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First, the quotation: I had to look it up. I knew it was Shakespeare, but I couldn't remember whence it had come. It's from Hamlet, a soliloquy at the end of which Hamlet sees Ophelia approach:
Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
You'll remember it better as the soliloquy that begins "To be or not to be" (3.1.64-98).
No, I don't see how this quotation is relevant to the episode either. I can come up with some possibilities, but they're all stretches, so I don't care to share.
The good, the bad, and the ugly:
I'll start with the ugly.
1. Uniforms. I think the new uniforms don't look military. As others have said, Sam's is not flattering; I couldn't just look at her in her old one and say, "Now there's a woman who has had at least one baby!" I think costuming got carried away with the leather. I don't understand at all why Weir (whether it's original Weir on the run or, perhaps more likely, a RepliWeir) has a new leather uniform. Unless this is the RepliWeir who was captured by the Replicators at the end of "This Mortal Coil", she shouldn't even have seen the new uniforms. Of course, she does talk about her intel--a spy on Atlantis?
2. Fan reaction to Sam's voice. I see the same thing with Katie Brown. Let's face it, we all have some voice issues: Sandra Dickenson, of the BBC Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mini-series? I had trouble concentrating on what she said because of her voice--but I figured that was me. I still do, to some extent, even though I know a lot of people share that reaction. I don't mean to insult anyone who has taken issue with Sam's voice, but why make a fuss about a woman's voice? Rodney frequently gets squeaky (including when defending his "manhood"). I've not seen any criticism of men's voices on the show. I have just this morning seen several people complaining about Carter's voice.
I know I'm repeating comments I left on other posts, but motherhood has permanent effects. I'd rather celebrate the fact that Amanda Tapping can have a baby and still play a character with authority. Having that baby may well have affected her voice. There are still actresses (mostly in soaps) who are told to lose the baby or lose their jobs. I've also just watched "Shadow Play" from season 6, and I honestly don't notice any difference between Amanda's voice there and in BAMSR, though it's not an absolute difference, but perhaps that she's spending more time in the upper reaches of her range.
Yes, Sam's referring to Atlantis as a "base" and not a "city" is more military than Elizabeth's wording--and I think it totally fits the character of a military brat who joined the Air Force herself.
The bad:
1. You know what's coming if you've read my rants before: I cannot believe Rodney created a self-aware, humanoid life form, and all ethical discussion very quickly gets reduced to "it's weird." Lack of serious ethical consideration remains my main problem with SGA, and they've just done it again. Brilliant Husband is not so convinced; he argues they took the discussion about as far as they could go, certainly within the episode. Rodney did not necessarily intend to create a self-aware Replicator; he was under pressure, working fast, and may only have been aiming for a humanoid form.
BH also notes, however, that creating Fran was not necessary to the overall plot, or the arc, as far as we know. Rodney could have made something like a DRD and sent it into the Replicator base. If you're going to do something like that in your story, you need to make room to deal with it properly. If you're not going to follow out the implications, don't introduce it into your story.
Let me rephrase what happened: Rodney created his very own suicide bomber. That sounds a bit uglier, doesn't it? Yet that's exactly what he did. Yes, she's willing; so are most or all suicide bombers! I don't think that does a single thing to justify them.
I don't like how callous Rodney appears. Yes, by the end he's sad, he has come to think of her as a person, etc. But he doesn't think when he needs to think, and ethical considerations are very far from his mind!
I also think conveniently calling Radek away for an unrelated problem, keeping him away for quite some time, and not having anyone else in the lab with Rodney is bad writing. Everyone on Atlantis knows McKay gets carried away with his experiments! Doranda, anyone? Someone should always be there with him (and it's just good lab protocol, even if you aren't worried about Rodney's obsessive-compulsive streak).
2. I've decided (mostly in comments to others' posts) that another big problem of SGA is that character is often sacrificed for humor.
Thus we get a Rodney squeaking in defense of his manhood after launching into a long, tedious briefing to cover the fact that he's got nothing. Ellis was out of line in the way he said it, but he has a point--and Rodney should be in the lab, not wasting everyone's time with this.
I am not impressed with the "oops, he did it again" response to Rodney creating a self-aware being without any oversight.
I do not think Larrin tying Sheppard to a chair is funny, and I'm surprised others do. I don't feel that Vala is a sexual harrasser partly because of the power element: aside from "Prometheus Unbound," Vala never has a great deal of control over Daniel. Yes, using the bracelet on him is dead wrong, but she does it to equalize power: she goes to a base she may not be able to escape run by people she doesn't know, and she takes a hostage to ensure her own survival, and to prevent them from cutting her out of the treasure for which she brought the map. Yet they do cut her out of the treasure. Many of her remarks are crude and not funny. I don't agree with people who call her a harrasser or a stalker, but I understand their point of view. (I also think Vala is cracked from her suffering as a host and has some excuses. Larrin seems to have been in power for quite some time; what's her excuse?)
Am I missing people calling Larrin a harrasser? She doesn't limit herself to crude remarks: she has Sheppard hostage on her ship, ties him up, and leaves him there. That's really threatening, in a way even Vala's bracelets aren't. If anything happens to Daniel, the SGC is all over Vala in a moment. If anything happens to Sheppard, his team is waiting on a Jumper and doesn't even know. Larrin makes remarks as crude and, if anything, less funny than Vala's.
I do realize that part of my reaction comes from my feeling that Claudia Black is a great actress and endows a sometimes poorly-written character with vivacity and plausibility. Jill Wagner has not impressed me, and her poorly-written character remains two-dimensional for me. At least she didn't actively disgust me as she did in her first appearance.
The good:
1. Teyla picked a really lousy time to tell (some of!) her teammates about the pregnancy--and I think that's how it had to happen. She couldn't muster the courage to do it properly, and she tells them when she must: she has to get to the infirmary now and needs to cut the argument short, and she can no longer hide the fact that her physical condition has changed.
I love Ronon's response: holding her hand, congratulating her, trying to get her to name the baby after him! Very Ronon.
John's response is very much in character. I don't like it in the sense that I think he handles it badly, but I find it totally consistent with his past behavior. He feels betrayed at the secrecy, and he's furious at himself for not figuring it out and thus endangering Teyla and the only known infant Athosian. He takes it out on Teyla, because he's also furious at her. He'll get a grip later, I trust.
I'm sorry not to have gotten Rodney's response, but given what was happening, the scene totally worked for me.
2. Go Sam! I love that she's not dominating, saving the day by having all the best ideas. I like how she called Ellis on his behavior--but only after Rodney's gone, so that Rodney can't use Sam's words against Ellis. That's proper leadership. (I like how Caldwell just stands back and watches all this, because he has overcome his doubts about McKay, Sheppard, and probably even Sam; he'll just let Ellis dig his own hole and then try to climb back out.) I like that we see the moment when Rodney convinces her that his magnet idea will work, and that that's what sways Sheppard. I like that she contributes scientific observations and ideas, but it's still Rodney's show. (Joe Flanigan may be the nominal lead, but this will always be the David Hewlett show to me.)
3. Rodney: Rodney and Radek, Rodney and Fran (aside from misgivings above), Rodney and everyone. He's defensive because he has in fact had a "dry spell" and knows it. I think the drawn-out briefing leading to Ellis's verbal attack was poorly written; when pressed (usually by John), Rodney will tell the truth. He knows he has to get back to the lab and work, not obfuscate; this was a flashback to the totally self-absorbed McKay of "48 Hours," but he's not that person anymore. I can see Rodney having little ethical trouble over Fran; he's no ethicist and needs to have one working with him. (It's the absence of serious objection from others that really grinds me.) His awkward relations with Fran worked for me. And Brilliant Husband pointed out that he made her look a bit like Elizabeth--not too much, maybe not consciously, but it's there.
4. Fran. Love that actress: effectively naive and creepy at the same time. Must look her up. She does very much claim an active agency for herself. She knows she's being used, but she is not simply used; she does far more than anyone expects of her, and she makes herself a person, which Rodney probably never intended.
5. Sheppard. He checked out Larrin's cleavage when she bent over him. Heck, I'd have done that, and I'm a straight woman! Larrin wants to use sex against him, okay--he's gonna get what fun he can out of this. He showed appropriate caution around her this time, though: none of that Kirk-stuff. I also liked his "I trust . . . Rodney": he hesitates to say it because Rodney has just screwed up yet again (which of my friends said at her LJ "Rodney needs to stop creating security risks"!), but he does say it, even though he expects Ellis and maybe Caldwell to go off on him for it. He still stands with Rodney (and offers him a ride!).
My objections to Fran and the way she was used really interfered with my enjoyment of the episode. I'd have liked it much better if they hadn't created a self-aware humanoid, or if they'd taken the time to develop properly the dilemma and her response to it.
Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
You'll remember it better as the soliloquy that begins "To be or not to be" (3.1.64-98).
No, I don't see how this quotation is relevant to the episode either. I can come up with some possibilities, but they're all stretches, so I don't care to share.
The good, the bad, and the ugly:
I'll start with the ugly.
1. Uniforms. I think the new uniforms don't look military. As others have said, Sam's is not flattering; I couldn't just look at her in her old one and say, "Now there's a woman who has had at least one baby!" I think costuming got carried away with the leather. I don't understand at all why Weir (whether it's original Weir on the run or, perhaps more likely, a RepliWeir) has a new leather uniform. Unless this is the RepliWeir who was captured by the Replicators at the end of "This Mortal Coil", she shouldn't even have seen the new uniforms. Of course, she does talk about her intel--a spy on Atlantis?
2. Fan reaction to Sam's voice. I see the same thing with Katie Brown. Let's face it, we all have some voice issues: Sandra Dickenson, of the BBC Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mini-series? I had trouble concentrating on what she said because of her voice--but I figured that was me. I still do, to some extent, even though I know a lot of people share that reaction. I don't mean to insult anyone who has taken issue with Sam's voice, but why make a fuss about a woman's voice? Rodney frequently gets squeaky (including when defending his "manhood"). I've not seen any criticism of men's voices on the show. I have just this morning seen several people complaining about Carter's voice.
I know I'm repeating comments I left on other posts, but motherhood has permanent effects. I'd rather celebrate the fact that Amanda Tapping can have a baby and still play a character with authority. Having that baby may well have affected her voice. There are still actresses (mostly in soaps) who are told to lose the baby or lose their jobs. I've also just watched "Shadow Play" from season 6, and I honestly don't notice any difference between Amanda's voice there and in BAMSR, though it's not an absolute difference, but perhaps that she's spending more time in the upper reaches of her range.
Yes, Sam's referring to Atlantis as a "base" and not a "city" is more military than Elizabeth's wording--and I think it totally fits the character of a military brat who joined the Air Force herself.
The bad:
1. You know what's coming if you've read my rants before: I cannot believe Rodney created a self-aware, humanoid life form, and all ethical discussion very quickly gets reduced to "it's weird." Lack of serious ethical consideration remains my main problem with SGA, and they've just done it again. Brilliant Husband is not so convinced; he argues they took the discussion about as far as they could go, certainly within the episode. Rodney did not necessarily intend to create a self-aware Replicator; he was under pressure, working fast, and may only have been aiming for a humanoid form.
BH also notes, however, that creating Fran was not necessary to the overall plot, or the arc, as far as we know. Rodney could have made something like a DRD and sent it into the Replicator base. If you're going to do something like that in your story, you need to make room to deal with it properly. If you're not going to follow out the implications, don't introduce it into your story.
Let me rephrase what happened: Rodney created his very own suicide bomber. That sounds a bit uglier, doesn't it? Yet that's exactly what he did. Yes, she's willing; so are most or all suicide bombers! I don't think that does a single thing to justify them.
I don't like how callous Rodney appears. Yes, by the end he's sad, he has come to think of her as a person, etc. But he doesn't think when he needs to think, and ethical considerations are very far from his mind!
I also think conveniently calling Radek away for an unrelated problem, keeping him away for quite some time, and not having anyone else in the lab with Rodney is bad writing. Everyone on Atlantis knows McKay gets carried away with his experiments! Doranda, anyone? Someone should always be there with him (and it's just good lab protocol, even if you aren't worried about Rodney's obsessive-compulsive streak).
2. I've decided (mostly in comments to others' posts) that another big problem of SGA is that character is often sacrificed for humor.
Thus we get a Rodney squeaking in defense of his manhood after launching into a long, tedious briefing to cover the fact that he's got nothing. Ellis was out of line in the way he said it, but he has a point--and Rodney should be in the lab, not wasting everyone's time with this.
I am not impressed with the "oops, he did it again" response to Rodney creating a self-aware being without any oversight.
I do not think Larrin tying Sheppard to a chair is funny, and I'm surprised others do. I don't feel that Vala is a sexual harrasser partly because of the power element: aside from "Prometheus Unbound," Vala never has a great deal of control over Daniel. Yes, using the bracelet on him is dead wrong, but she does it to equalize power: she goes to a base she may not be able to escape run by people she doesn't know, and she takes a hostage to ensure her own survival, and to prevent them from cutting her out of the treasure for which she brought the map. Yet they do cut her out of the treasure. Many of her remarks are crude and not funny. I don't agree with people who call her a harrasser or a stalker, but I understand their point of view. (I also think Vala is cracked from her suffering as a host and has some excuses. Larrin seems to have been in power for quite some time; what's her excuse?)
Am I missing people calling Larrin a harrasser? She doesn't limit herself to crude remarks: she has Sheppard hostage on her ship, ties him up, and leaves him there. That's really threatening, in a way even Vala's bracelets aren't. If anything happens to Daniel, the SGC is all over Vala in a moment. If anything happens to Sheppard, his team is waiting on a Jumper and doesn't even know. Larrin makes remarks as crude and, if anything, less funny than Vala's.
I do realize that part of my reaction comes from my feeling that Claudia Black is a great actress and endows a sometimes poorly-written character with vivacity and plausibility. Jill Wagner has not impressed me, and her poorly-written character remains two-dimensional for me. At least she didn't actively disgust me as she did in her first appearance.
The good:
1. Teyla picked a really lousy time to tell (some of!) her teammates about the pregnancy--and I think that's how it had to happen. She couldn't muster the courage to do it properly, and she tells them when she must: she has to get to the infirmary now and needs to cut the argument short, and she can no longer hide the fact that her physical condition has changed.
I love Ronon's response: holding her hand, congratulating her, trying to get her to name the baby after him! Very Ronon.
John's response is very much in character. I don't like it in the sense that I think he handles it badly, but I find it totally consistent with his past behavior. He feels betrayed at the secrecy, and he's furious at himself for not figuring it out and thus endangering Teyla and the only known infant Athosian. He takes it out on Teyla, because he's also furious at her. He'll get a grip later, I trust.
I'm sorry not to have gotten Rodney's response, but given what was happening, the scene totally worked for me.
2. Go Sam! I love that she's not dominating, saving the day by having all the best ideas. I like how she called Ellis on his behavior--but only after Rodney's gone, so that Rodney can't use Sam's words against Ellis. That's proper leadership. (I like how Caldwell just stands back and watches all this, because he has overcome his doubts about McKay, Sheppard, and probably even Sam; he'll just let Ellis dig his own hole and then try to climb back out.) I like that we see the moment when Rodney convinces her that his magnet idea will work, and that that's what sways Sheppard. I like that she contributes scientific observations and ideas, but it's still Rodney's show. (Joe Flanigan may be the nominal lead, but this will always be the David Hewlett show to me.)
3. Rodney: Rodney and Radek, Rodney and Fran (aside from misgivings above), Rodney and everyone. He's defensive because he has in fact had a "dry spell" and knows it. I think the drawn-out briefing leading to Ellis's verbal attack was poorly written; when pressed (usually by John), Rodney will tell the truth. He knows he has to get back to the lab and work, not obfuscate; this was a flashback to the totally self-absorbed McKay of "48 Hours," but he's not that person anymore. I can see Rodney having little ethical trouble over Fran; he's no ethicist and needs to have one working with him. (It's the absence of serious objection from others that really grinds me.) His awkward relations with Fran worked for me. And Brilliant Husband pointed out that he made her look a bit like Elizabeth--not too much, maybe not consciously, but it's there.
4. Fran. Love that actress: effectively naive and creepy at the same time. Must look her up. She does very much claim an active agency for herself. She knows she's being used, but she is not simply used; she does far more than anyone expects of her, and she makes herself a person, which Rodney probably never intended.
5. Sheppard. He checked out Larrin's cleavage when she bent over him. Heck, I'd have done that, and I'm a straight woman! Larrin wants to use sex against him, okay--he's gonna get what fun he can out of this. He showed appropriate caution around her this time, though: none of that Kirk-stuff. I also liked his "I trust . . . Rodney": he hesitates to say it because Rodney has just screwed up yet again (which of my friends said at her LJ "Rodney needs to stop creating security risks"!), but he does say it, even though he expects Ellis and maybe Caldwell to go off on him for it. He still stands with Rodney (and offers him a ride!).
My objections to Fran and the way she was used really interfered with my enjoyment of the episode. I'd have liked it much better if they hadn't created a self-aware humanoid, or if they'd taken the time to develop properly the dilemma and her response to it.
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