Condemned

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (Condemned)

They could have saved that poor woman, Marin, who gave them the information which made them realise what was really going on! Instead they leave the Olesians to the fate of The Wraith cruisers and hightail it out of there. You could say there was nothing they could do, and that we're supposed to despise them, so why should we care, and that they need to keep the fact that Atlantis isn't destroyed, a secret, but even so! The episode didn't quite pan out as I was expecting, but it was a fairly generic adventure like we've seen before: rather than it being two cultures, a primitive, but noble savage group, preyed on by a more advanced and cruelly 'civilised' society, it's a community that sends its prisoners to an island where the 'gate is so that when each cull occurs The Wraith will only snaffle who's on the island and leave everyone else alone (not sure why the prisoners didn't jump through the 'gate whenever it came on?). I'm not sure how long there's supposed to be between culls, but I'm sure the idea was that they slept for many years before awaking to feed again, but they make it sound like it's a fairly regular thing. It wouldn't make a great deal of sense that there would be very many prisoners on the island, not least because they have access to weapons and so would have killed a lot of each other off (the leader of the band has killed several himself). This becomes a plot point when we learn that the leader, or 'magistrate' of the civilised world has a deal with a particular Wraith that means he sends even lesser criminals than murderers to meet a quota and it's only going to get more draconian.

Wraith having the taste for the food of other races was hard to stomach (!), but there could always be one or two deviants in a society, even The Wraith (if you can call deviants the ones who are actually slightly more civilised than their brethren). You knew right from the start that it was going to be some exploitation by the rich and powerful, but the other side of the criminals is just as bad and it's a pretty messed up planet. That made it hardly a joy to be there, and for Ronon's first mission with the gang it wasn't a great one. He certainly seems to have ridiculous levels of endurance since he takes an arrow through the leg and just does a Rambo, pulling it out and never seeming to be in pain more than a little discomfort again. You don't see him limping about or worrying that the wound will become infected, it's as if he was perfectly fine. Either that says something about his regenerative metabolism, or the lack of the writers keeping track of details, though it's possible the prisoners treated him, if highly unlikely. I thought it was going to be a clever way to keep him out of the action to prevent it becoming too easy for them to escape, but he's more of a cocky guy than a brilliant asset to the team, though it was interesting to see that he's conditioned to obey an order if it's given, almost as if he wants Sheppard to phrase things that way so he has no choice, but otherwise he'll do what he wants. Which maybe isn't the best person to have along on sensitive missions?

It's really a standard runaround on an alien world, a slight bit of diplomacy, some captivity and a bit of fighting (with Teyla getting to put her stick combat into practice, pleasingly). There was nothing else really going on, so I couldn't say it was one of the better stories so far. At least the last one had the advantage of a sci-fi idea at the centre even if it didn't pull it off completely. It's difficult to see where they can go with the concept, trying to keep Atlantis hidden and secret (they even lie, continuing the illusion it's gone by telling the Olesians this), how they can get in on stories with Wraith that aren't supposed to know about them, while also servicing all the characters… It's a tough proposition and so far the season's been patchy, starting so well, but not going anywhere yet. The series lasted for five seasons so they must have turned onto a good thing eventually, I'm just left waiting to see what it is!

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