Midway

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (Midway)

Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Vin Diesel and The Rock. Ronon Dex and… Teal'c? They finally did it, they must have known it was what everyone wanted to see as soon as Ronon became a member of the Atlantis team: 'SGA's best warrior had to meet 'SG-1's. I've mentioned the possibility a few times, and of course with the addition of Carter at the start of the season with a little cameo by our favourite Jaffa warrior, the probability went up a bit, but I was never sure it would happen, after all Christopher Judge probably had better things to do than reprise his famous role of a decade as the muscleman with the shiny emblem on the forehead. But do it they did, and in great style, as you'd hope! A lot of action is packed into one episode, but it starts as you'd hope, with Ronon immediately threatened by this lauded hulk who has come to coach him on an interview with IOA member Mr. Coolidge, in case Wolsey was getting too cuddly. Teal'c, sporting a new, longer hair look, isn't quick to take offence, and in fact faces down the younger fighter with aplomb, having gone through his own such stages in the past and learnt admirable restraint, as any great warrior should, but he's not going to back down from a challenge, and Ronon clearly wants to rumble, so they rumble.

We hear that it's gone on for an hour or two, and when we join it, the battle is going about as even as you would expect. I always wondered who would prevail in a fight between the pair, though being a loyal 'SG-1' follower I was of course going to point Teal'c out as the more likely victor. So it was an interesting choice that, while not fighting each other to a standstill, it takes Carter coming in to break it up and call it a draw. An equitable solution, and one I hadn't thought about. It only came back to me that Teal'c is actually quite an old man when I noticed the grey streak in his hair and remembered he'd lived something like a century in the final episode of 'SG-1,' so in point of fact, if he'd been in his prime (and I don't mean First Prime!), I think we can say he'd have just edged it. But we'll never know. The important thing is they prove themselves to the other and put to bed the debate no doubt many viewers had been having about who would win (now how about between McKay and Dr. Lee…). They also go on to save each others' lives, which was a nice touch, but the episode didn't entirely go the way I expected, even though I was expecting them to be stuck having to work together - they're sent to the doomed Midway Station, the halfway point between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies that McKay was so proud of setting up, where some Wraith choose just that moment to descend upon the hapless scientists and bored soldiers.

You'd think the SGC would have learned by now that you can never be one hundred percent secure with a Stargate, and at least have had better security procedures than a couple of dozy soldiers hanging around by the 'gate! But they're taken unawares and it's up to the musclebound warrior blokes to blast the intruders, though it being only a small station the fight spills over into the SGC itself back at Cheyenne Mountain. I wonder how long they kept the old sets up, was it just until they finished making the (two), 'SG-1' films? I don't remember it showing up in 'Universe' as the same place, so… But it was such fun seeing Ronon in those familiar environs, not to mention Teal'c striding down his old corridors packin' heat, and even Walter's in his usual seat at the computers. Dr. Lee is too dozy to be cowardly, it seems, as even when he's threatened by the chief Wraith, he's always got something to witter on about, and I can see why Sheppard got so infuriated with his and Kavanagh's constant drivel he shut himself in the cockpit of the emergency escape Jumper! Kavanagh's another returning face, I thought from 'SG-1,' but it was actually this series and he dates back to Season 1. And who better to play an officious little man for IOA interview-holder Coolidge than Rob LaBelle of so many things (Trek, 'Smallville,' he's sure to have shown up in a 'Stargate' somewhere along the line, too).

It is a little obvious that Ronon proves his loyalty and allegiance to the cause through his actions with Teal'c, and so Coolidge gives him an easy pass, but it's fun all the same, and while I don't like Ronon quite as much as Teal'c, he acquits himself well and in a lot of ways is quite a different character. And it is superb to have them rushing down the old corridors shooting up Wraith or battling them in hand to hand combat - once again, easy to forget Teal'c is a very old man! My one complaint about the episode is the Wraith look a little weedier than they usually do, going down like skittles all over the place, until they need to have a proper fight and Teal'c or Ronon almost get ripped apart. On Midway it felt more like they were a threat through strength of numbers rather than the fearsome nature of their powers and strength, even though we do see the occasional aftermath of their life-draining ability. Perhaps they should have been shown in a more deadly light to make the heroes' struggle more desperate, but it's a small complaint in an episode that gave us what we wanted. If Teal'c never comes back in another episode (he was never in 'Universe,' but then if that had lasted more than two years, who knows), this will have been a fitting swan song for the character, even though I'm sure he'll be back at least once more for 'Stargate Continuum' which I assume would have been filmed after this. Just sad that Midway is no more.

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