Echoes

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Atlantis Season 3
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Season 2				Season 4

"Echoes" is the twelfth episode of the third season of Stargate Atlantis.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 References 2 Notable Quotes 3 Background notes 4 External links

[edit] Plot

Dr. Zelenka, Ronon, and John Sheppard are in a Puddle Jumper returning from an expedition on the mainland to document and hunt local fauna. As they return, Zelenka notices that Atlantis does not appear on the sensors properly. After adjusting their direction by forty degrees they are on the proper course towards Atlantis again.

Teyla Emmagan begins to see repeat visions of Ancients on Atlantis. First she is assumed to be under stress, but after a while other people in the city begin to see the same visions.

Meanwhile, McKay and Sheppard notice a sea creature which Rodney has named "Sam" (after Samantha Carter), because he believes it to be the same one that led Sheppard and Zelenka to rescue McKay from a damaged Jumper on the ocean floor. After using Atlantis' sensors to find another of the sea creatures, much larger than "Sam", they decide to take a Puddle Jumper to investigate closer. During a close encounter with the sea creatures, Sheppard and McKay develop intense headaches and McKay falls unconscious.

In the infirmary, Zelenka explains that the sea creatures emit a low frequency pulse and an electromagnetic field which, in combination, are very dangerous to humans. Very soon, most of the city is affected by this. Many victims are transported to the Daedalus, now orbiting the planet, but there are too many in the city to all be relocated.

During his recovery, McKay uses his tablet to locate an Ancient bio-lab dedicated to studying the native marine life and manages to translate what the whales are saying. The Atlantean whales are warning that the sun is about to send out a gigantic coronal mass ejection (similar to a solar flare) straight at the Lantean planet and although the shield will protect Atlantis, the radiation wave will kill all plant and animal life on the planet and destroy the atmosphere, thereby depleting any breathable oxygen. The whales are congregating underneath Atlantis' shield for protection.

The visions that people have been seeing are a genetic memory that the whales have of this catastrophe, which happens every 15,000 years. The Lanteans were experimenting with communicating with these creatures when this traumatic event occurred. An Ancient ship was near to the sun when the ejection began and most of its crew were killed immediately by the radiation. The pilot managed to jump to hyperspace and overtake the radiation wave before it reached Atlantis and warn the people there.

Now knowing what is happening, the team consult the Ancient database and discover that the last time this happened the Ancients managed to temporarily expand the city's shield to encompass a large percentage of the planets surface. Unfortunately, with only one functioning ZPM, McKay is only able to expand the shield by a radius of a few kilometers.

In order to save Atlantis as well as the planet, Sheppard comes up with the idea to transfer the ZPM to the Daedalus and move the ship into position between the sun and the planet. When the coronal mass ejection begins, the shields aboard the Daedalus (boosted by the ZPM) successfully deflect the emission away from the planet, with the Daedalus sustaining only minor thermal damage in the attempt.

[edit] References

Adaris, Coronal mass ejection, Daedalus, Flagisallus, Zero Point Module

[edit] Notable Quotes

Weir: And how do you know he's a "he"?
McKay: Oh, because I cross referenced the renderings in the database with the whale outside and you'll see...the males have a rather prominent-
Weir: Uh, that's okay, nevermind...I'll take your word for it.

Sheppard: So these whales, did the Ancients say they're good eating?
McKay: Oh, you wouldn't.
Sheppard: I would.

Sheppard: The pain's going away; I think my hearing is getting better too. (to McKay) How 'bout you? (yells) Rodney!
(McKay gives no response)
Sheppard: Canadian Football League's a joke. Celine Dion is overrated. (yells) Zelenka is smarter than you are!
McKay: (yelling) Hey! I found mention of a bio-lab in the database! Ancient scientists used it to study animal life, we should check it out!
Sheppard: Okay...Meredith.

[edit] Background notes

• Three ZPMs were installed in Atlantis to power the Stardrive during the Asuran invasion in "The Return, Part 2", which were recovered by the expedition when they reclaimed the city. One ZPM is being used by Atlantis, while the other two are being used to power the Ancient outpost in Antarctica and the Odyssey.
• There are new areas of the city that can be explored due to the repairs completed by the Asurans, such as the lab discovered by Rodney.
• The Lantean name of the alien "whale" species is Flagisallus.
• How the whales could forecast the flare well in advance of the sensors on Atlantis is not explained in the episode, but reference is made to Terran animals having similar ability to sense natural disasters.
• When McKay and Sheppard discover the second flagisallus circling the city, Sheppard remarks that it's "the size of a football field," whereupon McKay replies, "Canadian football field." American football fields differ in size depending on whether they are high school, college, or NFL, but he is most likely referring to professional football. In this case, Sheppard believes the flagisalis to be around 360 feet (110 m) long. Canadian football fields, however, are larger, so McKay is saying that the flagisalis is closer to 450 feet (140 m) long.

[edit] External links

• Echoes on the official Sci Fi Channel website.