elgrey

It was discovered that I had an ovarian cyst this year, unfortunately a big one that had twisted and done nasty things to my internal workings, so I had to spend time I would have usually have spent doing something a bit more active, either lying on my right side on a sofa drugged up to the eyeballs on painkillers or in and out of hospital having tests, scans, ridiculous amounts of morphine, and finally emergency surgery. All of which was either painful and/or boring. (I was in hospital when I was told the news about Don S Davis. Such a sad thing to happen. It must have been incredibly hard on the cast, crew, directors, producers, writers etc who had worked with him for all those years. I really feel for them. He always seemed to be such a lovely man and as a viewer one always felt in completely safe hands whenever he stepped into a scene. I find it hard to believe that the wonderful humanity and dignity with which he invested Hammond didn’t come primarily from the kind of person he was himself. He must have left a huge gap in so many lives.)

Anyway, because of all the enforced inactivity, before and after the operation, I am so very grateful for a) books and b) Stargate DVDs. As well as re-reading every childhood favourite (particularly if it has a pony in it), I have re-watched all of Atlantis, seen The Ark of Truth (three times), and have just finished re-watching S9 of SG-1. I've found all of them just get better and better the more times I watch them.

I’m much more of a SG-1 fan than an Atlantis fan (by which I mean I read and write SG-1 fic but don’t read or write Atlantis fic, and probably watch SG-1 on a much greater level of (crazed fangirl) intensity) but I was very pleased to find how much I have come to love Atlantis, its characters and its world, and how jolly comforting it is to watch. There were very few Atlantis eps I didn’t really like (I think Travellers is the only one I would never bother to rewatch) and dozens that I could watch on a pretty much permanent loop. I’m really going to miss Sam in S5 (I thought she was very well written in S4, although not in it quite as much as I, as an SG-1 fan, was hoping), but I’ve always liked Woolsey so I’ll be interested to see how things go with him. I’m still unconvinced by Keller as a doctor, but I like the character when she’s not being a doctor (which is quite a lot of the time, after all). She just doesn’t have that brisk efficiency that doctors have, unlike Dr Lam, who has it in spades and who I really miss in S10 as she is so fabulous in S9. (Two of the doctors who attended to me in hospital were younger and tinier (if there is a minus zero size, those women were it) than Keller, and very pretty indeed, so I don’t think Jewel’s youth or attractiveness are a problem any more than Lam’s is, I just find Lam totally convincing as a doctor and Keller not at all convincing. Having said that, Trio was probably my favourite episode in S4, and my reservations about Keller didn’t affect my enjoyment of it at all, so hopefully that is how I will feel for the rest of S5.)

Watching it all in one go instead of here and then made me realize that S9 of SG-1 (would that we one day have a S9 of SGA as well) is even better than I remember (and I remembered it being pretty good), with one fabulous episode following another and a really good sense of the team and how much they care about one another. (The only one I don’t like is Ex Deus Machina, but to have nineteen episodes one loves and only one that one doesn’t seems like a pretty good ratio to me.)

I’m a big fan of Mitchell and the way he is never presented as a faultless hero. He seems more like the impetuous big brother who the smarter, younger siblings think is going to get them all into trouble if they can’t rein him back a bit, but who will always put himself between them and danger. Sam and Daniel seem to spend a lot of time eye rolling about him and yet they are obviously very fond of him and he would clearly walk through fire for them. Given Mitchell’s big crush on Teal’c and willingness to fling himself into any danger to save his hero, I do think Teal’c could be a bit nicer to him, but must admit it’s very amusing when he isn’t. I’m also trying to think (having watched it last night) if there has ever been a better season ender than Camelot. (Or one with a more fiendish cliffhanger.) I’ve only re-watched the first two episodes of S10 so far, but they were both excellent and I’m impatient for the evenings to come along so I can get back to the next episode. (I have a weird inability to watch TV during the daytime.) It's such a pleasure to have SG-1 episodes that I haven't watched and watched to the point where I can practically remember every line. With S9 and S10, because I've only seen most of them once, it's almost like having new episodes to watch.

I also found that Ark of Truth (which I loved and loved even more on each subsequent viewing) made me change from someone who wasn’t all that keen on the Ori arc to someone who is a complete convert (and without undue influence by priors) and so able to appreciate the story arc of S9 and S10 that much more. It was just such a good resolution and, again, watching it in a much more compressed time frame, I keep thinking how well thought out the whole story was, with the Arthurian mythology (which I think they used brilliantly) and the all powerful gods with fanatical followers. The character of Tomin was such a great idea - and they were so lucky in Tim Guinee, what a fabulous actor. I appreciated ‘Crusade’ so much more the second time around, knowing that this wasn’t a throwaway character but someone who is allowed to undergo a really believable transition – and who is allowed to keep his faith in the teachings of Origin if not in the Ori themselves. I also liked the way the Orisei gave Vala a practical reason to be on the team. It didn’t feel contrived to me as she genuinely did have influence over Adria that no one else did, and knowledge of the Ori universe that no one else had. I still wish there had been another season (or six) in which to explore the story in more depth, but I think the film did a really good job of wrapping up that plot arc without completely abandoning character moments.

Anyway, I’m just very grateful to have this show and this universe to wallow in and that it’s still ongoing. I’m sorry there isn’t another film in the works right now as I really looked forward to both Ark of Truth and Continuum and even if it was going to be a year away, it would be wonderful to know there was another film coming. Of course, I also wish Stargate: Universe had started filming as I’m fascinated to see what they do with a third series. Thank goodness that Atlantis has another sixteen episodes, for certain, and hopefully another season. (One can never tell with SciFi.) At least there will be Atlantis movies even if the show is cancelled, but, much as I love the movies, it’s not quite the same as having those week by week explorations. I think the big, sexy season ender/season premier two-or three-or four-parter ideas will still make it to being filmed as DVD movies, but I would really miss the quieter episodes like Trio and Line in the Sand that I tend to rewatch a lot, whose stories would never make big, action-packed movies. Even with my fangirly love for Ark of Truth, twenty episodes would still have been better, but, my goodness, it is light years better than nothing.

Enough burbling, but I’m feeling terribly grateful for Stargate right now, in all its forms, and hope it continues for many years to come. I know, as a Stargate fan, I was incredibly lucky to get ten seasons of that world to wallow in, but I’m feeling greedy so I really hope we get ten seasons of Atlantis and then ten seasons of Universe too, oh, and lots of Stargate movies (some of them crossovers), and puppies and cake.