Review of Stargate: Atlantis Volume 1

Introduction

The king is dead, long live the king. At the time of writing, hundreds of Star Trek fans are collectively weeping into their Romulan Ales. I would have said thousands, but Trek has been haemorrhaging viewers consistently over the past few years, and it came as little surprise when Paramount recently pulled the plug on the ailing Star Trek: Enterprise. For the first time in eighteen years, there is no new Trek in production. Where The Next Generation could regularly poll tens of millions of viewers, Enterprise has been struggling in today`s multi-channel world to achieve even a tenth of those figures. While the proliferation of digital channels has something to do with Star Trek`s demise, what`s more significant is the sheer choice of programming available now, as opposed to the dearth of sci-fi that graced our screens in 1987. Science fiction is a genre that requires significant expenditure to create a product. Initially it was solely the province of the cinema screen, where budgets and production values were high enough to satisfy audiences. But we live in a digital age now, and special effects are affordable to most studios. Everyone is willing to jump on the sci-fi bandwagon.

While The Next Generation ruled alone in the late eighties, the nineties saw a growth in alternative sci-fi choices that burgeoned into an industry in its own right. As time has passed, studios have produced a wide selection of alternate stories, guaranteed to appeal to the sci-fi fan in all of us. Whether it was the pop culture defining X-Files, the teen angst of Buffy The Vampire Slayer or the epic Babylon 5, Trek found itself fighting for an ever-dwindling share of the audience. Recently, when Enterprise was scheduled opposite the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, the writing was on the wall. The Trek franchise relied heavily on spin offs, and with each successive incarnation, it became a case of diminishing returns, as ideas and stories were constantly recycled.

I suppose there is an irony in that a show that in recent years has proved a preferable alternative to Stale Trek is itself generating a spin-off series to keep its viewers tuning in. In 1994, Stargate was the hit movie from the summer blockbuster team of Devlin and Emmerich. A team of intrepid soldiers as well as an absent-minded Egyptology professor ventured through a stone doughnut to a far off world where they fought an ancient Egyptian God. It was pure popcorn fun that did exactly what it advertised. It took a surprisingly long time for the spin-off television series to arrive, but when it eventually did a few years later, it took the premise of the film and reinvented the whole mythology. A parasitic alien race called the Go-auld, of whom the ancient Egyptian God faced in the movie was but one, intended to enslave humanity and rule the universe (as is usually the way with parasitic alien races). The Stargate was one of a whole network of gates in our galaxy established by a highly advanced race of ancients, who used them to seed human life throughout the galaxy. The SG1 team was created, to step through the granite bagel, to venture forth onto new worlds, contact new civilisations, and to boldly wisecrack where no one had wisecracked before. It didn`t take long for them to get poor little Earth involved in a galactic war with far reaching consequences.

Stargate SG1 has been on air now for seven years and more now, and this is when most studios begin looking for a way to extend the franchise beyond the retirement age of their cast. Inevitably that means a spin-off, which is where Stargate: Atlantis comes in, with a whole new cast of characters, and a whole new story to tell. If the Sci-Fi channel can manage this without rehashing old stories and by presenting something innovative to its audience, perhaps Stargate can avoid the pitfall that finally claimed Star Trek. This is the first disc of the Stargate: Atlantis series, and it contains the feature length opener, as well as two further episodes.

In their search for weapons to use against the Go-auld, the military have been searching for the mythical city of the Ancients. They find traces in Antarctica, and studies by Daniel Jackson reveal that it is indeed the mythical city of Atlantis. Millions of years ago, the Ancients got into their city and took the whole kit and caboodle off to the stars. Daniel discovers that they left for the distant Pegasus galaxy, and he determines the correct coordinates to make the same trip through the Stargate. It is such a distant trip though, that for any potential travellers it would amount to a one-way journey. Cue a band of plucky explorers and the obligatory military presence.

1. Rising

Now that the coordinates for Atlantis have been determined, a select group of multinational scientists and a military unit are chosen to venture through the Stargate to travel to Atlantis. A civilian, Dr Elizabeth Weir, commands the mission but military command falls to Colonel Marshall Sumner. Essential to the success of the mission are those few humans who possess the necessary gene that can activate Ancient technology. It`s for this reason that Jack O`Neill of SG1 strongly volunteers his pilot, Major John Sheppard to join the mission. Soon the dozens of explorers and soldiers venture forth to another galaxy, with no means of return. They find themselves in the abandoned city, and in trouble. Atlantis has been submerged just as myth relates, and the power running the city and keeping it from being inundated is running out. Trapped in the city, they have no other choice but to use the Atlantis Stargate to begin exploring the worlds of the Pegasus galaxy, in the hope of finding a replacement power source. Fortunately the city is fully stocked with all kinds of Ancient technology, including compact spaceships capable of travelling through Stargates.

The first world they travel to has a dwindling human population, living as nomads outside an abandoned city, who warn of a terrible enemy that hunts humans for their own sustenance. This tallies with the accounts left behind in Atlantis by the ancients. The scouting party are about to venture towards the city to look for the power source they desperately need, when they are attacked by the Wraiths. The scouting party and the Athosians escape through the Stargate, but not before several people are taken by the Wraiths, including Colonel Sumner. Back at Atlantis, Sheppard is desperate to launch a rescue mission, as precious time ticks away for the city.

2. Hide And Seek

The explorers from Earth and the Athosian refugees are trying to settle into their new home in Atlantis. It isn`t easy with the spectre of the ancients weighing heavily on them, especially the superstitious Athosians. The colony`s physician Dr Carson Beckett is trying some radical gene therapy that will allow everyone treated to operate Ancient technology. His first guinea pig, Rodney McKay manages to activate a personal shield, but finds that he is trapped by it. Meanwhile the Athosian children go exploring, and young Jinto vanishes. Soon the power starts fluctuating in the city, and an ominous dark spectre haunts the corridors.

3. Thirty-Eight Minutes

Returning from a mission to scout the Wraith world, Sheppard`s team runs into trouble when the Wraiths attack. Their ship is damaged, and Sheppard is attacked by a parasite that clamps onto his neck and starts feeding, refusing to be dislodged. The ship gets jammed in the Stargate when the engine pods fail to retract. As Sheppard lies dying, they have to figure out a way to retract the engine pod and return to Atlantis before the thirty-eight minutes that a wormhole can remain open run out. When that happens, the fore compartment that has crossed the event horizon will cease to exist, while the rear compartment will be violently opened to vacuum.

Video

US television is hardly the blurry mess that it used to be ten or so years ago. With the advent of high definition television, it`s ever more likely that US sourced television can rival cinema in terms of image resolution and quality. Stargate Atlantis is one of those productions that certainly looks absolutely gorgeous, and that is reflected by the DVD transfer. The 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer is sharp, clear and colourful throughout. The only problem is some noticeable edge enhancement that mars certain scenes. It`s terribly obvious during the title sequence.

There is copious use of CGI, with some shots positively awe inspiring. The detail and effort that has gone into the design of the city would rival some bigger budget productions. Having said that, the budget and timetable of television being what it is, some shots are better than others, and some can look a little flat.

Audio

The sound on this disc comes in DD 5.1 English and German. Subtitles are provided in both these languages as well as Finnish. The dialogue is pretty clear throughout, not counting the tendency for some characters to mumble. The surrounds are used adequately to convey action and music, but this being a television programme, it hardly rivals cinema in terms of dynamic sound. The theme tune is hardly catchy. I found myself humming the Stargate SG1 theme, originated by David Arnold over the credits for Atlantis. On the bright side, it`s hardly `Faith Of The Heart`

Features

Stargate SG1 discs rarely skimp when it comes to extra features, often loaded with commentaries and the like, but it`s early days for Stargate Atlantis. Having said that, there`s plenty of promotional stuff, telling you how good the shows that you have just seen are.

You won`t be surprised to see copious use of animated menus, with plenty of CGI space pods hurtling willy-nilly through Stargates. The disc itself starts with adverts for both Stargates SG1 and Atlantis.

There is an 11-minute Set Tour, with directors Peter Deluise and Martin Wood. It`s strictly tongue in cheek fluff that fails to amount to anything of interest, despite a Stargate-toilet metaphor.

Slightly more substantial is the 23-minute Preview To Stargate Atlantis. It contains interviews with the cast and crew, interspersed with incomplete production footage, all designed to sell you the episode that you have just seen. It does help by fleshing out the characters beyond what you have learned thus far.

There is a Production Design and Photo Gallery, which is a 3½-minute slideshow with still from the episodes.

Finally there is a 30-second advert for the Stargate website.

Conclusion

I`ve never really gotten into Stargate SG1. There is so much sci-fi in the world, and so little time. However having caught the occasional episode, I have been impressed with the stories, the characters and the quality of the writing. In recent years, Stargate has produced better Trek than Star Trek could, and its popularity is undeniable. This has a lot to do with the world building and continuity that it has created, and that`s something that sci-fi fans lap up. Stargate SG1 also has kept its metaphorical toe dipped in the ocean of pop culture, and the wisecracks, in-jokes and references that have informed the scripts are often great entertainment. It`s the rare Stargate episode that goes by without a wink to Trek in some form or another. Of course there has to some major suspension of disbelief. Everyone speaks English, and anyone can operate mysterious alien machinery five minutes after coming into contact with it. But for the most part Stargate SG1 succeeds. For Stargate Atlantis to have a chance of similarly succeeding, it needs to maintain the factors that made SG1 so strong, while avoiding repeating the stories, in essence starting over from scratch.

Atlantis manages a new outlook by setting the series in another galaxy altogether, and cutting of all contact with Earth. From the start, the show`s paradigm is subtly different. This is a civilian mission, where the military aren`t in command. The show has more of a sense of wonder about it; the emphasis seems to be on exploration and discovery, rather than defence and warfare.

To put it simply the pilot episode was stunning. Rising set about building the new world of Atlantis, and managed in 90 minutes to do so, introducing the characters, the worlds and a new nemesis. It also managed to do this while telling an exciting, fast paced story. The characters seem interesting at first glance. Both Elizabeth Weir and Rodney McKay were introduced on SG1, though Weir has been recast in the interim. McKay and Doctor Beckett provide the comic relief, while the show`s lead John Sheppard played by Joe Flanigan, manages clean cut, brave and wholesome while remaining interesting. Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks make brief cameos to send the new show off on the right foot, and there is an interesting guest role from Robert Patrick as Colonel Sumner. The wit of the SG1 scripts makes the transition to this new incarnation, but the bad guys stay behind in the Milky Way. In their place are the Wraiths, which are, well there`s no better word for it, vampires. Ever since Buffy, Hollywood has seen the vampire make a renaissance, appearing in films and television in one form or another. In Atlantis, the Wraiths are aliens who harvest the essence of humans to extend their own life spans. Personally I feel that the vampire motif is beginning to get worn out, and the Wraith could be the weak spot of this new series. On the whole, there are the requisite clichés and gung ho attitudes that I have come to expect from Stargate, but the pilot manages to be exciting and gripping despite this. Comparing the pilot of Atlantis to the pilot of Enterprise, I found it fresh and invigorating to say the least.

Unfortunately after the extravaganza and world building of a pilot episode, the money usually runs out, and the first few episodes of a new series are spent in character building and keeping the costs down. Hide and Seek was an interesting episode that did just that, we got to know the scientists and the refugees. Some time was spent setting up possible interpersonal dynamics for the characters, and McKay and Beckett provided much of the entertainment. The dark spirit unleashed in the city seemed a little hackneyed, but it was nothing compared to the final episode on this disc. Thirty-Eight Minutes had the classic `people in peril` storyline as time ticks away. I think it is a storyline that every writer learns of by heart to provide as filler when the mind goes blank. It`s been used at least once in every action drama, and I`m surprised to see it wheeled out so early here. Having said that, it does provide a chance to build characters once more, observing these people under stress.

Stargate Atlantis certainly looks promising, and on the strength of this first disc is a worthy addition to the Stargate canon. After an astounding pilot episode, the successive episodes are mundane in comparison, but it`s all evidence of the high bar set in sci-fi television today. Stargate SG1 fans will certainly enjoy this, and if Enterprise fans are still weeping over the demise of their show, shed no more tears and watch Atlantis instead, you`ll perk right up again.