Stargate Atlantis

I didn't think much of Stargate Atlantis, expecting it to be another franchise to make money from the original Stargate movie. I was wrong. At the same time, my friends told me that the storyline in Atlantis was related to Stargate SG-1 and I started to have second thoughts about watching it. Bear in mind that Stargate Atlantis still hasn't reached us, so I had to settle for the DVD series.

Stargate Atlantis starts off where Stargate SG-1 left off at the end of Season 9 where they found an Ancient outpost in Antartica thinking that it was Atlantis. At the same time, a new gate address is found and it has 8 symbols, meaning that it's a gate address in another galaxy. A new team is assembled to head to this new address. However, there's also this new catch that the new team has to at least have this thing called an Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) gene that allows members of the team to activate Ancient technology.

Again, this new team walks through the gate and sets up shop in Atlantis, however, things get out of hand when they arrive. They realise that they don't have enough power as the ZPM (Zero Point Module) is depleting and this power problem remains a hassle for them throughout season 1 and into season 2 and 3 (I think, haven't gotten there yet).

They encounter friendly and deadly new races and the deadliest one of all, the Wraith seem almost impossible to defend against. This race defeated the Ancients and feeds of the life energy of humans. They were in hibernation when the Atlantis team woke them up after they killed the Hive Keeper. So the theme throughout season 1 is them making new friends, and new enemies (The Genii) and all the while dodging attacks from the Wraith and looking for new power sources.

The characters in this series are interesting. Major John Sheppard reminds me of Jack O'Neill from SG-1, not as funny, but just as resourceful and smart. Dr Elizabeth Weir the expedition team leader is a natural and level-headed leader. She's able to make difficult decisions which turn out to be right. Dr Rodney McKay, the resident scientist has a huge ego and always thinks he's correcet, when actually he's not. Dr Carson Beckett is the Irish bloke resident chief medical officer, who has the nicest accent and is afraid to use his ATA gene to activate Ancient technology.

I found that several plot points repeated and it was almost like watching an earlier season of Stargate SG-1, especially when the 3 hive ships start approaching Atlantis, which almost reflects the Goa'uld arriving in their hatak to conquer Earth.

The new stargate is different in that, the inner wheel doesn't rotate to the correct glyph before locking. In the Pegasus galaxy, dialling the stargate is much faster as the correct glyph moves around the stargate electronically and locks on faster. However, this also means the incoming wormholes also get dialled in faster and prevent you from dialling out.

Overall, this was an enjoyable introductory season to watch in all manner of Stargate entertainment, which has the format of mixing sci-fi with action-adventure and a touch of comedy.

8 out of 10 stars