TV Review: Stargate Atlantis Series Finale, Enemy at the Gate

“Enemy at the Gate”, the final Stargate: Atlantis episode, comes after a pretty strange episode in which we visited a parallel Earth where John Sheppard was a burnt out cop in Vegas chasing a serial killer that, as it turns out, is actually a Wraith soldier stranded on Earth during a failed invasion. The episode was titled “Vegas”, but I like to call it CSI: Atlantis, since the entire episode was purposely shot in that franchise show’s style. At the end of “Vegas”, the Wraith succeeded in punching a hole through space-time and sending the coordinates to Earth into multiple parallel universes to be intercepted. So whatever became of that signal? As it turns out, one of those parallel universes it managed to reach is our universe – or the universe in which the regular Stargate: Atlantis show is set in, I mean.

“Enemy at the Gate” opens with the Wraith Todd, alive and well, contacting Atlantis with a dire warning: he’s since been overthrown by his fellow Wraiths, and oh yeah, the Wraith now have in their possession a ship powered by a ZPM, which have allowed their hive ship to grow into a nearly indestructible warship. The crew of Atlantis takes off in the Daedalus to intercept the still-growing hive ship, hoping to stop it before it can fully mature. Unfortunately for them, the hive ship, while still not fully mature, is already pretty invincible, and after dispatching of the Daedalus with ease, surprisingly abandons the fight and heads off in a new destination – towards Earth, having received the coordinates through that briefly opened hole in space-time sent by the Parallel Vegas Wraith.

Yup, it’s the kind of plot that can only exist in a show with the word Stargate in the title. But then again, isn’t that what we love about it? The rest of the final episode has Sheppard and company trying to slow down the invincible hive ship, which proves difficult, as it’s already cut through the Apollo and Sun Tzu (yet another new Earth ship) on its way to the Milky Way Galaxy. So what exactly can beat a ZPM-powered hive ship? Um, how about another ZPM-powered ship? You know, like the city of Atlantis itself? With Sheppard gating back to Earth to get ready for the Wraith, Carson takes the pilot’s seat, much to McKay’s chagrin. But will they reach Earth in time? Well it would be a pretty lousy episode if they didn’t, wouldn’t it?

The series finale for Stargate: SG1 was not how I wanted to see that show go off the air, though I thought it was appropriately Stargate-ish, even if I thought more could have been done with sending the show out with some style. The producers seem to have learned their lesson, and as a result the series finale for Atlantis is quite the action-packed spectacle, with your usual space battles and an end-of-the-world scenario that our heroes must once again diffuse. Not budget-shattering stuff, of course, but I thought it still worked. Of course, having known that the show’s fifth season would also be its last before the season even began, you would expect such a proper send-off, and I believe the producers have accomplished this. There are no Earth-shaking revelations, no shocking deaths, and Sheppard gets to do all the heroic stuff the leading man of action-adventure shows are supposed to do. So, yeah, very Stargate-ish, once again, and works in the style of the show.

Stargate mainstay Amanda Tapping returns for a sizeable part in the finale, reprising her Samantha Carter, now the temporary head of Stargate Command with General Landry somewhere lost in Washington. The writers also gave us a nice homage to the late Don S. Davis, who for the longest time played General Hammond on Stargate SG1. As in real life, the fictional Hammond is mentioned to have passed away suddenly from a heart attack, and a ship has been renamed in his honor. I thought this was a particularly great touch to the episode, paying respects to someone who has been a very important part of the franchise for the longest time. No appearances by Richard Dean Anderson as O’Neill, though, which is not a surprise. RDA didn’t even show up for the series finale of SG1, so it was highly doubtful he’d return for Atlantis.

I do have some quibbles with “Enemy at the Gate”, though, in particular its introduction of the Wraith possession of ZPMs, a very important element that can destabilize the balance of power in the show’s universe. Out of nowhere, Todd calls Atlantis with news that his guys have had a couple of ZPMs lying around all this time, and was building a super hive ship with it. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention to the current season, but this sure seemed like a convenient plot device. The mutiny on Todd’s ship is also handled pretty poorly; we don’t even know who kicked Todd out of the captain’s chair, only that some “underling” did it, and is now taking the super hive ship to Earth. I don’t believe we ever actually even see this new villain, although someone does show up toward the end that may be him. Or not. He’s that poorly handled. A lot of the missing elements of “Enemy at the Gate” can probably be traced to the fact that the series finale is only an hour-long episode (with commercials), which means the writers probably didn’t have (or were forced to cut) out all the necessary exposition, such as the identities of Todd’s usurpers.

Still, as a series finale, “Enemy at the Gate” is not an altogether bad way to close out the series, paving the way for the Atlantis expedition to continue on life as a series of direct-to-DVD movies similar to what the SG1 crew did at the end of their run with “The Ark of Truth” and “Continuum”. The Stargate brand will continue to live on TV with a new series called Stargate: Universe, which I’m not wild about, but as with all things Stargate, I’ve been a loyal enough fan that sure, I’ll give it a shot, but it better not be the Stargate 90210 that I’ve been dreading. Seriously, if this turns out to be some CW-wannabe show set in space, I’m abandoning that ship faster than you can say, “What the hell have they done to my Stargate???”

Fair warning, producers of Stargate, fair warning…