Tentative toesies into a faraway sea
Jan. 17th, 2007 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestI have been unfaithful. Not *totally*, not all the way unfaithful, because it only *really* counts when you write, at least, it does for me. However, I have been watching, and, worse, reading, so I think I'm going to ramble a bit. It may amuse people who have been SGA fans for a while, to see this kind of newcomer reaction. Or, possibly, not. But for whatever reason, I have to get this out - then *perhaps* I shall be able to figure out the end of the sappy little story I'm trying to write. Popslash, I hasten to add.
I should preface the ramble by pointing out that I know (a) I'm late to the party (this is entirely usual for me) and (b) I have undoubtedly been influenced by reading fic and fannish squee here and there before ever seeing an episode.
Strictly speaking it didn't actually start with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
flambeau's 'Poptarts in Atlantis' (which felt like a very well-realised AU - an advantage of the crossover form which I hadn't previously considered). It actually started before that, with my becoming aware of the existence of SGA via pics and occasional squee on my friends list. And then noting that, irritatingly, lots of wonderful popslash writers had moved on to writing Stargate Atlantis instead. (Sigh. Come back, come back! Lance is gay! Justin is single again! Chris is insane Chris!) And then thinking, well, I can't find any new sparkly boy stories... so I've been reading a bit of McKay/Sheppard stuff for a while. And inevitably, I suppose, fringe-fannish interest turned into curiosity.
So I happened upon it a little while before Christmas - I don't even remember why the television was *on* - but there it was, Stargate Atlantis, half-way through the episode in which there is a cooler, better-looking and less adorable version of Rodney. This was enough to convince me that yes, Rodney is actually adorable. (I think it was one perfect vulnerable expression that did it. Aww.) Of course, I live with Asperger-type menfolk, so geekish social ineptness is obviously something I like, and intelligence is always good.
Vague memory of the following week's episode being dull, but that may be an illusion. There was, at some point shortly before Christmas, one which ended on a rather good cliffhanger, everyone being evicted back to Earth, I think. I was a mite peeved to come back after Christmas and find that the sequel did not seem to be on telly, but meanwhile, had discovered the first DVD of the first season in a dvd-exchange shop, so watched that.
More musings. I liked the pilot episode, a lot, though on second viewing got bored with all the heroic action-adventure bits and just wanted more stuff like the beginning, with excited scientists and Sheppard sitting in the chair, and then anything about Atlantis. The rising-from-the-deep bit was wonderful. In fact, I think I'm in love with Atlantis. I have not yet tired of that beautiful shot of the city amidst a vast and tranquil sea.
Characters? Rodney, yep, wonderful. Sheppard? Redeemed from the fatal role of All-American Action Hero (Who Can Break Rules and Nobody Minds, Really) by being so very self-contained that any of the little scenes in which he is plainly supposed to be Luring Females With His Heroic Aura he is undercutting that whole deal by being enclosed in a personal protective bubble. Like a full-body condom. I think that must be why I found the scenes in which Sheppard's Allure Has Drawn An Ancient To Him, for He Is Irresistible, very silly indeed.
I am, however, baffled by fannish worship of Carson. After watching - for I succumbed to the lure of the DVD set - the whole of the first season, I still don't understand why anybody finds him interesting. He seems to spend the entire time looking worried, perspiring a bit, and wittering. Apparently he is a Very Good Doctor. I'll have to take somebody's word for it.
Elizabeth... oh dear, I'm going to have to be totally shallow and admit that I am horribly hypnotised by her mouth. It terrifies me. It reminds me of Data's child when it was an unspecified humanoid shape. It looks as though it is kept closed by some kind of alien device, and if ever she relaxed, it would peel back in an instant and gape tautly open across half her face. I realise that a facial feature is not actually a good reason for disliking a character, but it scares me. (Hightmeyer's, too.) Also, I would like her a lot more if she had given Sheppard a serious walloping for insubordination, in private, as she should have done, rather than making playground points in public. Not my idea of intelligent character building. But the episode in which she went back in time was excellent, and there should be much more of that kind of Elizabeth. Also, her just-contained excitement just before going through the stargate to Atlantis.
Teyla is fabulous. Gorgeous and strong and calm. However, I hope the writers at some point manage to get past the mystic/rustic "my people" crap. Pah! If I am stranded among, say,brash foreigners with better toys Americans, I do not go about declaiming that "my people do X", I talk about "the British" or, perhaps, "in England, we do X". My People dialogue is so patronising.
Bun was home to watch the tail end of the first season with me. We both assumed Ford had a large target on his chest from the moment he recorded his Heartfelt Message. I was quite surprised to see him survive the season. (And Bun thinks the actor's parents were cruel, cruel people.)
And, hmm, a little word about Ronon. I've only seen a handful of eps involving Ronon, so I assume I missed the one in which all the other characters have at some point been inoculated with anti-Ronon virus? Obviously this must have happened, since do they not spend the entire time licking his arms. Or possibly biting them. Guh.
I did catch most of the episode in which Our Gallant Heroes (and Carson) manage to recapture Atlantis and disintegrate the clones into implausibly small quantities of shattered silicon. And I have to say, Jack O'Neil is *awesome*. Awesome. Just... awesome.
However. The end of the first season? Made me *extremely cross*, so cross that I've dithered for a while about whether I even want to watch the second. Let's see - In The Midst of Total Disaster, Our Hero is Heading for Certain Death, and we cut to the 'to be continued' screen? Oh, please. They've racked everything to such a tight pitch that nothing, nothing can possibly live up to it. I'd be delighted to think that there is a fantastically cool, exciting, utterly unexpected solution to this particular little dilemma (no, wait, don't tell me, the Daedalus arrives in the nick of time?), but frankly the only thing that would actually live up to the 'suspense' created at that point is if Our Hero is in fact killed dead. Dead, dead, dead. That would be unexpected. Was there anyone watching who for a moment believed that Our Hero was in any actual danger? I say again, Pah!
(So, if season two actually opens with a brilliant denouement, I shall be mockable. Whatever.)
I do feel stirrings of the same kind of fannishness that led me into being a Trekkie for several happy years. It's not the action adventure (of course not!), it's the character bits that count. And this set-up does seem to be rather more intelligently constructed than the Federation, and the women have rather more interesting reasons to exist, and it is pretty. So, maybe.
But I don't have any urge to write them, thank goodness. I'm really a faithful type.
I should preface the ramble by pointing out that I know (a) I'm late to the party (this is entirely usual for me) and (b) I have undoubtedly been influenced by reading fic and fannish squee here and there before ever seeing an episode.
Strictly speaking it didn't actually start with
flambeau's 'Poptarts in Atlantis' (which felt like a very well-realised AU - an advantage of the crossover form which I hadn't previously considered). It actually started before that, with my becoming aware of the existence of SGA via pics and occasional squee on my friends list. And then noting that, irritatingly, lots of wonderful popslash writers had moved on to writing Stargate Atlantis instead. (Sigh. Come back, come back! Lance is gay! Justin is single again! Chris is So I happened upon it a little while before Christmas - I don't even remember why the television was *on* - but there it was, Stargate Atlantis, half-way through the episode in which there is a cooler, better-looking and less adorable version of Rodney. This was enough to convince me that yes, Rodney is actually adorable. (I think it was one perfect vulnerable expression that did it. Aww.) Of course, I live with Asperger-type menfolk, so geekish social ineptness is obviously something I like, and intelligence is always good.
Vague memory of the following week's episode being dull, but that may be an illusion. There was, at some point shortly before Christmas, one which ended on a rather good cliffhanger, everyone being evicted back to Earth, I think. I was a mite peeved to come back after Christmas and find that the sequel did not seem to be on telly, but meanwhile, had discovered the first DVD of the first season in a dvd-exchange shop, so watched that.
More musings. I liked the pilot episode, a lot, though on second viewing got bored with all the heroic action-adventure bits and just wanted more stuff like the beginning, with excited scientists and Sheppard sitting in the chair, and then anything about Atlantis. The rising-from-the-deep bit was wonderful. In fact, I think I'm in love with Atlantis. I have not yet tired of that beautiful shot of the city amidst a vast and tranquil sea.
Characters? Rodney, yep, wonderful. Sheppard? Redeemed from the fatal role of All-American Action Hero (Who Can Break Rules and Nobody Minds, Really) by being so very self-contained that any of the little scenes in which he is plainly supposed to be Luring Females With His Heroic Aura he is undercutting that whole deal by being enclosed in a personal protective bubble. Like a full-body condom. I think that must be why I found the scenes in which Sheppard's Allure Has Drawn An Ancient To Him, for He Is Irresistible, very silly indeed.
I am, however, baffled by fannish worship of Carson. After watching - for I succumbed to the lure of the DVD set - the whole of the first season, I still don't understand why anybody finds him interesting. He seems to spend the entire time looking worried, perspiring a bit, and wittering. Apparently he is a Very Good Doctor. I'll have to take somebody's word for it.
Elizabeth... oh dear, I'm going to have to be totally shallow and admit that I am horribly hypnotised by her mouth. It terrifies me. It reminds me of Data's child when it was an unspecified humanoid shape. It looks as though it is kept closed by some kind of alien device, and if ever she relaxed, it would peel back in an instant and gape tautly open across half her face. I realise that a facial feature is not actually a good reason for disliking a character, but it scares me. (Hightmeyer's, too.) Also, I would like her a lot more if she had given Sheppard a serious walloping for insubordination, in private, as she should have done, rather than making playground points in public. Not my idea of intelligent character building. But the episode in which she went back in time was excellent, and there should be much more of that kind of Elizabeth. Also, her just-contained excitement just before going through the stargate to Atlantis.
Teyla is fabulous. Gorgeous and strong and calm. However, I hope the writers at some point manage to get past the mystic/rustic "my people" crap. Pah! If I am stranded among, say,
Bun was home to watch the tail end of the first season with me. We both assumed Ford had a large target on his chest from the moment he recorded his Heartfelt Message. I was quite surprised to see him survive the season. (And Bun thinks the actor's parents were cruel, cruel people.)
And, hmm, a little word about Ronon. I've only seen a handful of eps involving Ronon, so I assume I missed the one in which all the other characters have at some point been inoculated with anti-Ronon virus? Obviously this must have happened, since do they not spend the entire time licking his arms. Or possibly biting them. Guh.
I did catch most of the episode in which Our Gallant Heroes (and Carson) manage to recapture Atlantis and disintegrate the clones into implausibly small quantities of shattered silicon. And I have to say, Jack O'Neil is *awesome*. Awesome. Just... awesome.
However. The end of the first season? Made me *extremely cross*, so cross that I've dithered for a while about whether I even want to watch the second. Let's see - In The Midst of Total Disaster, Our Hero is Heading for Certain Death, and we cut to the 'to be continued' screen? Oh, please. They've racked everything to such a tight pitch that nothing, nothing can possibly live up to it. I'd be delighted to think that there is a fantastically cool, exciting, utterly unexpected solution to this particular little dilemma (no, wait, don't tell me, the Daedalus arrives in the nick of time?), but frankly the only thing that would actually live up to the 'suspense' created at that point is if Our Hero is in fact killed dead. Dead, dead, dead. That would be unexpected. Was there anyone watching who for a moment believed that Our Hero was in any actual danger? I say again, Pah!
(So, if season two actually opens with a brilliant denouement, I shall be mockable. Whatever.)
I do feel stirrings of the same kind of fannishness that led me into being a Trekkie for several happy years. It's not the action adventure (of course not!), it's the character bits that count. And this set-up does seem to be rather more intelligently constructed than the Federation, and the women have rather more interesting reasons to exist, and it is pretty. So, maybe.
But I don't have any urge to write them, thank goodness. I'm really a faithful type.