Redial the Gate: Heroes, part 1
Nanda's fantastic recap of Heroes, part 1 was posted at redial_the_gate yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to watch the ep until this morning on the treadmill. So a few random observations:
Janet is just beautiful in this episode. Oh, I do love her.
SG-13 is made of awesome, every one of 'em. So many great moments of sheer teamy goodness, and YAY for the chance to learn that other Gate teams are every much as close and well-oiled as SG-1. Love the betting in the beginning (two headed aliens - one head good, one head bad), "Dr. Jackson's gonna die when he sees this!" "What, again?", the ribbing of the ultrasound as being less attractive than whatever creature they met once on a mission, the seamless way the team acted when the probe showed up with Dixon unhesitatingly following Balinsky's suggestion to bury it under a wall, the smarts of sending Balinsky to get back to the SGC for help... all of it, really. So wonderful.
Sam teasing Teal'c about being a blabbermouth. Daniel's faux innocent shock to Sam that Bregman found his films of ruins et al boring. The woman tech behind Walter trying so hard not to roll her eyes during his interview. Jack and Kinsey. Siler getting blasted and Bill Lee, whee!
On a more serious note: one thing I do like about this is the ambiguity of the struggle between Hammond and the SGC's attitude and Bregman's. Because you know something? They're both right.
Hammond and the others see this as a publicity stunt wished upon them by an outgoing president to salvage his own reputation in the future. The tenor of Bregman's questions, in their eyes, borders on the sensational: insinuating something unprofessional between Jack and Sam, focusing on Daniel's death and return. And the military is certainly all too aware of the danger of journalism in the field: wars have been won on the ground and lost in the arena of public opinon before (and the reverse, too).
Bregman, OTOH, sees this as a journalist recording something that the public deserves to know. He's trying to put a human face on bare technical facts. He sees obstructionism, unnecessary strictures, and the frustrating need to coax cooperation out of people who have already been primed to resist. I am convinced that Daniel somehow sent off that beeper himself in order to make Bregman chase him and just grabbed a random fax when he got to his office. Teal'c's silent treatment is hilarious, but also deliberately provocative. What should Bregman make of all this, especially when he's been specifically invited to the SGC and hardly expects such a hostile enviornment?
I do like when Stargate gives us ambiguity and something that's not quite black-and-white. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can really be good.
Still. ::sniffs:: Janet!
Janet is just beautiful in this episode. Oh, I do love her.
SG-13 is made of awesome, every one of 'em. So many great moments of sheer teamy goodness, and YAY for the chance to learn that other Gate teams are every much as close and well-oiled as SG-1. Love the betting in the beginning (two headed aliens - one head good, one head bad), "Dr. Jackson's gonna die when he sees this!" "What, again?", the ribbing of the ultrasound as being less attractive than whatever creature they met once on a mission, the seamless way the team acted when the probe showed up with Dixon unhesitatingly following Balinsky's suggestion to bury it under a wall, the smarts of sending Balinsky to get back to the SGC for help... all of it, really. So wonderful.
Sam teasing Teal'c about being a blabbermouth. Daniel's faux innocent shock to Sam that Bregman found his films of ruins et al boring. The woman tech behind Walter trying so hard not to roll her eyes during his interview. Jack and Kinsey. Siler getting blasted and Bill Lee, whee!
On a more serious note: one thing I do like about this is the ambiguity of the struggle between Hammond and the SGC's attitude and Bregman's. Because you know something? They're both right.
Hammond and the others see this as a publicity stunt wished upon them by an outgoing president to salvage his own reputation in the future. The tenor of Bregman's questions, in their eyes, borders on the sensational: insinuating something unprofessional between Jack and Sam, focusing on Daniel's death and return. And the military is certainly all too aware of the danger of journalism in the field: wars have been won on the ground and lost in the arena of public opinon before (and the reverse, too).
Bregman, OTOH, sees this as a journalist recording something that the public deserves to know. He's trying to put a human face on bare technical facts. He sees obstructionism, unnecessary strictures, and the frustrating need to coax cooperation out of people who have already been primed to resist. I am convinced that Daniel somehow sent off that beeper himself in order to make Bregman chase him and just grabbed a random fax when he got to his office. Teal'c's silent treatment is hilarious, but also deliberately provocative. What should Bregman make of all this, especially when he's been specifically invited to the SGC and hardly expects such a hostile enviornment?
I do like when Stargate gives us ambiguity and something that's not quite black-and-white. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can really be good.
Still. ::sniffs:: Janet!