95% of deadly is still deadly.
First, the catty:
– Am I the only one who hears Tayla and hears Teila? Mkay, didn’t think so, and really needed to get that off my chest.
– So. Ronan Dex. We trade one black man for another? Hrm, okay. Hard not to be cynical, but the reason for Francks leaving has never been explained.
– Dr. Beckett? Change the accent from Scottish to Irish, and you’d have a decent clone of my pulminologist. No wonder I like him (either him).
Okay, catty aside, I liked this episode. It had a good mix of humour and drama, and I thought that the introduction of Ronan Dex was, overall, interesting. I do hope they get the character to enunciate a bit clearer, though – I had a hard time understanding some of the lines. The interaction between McKay and Ford was also interesting to watch, but I’d like to know what happened to the rather self confident and assured McKay that could handle a gun and understood military hand signals; he’d emerged out of the sniveling hulk of Rodney at the end of last season, and was a very interesting character growth. Hiatus seems to have reversed that trend, and he’s back to sniveling and largely being unable to handle a gun.
The dialogue was witty and seemed to snap, and reading the Mallozi blog has made me appreciate certain things, like hanging Hewlett upside down, quite a lot more. (Apparently the season is loaded with “beat up on McKay and otherwise put him in stupid, uncomfortable, and revealing positions”. I’m okay with this, especially that last bit.) The cats were sort of puzzled why I found that particular scene so funny; it was largely because I knew what drove its inclusion in the script.
The change in Ford – I like how so much of it is driven of his need for Sheppard’s approval. It was an underlying theme of their relationship last year, and seeing it blossom in this manner is creative, and an interesting force behind the madness.
Mitch Peloggi’s character – commander of the Daedalus – he’s going to get irritating quickly if he doesn’t drop his attitude towards Sheppard. Yes, he didn’t get the post he wanted, boohoo, he’s commanding the spiffiest fucking ship in, uhm, two galaxies. Perhaps he should drop the attitude and work on getting along with the people he’s apparently going to be working with.
I’m getting catty again, aren’t I? I suppose that’s a sign of the fact that I’ve basically covered the plot of this particular episode: introduce Ronan Dex, further establish Ford’s off his rocker in his own special way. A simple plot, so the rest becomes commentary. I do wonder what the Wraith will think of/do with Ford.
Atlantis does still show having the touch of some established SG-1 writers, and continues being relatively well directed and acted. If it continues improving on itself at this steady pace, it’s going to consistently outshine SG-1 in very short order.