Stargate - the final trip

[astri13]

Quicky update that - believe it or not - has nothing to do with SPN or fanfic.

I have taken up watching Season 10 of Stargate on German TV. Still waiting for Season 3 of Atlantis since it`s not out on DVD either. :/

I only have seen the first 5 or so eps and it`s feeling a lot like Redux of Redux.
"OMG, the uber-powerful Anubis, lets find the secret city of Atlantis - or an outpost - which will contain a secret super-duper weapon of mass destruction, built by the Ancients."
"OMG, the even more uber-powerful Replicators, lets capture the secret temple planet which will contain a secret super-duper weapon of mass destruction, built by the Ancients."
And now we have "OMG, the really uber-powerful Ori, lets find the secret world where Merlin the Ancient stashed the really super-duper weapon of mass destruction he built."

Basically for years now, the solution has been "go to the Ancients". Now making the Ori as powerful AS the Ancients might have been a neat twist - and I`m still terribly unhappy they didn`t go with my theory where the Ori come from :( - but it`s too big for humans, frankly. Realistically, they should be all dead or enslaved within a week and the Supers should fight themselves.

Now as for the additions of the cast, I`m feeling a lot more mellow as I do over such matters in other shows. :-p Mainly because it had 8 years with the original cast and I can`t begrudge any actor the wish to move on there.

Also, coming from Farscape, I like both Ben and Claudia. But I`ll have to judge their merits by their SG1 characters of course and here I`ll have to say: is anyone but Mitchell very drunk?
Okay, Teal`c takes a lot before he voices real displeasure but the ready integration of Vala into the team made no sense. I felt like Mitchell had the right attitude, wary in a "don`t screw it up, I`m watching you" way but not mean about it. He IS willing to give her a chance, he just won`t present the whole team`s back to her.

And it`s not like she never has any ideas or valid strategy to contribute. Frankly in Season 9 with the Supergate and everything when Vala got sucked to Ori-world, I felt they were being doofuses. She tried to share her plan with them but noone would listen. Why? They were in deep trouble and any idea would have been better than none and as a former Goa`uld it`s not like she has nothing to bring to the table. It felt childish and unprofessional how they excluded her there.
Now it feels naive how they include her.

Mitchell and Landry, I rather like. Landry is someone who fights for his teams and the Stargate mission just like Hammond did. And Mitchell tries his best to accomodate to his very unusual team - much like Sheppard does. There seems to be a nice friendship thing going on with everybody which I like.

Daniel remains at his best when he philosophers and geeks. Not when he banters with Vala. Sorry, this seems so forced and contrived.
What I would have found funny? On the Morpheus planet where they fought sleep? If Daniel had been so geeky-excited about the books, he wouldn`t have felt sleepy. And everybody else would have been close to breaking but Daniel all hyped up on "ZOMG, Merlin did bla bla bla" *g*

Comments

[andromakhe001.livejournal.com]

Not when he banters with Vala. Sorry, this seems so forced and contrived.

That's gonna be Dean and Bela soon you know, right? ;)

[astri13.livejournal.com]

*Luke voice* Noooooooooooooo *end Luke voice* *jumps down shaft* :/

[andromakhe001.livejournal.com]

Oh and I agree. I couldn't really get into Season 10. "Redux of Redux", I like that. I really liked Beau Bridges as Landry, I thought he did a really nice job with the character and made a worthy replacement for General Hammond.

[astri13.livejournal.com]

I`ve never gotten really fannish over SG1, always just watched it as popcorn entertainment, so I guess I could enjoy stuff real fans have torn their hairs out for. But the writing started to loophole itself so much, even I began to roll my eyes.

In this one ep I watched yesterday with the Baal clones for example, the one NID agent turned out to have been brainwashed into helping Baal. And since he kind of had a little thing with Carter going, my first thought was: Hey, they totally stole Martouf`s storyline. Fuckers. *g*

Also, Carter started out as an Air Force officer and a doctor of astro-physics, but over time and according to the plot she seemed to have aquired highly specific knowledge about oh, anything else. It became ridiculous.

I can still enjoy things about the eps but it was time for the show to bow out, frankly.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't begrudge actors moving on, and I actually liked the character of Vala at first, but I did not like they way they tried to add her to the team. They changed her character radically, and then, in season 10, they had her acting all coy and childlike, as if somehow that made her less of a threat. And why did she need to be less of a threat? Why couldn't she have remained somewhat dangerous--someone they couldn't trust.

I seriously wanted to barf at that briefing room scene with Daniel, Bra'tac, and Teal'c all talking about how wonderful Vala was.

My main problem with season 10, though, was that, there's just no way in hell Daniel (or any of SG-1) would have accepted Vala on the team like that. Daniel, especially, made me sick by treating Vala like he was her skeevy uncle.

Like you, I preferred Mitchell's attitude, and I felt everyone should have had that attitude. After a long time on the team, maybe there would be some sort of bonding event or something and perhaps some team members might let down their guard with her a little--just a little--but right from the start? Landry acting so fond of her as if what happened in season 9 never happened?

Season 9: That's when she endangered Daniel's life and dragged him around by that virtual dog collar for so long, manipulating Daniel, Landry, and pretty much everyone the entire time. She lied and proved over and over that she couldn't be trusted. Why would they suddenly decide, "Oh, she can be trusted?" That made no sense at all.

Anyway, and why was Vala on the team at all? They never gave any explanation for that at all. She just ended up with them, so she was on the team. Well, lots of people they'd dealt with ended up stuck on Earth, but they didn't invite any of them to join SG-1.

Frankly in Season 9 with the Supergate and everything when Vala got sucked to Ori-world, I felt they were being doofuses. She tried to share her plan with them but noone would listen. Why? They were in deep trouble and any idea would have been better than none and as a former Goa`uld it`s not like she has nothing to bring to the table. It felt childish and unprofessional how they excluded her there.
Now it feels naive how they include her.

I feel the same way about season 10, but exactly the opposite about season 9--the episode you mentioned. I have no idea why she was even on that mission. In the past, if anyone on SG-1 were compromised with alien technology or influence, they were not allowed off-world. Landry made this mistake several times when he was first commander on the SGC, and it was a mistake again here. Since Vala was there, they had no reason to listen to her. She'd lied and manipulated them over and over and over. What reason did they have to trust her? What right did she have to say anything at all?

Even though her idea did work to an extent, I still think it was foolish. It could just as easily not have worked or resulted in her being in a position where they'd have to risk their lives to rescue her and either way, she was wrong to do it.

Ah well, as you can tell, I still have pretty strong feelings about this. *g* I'm still pissed about the whole thing. In season 9, I loved the Daniel-focus of the first few episodes. I didn't really care for Vala or his interaction with him. I could enjoy Vala when she was a little more serious, and I could overlook the stupidity of everyone involved (especially Daniel and Landry) because it was only a few episodes and because they never really trusted her. The fact that she continually got the better of them, though, made everyone at the SGC look stupid.

In season 10, though, this effect was intensified.

I actually still haven't watched the last few episodes of SG-1. I was so hating on Daniel that I couldn't stand to watch. I can't think of any reason why I'd want to see it, even though I was determined to see it through to the end.

[astri13.livejournal.com]

in season 10, they had her acting all coy and childlike, as if somehow that made her less of a threat. And why did she need to be less of a threat? Why couldn't she have remained somewhat dangerous--someone they couldn't trust.

The problem was that her character as established had no business being on the show permamently, much less a member of SG1. An eccentric con artist where you never know which loyalty they hold, can be a good villain or even ally for the occasional episode but not on a longterm basis. So they went to retconning.

I actually liked the attempts to give her more depth but it was half-cocked and her Season 10 persona was pretty much insolent child provides comic relief. Huh?

Anyway, and why was Vala on the team at all? They never gave any explanation for that at all.

Of course that was just plot contrivance, but I thought the - rather weak - in-show reason was that they hoped to use her connection to Adria and that`s why they tought it a good idea to bring her along on missions. *cough*

Since Vala was there, they had no reason to listen to her. She'd lied and manipulated them over and over and over. What reason did they have to trust her? What right did she have to say anything at all?

I was okay with her taking action because at that point it felt like all the others did was to just stand there and bicker while the Supergate formed. So anything seemed a better plan than that. :)

I actually still haven't watched the last few episodes of SG-1. I was so hating on Daniel that I couldn't stand to watch. I can't think of any reason why I'd want to see it, even though I was determined to see it through to the end.

I`ve read summaries of all the episodes of Season 10 and I think I`m going to watch them but I feel it`s a good thing I`m not too invested in the characters. Makes for much easier handwaving when they behave horribly OOC.
But I totally hear ya, if it happens on SPN, I get mightily cranky too.