When I reviewed Galactica I said it hadn't fallen into a sophomore slump and stayed engaging as ever. I can't say that here, as much as I try I can't seem to get into Atlantis this season. Major Hottie - excuse me Lt Col. Sheppard (he got promoted and thus forever ruining my nickname for him) - is back to getting the military guilt trip now that Mitch Pillegi's joined the cast as Col. Caldwell. We have the Wraith still vamping it up, making all the Anne Rice loving goth chics shudder.Yawn.
Don't get me wrong, it's a good enough show. As a whole I do enjoy it. It's just that I find I haven't gotten excited about it one this year (now if Sheppard took his shirt off... THAT I could deal with). It's become TV that's good for multitasking. You can miss an entire segment putting dishes in the dishwasher and not miss anything. That's not a good thing.
They introduced a new character this episode called Ronan Dex, who will quickly become their T'ealc. He's dark, moody, a former diehard military who could kill you with a flick of his pinky. He's running from his former way of life and is less than personable unless someone teaches him to trust, yada yada yada... tell me if you've heard this one, it's been done to death before.
Oh yeah and he has dread locks. Evidentially there is a huge Rastafarian colony in the future since it seems scifi shows seem to have more per capita than anywhere but Jamaica. I'm just thankful he wasn't an adorable robot delivering monotone one-liners.
The characters I like hardly have any screen time as it is and now it feels as like adding a new major player (who will require screen time for us to learn about him) to the mix just means even less of the ones I've found entertaining. I love the Scottish Dr. Carson Beckett, and really enjoy Rodney McKay's being well... Rodney, and that little Czech guy who gets some good lines occasionally. They need to focus more on these guys and stop diluting the plot pool.
I'm hoping they can pull it back this season, it's a worthy show. I think it's just losing it's way.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-31-2005 @ 2:13PM
Neil said...
Well, there’s something about a wraith feeding and the expression on their faces that just makes it exciting, I like the vamping hehe, at least it’s more exciting than watching Col. Caldwell, the equivalent of drying paint – with any luck his role will just be that of UPS delivery man, ferrying supplies and personnel to and from Atlantis. The idea of Sheppard taking his shirt off has no interest for me, however, if Dr Weir took her shirt off then we would be getting somewhere!
Ronan is character who, interestingly, fights in exactly the same manner as Ford, which is odd considering their obviously different hand to hand combat training backgrounds, he wouldn’t look out of place as one of the last surviving humans in the Matrix city Zion with those dreadlocks. I don’t see what he will add to the show that development of the existing characters couldn’t though ; but then perhaps character development is harder than just introducing a new character, what do I know.
They should introduce some more time travel type stories, the ones that mess with your head when they get nice and complicated about distorting the time line type stuff, or perhaps like the Area 51 mirror that shows parallel dimensions, perhaps there is an alternative Atlantis where the personnel are in different roles or something. Exploring the acting capabilities of the existing people a bit more perhaps.
Perhaps it would also be cool if they had a common enemy with Stargate, like the Ori. That could also be interesting, or perhaps not, as the Ori priors are rather boring on second thoughts.
Overall, Stargate Atlantis is better than Stargate SG-1 at the moment. Mark my words, Stargate Ascension will be out at some point, a specially trained team of ascended stargate personnel, it’s just a matter of time.
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7-31-2005 @ 7:39PM
shakespear said...
Why did rainbow sun leave anyway? I heard it was his choice.
I guess Ford will be killed off/return home by mid-season.
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7-31-2005 @ 8:11PM
st3 said...
Hmm. Jen, I'm sure you're a wonderful person, but you have to put more effort into your writeups. First off, two names were spelled incorrectly (something that bugs the hell out of me), Teal'c (apostrophe is at the end of the name) and Mitch Pileggi (two G:s instead of two L:s). Second of all, Ronan was introduced to fill the void that Ford left when he went all loopy from the Wraith enzyme, the same way that Vala was brought in to replace Carter on SG-1. Like him or not, Ronan needs to be there, who could replace Ford otherwise? McKay, in all his glory, can't really fill the shoes of a trained military professional, but Ronan can. He's been killing Wraith for years, his experience and expertise will prove to be very useful to the Atlantis expedition.
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