SGA 1x06 Childhood's End: *Unspoiled* Discussion

[michelel72]

This post opens *unspoiled* discussion of Stargate: Atlantis episode 1x06: "Childhood's End".

This episode first aired in the US 13 August 2004. This episode is parallel to Stargate: SG-1 episode 8x06 "Avatar", by original US airdate.

Comments

[michelel72]

My friend liked the moment in which the team tries to figure out which way to go from their crashed jumper, and Teyla chooses a direction. As my friend pointed out, listen to the one person who noted the position of the sun!

So, the civilization has an interesting approach. Death-at-25 doesn't seem the most effective form of population control, to me; there are plenty of childbearing years in there, and with a little dedication they could still overwhelm their resources. So to speak. But there are, what, hundreds of worlds, and probably quite a few different approaches to surviving; they're not all going to be perfect.

Interesting little touches -- Rodney isn't too bad at handling a handgun, already, at least for close confrontations; but there are nuances to initializing a ZPM-driven system that he doesn't yet know. Most of the team is unthinkably old to the locals. Ford is older than all the locals, hee! And he brought a compass, which ended up being key. Hooray! There is tension within the team, who are still getting to know one another.

I'm really interested that Teyla is the one who immediately announces that the locals must be instructed they're wrong, and socially unaware Rodney is the one who has to point out that "we know better, we've been here an hour!" is unlikely to persuade people to abandon the beliefs of 500 years. Not that Rodney has any trouble taking their unknown tech and uprooting them if it's to the expedition's advantage, of course .... But anyway, his moment of observation and Elizabeth's later correction of him are nice countermeasures to the blatant colonialist streak of prior episodes.

I could wish the primary antagonist hadn't been the guy who would take power once Keras died. That combined with his refusal to listen were a bit much for me. He's the second-oldest of his people; within his culture, wouldn't he be socialized to be more level-headed by now? I would think the 19- and 20-year-olds would be more mature in some ways than Ford, since they are relative elders and Ford is very young within his culture. I mean, sure, no reason Aries can't be bullheaded, but it just seems too easy a plot solution. But I liked that his lieutenants were persuaded by evidence and that, on their word, Aries began to relinquish his worldview.

So the team was really amazingly reluctant to start shooting in the standoff. Would they have been that restrained with another society once the first arrow flew, or is that just a sign that they're still working from their own "they're just kids!" worldview?

My friend also pointed out that an extra birthday present really isn't all that necessary; Keras's real present is that he's still alive for the birthday. But no one will turn down chocolate!

And we got Rodney relating Carter's theory for why most worlds look like British Columbia. Hee!