Stargate: Atlantis (TV Series) The Defiant One (2004) User Reviews

"The Defiant One"

[allmoviesfan · 7/10 · 17 April 2024]

Sheppard, McKay and their team land on a desert planet and discover a downed Wraith ship, which they find out crashed about ten thousand years before, during the height of the Atlantis-Wraith War. Unfortunately for the Atlantis crew, the ship is still sending out a distress signal. There's also a - very old - Wraith onboard, who has apparently been able to feed himself just enough to survive all that time, and he definitely doesn't take a liking to Sheppard. If nothing else, "The Defiant One" gives Sheppard a string of opportunities to have a gunfight with the Wraith. It's really our first good look at the Big Bad of Stargate: Atlantis, and they are suitably menacing.

There's a cool Star Trek reference where Sheppard reminds the puddle jumper crew to remember where they parked. William Shatner's James T. Kirk famously and memorably said that when the Enterprise crew landed in 1980's San Francisco in "The Voyage Home". A fitting piece of homage, considering the parallels between Star Trek and Stargate, both of which deal with exploring strange and alien planets.

Contains An Amusing Star Trek Reference

[StuOz · 26 May 2018]

Almost a space western, with a Wraith and Sheppard shooting it out on an alien world.

As stated in the quote section of this episode, there is a very amusing scene in this adventure where Sheppard complains about a Wraith - "He's aboard my ship!" - to which Rodney Mckay responds - "What are you, Captain Kirk...what harm can he do?". In a previous episode McKay was seen watching an old Outer Limits (1963) episode on TV and later mentioning how "weird" it was.

These sort of very detailed references to very old 1960s sci-fi TV shows are not something you often get in most sci-fi TV shows of the current age. Granted, we had Sawyer in Lost (2004) referencing old shows but he never gave us really obscure references like talking about Captain Kirk's love of his ship (the joke probably went over the head of many younger viewers).

The point I am making is that these sort of comments are so vital to the enjoyment of this Stargate series. I just watched The Defiant One last night and now all I remember really well is that Rodney line. But that is not to say this adventure was bad, no, just not something that really stands out in my memory now.

Note: in a third season Atlantis episode tilted - Irresistible - the old TV references come thick and fast with classic Star Trek's Mudd's Women getting a tribute but more importantly: the 1966 Batman TV series! McKay has a nice little conversation with his boss about an episode plot line and the actors who played Catwoman in the old series.

Tense

[CCZozo · 21 October 2023]

Watchable episode which pits a team led by Shepherd against a solitary Wraith. Apparently they can survive for centuries on a crashed spaceship as long as they they can snack on stored humans and ,when supplies run out, fellow Wraith. McKay is accused by fellow scientists of generating "girly fear" ,which the Wraith can smell. As always the puddle jumper door is left wide open on alien terrain so that animals and insects ,viruses and bacteria can invade the interior. But for some reason the little buzzing lights which feature in episodes of Stargate SG1 are here interested only in bars of chocolate.