The mythical, ancient city of Atlantis is lost in
space.
Having suffered immense damages in its attempts to
avoid destruction at the hands of the Replicators,
it has dropped out of hyperspace and is left
stranded billions of light years away from their
rendezvous point with the earth ship Daedalus.
Dr. Weir (Tori Higginson) has been fatally injured
in the explosion and in the infirmary, Dr. Jennifer
Keller (Jewel Staite) attempts desperately to save
her life, while the scientists on board discuss
their options. The city is rapidly losing power and
closing down the shields to preserve energy, leaving
them exposed to space -- something that becomes all
the more dangerous as they approach a meteor field.
While Colonel John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) leads a
team out in the puddle jumpers to destroy as many
meteors as they can and create a path for the
enormous Atlantis, Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett)
turns his attention to repairing the hyper drive
before too much power is lost to re-enter
hyperspace. Despite his best intentions, they do not
make the time window and their only alternative is
to find a replacement power source.
The only problem is that the ZPEMs that act as fuel
for Atlantis originate from the Replicator home
world...
The explosive fourth season of this series is
memorable primarily for the enhancement of its
female characters. While there are still plenty of
action scenes and great character moments with
Sheppard, McKay, and Ronon, this time around it is
the women that take center stage. Teyla is expounded
on and given several character arcs that unfold over
the course of twenty-two episodes. She becomes
essential leading up to the finale, but no less
notable is the fact that Dr. Keller spends more time
away from the infirmary than in it and even becomes
involved in several perilous adventures (one has her
stranded with Teyla; another has her trapped in a
mine with Sam Carter and McKay). Furthermore,
several episodes highlight the presence of Dr. Weir
and of course, much of the season revolves around
Colonel Samantha Carter as the new leader of
Atlantis. I was concerned that having her around
would provide further frustration and negative
friction between her and McKay, who had a notorious
crush on her in the original series, but the
opposite is true. Their characters succeed in
working together without too much tension and the
writing avoids the customary expected clichés. Even
with the appearance of Sam, there is still a sense
of sadness at the farewell of Dr. Weir, a loss that
is instantaneous but further explored late in the
season when the team learns of her ultimate fate.
One of the strongest aspects in this show is its
characters and I was delighted with the increased
amount of interaction and humorous scenes between
them this season. There is a sense of humor to Ronon
that has not been there before, as well as a renewed
strengthening of the formerly strained friendship
between Sheppard and McKay (Sheppard insults him a
bit less and McKay is not quite as
irritating). There is even a little bit of romance
and hints that two characters might wind up
together. It is done in a clever way that does not
detract from the rest of the story -- one
relationship comes to an end, and sparks between two
unexpected people start to smolder. Admittedly, the
first time I experienced this season I thought the
writers went in the wrong direction when it came to
Teyla. Midway through, they were forced to deal with
the pregnancy of Rachel Luttrell and so invented a
storyline for her that seemed to come out of thin
air. I thought a much more feasible plot would have
involved Michael the Wraith but in retrospect can
see where their cleverness created a far less
negative storyline than the one the fans invented.
Another fantastic addition is the presence of the
Wraith known as Todd (
