The Sci Fi Channel series Stargate: Atlantis has always been a pale shadow of its progenitor, the long-running Stargate SG-1. Heavy on action, short on thoughtfulness, it touches on wit, smarts, and true science-fiction speculation only momentarily, and sometimes even seemingly accidentally. The adventures of a military, scientific, and exploratory team from modern Earth in a distant galaxy, based in the ancient alien city known as Atlantis, are never intriguingly alien enough. Even the big, scary, bad guys, the Wraith, are rather ridiculous space vampires, and usually induce more titters than terror.

Still, two factors keep me watching the series. One: Cast members David Hewlett and Paul McGillion as, respectively, the Earth gang's geeky science genius and their nerdy medical doctor are simultaneously having a blast with their characters (which in turn seems to inspire the writers to have some serious fun with them) and bringing to them a level of performance that treats what could be clichés with a lot of honor and dignity. They're fun to spend time with. Two: Once in a rare while the show hits a sci-fi jackpot, as with the episode "Michael," on Disc 5 of the just-released Complete Second Season DVD box set, one of the best single episodes of television science fiction ever, of any series. Guest-starring one of the best unsung TV actors not working enough today, Connor Trinneer -- formerly of the Star Trek spin-off Enterprise, he, like Hewlett and McGillion, astonishes while everyone else is phoning it in -- this episode dares to question the ethical foundations of the series' premise. It is shocking and provocative in a way that SF is supposed to be and hardly ever is.

Of course, everything goes right back to middle-of-the-road normal by the time the next episode rolls around -- which will, I'm sure, continue to be the case when the show returns to the Sci Fi Channel in a couple of weeks -- but for a brief moment there, Atlantis was brilliant.

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