[Review] Stargate: Atlantis - 3.16 The Ark
Jan. 9th, 2007 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brabbel123Hm... I'm not entirely happy with that episode... no, not happy at all...
First of all, this episode is very similar to SG-1's "Lifeboat" in that survivors are stored in a databank and only wait for being reintegrated. Not a very exciting premise per se if you've seen it before. I would have prefered to learn more about these humans who essentially blow up their own planet only to grant 1000 people a chance at survival, especially since I found both survivors' reactions very convincing - the despair and subsequent suicide of the first, the quiet insistence on saving all the others by the second. Jamis's telling Teyla the fate of his world, and what they sacrificed, was one of the highlights of the whole episode. But do we get a follow up on this? Any kind of resolution? Unfortunately not. Instead this episode is action filled and totally aimed at finally getting Sheppard to fly some kind of space shuttle. No screen time is spent on the 1000 survivors, or on how they settle in with their memories and regrets... A missed opportunity if you ask me.
I'm also quite appalled by the team's decision to abandon the database when only the 1000 survivors' lives were at stake - only to turn around and risk everything once Teyla got stored into it as well. Is she more worthy of saving than a stranger? I get all that "Never leave anyone behind" crap all those military based shows are trying to get across - but it's kind of a sick joke to see that this applies only to your own people when, with a little effort, other people could be saved as well. Of course, Sheppard is not going to unnecessarily risk his own people - and in the end, he doesn't even have to -, on the other hand to just turn his back on the remnants of an entire species (even if they are stored in some kind of database) takes a kind of cold blooded streak that I don't like to see. Granted, we've witnessed it before when Sheppard killed off all those Genii soldiers by turning on the gate's shield during Kolya's invasion attempt but that was an entirely different situation. This time he simply decided not to take the risk and leave - without actually thinking about another solution.
The ending is another major sore point with me. When Teyla thanks John for saving her, he answers that he'd do that for everyone, except maybe McKay. First of all, he *didn't* do it for everyone, at least not for those 1000 people, and secondly, this picking at McKay gets really annoying really fast. The writers spent the last episodes establishing the friendship Sheppard and McKay share despite their sarcastic banter - and then Sheppard says something like that even when McKay, who even asked him not to risk himself, isn't in the same room? Except being petty and cruel what purpose does that have? This is not the usual macho-Sheppard behaviour, denying his own emotional response to the danger Teyla was in, it's just downright stupid. Which I think is below Sheppard.
Otherwise, this is another pretty straight-forward filler-episode without too much impact on the basic story line or on the characters. Lorne for once has the chance to save his superior's team instead of the other way around... er... and did I already mention that I like seeing Lorne around again??? Unfortunately, this combined with the usual banter between Sheppard and McKay, and Teyla's slightly increased role (well, not too difficult to accomplish since her contributions this season were really very few so far) still can't quite make up for what I think is a premise, even if a recycled one, that could have been used way better than it was here.
Overall rating: 5/10
McKay: I figure it would be nice if we were all together as we burn up.
Sheppard: McKay...
McKay: I'm sorry. I mean as we get rescued. I always get those two confused.
First of all, this episode is very similar to SG-1's "Lifeboat" in that survivors are stored in a databank and only wait for being reintegrated. Not a very exciting premise per se if you've seen it before. I would have prefered to learn more about these humans who essentially blow up their own planet only to grant 1000 people a chance at survival, especially since I found both survivors' reactions very convincing - the despair and subsequent suicide of the first, the quiet insistence on saving all the others by the second. Jamis's telling Teyla the fate of his world, and what they sacrificed, was one of the highlights of the whole episode. But do we get a follow up on this? Any kind of resolution? Unfortunately not. Instead this episode is action filled and totally aimed at finally getting Sheppard to fly some kind of space shuttle. No screen time is spent on the 1000 survivors, or on how they settle in with their memories and regrets... A missed opportunity if you ask me.
I'm also quite appalled by the team's decision to abandon the database when only the 1000 survivors' lives were at stake - only to turn around and risk everything once Teyla got stored into it as well. Is she more worthy of saving than a stranger? I get all that "Never leave anyone behind" crap all those military based shows are trying to get across - but it's kind of a sick joke to see that this applies only to your own people when, with a little effort, other people could be saved as well. Of course, Sheppard is not going to unnecessarily risk his own people - and in the end, he doesn't even have to -, on the other hand to just turn his back on the remnants of an entire species (even if they are stored in some kind of database) takes a kind of cold blooded streak that I don't like to see. Granted, we've witnessed it before when Sheppard killed off all those Genii soldiers by turning on the gate's shield during Kolya's invasion attempt but that was an entirely different situation. This time he simply decided not to take the risk and leave - without actually thinking about another solution.
The ending is another major sore point with me. When Teyla thanks John for saving her, he answers that he'd do that for everyone, except maybe McKay. First of all, he *didn't* do it for everyone, at least not for those 1000 people, and secondly, this picking at McKay gets really annoying really fast. The writers spent the last episodes establishing the friendship Sheppard and McKay share despite their sarcastic banter - and then Sheppard says something like that even when McKay, who even asked him not to risk himself, isn't in the same room? Except being petty and cruel what purpose does that have? This is not the usual macho-Sheppard behaviour, denying his own emotional response to the danger Teyla was in, it's just downright stupid. Which I think is below Sheppard.
Otherwise, this is another pretty straight-forward filler-episode without too much impact on the basic story line or on the characters. Lorne for once has the chance to save his superior's team instead of the other way around... er... and did I already mention that I like seeing Lorne around again??? Unfortunately, this combined with the usual banter between Sheppard and McKay, and Teyla's slightly increased role (well, not too difficult to accomplish since her contributions this season were really very few so far) still can't quite make up for what I think is a premise, even if a recycled one, that could have been used way better than it was here.
Overall rating: 5/10
McKay: I figure it would be nice if we were all together as we burn up.
Sheppard: McKay...
McKay: I'm sorry. I mean as we get rescued. I always get those two confused.
