Wormhole Drive & SGU?

[Technobuilder]

Okay, now I don't remember where I came across the idea originally, but when Atlantis was winding down, and the Wormhole Drive concept was first introduced... I recall hearing something about how that concept had been written in kind of last minute to foreshadow something else that was coming down the pipeline.

Now, assuming I'm not remembering this wrong to begin with, what project were they referring to at the time...

The SG1 & Atlantis Movies?

or

The SGU spin-off?

Was/is the Wormhole drive supposed to factor into the series of SGU at some point? Because I could swear I heard that mentioned.

 

[Harvey]

That might be the way the Destiny travels between galaxies. But I don't recall the reasoning behind it's introduction. It's easily the most jarring moment in the Atlantis finale--it just pops out of nowhere.

 

[Brent]

The more jarring thing IMO is the fact they DIDN'T EVEN SHOW IT IN ACTION. They mention it, and it is all done off screen, all the sudden Atlantis is near Earth. A TOTAL let down for Atlantis returning home.

As for your idea, I don't recall it having to do anything with SGU, never heard that before. I can see though how it might be used to rescue or at least attempt to rescue the people on the Destiny. Although I don't see where it is entirely necessary for that, put a few ZPM's in our ships with Asgard Hyperdrive and they should be able to fly there in a month or less. This is going on the fact that with 1 ZPM it takes our ship to get to Pegasus in 3 days, and going on the fact they've traveled roughly 30 or so galaxies away in a straight line, and considering more ZPMs would allow the ship to go faster, then surely they could catch up to it in less than a month.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think I read somewhere that the intent was to use it in the Atlantis movie(s).

However, I do wish they would address it in SGU. Either have an Earth starship use the wormhole drive to Destiny's location, rescue everyone and go home, or at least explain why this can't be done. Destiny's too far out, no way to generate enough power, McKay's working on something better, plot contrivance #348, or whatever. Completely ignoring its existence is jarring.

 

[Kpnuts]

I've been trying to forget that totally ridiculous aspect from the Atlantis finale.

"wormhole drive" - ffs. Symbolises everything that's been wrong with SG and the writers for years.

 

[EyalM]

Isn't there also some wormhole powered stargate around from the Ori business that they can use to dial Destiny?

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

I didn't mind the IDEA of wormhole drive (it stands to reason that with a big enough power source you could theoretically create a wormhole without a stargate) but the execution was ridiculous.
Zelenka: Oh, by the way, we made a wormhole drive so we can get to Earth before the episode ends...I mean, before the Wraith kill everybody.

 

[Brent]

Well, THEY didn't make it, it was Ancient technology that was being developed toward their end, experimental, but of course our team manages to make it work just in the nick of time, heh

I still think it was a huge letdown not to see it in use, and not to get that big Atlantis coming home entrance, we should have seen the Wormhole drive in action, Atlantis coming through near Earth, and we should have seen them land Atlantis on Earth.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

A what now? A stargate CREATES a wormhole every time!

I'm sorta betting that Destiny's FTL drive is some variant of the wormhole drive that made its miraculous appearance on Atlantis - and that they are changing the name (but not the lead-in concept) at least until Rush figures out how the drive works in the first place.

Spoiler: Spoilers for "Lost"

We know that the've been in the same galaxy so far, and are about to leave this one. The FTL drive seems no faster than whatever is powering the ships back home, but in order to get between galaxies in a reasonable amount of time they may need to whip up something faster, unless they're gonna build in several weeks or months of uneventful travel into the story.

Mark

 

[Brent]

^ They did it a couple eps back, the trip they took around the Star, where the team was on the planet, they were there for a month. That entire episode took about a month of time, so I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled a time jump on us while the ship is traveling to the next galaxy. It'll be like BSG, the next episode will take place like a year later, heh. I would not be surprised.

 

[DWF]

The more jarring thing IMO is the fact they DIDN'T EVEN SHOW IT IN ACTION. They mention it, and it is all done off screen, all the sudden Atlantis is near Earth. A TOTAL let down for Atlantis returning home.

I think they were pushing the visual effects budget as it was, so not seeing it didn't bother me, we had space battles and dogfights so I wasn't too worried about it.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I've been trying to forget that totally ridiculous aspect from the Atlantis finale.

"wormhole drive" - ffs. Symbolises everything that's been wrong with SG and the writers for years.

THIS.

Wormhole drive = plot drive. Also travels at the speed of plot!

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I think that's the point. The wormhole drive was COMPLETELY unnecessary to the plot. They could have saved a couple minutes of tech-filled dialogue by simply having Atlantis show up in the nick of time ANYWAY, without having to speed bump and explain this mystical new FTL thing that Zelenka just happened to have in his pocket.

Mark

 

[David cgc]

I think they were pushing the visual effects budget as it was, so not seeing it didn't bother me, we had space battles and dogfights so I wasn't too worried about it.

Oh, certainly. And it was a little disappointing how their reach exceeded their grasp. Still, if they'd had any slack to spare, it wouldn't have been that tough to do. They already had the effect for the Supergate, after all. Take that, delete the gate, fray the edges of the puddle, and you're there.

 

[SG-17]

Well, THEY didn't make it, it was Ancient technology that was being developed toward their end, experimental, but of course our team manages to make it work just in the nick of time, heh

Well Zelenka did say that McKay had been working on it for some time.

 

[The Wormhole]

Isn't there also some wormhole powered stargate around from the Ori business that they can use to dial Destiny?

Are you talking about the Supergate? If so, that requires another Supergate to make a connection. And since Supergates seem to be an Ori development, there likely aren't any in the galaxy Destiny's in.

Well Zelenka did say that McKay had been working on it for some time.

However, the finale was the first time it was mentioned, making it seem cheap. Perhaps if there was some throw-away referance in an earlier episode it might have worked better.

 

[Brent]

Indeed, mention about it much sooner would have been better, as it is it seems they created it out of thin air just for the finale, i.e., it was thrown together as a plot device.