The Lost Boys

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S2 (The Lost Boys)

Could they have turned a corner with these latest two episodes? The previous one was good and this one also does well, mainly because it operates in the old team style with Sheppard, Teyla, McKay and Ronon all off-world on a mission together to pick up some intel. Their bantering and chatting doesn't always ring true, but here they really are a good little unit and fun to watch. The episode gets better when we find out the fate of Ford, last seen voluntarily being swept up in a dart's ray to escape Sheppard. He's still as unbalanced as before, but now he's even more dangerous because he has delusions to leading his own band of followers against The Wraith. But first, to achieve his ultimate goal of taking on a guerilla mission to destroy a Hive ship, he needs the expertise of McKay to fix a dart and the piloting skill of Sheppard to get them there, which is why he kidnaps the team and makes them take the enzyme which has addled his brain, but given him greater speed and strength. It's a good concept, putting Sheppard at odds once again with his former subordinate and leading to some outfoxing of each other: it was obvious to me that Sheppard should go along with Ford's plan so he could scoop them all up and fly home, but Ford was ahead of him with that one, too, holding McKay hostage after lulling Sheppard into thinking he secretly has a desire to return home to Earth!

Ford and his band of lost boys aren't uninteresting: you have the science guy who McKay ends up helping and we learn a little more about Wraith politics from him (essentially he believes them to be territorial and fighting amongst themselves more and more), while Teyla and Ronon both discover the benefits of the enzyme, becoming even faster and energetic fighters than they already were, but also more aggressive. It does seem to lessen the mind's care for others as they show when they get into a fight over a piece of lettuce! Also, Ford remains as deluded as ever, thinking his plans are gold while they're obviously poor - when they go to grab some C4 from a Genii outpost a man is killed where it was unnecessary, and when Ford's plan aboard the Hive ship goes wrong he immediately blames Sheppard and never takes any advice from anyone. He's no military mastermind and the drug can't improve that aspect of them, so Sheppard is the only one to remain clearheaded as he was kept off the enzyme so he could witness what it did for the others and eventually report it to Weir. Ford wants to be mates and for them to trust him on one hand, yet also threatens lives if they go against him, so he's still acting the benevolent tyrant and failing to see the change to his personality it has wrought.

After watching another substandard episode of 'Star Trek: Discovery' this was a breath of fresh air - maybe it didn't end in the space of one episode and get satisfyingly wrapped up (and I suspect it can only end with Ford's death, though I'd be happier he was still out there causing mischief to The Wraith), but it did succeed in setting up a premise, following on from previous setup, and exploring it well, while giving us an enjoyable group of characters to hang out with, which is much more than can be said of 'DSC,' and something I really needed! I don't know how things will play out, perhaps it will lose its momentum in the second part, Ford will probably have a last-minute redemption, saving Sheppard and dying in the process, but both character moments and the action here were well worked in with Ronon especially becoming a whirlwind of Wraith death in the assault on the ship. Maybe it would have made more sense for Teyla and Ronon to have chosen a moment and taken on the Ford gang back at their base, but then we wouldn't have had the intriguing visit to this Hive ship where a Hive Queen (as the end credits has it), is about to do something nasty to Sheppard. If the team work as tightly together in part two it could be a trio of quality episodes in a row.

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