Submersion

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (Submersion)

Not one of the most memorable episodes, partly because it had a lot of potential, but also because it would have been hard for any episode to follow the previous one. I thought this was going to be the series' 'Empok Nor,' that great 'DS9' episode in which a small crew board the abandoned sister station and awaken enemy soldiers left to guard it - lots of creeping around in the dark with people getting offed. Of course that story took a much more interesting turn, as I thought this might. But they got the main drama out of the way early on when Teyla is predictably taken over by a Wraith Queen when she tried to search out the mind she sensed, beating up Ronon and preventing the team from reaching the Jumper within which they came down to this abandoned underwater station to explore. It's sad that they can't really think of much to develop Teyla's character so they resort to having her be possessed by the alien villain of the week so she has something to do. I wasn't even fooled by the trick at the end where she makes the Queen believe Rodney is going to get the engines working on her nearby warship which stranded her so deep underwater with no way to reach the surface, and Sheppard will fly it. It seemed too obvious a thing to do: pretend she's hiding something so she'll take the bait and go and turn off her self-destruct that's going to cause problems for the entire planet. It reminded me a bit of that recent episode where they were on some alien station in a moon, trapped and needing to work out a way to escape before it was too late ('The Ark'), but that was better.

This one suffers from not much going on. Lots of walking around corridors that even Ronon grumbles all look the same, and there was never a great atmosphere of impending doom or a grisly fate around the next corner. I admit the Queen's attack at the mouth of the Jumper did make me jump because I was thinking of something else, but I wanted better use of the team. I liked having them all together on this mission, but there wasn't enough of the camaraderie or good banter between them that there has been so much of this season. I noticed Paul McGillion remains in the opening credits as Dr. Beckett, so if you'd missed the previous episode you'd not know he was gone (even showing up in the recap in the teaser), but I imagine it's a cost issue and they'd wait until Season 4 to change the titles - I'd like them to make Zelenka a main cast member because he's reliably there so often and proves a thorn in McKay's (or Dr. McCoy as he's known to some of the 'lesser' scientists he works with, for his crotchety personality), side, though in a pleasant way. It didn't help that sunshine was shining brightly in the window while I watched, this is definitely one for dark winter evenings, and by rights it should have been a good one - I always like underground (or underwater), bases, wherein lies some terrible thing with which they're trapped aboard.

I suppose I found it hard to believe that Teyla's mind was strong enough to be able to partially block a thought for the Queen to force out, yet still be able to pretend it's not a trick. It's not like she's had that much experience in linking to Wraith minds. At least she did show some guilt, however unfounded, since there was nothing she could have done about being taken over, but what it all boils down to is a mere adventure story that doesn't even have the hysteria or impression of rising tensions seen in such 'DS9' classics as 'The Ship.' And what about that ship they left behind, lying on the ocean floor? Are they going to get that up and running and use it in the season finale? Rodney even makes a joke about how even if he does get it to work, Sheppard will probably just fly it into another Wraith vessel and all that hard work will be wasted, so maybe they were anticipating our expectations - but it's only because that's the sort of thing they usually do. In the end we don't know if it'll come up again or just be something to forget, but even if we saw it rise majestically out of the waters that wouldn't have improved what is nothing more than a functional episode, in spite of featuring the whole cast on a mission together, which doesn't often happen.

**