Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: Aurora
The Ancient warship Aurora (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Aurora
Story by Brad Wright & Carl Binder
Teleplay by Carl Binder
Directed by Martin Wood
Guest starring Mitch Pileggi (Colonel Steven Caldwell), Bruce Dawson (Captain), James Lafazanos (Wraith), Pascale Hutton (First Officer), Ryan W. Smith (Crewman)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
The team finds a derelict Ancient ship whose crew is in stasis and living in a virtual environment, but Sheppard’s team isn’t the first to find them.
General Impressions
This is yet another episode about which the GateWorld guys and I disagree. They gave it 2.5 stars out of 5, but I really liked it a lot. I like the idea of finding a derelict Ancient warship with actual living Ancients still aboard. The virtual environment concept is also used well and is one that gets used again in future episodes. I share the team’s enthusiasm about finding this ship and its crew—what an opportunity! This is our first chance to see how Ancients lived before they abandoned the Pegasus galaxy and either died off or ascended, not to mention (hopefully) getting our hands on one of their warships. Then there’s the technology the ship possesses. All that makes it so painful when the crew of the Aurora sacrifice themselves and their ship at the end.
The Good
Nice design on the Aurora, especially the deterioration and aging. It looks great. I also liked the design of the stasis/VR pods and the shiny-new-looking ship Sheppard and McKay find in the virtual environment. It’s so bright and blue. The Ancient’s uniforms were nice, too, but did the first officer’s uniform have to be sexy? Why wasn’t her uniform like everyone else’s? Oh, right: Sci-Fi babes always dress sexy, especially the military ones. Or the native ones. Apparently, Tayla’s people not only mastered fire long ago but they also mastered the push up bra.
Here we get another example of how intelligent and resourceful the Wraith are, with one of them getting into a stasis pod and not only entering the virtual environment but controlling it, keeping the Ancients from remembering that what they’re experiencing isn’t real. Not your run of the mill enemy. It was very brave of Rodney to unhook the Wraith from his stasis pod without having any back up handy.
The Bad
Still with the clash between Weir and Caldwell. Getting old. Very old.
Oh, geez, does Sheppard have to make a pass at every hot chick he meets? Seriously? This sort of thing drove me nuts with the original Star Trek.
Caldwell, McKay? Wraith aren’t “psychic”, they’re “telepathic”. Psychic means you can see the future and the past with the power of your mind. Telepathic means you can communicate mind-to-mind, which is what the Wraith do.
Nice stalling on Tayla’s part, but why didn’t Caldwell ask the obvious question: “If ‘magnetic shielding’ was supposedly messing with Rodney’s radio, why wasn’t it messing with Tayla’s and Ronon’s, too?
OK, by now I’m trained to ignore the aliens speaking English thing but “communiqué” is a French word. Yes, I know it’s commonly used by English speakers and has been for centuries, but still…it’s French.
The Awesome
I don’t think anything else tops the heroic sacrifice of the crew of the Aurora. This quote from the Captain is heart wrenching: “We longed for nothing more than returning to Atlantis, to raise a toast to home and victory. We may not return home, but we’ll do whatever we can to ensure that victory.” The quiet, subdued, sad music under the Captain’s final speech to his crew was just right, keeping the focus on the speech. I cried. It was so moving. Definitely a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the crew of the Aurora.
Rating
9 out of 10. Interesting premise, nice look at Ancient tech, and a heroic ending.
