(S04E17) First, my apologies for this being so late. Rich and I got some wires crossed and we both ended up pointing at each other saying, "Crap, I thought it was your turn!" Better late than never though, right? Anyway... "Midway" has been one of the brighter spots on the upcoming schedule all season simply because Teal'c was returning. I'm sure that for many fans, the return in and of itself was cause to celebrate the episode. I have no special preference for Teal'c myself, so that didn't totally sell me on the episode, but the story he brought along with him did. With a couple of nagging exceptions, it was very good.
Let's start with the annoying bit and work our way to the fun stuff. It's always been my theory that you run the risk of pulling the audience out of the story when too much of the plot hangs on your characters being stupid. A certain level of stupidity works, because people make mistakes, and that often leads to bad things. Rodney giving up the secrets to Midway is a great example. We've seen countless times that Rodney's greatest weakness is his love of himself. He so fully believes in his own brilliance that it becomes dangerous. My first thought when the Wraith were cracking the Midway system was that Todd got it from his work with Rodney. The same goes for the fact that there wasn't an iris in place at Midway. After all, Rodney's kung-fu is better than yours. Why would he need additional security? That much of the stupidity was both believable and worked well in the story.
Where it got a little bit off the rails was with the security of Midway and the Stargate HQ. We start getting into stupidity on a global scale. Bill has time to set the lockout, but not to get a message back to command? Or, ya know, lock a frickin' door? It really stood out later as we see the Wraith trying to shoot their way through the door. The very same door that they just walked right through initially. We see a similar problem back on Earth as Teal'c informs us that the stunner has put the base in lockdown. Yes, the kind of lockdown that doesn't actually lock any doors as the Wraith are just traipsing willy-nilly throughout the base. We have to put up with a degree of these things to get to our conflicts, but there was just a bit much of it going on here for my taste.
That being said, I was on board with pretty much everything else in this episode. The return of Teal'c lived up to the billing. I'm a big enough sucker for these kind of things that I got a kick out of seeing Carter and Teal'c's reunion. The real treat though was the interaction of Teal'c and Ronon. I wasn't sure what to make of Ronon's initial reaction. I though we might learn of something more from Ronon's past that would give him reason to not trust the Jaffa. Upon reflection though, I'm going with the idea that Teal'c represented to Ronon a piling on of the idea that he wasn't being trusted. The interview with Coolidge, Carter and Sheppard worrying about it, and now Teal'c to coach him.
Once that initial meeting was out of the way though, the Teal'c/Ronon dynamic worked out very nicely. I'm sure most of us were as anxious to see the two of them 'spar' as the rest of the Atlantis crew, and we'll get to all of our thoughts on who would win in a minute. I don't think the writers could have actually answered the question though. Either way, you are just asking for an uproar from the fans. As they moved into the battle portion of their story, it was just what was to be expected. They are both badass, and it made sense that they found a respect for each other through that. Along the way, there were a couple of really funny bits as well. The image of the two of them in that tiny little room staring stone-faced at the Three Stooges was very funny. As was the little conversation about "indeed." I also really enjoyed Teal'c professing his love for tater-tots.
Our new pal Coolidge is an interesting addition. It's nice to see the Stargate family finally compling with the Canadian law that says that if you make a TV show in the Great White North, at some point Rob LaBelle has to be on it. That guy really gets around, and that's a good thing, because I've found that I like him in everything I've seen him in. It was a small part here, but one I'm guessing will expand as time goes on. What we did get was like a quick run through the arc that we have already seen Woolsey travel. As we hear about him from Teyla, it sounds as if he is going to be a hindrance to work with. By the end of the episode though, just as Woolsey came to understand Weir and the crew, Coolidge has developed a new understanding of Ronon.
Getting back to Teyla's meeting with Coolidge, I loved her line about resisting the urge to inflict damage on him. What caught me off guard though was Sheppard's reaction to the possibility that she might not be returning to active duty after the baby. Sure, nothing has been decided, but I thought it was pretty evident from their conversation before he benched her that her entire outlook has been changed by her pregnancy. The idea that she may not be returning to active duty seems that it should be pretty obvious.
As for the Wraith, their plan to overtake Midway and use it for an assault on Earth was a good way to go. It fit in nicely with the earlier episodes and it brought the idea of the Wraith as a serious and immediate threat back into focus. Had it not struggled with the earlier mentioned security issues, it would have made for a perfect Atlantis episode.
Overall, I was pleased with "Midway." It had some issues, to be sure, but the good far outweighed the bad. We are still way ahead in that regard where season four is concerned. Next week Rich should be back (and we'll double check the schedule this time) with an episode that promises you won't believe what happens in the last five minutes. It should be fun.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-16-2008 @ 11:20PM
Morjana Coffman said...
I LOVED this episode - a quintessential Stargate Atlantis episode.
Regarding the "previously on" teaser for Midway from season three's episode, "The Return, Part 1," NEW Rodney dialogue is included. The line, "The program is completely secure, no need for a shield or an
iris" was not in the broadcast episode of "The Return, Part 1," and if you listen closely, you can hear the drop-off in the sound that possibly indicates the dialogue was edited to include this line.
Somewhat similar to what happened in the fifth season Stargate SG-1 episode, "The Sentinel," where new video was filmed to show Grieves and Kershaw being taken prisoner at the end of season three's episode, "Shades of Grey."
Morjana
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2-16-2008 @ 11:42PM
Natrino said...
My biggest issue with the episode was: why no iris on the gates at Midway?
As I tried to rationalize it, I wondered how that would work.
As I understand it, you dial out from Atlantis (to what coordinates, I'm not quite sure), but your pattern travels from Atlantis to gate A, which stores your pattern in the buffer. Gate A disconnects from Atlantis, dials Gate B, and forwards your pattern on. The problem is the code that would need to be sent to Midway to open the iris. If the code is traveling with the people, then it arrives at the same time people do, and splat.
The only problem is that when they dialed from Midway to Earth, a signal was sent to open the iris on Earth immediately before anyone stepped through.
I guess it's possible that, from the above example, all the gates are connected simultaneously. Gate A connected to Atlantis and Gate B, Gate B connected to Gate A and Gate C and so on, all at the same time. Atlantis could talk to Midway in real time.
Oh well, maybe I put too much thought into this.
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2-16-2008 @ 11:55PM
Joey Geraci said...
Our perrennial Earth gatekeeper automatically lowered the iris himself when he saw the incoming wormhole was from Midway.
Pretty good episode. But I need some Daniel guestin' action. Tealc is good and all, but I miss seeing Daniel's character.
DANIEL! DANIEL!
2-17-2008 @ 12:12AM
Natrino said...
But how did the signal to lower the iris reach Earth before the travelers did?
If my first assumption is correct, then you would have sent the iris code through the midway gate, which would have remained in the next gates buffer until it could dial the next gate in the chain.
The only way it works is if all gates in the chain are connected simultaneously. If so, and if it's possible to have, then not having an iris on the Midway gates is just stupid.
2-19-2008 @ 3:31PM
Akbar Fazil said...
I thought it was made clear in Rodney's "previously on" monologue about the bridge that the iris code is dialed automatically.
Regardless, that and not having an iris on the incoming side of the midway is stupid. Even if Rodney's security was tight, the military would have demanded a physical failsafe to be in place.
2-17-2008 @ 12:02AM
Oreo said...
The episode was the normal Atlantis episode filled with stupid shit just to make an episode.
There was no reason for no shields on the Stargate except they needed an excuse to make an episode. The fact they had to make up a "Previously on" segment proves that.
I do like the fact that Sam was in command for the first time this season, and the connection between here and Teal'c felt like good old SG-1.
And what was the point of blowing the station up? It could have been something awesome and because there were no Stargate Iris or shields it leads to it exploding. That pisses me off. The later seasons of SG-1 did that with ships and I hated that.
All that said it was a decent episode to watch, most likely because the last month have had some terrible episodes.
It just makes me miss Doctor Who and BSG.
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2-17-2008 @ 12:12AM
Natrino said...
Atlantis has done the same thing quite a bit, especially in season 1.
-Atlantis is stuck with no way to contact Earth, so if a possible way does present itself, it will never work.
-We have a new Ancient warship that will help us immensely against the Wraith, it will most definitely be destroyed.
2-17-2008 @ 3:56AM
Gowan said...
I was a little annoyed at all the "You make such a great leader, Carter. You're really starting to fit in." stuff when it's common knowledge that she's not long for the show or command.
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2-17-2008 @ 8:12AM
Alex99 said...
I seem to remember a line in a previous episode about "harvesting space gates orbiting uninhabited planets" for the bridge. Now suddenly they are using otherwise-unmodified planetary surface gates that anyone can just walk up to and use. Why, I wonder? To give the Wraith an easier task to break into the system, of course, they just show up on a nice sunny planet and wire a bunch of crap into the DHD. Nice security! Just leave your equipment lying around for any random enemy to tinker with. No iris or shield was just illogically stupid.
I also found the instant, total hostility that Ronon had toward Teal'c pretty illogical as well. Of course, it was just to set up a nice bonding scenario where they romp around the SGC killing Wraith. All they left out was the high-five at the end when they killed the last one.
And, of course, as someone up above pointed out, just as in any episode where the Atlantis crew gains some real advantage (Ancient cruiser, multiple ZPM, real live Ancients show up, etc) we HAVE to blow it up in the end.
While this season has had one or two good moments, it has had FAR too many mis-steps and IMHO has been the weakest of the series so far.
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2-17-2008 @ 10:04AM
Mitch said...
I never quite understood them building a bridge between galaxies. Isn't their biggest fear letting the wraith get to Earth? Jeepers, let's build a bridge which can't possibly be as secure as, ummm, not building a bridge.
On another note, since the wraith munching on Teal'c was killed while attached - does that mean we're going to see a super powered Teal'c like what happened to Ford way back when?
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2-17-2008 @ 2:14PM
LC said...
You would think as a precaution that they would make their earth visits through the gates in Jumpers. The gate room at Midway and SG command are large enough to hold it. This would be for emergencies if the gate system went down and they stepped out in a gate in the vacuum of space.
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2-17-2008 @ 2:28PM
Jimmy said...
Looks like I may be going against the norm here, but I really liked this episode. At first, the idea of yet another episode in which only a few members of the team participate annoyed; even if featured the great Christopher Judge. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned into a full-on team effort with the same great battles, and the interaction between Teal'c and Ronon was great. Was it a great episode, no, but both of Stargate series have always suffered with the issue of boring filler episodes no again. Still, considered the usual crap Sci Fi puts on the air these days, Atlantis stand above, way above, the rest.
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2-17-2008 @ 3:04PM
Elyse said...
It was a good episode, but the glaring error of no iris on what is THE stepping stone to Earth was pretty pitiful. Of course, if they took the lowest bid to contract the station or outsourced it, that would explain the flaw as well.
Quite honestly, the security at the midway station sucked big time. It's a very good thing it did get blown up.
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2-17-2008 @ 4:43PM
ERic said...
Another glaring flaw. Atlantis has a ZPM why did they not dial earth directly to send Sheppard's team through to the SGC and then back through the Milky Way side to Midway? Or at the the very least send a message to the SGC? I know they said in the begining of the episode that they were saving energy, but really. I know all this served as a deus ex machina to get the Wraith on Midway. Other than that I did enjoy the story.
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2-19-2008 @ 3:26PM
Akbar Fazil said...
Dialing directly to earth STILL requires the use of the midway station. Thats what the midway station is for.
2-17-2008 @ 5:27PM
Eludium-Q36 said...
Fellow Critics
Wow, it's great to see all the critical thinkers here and not just a bunch of A+ rating fanboys ! I'm with most of you on the plot holes so large you could fly a Jumper through them. And the forced hostility between Ro and Tea-yuk was just adolescent pandering. But seeing Tea-yuk with his hair grown out was interesting, indeed. And does anyone else tire of every IOA official being a stargate-sized bureaucratic a--h--- ?! Why not inject some sympathetic or technically competent IOAers ?
Finally, I am simply tiring of the Star Trek Voyager like matriarchy that is Atlantis. Why does every commanding officer there have to be a woman ?! Are the producers in that much need of a femme following for this series ? Is it really making any demo difference ? Ugh, whatever.
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2-17-2008 @ 9:45PM
Mack Swift said...
Damn fine episode all around!!! I love this frakking show!
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2-18-2008 @ 12:02AM
Walt said...
@#14, this article will tick you off, but it will confirm your suspicions about Sci-Fi channel and women. To wit: Yes, the channel is skewing to women on purpose.
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/special-reports/other-reports/e3id1035c8742af5f4e733f9d304726b671
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2-18-2008 @ 8:19PM
Eludium-Q36 said...
Infiltrated and Betrayed
Thank you Walt, that's a great article that verifies my suspicion -- Bonnie Hammer, head of SciFi Channel, is on a mission to transform SciFi into SkirtFi and SciFemme. No wonder so many of SG-Atl's eps have been relationship based this season. If I wasn't skipping all the ads with my DVR I'd have been clued by the femme-based ads, too. Well, she's going to get what she wants, more chix and less dudes. I really resent her for screwing up one of the last male bastions of television. Ugh, just ugh.
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2-18-2008 @ 8:42PM
Nathaniel said...
Eludium, did anyone tell you who the new commander is next season?
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