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gategrrlI watched last night's premiere of Atlantis' fourth season despite myself. The Guy turned it on while I was reading the third Young Wizard's book in the series.
It wasn't bad. I guess that sums it up. For some reason, I wasn't expecting Sam Carter to be introduced so early in the season. Tapping looks good, but her character still hasn't lost her arrogance and condescension to all other scientists on the show, who are, of course, shown as stupid when compared to Sam Carter, Super Scientist. Sam still leaps to conclusions - If something is wrong, Daniel did something wrong. If something isn't right, it's Rodney McKay's fault. Tapping seems unable to carry off those lines in any way other than petty. She wasn't *that* bad, but it doesn't look like a "new" character the M&Ms are claiming. Of course, she hasn't actually taken command of Atlantis yet. Hey! Perfect - she'll never have to allow Daniel access to Atlantis while she's in charge! Never thought of that.
Sheppard showed some genuine emotion (wow) when it came to Weir's medical situation. Flanagan did a good job there. To me, it seemed as if all the disasters running through the show are finally showing up on Sheppard's face and attitude. I took a lot of the grief as coming from a personal sadness, but also from a "crap, now I'm in charge for real, with no Weir to cover my ass for me" kind of way.
I don't like how they've made Elizabeth's nanite recovery, such as it is, fully Rodney's fault. Now, when Weir comes back as a Replicator, they can all look at Rodney and have plenty of ammo for when he FUBARs again. Especially Carter the Perfect. That should be fun. But it's not as if Sheppard has any moral high ground there himself, or Weir, OR Carter. But you know Rodney is going to become the series scapegoat and whipping boy for all bad decisions even ones that aren't his.
The new doctor (didn't catch her name) was okay, though it was a little weird to see Kaylie working a human machine instead of a Puddlejumper or the Serenity. She's nice.
I wasn't really paying attention to Ronan's soliloquy to Weir's insensate body, but I suppose it was good; his tone was earnest. I find those sorts of scenes rather frustrating because to me, those are cop-outs. Sure, it's human nature not to know what you've lost until it's gone (or you *think* it's gone) but it's a writing convention used a bit too often on Stargate and other shows. I was having flashbacks to "Meridian".
The music was pretty good, in fact, they let the composer really pile it on, unlike how they scored SG-1 in its last few seasons, with certain exceptions. It gave the opening episode an epic feel that the special effects wimped out on, to a degree. The Guy (who is in the biz and does these things for a living) noted how there were missed opportunities in the effects probably due to lack of time/money - which is usually the case with Stargate - but in this instance, it was like the studio really *wanted* to pour it on, but the animators just didn't have the chance to get the full effects in there. It *could* have been a truly outstanding SPX episode, but missed the mark by just a few degrees. At least the vision was there.
The editing of this episode was more spot on in a flashy way than I've seen before. There was a real effort to match up movements from one cut to the next, BUT, as someone on my flist has noted, it was jarring in that, although the movements matched up, the *tone* did not. Cutting from three people about to die from exposure to space, to Carter floating toward Bill who is throwing up, was jarring. The fault there was in the writing. Trying to use levity through their favorite jokey scientist nerd (who is not Carter and therefore not "cool") while there are such dire circumstances on Atlantis was tacky. And it didn't flatter Carter at all. She came out the worst in these scene changes, though not because of the cuts themselves.
So, out of 5 stars, I'll give this episode 3, because of the obvious effort to up the production values both pre and post, for the way the script kept the momentum going. It didn't get five starts because of annoying characterization and because of the way Carter was introduced into the show as a FT recurring character. I can only hope that RepliWeir kicks her ass before she leaves. Too bad RepliCarter already met her match in Daniel Jackson, because it would be just as satisfying to see RepliWeir kick the fullbred RepliCarter's machine ass, too. There's a fic in there somewhere.
It wasn't bad. I guess that sums it up. For some reason, I wasn't expecting Sam Carter to be introduced so early in the season. Tapping looks good, but her character still hasn't lost her arrogance and condescension to all other scientists on the show, who are, of course, shown as stupid when compared to Sam Carter, Super Scientist. Sam still leaps to conclusions - If something is wrong, Daniel did something wrong. If something isn't right, it's Rodney McKay's fault. Tapping seems unable to carry off those lines in any way other than petty. She wasn't *that* bad, but it doesn't look like a "new" character the M&Ms are claiming. Of course, she hasn't actually taken command of Atlantis yet. Hey! Perfect - she'll never have to allow Daniel access to Atlantis while she's in charge! Never thought of that.
Sheppard showed some genuine emotion (wow) when it came to Weir's medical situation. Flanagan did a good job there. To me, it seemed as if all the disasters running through the show are finally showing up on Sheppard's face and attitude. I took a lot of the grief as coming from a personal sadness, but also from a "crap, now I'm in charge for real, with no Weir to cover my ass for me" kind of way.
I don't like how they've made Elizabeth's nanite recovery, such as it is, fully Rodney's fault. Now, when Weir comes back as a Replicator, they can all look at Rodney and have plenty of ammo for when he FUBARs again. Especially Carter the Perfect. That should be fun. But it's not as if Sheppard has any moral high ground there himself, or Weir, OR Carter. But you know Rodney is going to become the series scapegoat and whipping boy for all bad decisions even ones that aren't his.
The new doctor (didn't catch her name) was okay, though it was a little weird to see Kaylie working a human machine instead of a Puddlejumper or the Serenity. She's nice.
I wasn't really paying attention to Ronan's soliloquy to Weir's insensate body, but I suppose it was good; his tone was earnest. I find those sorts of scenes rather frustrating because to me, those are cop-outs. Sure, it's human nature not to know what you've lost until it's gone (or you *think* it's gone) but it's a writing convention used a bit too often on Stargate and other shows. I was having flashbacks to "Meridian".
The music was pretty good, in fact, they let the composer really pile it on, unlike how they scored SG-1 in its last few seasons, with certain exceptions. It gave the opening episode an epic feel that the special effects wimped out on, to a degree. The Guy (who is in the biz and does these things for a living) noted how there were missed opportunities in the effects probably due to lack of time/money - which is usually the case with Stargate - but in this instance, it was like the studio really *wanted* to pour it on, but the animators just didn't have the chance to get the full effects in there. It *could* have been a truly outstanding SPX episode, but missed the mark by just a few degrees. At least the vision was there.
The editing of this episode was more spot on in a flashy way than I've seen before. There was a real effort to match up movements from one cut to the next, BUT, as someone on my flist has noted, it was jarring in that, although the movements matched up, the *tone* did not. Cutting from three people about to die from exposure to space, to Carter floating toward Bill who is throwing up, was jarring. The fault there was in the writing. Trying to use levity through their favorite jokey scientist nerd (who is not Carter and therefore not "cool") while there are such dire circumstances on Atlantis was tacky. And it didn't flatter Carter at all. She came out the worst in these scene changes, though not because of the cuts themselves.
So, out of 5 stars, I'll give this episode 3, because of the obvious effort to up the production values both pre and post, for the way the script kept the momentum going. It didn't get five starts because of annoying characterization and because of the way Carter was introduced into the show as a FT recurring character. I can only hope that RepliWeir kicks her ass before she leaves. Too bad RepliCarter already met her match in Daniel Jackson, because it would be just as satisfying to see RepliWeir kick the fullbred RepliCarter's machine ass, too. There's a fic in there somewhere.
