Stargate Atlantis - "Enemy at the Gate"

Well, I didn't see that ending coming.

One of the things I love about series finales is that since there are no plans to make any more, anyone could die at any time. (Hopefully it won't be a wasted, pointless, out-of-character death like Trip's on Star Trek: Enterprise... but I digress.) So I was in serious fear for everyone (and every ship) on this episode. The only thing I didn't think they would go for was actually nuking the hive ship with everyone aboard it, but hey... it wouldn't be the first time a show decided to end by killing off everybody.

But I really, really didn't expect them to bring Atlantis back to Earth. I never thought of Atlantis as one of those Gilligan's Island type shows... right from the beginning, they intended to stay in the Pegasus galaxy, but ideally be able to travel back and forth as needed. And the more they accomplished that goal, the more I liked the show. (It broke my heart when they blew up the GateBridge.) I loved the idea of Earth being the catalyst for uniting all these scattered tribes of mankind across the universe, and with Atlantis being Earth's permanent base in another galaxy it just felt like humanity was constantly moving forward. So the idea that they might say "Show's over, bring them home!" just never occurred to me.

Although I have to admit, that closing shot of them all lined up looking at the Golden Gate bridge was great, and exactly what Voyager should have had. (I wonder if they did it on purpose just to take a dig at Voyager? After all, wouldn't it have been more fitting to have Atlantis touch down in the Atlantic ocean, instead of the Pacific?)

Which raises my next question... Earth considered it their obligation to stay in the Pegasus galaxy since they woke up the Wraith. Now I'd imagine that some of the Wraith have been "cured" as Todd apparently was, but I doubt that completely solves the problem. I'll be curious to see how much the next TV movie deals with this, and how much of it is setting up Stargate Universe.

Speaking of which, I'm guessing that will be using that nifty Singularity Drive they got working this episode...

And lastly... SO MANY COOL SHIP SHOTS!! I love the ships on Stargate. I really, really do. I wish Hasbro would make Stargate ships in their Titanium line. And I really like the F-302s. I love the whole concept that the US Air Force reverse-engineered these alien Death Gliders, and now we have an Earth-looking version. It's the kind of thing that other shows would have as back story, but we watched it all unfold on SG-1.

And speaking of which, it was good to have so many supporting characters fro SG-1 and Atlantis come back for this episode. (But who the heck was that woman who visited Ronon in the infirmary?!?)

All in all, I'd have to say Stargate Atlantis did a good job in its run. It had a great theme song, good characters, character growth, and cool spaceships. Not as good as SG-1, but still a strong show in its own right. I'm looking forward to Stargate Universe.