Stargate Atlantis Season 4
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
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401: Adrift 2007 September 28
(First watched 2007-09-28) Nice. A bit standard, but I enjoy watching the Atlantis team at crisis management.
The scenes with Carter and Dr. Lee felt really tacked-on. Obviously as the cast addition they didn't want to leave her out, but it reminded me of that woman from Riding With Death watching the action on a screen during the second half of the movie. I imagine it will pay off a bit more as this crisis concludes next episode.
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(First watched 2007-10-05) Acceptable. Not as many twists of problems as last episode, but it moved along some plot points. Weir (anti-Locutus?) is stuck with the Pegasus Replicators, who are now fighting the Wraith due to reactivated code. Atlantis is on a new planet (Five moons; two visible. Safe but for a large poisonous snake/reptile on land, which I'm guessing we'll see sooner or later.). Sam isn't officially part of the Atlantis team yet; I suppose that's next episode.
So this didn't strike me before, really, but considering this should be after the SG-1 movies, I guess the Atlantis Season 3 finale also must've taken place at that time. So even that early in a fictional sense the Ori had been taken care of, and whatever happens in Continuum had happened. This isn't the first time the SG-1/Atlantis tracks have been a bit uneven, like when SG-1 Season 9 began, then was immediately followed by an Atlantis conclusion that actually took place weeks prior.
Also, more Bill Lee! I don't suppose he'll be transferring over with Sam, but it's nice to see him again.
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403: Reunion 2007 October 12
(First watched 2007-10-12) A night of guests. Teal'c! I was not expecting him, but it was a Good Thing to see a small going-away scene for Sam at the SGC. Though considering the events of SG-1's finale, I would think Teal'c is internally balking when she says what a long time 10 years is. :) I believe he's the last of the original SG-1 cast to show up on Atlantis (the show, not the city). A more prominent guest role was for Mark Dacascos, Iron Chef America's chairman, as another surviving Satedan (Tyre?). His character actually survived the episode, so he could be back.
The episode didn't do much special. We knew Ronon wasn't really going to be leaving, which meant either the other Satedans would be killed, be bad guys, or he'd realize that Atlantis needed him more. Turned out to be the middle option: Wraith collaborators.
Fun to see Rodney hearing the rumors that the IOA picked their new leader based on expertise with Ancient and Replicator technology, and assuming they're putting him in charge and not Sam.
I believe this episode marked the change to their new uniforms, but... whoopty doo.
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404: Doppelganger 2007 October 19
(First watched 2007-10-19) At first I was worried this would be a rehash of SG-1's Cold Lazarus, but this crystal-based lifeform turned out quite different.
Good fun in Rodney's dream.
So Dr. Heightmeyer kicked the bucket... for a change, a change I didn't know was coming. However, as a viewer it doesn't really affect me. She wasn't on much, and wasn't a very interesting character. She never exactly screamed out that she was the type of person to be part of Earth's expedition to another galaxy, and was mostly used to try and convince characters with legitimately unknown things affecting them that it was probably just psychological.
This is the biggest role Dr. Keller has had yet, but she's no Carson.
In addition to Cold Lazarus, the events of Morpheus were referenced and The Gamekeeper played a role in the eventual solution. Quite the SG-1 knowledge-dropping fest.
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