Stargate Atlantis Season 3
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
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301: No Man's Land 2006 July 14
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303: Irresistible 2006 July 28
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306: The Real World 2006 August 18
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307: Common Ground 2006 August 25
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308: McKay and Mrs. Miller 2006 September 8
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309: Phantoms 2006 September 15
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310: The Return (Part 1) 2006 September 22
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311: The Return (Part 2) 2007 April 13
(First watched 2007-04-13) Great stuff. Of all of O'Neill's appearances on Stargate since he stopped being a regular, this was the most back-to-form. He wasn't primarily a voice, or standing around in a fancy suit being a general, but actually stuck in a deadly situation and getting somewhat involved in the solution. "It’s not the first time I’ve had a hand in my head, as it were." Robert Picardo as Woolsey is great as always, and the use of him to trick the Pegasus Replicators was nice.
Though they didn't show it onscreen I assume the destruction of the middle stop in the Pegasus-Milky Way gate bridge went through. Like Dr. Lee said, what a shame... though it seems like something that would be relatively easy to fix if they only got rid of the middle set of gates.
Good fun seeing all the Atlantis crew working together in a hostile environment, though it continues to feel a lot like SG-1's season 1 cliffhanger two-parter. Still, we don't often see Weir or Beckett get into the action.
I was not expecting it when they dropped off the package and blew up the main control room. "Holy shit, they blew up their main set!" I said to myself. An expected cheat that the replicators were able to quickly rebuild it, though.
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(First watched 2007-04-20) Naming the whale Sam... Rodney is so obsessed.
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313: Irresponsible 2007 April 27
(First watched 2007-04-27) At first it seemed it was going to be a rehash of Irresistable. However, by combining two existing guest characters in Lucius and Kolya, something new was synthesized. Is Kolya really dead now? It sure seemed like it, but these things often find a way of reversing themselves on Stargate.
Kolya had a great line when the various members of Sheppard's team were volunteering to be the first to be shot. Something like "That's so touching. I wish I could shoot you all at the same time."
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314: The Tao of Rodney 2007 May 4
(First watched 2007-05-04) I'll take any excuse to get some Rodney. Nice to see another side of him trying not to be a jerk and getting his affairs in order prior to his deadline. "Batman and Ronon" ahaha. For a short bit I was worried they would really take this opportunity to off Zelenka... with Carter being on Atlantis next season, will there be room for all three of them?
I love how on SG-1 they need to go to other planets to find weird stuff, or at least secretly hidden areas on Earth, but on Atlantis all they need to do is find a room they haven't checked out yet.
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(First watched 2007-05-11) Wow, game turned real... kinda creepy concept, but it was fun to see the different types of cultures Sheppard and McKay fostered. And another chance to see McKay's pathetic obsession with Sam Carter, with the hair style he picked for his country's women.
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(First watched 2007-05-18) I liked the retro Apollo design of the space station. Pretty standard episode, though. Get in deep shit, get in deeper shit, somehow survive and say the day.
On a more general note, Lorne has been a bit more interesting recently, on both Atlantis and SG-1. Earlier in the series his main role was to be the other ranking military officer who would tend to disagree with Sheppard's decisions and basically be a foil, but more recently the conflict is gone and he's just been a proper second-tier character. A Zelenka to Sheppard's Rodney, which I guess was done more directly last week with Lorne/Zelenka getting started on a "game" of their own.
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(First watched 2007-06-01) Carson! Jesus, what happened? This would've been much more shocking if not for being spoiled online, even when I try to avoid spoilers... but man, do the powers behind the show know what they're doing? SG-1 had a consistent cast for its first 5 years; Atlantis had major changes from season 1 to 2, and now from 3 to 4. It feels like they're flailing about, and poor Carson is the victim. He didn't exactly pull a Daniel Jackson, either, so I don't see how this could have the benefit of making for a richer fictional universe down the road.
Seeing the lead-up to the initial explosion from different viewpoints from characters in their downtime was neat; there's an extra dimension knowing what's going on at various places simultaneously. However, it's pretty much overshadowed by... what the hell happened later. I also wonder if from a story standpoint we're supposed to believe that everyone who's fallen in the line of duty on Atlantis has had such a showy gate room sendoff.
Also... Sheppard was married?
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(First watched 2007-06-08) A Wraith? They still have those on this show?
No mention of Carson, but he remains in the opening sequence.
I liked McKay's aware statement about the what-if of salvaging the Wraith cruiser: "You'd probably just blow it up or crash it into a hive ship."
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(First watched 2007-06-15)
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320: First Strike 2007 June 22
(First watched 2007-06-22) Pretty slam-bang episode. Introduction of another new Daedalus-class ship in the Apollo, escalation of hostilities between the Pegasus Replicators and Earth, different tactics used to block that weird weapon... sink the city, block the beam temporarily with an asteroid, and fly it off! Of course keeping that drilling platform as something useful was too good to be true, but I wonder if they'll return to that planet? Really Atlantis being pretty self-contained, it doesn't make a big difference. Of course, as is they're stuck in the middle of space with power running out. They really know how to go from the frying pan into the fire!
I wonder about the Weir stuff in this episode. They send mixed messages about whether her take on matters is respected or not, but it's hard to tell whether that was something meant to be resolved with the commander of the Apollo telling her he was sorry for stepping on her toes, or setting the stage for her demotion from regular character to bring in Carter. Of course, as is she's wounded so who knows what exactly will happen.
Atlantis continues to be a show full of references to other nerdy topics. Sheppard comparing his team's different capabilities to the Fantastic Four. Teyla: "I'm not invisible." John: "And Rodney isn't a human torch. I just meant we're both cool teams."
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