It's really hard to come to a spin-off series with a truly open mind. Since the founding series, Stargate SG-1, ended up being one of my favorite science fiction shows, I've been see-sawing between expecting too much of and fearing the worst from Stargate: Atlantis. Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that a pilot episode (or sometimes even the entire first season...) is often not very representative of where the show will eventually go. After all, I hated the first spinoff of Star Trek with a passion when it first aired, only to have Next Generation (and its own spinoff, Deep Space Nine) become favorites. It's easy to forget, too, that Stargate SG-1 was itself a spinoff from a feature film, and that I didn't warm up to it immediately.

So where does that leave Stargate Atlantis?

Let's set the stage, first. "Rising," the feature-length pilot episode of the series, quickly fills us in on the existence of an abandoned base of the Ancients in Antarctica. Earlier seasons of Stargate SG-1 established that the fabled Lost City of the Ancients is a bastion of hope (in the form of super-advanced weaponry) for an Earth besieged by the conquering Goa'uld. The discovery of a set of stargate coordinates for a site in the distant Pegasus Galaxy, and the ability to power a one-way wormhole to that gate with Earth's lone sample of Ancient power cells, gives Stargate Command the rationale for setting up a new mission for a new team: Stargate Atlantis. This international, self-sufficient team will set off in search of "Atlantis" (the Ancient city), and any new technology that could tip the balance for Earth; implicit in this mission is that they must also find more energy cells to power the trip back home.

It's clear from very early on that Stargate Atlantis is pressing a gigantic reset button for the Stargate universe. Far, far away in the Pegasus Galaxy, and totally cut off from Stargate Command, the Atlantis team will no longer have anything to do with the fight against the Goa'uld, or the shifting alliances among the Tok'ra and the Jaffa, or in fact anything to do with the Stargate story universe as developed so far.

The Star Trek comparison is a useful one. Consider Deep Space Nine: it took a dramatically different approach, focusing on politics and relationships on a single space station rather than exploring the galaxy as its parent show did, and it introduced new races and conflicts. Even so, it retained a close enough connection to be able to use well-developed and interesting aspects of the Star Trek universe, like the Klingons. Then we had Voyager, which tried to cut all ties and invent totally new enemies and situations. We all know how well that worked; Voyager really only got interesting when the writers started finding ways to develop ideas that had been generated in the other series, like the Borg.

From the looks of the pilot episode, Stargate Atlantis is taking the Voyager model, cutting loose from all the story developed in its parent show. To a certain extent, I can see that they want to explore fresh new material rather than just being "Stargate SG-2"... but on the other hand, one of the things I really love about Stargate SG-1 is how well the show developed a rich, compelling backstory and actually used it in episode after episode. It does put a lot of strain on Atlantis to have to immediately compete against that.

With all this in mind, it's certainly hard to watch "Rising" without constantly wondering what it means for the series as a whole. As an episode, "Rising" is not particularly exceptional; it's reasonably entertaining, but it doesn't really have a "wow" factor, either, even if that might be a bit much to expect.

There are some things I did notice about Stargate Atlantis that I think show promise for the series. (Actually, the fact that the pilot is actually entertaining is a good first step. Think about how badly ST: TNG started off.) One is that the series seems to be aiming for a different visual style than Stargate SG-1; it's not a big deal, but it's an indication that the filmmakers are thinking of more than just "Stargate SG-2."

The other strong point for the pilot is the casting, which pulls in two solid characters from the original series, in a meaningful way. Fans will recognize David Hewlett from his appearances in a number of episodes as Dr. Rodney McKay, the know-it-all scientist who gave Major Carter such a headache whenever they had to work together, as well as Torri Higginson as Dr. Elizabeth Weir, the diplomat in the two-part SG-1 episode "New Order." Both give the newly hatched series a nice connection to the original show, and are interesting characters. One of the things I liked about Stargate SG-1 was its strong, intelligent female characters, and it looks like Dr. Weir will fit the bill for Atlantis. We also get entertaining guest-star turns from Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson and Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O'Neill, though of course it's clear that they're only in the pilot.

The DVD

Stargate Atlantis: Rising is a single disc, packaged in a plastic keepcase.

Video

Stargate Atlantis: Rising is presented in a very attractive anamorphic widescreen transfer, at its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The image is crisp, clean, and sharp; the picture is nicely detailed, and contrast is handled well throughout the feature. Colors have a rich, slightly oversaturated look in some scenes, which I would say is a deliberate choice by the filmmakers; in any case, it looks very good.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack handles the feature's audio requirements reasonably well. The track is clean-sounding, and the sound effects and music are balanced correctly with the dialogue. Some surround effects are used, though it's not as aggressive as I might have hoped for. The one fault I found with the soundtrack is that the dialogue tends to sound slightly flat at times; it's not so much as to interfere with understanding the actors clearly, but it does make the track not quite as crisp as it could be. English closed captions are included.

Extras

The main special feature here is an audio commentary with director Martin Wood and actor Joe Flanigan (Major Sheppard); it's an interesting and fairly lively track. We also get a 23-minute promotional-style featurette called "Preview to Atlantis," which is about as interesting as promotional featurettes usually are. The rest of the special features are all promotional in one way or another: there's an 8-minute "sneak peek" at Season 2 of Stargate Atlantis, a trailer and art for the Stargate Alliance video game, and trailers for Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1: Season 8, Dead Like Me: Season 1, and Jeremiah.

Final thoughts

As the pilot episode for the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis, "Rising" has its work cut out for it. While it doesn't convince me that Stargate Atlantis is going to live up to its parent series, it does show a certain amount of promise. Since it doesn't have Stargate SG-1's rich backstory to draw on (which I think is its main weakness), the story in the pilot feels a bit thin, but it's reasonably entertaining and it does demonstrate some imagination. It also looks very attractive, with a nice anamorphic widescreen transfer. At this point, I don't know whether this episode will be re-released as part of an eventual Season 1 set for Stargate Atlantis, so I'll give it a mild "recommended" on its own merits, and I'll be looking forward to seeing how the series plays out over a full season.