The Real World

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (The Real World)

How they do love these stories! And, to be fair, so do I, when they're done well. Even if they're a little patchy I'm more inclined to give them a pass when they do a fake reality tale because those are especially appealing to me. I'm sure they've done multiple such stories on 'Stargate' over the years, I feel like they might even have already covered this ground with another character on 'Atlantis,' though I can't remember (Rodney and his make-believe Carter might be what I'm remembering), and they certainly went on to do it at least once on 'Universe,' and when you add in all the 'Star Trek,' 'Smallville' and probably other series' too, I've seen more than my fair share. I never get tired of it, though I do quickly start wondering what the trick will be this time, and whether they'll come up with a new spin on a familiar (but not tired), concept. But this is 'Stargate,' they aren't renowned for breaking new ground, so I didn't expect more than the usual, and that's what I got. Maybe this time she's in a coma, I thought, and kept in that state for her own protection. Well I wasn't too far off, but I wasn't right, either, as it turns out it's all thanks to nasty Nium, or perhaps I should say nice Nium, since he was on their side until the nanites took control. It was nice Nium's nasty nanites, naturally!

I like that there could be completely unconsidered consequences from a previous episode that would never have been thought of in my long list of possible causes. For one thing it shows that you can have serialised stories that are also unrelated, but are their own separate entity while spring-boarding from what happened before. These types of episodes also fit well with the ensemble series format where we focus on a particular character and allow that cast member the latitude to act in extraordinary situations alone. Dr. Weir was as good a choice as any for this unfortunate scenario to play out with, she is the person of authority in Atlantis after all, so to have that all stripped away from her immediately puts her on the back foot. My preferences would have been for it to almost entirely take place in her mind if that was what was happening - I know it is an ensemble series and so you need to work in the other characters somehow, but partly for drama, and partly for the sake of reality, I felt they shouldn't have had the others standing around getting in the way in the Sickbay. It's not like they were really contributing anything, and if they did have to feature everyone, why not show them discussing it quietly outside the room?

It still would have worked better if we weren't sure about what was happening until near the end. It was different that she comes to the conclusion she was hallucinating it all and chooses to accept this life, but I also find it difficult to buy that despite her vivid memories she would give in so easily and assumed she was just playing along. But it took Sheppard's encouragement for her to reassess her position and they managed to pull off a good ending from something that had lost its mystery along the way. They did well for a good portion of the episode and the horror-tinged moments were suitably jarring, even if I was then expecting her Mother's head to start bouncing back and forth as Jack's did. Ah, Jack! It was so good to see Richard Dean Anderson reprise his role as General O'Neill even if it was a fake, nanite-created version designed to make her go along with the programme. It made me wish he'd stayed involved in the franchise as a regular because he's just so much fun that I genuinely missed him after this, even though he'd previously shown up only the previous TV season during 'SG-1's final year. It was also lovely to have the final showdown take place on the empty sets of that series, who'd have thought we'd be seeing Jack O'Neill back in those corridors again?

I wonder how long they kept those standing sets standing, I don't know when the 'SG-1' spinoff films were made, but I imagine it wouldn't have been much later, especially as by 'Universe' I'm pretty sure they represented what little we saw of the SGC with different sets. But there was something more emotionally satisfying about Weir's need to go through the old Stargate to escape, so it really added to the relief as she follows Sheppard's instructions to escape. Was he supposed to be the sinister shadow that was creeping around? That was the impression I got, her subconscious, or the work of the nanite infection giving it a negative angle, though in reality it would have been him standing by her isolation tent, I would assume. Unless it was supposed to be Nium, the personification of the nanites? The episode scored on the guest casting, and it was so nice to see Alan Ruck again - it made me wish that since he was doing sci-fi TV in that decade that 'Enterprise' had managed to get him back for some time travel adventure where they connected with his Trek character, Captain Harriman of the Enterprise-B! He had that sympathetic face that could also be taken as slightly sinister at any moment as he appears to indulgently allow Weir her ridiculous fantasies.

It's not a story that has any greater meaning for the series, and so is just the kind of thing you probably don't see any more now that streaming services have done for extensive seasons in which to experiment, relying instead on big arcs to pull in the casuals. I will always enjoy this kind of one-off reality-shifting uncertainty than conventional action, though with this series you have room for both. I can't say the actress wowed me with her portrayal, but she was fine and it comes together pretty well.

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