With it’s first episode, the second season of Stargate Atlantis
wraps up the three-part storyline which details the assault on the ancient city
by the Wraith, the creepy, soul-sucking villains who feed on humans as if we
were cattle. Yet Atlantis’ writers have already begun laying the groundwork for
the season to come within this very same episode. No longer cut off from Earth,
Atlantis now has a destroyer, the Daedalus, at its beck and call. The Daedalus
is Commanded by Colonel Caldwell (well-played by Mitch Pileggi, who’s probably
better known as Skinner from the X-Files), a military man with a harder edged
personality than John Sheppard who clashes with Weir almost immediately. Another
major change sees the Lt. Ford character get severely wounded by a Wraith warrior,
who started to feed on him when the ghastly process was interrupted during the
battle.
The result has Ford mutating into a super-powered, paranoid junkie who needs to
kill Wraith in order to maintain his fix. Convinced that everybody on Atlantis
is his enemy, Ford escapes the city--as well as the series itself--and becomes a
recurring character, a quasi-villainous threat who’s always on the run. Actor
Jason Momoa is brought in as a new series regular, playing the rugged, gruff Ronon
Dex, who is first introduced in the third episode, Runner. A former soldier
whose home world was destroyed by the Wraith, Ronon is the archetypical science
fiction warrior cast in the same mold as Worf from Star Trek: The Next
Generation, or Teal'c, from Stargate: SG-1. Like Worf and Teal'c, Ronon is a big, fearsome fighter who is more than a match
for any adversary--whom he usually dispatches with his bare hands. On most sci-fi shows, this sort of
character is usually very clichéd and silly.
But what do you know? It works very well here! The success of Ronon Dex is attributed largely
to the acting skills of Jason Momoa, who's utterly convincing as a combat-hardened
warrior who is relentless in his hatred of the Wraith. The series’ writers also
aren’t afraid to let him cut loose--literally. Unlike poor Worf, whose proud
warrior instincts were always restricted by the politically correct mentality of
The Next Generation’s creators, Ronon is allowed to go off on the bad guys, such
as the scene in The Tower, where Ronon comes to the aid of a villager woman
who’s about to be assaulted by a band of uniformed thugs. The casual
brutality with which we see Ronon slitting the neck of one of the thugs
effectively underscores the fact that he's a great guy to have on your side.
I don’t know if it’s thanks to the presence of Ronon, but the action quotient
has been increased a great deal in season two, giving us some thoroughly
enjoyable episodes, like the epic two-parter Lost Boys and The Hive. Other great
episodes include the more comical Duet, where Rodney discovers he’s sharing his
mind with the engaging Lt. Laura Cadman (Jaime Ray Newman), Aurora, where
Sheppard and his team encounter an Ancient battleship with its still-living crew,
and Grace Under Pressure, where Rodney gets unlikely help from Samantha Carter
while trapped in a crashed puddle jumper. Critical Mass is also a worthy episode,
as is the somber Michael. And The Long Goodbye, featuring
Sheppard and Weir possessed by aliens who hate each other, is just plain fun to watch. The
DVD set comes complete with plenty of special feature goodies, including
commentaries on each and every episode, as well as behind the scenes featurettes.
These special features, along with a powerhouse season of episodes, makes this
set a must have for any SF fan.
--SF
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