The Kindred

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S4 (The Kindred)

Teyla-centric, which makes it a little more unique, and moves the story along, but also over-busy, too much stuff happening, it's a job to keep track of it all rather than exploring a single story. In that sense it's not one of the more satisfying episodes, which isn't to say it's bad, and it certainly leaves you reeling with the final scene, that I will say! They've sort of done this before, of course, leaving Weir trapped, then hearing she died, then bringing 'her' back in a roundabout way, so I wasn't as dumbfounded as I might have been to see Dr. Carson Beckett somehow resurrected as a prisoner on some world the team are going to in order to find Teyla, who's a prisoner of Michael… It's a bit convoluted, maybe too many plates being spun, and it was also a bit too obvious that he was going to be behind the Hoffan plague they talk about at first because Connor Trinneer's name came up post-titles. Christopher Heyerdahl's 'Todd' also features, doing some kind of deal again and claiming that the intel that almost led to Earth being a victim of a Wraith attack was stolen from him rather than being something he had a hand in. In the same episode Heyerdahl appears we also find out at last what happened to the Athosians, but of course we weren't going to get him back as the leader, Halling.

I was never that impressed with the Michael storyline, any more than I was with Lieutenant Ford's (remember him?), they were both mere revenge-seekers and I didn't find it all that interesting, despite the fact it's fun to see Trinneer of 'Enterprise' in a different sci-fi franchise. Cruel of him to send visions of Kanaan in order to capture Teyla, but as I said, it was always going to be him responsible for this plague that kills both human and Wraith alike. I found it quite touching the way her friends and colleagues are so supportive of Teyla, despite their personal scepticism, and it is sci-fi after all, so it was pretty likely she wasn't merely experiencing dreams or daydreams! It was of interest to finally meet this long talked of boyfriend, Father of her unborn child, but he did seem a bit unimpressive after all the build-up time we'd had before getting to meet him. Somehow you'd think Teyla would be tied to someone with more gumption. Like Ronon. Or even Sheppard. Granted, we never actually saw the 'real' guy as in the visions it was actually Michael undercover, and then when we do see him he's already changed, but Teyla didn't indicate he was behaving out of character so maybe she merely liked him because he was a bit weaker than her. The real reason is that they both share the Wraith DNA which, as she says, sets them apart from ordinary Athosians, but even so…

There seemed to be a catalogue of errors, which I understand you have to have to build the tension so that when that 'To be continued' sign flashes up at the end things look as bad as they can before the goodies start setting right what went wrong, but we have Lorne losing Teyla to a Dart's ambush, we have the Daedalus taken completely unprepared when Michael's ship (I think), shows up, and then they can't even stop it or track it. Maybe old Caldwell's getting too old for the job? Otherwise it's a lot of back and forth, seemingly playing for time until we get to where we're going: Beckett. It can't be the actual Carson since he was blown into pieces, and in a most impressive episode. It's questionable, after such a heroic death with so much meaning that it was wise to bring him back, but again, it is sci-fi, you have to expect it to some extent and try not to let it ruin the impact of the earlier drama. A clone? A Wraith experiment? The 'real' Beckett was actually an android? Who knows at this juncture, but I'm sure we'll be finding out soon (maybe it was as simple as Paul McGillion wanting to go off and do a film or two and now he's back?). It would be sort of nice to get all the old characters back together in time for the final season (although where would that leave Dr. Keller who's carved out her own niche nicely), but whether they'll go that route, I really don't know. Just don't bring Ford back, eh?

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