August 20, 2004 Stargate: SG-1 and Atlantis Reviews

Had a bit of a busy weekend and when I had time at the computer yesterday, it was crawling at a snail's pace. Oh well.

Stargate: SG-1

"Affinity"

Another episode, another spotlight on Teal'c. First, the best part of the episode, the teaser. It's a nice day in Colorado when a car goes to park on the side of the street and is rear-ended. Meek Parking Guy is suddenly confronted by Macho Rear-Ender (make all the jokes you see fit here...) and a few of his friends. Things don't look good for Meek Parking Guy. Words are said, accusations of not using a blinker are made, and a beat-down is iminent...

Enter Teal'c, dressed like Superfly and with music blaring in the background. Teal'c tries to defend Meek Parking Guy and move things to the point where they share insurance information and make like good little citizens. Macho Rear-Ender isn't having it and what follows is embarrasing for him and his friends. Teal'c actually manages to stop a punch with the top of his head. And yet, the guys still come after him.

A Government Watch Group of some sort has words with O'Neill about this...seems like this isn't the only incident Tealc's been a part of since he got his new apartment. But Teal'c isn't too concerned, especially because he's eyeing his neighbor and protecting her from her drunk boyfriend. That soon develops into Teal'c showing her Jaffa Martial Arts and her getting close to Teal'c. Of course, she goes back to the drunk boyfriend and he ends up dying...with Teal'c a main suspect.

Meanwhile, Pete, Carter's man from last season wants to transfer to be closer to Sam and even pops the question. Carter is conflicted (and even gives her view on how society forces single women to hurry up and find someone, but not too fast, because he's got to be perfect...) and avoids Pete, but when she realizes he could help clear Teal'c's name, she goes to him for help.

I was surprised by this episode. I really thought there was going to be more going on with Teal'c's latest chick, but they went in a different direction. The second best part of the episode, for me at least, where Carter's chats with Daniel and Teal'c (where her aforementioned diatribe came from) and later with Jack about relationships.

The one with Jack is one of Stargate's more touching scenes. She doesn't know how to handle being a wife and possibly a mother and then going through the gate. It says a lot about Sam how even being married with a child, she can't see herself not being on the SG team. Despite the ruse in "New Order," Sam wouldn't be living on a farm with Pete. She then asks Jack what would have happened if things had been different for him. He replies that he wouldn't be there. And he leaves it at that. While there is debate over what he meant, it seemed clear to me he was referring to what got him into the Stargate program in the first place, his death wish and being the logical choice for a suicide mission.

Stargate seems to be a franchise which is embracing cliches and knowing when to use them as a ruse and when to just go with them. Several plot points seemed cliched, but the episode's end was a surprise for me. Still, once again, it's the characters that make this show worth watching and this episode definately had soe great character moments.

An A episode, definately.

Stargate: Atlantis

"Poisoning the Well"

For the first time in weeks, I actually liked the SG-1 episode better...

Immediately I found it annoying that another alien world not only spoke English, but seemed to favor fashions which seemed to be inspried by both the Civial War era (the Chancellor) and WW II (the Army guys). I'm all for parallel development, but I think there's a limit...

To sum things up, this alien race may have found a weapon to use against the Wraiths...a vaccine which makes humans immune to the Wraith's feeding. So Dr. Beckett is brought onboard to help. The team packs up their Wraith Prisoner (from "Suspicions") and off they go. The prisoner dies from complications after absorbing some of the drug from an alien chosen to be their test subject. But when the test subject dies also, it seems the drug might have a nasty side-effect on humanoids...that side effect being death.

The plot, to be honest bored me. Similarly with Camulus on SG-1, it seemed a good plot device was wasted only a few episodes later, this time with the Wraith prisoner. The aliens seemed to elicit memories of the aliens in SG-1's "The Other Side," namely guys who've had it rough and yet, at the end of the episode, you don't feel so bad for them.

Lastly on the negatives were both Weir and Teyla. It seems the show doesn't have much to do with them. They're there and scenes with them scream that the writers needed to give them something to say and do to justify their paychecks, more than they had some really original ideas for the characters. Teyla is falling quickly from a character I was interested in and thought had great potential to a sideline character. Weir, after her great scene in "Thirty-Eight" Minutes has become a character who's also just there. I think Hammond was much more of a presence and I hope the writers realize this.

There were some good points to this episode...Sheppard was witty as ever, at one point calling Becketts their "Dr. McCoy" due to his fear of Stargate Travel. Later he taunts the Wraith Prisoner and when he wouldn't give a name, Sheppard names him "Steve." Also good was more of Dr. Beckett, probably my third favorite character, behind Sheppard and Ford (McKay is 4th). Speaking of Ford, he had a great scene in the Jumper as he eys the Wraith Prisoner, clearly not happy to be stuck in a Jumper with the creature.

This one gets a "B" from me and part of me thinks I'm being generous.