Sanctuary

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S1 (Sanctuary)

Waiting for the twist… Waiting for the twist… and… thereitcomes! For all the potential of examining an alien culture, or the pitfalls of comparing religions/philosophies/beliefs, it all comes down to old-fashioned romance for the hero, as Sheppard falls for the High Priestess Chaya of Proculis, a planet that has the unique ability to destroy any Wraith ships (or 'darts' as they call the little fighter vessels here), and keep the simple folk planet-side safe and unconcerned. We've seen the simple, agrarian lifestyle before, and the flowing monk robes, weird body tattoos, and plentiful, natural food amid a basic village. So I was wondering if there was going to be some twist, or more to the point what it was going to be: that these are frauds, actually more advanced than they seem, or their weapon is essential to the planet, or that they don't like interfering busybodies from other galaxies poking their noses in… It was really none of the above, simply because the simple people were as simple as they simply appeared. Simple. The Proculans, or Proculisans (Proculanians?), were pretty irrelevant to the story, but as a side note I thought it was pretty rude and condescending of the Atlantis lot to come in and try a guilt trip on them that they should be sharing their planet with as many as they could fit on it in order to protect more from the Wraith. Or that Weir can give them technology to change, develop, enhance and advance their lifestyle when it's perfectly serviceable and they live just as they want with no war, hatred or negative connotations of any kind, their needs adequately serviced, thank you very much.

Isn't it about time these people drafted some kind of directive which governs how they deal with pre-spaceflight colonies, since though human, they are practically a separate species through their long history and ways deviating so much and so uniquely. But no, they keep charging in and messing around with things they don't know! And we're supposed to root for these guys? I know, I know, The Wraith are a fearsome foe, but even there it's hard to forget how much humanity came into this Galaxy and messed things up by waking this foe in the first place. Waking them earlier, they'd still have come to eventually, but it's unfortunate that they seem to be making the same old human mistakes and causing grief or interference for so many innocent peoples and never seem to learn. Granted, Sheppard's not a grizzled veteran like O'Neill, and Rodney's hardly Sam Carter, but after watching so much Trek it's hard to look on these issues with an open mind, or to see it from the American-centric worldview of interference for their interests that this branch of the Stargate Programme displays. I'm sure their intentions are laudable, they want to protect themselves and as many others as possible from the scourge they unleashed on Pegasus, and what other way can they achieve this goal except by stumbling about and making mistakes?

The thing is, that part of the story isn't really important as it tries to become a tragic love story, Sheppard and Chaya separated by their kind and her sentence of eternal exile to this planet for interfering in mortal matters in the first place: she's an Ancient who's ascended, but pops up among the people to keep it secure. At least that solves a few of the questionable decisions made in the early part of the episode as I was wondering why these abbots were comfortable with allowing their seemingly young High Priestess from venturing off to another world with strangers she's just met, and in particular a young man whose paying her special attention! But it's okay because she's not young and she has the power. I wondered if it was going to become an Evil Chaya episode where she makes Sheppard take over the city, considering how violently he snaps at McKay who's only trying to plant seeds of doubt in the Major's mind. After all, Dr. Beckett's proved she has unnaturally perfect health, and there's something about her… Not that McKay excels himself in the episode, refusing to even pretend to respect the Proculis' beliefs in his inimitably sarcastic and irreverent way. But if the episode threatened to become controversial and perhaps turn into ways to steal a ZPM, or forcibly share technology, or not take no for an answer, or even the religious slant that they muddle in there about the state of Earth, it doesn't, and stays very safe. And a bit boring (although it was funny McKay's reference to Sheppard doing a Captain Kirk routine of romancing the alien woman that wouldn't be out of place in 1967!).

No, while the fascination of meeting an Ancient (even though we already did that in 'SG-1,' at least I think that was before this, but in the same year, not counting Daniel when he was ascended in previous seasons), gives the episode a jolt of something, and Chaya has a draw and mystery to her character as you wonder what she plans or what secret she holds, it's ultimately rather pointless because she's not going to reveal anything Ancient-ey or provide our heroes with help, so it's very much an unremarkable, treading water kind of story, and Sheppard isn't the best character to be taken into the realms of the romantic, even if it was nice to see the Ilia/Decker whirling lights thing from 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' at the end. The episode didn't put the characters in the best light and we could have done with something more tangible to take away from it. We didn't even get much of the beautiful pastoral scenes to please the eye, so it was merely an okay instalment, nothing more, sadly.

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