Post by Ahryantah on Jul 21, 2005 0:31:54 GMT -5
Review of the Stargate Atlantis episode "The Siege Part III," first airing on the SciFi channel July 15, 2005.
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Previously on Stargate Atlantis: Everyone was royally screwed. Now the conclusion.
So this episode just didn't stop. All the cliffhangers were pretty much dispensed with almost before the credits, which was not really a good thing as it made the whole episode seem anticlimatic. But the writers got around that by distracting us with pretty explosions.
Rule of Television Writing #1: When in doubt, blow shit up.
Sheppard, last time we saw him, was about to sacrifice his life to save Atlantis. Fortunately, the Daedalus conveniently shows up right at that moment and Sheppard is saved by Colonel Skinner...I mean, Caldwell, with the help of Asgard technology.
Then the Daedalus blows shit up. Then it blows some more shit up. All with the help of Hermiod, the resident Asgard. And it was cool.
Rule of Television Writing #2: Cranky alien puppets are funny.
Meanwhile, Ford goes swimming with a Wraith. More on him later.
Rule of Television Writing #3: The more subplots in a mythology episode, the better.
Last season: Weir can't reach Teyla! She might be dead! Hurray! I mean, oh no! Then we find out that Teyla can't be reached because her radio broke.
Rule of Television Writing #4: When you find yourself with too many subplots, red herrings are okay. Even if they're lame.
So good news is that Atlantis now has a ZPM, even though McKay had a rough time getting it to the...ZPM room? Whatever you want to call it. The clip falling out of his gun - hilarious. But then he gets saved by Teyla and the shield goes up. But another Wraith fleet is coming, so the Daedalus goes and completely fails to blow even more shit up. Hermiod was pissed. I kept expecting Caldwell to be, too, and for him to throw Shep out into space or something. Sadly, didn't happen. Caldwell is a bit too passive so far. He just likes to slouch in his little command chair and let other people do the actual work.
The Wraith reach Atlantis and start shooting the crap out of the shield. Everyone wants to blow shit up, it seems. McKay, not to be outdone, decides to blow up the entire city. With a nuke. Except not really. But his explosion was big and orange and mushroom-y, so it's all good.
Rule of Television Writing #5: If you've blown shit up and are still trying to fill time, blow bigger shit up.
Yeah, the cloaking thing was kind of cool. But then McKay is awesome. But then we already all knew that.
Oh, but then there's Ford, who got partially Wraithified. So did Everett, but no one cares about him. Ford's eye was creepy. And how dare he beat up on Beckett and Zelenka in the same episode?
Rule of Television Writing #6: To signify that someone is REALLY evil, have him hurt innocent, loveable, popular characters. Bonus points if they have funny accents.
The Ford flies off in a jumper. We'll just ignore the fact that Ford can't fly the jumpers. Actually, no, we won't. Martin Gero, what were you thinking? Yeah, the jumper exit was cool, but what about continuity? Don't be like X-Files.
Ahem. Then Ford flies off with his bag of crack, er, Wraith enzyme, and that's the end.
Rule of Television Writing #8: To up the season's tension, end the premiere on a sour note.
So overall I really did like this episode, despite the anticlimatic feel of the beginning. The pretty special effects made up for that (see, Rule #1 works). Technically, this episode was pretty well done, as far as effects, directing, and camera movement went. Though I think they stretched plausibility (Stargate implausible? Never!) to make room for the pretty. Why, exactly, were McKay and Sheppard standing outside looking at the Wraith bomb the shield when everyone else was inside waiting for them to start the meeting? Kind of a random moment there. Also, I have to wonder how much of their season budget they blew on this episode. I guess this explains why the effects shots for SG-1 were pretty much limited to stock footage of the Prometheus in space and a holographic Merlin.
Pacing-wise, wow. So much stuff happened, to the point where it got to be too much. Everything felt rushed. It was like, okay, we've solved that problem, now here's a BIGGER PROBLEM! Solved that one? Well, here's a BIGGER ONE!!!!!!! I mean, the episode was exciting, and to their credit the writers did try for some comic relief moments, though those fell a little flat (will someone PLEASE let McKay take a friggin' nap?). I think the plotline with Ford could be really interesting, but they should have waited on it until the whole siege thing was over. His whole turning evil thing was too rushed, and I felt it would have been more interesting if it was something that developed more slowly over a couple episodes. Or at least have it happen in the second episode or something, so it doesn't get buried underneath all the other stuff going on.
Still, lots of shit blew up, and I'm easy to amuse. I give this 8 out of 10.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previously on Stargate Atlantis: Everyone was royally screwed. Now the conclusion.
So this episode just didn't stop. All the cliffhangers were pretty much dispensed with almost before the credits, which was not really a good thing as it made the whole episode seem anticlimatic. But the writers got around that by distracting us with pretty explosions.
Rule of Television Writing #1: When in doubt, blow shit up.
Sheppard, last time we saw him, was about to sacrifice his life to save Atlantis. Fortunately, the Daedalus conveniently shows up right at that moment and Sheppard is saved by Colonel Skinner...I mean, Caldwell, with the help of Asgard technology.
Then the Daedalus blows shit up. Then it blows some more shit up. All with the help of Hermiod, the resident Asgard. And it was cool.
Rule of Television Writing #2: Cranky alien puppets are funny.
Meanwhile, Ford goes swimming with a Wraith. More on him later.
Rule of Television Writing #3: The more subplots in a mythology episode, the better.
Last season: Weir can't reach Teyla! She might be dead! Hurray! I mean, oh no! Then we find out that Teyla can't be reached because her radio broke.
Rule of Television Writing #4: When you find yourself with too many subplots, red herrings are okay. Even if they're lame.
So good news is that Atlantis now has a ZPM, even though McKay had a rough time getting it to the...ZPM room? Whatever you want to call it. The clip falling out of his gun - hilarious. But then he gets saved by Teyla and the shield goes up. But another Wraith fleet is coming, so the Daedalus goes and completely fails to blow even more shit up. Hermiod was pissed. I kept expecting Caldwell to be, too, and for him to throw Shep out into space or something. Sadly, didn't happen. Caldwell is a bit too passive so far. He just likes to slouch in his little command chair and let other people do the actual work.
The Wraith reach Atlantis and start shooting the crap out of the shield. Everyone wants to blow shit up, it seems. McKay, not to be outdone, decides to blow up the entire city. With a nuke. Except not really. But his explosion was big and orange and mushroom-y, so it's all good.
Rule of Television Writing #5: If you've blown shit up and are still trying to fill time, blow bigger shit up.
Yeah, the cloaking thing was kind of cool. But then McKay is awesome. But then we already all knew that.
Oh, but then there's Ford, who got partially Wraithified. So did Everett, but no one cares about him. Ford's eye was creepy. And how dare he beat up on Beckett and Zelenka in the same episode?
Rule of Television Writing #6: To signify that someone is REALLY evil, have him hurt innocent, loveable, popular characters. Bonus points if they have funny accents.
The Ford flies off in a jumper. We'll just ignore the fact that Ford can't fly the jumpers. Actually, no, we won't. Martin Gero, what were you thinking? Yeah, the jumper exit was cool, but what about continuity? Don't be like X-Files.
Ahem. Then Ford flies off with his bag of crack, er, Wraith enzyme, and that's the end.
Rule of Television Writing #8: To up the season's tension, end the premiere on a sour note.
So overall I really did like this episode, despite the anticlimatic feel of the beginning. The pretty special effects made up for that (see, Rule #1 works). Technically, this episode was pretty well done, as far as effects, directing, and camera movement went. Though I think they stretched plausibility (Stargate implausible? Never!) to make room for the pretty. Why, exactly, were McKay and Sheppard standing outside looking at the Wraith bomb the shield when everyone else was inside waiting for them to start the meeting? Kind of a random moment there. Also, I have to wonder how much of their season budget they blew on this episode. I guess this explains why the effects shots for SG-1 were pretty much limited to stock footage of the Prometheus in space and a holographic Merlin.
Pacing-wise, wow. So much stuff happened, to the point where it got to be too much. Everything felt rushed. It was like, okay, we've solved that problem, now here's a BIGGER PROBLEM! Solved that one? Well, here's a BIGGER ONE!!!!!!! I mean, the episode was exciting, and to their credit the writers did try for some comic relief moments, though those fell a little flat (will someone PLEASE let McKay take a friggin' nap?). I think the plotline with Ford could be really interesting, but they should have waited on it until the whole siege thing was over. His whole turning evil thing was too rushed, and I felt it would have been more interesting if it was something that developed more slowly over a couple episodes. Or at least have it happen in the second episode or something, so it doesn't get buried underneath all the other stuff going on.
Still, lots of shit blew up, and I'm easy to amuse. I give this 8 out of 10.
