dhae_knight_1 | Stargate Atlantis - the grand finale (Reply)

Just going to put the whole thing behinda cut, because anyone who hasn't seen the last episode of Stargate Atlantis (5x20 in case you're wondering), will a) not understand what I'm going on about and b) get thoroughly spoiled. You have been warned!

The good things:

I didn't hate this episode as much as I did Unending.
I liked the cliche: 'we get Sheppard out of his suicide-mission'
I loved the nod to Don S. Davies. Hammond is not forgotten!
Davies! And Walter! :-D
... that's about it, really. :-(

The Bad things:

So.... You chose to send Sheppard - the one person alive who's actually flown Atlantis - to Earth to sit in the drone-chair? And have Carson Beckett fly Atlantis and fight the Wraith? Am I the only one not getting this? And... no offense, Carson - but what the heck was Jack O'Neill doing that would make him unable to sit in the chair for 10 minutes and kick some Wraith ass with the drones?
In that vein of thought... You really expect us to believe that they'd spend god knows how many hours refitting the 302's, when it was a pretty simple hop to Area 51, where he could've been waiting out the Wraith? Does that make sense in any universe?
Also... you're telling me that Area 51 - the place where Earth (apparently) keeps all it's alien gizmos and gadgets and - more importantly - weapons - have no aerial defence? No SAM's? No railguns? WTF?
Ookay... the Hive taking a gate from the Pegasus-galaxy to Earth to keep the SGC from dialing out actually makes sense. But! Why the heck come up with the twist that the Pegasus-gates automatically overrides the Milkyway-dittos? Why not - oh, I dunno - just take a Pegasus DHD with you? We know from SG-1 (season 1 - which is probably why they've forgotten it), that the Goa'uld take DHD's on their motherships. And we know that a gate with a DHD always overrides a gate without a DHD. So... wouldn't that solve the problem? Also... come to think of it... how the heck do the Wraith know about the gate override? They usually just dial into the gate that's already there.
So... Atlantis figures out that the hive's at the other end of the gate. Well done! Now... explain to me, please, why you don't just lob a few nukes through the gate, raise the shield and watch the thing go boom?
And while we're at it - you send a team of 4 people through to a super-hive? Without sending a MALP through first? WTF people? You send every single marine you can get your hands on! Whether there's 4 or 40 won't make much of a difference once the first shot's been fired, and 40 means that much greater chance of success.
Gate-drive. I shall say no more of this.
Killing Ronon. Then reviving him. WTF?
Not that I don't appreciate seeing Carter in charge - but... WHY? What happened to Jack? Landry? Hell, I'd take anyone with a star on his or her shoulders. It doesn't seem credible that they'd leave the defence of Earth to a Colonel - full bird or not.
Speaking of rank - Davies hasn't been promoted in... what... 12 years?!? Working at the Pentagon has got to suck! :-(
Splashdown in the Pacific - nice graphic! Nice position, too, just north of Hawaii. So-uh... why the heck move it? Not only that, but why the heck park it right within sight of the biggest (or one of the biggest, anyway) cities on the west coast? I get that they're cloaked, but... nobody's going to wonder why there are ships sailing out to the middle of nowhere and just... disappearing? Choppers? I suppose they could use cloaked jumpers to ferry people back and forth - but damn, they're going to be flying a lot of supplies, aren't they?
That chick who comes to pick up Ronon. I had to go look online to figure out who the heck she was, because I couldn't remember ever seeing her before.
The end-scene. The only way I can survive the end-scene is by hand-waving Rodney's comment to mean that that's what he expects a 'good' boyfriend should say, and how he should act.

Unbelievably rocky ride - and not in a good way, either.

As with SG-1, I'm sad the show's ended - but even sadder it ends with such a lousily written episode. Gate-drive? Really? You couldn't have... oh, I dunno, maybe stretched the time it took for the hive to finish integrating, so Atlantis could reach Earth the old-fashioned way?

Also... there's a pretty big part of me that wonders why the hell they're flying Atlantis to Earth in the first place. We know - from the Tower - that drones are kept in racks. They couldn't have... I dunno... grabbed a few racks to send through to Earth? Strengthening Earth's chair that way?

The big dog-fight was... really a let-down, I think. I was in awe of the show-down in Lost City, and this... well, it did really well in showing how confusing aerial battles must be. Also... kinda surprised John didn't order his wing-man to break off and target the two darts shooting at them.

Yeah. I'm going to have to re-write this episode in my own head, until it becomes something I can live with.