Current mood:	satisfied
Entry tags:	bsg, sg1, sga

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SG-1: The Scourge

Tonight, I am reminded of John Crichton's words: "Why is it always critters or godlike aliens?" (Paraphrased.)  In this case, it was critters and godlike aliens for a round of, as pretty much everyone has been thinking, Stargate Does Swarmed.  As MotW episodes go, it was decent, although suffering from a gross and widespread misunderstanding of echolocation.  There's a difference between screwing with known science and inventing a fantasy threat - the former irks me, the latter I can handwave.  Add another to the list of blatantly bad science for the sake of plot in Stargate. 

That complaint aside, there was plenty to enjoy in the ep.  I liked the sort of incidental information we've been getting for the past couple of weeks, a sort of "state of the SGC."  We have (er...had) a Gamma site, which I believe is a new factoid.  Daniel does in fact have three doctorates, which was a fanon thing that I totally didn't buy into before.  That's some serious academic stamina.  Other countries are still paying attention, and the silly French representative is still silly and French.  I always enjoy Dr. Lee and Woolsey, too, for very different reasons.

Woolsey was even more entertaining this week for his pre-gate nervousness.  Dude!  A (former) Star Trek doctor having issues with being temporarily dematerialized!  That had to be a shout-out. *glees*  Sam repeatedly smacking him down was also awesome.  I snickered at the geek flirting between Daniel and Shen Xiaoyi (anyone know what they were saying?), but of course, The Sam eventually took her down.¹  Daniel's expression of surprise at Cam's language skillz was priceless.  All four of them were downers at some point during this episode, but I would like to adopt Cameron's way of settling arguments.  Teal'c is, once again, the wisest of the team, and I enjoyed his bonding time with Cameron.  Speaking of the team, movie nights!  Yay!

So!  Crap science, contrived situation, nothing particularly plot-advancing...it was a filler episode with only pastede on yay connections to the rest of the season's arc.  I find myself looking more at my computer screen than the TV as it reruns, but there were fun character moments and I enjoyed watching.  They can have a week off from being excellent, since at least they weren't being completely lame.  And hey, it was rife with missing scene and follow-up fic possibility.

1. I realize I have not yet explained The Sam on this journal.  My sister and I have noticed the way that female characters, aside from medical doctors, do not last long on this show, especially when being portrayed sympathetically.  We must conclude the source is a most dangerous entity: The Sam.²  The Sam, you see, does not suffer those who might challenge her dominance of the matriarchy to stick around.  We pinpoint her awakening to "Hathor," when she first got a taste of power.  While since then, she's let the men think they're in charge, really, The Sam could wrest control at any time.  She prefers to keep her methods subtle in order to maintain her control and bides her time before she strikes.  We look forward to seeing how Vala's long-term presence will challenge The Sam.

2. Seriously, we love Sam.  We understand that the source of this phenomenon is a team of male writers and producers who are, historically, pretty crap at writing for women.  Vala was a wonderful surprise.  But it's still funny.

SGA: Coup D'Etat

After two weeks of headdesking pain, my expectations for this show have come back down to realistic levels.  It makes me a lot more tolerant of the stupidity and holes in this week's episode.  At first, I was thrilled beyond belief that the Atlanteans had finally learned to be suspicious of a gift horse - but then they still got screwed by someone a lot smarter than they are!  They are but tools to the Genii, and also, apparently crap at maintaining their "Atlantis is gone!" ruse.  It's like that commercial with the guy who has Snickers hair.  Everybody knows!

Good things...my angst at thinking we'd lost Lorne (not twice in two weeks, Sci-Fi Friday, have mercy on us!), my relief at his not-deadness, McKay's fabulous use of hand signals that called back to early SG-1, Shep learning the value of multitasking, Beckett doing his Beckett thing, Ronon feeling slighted to not be on The List. 

Annoying things not yet mentioned...Ladon making a Twain reference (wtf, people), Cowen biting it (what? I like Colm Meany!), an awful lot of things had to go right for the Genii plan(s) to work, and I'm still not sure how I feel about Teyla's new shirt.  Also, dude, why is Weir only offering to heal their sick at the end?  Would it not be wiser to, in addition, kill the problem at the source by helping them develop better shielding?  But maybe that's just me.

Overall, they got played once again, but it was an entertaining ride.  They did a good job dividing up the characters amongst the plot threads, and if bringing them together was a little transparent, it fell into place nicely.  There shall be no headdesking on account of Atlantis tonight.

BSG: The Captain's Hand

This episode was like combining last season's "The Hand of God" and "Colonial Day" together.  On the one hand, we saw Lee having to lead in a position where he's not comfortable, and on the other, political hijinks ahoy.  The halves of the episode weren't totally divorced from each other, but it was enough that I think they wanted to get both of these plot points across and didn't have enough material to stretch them into a full episode each.  Understandable, but it didn't feel rushed, so I think that merging them was a wise choice and made for an engaging episode. 

Even if the Adamas are total bitches.

Is there something about being put in command of Pegasus that makes you crazy?  That's three commanders in a row who were, or became, nuts in some way (by the way, BSG, please to stop cheating by putting deleted scenes in your previouslies).  They do get progressively less insane, so Lee might be safe from the crazy.  Garner was clearly just not cut out for command track.  He was playing at being in charge without the real intuition and judgement to supervise the people side of things in addition to the mechanical, as Lee pointed out.  That was one fast promotion, too - only one episode/month as a Major and we already have a new Commander Adama.  These shifting titles are going to confuse new people.  Anyone want to bet that Lee's new(est) pips are his father's old ones?

Ooo, thought: what happens when/if the Pegasus is destroyed and we're back to a one gunship fleet?  Does Papadama stop being an Admiral and leave us with two Commanders Adama?  I know nothing of military structure aside from what I've seen in fictional contexts, help me.

So speaking of Lee, he and Dualla were cute little horndogs at the beginning, even with the gaping hole in Lee's chest.  It's nice to know that the pilots have a sexilation system.  Lee was walking a fine line on Pegasus, and I was not at all thrilled with him for being such an ass to Starbuck.  Seeing him eventually stick up for her was a relief, and I had to pity his totally clueless attempt to direct the battle.  Jamie Bamber did a great job showing what a fish out of water he was in that setting - I was cheering for him to pull through with the help of Young Hammond for more than just "let's not kill more chararacters now" reasons.  He stepped up when they were totally on their own and earned his new command.  And then he apologized for being a bitch to my girl in a scene that made me all kinds of happy, so he's forgiven.

And while we learned definitively that she wasn't before, now Kara's CAG, fandom.  Start your ficcing!

Meanwhile, back in the fleet, the writers remembered we have other characters in this show.  CALLY!  HI CALLY!  GAIUS!  SIX!  HI!

I suppose the abortion debate had to come up in this show at some point; again, Adamas are bitches!  They were playing with fire on this one.  We, the viewers, have highly contextualized opinions on the issue as it appears in our world, but as was pointed out, the context is totally different for the fleet.  I really hope the fandom at large remembers, as with the torture issue, that the writers are not promoting their own views with the characters' decisions - they're just raising the questions.  It's interesting that the right to choose was a charged issue in the Colonies, too.  As for me, I'm with Roslin's original position emotionally, and I'm not touching the issue beyond that other than to say there's a lot of profanity in my notes about it.

Thankfully, rather than dwelling on morality, the writers pushed the issue as a political tool.  Baltar, I love you, but you are a slimy, sneaky bastard!  Undermining the president at her own press conference under the guise of supporting her!  Tsk.  You are developing into a real threat, too, and I love that.  I like how they're moving the pieces into place for an explosion at the end of the season - you get an inkling of what's coming without any spoilage. 

Other items of love...how it looked like Zarek was talking to himself in the mirror (it did!), Doc Cottle in general, the Billy references (:((), and Six with the slow clap.  Hah!  Much better as an ironic device than a serious one.

But as far as the episode goes?  I agree.  *slow claps*