Hide and Seek

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S1 (Hide and Seek)

I'm still not sold on the theme music, it's just a derivative, more wallpaper-y version of the 'SG-1' version, but I felt more at home with a proper opening credits sequence, my theory of the usual absence of one in a pilot proving correct. This is also typical of the post-pilot episode of most TV series' first season: an inoffensive bottle show that sees our protagonists learn a little more about their surroundings and deal with a threat, without it becoming too complicated or dramatic. Less stakes than the first episode, but plenty to keep the interest with McKay trialling gene therapy to enable him to be the first human without the Ancient gene to use their technology. There's even a name for it: ATA, or Ancient Technology Activation, which makes sense. The first piece of tech he finds to try out his newfound ability is initially a cool device that acts as a personal forcefield, enabling Sheppard to push him over a rail to the hard floor beneath without suffering the slightest ill effects. It's a great item, the sort of thing anyone would love to play around with, and who knows, it could become essential in the inevitable rematch with the Wraith. Downsides are: not being able to eat, not being able to drink, and not being able to turn it off, essentially making it a deathtrap for the morose doctor. It seemed to me that a man's life, especially one which is so integral to the scientific investigation of the city, is taken so lightly as to be a comical interlude to the story! McKay isn't the nicest, most pleasant, humble sort to be around, but to make light of his situation was a little cruel and didn't put the others in the best light - they should have been seen to work around the clock to find a solution.

As you'd expect, his usefulness becomes a plot point in saving the city from the B-plot… or is it the A-plot, I'm not sure? I'm also not sure about having children running around! The Enterprise-D successfully carried it off, but it was made in a different age and was a different type of series in some ways (in others, this is yet another spinoff of the genre 'TNG' devised: sci-fi ensemble cast character adventure drama). Jinto, son of Halling (the long-haired guy whose status in Athosian society I'm uncertain about, but seems fairly high up), manages to find what McKay dubs a Transporter (not even bothering with the Ring designation any more - call a spade a spade, I suppose), getting lost in another part of the city and in his fear, pressing all kinds of controls and releasing the shadow creature. It's another sci-fi series trope that you have to have a monster roaming the corridors of your space ship/station/city, so at least they got it out the way early on. Ford gets it doled out to him by the creature when he fails to get out the way quick enough, and they soon discern that this was something the Ancients were studying and the thing probably just wants to get away. McKay gets to be the hero when the MALP carrying a snackable Naquahdah generator stops short of the 'gate, and hurls it into the wormhole, encouraging the creature to exit after it.

It's not the most compelling or inventive story, but then neither were 'SG-1's' a lot of the time, so it's only keeping up the tradition. But we do get to learn a little more about our characters and the city, so it was worthwhile, if a little bit of a treading water type, instead of diving right in and doing something daring. But I quite like episodes like this where you just explore a little bit instead of having big revelations, cliffhangers and high-octane drama, so no harm done. I was wondering why the writers seem to have an affinity for Scottish characters, since both this with Dr. Beckett, and 'Universe' with Dr. Rush, feature one in a prominent role, while it looks like most of the rest of the cast are American, except for Canadian McKay (something which comes up again when Sheppard's discussing his preference for American Football over Hockey). I wonder if it had anything to do with David Tennant in 'Dr. Who,' but that wouldn't account for Beckett as this series came out in 2004, and Tennant didn't take the role properly until Christmas 2005, so perhaps they were preempting a trend for Scottish sci-fi characters (even if Tennant was doing an English accent - you know what, forget I mentioned it!). Sheppard's beginning to display a little more of a quirky personality, like O'Neill, but I still feel the characters aren't generally too well defined, aside perhaps from McKay and Weir who we'd seen before. The sets continue to look good, the effects impress (when McKay enters the shadow to see all these tiny electrical impulses), but it has yet to grip me.

**