Creeva’s World 2.0

Star­gate Atlantis Sea­son 3- more Star­gate goodness.

Ama­zon Syn­op­sis:

With Star­gate SG-1 now per­ma­nently off the data screen (except for a TV movie or two) after ten pro­duc­tive sea­sons, it appears that the fate of the uni­verse is now the respon­si­bil­ity of the Star­gate Atlantis crew. Based on the latter’s third sea­son, whose 20 episodes (plus a wealth of bonus fea­tures) are made avail­able here on five discs, we’re in good hands.
Three years into it, Atlantis has retained numer­ous famil­iar ele­ments while con­tin­u­ing to evolve steadily. The core cast is intact, with the cocky wiseacre-hero Lt. Col. John Shep­pard (Joe Flani­gan) and the ego­tis­ti­cal, neu­rotic genius Dr. Rod­ney McKay (David Hewlett) still the most enter­tain­ing of the bunch; as the series explores the char­ac­ters’ per­sonal lives and back­sto­ries, we even meet (in “McKay and Mrs. Miller”) the latter’s sis­ter, who’s every bit the wiz that he is. On the other hand, the roles of team leader Dr. Eliz­a­beth Weir (Torri Hig­gin­son) and mem­bers Teyla (Rachel Lut­trell) and Ronon Dex (Jason Momoa) are nei­ther espe­cially well-written nor well-played. The return of Richard Dean Ander­son (and his sense of humor) as Gen­eral Jack O’Neill, the SG-1 main­stay dur­ing most of its run, for a few cameos is most wel­come, as is the pres­ence of the Wraith, the series’ prin­ci­pal vil­lains (SG-1 fans will also rec­og­nize the “sen­tient machines” known as the Repli­ca­tors from that series). With their flow­ing white locks, cat-like eyes, pale, almost translu­cent skin, ultra-fine black leather dusters, and, in one case, shades that would make a Hol­ly­wood hip­ster envi­ous, the Wraith remain the coolest bad guys on the sci-fi scene. We already knew that they feed on humans, but this sea­son brings some star­tling new rev­e­la­tions, par­tic­u­larly in “Com­mon Ground,” an excel­lent episode that finds Shep­pard and a Wraith (Christo­pher Hey­er­dahl) form­ing an unlikely alliance against a mutual enemy; we also wit­ness the return of the Wraith known as Michael (Con­nor Trin­neer), who was the sub­ject of the Atlantis team’s ongo­ing “retro-virus” exper­i­ment (designed to make Wraiths human) in Sea­son Two and plays a sig­nif­i­cant recur­ring role in Sea­son Three. Other devel­op­ments are appar­ent as well, but most dra­matic of all is the death of one of the team’s key mem­bers.
Star­gate Atlantis isn’t the most orig­i­nal TV show ever cre­ated; in fact, ele­ments of The Run­ning Man, Alien, The Abyss, Enemy Mine, and other sci-fi works are some­times so obvi­ous that the char­ac­ters them­selves men­tion them in dia­logue. But as always, the action sequences, spe­cial effects, mod­els, and other tech­ni­cal ele­ments are first-rate, as are the bonus fea­tures, which include episode com­men­taries, fea­turettes, and photo galleries.