Outcast

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Outcast)

Earth-based story alert! This time the conceit is that Sheppard's Father has just died of a heart attack so he takes a trip back home with Ronon coming along for moral support, but the real story is that some of Patrick Wallace's research on nanites (he was the guy with the daughter who wanted to save her from a terminal illness using the little blighters), has been continued and a girl involved wants Sheppard's help. I was hoping this didn't degenerate into an excuse to do something wacky like bring John's Dad back from the dead, but fortunately that never happened and the two plots had basically no connection with each other except for John's ex-wife  doing him a favour by looking into Project Archetype, classified research on the subject (why he can't get the clearance himself, I'm not sure). We also meet his brother Dave, clearly their parents weren't very imaginary when it came to names, and the guy (who I assume was the elder), has a beef about money, believing the prodigal son is going to come back and challenge the will where he's expecting to be rewarded for all the time he spent taking care of the family business and staying under their Father's thumb. It's nice that there was some kind of reconciliation at the end, but the whole thing didn't have a lot of bearing on anything.

It was one of those episodes where there isn't a very cohesive idea so they keep bouncing from one thing to the next: first it's about Sheppard Sr.'s wake, then it's 'Frankenstein,' with the object of this experiment being a Replicator who's gone on the run to avoid being shut down in the wake of Wallace's company being sorted out by the authorities, and it shifts more decidedly into 'Terminator' territory, with the guy moving like one, acting like one, chunks of metal being blasted out of him like one, and culminating in a Rep-on-Rep fight that made me think I was watching 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' (even though this was a year or two before that series came out). It also features a kind of B-team of 'Stargate' people - not to denigrate Sheppard or Ronon, of course, they're most definitely A-team members, but out of their element in a way, on Earth, and handed Bates, a guy who used to work at Atlantis early in the series (I knew I recognised his face), and Dr. Lee, who's one holiday in three years had been interrupted, not to mention the ex-wife, and it very much felt like the subs were in action, especially as we barely even see McKay or Carter, and Teyla doesn't even appear! Will everyone get an episode exclusively with Sheppard - they've done it with McKay and now Ronon… And I wonder what it would be like if Lee, McKay, Carter and Zelenka all put their heads together, that's something I'd like to see. I feel like there's no technological problem they couldn't crack!

And talking of cracking, there's a lot of cracking heads in this one with the rogue Replicator killing various personnel, including his maker, but of course when it comes to Sheppard and Ronon he only throws them hard into things so they can keep coming back. It's a trope, I know, but maybe they should have been almost killed, at least! Ronon was good, and the action scenes were spectacular as they chase down this hand-pumping running machine and end up fighting him, so top marks for the directing of the stunt scenes. But even the ending with the girl who turns out to be a Replicator reminded me of something else: just like the holographic Moriarty in 'TNG' she's allowed to think she's been given freedom by putting her in a simulation, so the number of derivative parts of the story was high. I'll give them the idea of burning up the other Replicator by beaming him into the atmosphere, but even there they basically reference the way to defeat Terminators is to bury them in molten material. Ronon has that out of place humour as he attends the wake and is of course a great friend for Sheppard to have around, but once again I wonder who the partner would have been if he'd not been added to the cast: Teyla perhaps? It makes more sense to have buddy-buddy stories, but once again it makes you realise how Teyla has too often been lost as a character.

I could also cite instances where it's so obvious what's going to happen, such as when Dr. Poole whacks Bates round the head to go in alone and try and talk down his creation, and equally that said creation was going to then kill him for his trouble. But the main issue is lack of focus, hopping from one thing to another without really giving an idea time to breathe and for exploration, an issue I'd level at 'Stargate' generally. It's nice to see one of the cast contributing to a story ('Based Upon an Episode Concept by Joe Flanigan'), just as other cast members have done in 'SG-1,' it shows an engagement and an insider perspective on their character which can work, and I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with the story on that count, just the script execution being too choppy. The main thing I get from this, other than useful building on Sheppard's family and personal life, is that Dr. Lee really should have been made a main character in one or other of the 'Stargate' shows.

**