Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: The Brotherhood

Every quest needs a map (Photo from GateWorld.net

The Brotherhood

Written by Martin Gero
Directed by Martin Wood
Guest starring Robert Davi (Commander Acastus Kolya), Jana Mitsoula (Allina), Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), Adrian Hough, Laura Mennell (Sanir), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Dean Marshall (Bates), Chuck Campbell (Technician), Grahame Andrews (Porta), John Tierney (Astrum), Simon Longmore (Tathal), Boyan Vukelic (Stackhouse)

WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!

Summary
The team looks for a ZPM on one of the planets listed on alternate timeline Weir’s note only to find an old enemy trying to thwart them.

General Impressions
Hurray! Robert Davi (Commander Kolya) is back! Great actor, great character. Love the badass longcoat outfit.

I’m a map geek, and this episode features a few. There’s the big wall map shown in the monastery in several scenes, then a smaller one with a sort of weird little character on it that the team uses later. I also liked the rubbing showing a figure in priestly robes holding a ZPM.

Big wall map (Photo from GateWorld.net)

Treasure map (Photo from GateWorld.net)

Weird illustration in the lower left corner of the treasure map. Is it supposed to be a Wraith?

Rubbing showing ZPM (Photo from GateWorld.net)

Can it be that in this episode we learn what the Ancients called the ZPM? Is Potentia their name for it? It was established in SG1 that the Ancient language sounds (to Daniel Jackson) like Medieval Latin. In Roman Latin, “potentia” means “power”, so that could very well be the Ancients’ name for the ZPM.

The Good
This episode sets up the upcoming trilogy by showing the city’s heretofore silent long range scanners coming to life. Zalenka theorizes that they’d been running in the background all along but can’t figure out at first why they chose that moment to the make themselves known. By the end of the episode, he figures out that it’s because the city has detected a serious incoming threat.

The twist at the end was both good and bad. Good because I didn’t see it coming. Bad because here’s yet another narrow minded zealot who can’t be reasoned with and she has deprived us of a ZPM. I hate zealots. Still, not much jeopardy in the next few episodes if Atlantis can just raise its shield to protect itself from the approaching hives.

The Bad
Where are the archeologists from the Atlantis expedition? They must have at least one or two. Couldn’t summon them to the planet to help the native archeologists dig for puzzle stones? I mean, the expedition thus far has been all about lending its expertise to the natives, why stop now when there’s a ZPM at stake?

Bad Rodney telling the hot chick you didn’t grow up in Atlantis. This is like the Ghostbusters Rule: If someone asks you if you’re a god (or from the city of people they worship) you say, “YES!”

The nerd is clueless about women and dating and turns to the jock for advice is a cliché I’m really sick and tired of seeing. I’ll let it slide because Rodney’s people skills suck all the time.

Carson refusing to fire on the dart because he “doesn’t have a clean shot”. It has been established in earlier episodes that the darts are heat seeking, and that the jumpers accept telepathic commands. So if Carson wants the drone from his jumper to hit the dart and nothing else, wouldn’t that be what would happen? Moot point, since the dart self-destructed anyway.

The Awesome
Robert Davi in badass longcoat mode.

Lt. Ford gets a moment of awesome when the Genii think he’ll be unconscious for hours and relax their guard, but he’s actually still conscious and fights back. Rodney gets to play hero again, too.

I love puzzles, and this episode has a few. Nice that it’s Sheppard (the jock) who figured out the puzzle of the tiles that revealed the ZPM. Him “almost being in Mensa” becomes a running joke for the rest of the series. The “real geniuses” think it’s funny.

Rating
8 of 10. Points for bringing Kolya back, though he’s more interesting pitted against Sheppard than McKay. More points for setting up the next few episodes that close this season and open the next.