Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

Lacking in originality

The dramatic opening of The Ark while capturing interest also serves an early warning that this will be a Sheppard-saves-the-day-with-a-crazy-idea episode…and so it is. Really the rest of the episode only serves to tell the audience why Sheppard ended up in a bad Apollo 13 moment and to showcase his character while pretty much making everyone else redundant and in the case of Teyla, ironically invisible. Despite this the episode is hugely watchable for the most part helped by the special effects and the intriguing idea of the team all cut off from each other in parts of the moon base.

Ignoring the teaser which rather gives the end-game away, the first half of the story is enormously intriguing; the moon base, the space shuttles, the Wraith Ark device. The set-up is very well done from the initial exploration, the reintegration of the grief-stricken Herik and the slow reveal of how the Ark device came to be and what happened to the planet. The suicide leading to the team trapped in parts of the base and destined to burn up in the atmosphere with the decaying moon provides a fantastic perilous situation while also showing a shocking, realistic moment of grief. Joris Jarsky’s performance is brief but powerful.

Kenneth Welsh also does a good job as the other reintegrated man, Jamus. He treads the thin line between potential bad guy and a man simply desperate to save the last of his people and making increasingly difficult decisions. He comes across as intelligent and cunning, knowing that he has to make his peoples’ situation somehow real to Sheppard and using Teyla to do it. His scene with Teyla where he finally admits the horror of the planet’s final hours and his desperation to somehow make it worthwhile are very well done.

The scene finally provides Rachel Luttrell with some meaty material as Teyla. Her impassioned plea that while they cannot save his people they could live on through him is fantastically done and shows just what a great actress Luttrell can be when given good material for her character. Teyla has often been overlooked or overshadowed in stories to date so it is somewhat ironic that finally having been given the opportunity to shine, the next moment sees the character disintegrated into the Ark device and made invisible.

Unfortunately, from that point forward it is clear that all the other characters could equally have been made just as invisible for the contribution they then add to the story as it shifts gear and promotes Sheppard the Lone Hero. Sheppard’s decision to take the shuttle as it provides the only portable power source for the Ark device which contains Teyla is suitably self-sacrificing, crazy and completely within character. The material isn’t new but Joe Flanigan gives an excellent performance.

The story does open up the intriguing morality question of why Sheppard is prepared to risk his life for a member of his team but not for the lives of one thousand strangers. It’s an intriguing note perhaps lost in amongst the ‘hero’ moment. The problem is not that he is showcased as a hero but that he is showcased as a lone hero as the other members of his team are relegated to bystanders along with the audience. There are two issues; one, it doesn’t promote a great feeling of team despite the fact that Sheppard is doing it for one of his members. This isn’t helped by the fact that neither Ronon nor McKay seem too bothered about Teyla’s fate and seem only concerned with Sheppard’s survival; out of sight, out of mind apparently. Secondly, quite frankly, Sheppard being the lone hero is a little boring. By my count this is the fourth episode this season where Sheppard ends up on his own trying to save the day in some way. It would be beneficial from a team-feel perspective, not to mention actually giving Ronon and Teyla bigger and better roles, if Sheppard could be shown being a hero as part of his team more.

McKay gets the best deal of the other characters; his curiosity, insensitivity and pessimism about their situation when trapped is within character and yet McKay seems odd. Perhaps because this feels more like early McKay; a McKay who hasn’t had three years of experience working in the field with his team, who has to be reminded they don’t leave people behind, who isn’t used to coming up with plans to save the day. It is McKay but a regressed McKay and that is why he seems weirdly changed. Ronon, at least is wholly in character as are Weir and Beckett although all three get very little to actually do.

However while Sheppard takes centre stage, the character’s heroics are clearly upstaged by the incredible special effects. These are fabulous throughout from the suicide blast, the debris shattering the control room window, the moon burning up and the re-entry of the shuttle…all evoke excitement and look incredibly realistic. Kudos also should go to the set design for the suitably claustrophobic and sterile moon base.

In conclusion

There is little else to say; the story has good potential but ultimately chooses a route without originality and which does nothing to promote the team as a team. It’s still watchable with great quality demonstrated in the production but the ending is uninteresting and all the characters except Sheppard are underused. Final verdict? A good effort but must do better.