S5: Critique and Contemplations

[Linda06]

Well I too thought I would give Season 5 a second go, thinking maybe that time and distance would make me a little less critical. Here are my thoughts (okay I only watched 19 episodes but I'll explain when I get to the offending article)

Search and Rescue. A perfectly adequate season opener, if a tad predictable , with no real sense of danger for any of the characters. The ending was shockingly bad, I know that they were losing Amanda Tapping but for Carter to be unceremoniously booted out the door was just awful and a dreadful disservice to the Carter character. 6/10

Yes it was a pretty solid season opener, and I also at the time loved the Sheppard dream sequence with Teyla. Boy is hindsight great or what. If only I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have got my hopes up so much. Now I'm sticking to being a pessimist and not expecting much, that way I won't be so disappointed. And yes the way the kicked carter to the kerb was terrible She deserved better than that.

The Seed
I kind of liked it. Mainly I suppose because Keller shut up for most of the episode but I liked the fun monster mash element of it . 7/10

Having Keller shut up and strapped to a bed for most of the ep out of the road? Win-win IMO What I found a little odd though was the way McKay and Teyla just vanished in the second half of the ep.

Broken Ties Okay so it was two SG-1 episodes combined and the names changed but it was good fun, continued Ronan's nice little Sateda angst storyline and actually made me feel tense for Ronan. I also thought that Teyla's family over friends dilemma was nicely played and it was nice to see the old team loyalty and willing to sacrifice for each other. 8/10

Yeah this was a pretty good ep for Ronon I thought but I didn't like the way they made Teyla out to be the bad guy, the one in the wrong.

THE DAEDALUS VARIATIONS A good team story with a good enemy, it was a bottle episode with very little impact on the show as a whole but was an hour of good solid Stargate entertainment. 7/10

I liked this ep mainly because it was FINALLY a good ol' team ep.

Ghost in the Machine if this had been the story of a renegade replicator it would have been an enjoyable enough if a tad dull episode, it had a great guest actress and wasn't a bad premise, however as the conclusion to one of last season's major storylines and the conclusion of a major characters storyline this was dreadful. It didn't answer any of the questions posed previously and just felt like an almighty cop out to get rid of the Weir character once and for all. An episode that would have been better never made. 4/10 (and three of those are for the acting alone)

I agree. This IMO was a disservice to Weir. I can't say I blame Torri for not wanting to do it after the way they just left Weir hanging like that. Not good at all.

The Shrine A standout for the Keller and McKay's characters but in entirely different ways. David Hewlett brilliant as always gave the Mckay character warmth and humanity as he faced death.....it was just a pity I'd seen this story two years before in the Tao of Rodney. I didn't learn anything about McKay that I hadn't already, this would have been a brilliant chance to showcase Teyla or Ronan's attitudes to dying but instead we were treated to yet another McKay rerun. As for Keller. Words beyond incompetant and unethical fail me. 3/10, and all three of that is for David Hewlett's acting.

This had no redeeming qualities. Like you said, we saw this 2 years ago with Tao of Rodney and I had no desire to see Tao part 2. And the less said about Keller in this ep the better. And even less said about the sudden declaration of love from out of the blue the better.

Whispers A good fun monster of the week story, but it raised more questions. Why couldn't we have a team adventure with Beckett on this one like we did seasons 1- 3 (probably because they thought we'd remember how much we used to enjoy those). What was the point of Vega? . Fun, creepy and good banter but a waste of an opportunity for some old style atlantis fun. 7/10

This wasn't a good ep at all. We got an all female team, why I have no idea. Maybe for eye candy John and Carson acting like frat boys around them which was just ridiculous. Monsters that weren't even scary and too much bloody fog, you couldn't see what was happening for most of the ep. Yep this shouldn't have seen the light of day.

Oh and yet again no Teyla or Ronon

The QueenOdd episode, didn't really reveal much more about Todd or give us insight into teyla, but fun enough. Instantly forgettable. 6/10

I loved this at the time because Teyla actually got to do something other than hold up the walls

Tracker Oh this was bad on so many levels. Ronan the chump, McKeller, love triangle, supa keller......if she's so super duper now why did she need the boysto save her in the first place......2/10

Oh yes, just what we needed. Another damsel in distress in the woods And now we get SUPA-KELLER.

First Contact Good fun. good concept, good guests. No more needed to be said. 8/10

Part one was pretty good, promising start to the mid season loooooooooooooooooooooooooong break.

The Lost Tribe As above but loses a point for having Keller stop off on the on board hair salon and for Ronan the Chump 7/10

And part two was a hug let-down. From Teyla babysitting Atlantis yet again to Ronon as you say, acting like a chump to Keller's ever changing hairstyle. When did they add a hair salon on Daedalus?

Outsiders I loved it. team plus Beckett, Beckett and McKay getting themselves into ridiculous amounts of trouble, cracking plot. And just how I like my dark, good people doing bad things for the greater good. 9/10

I liked this ep, apart from the "Teyla can#t sense Wraith any more" part When did she lose that ability?

Inquisition A court room clips show. Somewhere in there was the kernal of a good idea, that the locals might not be too happy about the price they were having to pay for Atlantis actions but the execution of the idea was triumphalist tosh and very disappointing. 3/10

Very good idea. Very bad execution. They had a real chance to use Ronon and Teyla here but yet again they chose to ignore the PEGASUS RESIDENTS. Seems to be a recurring theme going on in season 5

The Prodigal Half of me loved it and half of me hated it, I loved Michael, the final fight and Teyla most of all, but the overall story was silly and it ended the best villain they had. 5/10

At the time I loved this, but looking back. Teyla didn't really do much apart from hide and then kick Michael off the balcony. The balcony scene was good but the rest could have been better.

Remanants I loved it, great acting from all concerned elevated the premise from slightly daft to brilliant. 9/10

Still not seen this ep. At the time I had no desire to watch the 5 millionth Shep whump ep. At this point it was getting beyond ridiculous. Just like season 5 really

Brainstorm There isn't enough love, money or chocolate in the world that could have gotten me to watch that episode again, the worst episode in the franchise (including Life from SGU) with no redeeming features. It brought a tacky cheapness to the franchise which i really thought, even with all the problems, I would never see. 0/10

Agree completely. There is absolutely no redeeming qualities for this ep whatsoever and it should never be allowed to she the light of day ever. For a while I thought Vegas was the worse ep in the entire franchise but at least that has a hot Wraith in it

Infection Another rehash of previous storylines (the writers were really running on empty) however the positives were Todd, snark and good character interaction. The downside was the plot being the same as the retrovirus in seasons 2 and 3 and Keller, doing what Keller does worst. 5/10

I quite enjoyed this ep, apart from the highly inappropriate backrub McKay gave Keller That really didn't need to be there.

Identity Sigh, Keller, lost in a wood..........Neeva was fun, the near execution was fun but with a disappointing ending and we got another reminder of why Beckett was a far better character than Keller which while always worthwhile was so obvious it wasn't really needed. 6/10

Keller? Lost in a wood? We haven't seen that one before I WANT MY BECKETT BACK Oh but Teyla got to hold the drip

Vegas Didn't really work for me, cutely shot but so far from the series story that it was just pointless. Cool car though, 5/10

For a while I thought this was the worse ep in the franchise but it's been promoted to second worse. BS (Never gets old that ) was took that spot

enemy at the Gate It had good things, the team interaction was great and all the worthwhile characters got a chance to shine however there are so many problems that unfortunately they outshine the positives by a mile. A very poor season and series ender. 5/10

It did have some good things but IMO the bad out weighed the good by a long shot So yes I agree with you


So all in all it wasn't a good season overall.....IMO of course

[fumblesmcstupid]

What makes me the most SAD about season 5 is? The lack of excitement that I had at the beginning of each episode. I used to COUNT the hours before SGA came on. After awhile it was a chore to watch.