Stargate Atlantis – First Contact

Sci Fi

(Season 5, Episode 10)

“Great plan Danny. Great plan.” – Rodney McKay

Look at that, we’ve now come to the halfway point of the final season of Atlantis. After taking a week off from the bigger picture story to stumble their way through setting up an unnecessary love triangle, the team was back for some big adventure. If that wasn’t enough, our old pal Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) was stopping by for a visit. It made for quite an hour.

Given that this was the episode meant to send the show into the midseason break (which has since been reduced to two weeks), I was expecting something big, and a cliffhanger. It delivered on both of those. While the two main plots did come together, it’s probably easiest if we take a look at them separately.

First, Daniel, Rodney, and the secret lab of Janus. I always like it when we get to see some crossover antics between SG-1 and Atlantis. This was no exception. Daniel and Rodney are great together. It gives us a whole new perspective on Rodney’s personality. Generally, when he’s doing his arrogant scientist thing, he is the smartest guy in the room. Daniel though, he’s more than a match for Rodney, and it sets him just a little off kilter. Much of that arrogance turns into insecurity, and it’s interesting to watch.

Sci Fi

Sci Fi

Sci Fi

The discovery of the secret lab was a welcome development. They haven’t done as much with exploring Atlantis proper as they could have, and it’s nice to see that get remedied somewhat. The scenes in the lab, as they tried to make heads or tails of what Janus had been up to, were all very good. But you just knew that the blinking red light in the corner couldn’t be a good thing.

Which brings us to the new baddies on the block. I like them. They’re mysterious and bring up all kinds of questions as to their motivations and goals. And really, that was a great introduction. Breezing through the shield, marching right through the city, grabbing what they want and leaving, while the Atlantis security could do nothing. That’s intimidating.

The Attero device is a crazy bit of space tech. It makes sense why he would have been researching the systematic destruction of every Wraith ship, but I like that Rodney had reservations about it once he understood what it did, having been down that road before. The side effect was something I didn’t see coming. It made for a really intense scene back on Atlantis, and gave Zelenka a chance to shine. He really does have a bit of the Rodney to him, doesn’t he? Telling Sheppard that he can’t dumb down the math behind what he’s doing enough so Sheppard can understand. Surrounding the blast with the shield was clever, but it did ultimately lead to our big cliffhanger. The frickin’ gate room exploded. Yikes.

And the Attero device is a good point to jump over to the other half of the story. Todd knows his history. He recognized the device for what it was immediately. It’s understandable that he would jump to the conclusion that the team from Atlantis had done it, but I suspect he’ll come around and put it all together. After all, if that really was the plan, why bother showing up at all. Give him the coordinates of the meet and turn the device on, right?

Todd really was the best part of that half of the episode. At this point, he’s become my favorite of the recurring characters Atlantis has had. He’s a menacing foe, but he’s also very intelligent and always looking at the diplomatic chances to gain advantage. I especially liked the exchange he had with Keller regarding the treatment after she asked if he wanted it to work. Todd pondered, if it did work, who would the Wraith be, and what would they do? It’s an interesting question.

With so much focus on Daniel and Rodney, there wasn’t a lot more to that part of the story. It was good to see Woolsey getting out in the field, and bumbling his way through his “momentous occasion.” I really could have done without even the hint of the love triangle though. It was the one tiny low point in what was an otherwise fantastic episode. It sets things up nicely to kick off the back half of this final season.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Sep 27, 2008 @ 13:53 EST5EDT