- Perhaps the only way to preserve your people now is to preserve their memory. If you die, they will be forgotten. Their deaths will go unrecorded, and the Wraith will have won. Or leave here with us now, and keep the spirit of your people alive inside you. Document their achievements, their struggles and triumphs. Tell their story to anyone who will listen. The choice is yours.— Teyla
Tropes:
- The Ark: Strangely enough, it's only the minds of the refugee passengers that survive the extinction-level event, by means of uploading their consciousnesses into the base.
- Continuous Decompression: Played straight when Herick tries to vent all of the moon's atmosphere - then averted with McKay's chamber. When he sees the Ominous Crack, he just puts on his space helmet, holds onto the door handle for a few seconds while the air escapes, then opens the door and leaves.
- Driven to Suicide: Herick was in the first group of survivors to be uploaded on the moonbase. The second group - among which were his wife and children - never made it; the Wraith attacked before they could launch, and his planet's leadership had no choice but to abandon them. Consumed with grief and anger, Herick commits suicide by airlock, destabilizing the moon's orbit in the process, and dooming everyone on the base. He does warn the Atlantis team to leave first, but he's too distraught to get into specifics and they end up staying long enough to be trapped.
- Gallows Humor: McKay, more so than usual in this episode. "Okay, here's the How-Screwed-Are-We Report, Part One."
- Improbable Piloting Skills: Sheppard decides to pilot what basically amounts to a flaming rock because he "always wanted to fly a space shuttle." And it works, somehow.Lorne: I think he’s crazy. The thing’s how many hundred years old? And it’s out of fuel.
Ronon: He said he could fly it. - Leave No Survivors: The people who built the moonbase ensured their world would be rendered lifeless for a long time after their war with the Wraith, so that the Wraith would disregard it in the future and their people could rebuild free of any cullings.
- Ominous Crack: McKay is spooked by a piece of debris hitting the window of the control room, which seems to be undamaged. Then it starts to crack. Luckily, he already has his space suit mostly on.
- Reentry Scare: When Herick fires the shuttle's engines, he destabilizes the moon's orbit. To make things worse, Jamus traps himself and Teyla in the storage device so Sheppard will have to save his people, meaning Sheppard has to ride the moon to the surface in the shuttle.
- Schizo Tech: Invoked. Most of the technology on the moonbase is on par with Space Race-era Earth, with a few enhancements like artificial gravity, reverse-engineered from salvaged Wraith tech.
- Teleporters and Transporters: The inhabitants of the Ark are stored in a Wraith beaming device.
