McKay and Mrs Miller - Review
23/10/2008 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rachel500McKay and Mrs Miller is the 8th episode in Season Three of Stargate Atlantis.
Review
Review
A comedy episode with the redoubtable McKay front and centre has success written all over it so it is with some surprise that the episode doesn’t quite live up to its potential and harder still to pinpoint the reason why. David Hewlett in fine form as McKay; check. Hewlett’s sister playing McKay’s sister; check. Sibling banter throughout; check. Guest appearance by Amanda Tapping; check. Believable story and great team dynamics; whoops.
The first part of the episode is wonderfully executed with the introduction of McKay’s sister facilitated by Colonel Carter. McKay and Carter have always had a great competitive dynamic and Hewlett and Tapping play off each other as seamlessly as ever. This is best demonstrated in the scene at the SGC with McKay reading his sister’s work and Carter pacing impatiently around him to finish and their verbal jousts over whether the math adds up. Their relationship is nicely contrasted and complemented by the competitive nature of the McKay siblings.
Hewlett and his sister, Kate, do a superb job. The comedic nature of their banter is nicely offset by their subtle reactions in displaying the underlying emotional reunion of the siblings and their efforts to move past their four years of silence despite the hurt and distance that has been built up between them. The timing of the banter between them is flawless; their exasperation with the other nicely evident and their actual fondness for each other gives all their shared scenes a wonderful warmth (helped no doubt by their real sibling relationship). The scene of McKay turning up at Jeannie’s door with flowers, his awkward interaction with her daughter, their arguing over the rights and wrongs of their work being in the hands of the US government, provides the best example of this although the scene on the Daedalus with Carter on the video feed briefing them is also very good as is the final scene of the siblings saying goodbye and coming to terms with each other. The relationship is imbued with the theme of building bridges which is also the central arc of the story; building bridges between universes.
Having successfully dealt with the introduction of Jeannie and with Carter’s role completed the rest of the episode moves on to the meat of the story. It starts out well; the scenes of the two siblings working together on the Daedalus and the cut-backs to Atlantis with Zelenka building the containment chamber is well done and builds a great sense of tension that culminates with the switching on of the device. Unfortunately, the story flounders after this point with the arrival of Rod.
Part of the reason is the sheer predictability that the bridge would connect with an inhabited parallel universe; part of the reason is that Rod is not particularly well drawn as a character in his own right. Rod is supposed to be the more likeable version of McKay yet here is where the character comes unstuck because McKay is hugely likeable to the audience because of his flaws and lack of social graces; that’s what makes McKay, McKay. A ‘nice’, and supposedly ‘cool’ version is infinitely less interesting and so Rod proves to be a bit of a bore and hence less likeable. Hewlett also seems a little uncertain how to play Rod and he never truly seems comfortable in the character while he continues to excel as McKay. His jealous reaction to the interloper is one of the few redeeming features of the rest of the episode.
The other reason why the story flounders is because of the way the team is portrayed in their reactions to Rod and McKay. SGA has struggled occasionally to demonstrate a real team spirit between the characters but episodes such as Sateda and Common Ground this season have helped to build that team spirit back into the show; McKay and Mrs Miller undermines that with the running joke of McKay constantly showing up to the rest of the team laughing together and him excluded. Indeed the team is primarily only used as an ensemble to show these scenes of excluding McKay. The final scene of the team reassuring McKay of his place and his joining them in the banter is too little/too late to make up for the damage caused by the those earlier moments of exclusion and isolation of McKay, although the great Sheppard/McKay interaction in the advice scene and later with Sheppard showing Jeannie the video message, almost makes up for it.
Ultimately, that uncomfortable feeling of exclusion from the team translates to the audience who is sympathising with McKay and makes the whole Rod escapade an irritation rather than a welcome snapshot into another universe in the way of SG1’s There But For the Grace of God, Point of View, or even Ripple Effect. It also detracts from showcasing Jeannie and McKay although the intent seems in part to have been to have added further conflict to enable McKay’s moment of revelation about how bad a brother he has been, and for the character to correct earlier mistakes (for example, giving Jeannie credit). The special effects of placing Rod/McKay in the same space are well done though and the handshake at the end a marvel.
Indeed, the overall execution of the episode from lighting to make-up to costume to set design is well done except for the underlying story. Its weaknesses – its predictability, the unsuccessful character of Rod, the undermining rather than strengthening of the SGA team spirit all slowly erode the promise of the excellent beginning and the wonderful chemistry between David Hewlett and his sister as the McKay siblings, yet such is the quality of both that the viewer is almost fooled into believing the whole is as good. In the end, it’s not a bad episode; it just fails to live up to high expectations.
The first part of the episode is wonderfully executed with the introduction of McKay’s sister facilitated by Colonel Carter. McKay and Carter have always had a great competitive dynamic and Hewlett and Tapping play off each other as seamlessly as ever. This is best demonstrated in the scene at the SGC with McKay reading his sister’s work and Carter pacing impatiently around him to finish and their verbal jousts over whether the math adds up. Their relationship is nicely contrasted and complemented by the competitive nature of the McKay siblings.
Hewlett and his sister, Kate, do a superb job. The comedic nature of their banter is nicely offset by their subtle reactions in displaying the underlying emotional reunion of the siblings and their efforts to move past their four years of silence despite the hurt and distance that has been built up between them. The timing of the banter between them is flawless; their exasperation with the other nicely evident and their actual fondness for each other gives all their shared scenes a wonderful warmth (helped no doubt by their real sibling relationship). The scene of McKay turning up at Jeannie’s door with flowers, his awkward interaction with her daughter, their arguing over the rights and wrongs of their work being in the hands of the US government, provides the best example of this although the scene on the Daedalus with Carter on the video feed briefing them is also very good as is the final scene of the siblings saying goodbye and coming to terms with each other. The relationship is imbued with the theme of building bridges which is also the central arc of the story; building bridges between universes.
Having successfully dealt with the introduction of Jeannie and with Carter’s role completed the rest of the episode moves on to the meat of the story. It starts out well; the scenes of the two siblings working together on the Daedalus and the cut-backs to Atlantis with Zelenka building the containment chamber is well done and builds a great sense of tension that culminates with the switching on of the device. Unfortunately, the story flounders after this point with the arrival of Rod.
Part of the reason is the sheer predictability that the bridge would connect with an inhabited parallel universe; part of the reason is that Rod is not particularly well drawn as a character in his own right. Rod is supposed to be the more likeable version of McKay yet here is where the character comes unstuck because McKay is hugely likeable to the audience because of his flaws and lack of social graces; that’s what makes McKay, McKay. A ‘nice’, and supposedly ‘cool’ version is infinitely less interesting and so Rod proves to be a bit of a bore and hence less likeable. Hewlett also seems a little uncertain how to play Rod and he never truly seems comfortable in the character while he continues to excel as McKay. His jealous reaction to the interloper is one of the few redeeming features of the rest of the episode.
The other reason why the story flounders is because of the way the team is portrayed in their reactions to Rod and McKay. SGA has struggled occasionally to demonstrate a real team spirit between the characters but episodes such as Sateda and Common Ground this season have helped to build that team spirit back into the show; McKay and Mrs Miller undermines that with the running joke of McKay constantly showing up to the rest of the team laughing together and him excluded. Indeed the team is primarily only used as an ensemble to show these scenes of excluding McKay. The final scene of the team reassuring McKay of his place and his joining them in the banter is too little/too late to make up for the damage caused by the those earlier moments of exclusion and isolation of McKay, although the great Sheppard/McKay interaction in the advice scene and later with Sheppard showing Jeannie the video message, almost makes up for it.
Ultimately, that uncomfortable feeling of exclusion from the team translates to the audience who is sympathising with McKay and makes the whole Rod escapade an irritation rather than a welcome snapshot into another universe in the way of SG1’s There But For the Grace of God, Point of View, or even Ripple Effect. It also detracts from showcasing Jeannie and McKay although the intent seems in part to have been to have added further conflict to enable McKay’s moment of revelation about how bad a brother he has been, and for the character to correct earlier mistakes (for example, giving Jeannie credit). The special effects of placing Rod/McKay in the same space are well done though and the handshake at the end a marvel.
Indeed, the overall execution of the episode from lighting to make-up to costume to set design is well done except for the underlying story. Its weaknesses – its predictability, the unsuccessful character of Rod, the undermining rather than strengthening of the SGA team spirit all slowly erode the promise of the excellent beginning and the wonderful chemistry between David Hewlett and his sister as the McKay siblings, yet such is the quality of both that the viewer is almost fooled into believing the whole is as good. In the end, it’s not a bad episode; it just fails to live up to high expectations.
