Quarantine

Plot: New settings for the Atlantis quarantine system wrongly enforce a lock down, leading to several members of the expedition getting trapped in different parts of the city.
With various amounts of partying and dissertation writing this week, I've not had much chance to watch any Stargate this week. Fortunately, I was able to sit down and enjoy a really fun episode of Atlantis this evening.

There are four pairs of characters trapped within the city, each limited in their ability to fix the problem that caused the malfunction. First of all, Rodney gets stuck in the botanics room with Katie. He'd gone there to propose, but was interrupted by the lock down. While there, Rodney becomes increasingly negative as the situation seemingly grows more desperate. Unfortunately, they both decide to hold off on getting engaged for the first time. Rodney believes that he has some character flaws to work out and Katie admits that she's not ready either. Though that admission is a little weak and you can tell that she did really want to get married. Hopefully they'll get it together next season, because I really think that Katie has been a positive part of Rodney's character.

There's more romance as Ronon and Dr. Keller get stuck in medical bay. They start off by discovering a little about each other, Ronon tells her about the siege on Sateda, Keller tells about her lost youth. Turns out she skipped ahead a few grades and was something of a child prodigy. She regrets missing the parties, the dances and the social interaction. Ronon's become a gentler soul over the past 18 months ago and he helps her to realise that she's a lot stronger than she realises. They're about to kiss when the lock down ends and interrupts them. I'd never have imagined them together, but I think it'll work really well. I'm interested in seeing how it all develops over the next few episodes.

Sheppard and Teyla are stuck in a room in the tower together. Sheppard worries that Teyla might go in to labour. Apart from a few baby kicks there was no drama there though. Sheppard opts to break out through a window and climb up the tower to the control room where he meets Major Lorne. Problem is that his breaking the window makes the city think there's been a containment breach and it engages self destruct. They set out to get to the power control room to shut it down.

On the way, they run in to Sam Carter and Zalenka who were stuck together in a turbo lift. Sam was working on opening the doors when Zalenka blew up one of the control crystals. Obviously he was a little embarrassed by his mistake, but soon got the chance to make amends. This happened when someone was required to crawl through a rather slim air duct to get to the control room and shut down the self destruct. He manages it and saves that day.

I think Zalenka's part in this episode was played particularly well. He's a good character, but is always in Rodney's shadow. This time, he was able to step in to the limelight and take all the accolades. Good for him, I say.

I think this episode was a lot of fun. Lots happened without the characters needing to leave Atlantis or get involved in any great action sequences, especially in contrast to the last three or four episodes. Character development of this quality is not often seen in Stargate, but it was refreshing to see such excellence here. Thumbs up from me definitely.

8 out of 10