User Reviews

As my title reads, this is my favorite Stargate TV series. It has tension, excitement and good humor. Not the dumb wisecracks from Ben Browder or Richard Dean Anderson as seen in SG1. Amanda Tapping is my favorite actor from Stargate SG1 (and Season 4 of) Stargate Atlantis. She has gone on to be an excellent director. Joe Flanigan and Jason Momoa are ideally cast. Jewel Staite is very good. I really liked her in "Firefly" (2002-2003) and the film "Serenity" (2005). Of course, Momoa has gone on to be a superstar.

A huge fan of SG-1 myself, I was at first doubtful about a spin-off where the story was about people in Atlantis. I mean, Atlantis? How much more cliché could you get, right? I was terrified that it would be so bad, Stargate would become a joke in the SF world.

I'm glad I was wrong. I'm hooked on the series and have watched every single episode. I can't wait for "The Siege" part 2 next week! The season started off with a great two-parter, "Rising". Amazing FX, great plot, great characters (it was such a pleasure to have McKay back!)and Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson from SG-1 to make the transition.

The plot is that an expedition is mounted to send a team of scientists from all over the world and military personnel to the lost city of Atlantis. This team is led by Dr. Elizabeth Weir, a diplomat that was introduced in the episode "Lost City" of Stargate SG-1. They manage to get to the Pegasus Galaxy and Atlantis but they don't have a power source that can send them back to Earth (it's called a ZPM, zero point module). When they get there, they make a new enemy called the Wraith that preys on humans, sucking the life out of them.

There was the worry that it would turn into the Stargate version of Trek's Voyager. An expedition stuck far away looking for a way home. It's already well known to Atlantis fans that from the beginning of season 2 there will be contact with Earth on a regular basis.

After "Rising", the series slows down a little with some moderately good episodes but some brilliant episodes come late ("Before I sleep", "Poisonning the Well", "Home", "The Storm" and "The Eye" ...) Overall there are more great episodes than so-so ones.

The Wraith then. They scare the hell out of me! The Goa'uld (from SG-1) are funny evil, the Wraith are terrifying evil. Seriously. I'd pick becoming the host to a Goa'uld or matter to a Replicator over being Wraith dinner anytime.

The city of Atlantis is beautiful (those FX! Wow!), the theme music is great. The uniforms aren't all that convincing. And what I like most of it is that it's very newbie friendly (meaning you can easily watch and understand without having watched SG-1 before) while being interesting for old time fans (such as myself) of all things Stargate. The series keeps getting better as the season passes and though it's practically over now with the second half of the finale airing next week I can tell season 2 is going to be amazing. Even with the changes to the cast. McGillion who plays Dr. Beckett is coming back as a regular (excellent!) and Francks a.k.a. Lt. Ford is becoming recurring (not good in my opinion) and a new character by the name Ronon Dex (not cast yet) is gonna become a regular. The rest of the cast is brilliant and I'm glad they've started developing Teyla some more.

All the show needs now is the Chevron Guy from SG-1 and for Dr. Zelenka to become a regular :D

Although SG1 have higher highs Stargate Atlantis is still the slightly better show because it is more consistent and have very, very few low points. This is Scifi at its best and with compelling characters, fantastic story arch's and great action this is one of the best shows out there. Among Scifi shows I would only rank Fringe and the first 5 season of x-files higher. This is on par with AoS - In other words: a must see!

A few misses around the former wraith Michael, a couple of plot holes and perhaps a few things could have played out differently, at least in my head. I am also a little dissatisfied with the ending... but besides those minor complaints this is a great show.

I especially enjoy the banter between Col. Shepard and Rodney, and that even obvious "red shirts" have character development. Good show that should be on everyone's list.

This show I would watch again, it was entertaining and had it's funny moments. Overall worth watching and you might find yourself binge watching it.

The characters are good too. The animation isn't like todays, but the show is kinda older so it's to be expected.

Note: It does have some language but it's not as bad as some I have seen. I would say the language is probably on the mild side from what I remember.

And also the sexual content wasn't bad at all.

The violence isn't terrible, but the way the Wraith feed, can be disturbing for some. So just know that. I wouldn't say the violence is PG I would probably give it a Tv-14 type. Again just cause of the Wraith.

I read some of the reviews here, and frankly have a tough time rationalizing some of the negative ones...

For me, I understood from the start that SGA was not going to be an SG1 clone. It was never supposed to be, as the show played out in a different galaxy, had different characters, mostly a different plot, bad guys and direction...and Stargate Atlantis pulled it off well, until Brad Wrightdecided he was bored and screwed the fan base with the Stargate Universe fiasco...

To give you an idea how successful both SG1 and Atlantis were, both still show up in syndication...and will for some time to come...

p.s. The only bad thing I have to say about SGA, is casting Jason Mamoa as Ronan was a huge mistake. He has zero acting ability, and did not add to the show at all...the other would be playing musical leaders. Torri Higginson leant a certain charisma and vulnerability to the character Elizabeth Weir, and the show, but when they decided to replace her with Samantha Carter, they actually alienated most of the fans...

It really is brilliant at times but its last season had too many boring episodes and it has a very slow start. Sg-1 is one of my absolute favorite shows, i think the concept is genious and the characters are amazing so years later after always wanting to see this series i gave it a go. The pilot was great, the villians were very intimidating, their style was super cool. After finding out what they really were i was a bit disappointed but that was ill-placed, they used the concept very well and we got a lot of real moral dilemmas from it and a sympathetic understanding of this evil race. Like i mentioned it starts off slow and i was really thinking they could have just sg-1 do these eps by fitting the story into their world but it definitely grew on me as it took on its own thing especially with its main villain species, there are some really really excellent episodes focusing on the uniqueness of the villains plus ofcourse good stand alone ones. If you like ridiculous sci-fi, great space villains, likeable characters, a lot like a lot of survival type episodes (i like them and sg-1 has a lot too but woah atlantis has way more i think) and are ok with fast forwarding or doing other things while the boring ones play give it a go.

What i liked a lot 1. Characters especially Non-military characters I love the characters of sg-1, Teal'c and Daniel's development kicks off immediately and Jack has a tragic past plus the sarcastic hero thing. I like Sam a lot but she is too much of a Mary Sue and her addition to Atlantis doesn't make much difference tho i was excited for it. I mention these characters because you don't have instant characterization in Atlantis, so don't expect those big personal stakes except for Tayla's. Let's talk about Atlantis now Rodney is definitely the best, he is a stark contrast to Sam but way more realistic, i mean ofcourse he is an arrogant, narcissist and a bit of an incel really. He can be really annoying and unlikeable but that makes his character arch that much better. I wasn't a fan of Weir initially but she grew on me and they managed to capture her experience very well, i mean she is in a crazy position and they potray her self-doubt, worry and fear well while still maintaining her cool diplomatic character. Something we couldn't see on Sg-1 with leaders because she is not military and the almost sickening military adoration being toned down was definitely better. Atlantis was able to do much more with medical characters because well they are off world anyway, we get two main doctors that are good characters and again their fears and worry is relatable. One of best things about the last season was the blonde doctor. I even really liked Mr. Woolsey(i think that's the name).

2. Took actual risks with the characters Don't want to go into spoilers so all that can be said is that they really took some of the characters and gave them heartbreaking turns and as much as that hurts sometimes its done well.

3. The villain species Lots of different facets were explored, again spoilers is of significance but i just can say they did well with many of the ways they encountered the villain and their physiology and their abilities. Two of the people in this become good villains for the most part, especially one of them, the other just gets a plot that becomes weaker.

4. Alantis The main technologically advanced stuff that happens on the show comes from exploring the city itself, with hidden mysteries galore.

5. Fun standalone eps and some great plot points Alternate realties, temporary powers, paradoxes, all the works.

6. Some of the other antagonists A military type man from another world and then some other type of secondary antagonists (spoilers so can't say) were good tho i didn't like the military world as an antagonist much.

What i didn't like too much 1. Not much diverse aliens, too many of the same worlds Now i can't blame them for it in the writing kind of way just for the result being boring, the galaxy doesn't have many advanced races for a reason so while it is boring its necessary for the writing. So we see a lot of primitive worlds, one of the main antagonists is a 1950 military world which was well...i have mixed feelings about that world. I was going to give up on the series but they made the villain of the world good and mid 1st season episode is hella good because of it but still i just was not liking these worlds.

2. Some characters are just ok The main character John is just ok, he is the typical hero but nothing special, Ronan's entry was great but was a stagnant character for the most part. I like Tayla but there was just something annoying about her, the goody two shoes my people my people perhaps.

3. A lot of boring filler and stretched out plot endings Last season had too much boring filler, the series starts off slow too with a lot of filler, the plot is not always bad but sometimes they stretch it out too much to the point it stops being fun, sometimes taking 3 episodes to solve it basically stretching stuff out. One ep is just a zombie slasher ep, the worst.

4. Not many specific villains and come in late The species is the main villains which makes them all just blend in so we don't have that one great villain that bad guy for a long period, we have particular ones at some point just for an episode which are great, then we get 2 main ones which makes it better.

5. No resolution It got cancelled before tying things up. Apparently there is a comic tho.

All in all i would recommend it if you love startgate sg-1 and are thinking about watching Atlantis.

I started watching this series on Netflix and didn't realize there were only 5 seasons. I just went online to put season 6 in my queue and there isn't one! :( This was a great series. The acting was great, in my humble opinion. The character development and group dynamics was excellent and I felt like a part of the family. I was sad when Carson died and felt real depression, but was very grateful when they brought him back in later episodes, just as they did with Elizabeth. I thought Joe Flanigan and David Hewlett were terrific and I am going to search for some of their other works to watch. I am crossing my fingers they have done other things. If they haven't, someone in the entertainment business needs to find a vehicle for these guys... the whole team would be ideal. I'm very sad right now and feel a real loss...like finishing a great book that you never wanted to end. Thank you for 99 episodes of pure enjoyment. I wish you all the best