Yup, I'm still babbling about SGA
I think, that in a temporary bout of insanity, I may have just officially signed up to audition for a swing dance troupe. I have wanted to do this for YEARS. I am scared out of my mind.
So, let's talk A LOT about SGA.
On Atlantis as a character in her own right.
I really love shows where something mechanical(usually a ship) really sort of takes on the status of character. I mean, the Impala and the Serenity are the two primary examples, though the Enterprise has good claim to being the original (come on, you know you cried when it self-destructed in Search for Spock. You KNOW you did).
More than that, I absolutely love the really intense attachment between these ships and the men who love them. The two most extreme examples are again Dean and Mal, but there are plenty of captains and engineers who have managed a little of that same vibe in other shows. I mean, look at the ways the death and rebirth of Dean and the Impala are so intertwined and emotionally connected. Look at the way Mal LOOKED at Serenity the first time he saw her, or "Out of Gas" with its blurring of the crippled ship and the injured man. Look at what these ships REPRESENT for these men, and the degree of personal responsibility/love/attachment they feel. How can you not love that?
All of this is a long way of saying that I kind of see the same potential for John and Atlantis, and I kind of wish the show had gone there more explicity- and I hope they still do. I mean, we see John completely alone on Earth- he says goodbye to no-one, he decides to leave forever by flipping a coin, he seems to have no ties and to hold himself carefully separate from everyone with a slick veneer of snark. And he comes to Atlantis- and the city FLOWERS for him. She literally comes to life beneath his hands. John Sheppard, who loves to fly more than anything else in the entire world, sits in a pilot's chair and the ship reads his mind. And then he promptly devotes the rest of his life to defending- not just the expedition, or all the people in the city, but the city as a single organic entity. And Atlantis' side of the story- she slept, trapped beneath the ocean, completely and utterly alone, for ten thousand years. Then this man stepped through the Stargate and WOKE her. Brought her to life. Made her halls ring with voices again, and protected them all.
If I were Atlantis, I would damn well have fallen in love with Sheppard. Just saying. I'm actually sad they introduced the gene therapy so early, because I had really wanted the thing he had with the city to... stay special. My god, I am a sap.
How Maj. John Sheppard became a stunningly sexy badass
Okay, so one minute he's the slightly disappointing snarky floppy-haired boy-next-door, and then during The Eye and The Defiant One he suddenly turns into the sexiest motherfucking badass to ever walk any planet anywhere. I just do not even know how that happened. He was like a ninja, except that I actually don't find ninjas sexy or even entertaning. He was as stealthy as a ninja, as deadly as a ninja, as truly heroically badass as a ninja, except, you know, with grenades and guns instead of swords and throwing stars, and 6-foot-2 instead of tiny and Japanese, and snarky, and brave, and ass-kicking, and just... MY GOD.
I went from cautiously intrigued to deeply in lust so fast my head is still spinning.
Rodney makes a very good half of a duo. He does a very good duo dynamic with John, with Zelenka, and with Carson, in entirely different ways- I'm actually startled that a character so over-the-top can have such varied and believable and interesting interpersonal relationships, you know? As long as he's paired with a character who can take it, it works great.
I don't mean that the character has to be able to stand up to him exactly- I mean, Carson folds like a cheap card table- I mean, the other character has to remain interesting and sympathetic and funny in their own right, to be able to keep drawing the audience's attention, instead of just fading into the wallpaper behind Rodney's flaming supernova of neurosis. John, Zelenka, and Carson all do that very well.
I also love Aiden Ford now. I mean, in the same two episodes that turned John into a sex god (Eye and Defiant One) we see him stepping up as a commander to come rescue John and it WORKS so well. He's fumbling and nervous and insecure in his authority over Carson and unsure of his decisions- but then he MAKES a decision, he damn well enforces his authority over Carson, and he makes all the right tactical moves- and then he seems relieved to be able to turn command back over to John. It works well for his character- I really believe that this is someone who, with a few more years of experience and self-assurance, could make a good, competent, level-headed commander in his own right, but is still interestingly falable now. That's good character writing.
Except when I really decided I loved him was Letters from Pegasus. Which. Okay. I admit it. I CRIED SO HARD at that episode. How the hell could I not? Pompous!Rodney- except he really wishes he were closer to his sister. And John not sending a message to anyone... and Elizabeth trying to keep it together for the families of the dead. And poor Carson breaking down when he tries to tell his mum he loves her. And Zelenka so excited. And, above all, Aiden... being tactful and annoyed and kind and sympathetic- and telling his grandma she's always in his heart. Oh God.
On their Big-Bad Escalation problem
I do, however, wonder what they're going to do about their Escalation Problem. I mean, shows are supposed to work a certain way- the first season cliffhanger, your team is captured! Will they get out alive? Your second season cliffhanger, there's an intruder in the base! Will he discover their secrets/kill the hostage/whatever? The third season cliffhanger- There's a ship coming to destroy the outpost! Fourth season- There's a bomb in the base! Fifth season- There's ship coming to destroy Earth! Sixth season- There's an enemy threatening several planets! Then, by the seventh season or so, you can finally work up to an armada threatening the galaxy. You know what I mean, right? The Big Bads have to escalate.
I'm basically kind of afraid SGA blew its wad. Instead of a nice easy "Our team is trapped offworld, pinned down by enemy fire! And the gate won't work!" type of cliffhanger, they skipped STRAIGHT to season seven- Oh my God, it's a massive enemy armada come to take over THE ENTIRE GALAXY AND EARTH TOO! With three straight episodes of special-effects-budget-busting spaceship firefights- and then just when that HUGE armada is destroyed- one FOUR TIMES THE SIZE IS COMING!
If you don't escalate, how do you preserve the sense of danger? If you do escalate, how do you avoid adrenaline fatigue, or just seeming silly? These are the things I would have asked, if I were writing SGA.
So, let's talk A LOT about SGA.
On Atlantis as a character in her own right.
I really love shows where something mechanical(usually a ship) really sort of takes on the status of character. I mean, the Impala and the Serenity are the two primary examples, though the Enterprise has good claim to being the original (come on, you know you cried when it self-destructed in Search for Spock. You KNOW you did).
More than that, I absolutely love the really intense attachment between these ships and the men who love them. The two most extreme examples are again Dean and Mal, but there are plenty of captains and engineers who have managed a little of that same vibe in other shows. I mean, look at the ways the death and rebirth of Dean and the Impala are so intertwined and emotionally connected. Look at the way Mal LOOKED at Serenity the first time he saw her, or "Out of Gas" with its blurring of the crippled ship and the injured man. Look at what these ships REPRESENT for these men, and the degree of personal responsibility/love/attachment they feel. How can you not love that?
All of this is a long way of saying that I kind of see the same potential for John and Atlantis, and I kind of wish the show had gone there more explicity- and I hope they still do. I mean, we see John completely alone on Earth- he says goodbye to no-one, he decides to leave forever by flipping a coin, he seems to have no ties and to hold himself carefully separate from everyone with a slick veneer of snark. And he comes to Atlantis- and the city FLOWERS for him. She literally comes to life beneath his hands. John Sheppard, who loves to fly more than anything else in the entire world, sits in a pilot's chair and the ship reads his mind. And then he promptly devotes the rest of his life to defending- not just the expedition, or all the people in the city, but the city as a single organic entity. And Atlantis' side of the story- she slept, trapped beneath the ocean, completely and utterly alone, for ten thousand years. Then this man stepped through the Stargate and WOKE her. Brought her to life. Made her halls ring with voices again, and protected them all.
If I were Atlantis, I would damn well have fallen in love with Sheppard. Just saying. I'm actually sad they introduced the gene therapy so early, because I had really wanted the thing he had with the city to... stay special. My god, I am a sap.
How Maj. John Sheppard became a stunningly sexy badass
Okay, so one minute he's the slightly disappointing snarky floppy-haired boy-next-door, and then during The Eye and The Defiant One he suddenly turns into the sexiest motherfucking badass to ever walk any planet anywhere. I just do not even know how that happened. He was like a ninja, except that I actually don't find ninjas sexy or even entertaning. He was as stealthy as a ninja, as deadly as a ninja, as truly heroically badass as a ninja, except, you know, with grenades and guns instead of swords and throwing stars, and 6-foot-2 instead of tiny and Japanese, and snarky, and brave, and ass-kicking, and just... MY GOD.
I went from cautiously intrigued to deeply in lust so fast my head is still spinning.
Rodney makes a very good half of a duo. He does a very good duo dynamic with John, with Zelenka, and with Carson, in entirely different ways- I'm actually startled that a character so over-the-top can have such varied and believable and interesting interpersonal relationships, you know? As long as he's paired with a character who can take it, it works great.
I don't mean that the character has to be able to stand up to him exactly- I mean, Carson folds like a cheap card table- I mean, the other character has to remain interesting and sympathetic and funny in their own right, to be able to keep drawing the audience's attention, instead of just fading into the wallpaper behind Rodney's flaming supernova of neurosis. John, Zelenka, and Carson all do that very well.
I also love Aiden Ford now. I mean, in the same two episodes that turned John into a sex god (Eye and Defiant One) we see him stepping up as a commander to come rescue John and it WORKS so well. He's fumbling and nervous and insecure in his authority over Carson and unsure of his decisions- but then he MAKES a decision, he damn well enforces his authority over Carson, and he makes all the right tactical moves- and then he seems relieved to be able to turn command back over to John. It works well for his character- I really believe that this is someone who, with a few more years of experience and self-assurance, could make a good, competent, level-headed commander in his own right, but is still interestingly falable now. That's good character writing.
Except when I really decided I loved him was Letters from Pegasus. Which. Okay. I admit it. I CRIED SO HARD at that episode. How the hell could I not? Pompous!Rodney- except he really wishes he were closer to his sister. And John not sending a message to anyone... and Elizabeth trying to keep it together for the families of the dead. And poor Carson breaking down when he tries to tell his mum he loves her. And Zelenka so excited. And, above all, Aiden... being tactful and annoyed and kind and sympathetic- and telling his grandma she's always in his heart. Oh God.
On their Big-Bad Escalation problem
I do, however, wonder what they're going to do about their Escalation Problem. I mean, shows are supposed to work a certain way- the first season cliffhanger, your team is captured! Will they get out alive? Your second season cliffhanger, there's an intruder in the base! Will he discover their secrets/kill the hostage/whatever? The third season cliffhanger- There's a ship coming to destroy the outpost! Fourth season- There's a bomb in the base! Fifth season- There's ship coming to destroy Earth! Sixth season- There's an enemy threatening several planets! Then, by the seventh season or so, you can finally work up to an armada threatening the galaxy. You know what I mean, right? The Big Bads have to escalate.
I'm basically kind of afraid SGA blew its wad. Instead of a nice easy "Our team is trapped offworld, pinned down by enemy fire! And the gate won't work!" type of cliffhanger, they skipped STRAIGHT to season seven- Oh my God, it's a massive enemy armada come to take over THE ENTIRE GALAXY AND EARTH TOO! With three straight episodes of special-effects-budget-busting spaceship firefights- and then just when that HUGE armada is destroyed- one FOUR TIMES THE SIZE IS COMING!
If you don't escalate, how do you preserve the sense of danger? If you do escalate, how do you avoid adrenaline fatigue, or just seeming silly? These are the things I would have asked, if I were writing SGA.