Not only the worst ATLANTIS season, but possibly an all-time low for the entire franchise!!
After three seasons of rivaling SG-1 as best Sci-Fi show on TV, I suppose a downfall was inevitable. Season 4 served up disappointment after disappointment. If you are familiar with what's going on behind the scenes, this isn't really much of a surprise.
There were SO many problems surrounding Season 4, there was just almost no chance of pulling off anything good. To begin with, you had many cast changes, which is a major gamble for any show. Fan favorite Dr. Beckett (Paul McGillon) had been killed off late in Season 3, to be replaced by the beautiful but one-dimensional Dr. Keller (Jewel Saite, of Firefly). As noted in other reviews, Beckett and McKay (David Hewlett) were great foils for one another, and this relationship is SORELY missed in Season 4.
To make matters worse, the leader of the expedition, Dr. Weir (Tori Higginson) is killed off in the first episode. Now, there seemed to be mixed feelings about Tori. Die-hard fans did not like her as the replacement for the original Dr. Weir on SG-1. Others, like myself, who got into Stargate via Atlantis, loved Tori and were very sad to see her go! The upshot of her death was supposed to be replacing her with Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping). This probably sounded great on paper - take a beloved character from SG-1 and bring her to Atlantis to bring back any SG-1 viewers who never got into Atlantis. However, Carter is used so sparingly in the season, that she hardly seems to even be in it! I don't think there was a single story revolving around her, and many of the episodes didn't have her at all! Now, I loved Carter on SG-1, but here she feels more like a ploy than a member of the team. In short, the producers did not give us a satisfactory return for eliminating Dr. Weir.
Then there were at least two pregnancies to contend with. Amanda Tapping either was just back from giving birth, or was in the middle stages of pregnancy this season, which probably helps explain the smaller role. As such, she looks very frumpy and dishevelled all season (sorry) and her baggy uniform just doesn't help anything! And, Rachel Lutrell (Teyla) became pregnant midway through the season. Which means . . . you guessed it . . . TEYLA is pregnant! The introduction of this story line in the Atlantis world was so sudden and random, it felt like a semi plowing into you on the freeway! Since she hadn't really been paired off with anyone on the show, they didn't want to jump right into a romance, so they invented a character we've never seen before to suddenly become her "true love." A random person from her village, which we've rarely seen her visit, suddenly is thrust into the main storyline. It's a bad sell that sticks out like her pregnant belly! Of course, her pregnancy eventually demands the other norm for expecting Sci-Fi actresses - a kidnapping! Yes, they trot out that tired storyline to cover her time off for delivery. (By the way, please don't get me wrong - I am very excited for both Amanda and Rachel! But it still affects the show!)
Finally, the producers of the franchise were clearly busy on the two "feature' SG-1 films - and with the added issue of the writer's strike, the stories this season seem VERY repetitive, recycled, and frankly boring. The larger story is all but lost, and the threads are so scattered now that there is little interest for me to see them reconnected. I have lost track of which Wraith is good or bad, which clone is on whose side . . . and how many times is a member of Stargate going to be possessed by an alien entity!!?
There were many wasted opportunities this season. From the get-go, leaving the home planet with the city seemed RIFE with possibility. I couldn't wait to see what would befall them on a new planet. Yet they never once, NOT ONCE, set foot on their new planet! There were no new enemies, no new challenges. Just the same ole ocean. You are left wondering "What was the point of all that!?"
The better villains have been lost by the wayside - did we even see the Genii this year? And, again because of the SG-1 movies, the budgets were clearly very tight this year. There were many episodes with just two or three of the main cast (cut per episode spending) - ALOT of episodes set in one location, like out in the woods (to cut set costs) including an entire episode stuck in a mine shaft (much like the previous episodes of characters getting stuck in the Jumpers). Indeed, it seemed like the Stargate universe SHRANK this season, rather than expanding!
It wasn't a total loss. For one, the actors are still top notch, and the chemistry is still there. Jewel's Dr. Keller is a sore replacement for Beckett, yet she also works nicely in the cast. There were a handful of truly great episodes, namely Shephard doing "Die Hard" in TRAVELLERS and the Ronon/Tealc smackdown episode MIDWAY (an instant franchise classic, by the way).
I give it three stars because it's still better than alot of TV out there right now. But even with some good moments, the overall feeling is of being letdown. I still have hopes for Season 5. Now that the SG-1 movies are completed, the writer's strike is over, and Carter is back out, maybe they can get back on track! Here's hoping we still have many seasons of Atlantis left and will eventually look back on this season as "that season we survived the writer's strike and the diversion of funds and writers to the SG-1 movies."
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