4x05 Travelers
Travelers is the fifth episode in a season that so far is redefining the Sheppard of late into one that is more closely related to the Sheppard of Season1. This Sheppard is confident, resourceful, and smart. He is showing his command capabilities and thinking on his feet. He has been paying attention and is comfortable with computers and Ancient technology. In Travelers he activates an Ancient warship and clearly understands the displays and how to use and diagnose its various systems. He even fixes the crystals in the damaged control chair and gets the non-functioning communications array to send out an SOS. He still isn’t taking himself very seriously, but, it seems, he is now being written so that the viewer can. This more serious approach also extends to the episodes so far this season as we’ve been told to expect. The change is very welcome.
Travelers, despite its serious subject matter, is kept light in tone by the banter and the control shifts between Sheppard and Larrin. Considering how much of this episode has been shown in previews, TPTB must have realized how good it was and that it would be more accessible to the casual viewer than most episodes. They should have already known that Sheppard is their main character and their main attraction. I hope this means that a strong, capable Sheppard will remain the pivotal character for the rest of this season as he was in season 1.
Travelers has a man and a woman as adversaries on a spaceship as did SG-1's Prometheus Unbound, but the stories and characters are quite different. Larrin is not the way OTT Vala. Even though the mood stays light and her costume is ridiculous, Larrin is always focused on her goal, salvaging the derelict ship as a home for her people. She is flirtatious when it suits her needs, but there are no overt sexual innuendos in Travelers. Travelers is the far superior episode.
Jill Wagoner’s performance was entertaining to watch, if a bit overplayed. Her antics were meant to keep the mood lighter than the subject matter and it worked. The Sheppard-Larrin banter sparkled at times offering a reprieve for Larrin’s actions and keeping the viewer off balance. Larrin is a strong character, dedicated to her people; she is tough, independent, smart, devious and focused on her goals as well as being beautiful and sarcastic. She made a great counterpoint to Sheppard. They are equals in many ways and they look good together. She would make a good romantic interest for Sheppard, as she will be unavailable most of the time as leader of the Travelers and her interests could often be contrary to those of Atlantis creating more tension. Larrin’s a keeper, definitely the most interesting person from Pegasus yet. Probably the first time I didn’t feel cheated by having a guess actor take up too much of the episode as in Michael and M&MM. She has possibilities for the future.
The Wraith coming gives Sheppard and Larrin a common enemy and a reason to form an alliance. Larrin’s is terrified of them. Sheppard saves her from one, then grabs the neck of her shirt and pulls her into a closet to hide from the others. They stand there hands over each other’s mouths to keep quiet. It is in this close environment that Sheppard comes to understand Larrin’s motivation. She tells him that they had to capture him because they could not afford for him to refuse to help them. They need the ship. Larrin comes up with a daring plan to kill the Wraith and gets caught in the process. The Wraith sucking the life out of Larrin was a surprise. Sheppard holds an empty gun to the Wraith’s head and convinces him to restore the years it took from Larrin. This was not an act of reflexive courage, this was a calculated, dangerous act to save someone he has come to respect. Sheppard’s face tells the story as he watches the Wraith restore Larrin. He is remembering CG. (long story)
When the Wraith is gone, he drops beside her, concerned for her welfare. He picks her up off the floor and steadies her. He has just saved her life again and has every right to expect her to trust him or, at least, since she owes him, to expect her to treat him with the respect he has earned. It is in this situation, that she comes on to him and they kiss. He has seldom kissed any woman in the series, three times when he was himself (?) and not at all in Season 3. Poor Sheppard, he finally gets to kiss the girl and she stuns him. By this time he may not have trusted her, but he has come to understand that she did not mean to kill him; her capturing him and her tactics were driven by desperation and concern for her people and her responsibilities. His mistake was in not realizing that she was still not convinced that he would help her without being forced and she could not let him take the ship. In the end she does let him go, but she remains an interesting unknown.
The Team
* McKay was wonderful; so concerned with finding Sheppard. He says that sometimes there’s nothing that can be done and looks miserable, but he goes on trying anyway and finds Sheppard’s SOS. When he says, “They’re gone,” after the ships jump into hyperspace, he sounds so desolate. They all look shaken at losing their last hope of recovering Sheppard.
* Ronon's statement "Would it make a difference? Even if it was a fleet of hiveships, would it stop us from trying to get him back?" and Lorne’s, “No,” show that Sheppard is as important to his people as they are to him. (As if risking some 20 lives and 5 jumpers against impossible odds would make Sheppard happy.)
* The ending scene, like the ending scene in Doppelganger, ties up the episode and makes it personal between the characters. This final scene of sharing information and feelings should be used often. It bonds the characters together as nothing else has. These brief contacts also provide an opportunity for significant character development.
* And a little humor. McKay’s “Sexy alien.” Ronon's comment to Sheppard that “they figured out you'd be more trouble than you're worth.” Duh! And Teyla rolling her eyes like the people from Earth and with appropriate timing, too.
*Sitting with his team, Sheppard even allows some reaction to his experience to show. He says, “She had me beat, Rodney. She threatened to kill me several times,” but his expressions tell us that he has mixed feelings about seeing Larrin again.
Good:
* Sheppard’s weak “your knuckles will get sore eventually” in the midst of a beating.
* Larrin’s taking Sheppard’s chin in her hand and studying the blood on his face.
* Larrin’s knowing about the gene, not in some euphemistic terms.
* Cool captain’s chair. It is actually big enough for Sheppard. He looks good in it.
* Sheppard takes control: “you said, ‘Start by moving the ship forward,’ when you should have said, ‘Start by initializing the inertial dampeners.’"
* Cool, Confident Sheppard operating an Ancient warship as easily as he flies everything else. He has had time to become an expert, but it would have been nice to see more of the intermediate steps.
* Sheppard and Larrin repeatedly asking each other what they are doing over the intercom.
* Sheppard lying back across the bed looking unconcerned and bored. Larrin says "does he look like a man about to die?" No, he’s a man with a plan.
* The Ancient ship has a control chair. Will they find one with a stargate?
* Larrin is all business when she talks to her own people.
* Sheppard’s figuring out what system he was in and where the space gate was.
* Ronon’s gun. The travelers have them. No information on their source. Sheppard knowing how to reload one and spin it the way Ronon does. Cool!
* No gratuitous leader presence. Too often Weir has been in an episode when the time could have been better used developing the story or showing team interaction. The leader can often be inferred as it can be here.
* Teyla’s looking more like she’s dressing for success with her midriff covered. Shame it wasn’t because TPTB finally got smart. SciFi is so bad about having the women wearing skimpy or form fitting outfits, even when they are supposed to be uniforms.
* Sheppard’s food both times. The nutritious, unappetizing stuff from the Travelers (“Another form of torture?”) and the full tray in Atlantis that makes him appreciate what he has.
* Cool graphics of the jumper being pulled into the Traveler’s ship (have we seen tractor beams before?) and the battle with the Wraith ship. They flew to the Ancient warship by some kind of ship, because they left the bay pressurized and available to the Wraith. It would have been interesting to see it and the other ships and some more of Larrin’s people, but that’s likely a budgetary consideration. Better to have the stripped down version of Atlantis, than the expensive cancelled one. Better to have the simpler version than cheap, cheesy effects.
Not so good:
* Larrin’s outfit. Larrin’s high heeled boot’s. Perfect for a spaceship. Combat boots are so much better.
* Larrin assumes that Sheppard knows what a control chair is when she directs him to it.
* Lorne tells the jumpers to use maximum sublight. Do they do lightspeed?
* Teyla is already waddling.
* Really ugly Wraith.
* Evidently the LSDs (hand held Ancient scanning equipment) now work for people without the gene after initialized? Never used to.
Flash back to Sheppard in Siege II telling Everett when he reaches for the LSD, “Won't do you any good. You need the gene.”
When will they go find the Tria and repair the hyperdrive?
FAN REVIEWS: 'Travelers'
Re: FAN REVIEWS: 'Travelers'
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