Stargate: Atlantis (TV Series) The Last Man (2008) User Reviews

Thought provoking

[okvistad · 10/10 · 30 August 2014]

Keeping this spoiler-free for the ones who haven't watched Stargate.

Strange episode, yes. But definitely the Stargate episode that has stuck most in my mind since I first saw them. I'd like to nominate this to the TV science fiction hall of fame. If there ever is such a thing.

I've often wondered if this was filmed off-schedule, so to say, because the individual stories are all very distinct in appearance and composition and there's quite a few different sets in it. Not to mention that there's a fair amount of non-main cast members in it.

This encompasses the style of science fiction that I like. It leaves you with questions about science and I love that!

You'll like this episode. I promise.

The way it's supposed to be

[owlaurence · 9/10 · 14 March 2013]

This is a weird episode. You would expect it to pick up right where The Kindred left us, holding our breaths. Instead, it begins with Sheppard coming home to Atlantis only to find it long dead, buried in sand, and learning that a solar flare has just sent him to a very far future, where McKay's virtual doppleganger is waiting to help him get back home. Fun though time paradoxes may be, one might be forgiven for not giving a damn. I mean, this is the season finale, so why the (apparently) disconnected plot? What about rescuing the *very pregnant* heroine from the clutches of the mad alien scientist?

Watch on. Actually, this episode is all about raising the stakes (to galactic proportions, no less), and about making Teyla's rescue possible in the first place. As "Rodney" tells Sheppard the end of his story, we realise that we just don't want to go there. I like the idea that, this time, the enemy is so clever that without this major cheat, nobody has a chance against him. And even though most of the "flashbacks" included in The Last Man won't ever come to pass (or will they?), they tell a lot about our favorite characters, even more about Rodney himself. So to all intents and purposes, this episode is sort of "The Season You Don't Want To Happen" --but in a good way.

And to make the episode even better, instead of ending with Sheppard successfully coming back to his own time, the episode goes on to show how Atlantis immediately capitalises on Sheppard's new information and... discovers that even help from the future might not be enough against Michael. Don't you just love those last-minute twists?

A sandy Atlantis

[robrosenberger · 5 June 2012]

Enjoy the last five episodes of this season. It's almost as though the producers said, okay, these are our limitations. We may not outgrow them, but we'll pull the throttle back all the way, to be the best we can be. The season ends on the most heavy Rodney/Sheppard episode ever, as a stargate accident sends John 48,000 years into the future. Probably the last human alive, he talks to an aged hologram of Rodney, on a desert planet in the remains of Atlantis. Rodney flashes back to the unfortunate events that happened after John's disappearance. We get to see Sam go down with her ship, Ronon and Todd die side by side, Woolsey (Robert Picardo, VOYAGER) take over Atlantis, and Major-turned-General Lorne (the stalwart Kavan Smith, who did 29 episodes over four seasons) take over the SGC. A scheme it took Rodney decades to calculate returns Sheppard home, and a different timeline is set in motion.