SGA 3.07 "Phantoms", SG-1 10.09 "In The Company of Thieves"
SGA 3.07 "Phantoms"
I had mixed feelings about this ep. It could have been so much better. But they also didn't totally cock it up, which I do appreciate.
On the plus side:
1) The flashbacks. They threw in a lot of neat little bits in there. Like the exchange where John says (para), "There aren't too many of them" and Holland says, "How many is many?" and John doesn't bridle at all but says "Five or six". This is obviously the genesis of John's "how many minutes" questions from "Progeny". Although it would have been cooler if that had been a long-running character trait of John's instead of something they just shoehorned in this season. But they did a good job characterizing Holland with relatively few lines, his actor did a good job, and I really liked him. (As opposed to all the bad guys on SG-1 10.09.) The Flan also acted the shit out of the thing. And the "Arclight" transmission was nicely sad and evocative, the way he kept repeating it with desperate faith even though he never got a response. If I were Teyla I would have said, "This is Arclight, proceed to camp immediately" or some such ruse to make Shep go back to the cave.
2) Rodney being awesome. I love the story about his "toking pot" and that all he got was itchy. That's Rodney in a nutshell. Sadly, it totally Josses my story about Rodney the college pothead. Just kidding. Though why was he so cranky when they first got to the planet? Was it just because Carson was being a dick, or what? I felt like there should have been some significance to it, or reason behind it, but guess not.
3) Though I think he's written very inconsistently, and sometimes I can't stand what the writers make him do and/or say, Carson's hallucination did move me almost despite myself.
On the negative side:
1) Teyla didn't kick nearly as much ass as she should have. Ronon was also pretty much wasted here. I am mildly intrigued by the fact that only Sheppard became a Wraith in his eyes.
2) Carson was totally incompetent as a field surgeon. (Although, what if that was part of the hallucination? Not sure I can give that much credit to the writers, but that would be kind of cool.) I wanted to like him in this ep but instead I kept being irritated by his extreme pissyness at Rodney. I did find myself drooling over his arms, though. *is shallow*
3) The lameness of the underlying premise. I think Weir's first few lines are ripped almost exactly verbatim from an earlier ep, though I'm much too lazy to look it up. But how many times have we seen this?
4) Rodney getting shot, and the fact that everyone just sat around chatting while Rodney was lying outside, possibly bleeding out for all they knew, and John's all, "Where's Carson?" They totally wasted the potential of this plot point by not showing John seeing that he'd shot Rodney, almost killed him, and that really irks me.
SG-1 10.09 "The Company of Thieves"
Most of this ep was pretty boring, I thought. The Lucian bad guys should have been played by MUCH better and more charismatic actors. I think SG-1 has lost its spark for me. I go in and out of like with the show (I never loved it the way I love SGA, but sometimes I like it a lot, particularly Daniel) - I think I like the fic better than the show most of the time. Vala was mildly interesting, I liked her cheaping out on the ship and then getting it to run on duct tape & string. I liked the red button-pressing dude, he was cute & funny. Cam I think has potential as a character that's just not being used well, I can't decide if it's the understated way BB is playing him or what. Captain what's-his-face getting killed was good, but it would have been so much better if he hadn't been so BORING that I barely remembered him at all, let alone his name. Daniel just seems to get a lot of reaction shots these days. I don't know, it seems like they're phoning it in, sadly. And showing the previously of Daniel being that dude's slave just made me want to go watch the old eps, whole seasons of which I've never seen. Because DUDE, slashy much?
I had mixed feelings about this ep. It could have been so much better. But they also didn't totally cock it up, which I do appreciate.
On the plus side:
1) The flashbacks. They threw in a lot of neat little bits in there. Like the exchange where John says (para), "There aren't too many of them" and Holland says, "How many is many?" and John doesn't bridle at all but says "Five or six". This is obviously the genesis of John's "how many minutes" questions from "Progeny". Although it would have been cooler if that had been a long-running character trait of John's instead of something they just shoehorned in this season. But they did a good job characterizing Holland with relatively few lines, his actor did a good job, and I really liked him. (As opposed to all the bad guys on SG-1 10.09.) The Flan also acted the shit out of the thing. And the "Arclight" transmission was nicely sad and evocative, the way he kept repeating it with desperate faith even though he never got a response. If I were Teyla I would have said, "This is Arclight, proceed to camp immediately" or some such ruse to make Shep go back to the cave.
2) Rodney being awesome. I love the story about his "toking pot" and that all he got was itchy. That's Rodney in a nutshell. Sadly, it totally Josses my story about Rodney the college pothead. Just kidding. Though why was he so cranky when they first got to the planet? Was it just because Carson was being a dick, or what? I felt like there should have been some significance to it, or reason behind it, but guess not.
3) Though I think he's written very inconsistently, and sometimes I can't stand what the writers make him do and/or say, Carson's hallucination did move me almost despite myself.
On the negative side:
1) Teyla didn't kick nearly as much ass as she should have. Ronon was also pretty much wasted here. I am mildly intrigued by the fact that only Sheppard became a Wraith in his eyes.
2) Carson was totally incompetent as a field surgeon. (Although, what if that was part of the hallucination? Not sure I can give that much credit to the writers, but that would be kind of cool.) I wanted to like him in this ep but instead I kept being irritated by his extreme pissyness at Rodney. I did find myself drooling over his arms, though. *is shallow*
3) The lameness of the underlying premise. I think Weir's first few lines are ripped almost exactly verbatim from an earlier ep, though I'm much too lazy to look it up. But how many times have we seen this?
4) Rodney getting shot, and the fact that everyone just sat around chatting while Rodney was lying outside, possibly bleeding out for all they knew, and John's all, "Where's Carson?" They totally wasted the potential of this plot point by not showing John seeing that he'd shot Rodney, almost killed him, and that really irks me.
SG-1 10.09 "The Company of Thieves"
Most of this ep was pretty boring, I thought. The Lucian bad guys should have been played by MUCH better and more charismatic actors. I think SG-1 has lost its spark for me. I go in and out of like with the show (I never loved it the way I love SGA, but sometimes I like it a lot, particularly Daniel) - I think I like the fic better than the show most of the time. Vala was mildly interesting, I liked her cheaping out on the ship and then getting it to run on duct tape & string. I liked the red button-pressing dude, he was cute & funny. Cam I think has potential as a character that's just not being used well, I can't decide if it's the understated way BB is playing him or what. Captain what's-his-face getting killed was good, but it would have been so much better if he hadn't been so BORING that I barely remembered him at all, let alone his name. Daniel just seems to get a lot of reaction shots these days. I don't know, it seems like they're phoning it in, sadly. And showing the previously of Daniel being that dude's slave just made me want to go watch the old eps, whole seasons of which I've never seen. Because DUDE, slashy much?