Stargate: Universe show-runner Brad Wright has revealed that the dark atmosphere of the show’s first season was only the beginning: the show is set to get darker next year.

"When you try to adopt a more realistic tone, where frankly we don’t win every time, then there have to be real-world repercussions like death and injury and loss," Wright said. "You can dig deeper into characters and the deeper you dig the repercussions can get bigger. We are going to some places with these characters, and already have really, that we would never go with the heroes of our other series.”

And things don’t bode will for Everett Young, played by Louis Ferreira. 

According to Robert C. Cooper, "After everything he’s been through – and it gets worse for him initially at the beginning of Season 2 – it’s impossible to imagine that a person wouldn’t go to a very dark place at least for a short period of time.

In other news, according to GateWorld, we’re set to see some Stargate Atlantis actors guesting on Universe next year.  No word on who, or to what extent yet, however.

Stargate actor Robert Picardo recently announced that the Stargate Atlantis finale – ‘Enemy at the Gate ‘ was a “well crafted” piece of television.

It’s not.

“Enemy at the Gate” is by no means Atlantis’ worst hour – not even close.  In fact, by the second half of Season Four’s mediocre standards, its outstanding.

However, that’s scarcely enough to merit calling it “well crafted”. 

The pacing is fast – too fast.  What the viewed sees resembles a two-hour story chopped down and squeezed tightly into forty-two minutes of television.  The plot devices used are typical of an increasingly unimaginative Writers’ Room, and the absence of any extended resolution which would surely have propelled this episode into a higher stratum of quality is strongly felt.

The plot had potential, don’t get me wrong, and it does indeed tie up some ends (unlike SG-1′s ‘Unending’), but it is not a great finale.  It’s barely a good one.  It’s a decent episode, and that’s all.

One must hope that the laissez-faire habits of the Atlantis creative teams are not carried on to Stargate Universe, or else the once vibrant franchise may dim to a faint ember.  Perhaps that metaphor is a cliché, yet it seems strangely apt for a show that revels in repeating its own weaknesses week in, week out.

Robert Picardo, you’ve done some fine television.  How did you conceive this to be ‘well crafted’?

Stargate Atlantis produce Joe Mallozzi has stated that Captain Vela, a character introduced in the show’s fifth season, was intended to be the show’s first gay character – a revelation that was to end up on the cutting room floor.

What exactly does this mean? Sod all.

The character was never defined as gay on screen, therefore, to 90% of Stargate viewers, she remains entirely straight. Yet, the producers seem to expect a pat on the back for thinking about making a character gay?

The very fact that this development – something most shows would treat as a milestone; something to be proud of – ended up on the cutting room floor is indicative of the lack of risk-taking in the Stargate writers’ room. Leaving aside the fact that such a revelation may have made a few episodes somewhat more compelling, we get the impression that the writers knew a gay character could heighten the drama and make characters more interesting, yet couldn’t bring themselves to take the final push.

To then actually announce that the aforementioned plot development was cut seems, well, a little useless. You didn’t actually achieve anything.

-sarcasm-
So way to go, Stargate writing team. Have yourselves a pat on the back for doing nothing of use, in this case. You deserve it.
-/sarcasm-

The second part of Stargate Atlantis’s mid-season cliffhanger, "The Lost Tribe" has scored an impressive 1.5 rating (a massive increase on the 1.1 scored by the first part, "First Contact").

The episode represented Atlantis’s first episode in a new 9pm time slot.

Prominent Atlantis staffer Joe Mallozzi said "I think [the rating] says a lot about the quality of the show as well as its legion of loyal fans."

"I mean, if you think about it, it’s a pretty incredible achievement. A series typically sheds viewers the longer it stays on the air but here we are, completing work on our fifth (and final) season, and we’re pulling in better numbers than ever. So a big thanks and congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make this season the most successful season of Stargate Atlantis in years."

It is somewhat tragic that these ratings will have little impact on the long-term future of the show, however, as they say: better to burn out than fade away.

Warning: Massive spoilers for next week’s episode!

If the video is not yet visible, please view it here. Note, this is not a final airing copy, so music and sound has not yet been added correctly.  Audio is not final.  If you have difficulty hearing, you can use the subtitles feature.

In brief:

Absolutely, utterly fantastic.

In detail:

This is, quite probably, my favourite episode Atlantis to date.  It is, for me, Enterprise’s ‘Cogenitor’, or SG-1′s ‘Abyss’: the episode that rises above the average or mediocre content surrounding it, and elevates itself into not only a good episode, but simply one of the strongest.

It contains two of my favourite scenes in all of Stargate.  The first, and I am stunned to say this, is from Richard Woolsey.  His recollection of his father’s Alzheimer’s is poignant, moving, and magnificently delivered by Picardo.  The storyline around it and the circumstances the Atlantis team find themselves in, make it a perfect and believable analogy, and one that is eerily haunting in his delivery also.  Fantastic. 

The second, which is my overall favourite, comes in a flashback as Sheppard is flying the team to the Shrine of Talus.  We see McKay running, terrified to Sheppard’s quarters, terrified.  McKay has woken up alone, forgetting who he was supposed to be with and wondering if he’s gone crazy.  David Hewlett is an excellent actor at the best of times, but this is magnificent.  His fear is so real and believable that we get drawn right into the scene.  But what makes this scene work so perfectly is a fantastic piece of acting from Joe Flanigan, who finally delivers some of that subtle, poignant acting that one of our readers, freidag, spoke of in the comments to my Daedalus Variations review.  “Personally I find Flanigan’s acting subtle and quite good. Sometimes an expression says more than words can.”  How right you were.

The scene is perfected as Rodney and Sheppard sit along the edge of one of Atlantis’s pier, sipping beers, with the amazing backdrop of a night-time city skyline behind them.  Rodney wants to say goodbye, before he forgets everything.  Sheppard won’t accept it, refusing to give up hope.  What makes this episode to excellent is that it can affect anyone watching it.  The feelings of both McKay and Sheppard are core, human feelings that any one of us can relate to.  We often don’t know how we would feel or react to a horde of mutant aliens coming towards us in Shining-esque fashion; but we do know how much it can hurt to say goodbye.  Full marks to writer, Brad Wright, who fully capitalises on this.

Coincidentally, looking at Brad Wright’s credits, it’s easy to see this guy gets it.  He is packed full of talent for writing moving stories.  Hell, he wrote Abyss.  Can this man do no wrong? 

Other strong performances come from Jewel Staite and Jason Momoa who, as Dr Keller and Ronon Dex, put in a great shift portraying the emotions of friends struggling to come to terms with McKay’s predicament.  The underlying love theme between Keller and McKay could easily have been overdone or made clichéd and nauseating.  Not so.  Once more, Staite and Hewlett prove their acting mettle by firing off a generally unspoken, yet nonetheless touching bond of both professional admiration and complete affection for one another. 

Another great moment comes as the team arrive at the Shrine of Talus, where McKay’s affliction is successfully reversed.  Upon regaining his memories, McKay is furious, believing 24 hours as himself knowing he is going to die as torture.  We’ve been rooting for the team the whole time, and then suddenly, as a result, we viewers feel guilty that we too have wanted McKay to return to normal, even if it is unspeakably unpleasant for his character.  It’s a complete dramatic U-turn, and it is a trademark of quality writing that it succeeds.  

The video-diary that Dr Keller has Rodney make, and we see glimpses of throughout the episode in different orders, is excellent.  Again, it could easily have been clichéd, but Hewlett’s performances make it genuinely moving, and it adds to the emotion of the episode.  The growing frustration as Rodney forgets that which he holds dearest, his knowledge, is tragic, and we empathise easily with his pain.  McKay’s declaration of love at the end of the episode, performed against some excellent music, is one of the most moving moments of the episode.

Man, is this episode full of moving moments, or what?

Jeanie’s inclusion in the episode is a nice touch.  Being real-life siblings, the Hewletts always work nicely off one another.  It’s a little unnecessary, she doesn’t really have a major impact on the storyline, but I think it was a good decision to have her there for two reasons.  It’s adds a sense of depth and poignancy to the atmosphere of the episode, and also adds another dynamic and opinion to the moral dilemma of whether curing McKay for 24 hours is the right thing to do, if it means he will die afterwards.  Is it selfish?  Is it what McKay would want?  These are great moral questions that Stargate rarely asks; yet, when placed in the hands of a writer like Wright, they are asked, and asked brilliantly.

The jumpy-flashback nature of the episode, something which oft goes awry, actually works very nicely here.  The juxtaposition of scenes with lucid Rodney and afflicted Rodney is excellent, and really helps contrast the two.

Also, special kudos to the effects team who continue to impress with the night-time city, and also the glacial, submerged Stargate.  

However, is there a single flaw in this episode?  Absolutely, yes.

I couldn’t help but feel that the resolution was a little rushed – the surgery a little too quick and easy.  The creature jumps out, Ronan shoots it, and all is well again.  It’s not actually a bad ending, relatively speaking, but it just didn’t quite live up to the brilliance of the rest of the episode.

It doesn’t detract too much, however, from what is a magnificent hour of television.

Grade: 96% (A+)

Revised 8th September 2008

In brief:

Decent, yet confusing.

In detail:

The absence of Tori Higginson (Elizabeth Weir) certainly screwed over the Replicator story line they had set up for her.  “Ghost in the Machine” is a valiant attempt to continue that story without her.  And, for the most part, it does a good job.

Michelle Morgan, who plays the consciousness of Weir in Fran’s body, does a reasonably good job of imitating the mannerisms and vocal expressions that Higginson brought to Weir’s character.  Her performance is strong, and in the quieter scenes with Teyla/Sheppard/Fran I found myself truly believing this was still Weir.  That’s an achievement of performance on Morgan’s part.

Robert Picardo’s performances continue to better themselves.  Wooley’s developing into a strong leader, and it’s all helped by strong acting from Picardo.

Two stand-out scenes are definitely Weir’s first communication with Atlantis via the computer system.  The gibberish developing into more advanced English is a tantalising reveal, and it works well. 

The other is the final scene, with Weir/Fran and the Replicators drifting into deep space.  It’s a suckerpunch; I definitely didn’t see it coming.  Yet, it adds new perspective on the scenes preceding it, and its an excellent ending.

The episode was hurt, however, from over-complication.  Atlantis juggles a lot of storylines, what with the Wraith, Michael, Teyla, Carson, and the Replicators all providing a long-running arc.  The main problem with these is that they can jump back into focus after months if not longer in the background.  As a casual viewer, I find it difficult to follow events that happened sometimes   more than a season ago. 

This problem is compounded when suddenly they switch actors due to behind the scenes disputes.  The episode had to be made to finish the storyline, I’ll admit that.  And they did do it sooner rather than later.  But it was a constant challenge trying to remember what happened in previous shows without re-watching the episodes.  This is all very well for hardcore fans, but for the more casual viewer, it’s pretty hard to follow. 

Grade: 62% (C+)

It has emerged that the fifth season of Stargate Atlantis will be the last one, and will be replaced by a new, third show: Stargate Universe.

The Stargate spin-off will end its regular run this season, instead focusing on movie production (much in the same way SG-1 continued through Ark of Truth and Continuum).

I’m reluctant to use the word “cancelled”.  A show is cancelled when it ceases to be useful, affordable and the network no longer want it, usually due to dismal ratings. 

While Atlantis’s ratings haven’t been great, but they’re good for SCI-FI and have been steady.  Additionally, the continuation of the the franchise through the Atlantis movies, Universe show and potential further SG-1 movies shows that there is still a good deal of faith in the Stargate brand.

Many journalists will lock onto the word cancelled and portray this announcement in a negative light.  I view it more as an evolution of Stargate; perhaps renovation needed to keep it fresh and profitable into the future.  It’s risky, yes, but it’s probably necessary.

Stargate Universe, in the mean time, will launch in 2009; a new TV series set aboard an Ancient ship called the Destiny.  Full coverage. can be found here.  SCI-FI describes the show thus:

After unlocking the mystery of the Stargate’s ninth chevron, a team of explorers travels to an unmanned starship called the Destiny, launched by The Ancients at the height of their civilization as a grand experiment set in motion, but never completed.

What starts as a simple reconnaissance turns into a never ending mission, as the Stargate Universe crew discovers the ship is unable to return to Earth, and they must now fend for themselves aboard the Destiny.

The crew will travel to the far reaches of the universe, connecting with each of the previously launched Stargates, thus fulfilling the Destiny’s original mission. Challenges will arise though as the ship comes into range of Stargates placed centuries ahead of the Destiny and the crew is unable to control the ship’s navigational schedule. If someone is left behind, there is no way to go back for them, adding to the drama of encountering new races, enemies and adventures.

It’s an excellent concept.  Then again, so was Atlantis.

In-brief:

Better…

In-detail:

Thank goodness.  A glimmer of hope.  Nothing outsanding, nothing overly memorable; but it was better.  A nice sci-fi concept nicely realised with minimal garbage.  Atlantis should try this more often.

It’s been a few weeks since viewing the episode unfortunately – busy times have afflicted me, so I’m writing a few weeks later with only a hurried re-watch for guidance.  Here are my thoughts, anyway.

For starters, the episode moved along at a nice pace, and performances were generally solid.  Generally quite solidly written, though I do have a few dialogue qualms.  I know a lot of fans really liked the Chewbacca reference when Ronon slams his control panel in frustration, but it seemed forced to me.  Not particularly funny, either.  Atlantis’s humour seems to be missing the mark lately.  Rodney’s not as funny; even his story about dropping Teyla’s child in the beginning wasn’t particularly amusing.  Just an excuse to have the obligatory tagged-on character moment at the end when Teyla symbolises trust in Rodney by offering to let him hold her kid.

But let’s not get too negative, there’s a lot this episode does well. 

It’s exciting.  Jumping through realities is always exciting, especially when you never know what might happen.  The writer’s introduce a genuinely quite nifty new alien race here; one I hope we see again in the future.  It’s a good reason to have action and adventure, and it’s nicely balanced with problems like the Red Giant star.  It’s not all about fist-fights and lasers, the team have to work themselves out of genuine problems.

The effects are once again top-notch, with the alien super-cruiser and the fighter/302 fight around Daedalus in particular standing out.  Once again Ronon gets beaten up.  He’s not quite as cool as Teal’c is he?  Sure, he sports funky dreads and some designer rogue-alien clothing, but he seems to consistently get knocked out week-in, week-out.  Let’s see Ronon beat someone senseless, I say.  Kick the symbiote out of ‘em.

It was quite nice to see a lack of Richard Woolsey in this episode; an indication, perhaps, that the writer’s aren’t going to pull an Ezri Dax and focus too much on their new character.  This episode was about the team, and it felt like a good Stargate episode; not brilliant, not even great, but good.  Woolsey’s a strong character, but I’m glad the focus of the episode, and feeling of isolation on the ship, was not detracted from by succumbing to the temptation of cutting back to our Atlantis and watching Woolsey sweat on the problem.  So often writers give in to such temptation.  Fair play.

On one note, and it’s not particularly limited to this episode, but I really feel that Sheppard’s character needs a dark episode to build on the character.  I can’t believe we’re five seasons in, and he hasn’t really developed.  He’s not much different to Season One John.  I think he needs a dark, character-building show; something akin to Abyss for Jack.  Something that’ll really show us another side to him.  Sheppard’s a character with great potential (his closet mathematician nature alluded to in the character brief), but the writer’s scarcely show it, relying on his humourous expressions and snappy wit.  Whilst I don’t particularly mind it, it’s not in the same league as Richard Dean Anderson’s performances.   Joe Flanigan needs to deliver more.

But I’m not taking marks off this episode for that, no; just an observation.  All in all, it’s a reasonably solid hour of Atlantis, and a definite notch above the rest of the season so far.

Coincidentally, extra marks for having such a nifty episode name. Memorable, and not even monosyllabic. Next week’s “Ghost in the Machine” is similarly delightful. No doubt we’ll be back to such wonderful titles as “Seed” or “Grey” or “Walk” in weeks to come.

Grade: 73% (B-)

In brief:

Continued mediocrity.

In detail:

Jason Momoa (Ronon) can act, at least a bit.  This episode proved that.  He had some truly nifty scenes throughout here, and there were indeed strong moments from Sheppard, Teyla and Woolsey.

That’s all that redeems this episode in any way.  The plot is truly awful.  Barely existent.  “Broken Ties” follows on from last season’s “Reunion” (which was average) and manages to further cloud and confuse Tyre’s character.

Sorry, Atlantis writers, but you’re going to have to do a lot better than this.  It’s not the dialogue or the production that’s particularly bad; in fact both are quite good.  It’s the concepts which have become dull, uninspired and lifeless, much like SG-1 mid-9th season.  These episodes carry little emotional weight, and I feel like I can watch them in the background while doing other things.  Have I really begun to care that little for the show?

It’s nice to see characters like Teyla getting focus over McKay, in fact I quite like the character dynamic of the team at the moment.  But dear God, the plot lines.  Ronon gets captured by the Wraith and becomes Bad Ronon.  We have a sword fight and it’s all okay.  Top quality entertainment?  I’d rather watch David Hewlett cut Robert Picardo’s toe-nails for 45 minutes.

Give us a story with emotional weight.  You’ve got the character’s placed and developed, let’s do something with them.  While watching one of the episodes better scenes (Ronon struggling with withdrawal, screaming out for someone to let him die), I thought to myself, this episode would be much, much cooler and much stronger if the whole episode was about Ronon actually coming off a drug habit.  Something that would resonate, something you could focus on, and would allow Jason Momoa further scope to fledge his acting wings.  Instead this was a 5 minute story surrounded by aimless drivel.  Ambush.  Captured.  Rescue.  =  Old.  Tired.  Boring. 

What if, instead, Ronon’s old buddy Tyre and he had been users of some kind of narcotic, and Tyre captures him to try and find some of the drug again to help him cope with the loss of his Satedan comrades.  Would Ronon get tempted?  Would be become addicted once more?  Would he come back to the team?  These are far more interesting questions than the ones “Broken Ties” but forward.  In fact, “Broken Ties” never really asked anything.  You knew Ronon would be okay in the end, and that Teyla would come back to the team.

I don’t find Woolsey to be convincing as an emotional mentor for Teyla.  He’s not even finished putting stuff into his office and the writers have already made him an emotional rock for Atlantis, counselling Teyla on parenthood and decisions?  I don’t buy it – not yet anyway.  Please don’t make Woolsey just another Carter or Weir.  He has potential to be different, and a strong character.  Don’t waste it.

The episode wasted the rather interesting character of Tyre from “Reunion”, turning him into a snivelling waste of space barely resembling a Satedan.  He betrayed/u-turned his allegiances so many times in the episode that I just got confused in the end by whose side he was on (and not in a good way, a genuine “I-Don’t-Care” way). 

I did enjoy the scene in which Sheppard told Teyla he understood if she rejoined the time, or if she wanted to spend time with her child, but either way she had to make a decision.  Nice acting, nice characterisation for Sheppard – it stood out, so much so that I watched it twice.  Is that sad?

I also enjoyed that Woolsey hasn’t quite become 100% relaxed in bending the rules.  His clear of the throat as the rest of the team began to rush out for a mission was nicely done, and I’m glad to see aren’t rushing it on that front.  However, I dare say it’ll be gone in a few weeks.   Still, I can hope.

Overall, thoroughly unimpressed.  Next week’s episode looked like it had promise until I saw the trailer, and the “terrifying new alien threat” looked like a chocolate/mud covered lamp shade.  Yawn.

Grade: 45% (D+)