By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright MGM
You know how you get up each day secure in the knowledge we know where we’ve been and how our memories are intact of everything we’ve done.
Well, not if you happen to live on Atlantis in the Stargate Universe.
Now I love Stargate Atlantis and it was show that should have gone much longer but seemed to plagued by behind the scenes issues.
In the season one story Before I Sleep, a woman is found in one of the abandoned labs in Atlantis. She is old and while Carson is against reviving her in case it kills her or release a contagion, Rodney and Shepherd manage to persuade Weir to wake the mysterious woman up. If she is an Ancient she could tell them all about Atlantis and it’s true capability.
But when she wakes it turns out that she is in fact an elderly Elizabeth Weir who has been in stasis for over ten thousand years.
So begins a tale that avoids the parallel universe thread to be a moving tale of second chances. It highlights Toru Higginson’s base commander Elizabeth Weir in a way that is rarely seen in drama. We have seen many shows where they meet their doubles whether it be clones or roots or opposites from another universe but here we have two Weir’s that began in the same timeline but split off multiverse style in a clever way.
In the pilot episode when the Earth team came through the Stargate to Atlantis, a power surge was triggered which resulted in the city rising to the surface from its watery resting place. But that isn’t what happened at all. This Elizabeth watched everyone die when the city’s power failed and flooded instead.
As this was a one way trip, the Atlantis expedition was doomed in their very first moments. The fail safe never kicked in to float the city. Rodney doesn’t take it well that he drowned and his bouncing off the other characters is a great part of the show bringing a level of levity to an otherwise tragic story.
Shepherd, Weir and Dr Zelenka managed to get to a puddle jumper that held a time travel function. In orbit they are attacked by Wraith darts causing the ship to crash. Weir wakes up but finds she is on Atlantis being treated by an Ancient called Janus but the others are dead. Janus tells her she has come back 10,00 years in time but not into a good one. The Ancients are embroiled in a savage war with the Wraith. despite the power of Atlantis, the sheer number of Wraith is winning war because they are relentless.
It is interesting to see a Wraith war because in her time they were awakened prematurely which is the only thing giving the humans the advantage. Weir sees an opportunity to save the mission and together she and Janus go to the council to ask for a ZPM and be returned to the exact point the team arrived on Atlantis and use the ZPM to prevent catastrophe from ever happening. To her disappointment they refuse telling her she will be evacuated to earth along with the rest. Atlantis will be sunk so the Wraith cannot get to it and use it to their advantage.
But Janus has other ideas and places Weir in the stasis pod. But she will awaken every 3,300 years to turn the ZPMs so they will trigger the failsafe. Rodney reveals that her pod was bringing her back when the expedition arrived but they turned it off because they thought it was just another power surge in all the chaos.
Weir knew that she would age and it was a one way ticket but it showed just how far she would go for her team. Some had doubted placing her in command rather than someone military like Colonel Carter. She always had faith that Atlantis would be vital to their understanding of the universe and this was her chance to set things right. her relationship with Janus is beautifully played; a powerful Ancient who sees a bright future for Atlantis in a mere human but one whose intellect almost equaled the Ancients but like Janus always strive for more. It is a theme that has come from the start if the Stargate franchise as to whether humanity was worthy of following in the footsteps of the Ancients amid all the other races.
They were as Jack O’Neill and his team proved time and again but since this is a whole bigger backyard, this is the Atlantis teams affirmation that they are the ones to explore the Pegasus galaxy even if thy did accidentally awaken a race of vampires.
But this is Elizabeth’s story confirming her as the true leader of the expedition cut off from home and truly all on their own. It is also a nice alternate history story that makes perfect sense within the show’s confines. Any unspoken self doubt that Weir might have had are now also laid to rest. Seeing her own bravery and fears that the doubters were right are gone as Weir sits with her older self. Older |weir gives her a farewell gift, the Stargate addresses to other Ancient sites where they can get ZPMs to help them make contact with Earth again.
The episode ends with the older Weir finally dying and her ashes being scattered over Atlantis that she made such a sacrifice for.
This is a great episode that explores self doubts and double guessing your own decisions especially in the face of public opinion. She knows now just how bad the Wraith threat would be if they are allowed to swell once again but now the team head into the future with a renewed sense of hope in themselves.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 