Sunday, October 12, 2008

Wow...

So it has been a very long time since a television show has actually given me a jaw-dropping moment, but I had one this past Friday while watching Stargate Atlantis.  

(Major spoiler coming up if you haven't seen the episode and don't want to know what happened before you do).

The episode was the conclusion of a two-parter that involved Dr. Daniel Jackson coming to Atlantis (yay!) in search of Janus the Ancient's secret lab.  He enlists Rodney's help and they find the lab, only to accidentally alert some mysterious race on some far off planet to this fact when Rodney's ATA gene wakes up every device in the lab.

We join this episode with Rodney having realized what nasty side-effect is caused by the Ancient Wraith-destroying device he is forced to turn on by the mysterious aliens.   That side-effect is that all of the Stargates in the Pegasus galaxy will blow up when turned on while the device is running--as we found out in Atlantis.  Thankfully Sheppard and Zelenka were the only ones in the control room when the gate blew and they were able to take cover before that happened.  Meanwhile on the Daedalus Todd the Wraith has taken over the ship because he thinks the Lanteans lured his people into a trap in order to use this Ancient device on them, even though no one on the crew has any idea what is going on.  Keller and Ronon managed to avoid capture and are working to take back the ship.

So, really, a lot going on.  In the course of things everyone ends up at the planet that Rodney and Daniel were abducted to and it becomes a race to turn off the device/destroy the facility without killing the missing scientists in the process.  We even get to see the Travellers again, and not just Laren, but apparently another hot female ship captain.  Sheppard must really have it bad for Laren though because he doesn't even flirt with the new chick, just asks if Laren ever talks about him.  But Rodney and Daniel manage to turn off the device, while getting Daniel  pretty much electrocuted, Sheppard and the Travellers (with their very Kaylee-esque engineer) manage to save the Daedalus from its collision course with the planet, which it was put in by Todd as he and the other Wraith escaped in the 302's, leaving the humans to fend for themselves.  Then Woosley, in a particularly bad-ass moment (though maybe in a bit of overkill) has the facility bombed anyway once Daniel and Rodney are safely aboard the ship.  

Before escaping and doing their part to save the day however, Daniel and Rodney make the discovery that was the cause of my previously mentioned jaw-dropping.  Turns out the bad guys were Asgard.  Yeah, the little grey aliens are back, only these guys are much more evil than their now extinct counterparts that we in the Milky Way knew and loved.  I don't even know if evil is the right word.  Just selfish bastards really.  They wanted to turn on the Wraith destructo beam so they could move freely about the galaxy, even though they knew about the exploding Stargate side-effect of the device.  They don't use the Stargates, and what do a few million human lives matter if they can fly around without worrying about defending themselves from Wraith.  Seriously, did not see that coming.  Even Loki wasn't that bad.  He at least returned his victims back home with nothing more than a few disturbing memories.  

All in all this was a truly excellent episode.  It wasn't as predictable as it can be (not that I have a problem with that as long as it is entertaining), and Jackson makes an excellent addition to the Atlantis crew.  He and Rodney have a wonderful bit of screen chemistry going.  Sigh.  I know Shanks wants to move on past the role of Daniel Jackson but he's just so good at it.  Logically, in the world of these stories, Daniel Jackson ends up in Atlantis.  I just wish real life would let it work out that way too, but alas.  But I digress.  Seriously, it saddens me that this is the last season of Atlantis, because they seem to be finding a really awesome stride.  Of course, that could be only because it is the last season and they figure they don't have anything to lose.  

My other Friday night viewing was pretty enjoyable as well.  I felt like this episode of Sanctuary was maybe a little too full of information (seriously, ten minutes until the end of the episode I thought it would be a "to be continued" but then they managed to wrap everything up in those ten minutes), but it was still fun.  Next week begins brand new territory though and I am really looking foward to that.  I am also totally digging Clone Wars.  It is everything a Star Wars cartoon should be, IMO.  There are lots of space ship battles, lots of light-saber fights, lots and lots of expositional dialog that could be so much better written...plus there's R2-D2.  I love R2-D2.  

I was setting my DVR for this week and I see that a large chunk of my shows will not be coming on due to MLB on Fox.  But we do get a new Fringe at least.  Guess I'll be working through some DVDs this week maybe.  

I hope everyone is doing dandy.  Until next time!

C

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