STARGATE ATLANTIS

THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: violence

Rated:

Picking up right where the first season left off, the second year of Stargate Atlantis introduced a handful of new characters, took others in surprising directions, and above all maintained the same high standard of quality entertainment that sci-fi fans had looked forward to all winter long.

With the city of Atlantis under the attack of their mortal enemies the Wraith, Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson) is forced to prepare her people for evacuation. Colonel Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) is meanwhile on a suicide mission, intending to fly one of the puddle jumpers into the Wraith ship and set off a series of explosions. He is rescued from this dangerous scheme by the arrival of Earth's new battle cruiser Daedalus, with Colonel Caldwell (Mitch Pileggi) and military reinforcements on board. Delivering a new ZPM (power source) to Atlantis means that Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) can get the shield back up and working, with beneath a barrage of firepower, their new energy source can only last so long. In one last desperate attempt to save Atlantis, the crew pull a dangerous mission in order to fool the Wraith into believing the city has been destroyed, little realizing that one of their crew members will slip through the cracks in the meantime.

Caught up in the midst of an explosion along with a deadly Wraith, Lt. Ford (Rainbow Francks) is recovered from the battlefield with his body flooded with the same evil chemicals that allow the Wraith to draw forth human life forces. Altered by the imbalance and perilously erratic in his behavior, Ford takes off through the Stargate. In their search to recover him, the crew which includes the beautiful Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) and Scottish Dr. Beckett (Paul McGillion) come across a vagrant fleeing the Wraith. Ronon (Jason Momoa) has been on the run since his home planet was destroyed. A skilled gunman and fighter, he is the perfect addition to Sheppard's team. Their quest to pursue and recover Ford leads them into new adventures and perils, while ever-aware that the true evil force in the galaxy is gathering together its powers to launch a siege against all humans and ultimately reach earth through the Stargate.

More serious in nature than the previous season, but equally engaging, I loved the direction the new stories took. The introduction of Ronon is a fantastic one, since he provides a good balance for the military precision of his cast members. He is unpredictable and dark, but very likable and it doesn't take long to trust him. Each of the characters goes through different transitions and challenges. McKay learns his limitations and does battle with his subconscious. A different side of the Wraith is discovered. Shepherd comes close to ascension, and several characters experience shared mental capabilities with crew members and alien rivals. One of my favorite episodes was "The Long Goodbye," in which John and Elizabeth are taken over by the flickering remnants of an alien race, and do battle with one another in a last attempt to gain the upper hand in a disastrous marriage. Another fantastic episode is "Grace Under Pressure," which features a cameo by Amanda Tapping as Rodney's hallucination of Samantha Carter. Not to mention the two-parter "Instinct" and "Conversion," where the crew discover a Wraith girl attempting to restrain her inner nature, and John undergoes a dark transformation.

The amount of violence this year is about the same as the last. Lots of wraith are shot with stunners and/or killed. Humans are harvested by the Wraith for the purpose of feeding. The Wraith torture their prisoners through extracting their life force. A massive battle is launched against Atlantis, in which numerous marines meet their deaths. Ronon shoots a man at point-blank range. There is hand-to-hand combat. Language is mild and infrequent, but there seems to be more sensuality this time around. In "Duet," McKay realizes he is sharing his mind with a female marine. Whenever she takes over his body, she/he exhibits flirtatious behavior. Believing she may die in the attempt to extract her from McKay's body, she uses Rodney to plant a kiss on the astonished Dr. Beckett's lips. Two passionate kisses are shared between major cast members.

"Epiphany " has Shepherd being stuck in an alternate time barrier. One of the women "foresees" their future together and intimates that they will consummate a marriage, but the audience never knows if this transpires. It's more likely that he slept with a princess in "The Tower." She comes into his room and disrobes (the audience sees her bare back) before they passionately kiss and she pushes him onto the bed and out of camera range. In "Grace Under Fire," Rodney has a hallucination about Sam being trapped with him in a sunken puddle jumper. She offers to "warm him up" and appears in a shapely outfit, but he resists her advances, believing she is trying to distract him from his mission. It's not an enormous amount of negative content, particularly spread out over so few episodes, but does make it a little less family-friendly in certain scenes. Still, it's one of the best sci-fi series out there.