bridges as General Hank Landry Peter Flemming as Agent Malcolm Barrett Jaime Ray Newman as Lt. Laura Cadman Mitch Pileggi as Colonel Steven Caldwell David Nykl as Dr. Zelenka Gary Jones as Walter Harriman Brenda McDonald as Charin Ellie Harvie as Dr. Lindsey Novak Ben Cotton as Dr. Kavanagh Bill Dow as Dr. Bill Lee |
| Writer(s) | Carl Binder |
| Director | Andy Mikita |
| Production no. | 213 |
| Original airdate | January 20, 2006 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Epiphany" | "Grace Under Pressure" |
"Critical Mass" is an episode of the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis.
[edit] Plot
The episode starts of with Sheppard meeting Radek Zelenka in the gateroom, who is sent to M7G-677 (the planet with all the kids, see "Childhood's End") to repair their EM-field generator. Zelenka however is not happy since he hates children. Meanwhile Dr. McKay calls Sheppard to show him, Weir and Ronon two Wraith cruisers which he discovered that are near Atlantis, but not on their way to them. They are actually shooting at each other.
Meanwhile at Stargate Command, General Landry is visited by Agent Malcolm Barrett, who informs him that the Trust is now controlled by the Goa'uld and that they have planted a bomb in Atlantis, which will explode when Atlantis dials Earth the next time – which is today. So Landry orders Dr. Lee to find a way to warn them.
Back in Atlantis Rodney meets Lt. Cadman again but feels uneasy around her (see "Duet"). Meanwhile Teyla asks Dr. Beckett to accompany her to the mainland to examine her old friend Charin who is very ill. They do so and Charin asks Teyla to prepare the Ring Ceremony which is used to celebrate the natural death of a person.
On Earth Dr. Lee concluded a way to warn Atlantis by using a small planet at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and the Daedalus as relay points. They are able to contact the Daedalus which then sends the message in time to Atlantis before the dialing process is completed. Afterwards McKay disconnects the ZPM while teams search the city for explosives but find nothing. Also the Daedalus is called back to help find the saboteur but before this they relay another message to Atlantis. Later the DHD of Atlantis dials Earth by itself but can't establish contact due to insufficient power. However in the meantime the transmitter is activated which sends a beacon, thus calling the Wraith cruisers to Atlantis. Now they have to cloak the city again.
Later Weir tries to find out who planted the bomb and when the Daedalus comes back she questions Kavanagh who was on the ship. Kavanagh however accuses her of being driven by emotions and thus has him as the main suspect. Afterwards she questions Dr. Novak but during the talk Rodney informs her that there is no bomb. In truth the fail-safe of the ZPM was deactivated and blocked with a code, thus causing a massive overload in the device if enough energy is needed. But they need the ZPM to cloak the city. Afterwards Weir again questions Kavanagh since she thinks he did it but he doesn't say anything. Weir then discusses the matters with the senior staff and Ronon says that he will get the code out of Kavanagh if he has 10 minutes with him.
Meanwhile Teyla evacuates her people back to Atlantis and also tries to persuade Charin to let herself be treated by Beckett but she wants to accept her death. She is later brought in the infirmary of Atlantis and although Dr. Beckett wants to treat her, Teyla persuades him not to and let her die.
Later the Wraith appear and thus Atlantis has to be cloaked. Suddenly however the inertial dampeners of the city activate which causes the ZPM to overload. Thus Atlantis will be destroyed in about 30 minutes. The senior staff then plans to evacuate the people of Atlantis to the planet in the same solar system where the found the crash-landed Wraith ship. Ronon however persuades them to let him question Kavanagh. While all the preparations are done Teyla and Beckett celebrate the Ring Ceremony for the dead Charin, at which Teyla sings for her.
10 minutes before the ZPM overloads Lt. Cadman informs Weir and McKay that she found out that it was Colonel Caldwell who did all this. When they question him it turns out that he is a Goa'uld but after Ronon hit him down, Sheppard uses a Taser on him, thus allowing Caldwell to take back control and give them the code. Rodney enters it in time and the overload is stopped.
Later Rodney informs Beckett and Cadman that Hermiod plans to use the Asgard beam to remove the Goa'uld symbiote from Caldwell. Zelenka has also returned, with face paint on and in a foul mood. In the end Weir talks with Sheppard where she questions what she wanted to do with Kavanagh, but Sheppard tells her that she only did what she had to do.
[edit] Notes
- This is the first episode of Stargate Atlantis to involve and feature the Goa'uld, though they were mentioned in earlier episodes.
- When trying to devise a way to send a long-range message to Atlantis, Bill Lee sets up a relay system and makes a reference to the "Twilight Bark" from 101 Dalmatians. Unfortunately, nobody gets the reference so Bill uses Gondor's signal fires from The Lord of the Rings as an example.
[edit] External links
- Official Stargate Atlantis site. MGM. Visited June 8, 2006.
- Transcript from GateWorld. Transcribed by Callie Sullivan. Visited May 14, 2006.
- Summary from GateWorld. Visited May 14, 2006.
- Review from GateWorld. Reviewed by Sharon Fetter. Visited May 14, 2006.
- Gatenoise from Moon-catchin'. Visited June 23, 2006.
