Redial the Gate: Smoke and Mirrors
This one is a redial for me, as it's one of the eps that aurora_novarum coaxed me into watching a year or so ago. So while I did rewatch it yesterday, no liveblogging this time! Intead, a few random observations, and a bit of meta:
I know that most Jack fans love that slo-mo bit when he puts on his shades after leaving the site of the assassination, but I can't enjoy it, because it isn't Jack. What can I say? I see things in-story. :)
Hammond is awesome. Love how he backs his own people.
Jonas even wondering has to hurt Jack badly, even with the Shades of Grey op as team history.
I love the idea that some missions are so classified that even Jonas hasn't heard of them. Or Barrett!
Such a pleasure to see general competence throughout the story - not just the team, but Janet, Paul (poor guy, bringing the evidence), Barrett, etc.
While Teal'c's ability to intimidate just by shifting his weight slightly is hilarious, it's not so funny when you remember why he has that particular skill.
I have so much love for Daniel teaching Teal'c how to drive in 1969, and someone MUST write the AU in which the guy grabbed Daniel's hologram projector instead of random airman guy.
I wish that Barrett hadn't been a "former acquaintance" of Sam's. She has too many acquaintances in her past in her too many eps. Unless they met sometime on the show that I don't remember? But what's wrong with Barrett never having met Sam before, but knowing her history at SG-1 and deciding to trust her enough to tell her what he's doing? (Edit abyssinia4077 points out that they met in Wormhole X-treme, which perfectly explains their interactions.)
Now, onto the meta bit of the entry:
I have written many times about what I see as the sheer waste of turning the NID into the Bad Guys. I strongly believe that on-world storylines would have been vastly improved in the NID had been what it was originally conceived, back in S1-2, with Area 51 as the place where deep research is done, where stuff gets back-engineered for the benefit of not just a few businessmen but the SGC and the planet. Reynolds spoke in The Touchstone about off-world herbs that might prove to be a cure for Alzheimer's, for example.
But even more than the problem of the tiresome conspiracy storylines - and yes, I know there are people out there who like that stuff, even if I don't - this episode, and the one in which Hammond's granddaughters (!!!) are taken to blackmail Hammond, show that the SGC is essentially fighting a war on two fronts: against the Goa'uld/Replicators/etc out there, and against the NID/politics/shadow groups on Earth. They have no allies on-world, and are all too often stripped of their allies off-world (and I won't get into that rant now, either). They're under siege, fighting all alone.
I believe that we lose a lot from this. There's no support, no backup. That may make for good drama, but it adds tremendously to the stress of these characters we love, and it means that they have to play superheroes when I'd much rather they played themselves with help from the people around them.
Maybe I'm not expressing myself well, but I really do hate the loss of not only a good partner in the struggle with the Goa'uld, but also the tightening of the screws in the SGC with no one to help them when they need it - and the need for them to do everything themselves.
Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be the way that I feel about it. What do you think?
I know that most Jack fans love that slo-mo bit when he puts on his shades after leaving the site of the assassination, but I can't enjoy it, because it isn't Jack. What can I say? I see things in-story. :)
Hammond is awesome. Love how he backs his own people.
Jonas even wondering has to hurt Jack badly, even with the Shades of Grey op as team history.
I love the idea that some missions are so classified that even Jonas hasn't heard of them. Or Barrett!
Such a pleasure to see general competence throughout the story - not just the team, but Janet, Paul (poor guy, bringing the evidence), Barrett, etc.
While Teal'c's ability to intimidate just by shifting his weight slightly is hilarious, it's not so funny when you remember why he has that particular skill.
I have so much love for Daniel teaching Teal'c how to drive in 1969, and someone MUST write the AU in which the guy grabbed Daniel's hologram projector instead of random airman guy.
I wish that Barrett hadn't been a "former acquaintance" of Sam's. She has too many acquaintances in her past in her too many eps. Unless they met sometime on the show that I don't remember? But what's wrong with Barrett never having met Sam before, but knowing her history at SG-1 and deciding to trust her enough to tell her what he's doing? (Edit abyssinia4077 points out that they met in Wormhole X-treme, which perfectly explains their interactions.)
Now, onto the meta bit of the entry:
I have written many times about what I see as the sheer waste of turning the NID into the Bad Guys. I strongly believe that on-world storylines would have been vastly improved in the NID had been what it was originally conceived, back in S1-2, with Area 51 as the place where deep research is done, where stuff gets back-engineered for the benefit of not just a few businessmen but the SGC and the planet. Reynolds spoke in The Touchstone about off-world herbs that might prove to be a cure for Alzheimer's, for example.
But even more than the problem of the tiresome conspiracy storylines - and yes, I know there are people out there who like that stuff, even if I don't - this episode, and the one in which Hammond's granddaughters (!!!) are taken to blackmail Hammond, show that the SGC is essentially fighting a war on two fronts: against the Goa'uld/Replicators/etc out there, and against the NID/politics/shadow groups on Earth. They have no allies on-world, and are all too often stripped of their allies off-world (and I won't get into that rant now, either). They're under siege, fighting all alone.
I believe that we lose a lot from this. There's no support, no backup. That may make for good drama, but it adds tremendously to the stress of these characters we love, and it means that they have to play superheroes when I'd much rather they played themselves with help from the people around them.
Maybe I'm not expressing myself well, but I really do hate the loss of not only a good partner in the struggle with the Goa'uld, but also the tightening of the screws in the SGC with no one to help them when they need it - and the need for them to do everything themselves.
Anyway, I'm sorry, but that just happens to be the way that I feel about it. What do you think?