Progeny - Review
23/10/2008 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachel500Progeny is the 5th episode in Season Three of Stargate Atlantis.
Review
Review
The Replicators make their first appearance in the Pegasus galaxy in Progeny and provide a chilling additional enemy for the Atlantis team to face besides the Wraith. The story provides a nice set-up for an arc for Weir while showcasing McKay’s technical abilities, and his relationship with Sheppard. The result is an accomplished piece of work that ticks all the right boxes but somehow feels as soulless as the Replicators themselves.
Although SGA has always seemed more in need of allies than enemies (as Sheppard comments ‘just what we need; more bad guys’), arguably, the Replicators especially in their human form were the most successful of the enemies created to face SG1. Their destruction, and in particular, the destruction of Repli-Carter at the end of SG1’s S8 seemed to cut short the life of this enemy before its time. While the revival of them in the Pegasus galaxy may seem like re-treading old ground for some, for others they are welcome resurrection.
In SGA they are presented as a Replicator-like enemy rather than exactly the Replicators of old. They are created by the Ancients themselves as a failed weapon against the Wraith and programmed with brutal aggression. David Ogden Stiers is fantastic as the Asuran leader who embodies their nature; cold, hard, arrogant, remorseless with aggression beneath a thin veneer of humanity.
Equally, John O’Callaghan, is excellent as Niam, a Pinocchio-like Replicator whose greatest ambition is to emulate his creators and ascend. Niam is remarkably likeable and sympathetic which is a success of how well the character is written and portrayed. It’s so successful that Niam’s sudden attack on Weir is the shock it is intended to be.
Unfortunately, it is in the relationship that the Atlantis team builds with Niam that the similarities to SG1’s Unnatural Selection are most evident. The question over whether the destruction of the Asuran city is a betrayal of Niam’s trust; even the decision to take Niam with them; his relationship with Weir reminiscent of Fifth/Carter – all feel a little too similar even if the choices made and relationships are ultimately different.
Still, these Replicators are a success as a hard-to-defeat enemy. The Atlantis team are amazingly fortunate in their escape which is completely down to McKay and his technical skills. McKay’s ability to change the base code gives them the access which allows him to freeze the Replicators for a short space of time. It is entirely believable technically and wholly in character. However, as the team then turn to the question of how to blow up the Asuran city, McKay is once again called upon for an idea. As he says he should go on these missions on his own; it would have been better had Sheppard suggested the idea of a ZPM overload even if McKay was still called upon to rig it. McKay’s inability to change Niam before he attacks Weir and his own innate arrogance at the end ground McKay back in reality after his brilliance in saving the team and Atlantis but it still feels imbalanced and the escape very convenient.
What is fascinating is the difference in the actual escape and Sheppard’s imagined one. In the latter, it is Sheppard’s brawn (with a little help from Ronan) that saves the day with a soupcon of McKay’s technical skills. In the actual escape, Sheppard is left to twiddle his thumbs. His frustration comes out in his constant nagging of McKay and their bickering over how much time McKay has actually bought them. These exchanges do provide some much needed humour and the sibling rivalry aspect is played up nicely continuing the theme from the previous episode especially as Weir rebukes them a la Mom. The team’s concern for her at various points emphasises her role in their family and family continues to be an underlying theme, this time played out in the parent/child relationship between the Replicators and the Ancients.
Weir is the other character centre stage in Progeny. Her leadership skills are fully on display in the one to one session she has with Oberoth, with her controlling the team discussion on their escape plan and in her persuasion of Niam to help them. Yet her Achilles heel is also shown once more; her compassion. It is this that leads her to invite Niam to return with them which in turn leads to her almost being killed and future ramifications are hinted at with the final scene being a sinister shot of Niam in space.
It is a nice touch that in reviving one of SG1’s most reviled enemies that it is the Atlantean characters that originated in SG1, McKay and Weir, who carry the bulk of the story. Yet for all the positive points of the episode including the outstanding special effects that show the superiority of the Asuran planet, the apocalyptic destruction wrought by the Ancients and the breath-taking flying city, there feels like something is missing.
Perhaps the failure is down to a major question left by the plot; why the Asurans decide to attack Atlantis. Weir puts forward the theory that they are destroying the city out of a sense of revenge on their creators mixed in with a little sibling jealousy directed at humans but it doesn’t feel like a compelling reason. This coupled with the convenience of the escape, and the similarities to Unnatural Selection, make it all a little too much like painting with numbers. The colours are all in the right places but the soul of the painting is missing.
Progeny is still an accomplished episode and highly enjoyable with some simply breath-taking moments including the destruction of Atlantis in Sheppard’s vision and good use of the characters although the show is failing to find a balance for the six regulars as Beckett is once again MIA. It’s a good set-up and one that hopefully will be used to its fullest potential.
Although SGA has always seemed more in need of allies than enemies (as Sheppard comments ‘just what we need; more bad guys’), arguably, the Replicators especially in their human form were the most successful of the enemies created to face SG1. Their destruction, and in particular, the destruction of Repli-Carter at the end of SG1’s S8 seemed to cut short the life of this enemy before its time. While the revival of them in the Pegasus galaxy may seem like re-treading old ground for some, for others they are welcome resurrection.
In SGA they are presented as a Replicator-like enemy rather than exactly the Replicators of old. They are created by the Ancients themselves as a failed weapon against the Wraith and programmed with brutal aggression. David Ogden Stiers is fantastic as the Asuran leader who embodies their nature; cold, hard, arrogant, remorseless with aggression beneath a thin veneer of humanity.
Equally, John O’Callaghan, is excellent as Niam, a Pinocchio-like Replicator whose greatest ambition is to emulate his creators and ascend. Niam is remarkably likeable and sympathetic which is a success of how well the character is written and portrayed. It’s so successful that Niam’s sudden attack on Weir is the shock it is intended to be.
Unfortunately, it is in the relationship that the Atlantis team builds with Niam that the similarities to SG1’s Unnatural Selection are most evident. The question over whether the destruction of the Asuran city is a betrayal of Niam’s trust; even the decision to take Niam with them; his relationship with Weir reminiscent of Fifth/Carter – all feel a little too similar even if the choices made and relationships are ultimately different.
Still, these Replicators are a success as a hard-to-defeat enemy. The Atlantis team are amazingly fortunate in their escape which is completely down to McKay and his technical skills. McKay’s ability to change the base code gives them the access which allows him to freeze the Replicators for a short space of time. It is entirely believable technically and wholly in character. However, as the team then turn to the question of how to blow up the Asuran city, McKay is once again called upon for an idea. As he says he should go on these missions on his own; it would have been better had Sheppard suggested the idea of a ZPM overload even if McKay was still called upon to rig it. McKay’s inability to change Niam before he attacks Weir and his own innate arrogance at the end ground McKay back in reality after his brilliance in saving the team and Atlantis but it still feels imbalanced and the escape very convenient.
What is fascinating is the difference in the actual escape and Sheppard’s imagined one. In the latter, it is Sheppard’s brawn (with a little help from Ronan) that saves the day with a soupcon of McKay’s technical skills. In the actual escape, Sheppard is left to twiddle his thumbs. His frustration comes out in his constant nagging of McKay and their bickering over how much time McKay has actually bought them. These exchanges do provide some much needed humour and the sibling rivalry aspect is played up nicely continuing the theme from the previous episode especially as Weir rebukes them a la Mom. The team’s concern for her at various points emphasises her role in their family and family continues to be an underlying theme, this time played out in the parent/child relationship between the Replicators and the Ancients.
Weir is the other character centre stage in Progeny. Her leadership skills are fully on display in the one to one session she has with Oberoth, with her controlling the team discussion on their escape plan and in her persuasion of Niam to help them. Yet her Achilles heel is also shown once more; her compassion. It is this that leads her to invite Niam to return with them which in turn leads to her almost being killed and future ramifications are hinted at with the final scene being a sinister shot of Niam in space.
It is a nice touch that in reviving one of SG1’s most reviled enemies that it is the Atlantean characters that originated in SG1, McKay and Weir, who carry the bulk of the story. Yet for all the positive points of the episode including the outstanding special effects that show the superiority of the Asuran planet, the apocalyptic destruction wrought by the Ancients and the breath-taking flying city, there feels like something is missing.
Perhaps the failure is down to a major question left by the plot; why the Asurans decide to attack Atlantis. Weir puts forward the theory that they are destroying the city out of a sense of revenge on their creators mixed in with a little sibling jealousy directed at humans but it doesn’t feel like a compelling reason. This coupled with the convenience of the escape, and the similarities to Unnatural Selection, make it all a little too much like painting with numbers. The colours are all in the right places but the soul of the painting is missing.
Progeny is still an accomplished episode and highly enjoyable with some simply breath-taking moments including the destruction of Atlantis in Sheppard’s vision and good use of the characters although the show is failing to find a balance for the six regulars as Beckett is once again MIA. It’s a good set-up and one that hopefully will be used to its fullest potential.
