The fourth season of Stargate Atlantis sees the city adrift in normal space after her hyperdrive engine cut out, it turns out the Asuran energy beam caused significant damage to the primary power conduits of the city and there was simply not enough energy getting to the engines to keep the city in hyperspace. As the fly through local space with no way to call for help they discover that while the damage can be routed around after a lot of hard physical work the clock is ticking as the city is pumping energy from the ZPM to maintain life support and other functions. The city reduces shield coverage which causes the death of three technicians working on one of the piers but an approaching asteroid field has all the jumpers launching and trying to clear a path, the desperate attempt is partially successful but the unprotected parts of the city suffer considerable damage and yep one of the towers houses a control unit that has to be bypassed. Zelenka and John go for a space walk and while they achieve their goals it’s not without injury. Oh, did I forget that Elizabeth is all but dead and Dr Keller encourages Rodney to reactive the nanites in her system despite John’s vehement refusal as he sites the risk but it’s done and Elizabeth awakes fully healed, she is not entirely happy looking at the big picture but it seems the nanites can not communicate with the Asurans and maybe there is hope for everyone. The hyperdrive capable jumper which Rodney tried to develop when under the influence of the Ascension device has limited functions and the Asuran homeworld full of ZPM modules is within range.
Guy with the brush, sweep harder!
Adrift is great start to the fourth season, while the CGI is a little hit and miss when it’s hits it hits big time and combined with the drama of their escape from the Asurans and the deaths and consequences the episode is packed and I really can fault the overall production. It was great to see John and Rodney facing eachother down, maybe the first time they have had a serious disagreement and imagine it over Elizabeth being saved or allowed to die and a nice touch to have Ronon give the emotional side, that was very satisfying but watching him walk around aimlessly in the background of so many shots was just too funny for words. The asteroid field was an idea that for me didn’t really work but it was an action sequence in an episode that was a lot of talking heads but the simpler tower leap by Zelenka and John was far more impressive, it says a lot that the Stargate inhouse and third party CG designers have set the bar so high. I was amazed John did not recognise the address for the Asuran homeworld and on the surface a covert strike to steal a ZPM sounds like suicide but what options do they have and they do have the ace in the hole if they can trust her.
Thanks everyone for listening to our take on Adrift, we would love to hear what you thought about this episode of Atlantis and our own take on it and if you want to join us then feel free to get in touch. Many thanks to Brad for joining me on the show as Alan has returned home to the Republic for a short visit with family, this weeks promo was for the Saturday B Movie Reel and next week I am joined by a new guest Ian for the Atlantis episode Lifeline, hope you join us.
Promo…
Links…
- Adrift Wiki
- Adrift IMDB
- Jewel Staite
- Yee Jee Tso
- David Nykl
- Michael Beach
- Bill Dow
- Linda Ko
- Syn Narula
- Martin Wood
Mentions…
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