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Brilliant Husband and I watched the much-awaited season premiere of Stargate: Atlantis last night. I write before reading anyone else's reviews; my opinions are subject to change at any time, with or without notice.
I'm going to complain more than praise, so if you liked the episode a lot, you might not want to read further. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. Naturally, there are spoilers for the episode (and preceding ones, but I hope not following ones!), so if you haven't seen it, again, stop here.
My rant for the day: I'm supposed to believe all these people are in another galaxy where they can die in a million horrible ways (exploding tumors?!), and Elizabeth Weir doesn't have Advanced Care Directives on file at the infirmary! Holy carp! No one except Sheppard gave the slightest thought to what she would want; Keller said, "We need her" instead. I don't blame Rodney as much: people have been dying around him right and left, but he's not a doctor. He's also not an ethicist.
Keller needs to be both. Goodness knows Carson screwed up enough (way too interventionist), and he might even have made the same mistake, but I'm not sure. I don't think Elizabeth filed a DNR, but I also don't think she authorized them to revive her by any and every means they could think of. I like Jewel Staite, I'm inclined to like Keller; this struck me as really sloppy writing. Gero (and the writers' room) just hadn't thought of it.
Oh, and I've seen people say that the writers kill off characters whose actors they don't like, or at least they're more horrible to them. Okay, maybe they were a tad irked at Michael Shanks to make him spend his final episode mostly wrapped head to toe in bandages (to the extent that Chris Judge couldn't tell Michael from his stand-in, apparently, allowing for a joke). I wouldn't call Carson's death a good death, but at least the actor got to be in the whole episode! I sat there thinking, "If this theory of writing were true, they must loathe Torri Higginson!" No, I don't think they loathe the actress at all; I think the theory is bogus. Seriously, though, I think Elizabeth deserved better than spending almost the whole episode unconscious.
While I'm on sloppy writing, I'll go further and say that simply heaping one catastrophe on top of another does not a good episode make. Mallozzi really pushed this episode on his blog, saying it was their best season premiere ever. I liked "Rising" way better. After a point, it got ridiculous. I think the micro-asteroids were that point (at least when one went through Zelenka's leg. Honestly, my first reaction was, "David Nykl doesn't get paid enough to be worth killing off. Thank goodness").
Brilliant Husband helped inspire my complaints about the zero-G maneuvers. We both thought that Radek and Sheppard should have started orbiting each other after John tossed Radek (BH actually said, "Dwarf tossing?"). The sensible thing to do, people, is to stop thinking of what used to be down as down. Stand on the door you just came from, point your head towards where you need to go, and jump hard. You should go straight. Jeepers, Marty Gero, haven't you read Ender's Game? Go read it now!
And in defense of Bill Lee: can we please stop getting cheap humor at the poor guy's expense? Bill's only functions should not be gross laughs and making Sam Carter look good. Let Bill have some good ideas! (I liked the all-call idea, actually; Atlantis could have been close enough to receive transmissions but not close enough to activate the gate, couldn't they?)
Boo to the people who cut next week's preview! I think I saw the whole plot! (The SGA writers and producers are not to blame for that one.)
Time for some praise:
David Hewlett is the best. Rodney went through a heck of a lot in this episode, and I felt it, watching him. I loved the wonder on his face when he played a pretty decent game of asteroids. I could totally understand his attempts to save Elizabeth, though I thought he was wrong (and that Keller shouldn't have pushed him as she did). He was right to apologize to Sheppard (nice fight there, guys).
Cheers for Radek the reluctant hero! Poor guy. I'm glad the injury wasn't too serious. I loved the scene where he and Rodney were going back and forth on the radio, not finishing any sentences but just agreeing with each other, and Sheppard was going out of his head trying to follow.
Yay for the scene where Ronon tries to thank Elizabeth. He's not good with words, but he made the effort, and what he said in the end was enough.
I'll complain about Bill Lee's indignities, but I'm always glad to see him, and I hope to see more of him. I like Midway Station.
I like that Elizabeth is appalled at what they did to save her. She should be; they all should be. She has suffered enough, and she has every reason to be scared and upset. (Good thing the Replicator nanites made her hair grow back, right? :) ) Sheppard was absolutely right to quarantine her; Rodney has been overconfident in his work before, and if any nanites had escaped from her, they'd all be dead in short order.
I'm going to complain more than praise, so if you liked the episode a lot, you might not want to read further. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. Naturally, there are spoilers for the episode (and preceding ones, but I hope not following ones!), so if you haven't seen it, again, stop here.
My rant for the day: I'm supposed to believe all these people are in another galaxy where they can die in a million horrible ways (exploding tumors?!), and Elizabeth Weir doesn't have Advanced Care Directives on file at the infirmary! Holy carp! No one except Sheppard gave the slightest thought to what she would want; Keller said, "We need her" instead. I don't blame Rodney as much: people have been dying around him right and left, but he's not a doctor. He's also not an ethicist.
Keller needs to be both. Goodness knows Carson screwed up enough (way too interventionist), and he might even have made the same mistake, but I'm not sure. I don't think Elizabeth filed a DNR, but I also don't think she authorized them to revive her by any and every means they could think of. I like Jewel Staite, I'm inclined to like Keller; this struck me as really sloppy writing. Gero (and the writers' room) just hadn't thought of it.
Oh, and I've seen people say that the writers kill off characters whose actors they don't like, or at least they're more horrible to them. Okay, maybe they were a tad irked at Michael Shanks to make him spend his final episode mostly wrapped head to toe in bandages (to the extent that Chris Judge couldn't tell Michael from his stand-in, apparently, allowing for a joke). I wouldn't call Carson's death a good death, but at least the actor got to be in the whole episode! I sat there thinking, "If this theory of writing were true, they must loathe Torri Higginson!" No, I don't think they loathe the actress at all; I think the theory is bogus. Seriously, though, I think Elizabeth deserved better than spending almost the whole episode unconscious.
While I'm on sloppy writing, I'll go further and say that simply heaping one catastrophe on top of another does not a good episode make. Mallozzi really pushed this episode on his blog, saying it was their best season premiere ever. I liked "Rising" way better. After a point, it got ridiculous. I think the micro-asteroids were that point (at least when one went through Zelenka's leg. Honestly, my first reaction was, "David Nykl doesn't get paid enough to be worth killing off. Thank goodness").
Brilliant Husband helped inspire my complaints about the zero-G maneuvers. We both thought that Radek and Sheppard should have started orbiting each other after John tossed Radek (BH actually said, "Dwarf tossing?"). The sensible thing to do, people, is to stop thinking of what used to be down as down. Stand on the door you just came from, point your head towards where you need to go, and jump hard. You should go straight. Jeepers, Marty Gero, haven't you read Ender's Game? Go read it now!
And in defense of Bill Lee: can we please stop getting cheap humor at the poor guy's expense? Bill's only functions should not be gross laughs and making Sam Carter look good. Let Bill have some good ideas! (I liked the all-call idea, actually; Atlantis could have been close enough to receive transmissions but not close enough to activate the gate, couldn't they?)
Boo to the people who cut next week's preview! I think I saw the whole plot! (The SGA writers and producers are not to blame for that one.)
Time for some praise:
David Hewlett is the best. Rodney went through a heck of a lot in this episode, and I felt it, watching him. I loved the wonder on his face when he played a pretty decent game of asteroids. I could totally understand his attempts to save Elizabeth, though I thought he was wrong (and that Keller shouldn't have pushed him as she did). He was right to apologize to Sheppard (nice fight there, guys).
Cheers for Radek the reluctant hero! Poor guy. I'm glad the injury wasn't too serious. I loved the scene where he and Rodney were going back and forth on the radio, not finishing any sentences but just agreeing with each other, and Sheppard was going out of his head trying to follow.
Yay for the scene where Ronon tries to thank Elizabeth. He's not good with words, but he made the effort, and what he said in the end was enough.
I'll complain about Bill Lee's indignities, but I'm always glad to see him, and I hope to see more of him. I like Midway Station.
I like that Elizabeth is appalled at what they did to save her. She should be; they all should be. She has suffered enough, and she has every reason to be scared and upset. (Good thing the Replicator nanites made her hair grow back, right? :) ) Sheppard was absolutely right to quarantine her; Rodney has been overconfident in his work before, and if any nanites had escaped from her, they'd all be dead in short order.
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