Stargate Atlantis 5x13
Obviously I needed a Woolsey icon for this reaction post (OBVIOUSLY), so this one has been upgraded from hanging around in my snagged icons folder to active duty. WOOLSEY: HE HAS A FOLDER OF NOTES, AND HE IS READY TO KICK ARSE AND TAKE NAMES.
So I didn't find this episode very edge-of-my-seat exciting (blaaaah, flashbacks), but it did give good Woolsey. Excellent Woolsey, in fact. *g* I have this thing for people being competent, and Woolsey was totally rocking that. Yay for figuring out the games that are going on then playing them on your own terms. \o/
I was also loving on the Lorne + Woolsey. For a while now I have sekritly wanted a spin off, called Meanwhile Back On Atlantis or something, where Lorne and Radek keep everything running properly while SGA-1 are off engaging in wacky hijinks. During this episode it occurred to me that keeping things running back on Atlantis would involve several hundred percent more Woolsey, and now I want the spin off even more. ZELENKA, LORNE, WOOLSEY, DO WANT. Dammit, Sci-fi! I want MORE of these characters! Not less! Why must you steal them away from me? :((((
Things that were not so awesome: When I saw the interplanetary court hearing team I was all "Oh hey, cool! If there are only three of them it's a pretty select position, and they have a woman in the group!" only to find out that the woman's role in the proceedings was to be irrationally emotional. FAIL. Ugh. I read an episode reaction post where someone was talking about how much they liked the rational/emotional/scheming set of reactions shown here, as a microcosm of the Pegasus galaxy's different reactions to the Lanteans, and the actress played her part well enough that the deaths the Lanteans were charged with felt much more personal and significant, so I can see the reasons for including a character whose responses were irrational and emotional, even if it is unprofessional, but I think I may even have preferred three men to two men and the woman being assigned the irrational emotional role. It kind of felt like if there had been no call for someone to get teary-eyed over dead children they wouldn't have bothered having a female character at all. NEWSFLASH: Men get emotionally devastated when you kill of their close family (and most of the rest of their planet) too! They could have had a man in the emotional role and a woman in the rational role and it would have achieved the same thing while being much less boringly stereotypical.
But I did like Pegasus natives banding together and calling Atlantis out on making decisions without consulting the millions of people those decisions will affect. You have to admit that, while I do think Atlantis is probably the current best hope against the wraith, from a Pegasus native perspective they can be arrogant and condescending. Which I guess was also shown in microcosm when, at the beginning of the episode, Rodney was dismissive of Pegasus natives in the fight against the wraith and Ronon obviously thought he was being a bit of a dick. I guess today is microcosm day or something!
Overall I liked this episode. It's good to see the writers acknowledge that the main characters of the show engage in pattens of thought/behaviour that are kinda problematic sometimes.
ALSO WOOLSEY AND INTERPLANETARY POLITICS YAY.
So I didn't find this episode very edge-of-my-seat exciting (blaaaah, flashbacks), but it did give good Woolsey. Excellent Woolsey, in fact. *g* I have this thing for people being competent, and Woolsey was totally rocking that. Yay for figuring out the games that are going on then playing them on your own terms. \o/
I was also loving on the Lorne + Woolsey. For a while now I have sekritly wanted a spin off, called Meanwhile Back On Atlantis or something, where Lorne and Radek keep everything running properly while SGA-1 are off engaging in wacky hijinks. During this episode it occurred to me that keeping things running back on Atlantis would involve several hundred percent more Woolsey, and now I want the spin off even more. ZELENKA, LORNE, WOOLSEY, DO WANT. Dammit, Sci-fi! I want MORE of these characters! Not less! Why must you steal them away from me? :((((
Things that were not so awesome: When I saw the interplanetary court hearing team I was all "Oh hey, cool! If there are only three of them it's a pretty select position, and they have a woman in the group!" only to find out that the woman's role in the proceedings was to be irrationally emotional. FAIL. Ugh. I read an episode reaction post where someone was talking about how much they liked the rational/emotional/scheming set of reactions shown here, as a microcosm of the Pegasus galaxy's different reactions to the Lanteans, and the actress played her part well enough that the deaths the Lanteans were charged with felt much more personal and significant, so I can see the reasons for including a character whose responses were irrational and emotional, even if it is unprofessional, but I think I may even have preferred three men to two men and the woman being assigned the irrational emotional role. It kind of felt like if there had been no call for someone to get teary-eyed over dead children they wouldn't have bothered having a female character at all. NEWSFLASH: Men get emotionally devastated when you kill of their close family (and most of the rest of their planet) too! They could have had a man in the emotional role and a woman in the rational role and it would have achieved the same thing while being much less boringly stereotypical.
But I did like Pegasus natives banding together and calling Atlantis out on making decisions without consulting the millions of people those decisions will affect. You have to admit that, while I do think Atlantis is probably the current best hope against the wraith, from a Pegasus native perspective they can be arrogant and condescending. Which I guess was also shown in microcosm when, at the beginning of the episode, Rodney was dismissive of Pegasus natives in the fight against the wraith and Ronon obviously thought he was being a bit of a dick. I guess today is microcosm day or something!
Overall I liked this episode. It's good to see the writers acknowledge that the main characters of the show engage in pattens of thought/behaviour that are kinda problematic sometimes.
ALSO WOOLSEY AND INTERPLANETARY POLITICS YAY.