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Dr Weir begins to suspect that one of the Athosians is
actually in league with the Wraith when the Atlantis team
are ambushed by their enemy on an off world trip. Taking action
despite Teyla and Sheppard's concerns Dr Weir starts interviewing
the Athosians in order to weed out the Wraith but alienates
the community who start leaving the city in droves...
Suspicion
is a rather dull affair. There's a little too much "Oh!
I'm hurt! How dare you accuse my people of being spies!"
and "Let's tread softly, softly". There just didn't
seem to be enough material to stretch over 45 minutes.
However,
this episode, unlike others on this disc, is slotted in at
just the right time in the series. We still don't know the
Athosians very well and, even though it's obvious Teyla will
be around for some time as she's on the opening credits, we
are still not sure how loyal her people are.
The Atlantis team discover a primitive forest dwelling tribe
untouched by the Wraith. An electromagnetic field protects
them but the tribe believe ritual suicide keeps the Wraith
at bay. Sheppard must try and convince the tribe this ritual
is unnecessary but the 'elders' are not so sure...
Oh
look, another forest planet! Fantastic. Childhood's End
is not original in any sense of the word. This episode
features a culture where the inhabitants must die before they
reach full adulthood (a bit like Logan's Run). The
Atlantis team make friends with the elder of the village who
just so happens to be preparing to top himself that evening
as he has reached the age where it is necessary to die. And
guess what, his replacement wants the Atlantis team out of
his village one way or another.
While
this episode is clichéd in just about every aspect,
it works! Don't ask how, or why... it just does. The scenes
with David Hewlett's bumbling Doctor McKay help keep everything
very light hearted and the end result, while not fantastic,
is entertaining.
The
Atlantis team encounter the Hoffans a civilisation who claim
to be close to developing a drug that will make them immune
to the Wraith. Learning of the awakening of the Wraith the
Hoffans demand to inoculate their people before the drug is
properly tested, to the horror of Dr Beckett...
In
Poisoning The Well the Atlantis team visit a race whose
fashion and culture seem to be derived from a cross between
Victorian and '40s influences.
The
main problem I had with this episode was that the team are
starting to think that it is their duty to police the galaxy.
Does Sheppard really have the right, or the authority, to
speak to the Hoffan leaders the way he does? What gives the
Atlantis team the right to interfere so much in another culture?
Sheppard's comments are particularly at odds with the team's
views in Childhood's End where they were prepared to
discuss sacrificing another culture in order to obtain the
power crystal to get back to Earth.
This
is the first episode that really sees Dr Beckett take centre
stage and his scenes work really well. There is also a nice
gag about him playing the same role as McCoy in Star Trek.
Overall,
an enjoyable episode.
While
investigating another planet Dr McKay discovers that its unique
atmospheric fog may provide enough power to allow the team
to communicate with Earth. Better still, they may be able
to go back there. When the team manage to return to their
home planet they are informed that the Atlantis programme
is to be terminated...
For
some odd reason, Home is the final episode on this
disc. If these releases were following the original transmission
order, Underground should have been the final episode
on this collection with Home beginning the next disc.
Strangely the PR information we received with this disc indicated
that Underground was the final episode of this collection
too, so I'm not entirely sure what happened there.
Overall
I really enjoyed this episode, but I had some major issues
with it. Firstly this episode really should have been included
later in the show's first season. We've only just arrived
at Atlantis and the team are all racing to get back to Earth.
Another problem was the fact that the twist in the tale is
spoilt by the fact that Hammond is still in charge of the
SGC (as he was when they left). So you already know that something
is wrong.
There
are some great gags here - my favourite being the fact that
despite months having passed, there are no messages on McKay's
home answering machine.
A
pretty enjoyable episode even if anyone with half a brain
will work out what is going on in the first 15 minutes.
Extras are incredibly thin on the ground - in fact embarrassingly
poor. I'm beginning to think that these may be released in
season box sets shortly with tons more extras. All we get
are a nine minute video diary by actor Rainbow Sun Francks;
a six minute featurette (Stargate: Atlantis: Mission Directive
- The Storm/The Eye) that goes behind the scenes of two-part
episode we haven't seen yet; and a photo gallery.
Pete
Boomer
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