SG-1: Continuum
I got around to re-watching Continuum last night, without the distraction of my mother (who has seen maybe three episodes of SG-1 many years ago) pausing at regular intervals to ask what was going on. And it held up quite solidly on second viewing, which is rare enough for me (there aren't many things I care to watch multiple times, and SG-1 does not generally fall into that category, though there are certainly exceptions). Overall, much love for Continuum! Unlike Ark of Truth, this one didn't overshoot, or try to fit uncomfortably into skin too big for it (AoT seemed to be aiming for Lord of the Rings, which....no). And unlike BSG's Razor, Continuum didn't feel like just a long episode. Rather, it hit the DVD movie medium just right, I thought: it used its budget well for good effects, it stretched out comfortably in the allotted time to tell its story well.
I always have mixed feelings about time travel stories. On one hand the AU/multiverse stuff fascinates me (and couldn't we just once have had them go to an alternate universe/timeline that was demonstrably better than the one they left, just for kicks?!?!); on the other, I don't like the magic reset button we get at the end of these episodes, no one remembering what happened. That's one reason "Unending" pinged so hard for me: Teal'c remembered. But Continuum worked much better for me than "Moebius" for a couple of reasons. First, it's not like they did any of this on purpose (my biggest problem with "Moebius" was the idiocy of the premise). And second, at least they did pay lip service to the relativity of timelines and the arrogance of thinking one timeline is "best"--even if they did put this into the mouth of Landry, who was annoying. It's ironic that one of my biggest buttons--the idea that choices have consequences, that one action can set into motion a whole series of events that would be different if a different action had been taken--is so often paired with one of my biggest turnoffs--the Magic Reset Button.
The reason Continuum was made of win, where Ark of Truth was really not: the characters. Most people who love this franchise love it for the characters, and some of us really don't much care about the plot. And this movie got that and gave us the characters. I would have loved more Teal'c and Vala, but the moments we got were typically them. Vala being all ex-host-y rocks my world, even if we only got snippets of her. And QETESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Goa'uld maternity wear was an ill-advised wardrobe choice (I've seen Claudia Black pregnant; she can look better than that!), but Qetesh still rocked tremendously. On the Teal'c front, I loved the confrontation between Teal'c and Cam, all that history between them that Teal'c doesn't know and Cam can't tell him about. And Teal'c dies free, as he would in any timeline.
I admit I was apprehensive when I heard Jack was going to be in this one. I've pretty much dreaded RDA's appearances since he left the show: it's been so evident he didn't want to be there, that even worse than phoning it in (as he did for large portions of season 8 and some of season 7, as well), he was playing a parody of Jack O'Neill, and I'd rather have no Jack at all than to see that. So on the Jack front I was mostly relieved that he didn't ruin the movie. I didn't love Jack here, but I didn't hate him, either, and he was far less ridiculous than he might otherwise have been. And I love the idea of the alternate Jack: Jack who never lost Charlie, who never found the Stargate program, both a happier and a harder person than the Jack we know. We got small inklings of that Jack, but it was more about possibility, I think, than execution. As is so much of Stargate characterization.
The show-stealers, however, were Sam, Cam, and Daniel! My TV boyfriend got to save the day, and he was wonderful doing it. There is much to be explored in that lifetime that Cam lived so that he could be born. What did he do for those 10 years before being in the right place at the right time on the Achilles? What did he do after that moment? How much did he tell his grandfather?
But even more than Cam, it was Sam and Daniel I adored here. Amanda Tapping knocked it out of the park on more than one occasion with Sam breaking around the edges--in the ship's cargo hold, on the ice, buying Frooties in the grocery store--and then sticking herself back together again to push forward. This is the essence of Sam, in many ways. She doesn't shatter spectacularly. Every blow cracks her just a little bit more, and then she patches the cracks and makes herself stronger. And she's an extraordinary person in any timeline.
In perhaps the most surprising reaction to this film, I liked Daniel!!! For the first time in a very long time! He wasn't "the old Daniel" that I used to love--the bitterness of late-season Daniel was still alive and well--but his bitterness wasn't nearly as obnoxious as it was for most of seasons 8-10. He says "I told you so" and tries to walk out, but of course he helps anyway. He doesn't own a TV (of course he doesn't!). And in probably my favorite scene of the movie, he buys his own book and calls himself for a pep talk, because Daniel's always been the most self-aware of them all. And if I write something ficcish related to Continuum, as I'm thinking of doing, it will be Daniel in that year, taking stock of choices and timelines and wondering whether it's all been worth it.
All in all, much win here! It will not go down in the annals of cinematic brilliance, nor should it. But what it aimed to do, it did very well: it gave us our characters at their best, it told a good story and told it well, and in the best of Stargate fashion, it left lots of spaces in between, full of potential.
I always have mixed feelings about time travel stories. On one hand the AU/multiverse stuff fascinates me (and couldn't we just once have had them go to an alternate universe/timeline that was demonstrably better than the one they left, just for kicks?!?!); on the other, I don't like the magic reset button we get at the end of these episodes, no one remembering what happened. That's one reason "Unending" pinged so hard for me: Teal'c remembered. But Continuum worked much better for me than "Moebius" for a couple of reasons. First, it's not like they did any of this on purpose (my biggest problem with "Moebius" was the idiocy of the premise). And second, at least they did pay lip service to the relativity of timelines and the arrogance of thinking one timeline is "best"--even if they did put this into the mouth of Landry, who was annoying. It's ironic that one of my biggest buttons--the idea that choices have consequences, that one action can set into motion a whole series of events that would be different if a different action had been taken--is so often paired with one of my biggest turnoffs--the Magic Reset Button.
The reason Continuum was made of win, where Ark of Truth was really not: the characters. Most people who love this franchise love it for the characters, and some of us really don't much care about the plot. And this movie got that and gave us the characters. I would have loved more Teal'c and Vala, but the moments we got were typically them. Vala being all ex-host-y rocks my world, even if we only got snippets of her. And QETESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Goa'uld maternity wear was an ill-advised wardrobe choice (I've seen Claudia Black pregnant; she can look better than that!), but Qetesh still rocked tremendously. On the Teal'c front, I loved the confrontation between Teal'c and Cam, all that history between them that Teal'c doesn't know and Cam can't tell him about. And Teal'c dies free, as he would in any timeline.
I admit I was apprehensive when I heard Jack was going to be in this one. I've pretty much dreaded RDA's appearances since he left the show: it's been so evident he didn't want to be there, that even worse than phoning it in (as he did for large portions of season 8 and some of season 7, as well), he was playing a parody of Jack O'Neill, and I'd rather have no Jack at all than to see that. So on the Jack front I was mostly relieved that he didn't ruin the movie. I didn't love Jack here, but I didn't hate him, either, and he was far less ridiculous than he might otherwise have been. And I love the idea of the alternate Jack: Jack who never lost Charlie, who never found the Stargate program, both a happier and a harder person than the Jack we know. We got small inklings of that Jack, but it was more about possibility, I think, than execution. As is so much of Stargate characterization.
The show-stealers, however, were Sam, Cam, and Daniel! My TV boyfriend got to save the day, and he was wonderful doing it. There is much to be explored in that lifetime that Cam lived so that he could be born. What did he do for those 10 years before being in the right place at the right time on the Achilles? What did he do after that moment? How much did he tell his grandfather?
But even more than Cam, it was Sam and Daniel I adored here. Amanda Tapping knocked it out of the park on more than one occasion with Sam breaking around the edges--in the ship's cargo hold, on the ice, buying Frooties in the grocery store--and then sticking herself back together again to push forward. This is the essence of Sam, in many ways. She doesn't shatter spectacularly. Every blow cracks her just a little bit more, and then she patches the cracks and makes herself stronger. And she's an extraordinary person in any timeline.
In perhaps the most surprising reaction to this film, I liked Daniel!!! For the first time in a very long time! He wasn't "the old Daniel" that I used to love--the bitterness of late-season Daniel was still alive and well--but his bitterness wasn't nearly as obnoxious as it was for most of seasons 8-10. He says "I told you so" and tries to walk out, but of course he helps anyway. He doesn't own a TV (of course he doesn't!). And in probably my favorite scene of the movie, he buys his own book and calls himself for a pep talk, because Daniel's always been the most self-aware of them all. And if I write something ficcish related to Continuum, as I'm thinking of doing, it will be Daniel in that year, taking stock of choices and timelines and wondering whether it's all been worth it.
All in all, much win here! It will not go down in the annals of cinematic brilliance, nor should it. But what it aimed to do, it did very well: it gave us our characters at their best, it told a good story and told it well, and in the best of Stargate fashion, it left lots of spaces in between, full of potential.