Common Ground

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (Common Ground)

Genii episodes were never stories I found that enjoyable, mainly because they aren't an interesting race with their dull uniforms and backwards technology, and the main villain, Kolya, was a good example of that. If they want to bring back a Genii then I'd rather have Colm Meaney than Robert Davi (though I can't remember if Meaney's character was said to have been killed). The (almost) saving grace of this instalment were the interactions between Sheppard and a similarly captive Wraith, a strange bond developing through their shared incarceration and interdependency: the Wraith is used as a torture device to drain Sheppard's life in front of a transmission back to Atlantis and unless Weir hands over Kolya's former associate, now leader of the Genii, he'll allow this Wraith to go all the way. Although I say that was the most interesting part, it's still a fairly superficial exploration of human/Wraith harmony, they're forced to rely on each to escape and they keep up their end of the deal, but at the same time we don't really learn that much about the villainous species since they do prefer to keep them a bit of an unsympathetic threat in the same way that the Goa'uld were usually portrayed as cartoonish savages intent on violence rather than a fully dimensional group with minds of their own. When you're used to Trek and its multifaceted depictions of alien adversaries it's a big step backward when you see most sci-fi display a simplistic version of Evil Alien.

Not that the worst races in Trek were necessarily redeemed, but there were always examples, individuals, who had more to them than simply enmity, and this Wraith, whom we didn't even learn the name of, was close to being a character like that. If the Genii are one weakness across 'Atlantis,' then another is shared with the majority across all genre TV: old age makeup, which is exactly what I had a problem with in Sheppard's sucked-out look: why isn't his hair all white or fallen out? The trouble with portraying advanced age on a character is that they have to add a layer when if you look at real age it's usually about a thinning of the skin and hair, a sagging of the eye sockets, not just the addition of wrinkles, and we know what it looks like too well for a makeup or prosthetic to seem right. The best course is to get an old actor in to play that part of the role as they did so effectively in the film 'Interstellar,' and they do the same thing here when the Wraith takes almost all the rest of Sheppard's life from him in order to have the energy to fight the rogue Genii forces searching for the pair.

Even earlier than that point I realised something would have to happen to de-age the affected Sheppard since he wasn't going to permanently sport the look of a man with twenty years taken off his lifespan, though I was expecting it to be some medical marvel from Dr. Beckett. Instead we find out that Wraith have the ability to transfer life into their victims if they choose, though they only do so in exceptional circumstances, as for a brother, though we've never seen it happen before. There was some warmth in that moment but it was too little to really make the episode stand out - in fact I was actually wondering while they were staggering through the forest, an aged Sheppard and a weak Wraith, why these creatures don't just drain the life out of animals? Surely that would be just as much energy as a human, and even if it was just a snack it would be something, right? It also didn't make sense that Sheppard, even if he were acting weaker than he really was, would be able to jump the two guards, fling them against the wall and throw them around when they made their jailbreak! And while I'm being critical I wasn't impressed that Kolya eluded capture once again to be a thorn in their side for yet another day in the future as he's hardly a standout enemy, even compared to former Lieutenant Ford or Michael the half-Wraith. They don't have any strong recurring villains, at least so far, but they'd better hurry up and get some soon or there won't be time for them to recur!

Not that The Wraith aren't suitable foes, but they're so generic and faceless, all alike (except for this particular one who sported some kind of black star tattoo on his cheek, presumably so we can spot him again in future), and more of a force of nature than something we can be sympathetic with, and I do prefer a sympathetic villain. They say a hero is only as strong as the villain he faces, but a villain with understandable motives makes that villain stronger and gives us something more to grapple with. There was the hint of a moral issue to tackle in whether they should hand over Ladon to his ex-boss to get Sheppard back, but it's never really considered. You'd think Weir might have given a go-ahead for a fake handover in which they pulled some kind of trick to double-cross what are basically terrorists, but there wasn't a sense of rising tension, it was just Weir in charge and almost everyone else being angry at Ladon, who seemed pretty reasonable and cooperative throughout when it would seem to make more sense to keep away from these angry human. So not the worst, but not the best story either, it makes me wish for something a bit more substantial.

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