Thoughts on SGA 1.16 "The Brotherhood"
There's nothing like a good old fashioned Indiana Jones dungeon crawl.
Between them, Shepherd and McKay (plus the local chick) make one Indy. In sort of the same way that Jackson and O'Neill made an Indy, only that Jackson was *actually* an archaeologist, so... anyway. The point is that this had exactly the twist on it that gives the Stargate franchise its unique flavor and advantage over other such dungeon crawls in general: the U.S. Military. If this were an Indiana Jones flick, then the rival treasure-seekers holding you at gunpoint while you retrieve the artifact? They walk away with the artifact (although not your hat), and you run for it, barely escaping. The treasure-seeker rivals holding the U.S. Military SG team members at gunpoint? They're gonna get caught in your flashbang and face semiautomatic US ordnance. Ah, it's beautiful. It's like a genre clash that manages to work-- so totally out of place, so totally practical. It's like someone watching TV and saying, "a whip? Psht. Now, if that was me, I'd have an A.K. 47 and a back-up black ops team waiting on radio." Heh.
And for me, that sort of defines what keeps Stargate from being silliness in the same vein as all the other silliness. Indy with a black ops squad. Stargate, sine qua non.
Between them, Shepherd and McKay (plus the local chick) make one Indy. In sort of the same way that Jackson and O'Neill made an Indy, only that Jackson was *actually* an archaeologist, so... anyway. The point is that this had exactly the twist on it that gives the Stargate franchise its unique flavor and advantage over other such dungeon crawls in general: the U.S. Military. If this were an Indiana Jones flick, then the rival treasure-seekers holding you at gunpoint while you retrieve the artifact? They walk away with the artifact (although not your hat), and you run for it, barely escaping. The treasure-seeker rivals holding the U.S. Military SG team members at gunpoint? They're gonna get caught in your flashbang and face semiautomatic US ordnance. Ah, it's beautiful. It's like a genre clash that manages to work-- so totally out of place, so totally practical. It's like someone watching TV and saying, "a whip? Psht. Now, if that was me, I'd have an A.K. 47 and a back-up black ops team waiting on radio." Heh.
And for me, that sort of defines what keeps Stargate from being silliness in the same vein as all the other silliness. Indy with a black ops squad. Stargate, sine qua non.