DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (The Shrine)
'Absolute Clarity' would have been a better title, in honour of the touching story Wolsey told about his Alzheimers-stricken Father, as 'The Shrine' gave it a completely different impression. You could say the whole episode was a waste of time, as other than Rodney admitting where he stands to our Dr. Keller, nothing of importance happens. Except that it is important because it shows how close this little band has grown - I can't imagine them putting themselves at such risk so Rodney could have one day of normal brain function back in Season 1. Ronon wasn't even known then and it was his knowledge that enabled them to find this 'shrine' that can somehow temporarily heal loss of brain function, but here they're willing to do whatever is necessary to see that their friend gets a moment to say his goodbyes. He doesn't take it in the way they intended, however, considering it a kind of torture when he'd been living in this increasingly muffled shadow world of inability to process or remember things, and now suddenly they bring him to and tell him he's not cured, he's going to die. I quite liked that he was horrified by the whole situation as that really is the McKay we know, he's not just going to sit down and have a last meal and talk of old times before dropping dead!
There was a short moment at the beginning when I really wondered if they might kill him off... until I remembered he appears in an episode of the next series, 'Universe,' and they wouldn't be stupid enough to kill off the best character on the series. What it does do is gives David Hewlett a chance to stretch, and instead of merely alternating between complaining and arrogantly solving the latest problem, he shows the mental degeneration of someone losing their mind, and it is affecting. Once I realised he wasn't going to die it could have become a mere nuts and bolts 'adventure' of getting him to this location (typically, the planet upon which this special place rests is occupied by a large Wraith force), before pulling off a handy solution and then he's cured. I actually really liked the way they dealt with it - they could have pushed things up a notch and had Wraith bearing down on their position, Ronon and Teyla having to hold them off while Keller performs her precarious operation, but it would have taken away from the already dramatic premise. I thought I was watching 'ER' at one point when Keller's opening up part of his skull, except they don't usually have creepy alien parasites burrowing out of a man's wound, which was a bit much, though as I said, a logical development and a way to complement Keller's battlefield surgery!
What works most about the episode is the closeness you sense between these friends and it really came across as classic 'Stargate': there's even a moment when we see the four (McKay, Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla), walk towards the 'gate like SG-1 used to do, though sadly there was no shot of them all going through together like we always saw as the final shot of the opening titles on 'SG-1,' which would have been even better. But it was a great concept to have a 'gate trapped underwater by a melted glacier, so they're all perched atop the 'gate itself (a nice shot pulling back to reveal water all around), and sending in MALPs, and that feeling of a small team's camaraderie... it all took me back. Wolsey has more sympathetic play again, either in the humour or in the story I mentioned, and really we haven't actually seen the old Wolsey, he's been extremely accommodating, which may have lost something of his abrasive character. It doesn't help that I'm also currently watching 'Voyager' so I'm seeing Robert Picardo as the genial later seasons Doctor in that series, and while he is different here, maybe he's playing it a bit too friendly so far and perhaps we need to see him exert his authority a bit more, make himself less cuddly, just as Carter didn't get on with Ronon right away, or Teal'c didn't get on with Ronon right away, or... well just about anyone doesn't get on with Ronon right away...
But I loved how devoted Ronon was to his friend, and despite their differences that's what they've become - McKay is so different to all of them (I'd have liked a scene with Zelenka where he bests him in some small way and is embarrassed about it, and maybe Rodney notices, but you can't have everything), and to see him reduced so much to dependence and loss of all his intellect and ability it reminded me of 'Riddles' an episode of 'Voyager' where Tuvok loses his mind and becomes childlike, although that was a bit more touching as Trek tended to be. But they certainly got the friendships right as they each try to come to terms with McKay's deteriorating condition, and we see recordings of different points in his illness, and then his sister comes into it, too. I can't help feeling such a large creature would have done more physical damage to his brain if it was crawling around in there, and from the graphic I thought it'd be much spindlier and easier to accept as something that would only have light contact with the brain, but as a whole the story was on the right side of quality for the series, though I can imagine it being difficult to watch in later years if you know anyone who suffers from losing mental control.
***
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Ghost In The Machine
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (Ghost In The Machine)
This would have had so much more weight to it if they'd brought back Torri Higginson as Dr. Weir. Instead, we have 'Fran' back from the previous season, the Replicator Rodney built because of some reason I can't remember (it wasn't one of the more memorable episodes, though apparently I like it, and a big part of that was because they brought back Weir in a surprise ending), the template for this body now used by Weir's consciousness as a host in a convoluted way of bringing the character back and then getting rid of her for good this time. Except that a person floating in space, especially a Replicator, is hardly a sign of permanent deletion (as evidenced by Lore from 'TNG,' who came back and is apparently due to return again in 'Picard'). It gives you hope that we might get one last appearance from Weir (maybe give her Higginson's face again?), before the season and series ends forever. On the other hand maybe this was it, perhaps they couldn't get Higginson back this time, unlike last season when they did? It's a real shame, although I can see there'd be more confusion over whether this really was Elizabeth, and yet she's lied to her former friends when she said she didn't think the others of this splinter group of Replicators would be able to track her down.
It was a good mystery, although my initial belief was that the ghost of the title, this power surge that takes over a Jumper when they're on their way home, would turn out to be some kind of alien intelligence. Then when Weir communicates by text on the computer screen back at base it took an entirely new direction to what I expected, and in some ways a welcome one. I was hoping this would somehow bring her back into the fold... that is until Rodney gave her a synthesised voice that didn't sound like the actress who played her, and if they couldn't get Torri to record a few audio lines it was unlikely she'd be making a bodily appearance, though I still held out hope that it might be a last nice surprise. Instead things turn out quite differently. First it's thanks to the hardline response of Wolsey, whom we see call the bluff of these Replicators that are about to drown the city, a side we haven't seen of him before, and then Ronon, who never for a moment trusts these beings and keeps his scowl on them all the time as they work to create human bodies as a permanent solution for their goal to ascend into the higher dimension or whatever it was that 'SG-1' introduced.
When Rodney says at the end that it shows whether this really had been Weir, I wasn't quite sure how to read that. I would assume he meant it proves it was her because she appears to sacrifice herself to get all the Replicators out of their hair by going along with Atlantis' plan to send them into space, rather than the planet they think they're going to where they'll ostensibly be given the chance to build the bodies (apparently it's quite easy, just takes a lot of time!). She had to go through first in order to convince her brethren that it was safe and not a trick to deceive them, with one of the group communicating with her and she giving them the all clear, then they follow her out and find themselves trapped in space. So yes, I suppose it must have been Weir as that's what she'd do. I can also see why, in the absence of Higginson, they chose to use Fran, since she'd been a positive example of a Replicator, though that could still have been a trick to play with our expectations. It's been an odd time with both Weir and Beckett having died (and I thought Chorison sounded a bit like Carson, so was half expecting a twist there of some kind!), then coming back, so I didn't quite know how to take it and you are wondering all the way through if she's genuine or not, and I suppose the story works from that perspective. And at least it had some bearing on things when initially I thought it was going to be a completely separate episode, like last time, without many ramifications. That could have been fine as it's nice to go off on an adventure, but if this is the final ever part Weir had to play in the series then that's a sad resolution. I'm still waiting to see if Ford's tiny popup cameo at the start of the season foreshadowed his return, and obviously we've already had Beckett, so who else is left?
**
This would have had so much more weight to it if they'd brought back Torri Higginson as Dr. Weir. Instead, we have 'Fran' back from the previous season, the Replicator Rodney built because of some reason I can't remember (it wasn't one of the more memorable episodes, though apparently I like it, and a big part of that was because they brought back Weir in a surprise ending), the template for this body now used by Weir's consciousness as a host in a convoluted way of bringing the character back and then getting rid of her for good this time. Except that a person floating in space, especially a Replicator, is hardly a sign of permanent deletion (as evidenced by Lore from 'TNG,' who came back and is apparently due to return again in 'Picard'). It gives you hope that we might get one last appearance from Weir (maybe give her Higginson's face again?), before the season and series ends forever. On the other hand maybe this was it, perhaps they couldn't get Higginson back this time, unlike last season when they did? It's a real shame, although I can see there'd be more confusion over whether this really was Elizabeth, and yet she's lied to her former friends when she said she didn't think the others of this splinter group of Replicators would be able to track her down.
It was a good mystery, although my initial belief was that the ghost of the title, this power surge that takes over a Jumper when they're on their way home, would turn out to be some kind of alien intelligence. Then when Weir communicates by text on the computer screen back at base it took an entirely new direction to what I expected, and in some ways a welcome one. I was hoping this would somehow bring her back into the fold... that is until Rodney gave her a synthesised voice that didn't sound like the actress who played her, and if they couldn't get Torri to record a few audio lines it was unlikely she'd be making a bodily appearance, though I still held out hope that it might be a last nice surprise. Instead things turn out quite differently. First it's thanks to the hardline response of Wolsey, whom we see call the bluff of these Replicators that are about to drown the city, a side we haven't seen of him before, and then Ronon, who never for a moment trusts these beings and keeps his scowl on them all the time as they work to create human bodies as a permanent solution for their goal to ascend into the higher dimension or whatever it was that 'SG-1' introduced.
When Rodney says at the end that it shows whether this really had been Weir, I wasn't quite sure how to read that. I would assume he meant it proves it was her because she appears to sacrifice herself to get all the Replicators out of their hair by going along with Atlantis' plan to send them into space, rather than the planet they think they're going to where they'll ostensibly be given the chance to build the bodies (apparently it's quite easy, just takes a lot of time!). She had to go through first in order to convince her brethren that it was safe and not a trick to deceive them, with one of the group communicating with her and she giving them the all clear, then they follow her out and find themselves trapped in space. So yes, I suppose it must have been Weir as that's what she'd do. I can also see why, in the absence of Higginson, they chose to use Fran, since she'd been a positive example of a Replicator, though that could still have been a trick to play with our expectations. It's been an odd time with both Weir and Beckett having died (and I thought Chorison sounded a bit like Carson, so was half expecting a twist there of some kind!), then coming back, so I didn't quite know how to take it and you are wondering all the way through if she's genuine or not, and I suppose the story works from that perspective. And at least it had some bearing on things when initially I thought it was going to be a completely separate episode, like last time, without many ramifications. That could have been fine as it's nice to go off on an adventure, but if this is the final ever part Weir had to play in the series then that's a sad resolution. I'm still waiting to see if Ford's tiny popup cameo at the start of the season foreshadowed his return, and obviously we've already had Beckett, so who else is left?
**
In The Flesh
DVD, Voyager S5 (In The Flesh)
In an age when so many old Trek characters are being brought back, from Q to Jellico, it's easy to forget that these used to be used sparingly in old Trek, especially in 'Voyager' since its location made it trickier to bring in existing Alpha Quadrant people and races. One character that won't be coming back, since the great Ray Walston is no longer with us, is Groundskeeper Boothby (how did he never get a Playmates action figure, complete with pruning tools and apron?), the man who is said to have made many of the best Captains what they became, including Picard (both of which garner mention in this episode). Out of the myriad and memorable characters over the years Boothby was a one off. Literally, as he only appeared in the one 'TNG' episode, the great 'The First Duty,' and he wasn't young then, so it was a major surprise when this series got Walston to reprise the role one last time (although, as it turned out, he'd be reprising it again later in the season, though not in the way you'd think from how this episode ends!). The crusty old man with a twinkle in his eye, or a flash if you got him angry, was about as far as you could get from Species 8472, this utterly alien race from beyond space as we know it, that had caused even the Borg to seek assistance from Janeway as they were being annihilated in combat with these creatures, and whose mission statement was to purge our galaxy of all life! In this, choosing Boothby as their spokesthing was a masterstroke, and illustrative of the kind of radical choice Trek could make at any time.
Instead of starting this episode with a light scene on the Bridge, then seeing how our crew reacts to a Federation signal on long-range sensors, then cutting to opening titles, having a conference to decide how best to approach this mysterious station, and finally getting to the Away Team down on 'the planet,' we jump right in, and that's a great way to create a mystery, because we all knew Voyager was so far from Earth, in the natural sense, it was unlikely they were going to get back home (unless they came up with a last-minute solution that literally threw them right onto the front porch, but there's no need to go into that now!). They had already been back to Earth, even as early as Season 2 when Harry Kim woke up in his Quarters in San Francisco, or the whole crew made it back to the homeworld, the catch being it was 1996, so going back to Earth on its own wasn't enough to be revolutionary. What was revolutionary was that an alien race should wish to recreate Starfleet Headquarters, complete with Golden Gate Bridge and all the main landmarks, as part of a training mission to infiltrate the real HQ. Is it likely 8472 would create even one of these hubs in just the spot where Voyager happened to come along? No, the odds are infinitesimal, even if what they said about creating them all over the galaxy was true (they might even have been exaggerating on that count anyway). But that doesn't matter, it's enough that it happened.
What I like about all this is how alien the approach is. They fully immerse themselves in human culture, reading replicated books, living as humans, even down to talking like them. It's the best way to go about making such a story, because as we saw in Season 3 and 4, 8472 are one of the more alien aliens in that they're huge, don't conform to the bipedal norms, and everything about them is in opposition to our perspective, from organic technology to unreasoning rage at the disturbance of their realm. Unless they had chosen to take on human form so fully it would have been difficult to understand them at all. They were one of those races of pure menace, maybe even seen as pure evil, but as Trek has always done, they found a way to show another side to them, one that was workable and sympathetic, not uncompromising evil that can only be opposed. Some would say that this wasn't always a good thing because sometimes a villain is a villain through and through with no remorse, but I think the Trek idea is that not all of a race are the same. The Borg perhaps were the closest and they became quite cuddly on occasion, this series often accused of making them far too easy to stand up to, which is very true, and we saw examples of Cardassians, previously the torturers living in a dystopian police state, the Jem'Hadar, so dedicated to their masters they'd kill themselves in service, and the Founders, Changelings so bitter they'd annihilate populations just out of spite, and yet all of these races had their positive individuals and groups.
I suppose it was inevitable that Species 8472 weren't going to be considered merely terrible monsters intent on the destruction of all life, and this serves as a nice cap to their few appearances previously, though I believe this was the final episode in which they featured, though the story suggests a sequel. I think we have to take it that when 'Boothby' returned to his race in Fluidic Space they took his advice on board to a degree, that our galaxy didn't pose a threat to them, but rather than have dialogue they decided to retreat to their own realm it must have been enough to know they weren't likely to be attacked and so didn't need to put any more thought into this strange reality that had interfered with theirs. It shouldn't have been quite as simple as that when you think that it was actually the Borg who disturbed the hornet's nest, probing into areas they shouldn't have done, and any other race could just as well have come to that level of technology where they peered into the abyss of another reality, so Janeway's assurances that the Federation would do no harm to them shouldn't have assuaged their concerns over other races. But there is only limited running time, and while this may well have made a great two-part story, or even something that could have carried over to a number of episodes threaded through the season, the series had pretty much discarded its earlier attempts to create arcs, probably acting in opposition to 'DS9' and its ever more complex unfolding narrative.
In consequence, we never got a sequel, we don't know for sure what happened with 8472, we just know that it appears Janeway's diplomatic efforts were successful. It's a good and positive outcome, thwarting a potential takeover of Starfleet from the inside (with echoes of 'Homefront' and 'Paradise Lost' from 'DS9,' the last time Starfleet HQ had been visited, I believe), and choosing to reason with and deescalate rather than keep pushing. It's a fine line and Janeway trod it very well. She wants to talk, but she's also not going to back down, and 8472 aren't going to back down either, so she begins to see, or sense on an instinct, that these people don't want to fight, but feel forced into it and she takes the first risk by standing down the Borg weapons that had proven effective against 8472 previously. You'd think 8472 would have been researching such things if they can go to the trouble of a spot-on recreation of a location tens of thousands of lightyears away, and had developed a countermeasure. And it does look a little off that one little ship can stand against an entire station - being so paranoid, or cautious, knowing how much this spatial reality is against them, you'd think they'd arm any facility to the teeth, and would have countless ships around. Or if they went the opposite way and wanted a low profile, how could Voyager stumble upon them, and wouldn't they have developed a cloak, or something? But you just have to take the situation at face value because that's how it needs to be for the story to work.
One thing that's harder to accept is when Janeway says they hadn't been in contact with the Federation in four years, but last season they'd managed to send the EMH onto a Starfleet ship and then they made direct contact through the Hirogen array and received various letters and communiques, didn't they? That would seem to be a major oversight in the writing, unless we take it that Janeway wanted to play up their isolation instead of mentioning these few instances. Still, the idea that 8472 can be so easily reasoned with is a little too pat. I understand this is supposed to be the Federation ideal, and that without cooperation on the side of the enemy those ideals can't stand, which is why the Borg and 8472, in their first appearance, were so fearsome: because they weren't an enemy that could be talked to, reasoned with, explained or understood, that was the whole point, and what do you do when you're ideals of peace and discussion have no reciprocation? Seven even tells Janeway it's time to resist Starfleet philosophy, and yet Janeway is proved right. I can see the intention, but it was a little too easy for her to get through to Boothby. Yes, there is some opposition from Admiral Bullock, who represents distrust and aggression, but Valerie Archer, whom Chakotay shared an intimate moment with, has been won over (we're supposed to think it was more from reading human books than Chakotay's attentions, I think!), and Boothby is the boss anyway and overrides Bullock's qualms.
For a race that were so violent and have clearly gone to the trouble of making such an accurate recreation, you'd think they'd be much more subtle and cunning, but they don't come across at all like the Changelings who just wanted to foment paranoia and disrupt a settled planet and Quadrant, they seem almost childlike in their lack of guile. And they claim they only want to observe and report back, but can we trust them on what they say? I just didn't feel there was enough time to know one way or the other on their character, they needed to show they were trustworthy more than was accomplished in this brief span. That's probably why they chose to jump straight into the story instead of going through the usual procedural part. As well as creating a great mystery they needed as much time as they could get to go into our crew understanding what was happening, reacting, then trying to calm the situation. All that said, it's not a bad episode, even if some things ring a little false - such as Archer's talk of how humans created art, music, literature, etc, and making it sound as if humans were the sole creators of such artistic expression! This is one area where 8472's childlikeness would fit in nicely as, if they'd only encountered Voyager and the Borg (and the Hirogen), you can see out of those, only humans would have those modes of expression. I wish that had been played up, that these aliens are so different to us they see things in a much more simplistic way, and that level of complexity to the story, if all angles followed that premise, would have made it a touch more impressive.
It's a bit like the revelation that Trelane in 'The Squire of Gothos,' for all his power, is actually a mere child. I'm not saying that should have been the answer, just that 8472 could have been shown to be much more innocent and unaware than we'd thought them, and it would make more sense that they were so easily turned from their mission by Janeway, and even that they then had no further interest in our galaxy. It's a theory (which I've just come up with!), that could work, that they are in fact adolescents in terms of development, for all their use of adult human bodies, and I quite like that idea. But even if not, I felt their setup could have had some holes in it rather than being so perfect. Maybe they say the wrong things or have some strange beliefs about what humans do, or why. But I suppose they were very well informed if they could recreate entire books. That was one area where I didn't have a problem: it's not explained how they came by such detailed knowledge (could Fluidic Space open up close to Earth - it's surprising that suggestion never even came up that Voyager could get home, and they could always have said the ship wouldn't withstand the journey inside as a blocker to that solution), but it's suggested they may have got the Borg's database. Janeway also says they're the only Starfleet ship in the Quadrant, which would prove to be untrue at the end of the season, so there could well have been other ships that had been swept in by the Caretaker and 8472 found one of them.
I liked that the whole reason Voyager stumbled upon them was that the recreation was so realistic they were actually sending out a Starfleet signal, another example of the simple thinking of this race, lacking the nuances of life in this galaxy. It was also refreshing that Chakotay was the one leading the story, as his easygoing, friendly attitude fitted in nicely with the 'humans' he encountered, though I think his last big episode was 'Unforgettable,' another story in which there's a romantic side to it. Not that this episode was romantic, but there was certainly something going on with Archer. She comes to trust him which causes her to speak up on the humans' side. The only thing is that Janeway, as you'd expect being the Captain, rather takes over the story once Chakotay's been captured. That was good, the night suddenly turning to day, though the various 'Starfleet' personnel stalking him didn't have the creepiness and dread you'd want from that situation. Indeed, I would say the creep factor should have been turned up quite a few notches to provide greater contrast when 8472 acquiesce to Janeway's open arms. The concept these huge creatures are stuffed into human-sized bodies, was terrific, and quite chilling when they have to keep injecting themselves to avoid reverting to their natural form, but the episode was much more concerned with getting to a mutual understanding than with the potential body horror, but then it wasn't written by Brannon Braga!
The casting throws up all kinds of fascinating connections. I'm assuming the Zach Galligan who portrayed David Gentry is the same guy who was in 'Gremlins' (not that I like that film, but reading old Starlogs recently I came across the name a few times so it stayed in my mind), which, if so, would be perfect symmetry for this episode since Gentry is a sort of Gremlin in reverse, or even Gizmo since he has a 'monster' inside him (they really shouldn't have fed Gentry after midnight!). But it doesn't end there because we also have Tucker Smallwood as Bullock, his only appearance on 'Voyager,' but who'd go on to play a member of the Xindi race in 'Enterprise' - it hit me when they were all sat round the Briefing Room table and he was getting angry that it's very similar to the Xindi Council arguing over... what to do about the humans! See, it's almost the same story, though the Xindi were definitely only interested in destroying a perceived threat from the humans... And finally, Kate Vernon played Archer and would go on to be a recurring character in the 'Battlestar Galactica' remake. I don't think she was one of the Cylons (yet another race distrustful of humanity and seeing the only option being to wipe them out!), it's been a while since I saw it, but the character definitely concealed a lot. I can imagine Galligan was hired because of the connection, but obviously the others were merely chance since this was made before those other productions, but it's fascinating to see how all these things came together!
An added attraction at the time the episode was made was the chance to see Starfleet Headquarters again. Obviously 'DS9' was still in production (and we do see images of HQ after its attack by the Breen), but they never went back to film in the grounds that had been established for the Academy and other sites, and here we see more than we'd ever seen before, with only the aforementioned 'DS9' two-parter coming close (we also see Chakotay use a much more easily concealed Type 1 Phaser, the kind that can be hidden in the palm). I so wish they'd continued to use the site in current Treks - they could incorporate Vasquez Rocks, but not this? It was also a treat to see so many Alpha Quadrant aliens on 'Voyager,' so far from that familiar world, although you can tell things aren't quite right from the fact 8472's uniforms are out of date, following the Voyager style rather than the by now well-established 'First Contact' look. It's also interesting to see several Ferengi in Starfleet as it would seem unlikely that many would have followed Nog into the Academy when he'd been part of Starfleet for only a few short years (bumped up to field commission during the Dominion War), so it suggests either 8472 are well out of date, or they weren't able to get as accurate a picture as it seemed. There was another reference to enjoy, too, as Seven mentions the dark blot on Trek's optimistic vision, World War III (though now they could just change it so it never happened judging by what they did to the Eugenics Wars - silly people!).
While Janeway seemed to forget the contact they'd had with Starfleet, Harry Kim has also blocked out his encounter with the Taresians in 'Favourite Son' when he says he's always wondered what it's like to date an alien. I don't blame him for forgetting (though he'd find out again later this season that it's not a good idea...). Interesting that Chakotay refuses alcohol, preferring water as he always likes to stay in control - hasn't he heard of Synthehol, which is supposed to give all the 'fun' of alcohol, with the ability to pull away from any level of feelings of intoxication whenever it's required? Or was he just being more cautious than ever in that particular situation? The idea of there being an imposter on Voyager would have been a great addition to the season, but they quickly quash that, losing all possible paranoia and drama in the process, though it was a great scene where Janeway reminisces about the Academy with Chakotay until he realises she's testing him. I never twigged for a moment as she was so natural in how she drew the conversation around. It's fortunate Chakotay's quicker on the uptake than I am! I also felt there was something to be mined in the brief mention of faith Janeway and Seven throw in at the end of a conversation, except it wasn't developed. And then we don't even get to know what 8472 call themselves (the Undine, according to non-canon sources, which was a good name that could have worked). They were so immersed in being human (something which could have been used against them?), that I can understand why they weren't 'themselves,' but at the same time it's sad that nothing was done with the potential of furthering the storyline. And I had the sense that this episode, as good as it was, could have been a classic with just a little more exploration and focus on certain parts ideas.
***
In an age when so many old Trek characters are being brought back, from Q to Jellico, it's easy to forget that these used to be used sparingly in old Trek, especially in 'Voyager' since its location made it trickier to bring in existing Alpha Quadrant people and races. One character that won't be coming back, since the great Ray Walston is no longer with us, is Groundskeeper Boothby (how did he never get a Playmates action figure, complete with pruning tools and apron?), the man who is said to have made many of the best Captains what they became, including Picard (both of which garner mention in this episode). Out of the myriad and memorable characters over the years Boothby was a one off. Literally, as he only appeared in the one 'TNG' episode, the great 'The First Duty,' and he wasn't young then, so it was a major surprise when this series got Walston to reprise the role one last time (although, as it turned out, he'd be reprising it again later in the season, though not in the way you'd think from how this episode ends!). The crusty old man with a twinkle in his eye, or a flash if you got him angry, was about as far as you could get from Species 8472, this utterly alien race from beyond space as we know it, that had caused even the Borg to seek assistance from Janeway as they were being annihilated in combat with these creatures, and whose mission statement was to purge our galaxy of all life! In this, choosing Boothby as their spokesthing was a masterstroke, and illustrative of the kind of radical choice Trek could make at any time.
Instead of starting this episode with a light scene on the Bridge, then seeing how our crew reacts to a Federation signal on long-range sensors, then cutting to opening titles, having a conference to decide how best to approach this mysterious station, and finally getting to the Away Team down on 'the planet,' we jump right in, and that's a great way to create a mystery, because we all knew Voyager was so far from Earth, in the natural sense, it was unlikely they were going to get back home (unless they came up with a last-minute solution that literally threw them right onto the front porch, but there's no need to go into that now!). They had already been back to Earth, even as early as Season 2 when Harry Kim woke up in his Quarters in San Francisco, or the whole crew made it back to the homeworld, the catch being it was 1996, so going back to Earth on its own wasn't enough to be revolutionary. What was revolutionary was that an alien race should wish to recreate Starfleet Headquarters, complete with Golden Gate Bridge and all the main landmarks, as part of a training mission to infiltrate the real HQ. Is it likely 8472 would create even one of these hubs in just the spot where Voyager happened to come along? No, the odds are infinitesimal, even if what they said about creating them all over the galaxy was true (they might even have been exaggerating on that count anyway). But that doesn't matter, it's enough that it happened.
What I like about all this is how alien the approach is. They fully immerse themselves in human culture, reading replicated books, living as humans, even down to talking like them. It's the best way to go about making such a story, because as we saw in Season 3 and 4, 8472 are one of the more alien aliens in that they're huge, don't conform to the bipedal norms, and everything about them is in opposition to our perspective, from organic technology to unreasoning rage at the disturbance of their realm. Unless they had chosen to take on human form so fully it would have been difficult to understand them at all. They were one of those races of pure menace, maybe even seen as pure evil, but as Trek has always done, they found a way to show another side to them, one that was workable and sympathetic, not uncompromising evil that can only be opposed. Some would say that this wasn't always a good thing because sometimes a villain is a villain through and through with no remorse, but I think the Trek idea is that not all of a race are the same. The Borg perhaps were the closest and they became quite cuddly on occasion, this series often accused of making them far too easy to stand up to, which is very true, and we saw examples of Cardassians, previously the torturers living in a dystopian police state, the Jem'Hadar, so dedicated to their masters they'd kill themselves in service, and the Founders, Changelings so bitter they'd annihilate populations just out of spite, and yet all of these races had their positive individuals and groups.
I suppose it was inevitable that Species 8472 weren't going to be considered merely terrible monsters intent on the destruction of all life, and this serves as a nice cap to their few appearances previously, though I believe this was the final episode in which they featured, though the story suggests a sequel. I think we have to take it that when 'Boothby' returned to his race in Fluidic Space they took his advice on board to a degree, that our galaxy didn't pose a threat to them, but rather than have dialogue they decided to retreat to their own realm it must have been enough to know they weren't likely to be attacked and so didn't need to put any more thought into this strange reality that had interfered with theirs. It shouldn't have been quite as simple as that when you think that it was actually the Borg who disturbed the hornet's nest, probing into areas they shouldn't have done, and any other race could just as well have come to that level of technology where they peered into the abyss of another reality, so Janeway's assurances that the Federation would do no harm to them shouldn't have assuaged their concerns over other races. But there is only limited running time, and while this may well have made a great two-part story, or even something that could have carried over to a number of episodes threaded through the season, the series had pretty much discarded its earlier attempts to create arcs, probably acting in opposition to 'DS9' and its ever more complex unfolding narrative.
In consequence, we never got a sequel, we don't know for sure what happened with 8472, we just know that it appears Janeway's diplomatic efforts were successful. It's a good and positive outcome, thwarting a potential takeover of Starfleet from the inside (with echoes of 'Homefront' and 'Paradise Lost' from 'DS9,' the last time Starfleet HQ had been visited, I believe), and choosing to reason with and deescalate rather than keep pushing. It's a fine line and Janeway trod it very well. She wants to talk, but she's also not going to back down, and 8472 aren't going to back down either, so she begins to see, or sense on an instinct, that these people don't want to fight, but feel forced into it and she takes the first risk by standing down the Borg weapons that had proven effective against 8472 previously. You'd think 8472 would have been researching such things if they can go to the trouble of a spot-on recreation of a location tens of thousands of lightyears away, and had developed a countermeasure. And it does look a little off that one little ship can stand against an entire station - being so paranoid, or cautious, knowing how much this spatial reality is against them, you'd think they'd arm any facility to the teeth, and would have countless ships around. Or if they went the opposite way and wanted a low profile, how could Voyager stumble upon them, and wouldn't they have developed a cloak, or something? But you just have to take the situation at face value because that's how it needs to be for the story to work.
One thing that's harder to accept is when Janeway says they hadn't been in contact with the Federation in four years, but last season they'd managed to send the EMH onto a Starfleet ship and then they made direct contact through the Hirogen array and received various letters and communiques, didn't they? That would seem to be a major oversight in the writing, unless we take it that Janeway wanted to play up their isolation instead of mentioning these few instances. Still, the idea that 8472 can be so easily reasoned with is a little too pat. I understand this is supposed to be the Federation ideal, and that without cooperation on the side of the enemy those ideals can't stand, which is why the Borg and 8472, in their first appearance, were so fearsome: because they weren't an enemy that could be talked to, reasoned with, explained or understood, that was the whole point, and what do you do when you're ideals of peace and discussion have no reciprocation? Seven even tells Janeway it's time to resist Starfleet philosophy, and yet Janeway is proved right. I can see the intention, but it was a little too easy for her to get through to Boothby. Yes, there is some opposition from Admiral Bullock, who represents distrust and aggression, but Valerie Archer, whom Chakotay shared an intimate moment with, has been won over (we're supposed to think it was more from reading human books than Chakotay's attentions, I think!), and Boothby is the boss anyway and overrides Bullock's qualms.
For a race that were so violent and have clearly gone to the trouble of making such an accurate recreation, you'd think they'd be much more subtle and cunning, but they don't come across at all like the Changelings who just wanted to foment paranoia and disrupt a settled planet and Quadrant, they seem almost childlike in their lack of guile. And they claim they only want to observe and report back, but can we trust them on what they say? I just didn't feel there was enough time to know one way or the other on their character, they needed to show they were trustworthy more than was accomplished in this brief span. That's probably why they chose to jump straight into the story instead of going through the usual procedural part. As well as creating a great mystery they needed as much time as they could get to go into our crew understanding what was happening, reacting, then trying to calm the situation. All that said, it's not a bad episode, even if some things ring a little false - such as Archer's talk of how humans created art, music, literature, etc, and making it sound as if humans were the sole creators of such artistic expression! This is one area where 8472's childlikeness would fit in nicely as, if they'd only encountered Voyager and the Borg (and the Hirogen), you can see out of those, only humans would have those modes of expression. I wish that had been played up, that these aliens are so different to us they see things in a much more simplistic way, and that level of complexity to the story, if all angles followed that premise, would have made it a touch more impressive.
It's a bit like the revelation that Trelane in 'The Squire of Gothos,' for all his power, is actually a mere child. I'm not saying that should have been the answer, just that 8472 could have been shown to be much more innocent and unaware than we'd thought them, and it would make more sense that they were so easily turned from their mission by Janeway, and even that they then had no further interest in our galaxy. It's a theory (which I've just come up with!), that could work, that they are in fact adolescents in terms of development, for all their use of adult human bodies, and I quite like that idea. But even if not, I felt their setup could have had some holes in it rather than being so perfect. Maybe they say the wrong things or have some strange beliefs about what humans do, or why. But I suppose they were very well informed if they could recreate entire books. That was one area where I didn't have a problem: it's not explained how they came by such detailed knowledge (could Fluidic Space open up close to Earth - it's surprising that suggestion never even came up that Voyager could get home, and they could always have said the ship wouldn't withstand the journey inside as a blocker to that solution), but it's suggested they may have got the Borg's database. Janeway also says they're the only Starfleet ship in the Quadrant, which would prove to be untrue at the end of the season, so there could well have been other ships that had been swept in by the Caretaker and 8472 found one of them.
I liked that the whole reason Voyager stumbled upon them was that the recreation was so realistic they were actually sending out a Starfleet signal, another example of the simple thinking of this race, lacking the nuances of life in this galaxy. It was also refreshing that Chakotay was the one leading the story, as his easygoing, friendly attitude fitted in nicely with the 'humans' he encountered, though I think his last big episode was 'Unforgettable,' another story in which there's a romantic side to it. Not that this episode was romantic, but there was certainly something going on with Archer. She comes to trust him which causes her to speak up on the humans' side. The only thing is that Janeway, as you'd expect being the Captain, rather takes over the story once Chakotay's been captured. That was good, the night suddenly turning to day, though the various 'Starfleet' personnel stalking him didn't have the creepiness and dread you'd want from that situation. Indeed, I would say the creep factor should have been turned up quite a few notches to provide greater contrast when 8472 acquiesce to Janeway's open arms. The concept these huge creatures are stuffed into human-sized bodies, was terrific, and quite chilling when they have to keep injecting themselves to avoid reverting to their natural form, but the episode was much more concerned with getting to a mutual understanding than with the potential body horror, but then it wasn't written by Brannon Braga!
The casting throws up all kinds of fascinating connections. I'm assuming the Zach Galligan who portrayed David Gentry is the same guy who was in 'Gremlins' (not that I like that film, but reading old Starlogs recently I came across the name a few times so it stayed in my mind), which, if so, would be perfect symmetry for this episode since Gentry is a sort of Gremlin in reverse, or even Gizmo since he has a 'monster' inside him (they really shouldn't have fed Gentry after midnight!). But it doesn't end there because we also have Tucker Smallwood as Bullock, his only appearance on 'Voyager,' but who'd go on to play a member of the Xindi race in 'Enterprise' - it hit me when they were all sat round the Briefing Room table and he was getting angry that it's very similar to the Xindi Council arguing over... what to do about the humans! See, it's almost the same story, though the Xindi were definitely only interested in destroying a perceived threat from the humans... And finally, Kate Vernon played Archer and would go on to be a recurring character in the 'Battlestar Galactica' remake. I don't think she was one of the Cylons (yet another race distrustful of humanity and seeing the only option being to wipe them out!), it's been a while since I saw it, but the character definitely concealed a lot. I can imagine Galligan was hired because of the connection, but obviously the others were merely chance since this was made before those other productions, but it's fascinating to see how all these things came together!
An added attraction at the time the episode was made was the chance to see Starfleet Headquarters again. Obviously 'DS9' was still in production (and we do see images of HQ after its attack by the Breen), but they never went back to film in the grounds that had been established for the Academy and other sites, and here we see more than we'd ever seen before, with only the aforementioned 'DS9' two-parter coming close (we also see Chakotay use a much more easily concealed Type 1 Phaser, the kind that can be hidden in the palm). I so wish they'd continued to use the site in current Treks - they could incorporate Vasquez Rocks, but not this? It was also a treat to see so many Alpha Quadrant aliens on 'Voyager,' so far from that familiar world, although you can tell things aren't quite right from the fact 8472's uniforms are out of date, following the Voyager style rather than the by now well-established 'First Contact' look. It's also interesting to see several Ferengi in Starfleet as it would seem unlikely that many would have followed Nog into the Academy when he'd been part of Starfleet for only a few short years (bumped up to field commission during the Dominion War), so it suggests either 8472 are well out of date, or they weren't able to get as accurate a picture as it seemed. There was another reference to enjoy, too, as Seven mentions the dark blot on Trek's optimistic vision, World War III (though now they could just change it so it never happened judging by what they did to the Eugenics Wars - silly people!).
While Janeway seemed to forget the contact they'd had with Starfleet, Harry Kim has also blocked out his encounter with the Taresians in 'Favourite Son' when he says he's always wondered what it's like to date an alien. I don't blame him for forgetting (though he'd find out again later this season that it's not a good idea...). Interesting that Chakotay refuses alcohol, preferring water as he always likes to stay in control - hasn't he heard of Synthehol, which is supposed to give all the 'fun' of alcohol, with the ability to pull away from any level of feelings of intoxication whenever it's required? Or was he just being more cautious than ever in that particular situation? The idea of there being an imposter on Voyager would have been a great addition to the season, but they quickly quash that, losing all possible paranoia and drama in the process, though it was a great scene where Janeway reminisces about the Academy with Chakotay until he realises she's testing him. I never twigged for a moment as she was so natural in how she drew the conversation around. It's fortunate Chakotay's quicker on the uptake than I am! I also felt there was something to be mined in the brief mention of faith Janeway and Seven throw in at the end of a conversation, except it wasn't developed. And then we don't even get to know what 8472 call themselves (the Undine, according to non-canon sources, which was a good name that could have worked). They were so immersed in being human (something which could have been used against them?), that I can understand why they weren't 'themselves,' but at the same time it's sad that nothing was done with the potential of furthering the storyline. And I had the sense that this episode, as good as it was, could have been a classic with just a little more exploration and focus on certain parts ideas.
***
Thursday, 13 October 2022
The Daedalus Variations
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (The Daedalus Variations)
A somewhat inconsequential adventure that would appear to have no bearing on anything. That's not a bad thing in itself, I enjoy a good sci-fi tale and not everything has to connect to an ongoing story or even the core mythology, but having said that it was much more like the kind of story you'd do in a first season when you haven't got the characters completely down pat - you send them off on a mission together where things go awry and see how they react. The four people on this mission are Sheppard, McKay, Ronon and Teyla, and other than Rodney they're all fairly redundant. It's true they have some shooting to do and then have to take out some boarders attacking the ship they're on, but it's McKay who's the only one that can really extricate them from their predicament. So it's much more like an early episode where he has to solve one problem after another and the others glance askance at each other before telling him there's no time. There isn't much more to it than that, truth be told. It's not like we learn anything new about anyone or a new bond is formed between people that didn't know each other so well. I'd also say that it took them an inordinate amount of time to even posit the theory this Daedalus might be from an alternate universe and I was on that quite early - if you're waiting for the writers to catch up to what the audience already suspects then that doesn't bode well for a story.
They already knew before boarding that their Daedalus was safely in the Milky Way, and as so often happens in the 'Stargate' franchise, I'm tentatively expecting a new spin on a sci-fi tale, only to find it's back to the basics with little variation. Sometimes they come up with good stuff, but in this case it was a simple A-to-B journey, albeit with the expected escalation of their problems to cause Rodney more pain. I always love a dark, abandoned ship and there was a good sense of mystery to begin with - is it going to be an alien experiment gone wrong, an invasion of something nasty, or some other twist I hadn't thought of? But the mystery and the creepiness doesn't last long before we're flipping into alternate universe after alternate universe, though obviously there's not a lot of variation as it's not like they leave the ship, so it's just a slightly different issue in each jump: no planet, aliens attacking Atlantis, too close to a star... Sheppard gets to pay himself compliments when they run across the reality with the Borg drone aliens (perfect fodder for Ronon to grapple with), on the way back and F-302s save them from the alien craft's assault, and there's a reminder this is Teyla's first mission back for real, but other than that there's not a lot going on. Wolsey and Keller don't even appear, so it's left up to the B team of Lorne and Zelenka to ponder what's happened to their team, though they don't seem too concerned about it. I'd have thought Lorne would have got Wolsey down there right away.
I will give them credit for the CGI, both the battle scenes as little alien fighters duck and weave under the belly of the Daedalus looked lovely, and the red sun wasn't bad either. It's not a bad episode, either, perfectly inoffensive and gives us a chance to see our characters doing what they do again, but equally it's not doing anything they haven't done before, and probably better. It's a little like they squandered the possibilities which, like the alternate universes, are diminishing with each passing episode so that you want there to be more meaningful scenes for these characters instead of merely solving a technical problem or fending off an attack. Character has always been at the heart of 'Stargate' and if they forget that then they're failing to use their greatest asset. It's one of those that would work fine if you're unused to science fiction, but when you're well versed in the concepts simply repeating one isn't enough to make it truly worthwhile. Perhaps it was a budget-saving episode? If so, the writing needed sharpness. (Though I did enjoy seeing a sign on the supply boxes saying, 'Do Not Ring Transport,' in case we forgot that's the term they always used to use).
**
A somewhat inconsequential adventure that would appear to have no bearing on anything. That's not a bad thing in itself, I enjoy a good sci-fi tale and not everything has to connect to an ongoing story or even the core mythology, but having said that it was much more like the kind of story you'd do in a first season when you haven't got the characters completely down pat - you send them off on a mission together where things go awry and see how they react. The four people on this mission are Sheppard, McKay, Ronon and Teyla, and other than Rodney they're all fairly redundant. It's true they have some shooting to do and then have to take out some boarders attacking the ship they're on, but it's McKay who's the only one that can really extricate them from their predicament. So it's much more like an early episode where he has to solve one problem after another and the others glance askance at each other before telling him there's no time. There isn't much more to it than that, truth be told. It's not like we learn anything new about anyone or a new bond is formed between people that didn't know each other so well. I'd also say that it took them an inordinate amount of time to even posit the theory this Daedalus might be from an alternate universe and I was on that quite early - if you're waiting for the writers to catch up to what the audience already suspects then that doesn't bode well for a story.
They already knew before boarding that their Daedalus was safely in the Milky Way, and as so often happens in the 'Stargate' franchise, I'm tentatively expecting a new spin on a sci-fi tale, only to find it's back to the basics with little variation. Sometimes they come up with good stuff, but in this case it was a simple A-to-B journey, albeit with the expected escalation of their problems to cause Rodney more pain. I always love a dark, abandoned ship and there was a good sense of mystery to begin with - is it going to be an alien experiment gone wrong, an invasion of something nasty, or some other twist I hadn't thought of? But the mystery and the creepiness doesn't last long before we're flipping into alternate universe after alternate universe, though obviously there's not a lot of variation as it's not like they leave the ship, so it's just a slightly different issue in each jump: no planet, aliens attacking Atlantis, too close to a star... Sheppard gets to pay himself compliments when they run across the reality with the Borg drone aliens (perfect fodder for Ronon to grapple with), on the way back and F-302s save them from the alien craft's assault, and there's a reminder this is Teyla's first mission back for real, but other than that there's not a lot going on. Wolsey and Keller don't even appear, so it's left up to the B team of Lorne and Zelenka to ponder what's happened to their team, though they don't seem too concerned about it. I'd have thought Lorne would have got Wolsey down there right away.
I will give them credit for the CGI, both the battle scenes as little alien fighters duck and weave under the belly of the Daedalus looked lovely, and the red sun wasn't bad either. It's not a bad episode, either, perfectly inoffensive and gives us a chance to see our characters doing what they do again, but equally it's not doing anything they haven't done before, and probably better. It's a little like they squandered the possibilities which, like the alternate universes, are diminishing with each passing episode so that you want there to be more meaningful scenes for these characters instead of merely solving a technical problem or fending off an attack. Character has always been at the heart of 'Stargate' and if they forget that then they're failing to use their greatest asset. It's one of those that would work fine if you're unused to science fiction, but when you're well versed in the concepts simply repeating one isn't enough to make it truly worthwhile. Perhaps it was a budget-saving episode? If so, the writing needed sharpness. (Though I did enjoy seeing a sign on the supply boxes saying, 'Do Not Ring Transport,' in case we forgot that's the term they always used to use).
**
Friday, 7 October 2022
Broken Ties
DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (Broken Ties)
Not too sure about this one. I was a little confused about certain things, like why Ronon went mad and cut off the Wraith's hand, then fought Tyre, his ex-Satedan, ex-buddy. And was Tyre always part of the plan, that he'd try and get into this Wraith's good graces? I missed how Lorne and the others were set free and I assumed Ronon had actually been too strong to succumb to the Wraith's brainwashing and drug addiction, and yet he did fight Tyre and he did have to be brought back stunned, and he did have to be held in restraints until the cold turkey process had succeeded. I felt the episode was quite easy to guess in its progression, specifically with Tyre. I really didn't like all that Satedan matey stuff, a follow-on to the episode in the previous season where Ronon met up with his old friends and they turned out to be Wraith worshippers, so I wasn't thrilled to meet up with Tyre again. It was a bit too easy for him to capture Ronon, though he did know him well and was desperate, making him more cunning I suppose. But the fact he was going to die somehow, and probably ultimately sacrificing himself for all that he'd done wrong, wasn't hard to speculate. And obviously when he's there telling them where to lay charges on the Wraith's base and then he ends up holding the detonator, of course he was going to go out in a blaze of glory - for one thing he probably didn't fancy facing a recovered Ronon in the near future!
The episode didn't surprise in other ways, either, with my belief they're mellowing Wolsey so that he can surprise the team by being adamant on some point at some time and making them all shocked at his reversion to the old Wolsey. At the moment they're going out of their way to portray him as much more sensitive, open to suggestion, with a sympathetic side (he misses his dog; he relaxes by wearing a suit and tie!), and the comedy (he doesn't know how to open the briefing room door; he gets left holding the baby - literally), so I can only assume they're priming him to stab his team in the back by not backing them up or coming down like a ton of bricks when they least expect it - that is, after all, how to do something dramatic. I just felt they were laying it on a bit strong. The other plot is about Teyla and whether she's ready to commit to being back on Sheppard's team despite having a baby to contend with and look after. She has the advantage of a stay-at-home Dad for the child, at least, but she feels the maternal instinct strongly. She can't have it both ways and just show up for duty when it suits, Sheppard was very right, but she eventually realises her professionalism and Kanaan reassures her that it'll be okay. It was something that needed to be addressed, and it was somewhat interesting, but the sum of the episode didn't really match expectations.
There were other problems in the episode aside from the confused direction in how the story was told - like redundant scenes where characters talk about how they're going to find Ronon, they don't know, and then Lorne arrives to tell them they know where he is. And The Wraith look really weak now when Tyre can just show up and take a couple of the grunts out with a few sword swipes, or Sheppard can hold them off with a couple of hand guns (where did he get those - wouldn't they have removed all the equipment before putting them in the cells?). It's not that it wasn't stylishly put together, the fights and battles were fine, and it wasn't that the characters were ill-used, there was simply some undefined something that was missing in a small way and I don't feel I've yet settled into this season, even though I went almost straight from Season 4 to this without my usual annual break to review something else. So I don't know, I'm glad Teyla will be back properly and that Ronon will, too. I'm glad Wolsey hasn't proven to be the prize turkey everyone thought he would be (yet). But I'm yet to like the stories they've done so far to any great extent (even if the season opener was pretty good, it was more about settling the previous season's story). I expect a big part of it is that my favourite character Rodney is far from essential for this particular plot and there wasn't a great sense of travel, they just appear in various places and then they're back on Atlantis, and sometimes you need an impression of different places being far away. I'm not even quite sure what the motivation of that Wraith was to capture Ronon and torture him into servitude - to attack Atlantis? In which case wouldn't he have pulled all the information out of Ronon as soon as he could to test his loyalty? And Ronon didn't want his captured friends killed, which made me think he was only playing along...
**
Not too sure about this one. I was a little confused about certain things, like why Ronon went mad and cut off the Wraith's hand, then fought Tyre, his ex-Satedan, ex-buddy. And was Tyre always part of the plan, that he'd try and get into this Wraith's good graces? I missed how Lorne and the others were set free and I assumed Ronon had actually been too strong to succumb to the Wraith's brainwashing and drug addiction, and yet he did fight Tyre and he did have to be brought back stunned, and he did have to be held in restraints until the cold turkey process had succeeded. I felt the episode was quite easy to guess in its progression, specifically with Tyre. I really didn't like all that Satedan matey stuff, a follow-on to the episode in the previous season where Ronon met up with his old friends and they turned out to be Wraith worshippers, so I wasn't thrilled to meet up with Tyre again. It was a bit too easy for him to capture Ronon, though he did know him well and was desperate, making him more cunning I suppose. But the fact he was going to die somehow, and probably ultimately sacrificing himself for all that he'd done wrong, wasn't hard to speculate. And obviously when he's there telling them where to lay charges on the Wraith's base and then he ends up holding the detonator, of course he was going to go out in a blaze of glory - for one thing he probably didn't fancy facing a recovered Ronon in the near future!
The episode didn't surprise in other ways, either, with my belief they're mellowing Wolsey so that he can surprise the team by being adamant on some point at some time and making them all shocked at his reversion to the old Wolsey. At the moment they're going out of their way to portray him as much more sensitive, open to suggestion, with a sympathetic side (he misses his dog; he relaxes by wearing a suit and tie!), and the comedy (he doesn't know how to open the briefing room door; he gets left holding the baby - literally), so I can only assume they're priming him to stab his team in the back by not backing them up or coming down like a ton of bricks when they least expect it - that is, after all, how to do something dramatic. I just felt they were laying it on a bit strong. The other plot is about Teyla and whether she's ready to commit to being back on Sheppard's team despite having a baby to contend with and look after. She has the advantage of a stay-at-home Dad for the child, at least, but she feels the maternal instinct strongly. She can't have it both ways and just show up for duty when it suits, Sheppard was very right, but she eventually realises her professionalism and Kanaan reassures her that it'll be okay. It was something that needed to be addressed, and it was somewhat interesting, but the sum of the episode didn't really match expectations.
There were other problems in the episode aside from the confused direction in how the story was told - like redundant scenes where characters talk about how they're going to find Ronon, they don't know, and then Lorne arrives to tell them they know where he is. And The Wraith look really weak now when Tyre can just show up and take a couple of the grunts out with a few sword swipes, or Sheppard can hold them off with a couple of hand guns (where did he get those - wouldn't they have removed all the equipment before putting them in the cells?). It's not that it wasn't stylishly put together, the fights and battles were fine, and it wasn't that the characters were ill-used, there was simply some undefined something that was missing in a small way and I don't feel I've yet settled into this season, even though I went almost straight from Season 4 to this without my usual annual break to review something else. So I don't know, I'm glad Teyla will be back properly and that Ronon will, too. I'm glad Wolsey hasn't proven to be the prize turkey everyone thought he would be (yet). But I'm yet to like the stories they've done so far to any great extent (even if the season opener was pretty good, it was more about settling the previous season's story). I expect a big part of it is that my favourite character Rodney is far from essential for this particular plot and there wasn't a great sense of travel, they just appear in various places and then they're back on Atlantis, and sometimes you need an impression of different places being far away. I'm not even quite sure what the motivation of that Wraith was to capture Ronon and torture him into servitude - to attack Atlantis? In which case wouldn't he have pulled all the information out of Ronon as soon as he could to test his loyalty? And Ronon didn't want his captured friends killed, which made me think he was only playing along...
**
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)