{ the bottomless, the cavernous creek. }
Dec. 16th, 2007 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
delgaSo, I left Soton at around 2pm on Thursday and was doing fine until I got fucked by the connect at Reading and thus didn't get to N. for forever. Had a nice evening with my cousins, then left for P. around 11am on Friday. The tubes tripped me up (everything was working on time except for the Victoria, which, naturally, was the line I needed) so I had to take the slow line home.
Anyway, I've been at home since Friday afternoon. Went to see Baby Cousin, spent my weekend in the house (into which I do not fit all that comfortably, as is ever the case when I return after a long absence).
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I have many picspams to upload. Most are notable fashion photo shoots, but one is of Fake!Christmas. So. What lovely things you all have to look forward to.
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I'm still in love with NCIS and have watched three episodes since I've been home. (Am still writing that NCIS/Spooks crossover, huzz.) Also: The West Wing. In terms of current fandom, I spent a lot of time yesterday watching Pushing Daisies, Criminal Minds, and CSI: NY, all of which were rewarding in their own ways.
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I spent today marathoning season 4 of Stargate: Atlantis. This was wonderful for a handful of reasons, not least of which is the fact that Sundays, traditionally, are Stargate days, and it's been a while since I've had a Stargate Sunday. I'd seen the first three episodes of the season when they aired, but my interest thereafter had been low. But watching them all one after the other has been quite good. I have many comments. Beware spoilers!
I find that watching them serially is much more satisfying to me than watching them one week at a time. I don't know if that's because I'm so used to having to marathon SG:A (see: when M tried to catch up before S3 aired) or because there's some sort of narrative flaw in the show that bugs me. I remember that The Sister and I always used to find that Stargate: SG-1 never used to have 'proper' conclusions, by which I mean, the episodes would end when the action ended, and it would be a treat if we had some sort of repercussion play out. But I don't know. I don't think that's the case with Atlantis.
I like Keller quite a bit, and I don't know what it is but it really feels like they're playing the girls a lot this season. It's possible that I'm just paying more attention because there are new female cast, but I think that there have never really been episodes where the girls led the fore before - mostly because there were less of them, or they were less often seen in conjunction? I really don't know. I do feel like the girls are having more to do. The Keller and Teyla episode (Missing) felt stand out to me, and in the episode where everyone has amnesia we had Keller, Carter, Katie whatsherface and Teyla. In the episode with Sheppard's dream alter-ego, we had Keller, Carter, Teyla and Heightmeyer, whose death was the most underplayed death I have seen on the show, which was quite disappointing. We've also had sexy Traveller woman in the John-centric episode, and the return of Jeannie Miller/Kate Hewlett in the Rodney-centric episode (more on that episode momentarily). The only one we're really missing is Laura Cadman, and possibly Novak, though I don't really count her. But if we can have Katie, we can have Novak, I think. But am I wrong? Lots of notable women about.
Grin-inducing recurring cast naturally include Lorne and Radek. Both of them were excellent in the amnesia episode.
I'm waiting for the season where the Ronon-centric episode doesn't have anything to do with him having to reforge his bond with the Atlantis team all over again. Does he really need another rite-of-passage scenario when he spends the rest of the season quite obviously in tow? I mean, I feel like we have Ronon's story down pat - he has Sateda-angst. He sees Wraith, he kills them. He's very big, and atypically manly. He has no family and thus is probably yearning for one. We get it! Ronon's plots seem to be very lazy. There should be an episode where, I don't know, Ronon gets hopped up on psychotropic drugs and people have to catch him. OR, no, wait, everyone ELSE is hopped up on psychotropic drugs and Ronon has to save THEM, relying on brains instead of brawn for once. I don't know. Something that stretches him in the other direction.
Speaking of other directions, Teyla really is getting a lot of use this season, isn't she? Which is fantastic. I really liked seeing that meaner survivor's edge to her in Missing, and for the first time in a long time, I really want to write Atlantis fanfction, all of it featuring Teyla in some way, and a lot of it being femslash. The losses in the team are striking, especially considering the female companionship that Teyla must have been getting from Elizabeth and Heightmeyer. And now with the loss of her people, the unexpected pregnancy, and Elizabeth's death being made a fact, Teyla is going through one hell of a lot this season.
Elizabeth. Oh, Elizabeth. That entire storyline, for me, is so painful, and for whatever reason This Mortal Coil* felt like an oddly short episode. I was expecting more, and when that replicator shot fake!John, that was the moment in which it hit home that we weren't going to see Weir again. Her self-sacrifice in the season opener, and then this reprisal of that, both felt fitting and yet also out of place. I don't know. I'm not disappointed by the plot, just by whatever it was that was going on behind the scenes, because I've always been a fan of Weir, and I've always liked the gravitas she brought to her position, so to watch Atlantis without her has been like watching a completely different show. I didn't really notice until she reappeared, and then I realised what I'd been missing. The end of This Mortal Coil contained (a) a confirmation of Elizabeth's sacrifice (I felt it was a weak echo of the act she actually committed in the season opener) and (b) a kindly, well-placed reference to Carson by Rodney. Both John and Rodney's reactions were lovely, as was Radek's overture of comfort to Rodney. I also liked John and Elizabeth's conversation in the woodland, and not because of my inner shipper, but because I think it said a lot about the state of their professional relationship by the time of Elizabeth's death.
Other aspects I liked about the episode included the parallel scenes in the forest where the Teyla and Ronon pairs are talking amongst themselves. What I really liked about this situation is the way in which you really felt for the replicates, and they weren't half-assed in the way the SG-1 robots could be in Stargate. Speaking of, I think it was an interesting move to not have Carter around in the episode, and more so to use Keller as the head of the replicator faction instead of anyone else.
Sam Carter. I was always a Carter fan in SG-1 and no-one is going to change that about me. But she really is a different character on this show. That's not to say that I don't like her, but the things that I loved about SG-1-Carter haven't been obviously transplanted to SG:A-Carter. Her hair is certainly interesting. [/shallow] I don't think she's been shoe-horned in too badly, and I like her as a leader figure, though I dislike that one scene where she needed Sheppard to hold her hand. I liked her interaction with Woolsey, and I like how that tested the Sam that I know from both shows.
Other episodes this season. Doppelganger was interestingly played out, though I disliked Kate's death, and Sheppard's ego is something else to contend with. That said, I liked the premise a lot, and it reminded me of a lot of those SG-1 episodes where the team inadvertently messed things up by their very presence. It was a clear reminder that their presence is an interference in the Pegasus Galaxy, whether their intentions are good or not. The end of the episode, where all those things start glowing? Freaked me out a disproportionate amount. Anyway, I also enjoyed Travelers, despite myself, and I liked Laren's character. I hope that we see her again, and I hope that she remains a foil of some sort. Nothing sinister, just a semi-adversary, and interesting up against other team members. Missing was excellent, and I like that we're breaking out of that Teyla-as-Athosian mould that we used to get. This story still connected to Teyla's Athosian roots, but they also played up a different aspect of her personality which was just what was needed. The Seer was also brilliant because it played up a handful of story lines and Stargate was always at its best when it was juggling several plots at once which isn't something Atlantis really does (to its own detriment, or so I feel). What Atlantis has been successful at in the past, and proves to be repeating this season, is the concept of a season arc. The second half of season 1, the end of season 2 (and possibly in season 3, as well, though I can't think of a specific arc as such, so feel free to inform me one way or the other) were bound tightly by a running thread of plot. In season 1 it was the approach of the Hive ship; in season 2 it was the Michael plot. Now we have this recurring plot involving the replicator base code, and the Wraith that Sheppard met last season which has been a thread from The Seer.
Which brings me to the one episode I haven't really discussed yet: Miller's Crossing. Sigh. I like Kate Hewlett, and I enjoyed McKay and Mrs Miller last season. But this episode was easily the most boring of the season barring, possibly, Reunion, but I can't tell if the execution of Reunion's godboring plot makes up for its lack of inventiveness, or not. But Miller's Crossing, though it eventually picked up the thread with the Wraith and the replicator base code, did nothing for me. I didn't find much of it that engaging, I didn't care about Culp's character, and I feel like they underplayed what Sheppard asked Culp's character to do, thus it lacked dramatic punch. And bless her, Kate Hewlett is joyous to see because she seems like a nice person, but she didn't have a lot to do. Also, it didn't help that this was an 'Earth' episode, the likes of which I rarely enjoy (even in SG-1, the on-world episodes that showcased the 'real' world to some extent always bored the shit out of me; the NSA/Acronym of Evil plot lines seemed wholly irrelevant except for that one time when they stole the Stargate. That was pretty awesome).
All in all, it's been an interesting season, and one that really does feel like a new direction for the show. I've enjoyed watching the episodes serially, and I do feel out-of-sorts with the show a bit because it's been a while since I've seen it, and the new cast jars a little (because I watched it all at once, instead of having the episodes staggered across weeks) but are ultimately enjoyable. I would like to see an episode where the scientists are stuck together, or Ronon is placed with Carter and/or Keller; I would also like to see an episode where more plots are interplayed, but only if this can be done successfully. I know these can sometimes feel like exposition episodes which people other than myself don't enjoy because not a lot is happening, but I also think that this doesn't have to be the case. I reckon there'll be more chance of these stories occurring towards the end of the season.
(*) I can't say that I'm totally on-board with the Hamlet reference for this episode title. I mean, yes, in terms of the replicates, and the shedding of bodily selves, but not so much in terms of whatever is coming next, and specifically the title for the next episode which I feel has a responsibility to refer to this episode in more ways than in plot. The plots should not be separate! Man, the replicates' humanity... I don't know, I'm finding it very tragic. It's making me quite sad.
And now I want fanfiction.
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I also watched Numb3rs yesterday and realised that I can't dislike it that much because I felt calm and interested when the episode opened up. I really like David showcases because I think David deserves a lot more screen time, and this was an excellent plot, one which had nothing to do with David's ethnic origin, or his Bronx upbringing, and everything to do with his competence as an agent. It was also an uncomplicated plot that was executed in an interesting way. My sole complaint is against Charlie, whose ego needs to be locked up in a Chinese box of its own. It was nice to see the girls working together, though I'd have liked to see Amita this week. I liked the scene near the beginning where Megan snaps at Don that David made the right call: Don was taking out his stress re: Liz (and subsequently, David) on Megan (and David), which was unfair. I like that Megan snapped a little there. I also liked the interaction between Dylan and Chris Bruno. But mostly I loved the standoff inside the elevator. Alimi Ballard kicked ass this week.
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Date: 2007-12-17 11:19 am (UTC)This is what happens when you spend half the year in Kenya :P (Btw, OSO = Om Shanti Om? Because I want to see that film and if it's got your recommendation, that's double the reason to get off my backside and head to Leicester.)
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Date: 2007-12-17 03:42 pm (UTC)Hee! Well, if it made you write fic, then it must be something to check out! lol. Now I just need to get to Leicester...
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Date: 2007-12-17 04:12 pm (UTC)if I ever see the film.Leicester is about an hour drive north of me; London's about two hours south. I can go to either, but I need someone to go with! Or, someone to take me.
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Date: 2007-12-17 11:50 pm (UTC)When you said "the NSA/Acronym of Evil plot lines seemed wholly irrelevant except for that one time when they stole the Stargate. That was pretty awesome).", what were you referring to? I'm only up to the end of S5 with SG1, but I don't mind being spoiled.
And Numb3rs was really good too. :D
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Date: 2007-12-18 12:02 am (UTC)Aw, SG-1. I love that show so much! Ahem. Anyway. I think you'll have seen that episode by now? The Trust/NID/whatever they're called has a second gate in operation which they found/stole from somewhere? Possibly Antarctica. I like those episodes, like when O'Neill goes 'undercover' with them in season 4. (Possibly I am also mixing up plotlines - it's been a while since I watched these episodes. But the SGC lose their gate for some reason - it may have been trying to blow them up - and then they have to bargain with the Russians for the second gate. Which the Russians obtain from...somewhere. I'm fuzzy on the details. But the Russians definitely have a gate in season 4 because there's the episode where they're stuck underwater.) I could talk about SG1's awesome plotty-ness for forever. But as above, I often forget plots, too.
Season 6 is very good! I was quite fond of Jonas. :)