The Return Part II

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (The Return Part II)

As expected, it doesn't quite live up to Part I, but they made a concerted stab at it. I think I counted five plans in total, and that was the point, to use Wolsey as a dupe for the Replicators to think he knew the plan was to plant C4 and blow up the shield when activated (Plan C), when really it was a secret plan to insert the anti-Replicator weapons' crystals into the mechanism so that it would send out one burst when the shields were activated, taking out all the Replicators in one go (Plan D?). There was one flaw in the plan, and that was that the enemy needed to turn on the shields while the door to their cell was open, otherwise they'd have been stuck inside with no way of contacting Commander Caldwell who was coming to carry out Plan F, as in last resort, fail (nuke the city to kingdom come). Fortunately, and because it would be the end of the series otherwise, the Replicators were talking to them with the door open at the time and so it ended happily, even after Plan A had to be abandoned (retrieve Nium, the Replicator left floating in space earlier in the season, to implant a command into the whole hive mind system), and Plan B was only going to work for a short while: shoot as many of them as possible until they adjusted to the frequency of the special weapons. If there was any doubt that the Replicators were modelled on Trek's Borg, this cements it, as that's exactly the way Starfleet crews always dealt with the cybernetic race, a rotating frequency on the Phasers which would be compromised after a few shots because they would adapt.

Unfortunately, the Replicators have never held the creepiness and relentlessness of that famed race, and that was even more apparent in this episode in which the villains are mainly faceless, and even the two 'main' leaders have no character to them. This suits the Replicator style, but it doesn't make for great opposition in acting, a mark against the episode. Another mark against it, or should I say marks, are the easy way they dispense with certain key particulars such as the destruction of the 'gate room, the disposal of The Ancients and the reinstatement of Weir and her team, despite going against orders. Let's deal with the first point: they are on a budget, it can be easy to forget that when they're having completely CG Jumper chases round the spires of the city as drones try to take them down, reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon outrunning TIE Fighters in the asteroid field of 'The Empire Strikes Back.' Then there were the scenes in which General O'Neill gets to remind us that he can still pull his weight in the action sequences when they have him repeatedly swimming into an underwater set to access the controls which will let Weir's Jumper in. That was a great scene, or series of scenes (I tried holding my breath as long as he was, and I was just reclining comfortably and couldn't keep it up!), not the first time they've had characters completely submerged underwater, but it's been a while since O'Neill had to do anything so physical and it made it seem like 'SG-1' was still going strong (even though he's not a part of it now).

O'Neill and Wolsey made a fun pairing, and it was nice to see Dr. Lee again, as well as Landry and Walter, furthering the sense of a greater world these 'Atlantis' characters are joined to. But back to my point, while there was money on the screen, the fact that we never got to see the Atlantis 'gate room either completely destroyed (apart from an external view, much easier to accomplish), or in some state of disrepair, it did lessen the impression of stakes to some degree. The second problem was that these Ancients were supposed to be the last in existence and they're all wiped out offscreen as if they were the unimportant secondary characters that they were in the context of a TV production, when they should have been integral celebrities. I understand that they had to restore the status quo by the end of the episode (but did they really? Could we not have seen some survivors, and some rebuilding of the damaged city?), but to summarily execute all these Ancients whom are like meeting famous people from history, was a bad move and a shortcut, making the story seem shallower. And thirdly, perhaps the team's reinstatement could have been in some doubt, at least for an episode or two. They hadn't gone the completely serialised route, and I like that, they have enough continuity, yet also get in standalone episodes that tie in somewhat, but this was such a big deal, the overriding of orders, the risks and the dangers, that there should have been some consequences, no matter if they were overcome within an episode or two down the line.

If these problems had been fixed it would still not have been as good as the first part, but it would have been elevated to a higher level than it was, instead of seeming rushed and simplistic. But I did quite enjoy it, again the character work and the interplay between them bonds the group together and the twist of a deliberate ploy to feed O'Neill and Wolsey misinformation, with a stylistic whizz back to the scene where we left them discussing the plan, was ingenious, even if I did wonder if something had gone wrong with my DVD for a second or two! Then I thought there was some weird time anomaly occurring until I realised it was just a stylistic choice. But there was a flair to proceedings, even if it did slow down at points when they could have kept things tighter and spared more time at the end for more of a resolution instead of O'Neill just granting Weir absolution for all past sins of her and her team. Otherwise, close to being one of the better episodes of the season, but, as Rodney said, no cigar.

**