I feel very "you can't take the sky from me" about this one.
Vegas was deeply awesome. JFlan is hot hot hot, and his acting has noticeably improved over the course of this show. I am a little disturbed by how hot disguised-AU-Todd is, but that's a whole other thing. Their cinematography was good. The plot was good- the gimmick came across quickly and easily and the stakes were clear. McKay was kind of a brilliant AU of the character- Rodney is a fantastic character to AU because he is inevitably so good at anything you have him do, and they managed to change the character so much without for one minute sacrificing his supreme arrogance. The Spearmint gum I was joking/No you weren't exchange pretty much made the episode for me, and Hewlett sold this McKay SO WELL. I KNOW there is McShep AU to be written in this verse.
And, of course, I got teary at the end, right on cue.
(random ETA: helenish reads Vegas as John Sheppard's fantasies about himself. It's startlingly persuasive. Also solves the problem of the Atlantis expedition doing fine without John, which I think is a point where it became obvious that the writers don't understand their show as well as the fans do. Also! Did anybody catch John's canonical involvement with the carefully un-named and un-gendered medic he tried to rescue, and how much that bolsters a queer reading of our John, whether the medic was female in the AU or not? Also! I re-watched and was surprised at how much darker and more... not broken, but brittle, this McKay seemed than I remembered. Now I sort of triply want fic about him)
As for the finale... I just do not even have the words to express how disappointed I am that a show with such a wonderful premise and such wonderful characters was given over to such incompetent writers.
First of all, the PACING. This was a three-parter, or a two hour movie, or at MOST a two-parter, crammed into one episode. SERIOUSLY. There were three distinct plot movements (find and confront the Hive Ship; make a plan and find another ZPM; actually save Earth), and a whole emotional arc with no less that FOUR escalating emotional cliff hangars (John's dead! Ronon's dead! The whole team is dead! Atlantis is dead!). And at least one of the plot movements literally happened during a cut-- one minute John and Todd are talking, the next minute, we apparently have a ZPM-- and at least one of the emotional bits was horribly mishandled-- Ronon is hurt! Ronon is dead! Ronon isn't dead, he's captured! Ronon isn't captured, he's... okay now. Aren't you emotionally affected? NO. No, I'm really not.
PACING. SERIOUSLY. I cannot write plot for shit, and even I could have told them their pacing sucked balls.
Secondly, this episode badly suffered from our writers' conviction that the United States Armed Forces consist of, like, seven guys. Are we seriously to believe that John was flying a 302? WHY, for the love of God, would he be flying a craft he had no training on and only one (non-combat) experience flying, and no relevant gene? Why, oh WHY, oh WHY wasn't he actually USING the damn chair while the TRAINED SQUADRON of X-302 pilots flew the 302s? I know the writers are convinced that John can fly anything, but, you know... Sure, he can fly anything, but don't you think the Air Force, you know, has guys who have actually trained on these things?
Plus, the fact that Carson was flying the city. I just... *facepalm* Look, even granting the idea that it needed a natural gene carrier (and I ADORE the fanon that the natural genes work way better than the artificial ones, and that the city just loves John best of all- it's my favorite thing in the world), we really think the military hasn't ensured that there's a second natural gene carrier- you know, a MILITARY man, better at it than Carson (who, let's remember, royally sucked when he used it before and isn't even on Atlantis most of the time anymore?). I mean... just... gah. I appreciate the attempt to bring in all the characters (and I especially appreciate the Lorne and Zelenka), but having Carson fly it was just silly.
Thirdly, the entire fifth act would have been completely solved with only the most basic application of common sense. That wormhole opens into a hiveship that (so far as you know) has no humans aboard and nothing to stop it from destroying Earth? How about you strap a nuke on a time-delay onto a MALP and trundle it on through, eh? And even if Woolsey didn't realize it, there's really no excuse for Lorne. *sighs* Seriously. With only the smallest application of common sense, it goes like this: John uses the chair to help defend against the wave of darts. Atlantis gets to the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, gets stuck, sends a nuke through to the hive ship. Hive ship goes boom. Atlantis redials the wormhole, establishes contact with the SGC, determines everything is fine, then turns around and heads back to Pegasus at a leisurely and non-dangerous pace.
*sighs* Plot turning on stupidity.
On the other hand, the good:
1. Woolsey's scene with Todd. Yaay Woolsey!
2. John's scene with Todd. OMG, the flirting. Seriously. We've never seen John flirt that well with anybody! By the time Todd leaned back and said, "You really know how to talk to me, John Sheppard," my jaw was just about on the floor. I SWEAR they're fucking with us.
3. For that matter, having John pull a suicide run. I am pretty sure the writers had tongues firmly in cheek for that. At least I hope.
4. John called Ronon "Chewy" again. Yaay for the utterly platonic unbreakable bonds of warrior devotion and loyalty! John&Ronon forever!
5. Woolsey's conversation with Teyla and Ronon. You know, I think this is the first time since the early days of SG1 with Hammond that any authority figure in the gateverse has actually acknowledged that characters have loyalties other than to Earth, and not just assumed that all humans who meet the Tauri automatically shift their priorities and allegiances. It was... refreshing in the extreme.
Other random:
1. Am I the only one who loved seeing Davis- and was incredibly amused that he was, sure enough, still a Major? How do we go about getting this guy canonized as the Fandom Patron Saint of Stalled Careers?
2. It was incredibly tone deaf to have Teyla insist on going to Earth when Woolsey offered her the choice without even a nod to her son. I mean, I'm sure it was cut for time (Because of that pacing problem), but still.
3. It was also pretty tone deaf to end the series on the emotional note of McKay/Keller and Ronon/Random chick, instead of a OT4 team love moment.
4. Similarly, it was pretty tone deaf to end the show on the emotional note of leaning out over the railing in awe at San Francisco. Atlantis was a main character on this show- the city, in all her moods and with all her quirks, is (I am convinced) the greatest and most tragically underused sci-fi TV invention I've seen. Atlantis. That's the city we care about. Atlantis, and Pegasus- this show was so rooted in place (not as much as it should be, not as much as the fic was, but still). Our band of heroes are misfit toys, puzzle pieces missing their puzzle, odds and ends and aliens and lost boys, all brought together and given purpose and joy and friendship out in Pegasus. That was the emotional oomph of the last five years. How are we ending on the note of appreciating the Earth view?
(Random ETA: spike21 metas this better here. The fact that TPTB still somehow think Earth is "home" for the purposes of this show might be the greatest proof that they didn't get it)
5. The failings of this episode, (sort of symbolizing the failings of the WHOLE SHOW) make me want three things: Really realistic military-themed fic, Ronon fic, and Atlantis fic. I can't do the first- I'm ransacking miss_porcupine's archives for that now- but I may yet write the Epic of Ronon (especially now that I might be able to coerce bdblack into betaing my martial arts bits) and/or the one where Atlantis is hopelessly in love with John. *nod* (Plus, anybody know where I go for the good Lorne/Zelenka or Lorne/Ronon? How about Ford fic? God, there is SO MUCH left to see in this world!)
6. I am really going to miss it. Not the show as show, exactly, but the characters. I loved them- not just John and Rodney, but ALL of them, the second and third tiers, the walk-ons and fanon creations, the ones who didn't get their due- Ford and Grodin and Ronon and Teyla and Lorne and Zelenka and Caldwell and Woolsey and Weir and Keller and Cadman and Katie and Kavanaugh and Amelia and Chuck and Dusty and Miko and Parrish and *expansive wave* For some reason, despite how horrendous the writers were about letting anyone but the heroes ever actually do their jobs, despite what a crap job they did of populating the lower deck especially on the military side, I have never gotten such a sense of loving everybody as I do from this show. It's mostly fandom, I know, but I miss that direct shot in the arm of love.
And for all that the writers didn't seem to know what the strength of their creation really was, that Ur-story of the city on the edge of forever, the expedition to another galaxy, the island-of-misfit-toys vibe of all these dorky, lonely, antisocial Earth outcasts and alien leftovers coming together into a family in the city of the Ancestors, the awe and the wonder and the geeky genre-savvy joy of it... No matter how badly it was mishandled, that basic story is so powerful to me that I can hardly bear it. That is all.
And, of course, I got teary at the end, right on cue.
(random ETA: helenish reads Vegas as John Sheppard's fantasies about himself. It's startlingly persuasive. Also solves the problem of the Atlantis expedition doing fine without John, which I think is a point where it became obvious that the writers don't understand their show as well as the fans do. Also! Did anybody catch John's canonical involvement with the carefully un-named and un-gendered medic he tried to rescue, and how much that bolsters a queer reading of our John, whether the medic was female in the AU or not? Also! I re-watched and was surprised at how much darker and more... not broken, but brittle, this McKay seemed than I remembered. Now I sort of triply want fic about him)
As for the finale... I just do not even have the words to express how disappointed I am that a show with such a wonderful premise and such wonderful characters was given over to such incompetent writers.
First of all, the PACING. This was a three-parter, or a two hour movie, or at MOST a two-parter, crammed into one episode. SERIOUSLY. There were three distinct plot movements (find and confront the Hive Ship; make a plan and find another ZPM; actually save Earth), and a whole emotional arc with no less that FOUR escalating emotional cliff hangars (John's dead! Ronon's dead! The whole team is dead! Atlantis is dead!). And at least one of the plot movements literally happened during a cut-- one minute John and Todd are talking, the next minute, we apparently have a ZPM-- and at least one of the emotional bits was horribly mishandled-- Ronon is hurt! Ronon is dead! Ronon isn't dead, he's captured! Ronon isn't captured, he's... okay now. Aren't you emotionally affected? NO. No, I'm really not.
PACING. SERIOUSLY. I cannot write plot for shit, and even I could have told them their pacing sucked balls.
Secondly, this episode badly suffered from our writers' conviction that the United States Armed Forces consist of, like, seven guys. Are we seriously to believe that John was flying a 302? WHY, for the love of God, would he be flying a craft he had no training on and only one (non-combat) experience flying, and no relevant gene? Why, oh WHY, oh WHY wasn't he actually USING the damn chair while the TRAINED SQUADRON of X-302 pilots flew the 302s? I know the writers are convinced that John can fly anything, but, you know... Sure, he can fly anything, but don't you think the Air Force, you know, has guys who have actually trained on these things?
Plus, the fact that Carson was flying the city. I just... *facepalm* Look, even granting the idea that it needed a natural gene carrier (and I ADORE the fanon that the natural genes work way better than the artificial ones, and that the city just loves John best of all- it's my favorite thing in the world), we really think the military hasn't ensured that there's a second natural gene carrier- you know, a MILITARY man, better at it than Carson (who, let's remember, royally sucked when he used it before and isn't even on Atlantis most of the time anymore?). I mean... just... gah. I appreciate the attempt to bring in all the characters (and I especially appreciate the Lorne and Zelenka), but having Carson fly it was just silly.
Thirdly, the entire fifth act would have been completely solved with only the most basic application of common sense. That wormhole opens into a hiveship that (so far as you know) has no humans aboard and nothing to stop it from destroying Earth? How about you strap a nuke on a time-delay onto a MALP and trundle it on through, eh? And even if Woolsey didn't realize it, there's really no excuse for Lorne. *sighs* Seriously. With only the smallest application of common sense, it goes like this: John uses the chair to help defend against the wave of darts. Atlantis gets to the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, gets stuck, sends a nuke through to the hive ship. Hive ship goes boom. Atlantis redials the wormhole, establishes contact with the SGC, determines everything is fine, then turns around and heads back to Pegasus at a leisurely and non-dangerous pace.
*sighs* Plot turning on stupidity.
On the other hand, the good:
1. Woolsey's scene with Todd. Yaay Woolsey!
2. John's scene with Todd. OMG, the flirting. Seriously. We've never seen John flirt that well with anybody! By the time Todd leaned back and said, "You really know how to talk to me, John Sheppard," my jaw was just about on the floor. I SWEAR they're fucking with us.
3. For that matter, having John pull a suicide run. I am pretty sure the writers had tongues firmly in cheek for that. At least I hope.
4. John called Ronon "Chewy" again. Yaay for the utterly platonic unbreakable bonds of warrior devotion and loyalty! John&Ronon forever!
5. Woolsey's conversation with Teyla and Ronon. You know, I think this is the first time since the early days of SG1 with Hammond that any authority figure in the gateverse has actually acknowledged that characters have loyalties other than to Earth, and not just assumed that all humans who meet the Tauri automatically shift their priorities and allegiances. It was... refreshing in the extreme.
Other random:
1. Am I the only one who loved seeing Davis- and was incredibly amused that he was, sure enough, still a Major? How do we go about getting this guy canonized as the Fandom Patron Saint of Stalled Careers?
2. It was incredibly tone deaf to have Teyla insist on going to Earth when Woolsey offered her the choice without even a nod to her son. I mean, I'm sure it was cut for time (Because of that pacing problem), but still.
3. It was also pretty tone deaf to end the series on the emotional note of McKay/Keller and Ronon/Random chick, instead of a OT4 team love moment.
4. Similarly, it was pretty tone deaf to end the show on the emotional note of leaning out over the railing in awe at San Francisco. Atlantis was a main character on this show- the city, in all her moods and with all her quirks, is (I am convinced) the greatest and most tragically underused sci-fi TV invention I've seen. Atlantis. That's the city we care about. Atlantis, and Pegasus- this show was so rooted in place (not as much as it should be, not as much as the fic was, but still). Our band of heroes are misfit toys, puzzle pieces missing their puzzle, odds and ends and aliens and lost boys, all brought together and given purpose and joy and friendship out in Pegasus. That was the emotional oomph of the last five years. How are we ending on the note of appreciating the Earth view?
(Random ETA: spike21 metas this better here. The fact that TPTB still somehow think Earth is "home" for the purposes of this show might be the greatest proof that they didn't get it)
5. The failings of this episode, (sort of symbolizing the failings of the WHOLE SHOW) make me want three things: Really realistic military-themed fic, Ronon fic, and Atlantis fic. I can't do the first- I'm ransacking miss_porcupine's archives for that now- but I may yet write the Epic of Ronon (especially now that I might be able to coerce bdblack into betaing my martial arts bits) and/or the one where Atlantis is hopelessly in love with John. *nod* (Plus, anybody know where I go for the good Lorne/Zelenka or Lorne/Ronon? How about Ford fic? God, there is SO MUCH left to see in this world!)
6. I am really going to miss it. Not the show as show, exactly, but the characters. I loved them- not just John and Rodney, but ALL of them, the second and third tiers, the walk-ons and fanon creations, the ones who didn't get their due- Ford and Grodin and Ronon and Teyla and Lorne and Zelenka and Caldwell and Woolsey and Weir and Keller and Cadman and Katie and Kavanaugh and Amelia and Chuck and Dusty and Miko and Parrish and *expansive wave* For some reason, despite how horrendous the writers were about letting anyone but the heroes ever actually do their jobs, despite what a crap job they did of populating the lower deck especially on the military side, I have never gotten such a sense of loving everybody as I do from this show. It's mostly fandom, I know, but I miss that direct shot in the arm of love.
And for all that the writers didn't seem to know what the strength of their creation really was, that Ur-story of the city on the edge of forever, the expedition to another galaxy, the island-of-misfit-toys vibe of all these dorky, lonely, antisocial Earth outcasts and alien leftovers coming together into a family in the city of the Ancestors, the awe and the wonder and the geeky genre-savvy joy of it... No matter how badly it was mishandled, that basic story is so powerful to me that I can hardly bear it. That is all.