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Finally, here’s my review of Tracker!

Given the quality of the previous two episodes Whispers and The Queen, and given the preview of Tracker (Keller gets kidnapped…again[1]?), I had extremely low expectations of this episode.

Anyway, here are some notes I took while I watched the episode.

- While it’s understandable for Sheppard to be surprised that Rodney would volunteer for a humanitarian mission on his day off… in the alternate timeline he experienced in Season 4, alt-Rodney told him that he and Jennifer were in a relationship. So why would Sheppard act surprised, if he should know that Rodney would fall for Jennifer?

- So, Ronon asks why the people on the other planet are sick, and she tells him it’s like an Earth disease, influenza. How does that help Ronon?

- Didn’t we see this episode before? Wasn’t it Missing?

- Did Keller ACTUALLY think she could outrun her captor?

- We’re almost halfway into the episode, and so far, it’s been a lot of walking and chasing. Wow, it’s so exciting and interesting.

- So, Keller has been kidnapped to save the life of a dying child. Again I say, didn’t we see this episode before? Wasn’t it Miller’s Crossing?

- Hmm… a Wraith wandered into the child’s cave. This must be where Ronon shows up. … … … Oh, Keller killed him. My bad.

- Geez, Ronon’s tracking ability borders on a psychic power.

- Umm… Keller is attempting to fight Wraith? With a stick?

I’ll give this one a back-handed compliment: It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be, and towards the end, it got fun. Granted, the first half of the episode, when Keller and her captor, Kiryk, were en route to their destination, was boring. Once Kiryk started opening up, things got more interesting. Kiryk seemed like he has potential to be interesting, and he and Ronon could’ve had some character growth by teaching him how to be “human” again. But we probably won’t see him any more. Alas.

Some people on Usenet pointed out that given the high rate of kidnapping on these missions, Rodney and Ronon absolutely should not have wandered so far away when Keller was treating her patient in private. They also noted that the Wraith seem to be getting easier and easier to kill, if Keller can take one out (referring to the one she stabbed in the cave). However, as the discussion progressed, someone pointed out that a doctor would know a good spot to drive in the knife.

The Rodney/Ronon/Keller situation was a little interesting, although I think Ronon might be exaggerating his interest in Keller to give Rodney a hard time. The episode could’ve been a little more interesting if, when Keller was trying to break up the fight between Kiryk and Ronon, Ronon had accidentally injured Keller. I know that is kind of a cliche. But during the episode, I had no concern for Keller’s well-being at all. I don’t think Keller should’ve been in mortal danger, but I wish the writers had done something to shake things up a little, like putting the characters’ psyches and relationships with each other in danger. Given that Ronon may have some romantic interest in Keller, that certainly would’ve affected their dynamic.

[1] Amusingly, Jewel Staite complained at Comic-Con about getting kidnapped in the woods for a second time.

I’ve got (belated) reviews of Whispers and The Queen, and I’m not happy. Since my review of The Queen degenerates into a lengthy rant, I’ll put the bulk of my post in the first comment.

Whispers (507): Not awful, but not great. I was disappointed that the characters fell prey to horror movie cliches, like splitting up, wandering off at the peak of danger, and refusing to follow orders when sternly told to stay inside and lock the door. Also, there was a Pegasus human civilian whom they met upon arrival, he disappeared for a while, showed up later, and then died horribly. How did he survive in the interim? I think it would’ve been funny if the tough solder, Sgt. Dusty Wells (Mr. Entity called her “Rambette”), developed a crush on Dr. Beckett. Imagine him squirming uncomfortably as she hit on him. Heh.

The episode’s biggest flaw was that it was dull.

I have one small gripe: I find it completely out of character that Sheppard didn’t know he had all-female team. My first thought was that Sheppard would’ve noticed all those attractive women in one place. But the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me that Sheppard was ignorant about his teams, in general. First, given the high (government) classification of the Stargate program, there “should” be only a small pool of people to draw from, so it’s not like there’d be a lot of unfamiliar faces. Second, given the various threats that Atlantis faces, it’s important to know who both is and ISN’T supposed to be there; unfamiliar faces, teams, etc., should raise red flags. Ahh well…

The Queen (508): Let me put it to you this way. Mr. Entity, who is much more tolerant of less-than-great episodes than I am, said several times, “This is dumb.”

This episode had numerous problems.

(See the comments for more…)

This was one of the better episodes of Season 5. Of course, that’s not saying much: We’re only 4 episodes into the season, and I didn’t think #2 (The Seed) and #3 (Broken Ties) were particularly good.

(Broken Ties provided closure for Ronon’s previous episode with Tyre, Reunion, which was nice, but when the Season 5 DVD comes out, it’s not like I’m going to watch that episode more than once. I didn’t think The Seed was very good at all.)

I am a fan of shows that have season-long arcs. For example, I enjoyed how Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a “big bad” each season, and I’ve enjoyed the long-term stories that have been introduced on Atlantis (such as the Michael story arc). I like the suspense of a long story unfolding, I like watching episodes for clues and tidbits about the arcs, and and I like trying to predict what will happen. I also like episodes that contribute to the overall mythology of a series. (I think what I “really” like is re-watching episodes and realizing that some tidbit actually turned out to be important.) So, when I watch stand-alone episodes^[1], I have very high expectations for them: They either need to be interesting or useful.

In order to be interesting, the adventure itself needs to be fun, suspensful, and worthwhile. On a show like Atlantis, unless the doctor is in peril, we know that there’s a good chance the heroes are going to survive. (If Joss Whedon ever writes or directs an episode, worry! ) Since there’s no threat of death/damage/severe injury, what compels us to watch? Do the characters learn something about each other? Do the characters learn something about themselves? Do we learn something about them? For example, Trio provided the characters with a chance to bond with each other and be resourceful in a non-scifi situation, and Tao of Rodney showed us what kind of person Rodeny is deep down.

In order to be useful, the heroes need to come back with knowledge or technology they can use later on. For example, I thought Inferno was an average episode, but they came back with The Orion, which was important later on.

Getting back to The Dadealus Variations, I found the “interestingness” of the episode fairly average. I was obviously not concerned that the characters might not make it out alive. We knew Rodney would find a way to get them back in the episode’s 42(ish) minute timeframe. I don’t recall learning much about the characters, other than Ronon’s blasé attitude about their alternate selves. Seeing Atlantis’ planet in other realities was interesting, although this appears to be of little consequence in the grand scheme of things.

I think it would’ve been more interesting if the team got stuck in one of the alternate realities, and an alternate “A-team” had to get them back, somewhat of a reversal of what happened in McKay and Mrs. Miller^[2]. That way, for once, “our” Atlantis wouldn’t be the smartest A-team out there; they’d have to rely on someone else for a change. Imagine if an alternate Zelenka sent them back! Or, what if an alternate Lorne were in charge of Atlantis? Or, look at what happened in the SG-1 episode The Road Not Taken, where Carter got thrown into an alternate universe, and they didn’t want to send her back? Imagine an alternate Atlantis deciding they were too useful to give up (perhaps due to the war with the unknown new aliens we saw in the episode), refusing to send them back, and our A-team fighting against alternate versions of themselves, in order to get back into their correct universe?^[3]

The most useful thing about this episode is that Rodney comes back with the specs to make an alternate reality drive. Sure, Sheppard forbids him to make one, but as the Gateworld analysis points out, Woolsey or the IOA might have other ideas.

The episode’s big mistake was the lack of follow up on the hostile aliens that the team encountered in the alternate reality. I kept expecting Sheppard to at least make a reference to them upon returning, such as, “We need to figure out who those aliens are so we can be ready for them if they show up in our reality.”

The thing I disliked most about the episode was the, um, Sheppard-wank at the end (when Sheppard talked to alt-Sheppard). And would it really have hurt him to say, “We’re just passing through from an alternate dimension”? I don’t see why he had to be so coy about who they were and where they came from. For that matter, ISTR alt-Sheppard said that the Daedalus had been destroyed. Shouldn’t he have been demanding to know who they were? (Or, you know, suspected that they were from an alternate reality and said as much?)

Overall, I give it 7/10.

[1] Perhaps this episode is leading into a season-long arc or is contributing to the series’ mythology, and I just don’t know it yet.

[2] Since Rodney got them back by basically reversing the alternate reality drive’s course, obviously getting help from an alternate Atlantis would’ve been out of the question… unless McKay shut off the drive to buy time to think, and it took an alterante A-team to help him fix it…

[3] If they did something like this, no doubt I’d complain that it was too similar to the SG-1 episode, and why couldn’t the writers come up with something original? Some people are just never happy.