Once upon a time I read the premise of Stargate Atlantis before they aired its pilot episode “The Rising”. I never would have thought the simple premise of an international team of civilian and military explorers sent to the lost city of Atlantis that happened to be on an uninhabited planet in the Pegasus galaxy without the power to return to Earth can be so engrossing. It’s all thanks to its great writing, actors, character interaction and humour, and more than adequate visual effects; and it’s held its own as the spinoff from Stargate SG-1.
Last week’s episode “Instinct” was notable for two reasons:
The episode starts off like a classic D&D RPG session. And by classic I mean clichéd. A group of PCs walks into a village at night and find themselves at a tavern. Everyone eyes them suspiciouly and hints for them to leave town. But after two NPCs’ argues, one PC is provided a hint (planned by the GM in the background no doubt) on what to ask next so that the villagers would explain the problem they have, which happens to be a monster of some sort terrorizing the village from the woods. This leads to the PCs volunteering in a quest to rid the village of the monster. And then the innkeeper says “Drinks are on me.”
[[image:instinct1.jpg:We have +2 P90 submachine guns for doom:center:0]]
The other notable achievement of the episode is turning Jewel Staite, Kaylee of the cancelled series Firefly and upcoming movie Serenity, from an adorable thing to a horrible life sucking alien from another galaxy.
Oh, the horror!
Before:
[[image:kaylee.jpg:Serenity’s Engineer:center:0]]
And after:
[[image:instinct2.jpg:Ellia the Wraith:center:0]]
