June 12, 2012: Pirates! Days of Stargate Past – Atlantis! Home and The Storm! Pick your favorite Stargate mid-season two-parter and WIN!

You know you’re in a skeevy neighborhood when a grown man tries to sell you six of his hand-drawn pirate pictures for five dollars.  I had parked the car around the corner from Akemi’s language school and was hanging around out front, waiting for her class to finish, when I was approached by a fellow who, appropriately enough, looked the swashbuckling sort with his scruffy appearance, gap-toothed grin, and big-buttoned jacket.  ”Hey, check these out,”he said, sidling up to me and flipping through a sketchbook.  ”Pretty cool.  Pirates.”  They were indeed pictures of pirates but, sadly, they were far from cool – or even competent.  Rough, half-finished, they were the type of half-ass drawings with which a three year old pirate enthusiast would surely find fault.  ”And here’s a saloon,” flipping to a sketch of a sparse chandelier, bar, and some enormous breasts in a corset.  ”You get six pictures for five dollars.  That’s a really good deal.”

As much as I admired his industrious attitude and unique angle, it all fell apart for me in the execution.  That and the fact that I wasn’t really in the market for pirate pictures.  I did have a hankering for tacos but, in all fairness, it’s doubtful I would bought some off him even if he had been selling them.

If you’re looking to score change from passersby, I think a sense of humor would go a long way…

Continuing our trip down Atlantis memory lane…

HOME (109)

My favorite episodes to write are the kind that throw the audience a curveball.  Things seems straightforward enough but, gradually, things take a turn for the weird and, slowly but surely, one begins to realize that not all is as it seems.  I’m talking about episodes like This Mortal Coil, Revelations and, of course, Home in which our heroes are presented with a means of returning to Earth, an opportunity they take only to learn they can’t go back to Atlantis.  Or so it would seem… The hints that something is amiss are subtle at first (follow Weir’s appearing/disappearing necklace) but, as the episode progresses, the clues leave no doubt that the team (and audience) are being played.

The original draft of the script had Teyla joining John on an exploration of Earth – a walk in the park, stopping for ice cream.  I loved the fish-out-of-water aspects of the sequence and the subtle suggestions of a burgeoning romance, but the network wasn’t as enthusiastic so I ended up losing those scenes in the rewrite.

Torri Higginson’s adorable dog, Sedge, makes a brief cameo in this episode, appearing as Simon’s adorable dog…Sedge.

Well into Atlantis’s fifth year, I kept pitching that we should end a season with Weir, Sheppard, McKay, Teyla, and Ford waking up on the mist planet.

THE STORM (110)

While his first Stargate script, Childhood’s End, saw Martin Gero getting a feel for the new series, these two episodes saw him hit his stride.  As far as Stargate mid-season two-parters go, I think The Storm/The Eye combo is pretty damn hard to beat.  The suspense mounts as the storm of the century approaches, Atlantis scrambles to respond and, just when it seems it can’t get any worse, enter one of Atlantis’s most fearsome villains: Acastus Kolya.  It’s Die Hard on a floating city wracked by a hurriciane as Sheppard attempts to stay one step ahead of the Genii commander who seemingly holds all the cards in holding Weir and McKay.  There are some tense moments, terrific action and, sprinkled throughout, flashes of Gero’s trademark humor. The amusing back-and-forth between McKay and Zelenka develops what will become one of the most enjoyable (to watch) working relationships in Stargate’s lengthy run.  Lord Smeadon, excised from Martin’s first draft of Childhood’s End, makes a reappearance here – with a vengeance.

So what do you guys think?  What was the greatest mid-season two-parter in Stargate history?  The nominees are:

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Weigh in and then leave a comment, letting us know why you voted the way you did.  I’ll pick a random supporter of the winning two-parter and they’ll receive autographed copies of the scripts.

Polls close next Tuesday night!

Tagged: Atlantis, scifi t.v., SF television, SGA, Stargate, Stargate: Atlantis