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Stargate Atlantis musings (spoilers for S1-S2)
I've been catching up on Stargate Atlantis on DVD now that enough of it is out that I wouldn't get stuck on a cliffhanger. The more I see of TV shows on DVD, the more I think this is the only way I want to watch them. I've really enjoyed the show. More musings behind the cut, including spoilers for S1 and S2.
Have now watched 28 episodes of Atlantis and have enjoyed every one of them. (S2 Vol 3 doesn’t come out until June 5th or I would have watched more.) The show really reminds me of early season Stargate, with the same zip and enthusiasm from all concerned. It’s making me very keen to see S9 of Stargate and if the same zip is apparent there. So far, I’ve liked all the characters, even Sheppard, who I expected to find annoying, although I do worry a little for a group of people whose most senior military officer went on a trip to another galaxy and forgot to pack a comb.
The show has done nothing to cure me of my 48 Hours-induced McKay crush as he simply rules. Still think he should be with Sam but I’m just starting to get over my snit about Atlantis bagging him instead of him staying on Stargate. Zelenka is adorable and every home should have one. I want to pet him and feed him cookies every time he bounces around enthusiastically like Daniel’s eccentric Czechoslovakian uncle. Love Weir; such a change having someone in charge who doesn’t get into entrenched positions. I suspect she has a What Would Daniel Do? badge hidden somewhere in her room. Much as I adore Hammond, I'm pleased to see someone in charge who isn't military. Love Teyla although I do feel that on missions she is often in the unenviable position of being the only grown up amongst a group of unruly squabbling schoolboys. Beckett is a sweetheart. There can never be too much of him. I really liked Ford, but prefer Ronon, and think the Ford story so far has been excellent, very moving and RSF did an incredible job showing his conflict before heading off to be with the Wraith. I like to think of Ford munching his way through a whole ship of them although I suppose that’s not very likely.
So far all the plots have been great, even the slightly cheesy ones have been saved by sharp scripting or a new twist. Some really sympathetic people have died, and the effects are incredible. I found Atlantis rising out of the water in Rising was so beautiful I was in tears. Love the music too.
I don’t usually like inter-team ship, especially in the Stargate universe, as the writers on this show aren’t very good at progressing romances and having people come out the other side of them, as things happen in real life, and usually leave them in a ridiculous holding pattern of yearning glances and no physical contact like twelve year olds trying to get up the courage to ask each other to dance. However, even though I know it would probably be very bad for the show on all kinds of levels, I really *really* want Ronon and Teyla to have lots and lots of sex where I can watch them having it, because they’re just so amazingly hot together. They can break up afterwards and decide to remain friends or whatever so there isn’t too much tedious mooning around, but I would really like them to have the lots and lots of sex first. Perhaps aliens could make them do it just for me? Ronon has the same effect on me as Teal'c. I just want him to stand there so I can walk around him going ‘Wow…’
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I'm sorry you don't like Weir, just because it sucks to have a character in a show that undermines your enjoyment of it. I feel very lucky that I love her, the way she's written, and the actress who plays her so much and so can honestly say that at the moment there is no one in Atlantis I don't like. I've had to FF through a few scenes in different shows because of characters who are irking me beyond all bearing; found Cameron incredibly irritating in S1 of House - thank goodness she didn't annoy me at all in S2 and I really liked her by the time she was angsting over Foreman - and ended up bailing on Veronica Mars after one season because of my uncontrollable loathing of Logan Echolls. So, I do sympathize.
I've seen DH in a few things now, when I wasn't even looking for him; he just turned up in Cypher, Cube, and an episode of WaT when I was minding my own business and not even indulging my McKay crush and he was wonderful in all of them. It did take me a long time to get over my annoyance that they brought in this wonderful character to Stargate SG-1, showed that he had the best chemistry with Sam that anyone has ever had (except Teal'c) and then whisked him off to Atlantis, a show I wasn't even watching at the time. I was a little miffed about that, but can now see that it was the best possible place for them to give the character the screentime and attention he deserves, although I do feel a little cheated out of the Sam-McKay interaction I was enjoying and the Daniel-McKay interaction I really wanted to see. He was originally the only reason I was intending to watch Atlantis and why I was careful to avoid spoilers, but I hadn't expected to like the rest of the show as much as I did, until I saw a music vid that completely won me over and I had to order the S1 boxset at once.
I do prefer getting to see shows a season or a few seasons at a time. I never feel I'm giving them the best possible shot when I'm watching them week by week.
I haven't seen enough of S2 to really compare it with S1 but I know a few other people have said they felt that some of the other characters were not given the development they deserved. I'm hoping to see the final twelve next week when
Can't see McShep at all. Would love to be able to, as then I could read the fic, which seems to be excellent, just can't. Like their friendship very much though, but can't see anything romantic at all as yet, despite the wonderful hissy fit of jealousy McKay pitched in Sanctuary, I'm just not feeling any buzz of attraction. Doesn't mean I won't in the future though. I couldn't really see Jack/Daniel as a romantic pairing until Jolinar's Memories; the equality wasn't there enough for me until then. What I am enjoying is all the interaction between all of the characters at the moment and particularly enjoying the friendship moments. There is the same sense of how much they all mean to one another that there was in the early seasons of Stargate and I'm enjoying that immensely.
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Your theory on the Sam-McKay interaction is right, in that Sam has great chemistry with him. But sadly I've pretty much given up on ever liking Sam again so I'd really rather she stayed well away from Rodney so that I can still enjoy him. Give me Rodney and Daniel any day - I'd love to see what would happen between those two.
I'm actually really surprised you don't see McShep. It blazes from the screen, for me, practically every time they're together. I see them as having this feisty, deep relationship that they keep so firmly under wraps that nobody would ever figure out there's anything there except the friends/professional relationship. And yeah, the McShep fic can be brilliant. I stopped watching SGA the first time I tried it, about eight eps into S1. Then I read some fic and I couldn't stay away from the fic writers' view of the characters - it really helped.
I agree with you completely on the friendship stuff, too. And I cannot understand why they can write all that in SGA but seem to be incapable of doing it in SG-1. They need some kind of overall quality check between the two shows.
BTW, when you said "I found Cameron incredibly irritating" I thought, 'yeah, me too', and then I saw you were talking about House and not Mitchell on SG-1. Mitchell was okay at the start of S9, but after a while it's like they've deliberately written him to be annoying. So while I'm really pleased we'll be getting Daniel and Teal'c back, there's also Sam and Mitchell who I'm not fond of. Then there's Vala, and I really have no idea how they're going to fit her into the show. There was an ep that was all about Vala towards the end of SG-1, and it bored the knickers off me (don't know if you've seen that one yet). I'm concerned that Vala's only interesting when she's with Daniel - something that seems to be the case for several characters - and that the writers will change her character this year so that she fits into the team more. I'll wait and see, as ever, but at the moment I'm more confident of enjoying S3 of SGA even though the way Rodney was written (and Beckett) during S2 often bothered me.
It's only telly, I guess, but I want it to be good telly.
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I'd love to see Daniel and McKay interacting. I do think McKay is the best thing that happened to Sam since Jolinar, and, as with Jolinar, gave her character a chance to show a whole new side of herself that would have been fascinating and I'm still really sorry she - and we - were robbed of the chance to see that developed more. But I think the thing I would most like to see on Atlantis at the moment is Daniel. And particularly Daniel and McKay getting to work on something together or getting stranded somewhere together. I think just puting those two together would create an instant classic of an episode.
I suspect that if one reads the McShep fic it's a lot easier to see on the show. But, so far anyway, the show has been enough to keep me absolutely riveted without the fic. I like all the characters, like the plots, love the set, and am just really enjoying it, in the same way I enjoyed early season Stargate, as a great team show.
I wonder if Stargate was the kid they adopted when they were feeling broody and Atlantis is the longed for baby they had themselves? *g* It is probably fun for BW & RCC to have a show where all the characters are their own and all the mythology, except for the Stargate itself, comes from their own imaginations instead of being hand me downs from other people.
I've only seen one S9 ep so far - although I have the first three DVDs ordered now - I think it was called Arthur's Mantle. I can't really judge Mitchell from that although I did like his Tigger-on-Crack energy. It's a bit of a problem when a show has been running this long to have that sense of wow, when Daniel, Sam and Teal'c have been doing this for so long. One can't really expect them to be excited about being invisible when it's their second or third time, but it's not that much fun for a viewer to see a lot of 'been there, done that' reactions to events that we want to find exciting. I think it's a real problem of logical character development - by which point, realistically - Daniel, Sam and Teal'c *are* going to be hoary old cynics who have seen it all before, against what a show needs to keep its sense of excitement. So, I do think they needed a character who could bounce around a little and who the others can roll their eyes about. I'll let you know what I think of Mitchell when I've watched all of S9. I think all of the DVDs are out by mid-July.
I haven't seen the all Vala ep. I've only seen Vala in Prometheus Unbound where I loved Vala and loved CB and loved the chemistry between Daniel and Vala but wanted to thwap MS hard with a stale loaf of bread for hamming it up so much I couldn't see the character for the actor. Much as I liked Vala, I can't imagine I'll love an episode all about her, because I've rarely liked a character all about one character yet, whether it's A Hundred Days, The Curse, or Desperate Measures. I think the only exceptions have been FiAD and Threshold. Characters going Through Stuff without other characters witnessing it just seems like a waste of time to me on the whole.
Most people are interesting with Teal'c too and I'd like to see Sam and Vala interacting, as the lack of female friendship on Stargate has really bugged me for years. There was never enough of Sam and Janet interacting for me. If Joss Whedon was writing Stargate, of course, we could hope for a fling between Sam and Vala, but as I think the Bridge writers would probably stand on a chair and scream if even asked to spell the word 'lesbian' I doubt we'll be getting that just yet. *g*
It's only telly, I guess, but I want it to be good telly.
A big 'Amen' to that. :)
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With Mitchell it's not his energy that I have an issue with, it's that after the early episodes are over with and he's been introduced, he directs that energy into being a moron all too often. For someone who's apparently read about all previous SG-1 missions, he acts like a prat too often for me, and some little personality things have irritated me too. That's such a shame, because I liked him when he first arrived. He changed over S9 and I'm hoping he will change back in S10 otherwise I just won't be interested in him. I think part of it is that I don't rate the actor - not that I think he's hopeless, just that he's not on the level of MS or CJ or CB. If Arthur's Mantle is the one I think it is, I did like the Daniel/Sam stuff in that and liked the story in general, but I found Mitchell's behaviour to be annoying. He's too impulsive for the role he's in, and he doesn't seem to truly understand the concept of teamwork. He likes to be the hero and doesn't seem to think any of his behaviour through either before or after the event. It's not the kind of personality trait that I find appealing in an adult, and especially not in someone who's meant to be leading a team that has so much experience. Also, the main episode that is meant to introduce us to Mitchell as a person has him off somewhere without the rest of the team - a complete waste of time, IMO. Even by the end of the season - a whole year for the team - I feel no sense of connection between Daniel and Mitchell or Teal'c and Mitchell. I only saw a few bits of episodes of Farscape and really didn't like it, so this is my first real experience of BB. I suspect my view of Mitchell is different from that of a big Farscape / BB fan, but I can only go on what I've seen.
If you liked Prometheus Unbound and the Daniel / Vala chemistry there, then I think you'll love the first four episodes of S9. The chemistry is there in spades, but Daniel is so very much Daniel and not MS. MS is absolutely brilliant in those episodes - he's given big challenges and he exceeds expectations every time. CJ is given fewer challenges than MS but he still has a lot more to do than he often had in previous seasons, so there's plenty of good Teal'c stuff to look forward to. And some of the Teal'c / Daniel stuff makes me all melty. *sigh*
And back to McShep. It wasn't the McShep in the fic that made me see it in the show - it was already in the show for me even when the show itself didn't impress me greatly. I watch shows for characters first and foremost, so with Weir annoying me, Teyla making very little impression at all, having Shep as some kind of surfer dude pale imitation of Jack, and basically having to rely on Rodney plus the few bits of Beckett and Zelenka for my interest? The show couldn't hold me. Reading fic gave Shep the depth I still can't see much of in him in the show even now (I suspect quite a bit of that's down to the actor, though), which meant I could fill in the emotional blanks myself while watching. That let me enjoy him a lot more, and also Teyla a lot more, so gave me enough to keep me going. What I really like is the bigger cast of characters who are important to SGA, as well as the whole Atlantis set itself. I dearly wish they'd done a lot more exploring of the city, since that was the whole raison d'etre of the expedition in the first place. Perhaps we'll get more of that in S3, who knows. At some point I'm going to buy the S1 SGA DVDs when I can find a R2 set that I know for sure have episode commentaries on them.