by Helen Langdon
Last week, Atlantis left us on a bit of a cliffhanger. Atlantis had lost its magic protecting talisman, Pasiphae stood poised to attack the city and destroy Ariadne, and Hercules and Pythagoras were dragging a wounded, unconscious Jason through a Cyclops-infested cave. Things looked rather bleak back in the time of myths and legends. In this concluding part, could Jason and chums manage to save the day?
Last week, Atlantis left us on a bit of a cliffhanger. Atlantis had lost its magic protecting talisman, Pasiphae stood poised to attack the city and destroy Ariadne, and Hercules and Pythagoras were dragging a wounded, unconscious Jason through a Cyclops-infested cave. Things looked rather bleak back in the time of myths and legends. In this concluding part, could Jason and chums manage to save the day?
Of course they could. It’s only the start of the series. In “A New Dawn: Part Two”, the action mostly flitted between the attacks on Atlantis and Jason’s return to the city. In the end, thanks to Jason returning the Palladium to the city, deserters from the city forces returned to send Pasiphae and her crew on the run.
Last week we complained about the camera shaking all over the place in the fight scenes, and that was still an issue in this episode. Hopefully, that’s just a directorial thing, and after Justin Molotnikov finishes his run of episodes on this season, everything will settle down and we’ll be able to watch without getting seasick.
Aside from that, the battle scenes were surprisingly effective. There is always a danger with portraying big battles like this on TV is the smaller budgets not allowing for brilliant effects or legions of extras. Here, the effects were pretty good, and it was easy to believe that the Colchean army was huge (which did kind of make their eventual defeat a tad inexplicable, but hey-ho, it’s Saturday night TV).
Another highlight of the episode was the Jason-Hercules-Pythagoras friendship. With Jason unconscious for half the episode, the focus was more on the Hercules and Pythagoras interplay, and they get the best lines of the episode as they reiterate the fact that they’re going to follow Jason until the end. OK, so Hercules gets the best lines of all, as the cowardly hero willing to throw his friends into a river to see if it’s deep enough – because they’re going to die anyway, right?
And it looks like Hercules might play an even larger role this season, having just found out about Jason’s parentage and being sworn to secrecy. After all, no-one wants to see the evil Jason future come about. Hercules and Pythagoras would have to follow him into darkness, and Ariadne needs her hero and man candy around the place. Although given the teaser for next week's episode, it looks like she's about to find a replacement with a better pedigree.
Aside from that, the battle scenes were surprisingly effective. There is always a danger with portraying big battles like this on TV is the smaller budgets not allowing for brilliant effects or legions of extras. Here, the effects were pretty good, and it was easy to believe that the Colchean army was huge (which did kind of make their eventual defeat a tad inexplicable, but hey-ho, it’s Saturday night TV).
Another highlight of the episode was the Jason-Hercules-Pythagoras friendship. With Jason unconscious for half the episode, the focus was more on the Hercules and Pythagoras interplay, and they get the best lines of the episode as they reiterate the fact that they’re going to follow Jason until the end. OK, so Hercules gets the best lines of all, as the cowardly hero willing to throw his friends into a river to see if it’s deep enough – because they’re going to die anyway, right?
And it looks like Hercules might play an even larger role this season, having just found out about Jason’s parentage and being sworn to secrecy. After all, no-one wants to see the evil Jason future come about. Hercules and Pythagoras would have to follow him into darkness, and Ariadne needs her hero and man candy around the place. Although given the teaser for next week's episode, it looks like she's about to find a replacement with a better pedigree.
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