Stargate: Atlantis 3.1: "No Man's Land"
Written by Martin Gero
Directed by Martin Wood
Watching this episode, I couldn’t help but wonder if the writers were being a little defensive. After all, a lot of people felt that the second season finale, “Allies”, had been an example of forcing the story at the expense of the characters. Weir in particular made very bad choices, necessary to allow for a credible threat to Earth. This premiere is meant to deal with that threat, with a subplot defending Weir’s choices. I liked the “A” plot thread well enough, but the “B” plot was all about excuses.
First, focusing on the positive, I missed these characters, and none of my annoyance with the poorly constructed second season took away from that. I still feel that the characters themselves need further definition and some sense of evolution, but that’s an old complaint that I’ve had for the franchise in general. Premieres aren’t the episodes for character evolution, anyway; it’s about reminding the audience of the status quo while hitting the ground running.
I did notice some plot conveniences. It was a little ridiculous for Ronon to still have a weapon available while confined by the Wraith, since one would expect them to check for such things before detaining them. It also seems a little convenient that the repair time for the Daedalus and Orion is just short enough to let them intercept the Wraith hiveships relatively close to Atlantis. And of course, even with Michael’s help, it’s a little hard to believe that Sheppard would survive, especially when it would have been a lot easier to destroy his 302 rather than recover and detain him!
I did like the fact that the survival of the Daedalus’ crew was not a simple matter. In fact, I had no idea that this was a two-part premiere, so I was quite pleased by the prospect of further exploration of the decision to use the gas mentioned in “Allies”. My hope is that this will lead into a formal season arc of some kind. In fact, enough lingering plot threads exist for the writers to put together a few ongoing arcs, which would address one of the main problems of the second season.
Weir’s subplot felt less like a logical progression of the story than a reaction to fan complaints about the logic of “Allies”. On the other hand, if one did lead to the other, I have to admit that the final product could be beneficial to the season as a whole. Caldwell was a good step in terms of putting Weir under a microscope; the IOA should add another level of intrigue. While I completely agree with Weir’s attitude about the IOA, especially after the ninth season of “SG-1”, I think that the situation is a bit more complicated than Weir would like to believe.
Weir and Landry are both in the position to make decisions with massive consequences. So far, Landry has been under fire for a situation that was more or less impossible to prevent or ignore. Weir, on the other hand, made terrible choices in “Allies” and deserved to be questioned about those choices. The Wraith were hardly clever in their little ruse, and Weir should have seen through the enemy. The IOA may like to let Weir hang herself, but the best defense against armchair quarterbacking is victory.
Of course, the upshot is that the intervention of the IOA could complicate the plot enough to suggest a good, solid character arc for Weir. If there are long-term consequences that result from this situation, then Weir could end up under serious political fire as the season marches on. That points to an obvious direction for the season to take, and I hope they do, since it would give the season more cohesion. As it stands, this is a good beginning to what I hope will be a resurgent third season for the series.
(As a sidenote: I also have a podcast associated with my various reviews called “Dispatches from Tuzenor”. Future episodes will highlight “Stargate: Atlantis”, so it might be something of interest . Go to http://entil2001.libsyn.com if you want to listen!)
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 8/10
Directed by Martin Wood
Watching this episode, I couldn’t help but wonder if the writers were being a little defensive. After all, a lot of people felt that the second season finale, “Allies”, had been an example of forcing the story at the expense of the characters. Weir in particular made very bad choices, necessary to allow for a credible threat to Earth. This premiere is meant to deal with that threat, with a subplot defending Weir’s choices. I liked the “A” plot thread well enough, but the “B” plot was all about excuses.
First, focusing on the positive, I missed these characters, and none of my annoyance with the poorly constructed second season took away from that. I still feel that the characters themselves need further definition and some sense of evolution, but that’s an old complaint that I’ve had for the franchise in general. Premieres aren’t the episodes for character evolution, anyway; it’s about reminding the audience of the status quo while hitting the ground running.
I did notice some plot conveniences. It was a little ridiculous for Ronon to still have a weapon available while confined by the Wraith, since one would expect them to check for such things before detaining them. It also seems a little convenient that the repair time for the Daedalus and Orion is just short enough to let them intercept the Wraith hiveships relatively close to Atlantis. And of course, even with Michael’s help, it’s a little hard to believe that Sheppard would survive, especially when it would have been a lot easier to destroy his 302 rather than recover and detain him!
I did like the fact that the survival of the Daedalus’ crew was not a simple matter. In fact, I had no idea that this was a two-part premiere, so I was quite pleased by the prospect of further exploration of the decision to use the gas mentioned in “Allies”. My hope is that this will lead into a formal season arc of some kind. In fact, enough lingering plot threads exist for the writers to put together a few ongoing arcs, which would address one of the main problems of the second season.
Weir’s subplot felt less like a logical progression of the story than a reaction to fan complaints about the logic of “Allies”. On the other hand, if one did lead to the other, I have to admit that the final product could be beneficial to the season as a whole. Caldwell was a good step in terms of putting Weir under a microscope; the IOA should add another level of intrigue. While I completely agree with Weir’s attitude about the IOA, especially after the ninth season of “SG-1”, I think that the situation is a bit more complicated than Weir would like to believe.
Weir and Landry are both in the position to make decisions with massive consequences. So far, Landry has been under fire for a situation that was more or less impossible to prevent or ignore. Weir, on the other hand, made terrible choices in “Allies” and deserved to be questioned about those choices. The Wraith were hardly clever in their little ruse, and Weir should have seen through the enemy. The IOA may like to let Weir hang herself, but the best defense against armchair quarterbacking is victory.
Of course, the upshot is that the intervention of the IOA could complicate the plot enough to suggest a good, solid character arc for Weir. If there are long-term consequences that result from this situation, then Weir could end up under serious political fire as the season marches on. That points to an obvious direction for the season to take, and I hope they do, since it would give the season more cohesion. As it stands, this is a good beginning to what I hope will be a resurgent third season for the series.
(As a sidenote: I also have a podcast associated with my various reviews called “Dispatches from Tuzenor”. Future episodes will highlight “Stargate: Atlantis”, so it might be something of interest . Go to http://entil2001.libsyn.com if you want to listen!)
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 8/10
posted by John Keegan | 17:40
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