Finally, here's my review of Tracker!
Given the quality of the previous two episodes Whispers and The Queen, and given the preview of Tracker (Keller gets kidnapped...again[1]?), I had extremely low expectations of this episode.
Anyway, here are some notes I took while I watched the episode.
- While it's understandable for Sheppard to be surprised that Rodney would volunteer for a humanitarian mission on his day off... in the alternate timeline he experienced in Season 4, alt-Rodney told him that he and Jennifer were in a relationship. So why would Sheppard act surprised, if he should know that Rodney would fall for Jennifer?
- So, Ronon asks why the people on the other planet are sick, and she tells him it's like an Earth disease, influenza. How does that help Ronon?
- Didn't we see this episode before? Wasn't it Missing?
- Did Keller ACTUALLY think she could outrun her captor?
- We're almost halfway into the episode, and so far, it's been a lot of walking and chasing. Wow, it's so exciting and interesting.
- So, Keller has been kidnapped to save the life of a dying child. Again I say, didn't we see this episode before? Wasn't it Miller's Crossing?
- Hmm... a Wraith wandered into the child's cave. This must be where Ronon shows up. ... ... ... Oh, Keller killed him. My bad.
- Geez, Ronon's tracking ability borders on a psychic power.
- Umm... Keller is attempting to fight Wraith? With a stick?
I'll give this one a back-handed compliment: It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, and towards the end, it got fun. Granted, the first half of the episode, when Keller and her captor, Kiryk, were en route to their destination, was boring. Once Kiryk started opening up, things got more interesting. Kiryk seemed like he has potential to be interesting, and he and Ronon could've had some character growth by teaching him how to be "human" again. But we probably won't see him any more. Alas.
Some people on Usenet pointed out that given the high rate of kidnapping on these missions, Rodney and Ronon absolutely should not have wandered so far away when Keller was treating her patient in private. They also noted that the Wraith seem to be getting easier and easier to kill, if Keller can take one out (referring to the one she stabbed in the cave). However, as the discussion progressed, someone pointed out that a doctor would know a good spot to drive in the knife.
The Rodney/Ronon/Keller situation was a little interesting, although I think Ronon might be exaggerating his interest in Keller to give Rodney a hard time. The episode could've been a little more interesting if, when Keller was trying to break up the fight between Kiryk and Ronon, Ronon had accidentally injured Keller. I know that is kind of a cliche. But during the episode, I had no concern for Keller's well-being at all. I don't think Keller should've been in mortal danger, but I wish the writers had done something to shake things up a little, like putting the characters' psyches and relationships with each other in danger. Given that Ronon may have some romantic interest in Keller, that certainly would've affected their dynamic.
[1] Amusingly, Jewel Staite complained at Comic-Con about getting kidnapped in the woods for a second time.
Showing posts with label stargate atlantis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stargate atlantis. Show all posts
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Stargate Atlantis Reviews: Whispers and The Queen
Whispers (507): Not awful, but not great. I was disappointed that the characters fell prey to horror movie cliches, like splitting up, wandering off at the peak of danger, and refusing to follow orders when sternly told to stay inside and lock the door. Also, there was a Pegasus human civilian whom they met upon arrival, he disappeared for a while, showed up later, and then died horribly. How did he survive in the interim? I think it would've been funny if the tough solder, Sgt. Dusty Wells (Mr. Entity called her "Rambette"), developed a crush on Dr. Beckett. Imagine him squirming uncomfortably as she hit on him. Heh.
The episode's biggest flaw was that it was dull.
I have one small gripe: I find it completely out of character that Sheppard didn't know he had all-female team. :P My first thought was that Sheppard would've noticed all those attractive women in one place. But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that Sheppard was ignorant about his teams, in general. First, given the high (government) classification of the Stargate program, there "should" be only a small pool of people to draw from, so it's not like there'd be a lot of unfamiliar faces. Second, given the various threats that Atlantis faces, it's important to know who both is and ISN'T supposed to be there; unfamiliar faces, teams, etc., should raise red flags. Ahh well...
The Queen (508): Let me put it to you this way. Mr. Entity, who is much more tolerant of less-than-great episodes than I am, said several times, "This is dumb."
This episode had numerous problems.
1. Dr. Keller, a relatively new arrival who's hardly had any screen time and background, has suddenly developed something (gene therapy, I assume?) to prevent the Wraith from feeding on humans? I realize that she used Michael's data, and Keller is very intelligent, but it still seems like this happened awfully quickly.
2. Telling Todd about this gene therapy was STUPID. Sure, Todd has teamed up with them in the past, but those instances provided clear benefits to both sides. What the Atlantis team was proposing would fundamentally alter the Wraith's way of life, and it was something that the Wraith had very little incentive to want. I recall that The Team's reasoning was that humans were a dwindling resource, so if the Wraith could feed on "normal" food, there wouldn't be competition for resources and hence would be less warring among the tribes. However, given that a previous Wraith tribe wanted to use Beckett's retrovirus to turn rival Wraiths into humans to feed upon, a safe assumption would be that, had Todd agreed to The Team's plan, his goal would be the same: neuter other Wraiths so that "his" Wraiths could feed upon them. The Team has been down this moral road before: It's one thing to kill Wraith, it's another thing to turn them into humans and allow them to die. Making an offer like this to a Wraith, without considering what would happen if he turned on them, was very irresponsible. And not only that, the last time they did something like this, it didn't work out so well. Plus, what Wraith would be stupid enough to make the first move and trust the other Wraith NOT to turn on him?
3. Take a drink every time Ronon says he thinks this is a bad idea! Take a drink every time Ronon threatens to kill Todd! Ronon's lines sounded like they were automatically generated.
4. Todd got an audience with The Primary, the Supreme Queen...just like that? No appointment making, no two week wait, no bribing of the secretary...?
5. Teyla seemed shocked that Todd changed the deal on her by murdering The Primary and forcing her (Teyla) to take the blame. I can't believe The Team didn't prepare for Todd to change the terms of the deal. I realize it was a lot more "dramatic" for Teyla to be caught off guard and put into a life-or-death situation, but it was extremely cliched and unoriginal. It showed that The Team hardly thought through the mission: they transformed Teyla physically and expected her to persuade The Primary that being transformed into humans was a good idea, just like that? It would've been much more interesting if they had essentially prepared some scenarios (plans A, B, C, D, E...), rehearsed them several times, thought through several incentives to pitch to the primary...and then seen all the planning thrown out the window by The Primary's hive -- not Todd -- doing something completely unexpected, forcing Todd and Teyla to work together to come up with a way out. Having Todd in so much control over the situation just emphasized what a horribly bad idea this was. The writers not only depicted The Team as being idiots, but the writers also presented a predictable, cookie-cutter situation.
6. Todd should have given Teyla a crash course on Wraith social behavior. Again, as I said above, they needed several well-rehearsed scenarios.
7. So, The Team made their way to the hive ship that Teyla and Todd were on, and they got captured. And Teyla went to talk to them in their prison cells. And The Primary's old second-in-command, who immediately distrusted Teyla (naturally), overheard Teyla talking to The Team. Wow. I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming.
8. Finally, at the end, Todd was left in control of the hive as the new "Primary"'s (Teyla's) proxy, he informed Teyla that he wasn't going to implement Atlantis' plan, and he sent Teyla on her way. Wow, I'm sure Todd will NEVER think of using all this power for his own gain, and especially to strike at Atlantis! Especially since he knows about their sooper seekrit plan!
Again, this whole thing was just stupid. The Team went through with an extremely risky play, allied with someone who is extremely intelligent, dangerous, and obviously has his own agenda, and they didn't leave behind any reins with which to control him. Nice going, writers! Your characters are officially idiots.
This episode made me think of the excellent TNG episode Face of the Enemy, how that the TNG episode was interesting and poignant, but that this Atlantis episode was embarrassing.
In some ways, what this comes down to, for me, is that I've never thought of the Wraith as good villains, and I'm getting tired of seeing them. They're one of those races that constantly leaves me wondering how they became spacefaring. They're too one-dimensional. Sure, we've learned more bits and pieces about them over time (e.g. they can give back life/strength to humans, just as they can take it). But they have no personality, no culture. All they do is fight and feed. They're what would be leftover from Klingons if you sucked away all of their personality.
The biggest thing about the Wraith which makes them so uninteresting to me is that they can never be allied with. Ever. They see humans the way that (non-vegetarian) humans see cattle. With SG-1, we had the Goa'uld as somewhat two-dimensional villains, but they were clever and interesting. Then we eventually had the Tok'Ra, who showed us that there could be a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and symbiotes. In other words, simply having a symbiote didn't make one evil, it was what you DID with it that made you evil. How can we ever say the same of the Wraith?
Wouldn't the Wraith be more interesting if we found out that the Wraith we've been shown were exceptions to "normal" Wraith? What if the Wraith we've seen came about through evolutionary necessity? Perhaps they got cut off from "normal" Wraith, and they had to evolve a way to feed on humans to survive? Or what if "normal" Wraith "evolved" socially and came to see feeding on humans as sinful, similar to how humans sometimes decide that eating animals is wrong and choose to be vegetarians? And then, what if those Wraith saw "our" Wraith as abominations? That would be somewhat interesting. From what we've seen in 5 years of Atlantis, all Wraith across the entire galaxy are exactly the same. This is disappointing.
The episode's biggest flaw was that it was dull.
I have one small gripe: I find it completely out of character that Sheppard didn't know he had all-female team. :P My first thought was that Sheppard would've noticed all those attractive women in one place. But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that Sheppard was ignorant about his teams, in general. First, given the high (government) classification of the Stargate program, there "should" be only a small pool of people to draw from, so it's not like there'd be a lot of unfamiliar faces. Second, given the various threats that Atlantis faces, it's important to know who both is and ISN'T supposed to be there; unfamiliar faces, teams, etc., should raise red flags. Ahh well...
The Queen (508): Let me put it to you this way. Mr. Entity, who is much more tolerant of less-than-great episodes than I am, said several times, "This is dumb."
This episode had numerous problems.
1. Dr. Keller, a relatively new arrival who's hardly had any screen time and background, has suddenly developed something (gene therapy, I assume?) to prevent the Wraith from feeding on humans? I realize that she used Michael's data, and Keller is very intelligent, but it still seems like this happened awfully quickly.
2. Telling Todd about this gene therapy was STUPID. Sure, Todd has teamed up with them in the past, but those instances provided clear benefits to both sides. What the Atlantis team was proposing would fundamentally alter the Wraith's way of life, and it was something that the Wraith had very little incentive to want. I recall that The Team's reasoning was that humans were a dwindling resource, so if the Wraith could feed on "normal" food, there wouldn't be competition for resources and hence would be less warring among the tribes. However, given that a previous Wraith tribe wanted to use Beckett's retrovirus to turn rival Wraiths into humans to feed upon, a safe assumption would be that, had Todd agreed to The Team's plan, his goal would be the same: neuter other Wraiths so that "his" Wraiths could feed upon them. The Team has been down this moral road before: It's one thing to kill Wraith, it's another thing to turn them into humans and allow them to die. Making an offer like this to a Wraith, without considering what would happen if he turned on them, was very irresponsible. And not only that, the last time they did something like this, it didn't work out so well. Plus, what Wraith would be stupid enough to make the first move and trust the other Wraith NOT to turn on him?
3. Take a drink every time Ronon says he thinks this is a bad idea! Take a drink every time Ronon threatens to kill Todd! Ronon's lines sounded like they were automatically generated.
4. Todd got an audience with The Primary, the Supreme Queen...just like that? No appointment making, no two week wait, no bribing of the secretary...?
5. Teyla seemed shocked that Todd changed the deal on her by murdering The Primary and forcing her (Teyla) to take the blame. I can't believe The Team didn't prepare for Todd to change the terms of the deal. I realize it was a lot more "dramatic" for Teyla to be caught off guard and put into a life-or-death situation, but it was extremely cliched and unoriginal. It showed that The Team hardly thought through the mission: they transformed Teyla physically and expected her to persuade The Primary that being transformed into humans was a good idea, just like that? It would've been much more interesting if they had essentially prepared some scenarios (plans A, B, C, D, E...), rehearsed them several times, thought through several incentives to pitch to the primary...and then seen all the planning thrown out the window by The Primary's hive -- not Todd -- doing something completely unexpected, forcing Todd and Teyla to work together to come up with a way out. Having Todd in so much control over the situation just emphasized what a horribly bad idea this was. The writers not only depicted The Team as being idiots, but the writers also presented a predictable, cookie-cutter situation.
6. Todd should have given Teyla a crash course on Wraith social behavior. Again, as I said above, they needed several well-rehearsed scenarios.
7. So, The Team made their way to the hive ship that Teyla and Todd were on, and they got captured. And Teyla went to talk to them in their prison cells. And The Primary's old second-in-command, who immediately distrusted Teyla (naturally), overheard Teyla talking to The Team. Wow. I. Did. Not. See. That. Coming.
8. Finally, at the end, Todd was left in control of the hive as the new "Primary"'s (Teyla's) proxy, he informed Teyla that he wasn't going to implement Atlantis' plan, and he sent Teyla on her way. Wow, I'm sure Todd will NEVER think of using all this power for his own gain, and especially to strike at Atlantis! Especially since he knows about their sooper seekrit plan!
Again, this whole thing was just stupid. The Team went through with an extremely risky play, allied with someone who is extremely intelligent, dangerous, and obviously has his own agenda, and they didn't leave behind any reins with which to control him. Nice going, writers! Your characters are officially idiots.
This episode made me think of the excellent TNG episode Face of the Enemy, how that the TNG episode was interesting and poignant, but that this Atlantis episode was embarrassing.
In some ways, what this comes down to, for me, is that I've never thought of the Wraith as good villains, and I'm getting tired of seeing them. They're one of those races that constantly leaves me wondering how they became spacefaring. They're too one-dimensional. Sure, we've learned more bits and pieces about them over time (e.g. they can give back life/strength to humans, just as they can take it). But they have no personality, no culture. All they do is fight and feed. They're what would be leftover from Klingons if you sucked away all of their personality.
The biggest thing about the Wraith which makes them so uninteresting to me is that they can never be allied with. Ever. They see humans the way that (non-vegetarian) humans see cattle. With SG-1, we had the Goa'uld as somewhat two-dimensional villains, but they were clever and interesting. Then we eventually had the Tok'Ra, who showed us that there could be a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and symbiotes. In other words, simply having a symbiote didn't make one evil, it was what you DID with it that made you evil. How can we ever say the same of the Wraith?
Wouldn't the Wraith be more interesting if we found out that the Wraith we've been shown were exceptions to "normal" Wraith? What if the Wraith we've seen came about through evolutionary necessity? Perhaps they got cut off from "normal" Wraith, and they had to evolve a way to feed on humans to survive? Or what if "normal" Wraith "evolved" socially and came to see feeding on humans as sinful, similar to how humans sometimes decide that eating animals is wrong and choose to be vegetarians? And then, what if those Wraith saw "our" Wraith as abominations? That would be somewhat interesting. From what we've seen in 5 years of Atlantis, all Wraith across the entire galaxy are exactly the same. This is disappointing.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Stargate Atlantis: Cancellation and Season 5 so far
I heard last Friday that SciFi has canceled Stargate Atlantis.
I am definitely not going to say that I am glad the show was canceled, but I am not surprised. Season 4 had some good episodes (Adrift, Lifeline, Be All My Sins Remember'd), some real stinkers (Quarantine and Harmony; IMO, Harmony is runner-up to "worst Atlantis episode ever", behind season 3's Irresistible), but overall was bland. Colonel Carter was both underused and misused: she was hardly there, and when she was, rather than being the brilliant scientist we loved from SG1, she was a bureaucrat. Seeing the writers treat the charater this way was very disappointing. The overall quality of the season left me with a feeling of uncertainty at each new episode (would it be good??), rather one of feeling of excitement.
Season 5 didn't get off to a great start. First, the aforementioned Col. Carter is unceremoniously dismissed. Sure, Amanda Tapping's web series Sanctuary got picked up by SciFi, making her unavailable for Atlantis, but that didn't mean the writers had to make the character leave in such a disrespectful manner. Carter's exit from the "Stargateverse" deserved fanfare, trumpets, a ticket-tape parade, a 21-Jaffa-staff-weapon salute...the works.
And then there was also the Weir/Higginson situation.
In short, the past two seasons, the writers have been on cruise control with rehashed and scifi-cliche storylines (e.g. The Seed, discussed below), and they have not treated many of the characters with respect. Cancellation is not a surprise.
Regarding the episodes themselves, Search and Rescue was good, The Seed was cliched and awful (wow, an alien parasite invades a character we've barely met? oh, the drama and originality...), Broken Ties was decent but pointless, and The Daedalus Variations had potential to be interesting but ended up falling flat. Given that there was no concern whether the characters would come back, they should have written something far more interesting than...whether or not the characters would come back. For example, did they do anything interesting while they were lost? Since it was one of the better episodes of the season so far, what does that tell you?
Ghost in the Machine was pretty good, but it definitely had flaws. The Replicators' threat of sinking the city if the humans didn't cooperate was stupid. Surely the Replicators knew that if the humans die, the humans couldn't help them...right? (Right?) I also, in general, dislike the scifi cliche of how entities possessing computers end up displaying text on the screen. Why do the letters show up one by one in a terminal-style font? Do they invoke a text editor and then "type" into it? Why not just manipulate the pixels directly, instantly showing a screenful of information, while, say, displaying their message in a flowing Edwardian script? Nevermind; that is a discussion for another time. The best part of the episode was how Michelle Morgan, who previously played the Replicator character "FRAN", portrayed Repli-Weir. She did an excellent job of imitating Torri Higginson's Weir's body language and vocal style. Also, since Higginson was not going to be back as Weir, the reason for Weir's appearing as Fran made sense and was a clever idea.
I have one major grievance with that episode. I am getting really, really sick of the following conversation template:
*crisis occurs; team is about to meet their doom*
Ronon/Sheppard/Teyla: Rodney, figure out what's wrong or we're all dead!
Rodney: I'm working on it! Just give me a minute!
Ro-Shep-Tey: We don't have a minute! Figure it out now! My yelling at you will force you to think faster!
That behavior was understandable in season 1: after all, the characters were in crises and were panicing, but now, it's just old. And annoying.
The latest episode, The Shrine, obviously brought back memories of season 3's Tao of Rodney, as it pretty much used the same formula: Rodney, the most arrogant and inconsiderate person on the expedition, gets an affliction which, at first, causes a personality change that is amusing but will ultimately kill him, and along the way, everyone realizes how much they care about each other. I went into both episodes not expecting them to be good, and both times, I was pleasantly surprised. Regarding The Shrine, seeing Rodney and Jeannie together is always fun, and Rodney, Jeannie, Sheppard, and Keller did a great job presenting a dramatic and emotional situation. (I was getting a bit misty-eyed towards the end, even though I expected a Star Trek ending.) My only serious complaint is that Zelenka needed to be in the episode more. I mean, if Rodney is going off to have one final day with the important people in his life, Zelenka should be there. And it would've provided a great "Rodney moment" at the Shrine, after he gained lucidity: he could've made a snarky comment about why, out of all the people in Atlantis, they thought they should bring Zelenka? ;)
I am definitely not going to say that I am glad the show was canceled, but I am not surprised. Season 4 had some good episodes (Adrift, Lifeline, Be All My Sins Remember'd), some real stinkers (Quarantine and Harmony; IMO, Harmony is runner-up to "worst Atlantis episode ever", behind season 3's Irresistible), but overall was bland. Colonel Carter was both underused and misused: she was hardly there, and when she was, rather than being the brilliant scientist we loved from SG1, she was a bureaucrat. Seeing the writers treat the charater this way was very disappointing. The overall quality of the season left me with a feeling of uncertainty at each new episode (would it be good??), rather one of feeling of excitement.
Season 5 didn't get off to a great start. First, the aforementioned Col. Carter is unceremoniously dismissed. Sure, Amanda Tapping's web series Sanctuary got picked up by SciFi, making her unavailable for Atlantis, but that didn't mean the writers had to make the character leave in such a disrespectful manner. Carter's exit from the "Stargateverse" deserved fanfare, trumpets, a ticket-tape parade, a 21-Jaffa-staff-weapon salute...the works.
And then there was also the Weir/Higginson situation.
In short, the past two seasons, the writers have been on cruise control with rehashed and scifi-cliche storylines (e.g. The Seed, discussed below), and they have not treated many of the characters with respect. Cancellation is not a surprise.
Regarding the episodes themselves, Search and Rescue was good, The Seed was cliched and awful (wow, an alien parasite invades a character we've barely met? oh, the drama and originality...), Broken Ties was decent but pointless, and The Daedalus Variations had potential to be interesting but ended up falling flat. Given that there was no concern whether the characters would come back, they should have written something far more interesting than...whether or not the characters would come back. For example, did they do anything interesting while they were lost? Since it was one of the better episodes of the season so far, what does that tell you?
Ghost in the Machine was pretty good, but it definitely had flaws. The Replicators' threat of sinking the city if the humans didn't cooperate was stupid. Surely the Replicators knew that if the humans die, the humans couldn't help them...right? (Right?) I also, in general, dislike the scifi cliche of how entities possessing computers end up displaying text on the screen. Why do the letters show up one by one in a terminal-style font? Do they invoke a text editor and then "type" into it? Why not just manipulate the pixels directly, instantly showing a screenful of information, while, say, displaying their message in a flowing Edwardian script? Nevermind; that is a discussion for another time. The best part of the episode was how Michelle Morgan, who previously played the Replicator character "FRAN", portrayed Repli-Weir. She did an excellent job of imitating Torri Higginson's Weir's body language and vocal style. Also, since Higginson was not going to be back as Weir, the reason for Weir's appearing as Fran made sense and was a clever idea.
I have one major grievance with that episode. I am getting really, really sick of the following conversation template:
*crisis occurs; team is about to meet their doom*
Ronon/Sheppard/Teyla: Rodney, figure out what's wrong or we're all dead!
Rodney: I'm working on it! Just give me a minute!
Ro-Shep-Tey: We don't have a minute! Figure it out now! My yelling at you will force you to think faster!
That behavior was understandable in season 1: after all, the characters were in crises and were panicing, but now, it's just old. And annoying.
The latest episode, The Shrine, obviously brought back memories of season 3's Tao of Rodney, as it pretty much used the same formula: Rodney, the most arrogant and inconsiderate person on the expedition, gets an affliction which, at first, causes a personality change that is amusing but will ultimately kill him, and along the way, everyone realizes how much they care about each other. I went into both episodes not expecting them to be good, and both times, I was pleasantly surprised. Regarding The Shrine, seeing Rodney and Jeannie together is always fun, and Rodney, Jeannie, Sheppard, and Keller did a great job presenting a dramatic and emotional situation. (I was getting a bit misty-eyed towards the end, even though I expected a Star Trek ending.) My only serious complaint is that Zelenka needed to be in the episode more. I mean, if Rodney is going off to have one final day with the important people in his life, Zelenka should be there. And it would've provided a great "Rodney moment" at the Shrine, after he gained lucidity: he could've made a snarky comment about why, out of all the people in Atlantis, they thought they should bring Zelenka? ;)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Stargate Atlantis - Season 5 Episode #4 - The Daedalus Variations
This was one of the better episodes of Season 5. Of course, that's not saying much: We're only 4 episodes into the season, and I didn't think #2 (The Seed) and #3 (Broken Ties) were particularly good.
(Broken Ties provided closure for Ronon's previous episode with Tyre, Reunion, which was nice, but when the Season 5 DVD comes out, it's not like I'm going to watch that episode more than once. I didn't think The Seed was very good at all.)
I am a fan of shows that have season-long arcs. For example, I enjoyed how Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a "big bad" each season, and I've enjoyed the long-term stories that have been introduced on Atlantis (such as the Michael story arc). I like the suspense of a long story unfolding, I like watching episodes for clues and tidbits about the arcs, and and I like trying to predict what will happen. I also like episodes that contribute to the overall mythology of a series. (I think what I "really" like is re-watching episodes and realizing that some tidbit actually turned out to be important.) So, when I watch stand-alone episodes[1], I have very high expectations for them: They either need to be interesting or useful.
In order to be interesting, the adventure itself needs to be fun, suspensful, and worthwhile. On a show like Atlantis, unless the doctor is in peril, we know that there's a good chance the heroes are going to survive. (If Joss Whedon ever writes or directs an episode, worry! ;) ) Since there's no threat of death/damage/severe injury, what compels us to watch? Do the characters learn something about each other? Do the characters learn something about themselves? Do we learn something about them? For example, Trio provided the characters with a chance to bond with each other and be resourceful in a non-scifi situation, and Tao of Rodney showed us what kind of person Rodeny is deep down.
In order to be useful, the heroes need to come back with knowledge or technology they can use later on. For example, I thought Inferno was an average episode, but they came back with The Orion, which was important later on.
Getting back to The Dadealus Variations, I found the "interestingness" of the episode fairly average. I was obviously not concerned that the characters might not make it out alive. We knew Rodney would find a way to get them back in the episode's 42(ish) minute timeframe. I don't recall learning much about the characters, other than Ronon's blasé attitude about their alternate selves. Seeing Atlantis' planet in other realities was interesting, although this appears to be of little consequence in the grand scheme of things.
I think it would've been more interesting if the team got stuck in one of the alternate realities, and an alternate "A-team" had to get them back, somewhat of a reversal of what happened in McKay and Mrs. Miller[2]. That way, for once, "our" Atlantis wouldn't be the smartest A-team out there; they'd have to rely on someone else for a change. Imagine if an alternate Zelenka sent them back! Or, what if an alternate Lorne were in charge of Atlantis? Or, look at what happened in the SG-1 episode The Road Not Taken, where Carter got thrown into an alternate universe, and they didn't want to send her back? Imagine an alternate Atlantis deciding they were too useful to give up (perhaps due to the war with the unknown new aliens we saw in the episode), refusing to send them back, and our A-team fighting against alternate versions of themselves, in order to get back into their correct universe?[3]
The most useful thing about this episode is that Rodney comes back with the specs to make an alternate reality drive. Sure, Sheppard forbids him to make one, but as the Gateworld analysis points out, Woolsey or the IOA might have other ideas.
The episode's big mistake was the lack of follow up on the hostile aliens that the team encountered in the alternate reality. I kept expecting Sheppard to at least make a reference to them upon returning, such as, "We need to figure out who those aliens are so we can be ready for them if they show up in our reality."
The thing I disliked most about the episode was the, um, Sheppard-wank at the end (when Sheppard talked to alt-Sheppard). And would it really have hurt him to say, "We're just passing through from an alternate dimension"? I don't see why he had to be so coy about who they were and where they came from. For that matter, ISTR alt-Sheppard said that the Daedalus had been destroyed. Shouldn't he have been demanding to know who they were? (Or, you know, suspected that they were from an alternate reality and said as much?)
Overall, I give it 7/10.
[1] Perhaps this episode is leading into a season-long arc or is contributing to the series' mythology, and I just don't know it yet.
[2] Since Rodney got them back by basically reversing the alternate reality drive's course, obviously getting help from an alternate Atlantis would've been out of the question... unless McKay shut off the drive to buy time to think, and it took an alterante A-team to help him fix it...
[3] If they did something like this, no doubt I'd complain that it was too similar to the SG-1 episode, and why couldn't the writers come up with something original? Some people are just never happy. ;)
(Broken Ties provided closure for Ronon's previous episode with Tyre, Reunion, which was nice, but when the Season 5 DVD comes out, it's not like I'm going to watch that episode more than once. I didn't think The Seed was very good at all.)
I am a fan of shows that have season-long arcs. For example, I enjoyed how Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a "big bad" each season, and I've enjoyed the long-term stories that have been introduced on Atlantis (such as the Michael story arc). I like the suspense of a long story unfolding, I like watching episodes for clues and tidbits about the arcs, and and I like trying to predict what will happen. I also like episodes that contribute to the overall mythology of a series. (I think what I "really" like is re-watching episodes and realizing that some tidbit actually turned out to be important.) So, when I watch stand-alone episodes[1], I have very high expectations for them: They either need to be interesting or useful.
In order to be interesting, the adventure itself needs to be fun, suspensful, and worthwhile. On a show like Atlantis, unless the doctor is in peril, we know that there's a good chance the heroes are going to survive. (If Joss Whedon ever writes or directs an episode, worry! ;) ) Since there's no threat of death/damage/severe injury, what compels us to watch? Do the characters learn something about each other? Do the characters learn something about themselves? Do we learn something about them? For example, Trio provided the characters with a chance to bond with each other and be resourceful in a non-scifi situation, and Tao of Rodney showed us what kind of person Rodeny is deep down.
In order to be useful, the heroes need to come back with knowledge or technology they can use later on. For example, I thought Inferno was an average episode, but they came back with The Orion, which was important later on.
Getting back to The Dadealus Variations, I found the "interestingness" of the episode fairly average. I was obviously not concerned that the characters might not make it out alive. We knew Rodney would find a way to get them back in the episode's 42(ish) minute timeframe. I don't recall learning much about the characters, other than Ronon's blasé attitude about their alternate selves. Seeing Atlantis' planet in other realities was interesting, although this appears to be of little consequence in the grand scheme of things.
I think it would've been more interesting if the team got stuck in one of the alternate realities, and an alternate "A-team" had to get them back, somewhat of a reversal of what happened in McKay and Mrs. Miller[2]. That way, for once, "our" Atlantis wouldn't be the smartest A-team out there; they'd have to rely on someone else for a change. Imagine if an alternate Zelenka sent them back! Or, what if an alternate Lorne were in charge of Atlantis? Or, look at what happened in the SG-1 episode The Road Not Taken, where Carter got thrown into an alternate universe, and they didn't want to send her back? Imagine an alternate Atlantis deciding they were too useful to give up (perhaps due to the war with the unknown new aliens we saw in the episode), refusing to send them back, and our A-team fighting against alternate versions of themselves, in order to get back into their correct universe?[3]
The most useful thing about this episode is that Rodney comes back with the specs to make an alternate reality drive. Sure, Sheppard forbids him to make one, but as the Gateworld analysis points out, Woolsey or the IOA might have other ideas.
The episode's big mistake was the lack of follow up on the hostile aliens that the team encountered in the alternate reality. I kept expecting Sheppard to at least make a reference to them upon returning, such as, "We need to figure out who those aliens are so we can be ready for them if they show up in our reality."
The thing I disliked most about the episode was the, um, Sheppard-wank at the end (when Sheppard talked to alt-Sheppard). And would it really have hurt him to say, "We're just passing through from an alternate dimension"? I don't see why he had to be so coy about who they were and where they came from. For that matter, ISTR alt-Sheppard said that the Daedalus had been destroyed. Shouldn't he have been demanding to know who they were? (Or, you know, suspected that they were from an alternate reality and said as much?)
Overall, I give it 7/10.
[1] Perhaps this episode is leading into a season-long arc or is contributing to the series' mythology, and I just don't know it yet.
[2] Since Rodney got them back by basically reversing the alternate reality drive's course, obviously getting help from an alternate Atlantis would've been out of the question... unless McKay shut off the drive to buy time to think, and it took an alterante A-team to help him fix it...
[3] If they did something like this, no doubt I'd complain that it was too similar to the SG-1 episode, and why couldn't the writers come up with something original? Some people are just never happy. ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
