Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: Letters From Pegasus
Dr. Zalenka reveals classified information in Czech (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Letters From Pegasus
Exerpts written by Jill Blotevogel, Robert C. Cooper, Peter DeLuise, Martin Gero, Kerry Glover, Mary Kaiser, Damian Kindler, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Brad Wright
Written by Carl Binder
Directed by Mario Azzopardi
Guest starring Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter), Terence Kelly (Orin), Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett), David Nykl (Dr. Zelenka), Ben Cotton (Kavanagh), Gary Jones (Technician), Dean Marshall (Bates), Manami Hara (Miko), Peter Graham-Gaudreau (Arja), Kevin Minato (Boy with Orin)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
With a fleet of Wraith ships en route to Atlantis the expedition devises a plan to send a message to Earth.
General Impressions
Here we see very personal views of expedition members’ experiences and the messages they choose to send to their loved ones on Earth, fully expecting those messages to be their last. Some of them are very touching, others are funny (like the scientist who has a crush on McKay, and Zalenka revealing classified information in Czech). I thought it was interesting and a bit sad that Sheppard didn’t feel he had anyone back home to send a message to. In a later season, we find out why. That he must send a message to the family of Colonel Sumner, whom Sheppard mercy killed in the pilot when he was being fed on by a Wraith Queen, is painful.
This is also a clip episode, but not egregiously so.
The Good
All of the character moments. Some of these letters are tear jerkers in the context of impending doom, all of them are very human. It’s easy to empathize with each of them, even Rodney pompously trying to pass along his vast and important (in his opinion) knowledge to Earth then nervously recording something more personal that he ultimately decides not to send. Back when this episode first aired (and even now) the United States had soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who made use of new media, sanctioned by the military, to post video diaries and blog posts aimed at the folks back home. They give those of us who aren’t military an insight into their lives in those war zones. The parallels between this episode and the real world are poignant.
Dr. Weir’s messages to the families of the fallen are heartbreaking. How many families of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have received such messages from military officers appearing on their doorstep? I cried during this part.
Lt. Ford was the right person to gather and edit his comrades’ personal messages. He’s charming and personable and is able to put the others at ease and keep them on track at the same time. I especially liked him showing his allegiance to Weir by making an excuse to leave the room while Kavanaugh records his condemnations of her job performance.
David Nykl (Dr. Zalenka) gets to rattle off at least a page of dialog in Czech. In a show where even the aliens speak English, the non-English languages we occasionally hear in the city are a treat. I like the spot-the-flag game we viewers get to play with the patches on the base uniforms.
The Bad
There’s this powerful Wraith mystery beam from space that we never figure out and never see again. Is it a giant culling beam? Is it a death ray? What is this thing? It just seems to bore into the planet’s surface without moving. Sheppard leaves the jumper to investigate but gets no answers, and therefore neither do we.
Otherwise, this episode is amazing.
The Awesome
Oh, where to begin? In addition to what I mentioned in The Good, I’d say hands down it’s how personal this episode is. It’s about the entire expedition, represented by familiar characters and characters we’ll never see again. This episode is timely in any era where there’s war and soldiers sending messages home to their families. The people on Atlantis have been there for a year with no contact with their home world and their families. They’ve had to survive on their own, depending on the good will of the native humans of the Pegasus galaxy. These messages could be the last things they ever say to those they left behind, and they–and we–are very much aware of it.
The moral conflicts are also front and center here. Ford and McKay think it’s OK to steal the ZPM from the kids on the planet from Childhood’s End, even though the ZPM is the only thing protecting the kids from the Wraith, and the ZPM is nearly depleted and would only last the Atlantis expedition a very short time. Sheppard is reluctant to save a family from the Wraith when he and Tayla are on a recon mission to gather intelligence about the approaching fleet. Tayla appeals to his conscience with little success, but when he’s faced with people’s suffering he caves and saves those he can.
After all of Rodney’s narcissistic ramblings, when he finally records a message to his sister Jeanie we get to see a side of McKay that he too often hides under his pompous shell. We get to meet Jeanie in the excellent season three episode McKay and Mrs. Miller (she’s played by David Hewlett’s real life sister Kate) and learn what drove the siblings apart.
In addition to the jeopardy the Atlantis expedition faces, we’re reminded of the hell the expedition unleashed when the Wraith learned about Earth when a Queen tortured Colonel Sumner in the pilot, and Sheppard killed her. Sheppard’s resistance to saving even just a few people from the planet being culled is hypocritical when we remember that it’s basically his fault that the Wraith woke early and the people of the galaxy are suffering. Tayla never mentions it, but I could only imagine she was mindful of it as she was arguing with him to save some of her friends from the Wraith.
Rating
10 of 10. This episode made me cry in places, but then I’m a sensitive person. This is a very well-written, very human episode.
