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While on an off-world mission Major Lorne and his men vanish.
Burnt corpses are are later recovered and identification can
only be made thanks to their dog tags. Meanwhile an old adversary
from the Gennii contacts the Atlantis team to tell them he
has a ZPM that he wants to exchange for their help in a matter
that will also benefit them and bring the Gennii leadership
crashing down...
Coup
D'Etat sees the welcome, if brief, return of Colm Meany
(Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine's Chief O'Brien). as
Cowen. This episode keeps you guessing as to who can be trusted
and who is trying to manipulate the Atlantis team. Is Ladon
(Ryan Robbins) telling the truth when he reveals that Cowen
has lost the plot and needs to be taken down for the good
of the Gennii, or is he trying to enflame an already problematic
interplanetary relationship?
The
great thing about this episode is that you spend the whole
time thinking that you have a grip on what's unfolding, and
until the closing act you really don't have a clue. There's
more surprises here than I think we've ever seen on an Atlantis
episode to date.
Another
great, but very brief moment, is the scene where Teyla and
Ronon discover the photos of the Atlantis team while searching
for the killers of Lorne and his team. There's a fantastic
photo of McKay which had me laughing like a loon. However,
listening to the audio commentary, writer Martin Gero wasn't
impressed with the images used - especially the one of Sheppard
which he claims looks like a publicity shot.
Joining
Gero on the commentary are director Martin Wood and David
Hewlett (McKay). Interesting bits of information we learn
include the fact that Robert Davi, who was noticeably absent
from this story, wasn't free to appear in this episode but
will return in Season Three; and Gero asks why McKay
and Sheppard are the only two in their team that are wearing
protective glasses with yellow lenses (everyone elses have
clear glass). Hewlett quips that they are "leading actor
glasses".
A
great episode that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Lt. Michael Kenmore wakes in the infirmary with no memory
of who he is or how he got there. As the Atlantis team try
to help him get back on his feet and resume his duties he
starts to feel that he isn't been told everything - that his
comrades are hiding something from him...
Michael
sees Conner Trinneer (Star Trek: Enterprise's Charles
"Trip" Tucker) star as Michael, a man who is picking up the
pieces of his life after an apparent accident robbed him of
his memories. While he can remember certain people and events,
everything is rather hazy. But, he soon realises that people
seem to be hiding something from him. What could it be? Did
his actions lead to the death of some of his comrades? Or
is he just becoming paranoid?
One
of the things I found interesting on the audio commentary
was the fact that apparently Trinneer doesn't actually have
a Texan drawl. It could be that Martin Wood and Peter DeLuise
are winding us up with this "fact", but if not,
it would be interesting to know why Michael has a Texan accent
as he did in Enterprise. In fact, whether or not that's
a fact, it would still be interesting to know why he has an
accent at all.
Wood
also brings up an interesting point which my colleague Richard
McGinlay wrote about several years ago in Skaro magazine.
Why is it in science fiction, when we have an alien threat,
we always give them human characteristics. When we have a
big bad threat (like Trek's Borg or Stargate's
Wraith) we always end up slowly making them appear more human
until what was a totally alien race becomes a more understandable
species.
On
the commentary they also joke about the show's ongoing experiment
to see how many Star Trek and Firefly
actors they can employ.
There's
also a homage to An American Werewolf in London tucked
away in this episode.
Despite
the fact that the twist in the tale is not too difficult to
fathom before it's revelation (mainly thanks to the actions
of Ronon) this is a great episode that throws up some very
interesting moral and ethical dilemmas.
The team is called to a distant village whose
inhabitants are concerned
by strong tremors. When McKay heads underground to investigate
the problem, he finds that the tremors are being caused by
a super-volcano. The leader agrees to evacuate his people.
However, the team becomes stranded when the gate is destroyed...
Inferno
is not a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination, but
it could have been a lot better. I loved the fact that the
leader of this society is immediately suspicious of Weir's
motives for evacuating their planet. This is exactly what
I was thinking before he voiced his concerns. It did indeed
look like Weir was trying to get them to leave the planet
so that she could commander their huge Ancient ship for herself.
The
audio commentary with director Peter DeLuise and Gary Jones
(Stargate SG-1's Walter Harriman) was as humours as
always. It's worth listening just for Jones's "cheese
and chocolate show" comment.
This
is a solid episode, but rather dull in comparison to others
in this season. And I really thought the three-way flirting
part of the the plot was a little on the silly side.
A Wraith hive ship approaches Atlantis. But, instead of attacking
Weir and her crew, the Wraith want to help the humans defeat
the Wraith threat. It seems that they are engaged in a civil
war, and the visiting Wraith offer a
wealth of information about their technology. The partnership
almost seems too good to be true...
Allies
sees the return of Michael from the episode of the same
name. However, as the audio commentary with Andy Mikita (director)
Gero and Hewlett reveals, Trinneer doesn't physically appear
in the episode as his wife was about to give birth. However,
he did re-dub the voice later. We also discover that there
was issues over the colour of the Wraith queen's skin colour
(which if you watch carefully you'll notice changes from orange
to green as the episode progresses).
Again,
as with Coup D'Etat, there are so many double bluffs
and twists and turns in this episode that you'll never be
able to fathom what is really happening until the final reveal.
And boy what an explosive episode this is.
This
is a fantastic conclusion to the show's second season - although
you'll be drooling for more.
 
As well as the four audio commentaries, other extras include
Photo and Production Design Gallery, and the funniest
extra I've ever seen on any DVD - Road to a Dream: With
Martin Gero. This 19 minute featurette examines Gero's
bid to become an actor. There are interviews with him and
the producers and cast of the show. But mainly this is an
interview with Gero on how he sees his acting career taking
off after casting himself in a none speaking cameo role. This
is so wonderfully tongue-in-cheek that ironically, it proves
just how good an actor he actually is. Highlight's include
Gero's Oscar prediction; his insistence that his character,
Danger Beckett, is the more handsome brother of Doctor Beckett;
and Jason Momoa's (Ronon) couldn't-give-a-toss attitude. Also
worthy of note are the "faked" rushes and outtakes
of Gero on set. This
extra is worth the asking price alone.
A
fantastic conclusion to a wonderful second season.
Pete
Boomer
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