Stargate: The Ark of Truth

DVD, Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008), film

Revivals of TV shows that have come to their natural end rarely work particularly well, from 'Highlander' to 'Babylon 5' they tend to be a mixed bag of trying to find something else to do, while not straying too far from what they're based on, attempting to appeal in the wider sense of an audience that may want to see it as its own thing, yet also playing to the dedicated who are most likely to be interested. The situation was slightly different in this case since it was a straight to DVD release that came out only a year after the series ended in 2007, so it's not like it was years afterward, the sets were still standing, the actors weren't far removed from their characters and the story had been left with enough threads to pick up and create an ending of larger scope than the one 'SG-1' bowed out with at the end of Season 10. It was also true that the 'Stargate' franchise had branched out and was going strong with 'Atlantis,' and 'SG-1' itself was no stranger to resurrection, one reason it had survived for a then unprecedented number of seasons to a full season length run of ten years. So all the pieces were in place for this to be a blockbuster encore after the great finale of Season 10, so why did it fail to grab me?

I think you have to look at the word 'blockbuster' to understand: the reason 'Unending,' the last ever episode of the series, was much more of a character piece and a science fiction idea explored in a meaningful way. 'The Ark of Truth' was a run at making an 'Indiana Jones' type of story, big, bold and brassy to make the purchase of a DVD worthwhile to the general public, which means all the action, ship battles and fisticuffs people have come to associate with the genre. The only problem is that the surface action isn't what the genre is really about, that would be characters and ideas, and no amount of throwing effects at the screen in the belief that you could compete with 'blockbuster' films was going to work. I shouldn't criticise 'SG-1' for being what it is, I just have to admit that those parts of it that I most enjoy are not the effects or action, fights or aliens, which is why the series as a whole I like it a lot, but don't love, nor carry it in the same regard as the Trek franchise. It's always been a bit of an imitation, taking the bits it wants and mixing them with the more popular and less taxing style of 'Star Wars' that appeals to simpler minds.

Thing is, this episode reminds me of so many things about 'SG-1' that I wasn't crazy about: the Replicators, running round the ship blasting the little critters into smithereens (and yet, somehow the walls and bulkheads never have a single bullet hole, and all that complicated circuitry and tech cluttering up the corridors is undamaged - not to mention that if the Replicators are being formed from bits of the ship, and there's so many of them, how come the ship isn't falling apart or venting atmosphere?). I found it, to its detriment, to be a set of things happening rather than personal events to be invested in. There are three plots: the search for the Ark, the battle against a vain IOA (the Stargate programme's oversight committee), plot to set Replicators on The Ori, and a visit to the SGC by a Prior. It almost sounds more interesting than it was. The characters don't really get a fair shout - though they all get their bits of business, whether it be Teal'c surviving a staff blast from the current cannon fodder minions of the enemy, making his hundred mile trek through mountains to save the others, or Daniel working out how to open the titular Ark that will spill forth the light of rightness and magically change all the minds of those following the Way of Origin that has incited them to religious war, Carter doing some technical thing to get the self-destruct to work, Mitchell fighting his arch-nemesis Marrick of the IOA, to Vala… being annoying. And even Landry getting his jabs in on the visiting Prior. None of it sparkles, it doesn't show much about the characters, they're just there as usual.

The film suffers from the same malady of Season 10, some niggling little impression that the characters weren't progressing any more, they'd gelled, but they weren't written so well, they were just fulfilling plot functions. It's difficult to describe, but I didn't feel that way during Season 9, or not as much, the new direction of this religious cult spreading like wildfire through the galaxy had potential, mixed in with Arthurian legend and the series' own lore of the Ancients. In that sense the film feels just like it's part of the series proper, in fact it could have been the true finale after that one where they get stuck in time. If you're wondering how things would be different now that Teal'c has lived decades and decades as the only person to survive through time then you'd be disappointed. Nothing is different, except he refuses to hide the streak of white hair on one side, the rich potential of such an idea has no place or time to be explored. We don't really get a sense of anything having changed for any of the characters, or of their lives, as we used to, and I would say the sole reason this exists is because they wanted to tie up The Ori arc, where perhaps they had left it open in case a last minute change of heart might have brought the series to an eleventh season. I have no idea, just pure speculation on my part.

So it's not that the film is doing anything different, it's just that it doesn't make any progress for the characters, and because it's mostly on the familiar sets, apart from some snowy mountain trekking, it does feel like a TV episode. That's not always a bad thing, I'd much rather see the familiar sets and places than have them recreated or remodelled (as I think the SGC was when seen in 'Universe'), but it's not doing anything more than coming up with a way to finish the story, and is therefore full of magical interventions (from Morgan La Fay, such as healing the stricken Teal'c), and really just rehashing things that had been done so many times before. Again, if you love the series that's what you want: same again, please. Except there are certain expectations when a film has been made specially and this doesn't fulfil that. It becomes derivative to the point where you're picking out where this or that comes from, most obviously the 'Terminator' stuff with Cam fighting Mr. Marrick who has been taken over by Replicators to get the override code for the destruct. It even goes so far as to have his mangled, electrocuted corpse disintegrate into a metal skeleton that stands up and comes after Mitchell just like a T-800. I'm not doubting the effects, but it was very derivative, and something else I noticed was that it was quite nasty in comparison to the series, almost going back to its roots with how the first couple of episodes were before they toned it down (and more swearing, too).

Marrick was an obnoxious sort right from the off, and you can't stand him, yet it's somehow nastier to kill him off in that way where his cell is overrun by Replicators - it was bad enough he didn't get a chance to redeem himself and show that he could think for himself, not merely a puppet for the IOA (replacing Wolsey who was busy with 'Atlantis,' fortunately, though he would have been more sympathetic). Then they compound that sense of negativity by having him be the evil representation of Replicator power for Mitchell to fight (why do people never learn when combating a superior, robot-like opponent: don't just keep trying to punch them out once they've thrown you across the room - but it has to look as if the good guy is failing before he can rally and win the day, not a good convention). Adding to this sense of misery is that Teal'c, even after ten years (and many more decades in 'Unending'!), has a personal philosophy that one can never forgive oneself for acts of atrocity committed in the past, and so he tells Tomin, Vala's sort-of-husband who had been the pawn of The Ori but is shown the error of his ways by the fact that a Prior can be killed. This was a most depressing part, and I can understand it was supposed to be some form of acceptance by Teal'c, a twisted kind of reassurance that there is life after all that has been done, but to suggest there can be no forgiveness is to doom us all!

Saying that, it is true to the kind of staunch, self-denying warrior that Teal'c is, that he would think that way, and he is an alien, let's not forget. I'm just relieved they didn't kill him off because every time there's another part of 'SG-1' I'm expecting his death simply for the fact he's the only original star not to show up in 'Universe,' and I thought he really was a goner when the staff zapped him in the back in the usual forest planet setting. But he was only injured - badly, but able to marshal the last of his resources to stagger on until he was miraculously healed. If the philosophy of the series and film is unhappy, it also comes across as rather simplistic, most obviously in that final scene between Vala and Tomin where she glibly suggests the sacred scripture of Origin should be altered to make it acceptable to the times. This is daft on a number of levels, because if they're making comments on specific religious books that so much of the population of Earth revere, then think that it would be as simple as a spot of adjustment then that's plainly mind-bending stupidity and shows a complete lack of understanding. On the other hand, if they're simply making comment about this evil book that has been enslaving races through the galaxy, yet suggesting there's some truth in there so some of it is still important, that's just as idiotic. Consign the whole to oblivion, it's evil. But it was just a thing thrown in at the end, it's not like the film was all about that, and makes it look all the worse.

While complaining about the end, it's also such an easy conclusion: simply open the magic box and everything's fine. It doesn't address the real issues of indoctrination or suggest that ways should be examined and tested to determine their truth (just as the Ancients, or Alterans, if they are one and the same, were saying at the beginning!). Then there's the Orici who just turns into fiery energy and fights with the swirly blue La Fay (reminded me of the end of 'DS9' episode 'The Reckoning'), and everything's okay. As I said, it's not that 'Stargate' usually gets this stuff dead-on and this is the aberration from the norm, it's just that a longer form episode shows up the flaws more heavily, and the issues I had with the team of characters in the final season is in sharper relief. It should be taken on its own terms, it is just derivative sci-fi and always has been, so there's no real reason to demand something more, except that there have been great episodes over the years, it can be done. There were things to like, such as the occasional reference to 'Atlantis' (Colonel Ellis of the Apollo has a tiny cameo), but in general that series has fast become a more appealing collection of stories and characters for me. Whether it could surpass 'SG-1' entirely I won't know until I see the final two seasons, and there is yet one more entry in the 'SG-1' canon to come with the second spinoff film, 'Continuum,' but it seems wise to hold off on that one for now.

In one sense I'm happy they brought back everything for a TV film, it is nice to see the characters again even when they're only working at half power, and they still have a chance to make one last great adventure. In the other sense it would have been better to leave with 'Unending' since that was so much better. But as I frequently find, sometimes, maybe always, it's better to have a series go a step or more too far, to show that the creative juices are no longer there, it's had its day, because the alternative is that you'd always be wondering what would have happened next, what if they could have made more? Now we know, and there's no longer that mental quest to go on, to think about what might have been, we've seen it, it was okay, nothing special, and now go and watch the old episodes you do like. At least they did give the option of a nine-minute prelude that runs through all the main plot points needed to remind what this story is all about, useful since the series was always heavily plot-focused with tons of lore to keep track of, probably one of the reasons its devotees are so devoted. Not sure why we didn't get some kind of 'Stargate'-related opening titles, and it is rather a trope that if you have any doubt start a film with sweeping shots of snowy mountains. Still, I appreciate the efforts to get everyone back, even minor characters like Tomin and the Priors, another reason making it soon after the series helped. And was Amanda Tapping pregnant? They kept her in dark clothing a lot and when she turns while talking to Mitchell in the last scene there seemed to be a bump. And is Carter supposed to be falling for him? There's no sign of O'Neill so she has her sights on the current SG-1 leader? Mmphf.

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