Best episode ever
21/02/07 21:17 Filed in: Media
Yes it was the best Startgate Atlantis yet. But if
your reading this in America, then be warned this
contains big plot spoilers for an episode not shown
over there yet!
It was really the best episode of Stargate Atlantis
yet. Now if your reading this in America, then you
may or may not want to keep on reading since as I
write this the episode hasn't been shown there yet.
Sorry to gloat, but I can't resist it.....
Okay I'm done, on with the episode.
The episode opened with a flash, back, but we don't know it's a flash back yet. Then we have the explosion inside Atlantis. We now rewind 2 hours. They have done this before in both Atlantis and SG-1 of late and I think it works very well. You know what is going to happen, and you can see the events build up to the event. However unlike the old Columbo shows, we don't know the final resolution of the situation.
Each little story starts before the explosion and then carries on a little after it. Now my first through was that this was going to be an act of terrorism on Atlantis. This would have been an interesting plot, but not as good as the plot we got. By the way I have noticed of late that SG-1 has been doing some episodes with some quite prominent political subtexts. Good for them.
Anyway through each of these little stories we see the events leading up to the explosion. The back ground to this story is that it's a Sunday (not sure how they work that out considering it's in another galaxy, but there you go!) and it is the day off for most of the personnel. So we get to see bits of the off duty lives of the characters, which is nice, but with out being obviously a back ground episode, which I'm not sure really work. We know that these events are leading up to something.
Now looking back at the little stories I can now see that Clarson, passes though most of them sort of dropping in, very unobtriusley, in to each one. It was very well done, because it was only after seeing the climax of the story that I noticed it.
In the end it turns out that explosion was caused by an ancient device which has turned two minor characters in to living bombs. Okay these element of the story are weak. the ancient device is a card they have used a little to much at this point and yes out living bomb characters are in Star Trek terms, red shirts. We have never seen them before, probably never will again (one of the them survived), and we are not made to care about them at all. But I think in this story this is okay, just about. This is all a plot device to get us to the point where Clarson has to remove the explosive tumor (yes I can't believe they called it that either) from the surviving red shirt. He then takes the tumor to the waiting disposal team when it explodes and kills him....
Yes kills him. We have for the first time in some time had a major character death. This I think is a good thing, not that I didn't like the Clarson character, I did. Not kill a character, especially when it's handled well, like this has been, is a huge shock. It brings back to us the reality (if you can call it that) that they are effectively at war. And in war people die.
The SG-1 episode Heros was very similar in feel and quality and again we lose a character.
The fact that there was no warning what so ever of this made the shock so much bigger and this was the reason why Clarson appeared in each of the little stories leading up to the explosion. This is something that Joss Whedon thinks he should have done it the opening scene of the Buffy episode The Body, bring the character in and out the story as almost a visitor to the scene. This still stands as the best example of how to kill a character, you make sure that views really feel the loss. The Body does this so well, I still find a very hard episode to watch, despite the fact I think that is the best 45 minutes of television ever.
There was no real shock in The Body we knew the episode before what was going to happen. In this episode, called Sunday, the shock is very real. We see the explosion envelop Clarson and then the after the episode break we have Rodney dressed in what is obviously a funeral suit packing Clarsons personal effects up.
Bam he's dead.
The last part of the episode is taken up with the service and the other characters saying good bye. Again very well handled. Then we have the coda at the end of the episode. Clarson saying good bye in person to Rodney. Was it a dream, of was it something else? Could it be that Clarson ascended? I hope not, it was a good ending for the character, don't spoil it by bringing him back.
One last thing. I noticed we have the doctor (I can't remember the character name now) return in this weeks episode. We've not seen here for a while and we know this is the last series of SG-1, I think some characters may be transferring over at the end of SG-1 and Atlantis needs a new doctor...
Okay I'm done, on with the episode.
The episode opened with a flash, back, but we don't know it's a flash back yet. Then we have the explosion inside Atlantis. We now rewind 2 hours. They have done this before in both Atlantis and SG-1 of late and I think it works very well. You know what is going to happen, and you can see the events build up to the event. However unlike the old Columbo shows, we don't know the final resolution of the situation.
Each little story starts before the explosion and then carries on a little after it. Now my first through was that this was going to be an act of terrorism on Atlantis. This would have been an interesting plot, but not as good as the plot we got. By the way I have noticed of late that SG-1 has been doing some episodes with some quite prominent political subtexts. Good for them.
Anyway through each of these little stories we see the events leading up to the explosion. The back ground to this story is that it's a Sunday (not sure how they work that out considering it's in another galaxy, but there you go!) and it is the day off for most of the personnel. So we get to see bits of the off duty lives of the characters, which is nice, but with out being obviously a back ground episode, which I'm not sure really work. We know that these events are leading up to something.
Now looking back at the little stories I can now see that Clarson, passes though most of them sort of dropping in, very unobtriusley, in to each one. It was very well done, because it was only after seeing the climax of the story that I noticed it.
In the end it turns out that explosion was caused by an ancient device which has turned two minor characters in to living bombs. Okay these element of the story are weak. the ancient device is a card they have used a little to much at this point and yes out living bomb characters are in Star Trek terms, red shirts. We have never seen them before, probably never will again (one of the them survived), and we are not made to care about them at all. But I think in this story this is okay, just about. This is all a plot device to get us to the point where Clarson has to remove the explosive tumor (yes I can't believe they called it that either) from the surviving red shirt. He then takes the tumor to the waiting disposal team when it explodes and kills him....
Yes kills him. We have for the first time in some time had a major character death. This I think is a good thing, not that I didn't like the Clarson character, I did. Not kill a character, especially when it's handled well, like this has been, is a huge shock. It brings back to us the reality (if you can call it that) that they are effectively at war. And in war people die.
The SG-1 episode Heros was very similar in feel and quality and again we lose a character.
The fact that there was no warning what so ever of this made the shock so much bigger and this was the reason why Clarson appeared in each of the little stories leading up to the explosion. This is something that Joss Whedon thinks he should have done it the opening scene of the Buffy episode The Body, bring the character in and out the story as almost a visitor to the scene. This still stands as the best example of how to kill a character, you make sure that views really feel the loss. The Body does this so well, I still find a very hard episode to watch, despite the fact I think that is the best 45 minutes of television ever.
There was no real shock in The Body we knew the episode before what was going to happen. In this episode, called Sunday, the shock is very real. We see the explosion envelop Clarson and then the after the episode break we have Rodney dressed in what is obviously a funeral suit packing Clarsons personal effects up.
Bam he's dead.
The last part of the episode is taken up with the service and the other characters saying good bye. Again very well handled. Then we have the coda at the end of the episode. Clarson saying good bye in person to Rodney. Was it a dream, of was it something else? Could it be that Clarson ascended? I hope not, it was a good ending for the character, don't spoil it by bringing him back.
One last thing. I noticed we have the doctor (I can't remember the character name now) return in this weeks episode. We've not seen here for a while and we know this is the last series of SG-1, I think some characters may be transferring over at the end of SG-1 and Atlantis needs a new doctor...
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