Stargate: Atlantis returned from its mid-season break on 13 April, 2007 with the second part of The Return. Written by Martin Gero, the story sees Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), Weir (Torri Higginson), McKay (David Hewlett), Beckett (Paul McGillion), Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) and Ronon (Jason Momoa) leading the charge to rescue O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), Woolsey (Robert Picardo) and the returned Ancients from the attack of the upgraded Replicators.

The plan goes into action. It’s fun and big and has lots of great character beats. And it’s cool to see Picardo and Anderson together. And O’Neill is incredibly sarcastic about everything going on especially when he finds out the rescue mission has not been authorized.

On Earth, Landry (Beau Bridges) not only endorses the nuclear strike on Atlantis, but also the detonation of the gate bridge to keep the planet safe.

Of course, things don’t go as well as everyone hopes, but I’m sure it will work out by the end of the episode.

It’s great to see O’Neill back for a guest appearance, and he’s got some fun bits throughout.

He definitely holds his own with the Atlantis cast, and his storyline alongside Woolsey is just as important through this pair of episodes as the main cast. And there’s a great plan, that we only get a glimpse of until the climax plays out.

I am really enjoying Atlantis. In fact, I’m enjoying it as much as SG-1. It’s fun, playful and has wonderful characters.

The episode ties in lots of stargate tapestry, replicators, ancients, both series. That’s a lot of series mythology in one episode. And it lets the expedition maintain its hold on Atlantis.

Echoes was written by Carl Binder from a story by Binder and Brad Wright. It debuted on 20 April, 2007.

Something odd is going on on Atlantis. Teyla is seeing Ancients in the form of apparitions. And with the show’s intro of ‘previously on…’ we know it has something to do with the sea creatures that appeared in Grace Under Pressure.

Soon, other residents of Atlantis are seeing the apparitions, and not all of them are nice-looking. There seems to be something that is attempting to be shared. And McKay’s whale friends may something to do with it.

And hey! Claire Rankin returns as Dr. Heightmeyer.

There’s a couple things I like about this one. I like the fact that it gives us a quick break from the series overall arc with the Wraith and the Ancients, but it still ties in with the history of the series by tying back to a previous episode.

But if these whale things were in the Ancient database, why didn’t they make any notations about the psychic impact that they cause. I mean, they did. But you think they would have made it one of the first things in any data entry there was on the creatures.

Still it all plays out nicely, and there’s a nice theme about living in harmony with the world around you.