Posts Tagged ‘atlantis’
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‘Stargate: Atlantis’ – The series started well, but season 4 was the end for me
May 11th, 2009 |Posted In: 3
Season four of Stargate: Atlantis is just so bad, I’m actually not even motivated to finish watching the season (or the series anymore, for that matter.) I don’t know what happened, but the writing and acting just seemed so much better the first couple seasons, but season four has just been dragging. Then I got up to the fourth disk in the season and I can’t believe how bad these are. Some examples…
“Quarantine” – there’s a lockdown and everyone is separated into separate rooms for a very dull episode.
“Harmony” - Sheppherd and McKay spend the whole episode with an obnoxious girl
and, the one that did it for me…
“Trio” – McKay, Carter and the new doctor character fall into a hole and…. that’s the entire episode. This one was the worst… in fact, it was a slow, dull chore to watch it. I already don’t like the McKay character, so to make matters worse, the enitre episode is about him being annoying while these other two women are chatting about George Clooney. This was bad, and I mean, bad universally. Bad in terms of, I’ve watched episodes of ‘Golden Girls’ better than this episode. And it was bad enough to make me want to throw in the towel not just on this season of Stargate: Atlantis, but also on the entire series. It’s lost it’s appeal and I’m returning this to the library unfinished.
I’m going to watch a DVD of Greg L. Bahnsen discussing “Revelational epistemology” now, and I’ve got a feeling that this will be more exciting that Atlantis has become.
HOWEVER, one final thought: if they ever make a Stargate spin-off series based on Sheppherd and Ronin on earth, as detectives or something, that has potential. These two remain pretty much the only characters I enjoy in the series anymore, so seeing them paired up on earth in a couple epsiodes was, if anything, the highlight of the season for me. As for the rest of the season… blah.
I just checked out the fourth season of ‘Stargate:Atlantis’ on dvd from the library, and after watching the first four episodes, I have to admit, I’m really not all that bowled over by the series anymore. Atlantis had a great first season, a very good second season, a mostly good third season, but the fourth, so far, is sort of bland.
My friend Al got me hooked on this series initially, and what I really liked about Atlantis was how, in a lot of ways, it reminded me of the earlier days of ‘Star Trek: Next Gen’, when the series was just getting rolling and there was more of a light-weight feel to the show and the material (I recall that TNG seemed to start taking itself a little too seriously towards the end, and I actually stopped watching it at some point for that reason: the fun factor was gone.)
Similar thing here with Atlantis season 4. I dunno, it’s just not as engaging as the first few seasons were. I mean, to start with, the Wraith were a fairly cool (and creepy) adversary for the season opening episodes, and the series finales/openings seemed to be based around these awesome ‘Star Wars’-magnitude space battles. The opening of season 4? It’s all about Rodney fixing stuff and puddle-jumpers shooting asteroids. Yeah, that’s great. And the Replicators just don’t have that same excitement impact as the wraith (especially since they are led by a bald, sort of boring, former-’M.A.S.H’ actor. Wow.)
The other thing I’ve not been pleased about is replacing the Dr. Weir character with Amanda Tappings Col. Carter character. I’ve not seen much of SG-1, so all I really remember of her most prominently was from her guest appearance in the AWFUL Rodney-trapped-underwater episode, in which Rodney and Col. Carter act completely inappropriately and suggestively, and the whole time I’m just wanting the submerged puddle-jumper to fill with water. And now she’s back as the leader of Atlantis? Great.
(Spoiler) One positive, and I know this will sound morbid, was the decision to remove the councilor character from the series in the fourth episode. I know this sounds terrible, but I really didn’t think this character had a lot of value, other than, “Oh, you’re having issues with sleeping? Take these pills then.” It’s strange enough to me that the Atlantis base has no chaplains or chapels (or any religions at all anywhere, both
human or alien) but that this one drug-prescribing therapist is the ONLY apparent councilor of the entire operation? There’s no way I’d sign up for that tour! (besides, I’d probably be one of the extras killed off when the shields died in part of the station.)
Anyhow, there have been a couple laughs along the way (such as Rodney’s dreams about ‘Moby Dick’ and clowns), but I really haven’t been bowled over by this series so far. Maybe it’ll pick up, but as of episode #4 into the season, I’m really not all that engaged to continue watching.
I have my old buddy Al to thank for a number of things, namely introducing me to things like Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds” and the wacky world of Edward Mulhare’s ‘Secrets and Mysteries’. Anyhow, he recently tipped me off to Stargate: Atlantis, and prior to his recommendation all I knew of Stargate was a motion picture from 10 years ago with decent music and special effects, and a Stargate TV show with the MacGyver guy and a bald character with an embossed shape on his forehead. Anyhow, I reluctantly requested the DVDs of season 1 of Stargate:Atlantis from the library per his suggestion, and I’m glad I did!
This show is just a lot of fun. It seems like this was written specifically for entertainment, without a lot of deep thought or philosophical topics. Rather, it’s just good, corny adventure. I really respect that the content is pretty clean, for the most part. Granted, I’m only through the pilot, but so far the worst aspects are just some minor language and a little bit of sci-fi violence towards the end. It’s on par rating-wise with the original Star Wars trilogy (and you can’t help but pick up subtle and deliberate references to Star Wars along the way.) The entire episode is packed with CGI-heavy sfx, standard canned action-adventure music score, and corny dialog and painful cliches, etc.) I love it!
The Major Shepherd character is just awesome! They picked a character that is just deliberately part Han Solo, part Captain Kirk. The writers didn’t aim to cast someone pretentious, or preachy, or lofty, etc. He’s just a fun action hero. Great stuff.
Unfortunately, the biggest negative would be the over-the-top creepiness of the wraith characters (namely the bizarre Marilyn Manson-looking wraith woman.) Throughout the first half of the pilot I was convinced that this was a completely kid-friendly show, but once the soul-draining of Robert Patrick commenced, I wasn’t so sure. Things got just a little too grizzly at this point, unfortunately. If they had toned that portion down just a tad, this could be a Saturday morning kids show. Well, almost.
Anyhow, I’ll probably view more of these. There’s a good formula going on here. It seems like the writers might be trying to have fun with some of the character archetypes from corny films, so you can’t go wrong there (e.g. the doctor with the outrageously-strong Scottish accent. Awesome!)
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