Thirty Eight Minutes

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S1 (Thirty Eight Minutes)

As if to remind us that the series is sci-fi and is going to be doing all that you would expect of an ensemble sci-fi series, we have the one where a creature gets attached to a main character. And also the one where some of the characters are trapped in a confined location. And the one where the length of the episode in real-time is the ticking time bomb. And the one where an alien cultural belief comes into conflict with the human characters. And… But seriously, at this rate they'll use up all of their predecessor's, as well as 'Star Trek,' 'Babylon 5' and any number of other genre shows' stories in no time! My point is that they did rather cram too much into the story, so we only get one or two threads that had sufficient development, a kind of disguise for the lack of originality. Yet we expect this kind of thing, especially in a first season where the characters haven't yet been fully established, nor their interconnectedness decided upon. It's also not so bad when they make missteps like throwing too many plots and too many characters into the mix. And to give them their dues, they do surprise by going from a creature attachment story which you think is going to be the typical execution of a character stuck in a medical bed as his life ebbs away (à la B'Elanna Torres in 'Nothing Human' on 'Voyager'), or effecting a change in the guy (à la Teal'c in 'SG-1'), and instead we're suddenly stuck in a disaster story. It's after that that things get piled on.

It appeared to be incompetence by the pilot (Sgt. Markham), who was flying the Jumper when an engine pod got caught on the rim of the Stargate, but fortunately this didn't devolve into 'Galaxy Quest' territory (or even 'Star Trek XI'), and I was especially pleased about that since… hang on… I think I recognise that guy… nah, can't be… Except when I checked the credits, it was! Joseph May! From my favourite ever British TV series, 'BUGS'! He played the Hive agent Adam Mosby, a recurring character in that series' final season, but you never see those actors in anything, at least not sci-fi related (I keep seeing him in an advert for power tools, possibly Ryobi), so it was a real joy to have an English actor from that series in a role, however small, on big-budget American sci-fi. He didn't get to do much as he and his buddy were stuck in the cockpit which is trapped within the event horizon of the 'gate, but hopefully, since he didn't die, they might use him again, considering there are limited numbers of humans at this base. Or colony, as Weir has it when putting scientist Kavanagh in his place.

He has it out with her over her militaristic overruling of his safety concerns. It was rather unprofessional for him to be sounding off while they were still deep in a state of emergency and he should have brought it to her at a later date when things had died down, although he did have a point, she could have been more diplomatic, but it wasn't the time for thin skin. She makes it clear she sees Atlantis as a colony and she's the Governor, and even though he expected a civilian leader to act less like the military back at SGC, she'll do what she sees fit. I didn't entirely buy the actress' performance of getting tough, she certainly didn't have the presence and whiplash tongue that would sell her standing on authority like a Janeway in 'Voyager' or a Starbuck in 'Battlestar Galactica' would, but again, these are early days and it takes time for actors to fully inhabit their characters. Weir hasn't struck me as a tough type of leader, but she showed she wasn't going to be talked down to, so we'll see.

They do a fine job of answering any questions you have as the episode progresses as you think why wouldn't this solution work, or that: for example, I was immediately wondering why the front part of the Jumper didn't poke out the front of the Stargate, but we learn that a 'gate won't work until all of an object is through, so the two in the cockpit are stuck in stasis, at least for thirty-eight minutes, which is ironically, the time at which a 'gate will shut down, inevitably scything the ship in half and pitching everyone into space. Not even the unfortunate pilots will survive because that part of the ship will be vaporised, I think, may even result in a bomb for Atlantis, so the stakes are high. I like that they're using previously established internal logic: the 'gate's shutdown time, which was dealt with on 'SG-1,' and is an unavoidable hazard. Interestingly, Lieutenant Ford is able to be pulled back into the back of the craft since his arm is still visible. The episode gets better as it goes, despite throwing so much into it, because it's a bit 'Trekky,' with people solving problems and working together as a team, which is always good to see. They have to try out whatever materials they have on the bug sucking the life out of Sheppard, ultimately shocking him with paddles so the creature's fooled into thinking he's dead, then shocking him back to life, and in the event of that failure, Teyla drags him into the wormhole which acts as a stasis until the ship is successfully recovered, thanks to McKay's trial and error.

The side story of Halling interrupting Weir's rescue attempts wanting to perform some ritual for Teyla which will mean her being able to accept the death he believes is certain added to the feeling of an episode really stuffed full, but it was an idea that would have borne further investigation, the cultural differences between these people and the humans threatening to disrupt the peaceful relations when Weir refuses Halling's request on the basis that it's not a done deal, they will survive, and she doesn't want them to give up hope. The important thing with both this and the Kavanagh situation is that there's a nice little moment of redemption or reconciliation which warms the heart: Weir shares a look of understanding with Halling when the ship finally glides out of the 'gate with no lives lost, and Kavanagh gets on with his job in spite of the loss of face, coming up with the last minute way to save the team when, despite retracting the errant engine pod, the ship no longer has any momentum to take it in, and he suggests blowing the rear hatch. Ford takes the job, it having to be done manually, and sends McKay through, but the bug they hoped had been shot to death starts to come round and I was genuinely considering this might be Ford's exit as a shock twist so early in the series (a bit like the killing of Kowalski early in 'SG-1'), especially as he's a bit of a generic soldier guy and hasn't yet stood out among the other characters, though this act of heroism helps, for sure.

Everything's all right in the end, though they could probably do with coming up with a contingency plan so this doesn't happen again, the action side of things is taken care of with flashbacks to how they got into this situation (returning to the Wraith base only to find it gone, a crater the only evidence of the mountain, speculation it was a vast ship), and there's a joke about Sheppard having a 'Klingon,' so what more could they fit in? I also appreciated that they didn't turn Sheppard's unsaid speech at the moment of potential doom into a corny joke at the end with him revealing that it wasn't anything special, just don't forget to turn the gas off in his quarters, or something trivial like that. Instead he says something which brings the team together, helping them realise that they did work well and solved the problem, saving their lives, which ends things on a high. Still, I can't quite say it's good enough yet, but it's really getting there, and if the episodes haven't felt uniquely 'Atlantis' yet, that is sure to come in time, and the important thing is that I don't dislike any of the characters and want to see more. They should probably pull back on shoving so many different people in front of the camera if they want to build a cast of recurring characters that we care about, because it was too much, but I also hope those we saw do return - it was good to see people from other nationalities, like the Russian scientist or that there was definitely a British patch on one of the scientists (though surely it should have been an England flag since Beckett has a Scottish one…).

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