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May 26, 2012

Stargate Atlantis: The Ark

by Will O'Brien, posted May 19th 2007 10:03PM

After learning that his wife and son are dead, Herrick commits suicide by... space shuttle
(S03E16) The Ark is a classic science fiction plot. Sure the people used Wraith technology to preserve their people, but sending people off in space in suspended animation has been the subject of countless stories.
Atlantis has effectively used time jumping edits, but in this case, I didn't find the ending preview very useful. For the most part, it just spoiled things later on. The rest of the episode was well done.

I'd be remiss not to mention the convenient plot device of Rodney's space suit. It was a bit odd that Rodney wanted out of the suits, but only he kept his on as he worked on the station. I supposed we can attribute it to Rodney's obsessive work ethic, but he's the one that wanted to restore life support.

After the 20th door or so, (I'm exaggerating a bit, but not much.) I realized that Herrick was planning to de-pressurize the station. Rodney's warning was a bit late - only to get Herrick out of the shuttle. Herrick was supposed to be prepping the shuttle for launch. Rodney's warning could have benefited from a bit of exposition, even if it was after the fact.

The final scene with Teyla was surprising. She's fast as hell; why wouldn't she wait for an opportune moment to swat the gun out of the older, slower, injured mans hand. (Perhaps I'm a victim of too many action movies) The final move was ingenious - storing himself and Teyla in the machine was one hell of an idea. Once that happened, it was just a matter of seeing if Sheppard would survive the shuttle ride in.

Despite the ending spoiler, I loved it when the moon blew up around the shuttle. It was one of those perfect special effects moments. I gave it high marks for the classic plot, but pulled off a few for overloading the ending.

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Cold Chilli

Wouldn't the debris from the Moon eradicate life on the planet? The KT asteroid was only 10km across and that killed the dinosaurs.

May 21 2007 at 4:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cold Chilli

Wouldn't the debris from the Moon eradicate life on the Yea, Someone is going to "die"just like when Clark told Lana his secret.Anything done in the finale will be undone in the opener.

May 21 2007 at 4:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Hylo

I was very impressed with this episode. It was a dark and interesting episode with a questionable moral choice on behalf of Herrick's people. It's always good when a TV show gets you thinking.

The guy's suicide scene was really quite shocking, but I mean if you're going to kill yourself that's one hell of a way to do it.

The visual effects were really superb too. The hollowed out moon was a great idea and Shep's ride in looked exceptionally well done. It was so Sheppard though, he wouldn't risk his teams life to save a thousand people but he insanely risked his own life without thought to save one of his team.

It was also nice to see Teyla getting some great scenes, and was Rodney on form or what with his description of all the different types of death they choose from?

May 20 2007 at 5:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LC

Forget the plot device, I never understood why on any sci fi show that the second they have atmosphere they remove their entire space suit. I can understand removing the helmet and shutting off the oxygen so as not to waste it, but it would seem a good idea to keep it on, like in Rodney's case, in case of emergency.

Maybe Teyla didn't make a move for the gun because she was more worried about a stray bullet breaking a window and venting the atmosphere.

May 19 2007 at 11:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kip

Pros of the episode:
Battle to the death referencesbetween Ronin and Shepard. (Where's the Ronin focused episode going to come back? )
Moon idea was cool. Too bad they couldn't have saved it and put it outside of Atlantis. (Would have loved to see Herrick look through inventory of souls to see his family missing rather than one box not being there. )

Cons:
Story is still episodic when we need to get more into the progress of uncovering the island. Is it going to be this continued resevoir of new tech each week? Its getting old.

Conclusions: Great to wrap it up in one episode but let's go for a multi episode Wraith introducing event. BTW--Where are the wraith that stil exist?

May 19 2007 at 10:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Bad episode, rehashed plot that adds NOTHING to the series. Does Atlanis have any long term plot?

May 19 2007 at 10:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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