Cast:
- Joe Flanigan ... Lt. Colonel John Sheppard
- Amanda Tapping ... Col. Samantha Carter
- Rachel Luttrell ... Teyla Emmagan
- David Hewlett ... Dr. Rodney McKay
- Jason Momoa ... Ronon Dex
Executive producers: Joseph Mallozzi, Martin Gero, Paul Mullie. Released July 8, 2008.
Features:
- Audio Commentaries by Directors, Producers, Writers and Stars
- Exclusive Mission Directive Featurettes
- Stargate Atlantis Bloopers
- Deleted Scenes
- Photo & Design Galleries
The Shadow of Dr. Weir
Looming over the entirety of season 4 of Stargate Atlantis were two unwelcome character deaths. The much-loved Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) had been killed off late season 3 ("Sunday"), arousing a storm of fan protest, and the leader of the Atlantis expedition, Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Torri Higginson), sacrificed herself to destroy the Replicators in the second episode of season 4 ("Lifeline"). Reports swirled that the current lead producers of the series, including Martin Gero, felt that Dr. Weir was a flawed character and that Higginson had been let go from the series for that reason.
At the start of the season I vented about how these losses damaged the show; in particular I was concerned that putting Col. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) in charge of the Atlantis expedition blithely dispensed with the fundamental idea that it was a civilian-run mission. The presence of Tapping's credit tactlessly inserted into Higginson's slot in the opening titles -- before Carter had even gotten to Atlantis -- only underlined what I felt was the producers' mangling of a show I really enjoy.
The great thing about DVD sets is that they give you an opportunity to view an entire season as an entity, with helpful explanations in the form of featurettes and commentary to actually provide some answers to that oft-repeated refrain, "What were they thinking?"
Getting Carter
And this DVD set in particular, the complete season 4 of Atlantis, continues the fan-conscious franchise's effort to provide as many of those answers as possible, by providing commentary tracks for all of the episodes, "Mission Directive" director overviews on key episodes, and overall featurettes on what's new and different about the season as a whole.
The two standalone featurettes go some way toward providing the producers' perspective on the cast changes. In "A New Leader: Amanda Tapping Joins Atlantis" a great deal of time is devoted to Gero, Tapping, and others assuring us that Carter is a great fit for Atlantis. It's clear that the thinking was that the new leader of the Atlantis expedition had to be a strong enough commander to face the escalating threats -- and preferably have a strong science background. Naturally this led them to Sam Carter, who had established both capacities in ten years on Stargate SG-1. (A known figure was evidently desired; their second choice was Beau Bridges's Hank Landry.)
But even Tapping acknowledges in the featurette that she wasn't 100% at home in the new role. Tapping was used to being the one with all the science dialog, which had to stay with McKay in order to prevent the appearance of Carter horning in on McKay's turf. (David Hewlett also mentioned this change to me earlier this year.) And at the end of the segment Tapping jokes -- but she's not joking -- about how Carter herself felt weird standing in an office sending her team out to fight the bad guys. She had essentially become Don S. Davis, she laughs: "You have a go."
Reviving Carson
Meanwhile, "The Doctor Is In: The Return of Paul McGillion" includes footage of the rainy-day protests at the production offices near Vancouver, with dozens of fans chanting for the return of Carson accompanied by a bagpipe band. Gero, Hewlett, and others went out to talk to the protesters, Hewlett using his wit and charm to make them laugh. Gero, oddly, went around asking all and sundry if they'd bother protesting if some other character had been killed (most said yes), as if he wasn't clear that Carson was particularly loved by the fans. Elsewhere Gero jokes about fans coming up to him and saying "Stop killing our characters!", to which he responds, "Fair enough." He notes that "Sunday" is many people's favorite episode -- and it is a very strong episode -- but he never makes a case for why Carson had to be killed, any more than he did for Weir.
This being sci-fi, it was possible this season to bring Carson (and Weir) back from the dead; but as a solution for the fans' loss of Carson it's makeshift at best, mainly because Atlantis now has a firmly established new doctor, Jennifer Keller (Jewel Staite, slated to be a full regular in season 5), making the revived Carson welcome but redundant, with no reason to be in Atlantis other than to wave to the fans.
The season 4 DVDs also include a fan-demanded blooper reel for the first time in the entire Stargate franchise. This is introduced by Gero saying that this segment would demonstrate why there had no blooper reels in the past, and yes, it's not the funniest assembly of bloopers I've ever seen -- but it's still welcome.
