REACTION REVERIE: 'Stargate Atlantis' failed to live up to the heart, high stakes of surviving in the Pegasus Galaxy

What ended the highly-rated Atlantis Expedition in the Pegasus Galaxy during its fifth season was not SG-1's unexpectedly profitable straight-to-DVD adventures. It was the failed promise of "Stargate Atlantis" itself.

One of the many reasons the show was cancelled was because the main characters lacked the heart that made "Stargate SG-1," its predecessor, more than just a run-of-the-mill science fiction series. 

Joe Flanigan's John Sheppard, for instance, started off as a misunderstood soldier with a track record for doing what he knew was right rather than following orders. He was essentially a rebel without a cause, which eventually became taking charge of defending his people in a savage galaxy from the onslaught of a powerful alien race, The Wraith. 

Early on, Sheppard proved the willingness to do what was necessary toward that end in mercifully killing a commanding officer before a Wraith queen finished feeding on him. 

To boot, hints of an intimate relationship with Atlantis' leader Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Tori Higginson), and his unwillingness to disappoint her, gradually changed Sheperd's usually nonchalant demeanor. 

It is worth mentioning that Higginson's Weir, the effectively charming and stalwart leader of the expedition, provided the show with a strong sense of command that has yet to be duplicated. What seemed to detract from "Stargate Atlantis" was the writers killing off endearing characters such as Weir and Dr. Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion).

Sheppard's character thereafter stagnated, especially when Weir was killed off, leaving him as a wise-cracking hero type who let his P90 do all his talking. 

Jason Momoa's Ronin Dex character started off and ended up the same way. 

Rachel Luttrel's Teyla Emmagan wore out her usefulness as tour guide of The Pegasus Galaxy very soon.

Most of the heartfelt character-based episodes began to focus on David Hewlett's Rodney McKay character, who intially allowed the massive ego that came with being a genius scientist to prevent him from developing close, meaningful relationships with his peers and estranged sister.

Once some galactic calamity forced McKay to move beyond his arrogant tendencies to find common ground with the people around him, the character would return to being a self-centered jackass in the next episode. 

Some of the show's best episodes seemed to depend on this formula.

As an ensemble, the characters were at times ruthless in how they chose to combat the latest threat. Questionable tactics were employed such as biologically turning and conditioning Wraith into human beings or feeding a human to a Wraith ally. 

Noticeably missing from the show was SG-1's hallmark of acquiring and using advanced technology with a sense of moral caution. 

Anything, including a superpower-imbued McKay lifting Beckett in the air, introducing Replicator nanites into Weir's body or him literally playing with people's lives, was fair game.

Exploration of The Wraith queens also fell short in that they lacked any distinctive personality traits that made The Goa'uld System Lords such compelling characters. They were just hungry and pissed off.

"Stargate Atlantis" also failed because the expedition team struggled to find a substantial number of allies with technology equally or more advanced than their own, making their last-minute defeats of major alien bad guys less than believable, though the Travelers were a notable exception. 

Whereas SG-1 had The Asgard, The Ancients, The Tolan, The Nox and The Tok'ra, the Atlantis Expedition was more or less on its own going up against every major race of bad guys, and sometimes, some bitter allies.

The team's mandate to defend Atlantis from The Wraith fizzled away when the Pegasus Galaxy Replicators, an idea borrowed from "SG-1," eliminated most of the life-sucking aliens. 

Later, The Replicators were also vanquished, leaving the show with no legs.

Yes, Wraith such as Todd and Michael remained to cause mischief, but the sense of overwhelming adversity caused by the reawakening of The Wraith toward the beginning of the show disappeared.

Another shortcoming of "Stargate Atlantis" was that shooting locations in a lot of episodes began to run together. There is only so many times forestry Canadian backdrop can be used to portray an alien planet. After a while, it looked like Sheppard and his team were out in the forest playing a game of Paintball with The Wraith. 

Shifting the format of the Atlantis Expedition from a cable series to DVD movies might fit its inevitable transition from a heartfelt, character-driven story to a series of shallow, action-packed space battles. 

But it does not pay justice to the many fans who initially made the Stargate franchise a success.