The Lost Tribe

 DVD, Stargate Atlantis S5 (The Lost Tribe)

Hate to admit it, but for a brief moment I really did allow myself to wonder... could these people in the suits, I assume this lost tribe of the title... could they be... Furlings? Nah, that would be too silly, but I did wonder... Just for that brief moment before we see who's really in there. So they were Asgard, and they were ones intent on taking out the Wraith. Okay. The things I found difficult to swallow about the episode were actually the device itself which will blow up any Stargate in use in the entire Galaxy! That's going a bit too far, I could buy a Wraith ship going to warp might explode since it was in the relative vicinity of it, but no, not that - I know it's a network, but then why stop at only the Pegasus Galaxy? And then those armoured suits which so conveniently conform to whoever wears them? Leaving aside the production problem that you can see these 'empty' suits slightly swaying as Rodney and Daniel are confronting them, why would the Asgard build humanoid suits to fit anyone? Didn't make sense. And then they kill off Dr. Jackson in the silliest way possible. No, they didn't, but for a moment I entertained the possibility that this could be the last he ever played the role 'live' since I know he only comes back in 'Universe' in training videos from what I remember, and why not take out one of the founding characters of the whole franchise to make a splash in your final season? Having him back for a pretty good two-parter was a big enough splash, evidently, and the moment was a bit too light for him to really be offed, of which I'm glad since he probably is my favourite character of 'SG-1.'

The real reason for the scene where he says he doesn't think he's going to make it was for the buddy-buddy comedy of McKay about to give him a compliment which they can then joke about later and end the episode in a fun way, in contrast to the sheer volume of stuff happening. I quite enjoyed having them together, though part one was a little better. I'm not sure what really happened other than Todd's alliance with our people ending - who knows what situation he'll be in when they meet again as they're bound to do. His strategy for taking out the facility housing the device was immediately obvious to me: if Ronon's sabotaged the weapons of course he's going to ram the Daedalus into it! But I did like the solution: have Sheppard's friend's ship (Larrin of the Travellers), open a hyperspace window right in front of the plummeting vessel which takes them directly through the planet and out the other side. I could just about remember Larrin, this woman he was fond of and had met a couple of times, though I didn't recall her people being known as Travellers. Again, ever so convenient an emissary of Larrin's could show up in a ship at just the moment Atlantis needed one, but sometimes you need these plot devices - and for most of the episode I liked the escalation of events: Todd's on course for the Asgard facility, planning to destroy it, but McKay and Jackson are there. Simple, personal stakes, but good ones.

It's easy to believe in the motivations of the various factions. Okay, so it was a bit disappointing that Sheppard and Zelenka survived the main 'gate blowing merely by ducking down in another room. I mean that should really have taken the top off the tower and in the effects (which were good throughout, even if the Asgard ships were a bit ugly, and so was that hunk of junk, the fastest in its fleet, sent from Larrin, now that I come to think of it), it looked as if it had, so it does lessen the impact of the cliffhanger from part one. Not that I wanted to see either of them die, of course not, but a Stargate exploding should be a momentous event, and we hear that thousands have died from the colony Larrin's people had set up, yet two people in one tower survived - even the laptop was in one piece without as much as a crack on the screen! Maybe I'm asking too much, but a destructing 'gate should be the ultimate blast. Find another way for our characters to survive and find a new tower because it shouldn't be simple to patch it up and get back to normality. I wasn't sure if Rodney was talking about a new Stargate being installed in Atlantis or whether he was talking about somewhere else, but if things go back to normal next week it's only going to make it seem even more trivial.

These reasons and more made me like this episode less. Another thing is Ronon and Keller on their sabotage mission - again, obviously when Ronon says he's going to take out the hyperdrive he doesn't mean sitting at a keyboard overriding programs, but I suppose his blunt edge was meant to be funny, or at least Keller's reaction to it all. I do like that she's realistic about the situation - she's a caregiver, a doctor and a professional in her field, so of course she's not going to warm to being in a combat situation, love it and excel at it, but despite fears and reservations she acquits herself well. Still not sure if Ronon's motives were for himself at the end, or if he's subtly pushing Keller towards Rodney, but either is possible. Teyla is the only main character who suffers, being left behind again - I believe she is the best qualified and most trusted by John to be left in that position, especially when they're wondering if there'll be retaliation, but I feel like she should have had some kind of minor plot of her own, even if it was just the clean-up on Atlantis. And where was her baby and husband, I'd like to have seen her being concerned for them or go and see them, assuming they're still there.

Wolsey's visible and part of the story, but he still doesn't seem quite like the boss man yet, Sheppard's running the show, or Ronon in the action stakes, while Wolsey has very little of substance. It's not like they have tons of main characters to fit in, either, but we're running out of time for him to really be integrated into the series well. Zelenka's subplot of babysitting the Travellers' Chief Engineer, who's only fifteen, could also have been more than a gag. But at least it's easy to see why they brought back Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson, with the bad guys turning out to be Asgard he was the closest person to work with them, having a special friendship with Thor, I think it was (it's been so long - I need to get back to 'SG-1' again!), and even voicing the character. I didn't see who did the voice for this Asgard, but I don't think it was Shanks. But facing one of those puppets again (this time with even more facial movement), must have felt like no time had passed for him at all, yet it had been around twelve years since 'SG-1' began and here he is doing the same thing again. It's quite nice (I could have done with a discussion about dying before and what he thinks will happen, since he had become ascended and then returned to ordinary life before), but at the same time maybe it was so many moving parts to keep track of that made it lose focus, and I didn't like it quite as much as the first part. I'd love it if Jackson came back again before the end (hey, have a full-blown 'SG-1' reunion, why not!), but I doubt they'll bring anyone else in since they're winding up the series and they probably want to concentrate on their own characters at this point, which is entirely understandable.

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