The Defiant One

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S1 (The Defiant One)

Not quite the episode I thought it was going to be, it was nonetheless fairly entertaining, and a vehicle for McKay to show his growing bravery in the field, alongside Major Sheppard. The pair carry the episode with the other cast members (including 'BUGS' actor Joseph May, back as Sergeant Markham, part of the rescue team), are much reduced bit parts this time. When I first saw the Atlantean satellite the team were seeking I assumed (from the title), that it was going to be a creepy creep around an abandoned space facility, the dark shadows hiding a fearsome creature that even Wraith were afraid of, since they discovered a Wraith distress call. In the event, it turned out to be a less imposing Wraith left alone in a crash on a deserted desert planet, whom for all he knew was the last of his race. They could have turned it into a 'Pitch Black' story with the race to secure a safe place during the dazzling daylight hours before the frozen waste of night descended, but again, it was merely a confrontation in bright day between Sheppard and the Wraith who had taken up residence in their Jumper.

Not that it was a bad episode, there are some shivery moments of uncertain exploration in the dark of a crashed vessel with strange noises from the atmosphere or air pressure, but the Wraith never seemed that scary for an abandoned sole survivor who had been forced to feast on his own brethren to stay alive - not sure why he had to, since they discover a store of bodies, but never mind… Time is spent setting up the other two characters on the expedition, Abrams and Gall, but both prove expendable, Gall taking a rather extreme method of escaping Rodney's indecisive chattering: shooting his own Wraith-ageing body (the oldish makeup wasn't the most convincing). I didn't think he should have done that as McKay was about to leave him anyway, he had a gun for emergency protection, and he didn't actually know he was beyond saving, he just felt that way. Perhaps the effects of being fed on can be reversed, and as a scientist he should have tried to stay alive for the research they could get from him back at Atlantis, even apart from the possibility of reversing, or at least halting, the process.

In a more well-plotted series with better drawn characters, we might have got to a point where Gall's suicide was a necessary and heroic sacrifice, but it didn't seem essential, which is a problem for the dramatic truth of the story and takes away from the power such a moment might have had for shock, horror and noble self-sacrifice. On the positive, McKay does get to show he's capable of helping Sheppard and distracts the Wraith long enough for Ford to send a killing shot from orbit as they approach in a second Jumper. It was all well and good that Weir sent a ship from intuition before she knew for certain a rescue was required, but I'd have thought it would have made sense to send backup as soon as they knew they were going into something dangerous, not wait for them to scout it out, report back or not, and then send assistance! It seemed to be an artificial way to heighten the tension. I also felt that it was a bit pointless leaving behind a ship (was that a 'Star Trek IV' reference when Sheppard notes to remember where they parked, before cloaking the Jumper? Plus McKay asks if he thinks he's Captain Kirk at another juncture when Sheppard's reporting the Wraith is on his ship!), going to the trouble of cloaking it, then allowing footprints in the sand to lead right up to the entrance! The Wraith wasn't stupid and was easily able to track it down by following their prints.

The thing with the little buzzy glowing flies, or whatever life form they were, I thought was going to turn into their salvation - perhaps the insects would react defensively to having several of their number squashed by the irritated Wraith, come back in greater numbers and sting him to death. But it was really just a diversion, and a larger life sign for Ford to lock onto, so it definitely wasn't taking inspiration from 'Pitch Black.' It was interesting to see Sheppard's tactics to distract or divert the Wraith, but ultimately the story felt a little pointless, not really teaching us more about the characters, not presenting much drama, a perfectly amiable, inoffensive jaunt that goes nowhere and does nothing. You're bound to get a few like that when you do a season of twenty-plus episodes, and I'd much rather have a few of these than total serialisation where there's much less opportunity to just spend time with the characters. I suppose it made sense for them to strip it down to Sheppard, McKay and a couple of inconsequential characters so that the two main cast members had to rely on each other more, rather than having Ford, Weir, Teyla, Beckett or any of the fleshed-out personnel there to provide greater backup, but it would have been nice to see more of the other cast members and would have given more weight to any potential deaths.

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