Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: Hide and Seek
Rodney inside the entity (photo from GateWorld.net)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Hide and Seek
Story by Brad Wright & Robert C. Cooper
Teleplay by Robert C. Cooper
Directed by David Warry-Smith
Guest starring Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Craig Veroni (Grodin), Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling), Reece Thompson (Jinto), Casey Dubois (Wex), Boyan Vukelic (Stackhouse), Meghan Black (Marta)
Summary
As the expedition and their Athosian guests settle into life in Atlantis an Athosian boy goes missing and accidentally releases a dangerous experiment the Ancients left behind 10,000 years ago. Dr. McKay is the guinea pig for Dr. Beckett’s ATA gene therapy and gets trapped in an Ancient personal force shield.
General Impressions
I loved the first few scenes between McKay and Beckett, and the following scene in which Sheppard throws McKay off a balcony onto the Gate room floor just as Weir is telling Grodin how important safety is. McKay is saved by his personal force shield, which the next scene reveals he can’t remove, leaving him unable to eat or drink (or relieve himself, I imagine). Poor Rodney. Sheppard’s boyish enthusiasm when he tells Weir that he first tested the shield by shooting Rodney is so cute. The titular A plot of this episode has one of the adorable Athosian kids we met in the pilot going missing while playing hide and seek with his friend. The search for him is used to introduce us to some of the more useful (and harmless) technologies in the city like the life signs scan, PA system, and teleporting elevators. The shadow creature was scary, and I liked the horror elements of this episode. I also liked Rodney getting to save the day, but that’s because I just love Rodney and it’s refreshing to have someone other than the designated action hero (Sheppard) saving the day in an action hero way.
The Good
Learning about some of the city’s technologies through action rather than exposition. Showing rather than telling is always good. We also learn that the Ancients weren’t very responsible when it came to locking down experiments before abandoning the city. They just left a living entity that seems to be at least somewhat sentient sealed up in a tiny box for 10,000 years. This becomes a recurring theme as the series progresses. Those Ancients weren’t always the most responsible of ancestors. Sadly, our people aren’t always any better.
I loved the humor in this episode. David Hewlett is an amazing comic actor and his Dr. McKay paired with just about anybody else as a straight man is hilarious. You can tell the writers love this character, too, as he gets many of the best and funniest lines. Paul McGillion’s Dr. Beckett is also really funny, and I loved his scenes with Hewlett.
And doggonit those Athosian kids are cute! Sheppard trying to tell them a spooky bedtime story (Friday the 13th) is priceless. They’re so into it until he mention’s Jason’s hockey mask and then has to explain what that is, thus losing his momentum. Later, the two little boys playing hide and seek argue over who gets to be Sheppard and who has to be the Wraith. Awww!
The Bad
I found it strange that the Ancients couldn’t get personal shield technology to work right even though their civilization is supposed to be the most advanced civilization ever, yet the considerably younger and less advanced Goa’uld (the Big Bad of SG1) could. These are the people who built the Stargates and a flying city for pity’s sake and they couldn’t get a personal shield right? Really?
Rodney is a whiner. He’ll take every possible opportunity to complain. It’s maybe the only thing that grated on me about his character. Fortunately it gets toned down a little as the series progresses, and he takes a level in badass on the installment plan.
Sheppard introducing Tayla to the wonders of American football. Yawn. What does she take away from the experience? In later episodes we learn that she has acquired a love for popcorn. Football, not so much.
Yes, Elizabeth, the 10,000 year old dead plants really do need to go. Give them to the Athosians to use as firewood. On that note, aren’t all those Athosians candles a fire hazard? If we’re going to be keen on safety, we really should lay down some ground rules about leaving candles burning unattended. And why are they using candles when there are perfectly good non-combustible light sources available? Mood lighting is lovely, but unattended candles are dangerous.
The self-destruct program. I hated this thing on SG1 where it was only rarely used to good effect and never to my recollection turned off any sooner than one or two seconds to go before it would’ve blown the SGC to hell. I love countdown to doom plots if they have unexpected twists to them and aren’t completely predictable which is rare. So I just rolled my eyes when Grodin explained how he’d finished setting up the self-destruct and how it worked. Naturally it gets used every time enemies so much as sneeze in Atlantis’ general direction.
The Awesome
The shadow entity was pretty cool and creepy. I loved that it was intelligent and caught on to the team’s tricks very quickly, even when they tried to give it the passage out of Atlantis that it wanted. I also liked knowing that the Ancients whom everyone thinks are so much better than we are really aren’t. However, it’s a bit disturbing to realize that they had so little regard for life forms that aren’t as advanced as they are. They just left that poor creature in a box for 10,000 years when they could have released it before they abandoned the city.
Rating
7 out of 10. I can’t put my finger on why, but this episode seemed to me to go on forever. However, points for the shadow creature and showing rather than telling about the new technologies being found.
