I'm skipping this one because I think it would make me crazy, particularly the near-total non-use of Teyla and Ronon. But I've enjoyed reading summaries of it, and yours is fantastic. "Gumming the scenery" made me grin so hard.
I think that SGA has burned out its ability to actually make me fully livid and/or incredulous, mostly by setting the low end of the bar so extremely low that I think it's actually below the ground level. After the episode where the people who loved Rodney most in the world all agreed that the best course of action was to Black-and-Decker his head, I don't think anything they've done has managed to shock me.
Glad I provided you with an entertaining stand-in for actually sitting through this one. :)
On point two of the trivial things - one of the (endless numbers of things) that drove me utterly batshit about this episode was that they wrote John as a cocky dickhead in front of the tribunal, when even a scant few years in the military, much less five years as military commander of a base in another galaxy, would have knocked that shit right out of him. I'm not suggesting John can't be a cocky dickhead, just that it flies in the face of so much else we know about him to imagine he'd be that cocky dickhead when the lives of his three other team members depended on his performance out there in the kangeroo court. Should he have been livid? Sure! Pile it on, but there's a time and place, and even acknowledging that he's a pretty bad tactician, that made no blessed sense.
Ugh. This is an episode I'm entirely ready to pretend never existed.
Yeah, I'm with you. Outside of situations where being a cocky dickhead was actually the appropriate response, I don't think we've seen John aim such a sustained onslaught of cocky dickheadishness at anyone other than Rodney. (... On reread, that last sentence is kind of entertaining. *g*) But really, if that was a representation of the tactics he actually relies on when the chips are down, he'd either be court-martialed or dead by now. Or both.
If you need consolation regarding this episode, I'd like to point out that in scrolling through my flist looking for episode reviews, I read no less than four separate people motioning that we strike "Inquisition" from the record and replace it with "No Light and Transient Cause" in our collective canon. :) (And I'm glad for the suggestion, because you posted the director's cut when I was out of town and I missed it, so now I've got it open in tabs to go back and read.)
Let me be the fifth to suggest that "No Light and Transient Cause" is going to slot into canon instead of "Inquisition" for me.
We really already have a healthy start on a fan-written SGA Virtual Season 5 (aka the year done right), since your "No Light" and Rheanna's "Theory of Everything" sub in neatly for two episodes right off the bat, and both are pretty strongly superior to the show's versions.
You know... I originally thought I had made my peace with this episode. I thought they messed it up, but I was proud of them for even bringing the subject up (and I too thought of Pegasus Ethics). But then, as I started discussing it with the gf, I started to get more and more upset, and it started to really piss me off. I even thought I'd take a crack at rewriting the episode. But I've got too much on my plate for that. Still, though, it's tempting.
I agree with you. My opinion of the episode was mostly-meh.
And then John and Woolsey got all cavalierly loose and gentlemen's-club conspiratorial
When Woolsey pulled out the whiskey and cigars on the balcony, I couldn't believe it. Do you watch Boston Legal? This HAS to be a takoff on Denny Crane and Alan Shore's weekly stint on the balcony. Denny and Alan are one of the best "bromances" on TV.
I both laughed and cringed at the balcony scene. Laughed because it's such a takeoff of Boston Legal that it HAD to be done on purpose. Cringed for the same reasons you did--it's slashy and I just DON'T see Woolsey in that way, and definitely not with Sheppard.
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Glad I provided you with an entertaining stand-in for actually sitting through this one. :)
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Ugh. This is an episode I'm entirely ready to pretend never existed.
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If you need consolation regarding this episode, I'd like to point out that in scrolling through my flist looking for episode reviews, I read no less than four separate people motioning that we strike "Inquisition" from the record and replace it with "No Light and Transient Cause" in our collective canon. :) (And I'm glad for the suggestion, because you posted the director's cut when I was out of town and I missed it, so now I've got it open in tabs to go back and read.)
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We really already have a healthy start on a fan-written SGA Virtual Season 5 (aka the year done right), since your "No Light" and Rheanna's "Theory of Everything" sub in neatly for two episodes right off the bat, and both are pretty strongly superior to the show's versions.
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Yet another episode to avoid, or at the very least, remember to avoid anything after the fourth commercial break.
*headdesk, headdesk, wanders off to find brain bleach and a brillo scrubber*
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And then John and Woolsey got all cavalierly loose and gentlemen's-club conspiratorial
When Woolsey pulled out the whiskey and cigars on the balcony, I couldn't believe it. Do you watch Boston Legal? This HAS to be a takoff on Denny Crane and Alan Shore's weekly stint on the balcony. Denny and Alan are one of the best "bromances" on TV.
I both laughed and cringed at the balcony scene. Laughed because it's such a takeoff of Boston Legal that it HAD to be done on purpose. Cringed for the same reasons you did--it's slashy and I just DON'T see Woolsey in that way, and definitely not with Sheppard.
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