SciFi Friday, SG-1, Atlantis and BSG

[gategrrl]

Stargate SG-1
Vala's back, and boy, has she gotten boring. Or is it simply that her character depends a lot more than expected on Daniel Jackson to liven her up? The baby idea is a really really bad one. The story she told made no sense on a basic story-logic level, again, with the baby, who seemed more or less an excuse to get her to marry an Ori Warrior. If she was carrying a Speshul Ori Baby, the Ori should have protected her better, or at least fessed up to Tomin, her husband so she would not have had to lie to him. And her story meandered, telling SG-1 completely unnecessary details *in order that they happened* as if every detail were important to the REAL story, which was that the Ori were sending a Jihad to the Milky Way Galaxy. I didn't see where her personal life was important to the long-winded warning. And simply because "Vala's BACK!" doesn't mean that her story has any relevance to what the SGC needed to hear at that moment in time. Maybe she was delaying the point of her story because, although Landry and Mitchell and Carter and TEal'c didn't seem to give a shit about her being "back", SHE wanted as much time as possible with people she knew before she was whisked off to that horrible Ori place.

Stargate Atlantis
Guest Star Blond Bimbo was ridiculous. She was distracting in how she bounced and flounced and pranced across the set, swinging her hair and flirting in such a campy obviously way with Rodney and John...hon, it's not Andromeda, and you're not on a porn shoot. I only found out who she was tonight, matter of fact. Didn't even know she was an Andromeda cast member. The Ancient warship was hard to see in that hangar - whoever did the CGI didn't make the background colors and the ship color different enough. Rodney was too much the Dr Smith Buffoon on this episode, and John should really either get a cockring or plaster it down with duct tape. His Kirk act is getting as tiresome as Blond Bimbo's "acting". The episode was more or less fluff the only reason for being written was to give this show yet another kick-butt ship that the Earth People could get to use, sans the Stargate. In another season, they won't even use that stupid ring, will they? What's its purpose again? "Stargate? Stargate? What is Stargate!!!"

Battlestar Galactica
Much as I love this show, and adored Dean Stockwell in this role as the hardhitting priest (the best part of the whole episode), I'm getting feelings of "Haven't I seen this before?" or "Wait, of COURSE this was going to happen". It's becoming more predictable. Oh, not in the sense that I can recite what will be said next (like the Guy did with various episodes of Lost before we gave up on it). But more in the they've run out of storytelling time and have to rush it sense. In vein of "Gee, Apollo is angsted, Starbuck is angsted, Helo is angsted, Dee is angsted (sort of) Baltar is psycho and everybody if so fucking angsted it puts Buffy to shame!" I'm not asking for a lame humor episode. Geez no. But a restful episode maybe? That said, depending on how this series ends and how the characters are treated, I might invest in the DVD sets.

Oh. One more thing. I keep getting the feeling that I'm missing story there that's between the lines - as if there's actually more that supposed to be there, but it's not there. And I've since heard that Moore, the producer, actually DOES go online and explains what's going on, what storylines were cut for time...and yet expects that many noninternet fans of the show will "know" this information about the characters by osmosis. Or something.

Comments

[whisper99.livejournal.com]

About SG1 - see, that's my point exactly. What was the point of dragging the story on and on like that? If we could have seen or gotten the idea that maybe Vala really didn't want to go back because she was scared, then I could accept it. They could have had her begging them to find her because she was scared. They could have had her refuse to leave Daniel or something, causing conflict. I mean, something. Heck, even if it was just as simple as her wanting somebody else, somebody(Daniel) who cared about her (more than anybody has before) know what happened to her, know her story, y'know? *sigh* I think I'll have to fanwank it as that - her desperatly wanting SG1 to know of her fate, because she really was all on her own - again - behind enemy lines and scared out of her mind.

[(Anonymous)]

That's right on target. I didn't get the sense that Vala was *upset* or *desperate* or even *scared* - mostly hungry for food she craved and even people who she knew didn't really like her that much. But they couldn't have her be "the bad girl" who doesn't want to *leave* Daniel's body. But there was no tension, no conflict, other than the meandering story she told. Weren't the people on the other side of that communication device wanting her to get back ASAP so that what happened wouldn't have happened?

There was no way for her to know or for the SGC to know that her pregnancy was important - EXCEPT for the fact that she overheard the Prior talking to Tomin about it, and her own flashback to the scary Face O'Flame over her on the bed. And even then - well...the SG-1 guys didn't exactly go cuckoo over that intelligence, or make it seem like it mattered.

Elsewhere, someone mentioned that you'd have thought that SG-1 would have ALREADY have visited that planet whose address Daniel found in the last episode. But if THIS episode took place just the day after, and they hadn't sent a MALP through to check it out yet, I could wank it. We have seen/heard evidence that the SGC does take its time looking for things or people (Sha're being one: they didn't exactly look in a systematic manner for her through addresses given to them by Teal'c, Apophis' First Prime at the time). They send the MALP, they check out the readings, they make sure it's safe enough on a planet that nothing there will directly kill them right off the bat... so it may have taken a few days for them to even get the mission okayed - 48 hours, maybe? They should have mentioned that the MALP showed it was clear and they were good to go.

Actually, Vala as acted by CB wasn't boring *herself*, exactly. Just very subdued. But even an uninteresting story that isn't getting to the point isn't going to help Vala spark up. She needs Daniel to do that, I think.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and of course I forgot to sign in again...hey, 7am, I'm sleepy still!

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

ITA about everything you said about SG-1--especially about Vala's personal story not being relevant--especially the way it was presented. I know she's going to be a full-time cast member next season, but I felt about this the same way I feel about all the Mitchell backstory. I don't care. In fact, I actually liked Babylon even though it could have been better, to compare this with a similar episode. More than that, it just drove me crazy that nobody said to her, "Please get to the point!" lol

I'm just not seeing much about this show to like any more and now I'm dreading season 10 more than I ever thought possible. And to think I was worried only that they'd keep inserting Jack/Sam ship into everything. I never imagined this kind of crap. I still hope that next week's episode will be great, though, but I feel more depressed about the show--and about fandom, too--more than anything else.

SGA: I don't know. I just don't care enough about it most of the time. I just like the squee-worthy moments, but it has really, really upset me how they've portrayed Rodney as the bumbling buffoon this season. It's a fine line there and they've crossed it way too many times this season when they'd mostly dealt with all of this stuff last season. OTOH, in this particular episode, I didn't really notice much and I think that was because I was so upset and bored with SG-1 that I was spending all my time chatting about that and then writing my SG-1 sort-of-review. *g*

That said, Blonde Bimbo really bugged me. She was distracting and I didn't see the point of her presence other than to show John getting all jealous of Rodney paying attention to her. *g* I never saw her on Andromeda, but I know she replaced Lexa Doig for a while when she was on baby leave. I remember her as the Tok'ra from SG-1. She was in more than one episode, but she died in the episode where the Trust was sending symbiote poison through the stargate. She was the Tok'ra pretending to be a Goa'uld that Teal'c and Not!Thor went to see. (Not!Thor is the actor who portrayed the hologram of Thor in Thor's Chariot and also whatever Asgard was seen in Red Sky. I can't remember his name when he was a Jaffa.)

Is that confusing enough? *g*

I don't like this new aspect of John thinking only with his lower regions, either. While it wasn't my favorite aspect of the show, I didn't absolutely hate the characterization of him as the hapless man with women coming on to him for various reasons. I mean, it wasn't something I adored, but it didn't make me hate him. This attitude (that he didn't even notice anything about the leader of these people because he was a man) was irritating and, I think, something new. It made him seem like a 15-year-old male who's insecure in his manhood. And maybe he is. LOL Maybe he's only just discovering his love for Rodney so he has to overcompensate or something. *g* Either way, it's unattractive, annoying, and silly for a grown man to be acting that way and actually saying it aloud--to his boss who is a female, too.

[therentgirls.livejournal.com]

hon, it's not Andromeda, and you're not on a porn shoot
Too funny, and sadly, too true. What the heck has happened with these shows? That said, I'll no doubt torture myself with them again next season.
~V~

BSG podcasts

[(Anonymous)]

From what I've read online, you really are missing part of the story. It seems that Moore does podcasts for the episodes that fill in the blanks or clarify the storyline. Apparently, he expects everyone to listen to these podcasts. Apparently, you are not supposed to watch and interpret the story to suit yourself. Apparently, being spoon fed the Correct Interpretation is a Whole New Paradigm (tm) to TV viewing. And apparently, if you don't have internet access you simply don't get the whole story, or you form an Incorrect Interpretation, because Moore and his writers can't be bothered to make sure the aired version contains all the relevant story information.

Will I waste my time on podcasts? Heck, no! It's not my problem that sometimes the story ain't complete without them. It's Moore's. If he wants viewers to keep watching and not give up in disgust, he'd better work harder to make sure the stories actually work without supplemental material from the internet.

And I thought the Stargate writers were bad about misuse of the internet to force online viewers to just accept Stuff That Doesn't Necessarily Make Sense and to enforce the Correct Interpretation of what happened onscreen. At least they don't try to fix their story weirdnesses with podcasts, and then claim it's a whole new paradigm or some other such nonsense.

Re: BSG podcasts

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

I can only hope that the DVDs will have the deleted scenes on them that got cut from the aired version. I have a feeling that the folks who bought the early release version of season 2 are going to be wishing they'd waited: they'll release a new SuperDVD set with all that stuff on it. *unless it's already included, in which case, nevermind!