SGA canon question

[sholio]

In mid season five, did Atlantis have the capability to dial back to Earth? I'm trying to figure out how Jeannie got home after Shrine ... would she have had to go back on the Daedalus or could she have gone back directly?

I just don't remember what their ZPM situation was at the time.

Comments

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I believe they still had ZPM(s) from the opening of season 3. As I recall, they didn't have any of those 'zomg we've blown up/drained/accidentally misplaced the ZPM' episodes after that.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

But they drained the ZPMs in Adrift at the start of season four, didn't they? After that, all the episodes I remember in which they gated someone directly to Earth were during the time the Midway station was up and running, and I don't remember any subsequent episodes when they opened a direct gate to Earth.

... waitaminute, Brainstorm would have needed a direct gate, wouldn't it? And obviously they had the capability in the series finale.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Here's another one for you. If you need a ZPM to generate the energy to get from one galaxy to another, but you can usually dial a gate with the local power source...what was fueling all of the interstellar gates? Did each of them have an equipped naquadah generator? Not much explanation there.

[ratcreature]

I think every gate is supposed to have a power source built in for regular distances (except perhaps for the one on earth because it wasn't complete with the DHD missing I guess), so when they stole collected the gates they presumably had enough that they wouldn't need extra power anymore, with each jump going a little way or something like that.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

They steal another ZPM in the episode after Adrift, btw. From the Replicators.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Ah, right! I forgot about that ... and that's probably the one they're using throughout the fourth and fifth seasons.

[ariadne83]

I don't think we were supposed to notice that particular plothole.

They would've needed a ZPM for First Contact too, since the shield was activated and then collapsed around the Stargate. Basically, they had them when they needed them but we don't know how.

[sqweakie.livejournal.com]

Didn't they have a ZPM during Prodigal? Something about how it was off line. I doubt that answers you're question because who knows if it had enough energy or not to dial Earth.

[ladyoflisquill.livejournal.com]

Not v helpful but what I remember from Shrine is that jeannie was coming in on the Deadalus but was dropped off at the first Pegasus planet with a gate so she could get to Atlantis quicker because Woolsey wasn't sure she'd have a chance to say goodbye otherwise.

I doubt her return to Earth would have been given urgent priority so she would have had to return on the Deadalus too.

[leesa_perrie]

I'm pretty sure they had a working ZPM throughout Season 4 and 5 (the one they stole from the Replicators in Lifeline). Whether Jeannie would have warranted using the ZPM to send her back to Earth or not, I don't know. In Brain Storm, we get the impression that Rodney and Jennifer gated back to Earth for a vacation, but perhaps that's because they didn't want to be without their Head of Science/Chief Medic (or whatever her title is!) for longer than necessary? Hmm... Anyway, they certainly could have gated Jeannie back.

[ga-unicorn.livejournal.com]

They got really free-and-easy with the 'gating-back-to-Earth thing the last couple of seasons. Supposedly keeping it open long enough to send a person through used up an exponentially larger amount of power than just sending the weekly data-burst. And yet people kept being sent back to the Milky Way that way.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yeah; at least you could handwave it when the gate bridge was up and running (though in that case, they used to conveniently skip the supposedly mandatory quarantine period for dramatic convenience unless the plot required it ...).