This woman could chew her own arm off, what's the problem?
Stress levels are so high that I put in Peacekeeper Wars this weekend for catharsis. Work plus family issues plus my tendency to start new projects when I feel stuck is taking a toll on my shoulders and my coffee budget. Watching the epic chemistry of Aeryn and Crichton always makes me feel like my world is at least a little less insane than theirs.
I'm catching up on Sanctuary, which is proving to be much more captivating than I remembered it being the first few episodes I watched, proving that sometimes it's just the right time to start watching a new show. I really love Helen Magnus and despite watching a bunch of SG-1 recently, I do not think that Magnus is Sam Carter with a British accent, but in fact a wholly new character. I am not sold on Will, but I love Druitt and I love Tesla. I mean, I LOVE Tesla. The show does a wonderful job at making potential villains complicated and making Magnus infuriating where she could often be too perfect. It does need more women who are not Magnuses, though.
I neglected to mention that a few weeks ago, I had reflectedeve over to watch Wrath of Khan, and before we started the movie, she was treated to the always hilarious retelling of what a certain member of my household thinks happens in the movie. The highlights included Spock once again crashing the Enterprise, and Khan piloting (or possibly standing on top of) the Death Star. What makes this funnier is the fact that I am 97% certain that if you showed this person a picture of the Death Star, she would have no idea what she was looking at. (ETA: She was able to identify the Death Star as "the thing your uncle made into a piñata for your cousin's birthday." So, possibly she remembers Khan flying a piñata, I can't be sure.)
After watching Farscape and Sanctuary this weekend, I wanted more Ben Browder and more Amanda Tapping, so I watched Continuum, something I had been meaning to do for a while. It was so much better written than Ark of Truth, which suffered from having to tie up too much plot that we didn't know yet. Continuum was well-written, and it was hilarious. Continuum is so much better, funnier, sharper than Ark of Truth It had echoes of The Road Not Taken (and you know how much I love that episode) and all of the discomfort of alternate timelines that get skipped over when you get to rewrite history too quickly. It hurt that Sam, Daniel, and Cam were separated for a year - when Sam's new identity counselor told her she couldn't get a job in astrophysics, it was like a punch in the gut. These characters had a bad, bad year. I was barely over Sam's inability to act after Jack's death, when they show up in the arctic and she's just....lost. I want to read the story of their years, but Sam's especially.
The trick they play when Jack finds them in the arctic was equally harsh. Cam asks Jack if he recognizes Sam, and he says yes, but then, "Mitchell, I don't know what you're doing in the arctic with a dead
astronaut, but I'm gonna need some answers." I think I actually gasped aloud, because that's not the reason we want him to recognize Sam.
I loved Sam's reaction to alternate timeline Jack once they're in the submarine, where she's trying to explain something incomprehensible to a totally different Jack, who ultimately isn't going to help them. Her explanation which ends with explaining they are from "an alternate timeline, one where, amongst other things I'm not an astronaut" was so understated and heartbreaking, because its the "amongst other things." She's a lot more to Jack; the whole team is.
I loved Vala as Katesh, and the twist of Teal'c helping SG-1 for different -and ultimately the same - reasons. I also loved how much of a smart ass Daniel was - when explaining what waits for this timeline if the Go'auld come, "Death, slavery, more slavery, more death," and then saying "ok, bye" when the President is like, help or get out. Also, he's even a smartass when they're facing certain death as Ba'al attacks, quipping about their bad plan with, "Oh, we have him now!"
I guess I'm really surprised at how emotional a movie this was - not that SG-1 can't pack the big emotion into stories, especially about the team relationship, but this one hit me hard. I think, perhaps, because it wasn't one person's story, it wasn't just about Sam or Cam or Daniel - it was about the team, and what happened when you took pieces of the team away.
I'm catching up on Sanctuary, which is proving to be much more captivating than I remembered it being the first few episodes I watched, proving that sometimes it's just the right time to start watching a new show. I really love Helen Magnus and despite watching a bunch of SG-1 recently, I do not think that Magnus is Sam Carter with a British accent, but in fact a wholly new character. I am not sold on Will, but I love Druitt and I love Tesla. I mean, I LOVE Tesla. The show does a wonderful job at making potential villains complicated and making Magnus infuriating where she could often be too perfect. It does need more women who are not Magnuses, though.
I neglected to mention that a few weeks ago, I had reflectedeve over to watch Wrath of Khan, and before we started the movie, she was treated to the always hilarious retelling of what a certain member of my household thinks happens in the movie. The highlights included Spock once again crashing the Enterprise, and Khan piloting (or possibly standing on top of) the Death Star. What makes this funnier is the fact that I am 97% certain that if you showed this person a picture of the Death Star, she would have no idea what she was looking at. (ETA: She was able to identify the Death Star as "the thing your uncle made into a piñata for your cousin's birthday." So, possibly she remembers Khan flying a piñata, I can't be sure.)
After watching Farscape and Sanctuary this weekend, I wanted more Ben Browder and more Amanda Tapping, so I watched Continuum, something I had been meaning to do for a while. It was so much better written than Ark of Truth, which suffered from having to tie up too much plot that we didn't know yet. Continuum was well-written, and it was hilarious. Continuum is so much better, funnier, sharper than Ark of Truth It had echoes of The Road Not Taken (and you know how much I love that episode) and all of the discomfort of alternate timelines that get skipped over when you get to rewrite history too quickly. It hurt that Sam, Daniel, and Cam were separated for a year - when Sam's new identity counselor told her she couldn't get a job in astrophysics, it was like a punch in the gut. These characters had a bad, bad year. I was barely over Sam's inability to act after Jack's death, when they show up in the arctic and she's just....lost. I want to read the story of their years, but Sam's especially.
The trick they play when Jack finds them in the arctic was equally harsh. Cam asks Jack if he recognizes Sam, and he says yes, but then, "Mitchell, I don't know what you're doing in the arctic with a dead
astronaut, but I'm gonna need some answers." I think I actually gasped aloud, because that's not the reason we want him to recognize Sam.
I loved Sam's reaction to alternate timeline Jack once they're in the submarine, where she's trying to explain something incomprehensible to a totally different Jack, who ultimately isn't going to help them. Her explanation which ends with explaining they are from "an alternate timeline, one where, amongst other things I'm not an astronaut" was so understated and heartbreaking, because its the "amongst other things." She's a lot more to Jack; the whole team is.
I loved Vala as Katesh, and the twist of Teal'c helping SG-1 for different -and ultimately the same - reasons. I also loved how much of a smart ass Daniel was - when explaining what waits for this timeline if the Go'auld come, "Death, slavery, more slavery, more death," and then saying "ok, bye" when the President is like, help or get out. Also, he's even a smartass when they're facing certain death as Ba'al attacks, quipping about their bad plan with, "Oh, we have him now!"
I guess I'm really surprised at how emotional a movie this was - not that SG-1 can't pack the big emotion into stories, especially about the team relationship, but this one hit me hard. I think, perhaps, because it wasn't one person's story, it wasn't just about Sam or Cam or Daniel - it was about the team, and what happened when you took pieces of the team away.