Deep breaths
My mother is coming into town on Saturday for a week. I am trying not to freak out, given that she keeps a totally sterile house and mine is... not so much. Also, she's coming without my dad, and while I love my mother dearly, we have never been able to spend that much time together without a buffer without fighting about something. Also, I'm going to be working a ton, which actually, when I think about it, may help mitigate that last issue. Also, it means I'll be sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, and I'm already having a lot of trouble getting a good night's sleep right now.
But... she's doing me a huge favor and dealing with contractors when I have to be at work, and it will be really nice to see her.
::goes back to trying not to freak out::
* * * * *
More Stargate, possibly the last for a while, since the very thought of trying to explain to my mother why I'm watching this show makes my head hurt...
2.10 - "Bane"
* Jack: "Witness if you will a ghost town." Jack must be a Twilight Zone afficionado.
* Er, why was Sam, a theoretical astrophysicist, working with a top geneticist at the Pentagon? I take it she's just Good At Science?
* It's The Fly! Oh dear, poor Teal'c.
* I'm glad to see Maybourne again. Not glad glad, since he's a scum-sucking weasel, but it's nice to have recurring characters. But why are they transporting Teal'c in what appears to be a painted-over ice-cream truck?
* Teal'c's larval goa'uld is kind of cute. Help me!
* Uh, I was unaware that there was a hardcore urban 'hood full of gangstas in the vicinty of the base. Where is Teal'c, hangin' with the homies in East Colorado Springs?
* Okay, it's not The Fly, it's The Flies.
* What is it with this show and moppets? This allegedly tough kid is about as street-smart as Daniel if she's actually approaching and befriending strange homeless men in abandoned buildings in her dangerous 'hood of East Colorado Springs.
* I sort of love Jack and Teal'c's relationship. Jack was at Teal'c's bedside earlier, Teal'c stayed with Jack in "Message in a Bottle," and here Teal'c asks Jack to kill him before he spawns a swarm.
* Struggling to preserve a goa'uld, even a larval one, is a bit of a change for them.
* Okay, I already loved Teal'c a lot, and then he gave the moppet an enormous water gun, and then he whipped out the super mega water gun to go after her, and Christopher Judge's conveyance of humor is so dry it actually dehydrates any fruit that happens to be the neighboring area, and now I love Teal'c even more.
2.11 - "The Tok'ra Part 1"
* Sam's dad is an inaccessible jerk too. That explains so much.
* The continuity here makes me happy--Sam can sense goa'uld presence, has memories from Jolinar, the Tok'ra aren't using the sarcophagus because it makes you the kind of jerk who'd leave his friends SLAVING IN A MINE. And so forth.
* Daniel's all about promoting understanding and communication. Jack is so much more cynical. Sometimes one approach is called for, sometimes the other, so I think they balance each other out on the team.
* Sam obviously needs to go with this Tok'ra guy (who happens to be hot) in order to pump him for information, so Jack should stop acting like an ineffectual caveman ASAP.
* Sam's dad is dying. Selmak (sp? It seems like there should be an apostrophe in there somewhere...) needs a host. Gosh, whatever will they do to solve these problems?
2.12 - "The Tok'ra Part 2"
* This Tok'ra business is very Dax-like. My god, I am an enormous geek.
* Hey! I think there's a traitor in their midst. Isn't that one of those goa'uld communication sphere thingies?
* Aw. Sam's dad is so proud of her. I'm starting to feel bad for calling him a jerk.
* The goa'uld was the traitor, and the host wasn't happy about it. And what appears to be another spy is actually the same spy. Twisty! (And... are the worms called goa'uld and tok'ra, or does the term tok'ra refer to the combination voluntary-host-and-goa'uld-worm?)
* Eeek! The silly flying pyramids are approaching!
* So Sam's dad is now a Tok'ra host and liaison between the Tok'ra and Earth? Huh.
2.13 - "Spirits"
* Hey! It's... rocks. Fascinating.
* Holy crap! Jack sure does get speared a lot. And he's noticed--"Aliens are always poking me full of holes." Word, Jack. Word.
* Sam's first command, and Jack's both pleased and worried. That's the kind of Sam/Jack interaction I can get behind.
* Hey, it's Connor, the guy who almost got deep fried by the sun in "The First Commandment." Yay for recurring characters! One of these days, I am finally going to get my ass in gear and do a post on the Larry Principle.
* Whoa! I expected Connor to do something foolish and principled, not something supernatural-looking.
* The U.S. Army moving in to steal the resources from the environmentally friendly native population thing is pretty heavy-handed, but I am partially placated by the fact that the totems are actually aliens! Aliens with really cool gill things!
2.14 - "Touchstone"
* A straightforward scientific expedition. All righty. What's going to go wrong?
* Jack's cynicism is once again useful--suspecting someone military could be behind the theft of the touchstone, rather than foolishly believing the military would never sneak around on itself like that, saves them a lot of time.
* Wow, did Daniel just get all superior and lecturey about people fooling around with alien devices without knowing what they're doing? Yes, yes he did. It's as foolish as sticking the stones in an alien communication device just to see what happens, isn't it, Daniel.
* This theft has Maybourne's fingerprints all over it? Yes! I'm right.
* I love General Hammond.
* So there's a second operational gate? Interesting... And I'm guessing Sam and Teal'c could tell that the decoy gate was a fake because they can sense naquadah, or its lack.
* This episode raises the interesting possibility that Maybourne, while a scum-sucking weasel, is probably not the worst scum-sucking weasel running a secret government program. There's a frightening thought.
* Neat! Hand signals.
* Er... the super extra mega classified secret area doesn't have alarms on the doors?
* So now they have a handy spare gate, though it's sealed for the time being? I don't really understand why they're all so blase about it falling into the wrong hands again, since it happened easily once, but okay!
I also rewatched last week's episode, this time while actually paying attention.
Cameron Mitchell is a like a big lab puppy who just knocks against your hand and gives you the puppydog eyes until you break down and pet him, or, as the case may be, do not actually slaughter him in single combat but rather contrive to help him escape.
I can't say I understand much about Jaffa politics, but it seems like there are potential problems here--Gerak was flirting with the Priors earlier, and the Sodan seem to have accepted them for the most part. I liked Mitchell's plea, based on the idea that faith does not require proof--that it actually is in some ways antithetical--and the idea that the Ori's power is in any case not proof enough, that what they do with the power is the key, and that submitting to them means a complete surrender of everything that has defined the Sodan so strongly for so long-- their rituals, their culture, their entire way of life.
I feel like I have a much better bead on Mitchell as a character now, and like that his persistence and bullheaded optimism, though tempered a little by experience, continues to be so strong. But--and this is actually not a complaint I've had with many previous episodes, so I'm surprised to be feeling this now--he came across as fairly Crichton-like, and it's not just Browder's delivery, it's the writing, the pop culture references and the particular brand of sarcasm. But still, it was fun watching him; the Sodan warrior he was training with was a likeable character, and his persistence was infectious, and the actor and Browder had good guy-buddy chemistry.
I've got to say that SciFi's practice of labeling the upcoming episode 9.10 a "season finale" is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Don't they want people to realize the other half of the season is airing in January? Are they deliberately trying to confuse people? WTF?
* * * * *
fer1213 applied her mad scotch tape Photoshop skillz to Farscape's "Meltdown." She's really dangerous when she gets her hands on action figures.
But... she's doing me a huge favor and dealing with contractors when I have to be at work, and it will be really nice to see her.
::goes back to trying not to freak out::
* * * * *
More Stargate, possibly the last for a while, since the very thought of trying to explain to my mother why I'm watching this show makes my head hurt...
2.10 - "Bane"
* Jack: "Witness if you will a ghost town." Jack must be a Twilight Zone afficionado.
* Er, why was Sam, a theoretical astrophysicist, working with a top geneticist at the Pentagon? I take it she's just Good At Science?
* It's The Fly! Oh dear, poor Teal'c.
* I'm glad to see Maybourne again. Not glad glad, since he's a scum-sucking weasel, but it's nice to have recurring characters. But why are they transporting Teal'c in what appears to be a painted-over ice-cream truck?
* Teal'c's larval goa'uld is kind of cute. Help me!
* Uh, I was unaware that there was a hardcore urban 'hood full of gangstas in the vicinty of the base. Where is Teal'c, hangin' with the homies in East Colorado Springs?
* Okay, it's not The Fly, it's The Flies.
* What is it with this show and moppets? This allegedly tough kid is about as street-smart as Daniel if she's actually approaching and befriending strange homeless men in abandoned buildings in her dangerous 'hood of East Colorado Springs.
* I sort of love Jack and Teal'c's relationship. Jack was at Teal'c's bedside earlier, Teal'c stayed with Jack in "Message in a Bottle," and here Teal'c asks Jack to kill him before he spawns a swarm.
* Struggling to preserve a goa'uld, even a larval one, is a bit of a change for them.
* Okay, I already loved Teal'c a lot, and then he gave the moppet an enormous water gun, and then he whipped out the super mega water gun to go after her, and Christopher Judge's conveyance of humor is so dry it actually dehydrates any fruit that happens to be the neighboring area, and now I love Teal'c even more.
2.11 - "The Tok'ra Part 1"
* Sam's dad is an inaccessible jerk too. That explains so much.
* The continuity here makes me happy--Sam can sense goa'uld presence, has memories from Jolinar, the Tok'ra aren't using the sarcophagus because it makes you the kind of jerk who'd leave his friends SLAVING IN A MINE. And so forth.
* Daniel's all about promoting understanding and communication. Jack is so much more cynical. Sometimes one approach is called for, sometimes the other, so I think they balance each other out on the team.
* Sam obviously needs to go with this Tok'ra guy (who happens to be hot) in order to pump him for information, so Jack should stop acting like an ineffectual caveman ASAP.
* Sam's dad is dying. Selmak (sp? It seems like there should be an apostrophe in there somewhere...) needs a host. Gosh, whatever will they do to solve these problems?
2.12 - "The Tok'ra Part 2"
* This Tok'ra business is very Dax-like. My god, I am an enormous geek.
* Hey! I think there's a traitor in their midst. Isn't that one of those goa'uld communication sphere thingies?
* Aw. Sam's dad is so proud of her. I'm starting to feel bad for calling him a jerk.
* The goa'uld was the traitor, and the host wasn't happy about it. And what appears to be another spy is actually the same spy. Twisty! (And... are the worms called goa'uld and tok'ra, or does the term tok'ra refer to the combination voluntary-host-and-goa'uld-worm?)
* Eeek! The silly flying pyramids are approaching!
* So Sam's dad is now a Tok'ra host and liaison between the Tok'ra and Earth? Huh.
2.13 - "Spirits"
* Hey! It's... rocks. Fascinating.
* Holy crap! Jack sure does get speared a lot. And he's noticed--"Aliens are always poking me full of holes." Word, Jack. Word.
* Sam's first command, and Jack's both pleased and worried. That's the kind of Sam/Jack interaction I can get behind.
* Hey, it's Connor, the guy who almost got deep fried by the sun in "The First Commandment." Yay for recurring characters! One of these days, I am finally going to get my ass in gear and do a post on the Larry Principle.
* Whoa! I expected Connor to do something foolish and principled, not something supernatural-looking.
* The U.S. Army moving in to steal the resources from the environmentally friendly native population thing is pretty heavy-handed, but I am partially placated by the fact that the totems are actually aliens! Aliens with really cool gill things!
2.14 - "Touchstone"
* A straightforward scientific expedition. All righty. What's going to go wrong?
* Jack's cynicism is once again useful--suspecting someone military could be behind the theft of the touchstone, rather than foolishly believing the military would never sneak around on itself like that, saves them a lot of time.
* Wow, did Daniel just get all superior and lecturey about people fooling around with alien devices without knowing what they're doing? Yes, yes he did. It's as foolish as sticking the stones in an alien communication device just to see what happens, isn't it, Daniel.
* This theft has Maybourne's fingerprints all over it? Yes! I'm right.
* I love General Hammond.
* So there's a second operational gate? Interesting... And I'm guessing Sam and Teal'c could tell that the decoy gate was a fake because they can sense naquadah, or its lack.
* This episode raises the interesting possibility that Maybourne, while a scum-sucking weasel, is probably not the worst scum-sucking weasel running a secret government program. There's a frightening thought.
* Neat! Hand signals.
* Er... the super extra mega classified secret area doesn't have alarms on the doors?
* So now they have a handy spare gate, though it's sealed for the time being? I don't really understand why they're all so blase about it falling into the wrong hands again, since it happened easily once, but okay!
I also rewatched last week's episode, this time while actually paying attention.
Cameron Mitchell is a like a big lab puppy who just knocks against your hand and gives you the puppydog eyes until you break down and pet him, or, as the case may be, do not actually slaughter him in single combat but rather contrive to help him escape.
I can't say I understand much about Jaffa politics, but it seems like there are potential problems here--Gerak was flirting with the Priors earlier, and the Sodan seem to have accepted them for the most part. I liked Mitchell's plea, based on the idea that faith does not require proof--that it actually is in some ways antithetical--and the idea that the Ori's power is in any case not proof enough, that what they do with the power is the key, and that submitting to them means a complete surrender of everything that has defined the Sodan so strongly for so long-- their rituals, their culture, their entire way of life.
I feel like I have a much better bead on Mitchell as a character now, and like that his persistence and bullheaded optimism, though tempered a little by experience, continues to be so strong. But--and this is actually not a complaint I've had with many previous episodes, so I'm surprised to be feeling this now--he came across as fairly Crichton-like, and it's not just Browder's delivery, it's the writing, the pop culture references and the particular brand of sarcasm. But still, it was fun watching him; the Sodan warrior he was training with was a likeable character, and his persistence was infectious, and the actor and Browder had good guy-buddy chemistry.
I've got to say that SciFi's practice of labeling the upcoming episode 9.10 a "season finale" is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. Don't they want people to realize the other half of the season is airing in January? Are they deliberately trying to confuse people? WTF?
* * * * *
fer1213 applied her mad scotch tape Photoshop skillz to Farscape's "Meltdown." She's really dangerous when she gets her hands on action figures.