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TV Log

March 6

Go Buy this Now!

The excellent DVD box set of the fantastic second season of the most fabulous Stargate Atlantis is available today.

Hmm. Did that sound a little amateurish?

Bleh. I can't help it. I spent the weekend listening to the commentaries on all 20 (!) of the episodes and even watching the featurettes (well, most of them) all the way through. There are, alas, no bloopers no deleted scenes, but, as with the first season, the Atlantis audio extras belong to that rare category of commentaries that actually tell you interesting things.

For those who don't have the episodes memorized, we start with the third episode in "The Siege" trilogy, when Ford has fallen into the water with a Wraith drone attached to his chest, Sheppard flying into a Wraith hive with a nuke in his puddlejumper, and all of Atlantis about to fall into enemy hands.

During the season, we get to meet (and grow to like) the new member of SA-1, Specialist Ronon Dex, who's spent the last seven years running as a sort of sport-prey from the Wraith. Poor Rodney gets stuck in the back of a sinking puddlejumper and hallucinates Samantha Carter. Tayla sings over the body of her grandmother. Elizabeth gets another consciousness in her head and almost kills everyone, and Carson Beckett comes up with a Wraith nano-virus that creates Michael the Wraith and almost turns Sheppard into a bug.

Pretty cool.

Despite the ever-present threat of the Wraith, Atlantis has managed to remake the Stargate magic in its own cauldron precisely by not having too much reliance on the Big Bad Plot Arc. While SG-1 has unfortunately been mired down through seasons nine and ten with the Ori, Atlantis has gone back to the fun of SG-1's first seasons, which the teams went through the gate to adventure and romance.

So we also get to hang out with foppish "nobles" who use an Ancient tower to lord over the peasants, criminals who are sent to "Wraith Island" instead of prison, Ancients in a VR who don't know they've been in stasis 10,000 years, and nice guys who don't realize that when your Ancient shield is powered by a volcano, you really shouldn't leave it set to "high."

Much as I liked Ford, Ronon really does work better on the team. Lorne's a great addition, and there are superb character moments throughout the season. Some favorite quotes:

Lorne: I was hoping Lt. Ford would recognize a friendly face and turn himself in.
McKay: You mean me?
Lorne: Well, you were friends, weren't you?
McKay: Oh yeah, when we weren't out on harrowing missions, we used to hang out together. I'd share my dreams of self-sustaining fusion, he would talk about how you could sever a man's torso with a P-90.

Sheppard: This is what I do when I have problems with my laptop, I turn it off and then I turn it on again.
Weir: I think this is a little bit more complicated than that.
Sheppard: I'm just saying that if we're taking a page from the John Sheppard Book of Computer Repair, we're really desperate.

Beckett: We still have no idea how it works, but during the Wraith feeding process, the victim is injected with a special enzyme. It strengthens the human body temporarily and ensures that the heart continues to beat.
Sheppard: Why would they want to make you stronger?
Beckett: So the victim doesn't die immediately. The feeding process is so traumatic, without the special enzyme, we shut down far sooner than they like.
Weir: They make you stronger so they can take more time to kill you.
Beckett: Lovely, isn't it?

McKay: Maybe we should make a diversion.
Lorne: Are you volunteering?
McKay: I'll shut up.

As I said, all the episodes have commentary, the best coming from Martins Wood and Gero, David Hewlett, and Peter DeLuise (though it's all fun, really, and they bring in Amanda Tapping for "Grace Under Pressure"). We get a great featurette on James "Bam-Bam" Bamford, the stunt coordinator, and we spend a loooooottt of time on the kiss in McKay and Beckett character profiles.

What's really great about Wood and Gero is that their commentaries are 40-minute lessons in filmmaking. We get to hear about the DoP's lighting choices, 100 ways to make the same corridor look like different corridors, how blocking works, how the actors contribute to their characters, and how the whole thing really works.

My only complaint, and I have to reach for it, is the sucky cover art. Get someone better with Photoshop next time, guys!

The five discs are AC-3 format, Dolby, dubbed & subbed, widescreen, region 1. Total run Time: 900 minutes. Available at Amazon for $35.00.