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Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Fourth Season 
Actors : Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Amanda Tapping
Studio : Sci-Fi Channel, The
by Sci-Fi Channel, The
Brand : TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Release Date : 2008-07-08
Publisher : Sci-Fi Channel, The
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 5
EAN : 0883904110132
UPC : 883904110132
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 28 reviews)
List Price : $49.98
Our Price : $25.99
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Product Description |
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Disc 1:AdriftLifelineReunionDoppelgangerDisc 2:TravelersTabula RasaMissingThe SeerDisc 3:Miller's CrossingThis Mortal CoilBe All My Sins Remember'dSpoils of WarDisc 4:QuarantineHarmonyOutcastTrioDisc 5:MidwayThe KindredThe Kindred Part 2The Last ManSystem Requirements:Running Time: 900 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 883904110132 Manufacturer No: M111013 |
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Americancivilwar.com |
An acclaimed cast that includes Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell, Jason Momoa and Amanda Tapping returns for season 4 of the incredible Stargate Atlantis series. Colonel Samantha Carter (Tapping) takes charge as the city's new leader, facing new and daunting challenges, including joining forces with the dangerous Wraith in order to fight a common enemy--the seemingly unstoppable Replicators.
Beyond Stargate: Atlantis - Season Four on DVD 
Stargate: Atlantis - Season One on DVD | 
Stargate: Atlantis - Season Two on DVD | 
Stargate: Atlantis - Season Three on DVD |
Stills from Stargate: Atlantis - Season Four (Click for larger image) |
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Rising again |
Surprisingly, season 4 of Stargate Atlantis is better than season 3--it is just about on par with season 2. Most of the storylines are decent, with some very enjoyable ones; even with the mostly annoying characters, this season is tolerable.
Lt. Col. John Sheppard has deviated from his Jack O'Neill Jr. behavior, now becoming a standard yet spineless character; when faced with most women, he's quiet and weak-willed, barely standing up for himself--unlike his decisive attitude around men. Col. Samantha Carter, taking the place of Dr. Weir, is a capable and strong leader--at times, she is the only one to speak up for the right course of action. Dr. Rodney McKay, barely changing in the slightest, remains arrogant and smug; however, Carter can sometimes shut him up with a well-placed comment, which is quite satisfying. Teyla, although the victim of a sometimes pathetic plot twist, is very faintly better than she was in season 3, sometimes offering up Athosian wisdom for those in need. Ronon is, in my opinion, the best character in the show: he is on occasion the only person with common sense, and also tells it exactly like it is.
As for the episodes:
Adrift--5 of 10--We pick up where we left off in season 3, with the city floating in space and losing power. The whole of this episode is spent on creating and solving problem upon problem: an asteroid belt threatens the city, as well as badly damaged power conduits and loss of shield protection. This goes on until it ends in a very unsatisfactory manner. I couldn't help but think that a better solution could have been found to the main, crippling problem of this episode.
Lifeline--7 of 10--Even with the bad ending of `Adrift', this episode finishes things up very nicely, with a daring mission and brave help from the wounded Dr. Weir. Rodney of course discovers something else that they could try to do while going through with their original mission; I expected things to go from bad to worse and their plans to fail, but thankfully everything went well, with the city actually surviving somewhat unscathed. This is a good ending to a bad problem.
Reunion--8 of 10--Ronon stumbles upon three of his friends from Sateda (his home planet) and wonders whether he should leave Atlantis to stay with them. The Satedans are actually slightly dislikeable, being somewhat boorish and rough around the edges; they influence Ronon far too much at times, but they have an unpredictable secret that almost dooms Ronon. As with mostly all episodes focusing on Ronon, this is enjoyable--although it features some very strange fight scenes...
Doppelganger--4 of 10--Sheppard touches a crystalline object on an alien planet and soon appears in everyone's nightmares. The idea behind this episode is interesting; but throughout it, I was laughing! Unintentionally, it becomes more of a dark comedy instead of horrific and engrossing. Something about Sheppard being the villain in each and every nightmare is actually quite amusing.
Travelers--3 of 10--Sheppard is captured by a strange ship and tries to escape while dealing with the ship's stereotypically beautiful commander. This episode might actually outdo season 2's `Grace Under Pressure' in terms of being annoying. Larrin, the commander, is anything but military, even though she lives on her tattered ship; her hair is long and flowing, she wears tight black leather, and she saunters through the corridors like a fashion model. When she gets what she wants, her attitude is predictably smug--when she doesn't get what she wants, she becomes pugnacious and petulant, at one point stomping her foot and hollering like a twelve-year-old. All in all, this is useless.
Tabula Rasa--9 of 10--In an amazingly good and intriguing episode, Rodney finds himself tied to his desk, with almost total memory loss, and strange instructions from a recording of himself. The explanation of the memory loss is logical and understandable; the adventures ensuing are exciting and mysterious; the flashbacks to hours earlier are nice and enlightening; and it all serves to create an episode I heartily enjoyed!
Missing--6 of 10--Teyla and Keller, traveling to spend a day at the new Athosian settlement, find that the people are missing; they encounter the infamous Bola Kai tribesmen wandering the planet and must hide for fear of capture and death. In this episode, Keller at last shows her mettle--after whimpering and moaning for most of the time, she finds her inner courage and faces a dangerous enemy. The largest problem with the episode, though, is that in all other season 3 and 4 episodes, I saw no mention of the Athosians being relocated to another planet. I have no idea when they got there!
The Seer--8 of 10--Still searching for the Athosians, Teyla seeks out a well-known seer--the leader of a group of people on another planet--and finds that he knows much about Atlantis' future. Although the seer himself doesn't have much to do, his visions predict quite a bit of trouble for Atlantis; meanwhile, the team finds themselves inextricably linked with the Wraith in order to fight the Replicators. With the amount of adventures involved--and the very small amount of mistakes made--this episode is very good.
Miller's Crossing--5 of 10--Rodney's sister Jeannie is kidnapped and, in searching for her, Rodney stumbles into a trap. This episode gives Rodney and Jeannie a chance to argue and sulk, which they are both quite good at. Just as in season 3's `McKay and Mrs. Miller', the premise itself is not very sound; the decisions that Rodney, Jeannie, and even their kidnapper make are foolish; as a plus, Jeannie decides to call Rodney by his real name, Meredith, through the entire episode--even though he has already told her that he goes by the name of Rodney. Like before, this is rather worthless.
This Mortal Coil--9 of 10--After a strange drone from an unknown source crashes into the city, the denizens of Atlantis slowly begin to realize that there's something unusual going on. At the beginning, this episode is a game of `what's wrong with this picture?' Once the truth is finally known--shocking not only the team, but myself as well--the team must work to avert disaster and provide help...but those who need help are the most unlikely of people!
Be All My Sins Remember'd--7 of 10--Since the Replicators are attacking more and more planets, the team decides to settle things once and for all. Larrin, clichéd commander of the Traveler warship, gets an appearance; when Sheppard comes to her--virtually groveling for her help instead of candidly asking for it--she decides to tie him to a chair (apparently a running gag). What's nice is that Col. Ellis, commander of the Apollo, finally manages to give Rodney a piece of his mind before they all go off to fight the Replicators. In the end, though a new and shocking enemy is revealed to us in the audience, although the team knows nothing of them.
Spoils of War--7 of 10--The team, led by a signal from Todd's subspace tracking device, stumbles on a top secret Wraith outpost, where they will find many threats. Teyla finally gets a chance to help out, with as much courage as ever, while Sheppard, Rodney, and Ronon explore the facility. A Wraith queen is spotlighted and gets to hiss and spit in the usual over-the-top manner. Although this episode is contrived in spots, it still is somewhat decent.
Quarantine--6 of 10--After the city mistakenly quarantines itself, many of the main characters find themselves trapped together, giving them a chance to learn more about each other. We find that Dr. Zelenka raises pigeons; Dr. Keller graduated from college at age 15; and other assorted little tidbits. Rodney is of course featured prominently in this episode, as he is in almost all of them. The extremely good part about this episode is that Dr. Zelenka finally gets a chance to do something beneficial for the entire city. Otherwise, it's the usual, mediocre at best.
Harmony--4 of 10--Sheppard and Rodney agree to shepherd a young princess on a rite of passage; in a reverse of Star Trek: The Next Generation's `The Dauphin', the girl--who bears the Earth name Harmony--develops a crush on Sheppard. This results in her acting somewhat like The Lord of the Rings' Gollum, pretending to cry in Sheppard's arms while smirking at Rodney instead. She is the classic spoiled-brat child, not caring whether Sheppard or Rodney survive their mission, and explaining her actions with the words "I'm the queen!" Throughout most of the episode, I could see all the major events coming easily. This is a light, very faintly comedic episode that is worth seeing only once.
Outcast--6 of 10--Sheppard's father dies and he comes home to Earth for the funeral, but then finds himself in much deeper trouble than he expected. His polished brother wears a fancy suit and has perfectly coiffed hair; his ex-wife, even with her nightclub-style outfit, works implausibly for the Department of Homeland Security; strangely, Sheppard finds himself at a complete loss for words every time he encounters either of them. Otherwise, the main storyline--featuring Replicators, as well as an unexpected appearance by a former supporting character from season 1--is decent at the very least. Of course, there are some story points that I can see coming...but then again, that's true for almost all the episodes.
Trio--8 of 10--Carter, Rodney, and Keller are trapped in a former Genii mine that is racked by tremors. Thankfully, Rodney doesn't get to show much of his very annoying tendencies in this episode, although contributing an idea on how to escape; Carter and Keller also do their separate parts, trying to get out before the tremors destroy the mine. While this is the standard `a problem arises, and most attempts to solve it fail miserably' episode, it manages to be entertaining because of the interaction between the three characters. All three of them prove themselves by way of brave actions.
Midway--10 of 10--With Ronon about to be evaluated by the IOA, Carter decides that Teal'c could teach the Satedan much. However, when times grow tough, Ronon and Teal'c must work together to save Earth. This is by far the best episode of season 4, featuring a marvelous crossover and terrifying problems. There is a great (and regrettably short) fight scene between Ronon and Teal'c, featuring Chuck the gate technician taking bets on who will win. Even with the tribulations, the two warriors work well together; however, in the meantime, Sheppard and Rodney find themselves in equal trouble. I love this episode not only because of Teal'c, but also because of the interesting and plausible problem. If only every Atlantis episode had the wonderful writing this one does!
The Kindred, Part 1--6 of 10--In a slightly sharp decline from `Midway', Teyla finds herself having visions of Kanaan, the father of her child, and feels that she must search at a certain village. In the meantime, a sudden plague is sweeping through the galaxy. Almost everything in this episode results in disaster; Teyla--while searching for her people--is captured, and Sheppard and the other team members find that a familiar and annoying villain is behind the plague. Todd, the jolly Wraith, gives them slight help and asks for it in return, but in the end his information does them no good. The very last moment of the episode features a surprising return from a much-beloved character...
The Kindred, Part 2--7 of 10--While Teyla finds her people again, Sheppard and friends try to find her with the help of the newly returned character (whose identity I will not reveal). That person has quite a few health problems, which lessen his/her ability to help; in the meantime, Teyla learns more about the experiments being performed on some of her people. In the end, information is gathered and the Athosians are rescued, but Teyla remains a prisoner. Even though the villain in this two-part episode now has the usual mad-scientist qualities, this episode is far from terrible. The end is tragic as the returned character takes his/her leave from his/her friends. Not bad!
The Last Man--7 of 10--Sheppard comes through the gate and finds that he's been sent 48,000 years in the future; naturally, Rodney--once Sheppard went missing--came up with a hologram of himself that is programmed to help Sheppard in any way possible. Most of the episode is taken up by reminisces of events taking place after Sheppard vanished--there are many things that go wrong, such as Michael predictably trying to take over the galaxy. While Sheppard tries to find a way out of the future, the hologram of older Rodney tells him stories of Ronon, Carter, Teyla, Keller and Rodney himself too. This episode is good because of its similarities to the Star Trek: Voyager series finale, but unfortunately the ending is rushed.
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Formulaic PC Tripe |
For this seasoned fan, this season had a few special moments. Very few. I yawned through the entire second disk. I do not want to sound mysogynistic, but this entire season was an exercise in assigning all the strength and intelligence to women, both alien, enemy or ally and assigning all the blunders, ignorance and stupidity to the male characters. The last time I checked, human equality was a relevant cultural goal. If you made the mistake of buying this junk, or can borrow the set, just check nearly every episode. If you want balance and entertainment, forget it; the writing is boring, transparent and palpably annoying. If you're into political correctness and superficial social commentary, you will love it.
Yawwwwn. Sigh.
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Jumped the Shark? |
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Im sorry I LOVE u SGA but this last season was not up to the high level that was set. The best ep was a direct ripoff of momento! |
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Another Exciting Season of Stargate |
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Very exciting, fast-paced season which grabbed my attention from the start and didn't let up until the end. I can't really understand why so many people seem to be so hard on this season. I think the writers did an excellent job, propelling the Atlantis franchise forward leaps and bounds in terms of storytelling. In my humble opinion it was the best season of Atlantis so far, striking a good balance between action and character development. To some, the season may seem to be a little Rodney-centric, but my wife and I find him quite humorous and enjoyable. Highly recommended to any fan of Stargate. |
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You've Gotta Be Kiddin Me! |
I've been a huge fan of the Stargate Series since its inception & have followed this series... Atlantis, since the beginning. I am terribly disappointed in its approach to telling this story. First the writers seem intent in placing women in all of the leadership positions ... all the time, whether the situation calls for it r not, and puleeze! stop preaching the new pc crap at every lull in the fighting! Stop talking down to me, or at least advertise & warn that the show is now written for the adolescent audience. I thought the irritating Dr. Weird got killed off?! Oh yeah, btw, how is it that she being merely an arbitrator at the start gets to head-up this endeavor .. making command decisions way over her pay grade and experience. Let's not forget the irritating and most obnoxious character in all of TV land ... Rodney, Stupid, arrogant, lacking all traces of humanity, self centered, cowardly, and oh yeah.. why is he always the only one wearing a "Country Patch"? No one else does, are the Canadians so starved for recognition that they have to shove that stupid leaf in our faces all the time? BFD! Who cares? Please kill this crap or hire writers desiring to tell the story instead of searching for a platform to force feed the masses their PC garbage. Great you brought Sam Carter on the set, Great character and actress, strong capable leader... NOW LET HER LEAD!!! and get rid of that condescending, uh, I think her name is Tira, you know the alien they found living in the stone-age during the initial series, who abandoned "Her" people, and seem now for some unknown reason to be like second, or third in command, have intimate knowledge of all the earth based & ancient technology somehow! BTW, did anyone ever even suggest or offer Ronin acting lessons? Did he really spend the money on these lessons or is he here only because he's some producers love interest. Fire this bum or teach him how to act, for God's sake.
Thanx
DWL |
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