Stargate Atlantis: Enemy At The Gate

Fifth Season Finale and Series finale of Stargate Atlantis.

Well, it looks like Atlantis only lasted about half as long as SG1 overall. But luckily we've got a couple of DVD movies to look forward too. And Stargate Universe, which seems to be the next series in development. There was a promo for SGU after the credits of the episode, but sadly it didn't say much, other than it was coming, and that its a part of the Stargate franchise. I'll be watching when it comes on, so I'll let you know my thoughts when it airs.

Thought it was a good episode. Seemed a bit rushed, but I guess you're always going to get that feeling if you are constrained to the 44 minutes of content that you're limited to if you're airing an hour-long show. Would have been nice if they'd been able to pull a longer series finale, but I don't think that Stargate is popular enough (in comparison to, say, Battlestar Galactica). So, I guess we're stuck with only an hour finale. By which I of course mean that its already filmed, produced, and aired, so there's really nothing we can even think of doing at this point.

The episode was a follow-up to last week's episode "Vegas". Although its not really a direct follow-on episode, as Vegas took place in an alternate reality, and none of the actual characters we know and care about (or at least the versions from "our" reality) showed up in the episode.

I thought it was interesting that the one recognizable possession that the alternate Sheppard had in his office was the Johnny Cash poster that we've often seen hanging in our Sheppard's quarters. Provided a nice sense of continuity between the 2 realities.

Anyways, the message that got sent out in the closing minutes of Vegas showed up in our reality in Enemy at the Gate. Which is the entire reason that I'm talking about Vegas. That and I didn't really do a good job of talking about it when I mentioned earlier.

Anyways, the main plot of Enemy at the Gate is that the Wraith found Earth (due to the message from Vegas), and they have a super hive ship on its way. Our intrepid team has to stop it.

Ends up with Atlantis flying back to Earth, and saving the day at the last minute. One thing I was wondering about the ending was: Who the hell was that woman standing next to Ronan in the final scene? Seemed like they were very close, but I don't remember seeing her before, or at least seeing her and Ronan together. Turns out after some quick research, she's Banks, the gate technician. Who is nowhere near as cool as Sgt Walter Norman Davis Harriman. Looks like I'll need to rewatch the 5th season to see if she ever had any interactions with Ronan's character that might foreshadow their apparent romantic interest in the final episode. Now the relationship between McKay and Keller was definitely more featured throughout the season. I guess I'm not as critical of that relationship, due to the fact that its one where the nerdy awkward guy ended up getting the pretty girl.

So anyways, I thought it was cool that they brought Col Caldwell and the Daedelus back after quite a long absence, as well as Col Ellis, even though that was just for the one scene. And interseting name for Earth's other Battlecruisers. Sun Tzu for one. I guess the Russians didn't have as much leverage as the Chinese did at that particular point in the game, so we end up with the Sun Tzu, as opposed to a replacement for the Korolev. And yes, I'm still bitter that they killed of Col Chekov. I think he was my favorite Russian character from the series. Granted, he was really the only Russian character that we had any sort of interaction with.

Probably my favorite scene involving Col Chekov was from Season 6. Basically, Col Chekov is chasing after Carter yelling at her. I think it was complaining about not keeping the Russians in the loop about the F-302s. Anyways, Jonas Quinn is talking to Carter, trying to make his case that he should be a part of the SG1 team. Anyways, his case, in this instance, is that he's very observant. He informs Carter that normal people wouldn't think that Chekov is peeved, but his heightened observational sense allowed him to notice that Chekov was displeased, while Chekov keeps ranting and raving in the background.

The other battlecruiser was named Phoenix in the alternate future described in The Last Man, the season finale from last season. However, they changed it to the General Hammond. Nice fitting tribute to Don S. Davis' character, who spent 9 years portraying the character of General Hammond, and died of a heart attack last year. Twas a nice touch.

Was also nice to see Harrimann and Major Davis. Although its kind of absurd that he's still a Major. He was a major when he showed up for the first time, back in Season 2 of SG1. Back when Carter was a Captain. Since then, she's been promoted to Major, Lt Col, and finally full bird Colonel, and Davis has continued to be a Major. Granted she did save the world a whole whack of times, but you got to figure that the dude would be promoted at least once in the 10 or so years since he first appeared.

Was also interesting to see the parallels between Sheppards near suicide mission in this episode, and his similar mission at the end of Season 1.

Honestly, I can't really remember where I was going with this post, so I guess I'll end it now, as I'm just sort of rambling. Although, that's really all I do on this blog, so why should today be any different?