The Seer

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (The Seer)

The rare kind of episode where I go in having certain expectations only to find those expectations aren't met, but then the episode manages to win me round before the final curtain falls. In other words I felt this was an overly technical story that was bogged down by too many parts, but there was a certain warmth to the characters and it became more worthwhile than it had seemed for much of the time. The big thing for me was so many top guest star names: obviously being a 'Voyager' fan it's always good to see Robert Picardo, despite Wolsey being an officious, generally meddling bureaucrat that no matter how hard he tries, and he has tried over the years, ends up getting up people's noses. Then there was the surprise, as in completely out of the blue, addition of Martin Jarvis as this alien seer - Jarvis is best known to me as being the voice of the 'Just William' stories, a well known English actor with a long and varied career, so he was one of those really strange castings that I'd never remotely have guessed. And finally, there's the ever-faithful Christopher Heyerdahl who always comes across well whatever character he's playing.

That was the start of my contention: I remembered he'd played the main Athosian (Halling, I think), who used to be on the series so I automatically assumed this seer was going to lead them to Teyla's people and we'd meet his character again. In reality I'm not even sure if they didn't kill off the guy way back when, and I certainly had no recollection he'd played a Wraith, even with the helpful recap at the start which reminds us of that adventure between Sheppard and the Wraith ally, so it was with some disappointment I realised my confusion. When you add that this seer seemed to be merely a device by which they had an advantage in this particular situation, with no real purpose or connection otherwise, as well as the technical plans of Replicator base codes and computer viruses, not to mention Wolsey being there, again, with only the purpose of adding more trouble to the situation, and I began to feel a little too removed from proceedings, thinking thoughts along the lines of how much Carter's skills and abilities are wasted with her doing admin and leadership when she could be putting her vast brainpower to use in whatever technical problems there were. It really has been difficult to accept her in this completely different light and she doesn't often come across as essential in that position.

Things changed towards the end, pleasingly as we explored the twin troubles of Carter's feelings of inadequacy to make such vital life and death decisions for so many people, and the idea of whether the future is immutable, or it's merely that there is only one future that is always the result of individual actions, and for those reasons I came to appreciate the quality of this story much more. We see Wolsey fall back into bad habits as he tries to take command in his fright over Samantha's bold move to leave the city defenceless as they cloak it (though I do wonder how that would work since surely the water lapping against its sides would be a giveaway, unless the cloak somehow plays a false view of serene waters as if it isn't there - that must be it), while two rival Wraith ships are in orbit. With Davos' visions (that's Davos, not Davros, fortunately! - and I'm sure Martin Jarvis was in original 'Dr. Who' at least once…), always proving correct (and I enjoyed McKay's attempts to allow for such a supernatural effect by imagining it like a card game where a card counter can have a higher percentage effect to be right), and we know there's a vision of Atlantis being severely damaged, it was high stakes indeed and a real moment of having to have self-belief, or taking the gut instinct and sticking with it, which I suppose is what leadership tends to be.

It shows that Carter does have the confidence to put her experience into practice, and not just for an SG team of four, but a whole city. The stakes couldn't have been much higher since this deal with the friendly Wraith came about because Replicators have taken to a new strategy of destroying their enemies' food source: in other words, human populations are being slaughtered far worse than anything The Wraith would do. The idea that they could be safe in their city while other human populations are being obliterated means they can't simply sit by. I didn't always agree with their point of view, such as betraying Wraith before they've got a chance to do the same to them, or that if you believe in yourself then everything will work out as it should, which was all a little pat, but I certainly respected the way they, and especially Carter, dealt with the situation. But they are a military organisation, and though Carter is straddling the line a little more than if Sheppard had been put in command, she is still a soldier at heart, if a soldier-scientist, so it's not a surprise that the direction is to be distrustful and resort to force wherever necessary, which isn't the Trek way (or didn't used to be when Trek was great).

The other thing thrown in with the kitchen sink is the news that rather than Teyla dying or something along those lines as I suspected, she's actually preggers. Who, how, where, when, why… these we aren't privy to, and it did come across a little soapy, but at least she learned that her people are alive somewhere even if she doesn't have a clue where. And it was a relief they're not trying to prepare us for an impending death! Nice to see hints of the friendship between her and Dr. Keller after their recent excursion together, I hope they play that up even more. Great effect of the future visions, and it was lovely to see a MALP used again as they're seen so rarely on this branch of 'Stargate.' Yes, aspects of the story were a bit convenient (the visions), and others inconvenient (Wolsey), but when it came down to it, it did work. It could be interesting having a Wraith living in the city, even as a prisoner, so there's that. Although I did guess the second ship was not part of the ally's plan and had simply tracked his ship, so I suspected they'd be attacking each other. Still, I was impressed how the two possibilities, either it was a plot to destroy Atlantis or a genuine attempt to share resources against a greater threat, played out, and either one could have been true at any point: good plotting, well done.

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