Tonight’s episode of Stargate Atlantis is “Harmony”, written by Martin Gero and directed by William Waring. Sheppard and McKay relunctantly agree to escort a young princess, named Harmony, in a rite of passage to the ruins of the Great Temple of Laros to become the new queen after her mother’s death. According to the people’s tradition, Harmony should do this trek through the forest alone to meditate and pray and then return, but Harmony’s older sisters, Flora and Mardola, feel that Harmony is too young to go alone. These two sisters believe that they aren’t breaking the rules if outsiders like Sheppard and McKay go with Harmony.
On the way to the ruins, the three encounter Genii soldiers who wish to do them harm. The peace and quiet of the forest is broken with weapons fire. Apparently, Harmony is the target of assassins, but who doesn’t love this bratty, precocious, demanding little darling of a princess enough that they wish for her to be dead? Well, it might not take a rocket scientist like McKay to figure out that not all is well in Denmark, or wherever. Should Sheppard and McKay survive the attack, will they be able to point their fingers at one of Harmony’s sisters or someone else in the peaceful little queendom that supplies the Atlantis Expedition with grain and fruits (including “that Dala thing” that McKay can’t get enough of because it is sweet and salty all at once) in exchange for medical supplies and warnings about Wraith activities?
Two Stargate SG-1 veterans are featured in “Harmony”: Harmony is played by Jodelle Ferland, who played the “seven-year-old” Adria in Season Ten’s “Flesh and Blood”; and Harmony’s sister Mardola is played by Crystal Lowe, who played Nya in Season One’s “Emancipation”. Executive producer and co-showrunner Joseph Mallozzi took pictures and video footage of most of the forest scenes at Widgeon Park, which is about an hour to an hour-and-a-half away from Vancouver. Fans were kept up to date with the shooting in Mallozzi’s personal blog, and MGM has a featurette entitled “On Set with Joseph Mallozzi” that accompanies him throughout his visit to the shooting.
Because there was so much behind-the-scenes material given to fans in Mallozzi’s blog, he decided to open his Photobucket account (under the name Baron Destructo — long story for some other time, perhaps?) so that visitors can pick and choose from his many short videos (which also include spoilers for other episodes — as well as many personal videos of Mallozzi’s dogs — so be careful in your selections).
Tune in tonight at 10pm Eastern on the SCI FI Channel to see if Harmony lives to see her next birthday, and after viewing, please visit our on-site forum to rate and discuss the episode.
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