Stargate Atlantis Rewatch: Epiphany
Hey, look: It's another John Sheppard Temporary Girlfriend (tm)! (Photo from GateWorld.net)
Epiphany
Story by Brad Wright & Joe Flanigan
Directed by Neil Fearnley
Guest starring Chad Morgan (Teer), David McNally (Avrid), Nicole Muñoz (Hedda), Scott Miller (Pilot)
WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND!
Summary
Sheppard gets trapped in a time-slipped community of people working toward ascension.
General Impressions
Ascension has been a plot point on Stargate since season three of SG1 when Daniel Jackson meets an ascended being named Oma Desala. The Atlantis expedition met an ascended being in the first season. Now Sheppard meets a group of people trying to figure out how to ascend and who believe ascending is his only way out of the time-slipped valley. Meanwhile, he gets a girlfriend who’s had visions of him since she was a little girl and waited for him, but then she ascends.
The idea of a valley where time flows differently is as old as stories of Faerie and probably older even than that but it’s still a decent story telling device.
The Good
M.A.L.P. On a Stick(tm) cracked me up. As did Rodney referring to Ronon and Tayla as “Conan” and “Xena”.
Those Ancients really were amazing. Not only could they invent a time traveling jumper, they could set up an entire valley to operate on different time than the rest of the planet, giving the people inside the field ample time to work out ascension. Not only that, but they also set it up to have its own day/night cycle and climate. It was nice of them to leave it for anyone who wished to pursue enlightenment. And I couldn’t help but notice how similar it was in look and feel to the planet where the team found that ascended being in the first season. You know, another of Sheppard’s temporary girlfriends.
I also liked that the villagers didn’t turn out to have a sinister secret, nor were they attacked by the Wraith. The only threat to them was one generated by their own fears and it was part of the journey to enlightenment. The creature was real enough but only had as much power as the villagers’ fear gave it.
Loved the costumes in this episode, even if they were monochromatic. They were all light and comfortable-looking.
The Bad
Plenty of clean-shaven men in the cloister, but none of them could loan Sheppard a razor? Joe Flanigan looks like he dragged himself out of a gutter after an all-night bender with that beard.
I am so tired of everyone on this show being pretty, even the guest stars. Perhaps beauty is a prerequisite for ascension.
The Forsythia bushes hurt my belief in this as an alien planet even more than the recognizable species of Canadian trees. We had Forsythia bushes planted along the property line of the house I grew up in, so, despite the fact that our property also backed up to a forest full of the same kind of trees in this episode, it’s the Forsythia bushes with their bright yellow flowers and childhood familiarity that ruined the illusion for me.
The Awesome
The very idea of a sanctuary inside a time dilation field is interesting. A nice, safe place that the Wraith can’t get to, allowing the inhabitants to focus on ascension. It’s idyllic, filled with wildflowers and surrounded by beautiful mountains and always has a perfect climate (no thunderstorms, which Sheppard had to describe to them). It’s like a Buddhist retreat, right down to the loose-fitting cotton garments and vegetarian food. The contrast between Sheppard and the villagers is striking: They meditate, socialize, and tend their crops. Sheppard falls asleep during mediation and spends his morning jogging. They’re focused on the spirit, while he’s still focused on the body. They’re ready for ascension, he’s not, yet he’s the one who realizes that what they need to do in order to ascend is stand up to the monster.
The team for once doesn’t try to make off with the valley’s power source, except for Rodney, as usual. Then again, the ascended villagers didn’t give them much of a choice.
The establishing shots of the valley and its planet from the air are beautiful, as is the valley itself. It’s so peaceful.
Rating
8 out of 10. Interesting premise, beautiful sets and props.
You hit a good point with “And I couldn’t help but notice how similar it was in look and feel to the planet where the team found that ascended being in the first season.”
I actually don’t like the way the show-creators often show that only this kind of village-life / being one with nature equals ascension equals good at all, because it somehow suggests that there is something wrong with city-life or technology. If you are one of the ancient that is never struck by a desease it may have its up-side, but those people clearly were not. Ok they had the point of eternal good weather working fot them, but that the show never shows the down-side of actually living without a dentist and so on nearby when it comes to ascension and the ancients is irritating.