Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: Sanctuary

Kirk--er, Sheppard--scores with the alien babe (Photo from GateWorld.net)

Sanctuary

Written by Alan Brennert
Directed by James Head
Guest starring Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Robert Thurston (Zarah), Craig Veroni (Dr. Grodin), Leonor Varela (Chaya Sar)

WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!

Summary
Sheppard’s team visits a planet that seems to have an advanced weapon that destroys Wraith ships and meet a woman with unusual powers.

General Impressions
Here we meet a benevolent ascended Ancient in a sexy dress who gets the hots for Sheppard. I want her lovely shell jewelry. Don’t like that wedding dress-looking outfit at the end, unless it’s supposed to be symbolic of her marriage to the world Proculus.

It’s just a little thing, one of many subtle hints that Chaya is an Ancient and is easy to miss, but when Sheppard tells her they’re from Earth her reaction indicates she’s heard of the place and is surprised to meet someone from that planet. However, she’s walking a few steps behind Sheppard, so he doesn’t see her face. He thinks she sounds surprised they come from another galaxy. Earth is where Atlantis came from, as established in the pilot. Boy does Sheppard get egg on his face when he finds out she’s an ascended Ancient, after he’s spent so much time trying to impress her by explaining what he thinks are concepts that are over her head.

Sheppard’s culpability tour seems to be continuing, as he readily admits to Chaya that making enemies of the Wraith was his fault.

The Good
Sheppard basically telling McKay to STFU. If this were not a family show, he probably would have used those exact words, and McKay would have completely deserved it. He was really being a jerk. Sheppard then pulls a Weir and tries to convince Chaya that they are all the children of her goddess and just as deserving of the goddess’ protection as the people of Proculus (i.e., please get her to zap Wraith for us, too, m’kay?)

The Bad
It’s annoying that the Atlantis expedition believes that “less advanced” cultures need to be “fixed” by being artificially advanced by the “superior” expedition. They assume that the “primitives” must want weapons and to have their agricultural yields increased. Chaya’s assertion that they have all they need and anything else would be gluttony is an interesting juxtaposition. When she tells them her people are more interested in spirituality, Weir tells her about Earth’s many religions. So, they need more religions, then?

Does Sheppard really need to be Kirk whenever a pretty girl comes along? Any pretty girl. At all. Good for Tayla and Rodney for calling him on it. And yet, we go five whole seasons without this guy ever scoring a girlfriend. McKay gets two of them. McKay. The nerdboy. Sheppard the handsome action hero can’t get laid to save his own life. I didn’t like the romance between Sheppard and Chaya any more than Rodney and Tayla did.

I thought McKay went over the top with being a jerk. I get that he’s a skeptic and would be less than sympathetic to people who insist that a “goddess” is protecting them from Wraith, rather than some sort of technology. I also get that McKay is pretty arrogant, but I thought he went too far. He totally deserved to be banished to the jumper by Sheppard.

The Awesome
The expedition getting schooled on the fact that a lack of technology or a desire to acquire it does not make a culture primitive. It goes to one of the basic concepts behind ascension: To achieve it, one must also achieve “enlightenment”, that is, one must free oneself from want. In Buddhist philosophy want is the source of all misery. The difference between Chaya’s idea of what makes an advanced society, and the expedition’s ideas about it are thought provoking.

It’s sad that Chaya was forced to live alone by her fellow Ancients and just wanted more intimate companionship than she could get on Proculus. It was established in SG1 that the ascended beings have laws against acting on the mortal plane and will punish those of their kind who break those rules. Chaya’s punishment for using her ascended powers to protect Proculus was to be forced to protect that planet forever. If she leaves it, the people are vulnerable to attack, so she can’t leave it without endangering them. The energy blast that McKay thinks is a weapon, is in fact Chaya’s ascended power. Once again, we’re confronted with the same frustration that Daniel Jackson had in SG1 with the ascended Ancients’ refusal to help mortals, even against other ascended beings (the Ori of seasons 9 & 10 and the movie The Ark of Truth).

Rating
7 out of 10. Not one of my favorite episodes, but I give it points for the lessons Chaya tries to teach the expedition’s command staff. Points off for Sheppard being Kirk, and McKay being a jerk.