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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405: Travelers 2007 October 26
(First watched 2007-10-26) Pretty standard episode. Sort of a... bizarro Prometheus Unbound plus Wraith.
No Sam this episode. I know she's not in every episode this season, but it seemed a bit conspicuous that the expedition's #2 leader went missing and the highest-up people we ever saw working on the problem were McKay and Lorne.
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406: Tabula Rasa 2007 November 2
(First watched 2007-11-02) Wow. What a really solid episode. It leaned toward Rodney, but pretty much all the primary and secondary base characters had a notable role. McKay, Ronon, Teyla, Sheppard, Carter, Lorne, Zelenka, Keller.
Mysterious diseases are a dime a dozen in Stargate, but the nearly complete amnesia it spread was a worthwhile twist. It's fun to see how characters act when they have little more than instinct to go on. Also made sense to have the Pegasus members immune, as it was a sort of... mutated space chicken pox.
So sweet to see hypochondriac Rodney try to ignore his preference to stay away from the sick for the sake of Katie.
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407: Missing 2007 November 9
(First watched 2007-11-09) Meh. My least favorite member of the core team plus the undistinguished non-Carson must survive for a day.
The disappearance of Teyla's people should really give her some drive, though. The ending of the episode was made to be a bit mysterious... but dammit I think I've run across the spoiler for what it means. Otherwise it would be very effective.
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408: The Seer 2007 November 16
(First watched 2007-11-16) Nice. Though with so much of the episode centering around a man who could see the future and whether what he saw could be changed, it seemed incongruous for Sam to never mention that she had experience in such things when Jonas gained such abilities in an SG-1 episode.
So they've got a new Wraith ally/prisoner... wonder where that will go.
And surely now that they've pretty much established that Bad Things will happen to Atlantis from the guy's visions, this will end up playing a part in either the mid-season or full-season finale.
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409: Miller's Crossing 2007 November 30
(First watched 2007-11-30) So one of the advantages of being based in another galaxy is that they've mostly stayed away from Earth-based conspiracy stories. Luckily, this didn't turn out to be one, even if it seemed that way at the beginning. Rarely do we have a chance to see Rodney vulnerable and not being a smartass like he was in much of this episode.
Especially now that SG-1 the series is gone, it's great to see the SGC again. I really never thought I'd see a Walter/Ronon scene. The biggest... parallel universey feeling thing, though, was seeing Sheppard and Dex there at the SGC gate as a wraith arrived; having seen O'Neill receive Goa'uld there on multiple occasions.
The ultimate solution of feeding the wraith so he could complete his work... pretty brutal, but that guy wasn't exactly an innocent bystander, either.
Not only a Carter-free episode (which is funny for one largely taking place at the SGC), but a Teyless one as well.
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410: This Mortal Coil 2007 December 7
(First watched 2007-12-07) A non-two-parter mid-season? What an oddity.
The overall plot progressed... but the episode was a bit of a bust, methinks. It felt like another idea ripped from SG-1. How do they top robo-SG-1? With nanite-copied Atlantis team. We learn that the original Weir is dead, but I doubt that's really the case; they don't let major characters die off-screen like that. The copy team is left a loose string... I'm sure we'll see them again, too.
What a waste that they had to go "sacrificing" themselves to let the original group leave. All they did was pilot a jumper for a few seconds and crash it; I'm sure one Rodney could've set an autopilot and fake life signs, let alone two.
I'm embarrassed to note I didn't realize at the beginning they were using the old-style uniforms, though that should've been a dead giveaway that something was up.
Kinda cheap that the big Atlantis-getting-destroyed prophecy was about a pseudo-Atlantis far away, though. Also, I suppose this is the method the inevitable return of Carson will use?
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411: Be All My Sins Remember'd 2008 January 4
(First watched 2008-01-12) Wow, a bit of a spectacle there. A coalition of Tau'ri, Wraith, and Travelers vs Pegasus Replicators? The way things always turn bad, I was expecting for the plan to fail at the end there and leave us with the threat of Franzilla in the future, but surprisingly it seems that plan actually worked out tidily. Then they go and surprise slap us with... some Weir or other in command of a ship planning on starting something up in the ruins of the Replicator planet? Whaaaaa?
Also, Teyla's pregnancy is public now. The father is one of the disappeared people from her group? I guess that works, but it's a lot less interesting than if it had, say, turned out to be Lorne's or something.
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412: Spoils of War 2008 January 11
(First watched 2008-01-18) "Todd". Sheppard sure has a way with Wraith names.
So last episode they blew up the Replicator planet, and this episode they destroyed an important Wraith cloning facility that millennia ago helped them defeat the Ancients. Some impressive victories recently; I'm sure they're due for a whooping or setback soon.
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413: Quarantine 2008 January 18
(First watched 2008-01-18) "Trapped together" is certainly an old sitcom trick, but put in another galaxy and with death looming, it gains some freshness.
Also, Zelenka saves the day!
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414: Harmony 2008 January 25
(First watched 2008-01-25) Ahahaha. Heron here. What's your status? Good. Elaborate. Real good.
Ahahaha at that little queen's change of heart, and the painting featuring a gun-blasting Rodney and a cowering Sheppard.
It's worth pointing out that unless the seconds I missed at the beginning were full of this stuff, Sheppard and McKay were the only regular Atlantis things present in this episode. No Teyla, Ronon, or Carter. No Atlantis itself. Not quite Prometheus Unbound, but close.
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415: Outcast 2008 February 1
(First watched 2008-02-01) Ehhh. Another Atlantis on Earth episode. Another attempt at doing a Replicator story slightly differently, this time taking a bit of a Terminator 2 turn.
Barely any McKay/Sam/Atlantis, and again no Teyla this week.
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416: Trio 2008 February 8
(First watched 2008-02-08) The cast juggling is really quite obvious. From a Sheppard-McKay episode to a Sheppard-Ronon episode to a McKay-Carter-Keller episode, with no Teyla in any presumably due to pregnancy/motherhood.
"Stuck and needing to find an escape" can be fun to watch, but there wasn't much specifically standout about this one in particular. Though the "Who would you rather" games did get pretty fun, progressing on to physicists and eventually Carell and Colbert.
Sad to hear that McKay's freakout reaction during the virus thing a few episodes prior seems to have been the death of his relationship with Katie Brown, though.
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417: Midway 2008 February 15
(First watched 2008-02-15) About all I could hope for in a Ronon/Teal'c meetup episode. Plausible reason for Teal'c being there, to try and help Ronon be presentable for the IOA. Plausible reason for Ronon to be upset, because he feels he's being babied and his buttons are being pushed by Teal'c as a test. Plausible that they'd spar for an hour and be evenly matched before Carter has to split them up. Plausible they'd be stuck together on Midway station for a while, then follow Wraith through to the SGC to stop them, during which Ronon gains a respect for Teal'c and impresses the IOA.
Also... Midway gone! What a pain, but I like that they keep stuff like that happening to keep Atlantis from always having easy quick access to Earth (and vice-versa). And the destruction of the station due largely to the stupid actions of... Kavenagh, recurring character we grew to dislike in season 1!
The shot of Teal'c and Ronon watching Three Stooges slapstick with their standard blank faces is great.
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418: The Kindred (Part 1) 2008 February 22
(First watched 2008-02-22) So the disappearance of Teyla's people finally comes back to the forefront, and both of our favorite Wraith(ish) characters are involved: Todd and Michael!
The big surprise of course comes at the end. Dr. Beckett! I was sure his inevitable reappearance would be by way of Pegasus Replicators as happened with Weir, but being a prisoner of Michael's I'm less sure what the heck the case is. Is he a replicated Beckett? A clone Beckett? Or will they retcon things so the one who previously died was?
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419: The Kindred (Part 2) 2008 February 29
(First watched 2008-03-01) So he's a clone, created to be forced to help Michael. The original Carson is still dead. The clone isn't just a continuation, though, but divergent; he's cloned from the beginning of season 3, so he's missing most of the original Beckett's last year of experiences, but has a couple more of his own as a captive. Since he's a (purposefully?) imperfect clone, though, he must go into stasis until they can fix him and want him for another guest spot.
Other than episodes where he's just not present, this may be McKay's least smart-ass episode. It's kinda understandable considering he's dealing with the apparent return of one of his best friends from the dead.
Also, Halling! Though without his beard or role of walking around Atlantis complaining, I didn't recognize him at first.
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420: The Last Man 2008 March 7
(First watched 2008-03-08) Another big reset button episode, this time taking us the farthest out in time we've seen in Stargate: circa 50,000 C.E. There's a bit of a Red Dwarf quality to it, in that Sheppard could potentially be the last human around, with only a hologram recreation of his dead buddy McKay as company.
Of course the big fun of a reset button episode is we get to see quick bits of important happenings that then don't matter in canon. McKay and Keller marry, though she dies due to complications from repeated exposure to Michael's virus. Teyla is killed by Michael after she has her baby, which he uses to finish his hybrid program. Sam dies during ship-based guerilla actions against Michael's people, and is replaced by Woolsey (Ghost of season 5 yet to come.). And in what seemed particularly touching in a weird way given his history and feelings toward the Wraith, Ronon goes out fighting side-by-side with Todd. In non-death-related happenings, General Lorne is in command of the SGC.
It kinda irks me that occasionally there'll be these episodes where we basically learn that the original group of people is completely screwed without a chance... except for extra knowledge/help from a failed future. It's happened a few times on both Atlantis and SG-1.
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