Stargate Atlantis: Adrift

Hailing Atlantis
By Wolfen Moondaughter

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first edition of my new column, “Hailing Atlantis”! Some of you may know me from the “Buffy Bites”, “Angelwatching”, and “Me Jane” review columns I did at Sequential Tart a few years back: obviously, reviewing/analysing TV shows isn’t exactly a new thing for me. However, Stargate Atlantis is fairly new to me, as I didn’t start watching it regularly until May of this year. Before then, it just hadn’t really gripped me the few times I’d caught it, but the ep “The Tao of Rodney” finally reeled me in hook, line, and sinker. I didn’t even really like Rodney himself before that, but from “Tao” onwards, I’ve become something of a rabid McKay/David Hewlett fan, which will undoubtedly influence this column. (My apologies in advance.)

I’ve also become quite enamoured of the friendship between McKay and Sheppard in particular — that is to say, I’m a “slash fiend” (fan of male/male romance), a fact which will probably also influence what I say here. (I’m not going to apologise for that one, though — just consider yourself warned. Yes, I’m aware that “McShep” is not exactly canon, but I still think that they have fantastic chemistry! *wink*) Anyway, I’ve gotten mostly caught up with the three seasons’ worth of eps in the few scant months since I began watching the show religiously, so I should have a pretty good grasp of what’s gone before. In case you were wondering if I’m qualified to talk about the show or anything.

Now, before we get into things, I should explain something: when I complain, I don’t always mean it negatively. I might want to smack a character silly for something they do, but as often as not, I still love that they made me want to smack them. It often means (at least in my book) that they have strong characterization. We should get irritated by even characters we love — if you don’t care enough to get emotionally involved, then a writer hasn’t done his or her job. And tension/drama is the key to storytelling– if everyone does the right thing and gets along all the time, where’s the story? I do want my happy endings but happy endings mean more if there’s some obstacles along the road.

4.1: “Adrift”

As you may remember, last season found our heroes actually flying the city of Atlantis (which is really a giant space ship, if you missed it) off of the world of Lantea in order to escape a death ray being fired at them by one of their enemies, the Asurans, aka the Replicators. The city was hit by the beam on the way out, damaging some of the systems and severely injuring a number of people, including the Atlantis Expedition’s leader, Dr Elizabeth Weir. They had tried to fly the city somewhere safe via hyperspace travel, but the ship suddenly dropped out of hyperspace partway through the journey, leaving them adrift someplace unknown, with no planet within reach. And since they had no idea where they were, the crew could not recalibrate the Stargate either, leaving them unable to evacuate. Cue me spending the rest of the summer and the beginning of fall wondering how the heck they’re going to get out of this one.

I would have thought the answer would have taken the entire first episode of the season — well, I suppose it did in a roundabout way, but Oh.My.Goddess!!! I had been falling asleep waiting for the show to come on, but I sure as hell woke up — and stayed that way — when it did! One problem after another — I felt so bad for the characters, I half wanted to yell at writer Martin Gero to cut them a break! And Rodney just perfectly exemplified that feeling: every time he started to remark on how things were finally going good, wham! He would get paged about a new crisis. They packed a hell of a lot of story into 45 minutes! And Gero did a fantastic job of playing the action out through the characterisation, instead of in lieu of it. It all boils down to: me+this ep=edge of seat the whole time! Hey, did anyone think this ep had a kind of a movie quality to the filming? Not just the story or special effects, but the literal film quality itself, plus lighting, camera angles, ect. … It all just felt bigger and shinier than ever before!

Okay, excuse me while I get into a more comfortable verb tense and get on with the play-by-play.

John’s and Teyla’s asking Rodney what’s going on is a necessary evil, of course, so that Rodney can then tell the audience what’s going on, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to scream at them to let the man work already and stop breaking his concentration. I do find it amusing (and a nice turn-around) that, for once, Rodney is content to trust someone else to work on something (Chuck, on communications), and yet Sheppard thinks McKay should do it himself. Something puzzles me, though: after Rodney says that he has bigger fish to fry than the communications, and Teyla asks what that could be, instead of answering he suddenly notices a massive power drain. So what was the bigger fish he was working on before then??

Love Ronon’s insistence that the glass in his chest be removed, regardless of what damage the removal might do. In particular, I love the fact that he’s willing to do it himself, as well the reaction of the poor man treating him.

We see a number of new faces in this ep, nameless incidentals who nicely flesh out the story without detracting from the main characters (quite the opposite). That’s one of the things I love about this series: that, despite being it being an ensemble show, the characters are all well-developed. If anyone is even remotely neglected in this ep, it’s perhaps Teyla and Elizabeth (Teyla just kind of stood around asking questions because she had nothing else to do plot-wise, and Elizabeth was unconscious most of the time), but they still have a decent amount of presence. Even those incidentals, while not distracting, are still interesting, rather than being cardboard cut-outs in the background.

Nice scene with Keller trying to save Elizabeth (kind of ER-esque in it’s intensity). I admit that I had my misgivings about her character when I learned of her (despite having loved Staite on Firefly), but she won me over quickly in this ep. I still miss Carson, and given the choice between the two I’d rather have him, but she’s not unlikable by any means.

Love Rodney and Radek having a discussion over the radio without actually saying anything, yet completely understanding one other. Love Ronon’s worried face when he sees Elizabeth wheeled in (although I’m wondering how on earth he got there before her!) And I love the parallel of Rodney and his crew trying to save the city while Keller tries to save Elizabeth, which is nicely reflected in the dialogue. It says something about the showmakers’ abilities that I worry for Elizabeth here when I never really liked her very much!

And here we come to more exposition. How do you make exposition interesting? By having a character step in for the audience as the role of the asker — and then, in the spirit of Buffy the vampire slayer, have them heckle/interrupt the person doing the explaining. This series struck gold with McKay and Sheppard. I mean, how can you get annoyed with the ’splaining when they make it so funny to listen to? This time they cleverly disguise it outright with John first warning Rodney that he needs to stop making decisions without first consulting him (this scene having the dual purpose of reminding us that, since Elizabeth is out of commission, John’s in charge). Again, I want to yell at John that Rodney doesn’t have time to consult him on things John can’t weigh in on anyway, that part of being Chief of Science means Rodney needs to make decisions on his own, not be micro-managed. But John sounds like a whiny kid who feels left out on the playground here, which makes him more sympathetic in his request (which remember is actually an excuse for exposition that we need, so it had to happen).

Rodney’s apology and attempt to clue John in is a sweet bonding moment between them — well, at least until John says, “Dumb this down any more and you’re gonna get hit!” I wanted to smack John for that — he hadn’t been understanding what Rodney was trying to tell him, so what else was Rodney supposed to do but come up with a simplified analogy? And yet, from a storytelling standpoint, it was damn funny! It was almost like “hanging a lantern on it”; how can you not love when the writer pokes fun at himself or practically apologises in the dialogue for exposition? And I loved how every time John would draw a conclusion (the conclusion the audience would likely draw), Rodney would say the opposite! Too, too fun!

And of course they can’t go five minutes without more bad news. The shield collapses, endangering people on the outskirts of the city. Sheppard yells at Rodney to fix things, which has always driven me crazy, as if Rodney’s just being difficult and yelling will make the impossible possible. (Didn’t Rodney even complain something to that effect once? Maybe it was in one of the novels … or a fanfic ….) Well, yeah, sometimes it does help, sure, but this time it doesn’t do any good: Rodney can’t save them. (Love that Rodney’s snapping back at him!) The looks on Sheppard’s, Rodney’s, and Teyla’s faces are gut-wrenching; even though we didn’t know the people that died, their deaths (nicely illustrated by the loss of life-signs on the sensor readout) had something of an impact.

Here’s a question: if the shield protects against impact from solid objects, like asteroids, how does it pass through the buildings and people? Shouldn’t it just slide across the outside? Answer: because the showmakers wanted a visual way for us to see the endangered people getting stuck on the outside of it, of course. Makes sense from a storytelling standpoint, but it still makes my brain itch.

We see Sam and Bill (yaaaay! I love Dr Lee!) at the Midway Station when they learn Atlantis has gone missing. I can see why people might be annoyed at the distraction, but I figure it’s better to work Sam in now, rather than having her arrive at the 11th hour out of the blue, and it’s comforting to know others are aware of the problem and working on it. And to all those who worry that Sam is just going to take over the show and be a total Mary Sue (invincible character who always saves the day, for those not up on their fandom vernacular), I say nay. She didn’t save the day in today’s ep. She wasn’t the star/constant center of attention on SG-1, either. I love Sam, I’m glad to see her, and I’m not worried. Judging by the things I’ve read over at producer Joe Mallozzi’s blog, I’m sure the rest of the characters won’t get short-changed over the course of the season. And I’m sorry, but I think she will be far more interesting to me as a leader than Weir (I didn’t care for Weir even when she was played by Jessica Steen, and I’ve been a fan of Steen’s for a long time!)

Gero fits a lot into the next few minutes. Ronon makes for a good excuse for (somewhat disgusting) exposition on Weir’s condition. I like how complacent Rodney is as he explains the need to collapse the shield to surround just the tower they are in to Sheppard, clearly ready to do it but still waiting on Sheppard’s word, as per their earlier discussion; his willingness to be cooperative here makes what happens later all the more dramatic. The whole cranioctomy, though? Again a bit like ER, particularly in that I had to watch from behind my fingers. *Shudder* And we get more exposition: good news (they know where they are) and bad news (they can’t really do anything about it until certain repairs are made — and only if said repairs are done before power drops below a certain level). John pays Ronon a visit; Ronon is eager to do something, but John tells him to stay put. (Does anyone else find it odd that Ronon’s just laying there under the blanket, instead of pacing like a caged animal?) Keller tells John what’s up with Elizabeth: the look on John’s face as he’s told she’s either going to die or be severely brain-damaged, is absolutely heart-breaking, especially at the very end of the scene, when it seems he might actually cry!

Rodney and Zelenka have a nice, friendly (and woefully short-lived) moment together, before Rodney is called to the control room. McKay and Sheppard learn that in ten minutes, Atlantis will encounter the edge of an asteroid belt. They have a very entertaining bit of back and forth about why the shields can’t be extended out to protect the entire city. They can’t fly the city away from it, either, because the Chair (basically the pilot’s seat) is outside of the shield, so Sheppard decides there’s only one solution: anyone with the ATA gene has to fly a puddle-jumper and help him shoot a path through the belt.

Rodney is not happy, but mostly resigned to his fate. And really, he does a pretty good job, all things considered. Love his look of intense concentration. Also love his nervous chatter about the game Asteroids and his total lack of confidence. He may have an ego the size of Antarctica, but he’s the first to admit things he isn’t good at. He’s also the first to admit he’s a total coward, and yet he still risks his life repeatedly, despite his terror — thus proving it’s possible to be cowardly and brave at the same time. You can imagine how happy it makes me that Sheppard takes a moment to recognise that fact, and tell Rodney he did a good job!

I do have a few minor issues with this sequence, though. Firstly, that they supposedly have only ten minutes from the moment their initially briefed on the situation until the moment when Atlantis reaches the Asteroid belt, yet they spend an awful lot of time standing around talking and only seem moderately anxious. How did they get everyone together, get the ‘jumpers ready, and get everyone up to speed on what to do in only ten minutes? Secondly, Rodney said the asteroids were probably the size of buildings, but most of the ones we saw weren’t all that much bigger than the ‘jumpers. (Small buildings, I guess.) And lastly, while didn’t the explosions toss the jumper’s around? Even with the shields, I would think they should have been knocked around, even if not actually damaged. And shouldn’t we have seen flashes of light when the pieces hit the shields? Or how about the asteroid that got blown up just outside one of the city’s towers — shouldn’t the pieces have still battered the structure pretty harshly? Ah well, I guess things can get lost between the script and the special effects that actually get applied, and we don’t want the show costing too much, lets it become too expensive to continue with ….

They’re not out of the woods yet. An asteroid that slipped past their efforts did some extensive damage to a conduit outside the shield, so Zelenka, accompanied by Sheppard, has to go for a spacewalk outside to fix it. Zelenka is not thrilled — he’s much like Rodney in his fears, really. I suspect Rodney might be using the fact that it would take to long to brief him on what needs to be done as an excuse so he doesn’t have to go himself, but a) he’s probably right about it taking to long, and b) why should he have to do everything anyway, particularly when c) he’s already risked his life in the past hour? And he’s supportive of Zelenka, who really needs to get out more anyway.

Keller informs a horrified Rodney of the severity of Weir’s condition, but then tells him she has an idea that might save Elizabeth: awakening the nanites already in the woman’s blood and reprogramming them to heal the damage. Sheppard, suiting up for the spacewalk, is adamantly against it, fearing what might go wrong, like the nanites contacting the Replicators. Rodney finally, after three years, calls Sheppard “John” as he pleads for the man to allow it. (And windows everywhere break from the sound of McSheppers everywhere squeeing with joy at this breakthrough!) Sheppard insists that Elizabeth wouldn’t want to put the city at risk, adding that he won’t even discuss it until Rodney is sure he can make them entirely safe, with no risks. Zelenka supports Sheppard’s decision.

Sam and Bill, meanwhile, in a much-needed moment of levity, are trying to think of ways to get in contact with or find Atlantis, with no luck.

There’s a fun bit where Sheppard tosses a terrified Zelenka across a gap in their path, cleverly using momentum to get them both across in the zero Gs. It’s nice seeing just the two of them working together!

Rodney manages to reprogram the nanites so that they can heal Elizabeth, but the catch is that they would heal her by replacing her own damaged cells with replicated nanites, so they couldn’t be made inert after or she would die. The plus side is that he’s sure he’s made them 100% safe, that they would never harm Elizabeth or betray them to the Replicators. He just needs more time to make them work the way they want them to. Zelenka, meanwhile, is hit by a tiny asteroid.

Ronon has a very touching moment talking to the unconscious Elizabeth, thanking her for giving him a chance. Kind of a full-circle moment, reminding me of the time in the mess hall when she talked to him about staying in the first place, and he was gruff and aloof and almost monosyllabic. Now he’s vulnerable and actually trying to connect with her. Alas, he’s interrupted when she takes a turn for the worse.

While Zelenka insists to Sheppard that he must finish his task, Keller tells Rodney that he doesn’t have any more time to tackle the nanite problem, because if they don’t activate them right away, Elizabeth will die for sure. He has to decide whether to try it right now.

Sam and Bill continue their brainstorming. Sam gets the idea to go to the Apollo to augment the ship’s long-range sensors. I get the impression that she’s learned a trick from the information the Asgard left them before their all died, but if it were possible to do that, why didn’t she (or any one) do it already, I wonder?

Zelenka stoically finishes his work under John’s worried watch. Unfortunately, it’s too late; Teyla informs them that the power levels have dropped below the line, and they can no longer make the jump to hyperspace.

Sheppard is livid when he learns what Rodney has done, and Rodney refuses to shut the nanites down (thereby killing Elizabeth). The whole exchange is fantastic, with the two friends at such odds, each passionate in their resolve! It actually makes me heartsick, to see them fight like this, but its great drama.

Anyway, I thoroughly understand why John is upset and, to some extent, even agree that he has a right to be. He can’t do his job as a leader if people just ignore his commands. His job is to protect the city, and Rodney, to his mind, committed and act that could have directly and negatively impacted his ability to do that job (by possibly brining in the Replicators. Not to mention he was under a massive amount of strain, only to have someone he was counting on to be supportive effectively betray him, especially when remembering Doranda. In fact, I’m really shocked he didn’t use that as a point of his argument, saying something like: “Rodney, remember the last time you said you were 100% sure of something and you blew up most of a solar system?” And choosing not to save Elizabeth, who was not only his friend (possibly more — remember his face when he was told of her condition earlier) but also someone it was his duty to protect, had to have been killing him. I sympathise, I really do. And yet I also wanted to smack him again.

Yes, despite my understanding, in the end, I agree with Rodney’s having disobeyed orders — I would have made the same choice, in his shoes. We should never obey an order we are diametrically opposed to, never be blind followers. And Rodney was in a far better position to understand how it all would or wouldn’t work; he’s there in Pegasus for a reason. There’s also a reason why John’s not the Chief Science Officer. The way I see it:A) John did say “I am not having this conversation until you’re sure!” — meaning there was reason to believe that he might change his mind if the certainty factor had improved, which it had. Rodney just didn’t have the time to check with him before implementing it!

B) The nanites are tools — to Rodney, using them is no different that stealing an enemy laptop and reprogramming it, or even using an enemy screwdriver. The notion that it would be bad to use them is, to Rodney mind, the scientific equivalent of saying someone shouldn’t use a screwdriver because it’s unlucky or has bad memories associated with it. By this point in the story, the possibility of the nanites going bad is an impossibility, and therefore not a valid excuse to not save Elizabeth’s life — what had happened in the past is irrelevant. If you bought a used car in which the brakes had been sabotaged by the previous owner (read: you had nanites with bad programming) and you got in an accident, but you then replaced the brakes yourself (read: you reprogrammed the nanites), would you still not use the car, thinking these new brakes would be sabotaged too, even if the old owner wasn’t anywhere nearby to do the damage? When I underwent surgery for cancer, they told me here was something like a 5% chance I could die on the operating table. Of course there was a hell of a lot bigger chance I would die without the operation. The 5% odds made death by the cure ridiculously unlikely, and it would have been foolish to die for sure a little later because I was afraid the cure might kill me. I’m sure that’s how Rodney viewed the supposed nanite threat.

And c) it’s better to beg forgiveness than ask for permission. If Elizabeth hates the idea of being alive so much, well, she can always commit suicide — but at least she now has the chance to make that decision rather than being dead outright. I understand her fear, but Rodney has no reason to believe the nanites aren’t impotent now, because in his world, the nature of reality is that, if you reprogram something, it stays reprogrammed until someone actively messes with it. It doesn’t magically become undone without some outside influence doing it, and the Replicators weren’t there to do that. Now there may be something he doesn’t know/hasn’t occurred to him that may negate that, but he has no personal reason to believe otherwise.

Which makes his apology to Sheppard all the more noble a gesture on his part. Its shows profound character growth for him, seeing as he’s not a man who apologises or concedes to possibly being wrong easily. And yet he not only does both those things, but also points out to Sheppard that they need to put their differences aside and work together — and Rodney’s not generally what you’d call a team player!

I’m glad Sheppard accepted the apology, but I this time wanted to smack him for not apologising back/conceding he may have been wrong himself. (It’s lucky he’s fictional — by now, I’d have given him a concussion!) But I can forgive him, seeing as the thought that he may have to kill Elisabeth now rather than just watch her die (not to mention the fear that the Asurans will indeed be receiving an invitation any moment) can’t be sitting well with him.

Before I forget, take note of another annoying visual aid: Elizabeth’s hair had been shaved for her surgery, but now it’s all grown back. But how did the nanites know how she wore her hair, how long and in what style? Why did they bother with a non-injury like that at all? Yes, I know, it’s a storytelling device — still doesn’t make sense in the actual context of the story itself ….

I do enjoy the exchange between Elizabeth and Teyla. I understand Elizabeth’s fears, but really, if she thinks using the nanites is such a bad idea, she can order someone to hit her with an EMP pulse right this instant! Since she hasn’t, I have to assume at least part of her still wants to live, and therefore Rodney wasn’t entirely wrong about that, despite what Sheppard insisted.

Radek fills Sheppard in on his idea for forcing the city to ignore its safety protocols so that they can jump to hyperspace despite the low power levels. Rodney, surprisingly, lets Radek speak, only making a few irritated comments, rather than talking over the Czech or going on a tirade and calling the man an idiot. Is it because he’s tired, because he’s dejected, or is he finally learning how to show others a little respect, I wonder? Perhaps a mix …. Sheppard ultimately decides Rodney’s right this time, though; Radek’s idea is too dangerous with too little potential payoff. Rodney then gets the idea to finish a project he’d been working on when he’d almost ascended a few months back: giving a ‘jumper a hyperdrive. (Why didn’t he finish that earlier?? Aside from it spoiling the story point, I mean?) Due to a number of limitations, they can’t use it to get to the Apollo or ferry the crew to safety, but they can try to get a ZPM. As luck would have it, the Athosian homeworld, which they know has a number of them, is within range of that ‘jumper’s flight capabilities. Rodney brazenly suggests they go steal a few.

Throughout the scene, he and Sheppard seem friendly to each other again, albeit subdued. It gives me hope that their friendship hasn’t been too badly strained over the nanite thing, especially since Sheppard still seems to value McKay’s expertise and trust his ability, and doesn’t get snappish when Rodney says they can’t due a number of things that he wants to do. In other words, they aren’t going to spend half the season being pissy towards each other, which is a relief. I want tension between characters to be the spice, not the meat of the story.

So we’re off to a good start! See you all next week for some “Lifeline” analysis ….

Wolfen Moondaughter is on the editorial board for the comics industry webzine Sequential Tart for which she has written since late 2001. She’s also written for Newtype USA, contributed to Andy Mangel’s book Animation on DVD, self-published a novel (Memory of the Brightwing), and one of her short stories, “Chase”, is due to be published soon as the title story in an anthology from Wapshott Press (under the pen name Anastasia Witchazel). She’s an artist, too, having done spot illustrations for Dragonlance, a few panels for Barb Lien-Cooper’s webcomic series Gun Street Girl, and private commissions. In her spare time, she’s a fanficcer/fanartist. See more of her work at her site, Wolfen’s Webworld.

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