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Thinking it over, Atlantis had a great opportunity to develop in a different direction from SG1 in the start.
They've pretty much wasted all their opportunities and are more or less stuck as a cheap copy of SG1 - without even the immediate threat to Earth that was presented in SG1. As I noted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dirty_diana, we're a rather selfish bunch.
As it stands now, the show is strongly Earth-centric, with an alien enemy that the Earth people are the only ones visibly fighting against. (The Gennii are assumed to be fighting, but they're hardly accorded anything near equal status in the fight.) The main character and chief mover is a military man with a streak of rebelliousness; his primary assistant in the business of saving the galaxy is a technologically competent scientific type. Ironically, I find Rodney more of an analogue with Sam Carter in SG1, than with Daniel Jackson. Elizabeth holds the primary functional role of Daniel in the show, although Teyla fills that role on the team. And while Teyla is functionally a Teal'c analogue (alien ally and connection to the rest of the galaxy), Ronon holds the alien barbarian aspect of Teal'c. My personal interpretation is that Teyla's also a Sam analogue emotionally (as in Shep's romantic interest) and a Jack analogue in an organisational sense (she's been shown to keep track of what her team is doing and who's best to do what, more than I see John doing).
Other than the fact that they're repeating episodes (Epiphany being the equivalent of 100 Days, Inferno holding some significant resemblances to Fail Safe in solution, and Progeny having a curious resemblance to the events of Unnatural Selection), we now have the Replicators as bad guys. Again. Stargate SG-1: Season Three/Season Four, Season Four/Season Five, the midpoint of Season Six, and all of the second half of Season Eight.
I think TPTB missed the boat on Atlantis. Sure, I love the characters and their possibilities, but the most interesting characters are still only possibilities since SGA still focuses on the Earth-centric military-scientific angle - and has dialled down the diplomatic angle.
Having set up a civilian expedition in another galaxy with no way back...wouldn't it make sense to really integrate into that galaxy? To seriously make friends and allies, and not be such suspicious pricks? But even at the height of their isolation in Season One, the show seemed to hold an attitude of 'Earth is right and sovreign, Pegasus is unimportant' - which was only exacerbated in subsequent seasons.
They have a female civilian leader for the expedition who's been given a negotiating history...yet she's rarely shown to negotiate, let alone with any of the cultures they meet. The show could have been more about Earthlings negotiating a tricky path between cultures that have equivalent weaponry but who are willing to talk turkey if they're not condescended towards. Not everything has to descend into Cold-War status the way things did with the Gennii. Sure, it makes for drama, but there are other ways to develop drama. Laura Roslin vs. Tom Zarek, anyone? I ain't never seen those two take up weapons against each other, but their early fights sizzle with Laura's hatred vs. Tom's ambition. And that could have been a big part of the situation - the ups and downs, the changing alliances, with Earth walking into an already loaded situation.
They created a female alien leader but missed the opportunity to develop anything about her people - and patriarchy is the implied default yet again, where I would have supposed that matriarchy would be more likely since proof of maternity is unimpeachable - who must have had some cool bits and pieces once-upon-a-time (firelighters, anyone?), but who are dismissed wholesale because they're not technocrats in the now. She's got a hereditary connection with the enemy they're trying to fight...what if other cultures have similarly gifted people? This legend of people taken by the Wraith and then returned must have happened elsewhere - surely someone made the connection before this?
They've got a biogeneticist in their midst who worked on some kind of antivirus to stop the Wraith from being able to feed back in S1 Poisoning The Well - why didn't that go anywhere? They kept working on the Wraith humanizing virus, why not the Wraith anti-virus (or whatever it was)? There's a lot of places they could go if they were working a biological weapon.
Now, they've got a guy who spent seven years eluding the Wraith - day to day, hand-to-hand. Ex-military, from another planet that was destroyed, with the suggestion that a remant of his people are still scattered around the galaxy. He's got front-line practical experience that Sheppard uses as an argument for including him on his team...and then rarely actually uses.
While I'm aware that the writing team for SGA is essentially the same as the writing team for SG1, I still feel...cheated, I suppose. There was a lot of potential for SGA to not be about Earth. For it to be about developing and negotiating relationships, for it to be a commentary on real-world politics and bite-you-in-the-ass consequences that then have to be dealt with and aren't dismissed by a general's wave of the hand.
I'm a storyteller. And SGA cries out to me like a million voices suddenly silenced.
I loved SG1. But when they set Atlantis in another galaxy with a civilian negotiating leader, I expected that they'd use that other galaxy to go boldly go where few sci-fi programs have gone before, to use that leader to negotiate and not just prop up the military. I hoped they'd develop a new paradigm, go to new places in character conflict and plot development, do things that the Stargate franchise haven't tried before.
Instead, it's a military man and his scientific geek running around spreading the Earth-superiority all over again.
I guess, basically, I want SGA to be written by the people who write BSG.
That would rock.
They've pretty much wasted all their opportunities and are more or less stuck as a cheap copy of SG1 - without even the immediate threat to Earth that was presented in SG1. As I noted to
dirty_diana, we're a rather selfish bunch.As it stands now, the show is strongly Earth-centric, with an alien enemy that the Earth people are the only ones visibly fighting against. (The Gennii are assumed to be fighting, but they're hardly accorded anything near equal status in the fight.) The main character and chief mover is a military man with a streak of rebelliousness; his primary assistant in the business of saving the galaxy is a technologically competent scientific type. Ironically, I find Rodney more of an analogue with Sam Carter in SG1, than with Daniel Jackson. Elizabeth holds the primary functional role of Daniel in the show, although Teyla fills that role on the team. And while Teyla is functionally a Teal'c analogue (alien ally and connection to the rest of the galaxy), Ronon holds the alien barbarian aspect of Teal'c. My personal interpretation is that Teyla's also a Sam analogue emotionally (as in Shep's romantic interest) and a Jack analogue in an organisational sense (she's been shown to keep track of what her team is doing and who's best to do what, more than I see John doing).
Other than the fact that they're repeating episodes (Epiphany being the equivalent of 100 Days, Inferno holding some significant resemblances to Fail Safe in solution, and Progeny having a curious resemblance to the events of Unnatural Selection), we now have the Replicators as bad guys. Again. Stargate SG-1: Season Three/Season Four, Season Four/Season Five, the midpoint of Season Six, and all of the second half of Season Eight.
I think TPTB missed the boat on Atlantis. Sure, I love the characters and their possibilities, but the most interesting characters are still only possibilities since SGA still focuses on the Earth-centric military-scientific angle - and has dialled down the diplomatic angle.
Having set up a civilian expedition in another galaxy with no way back...wouldn't it make sense to really integrate into that galaxy? To seriously make friends and allies, and not be such suspicious pricks? But even at the height of their isolation in Season One, the show seemed to hold an attitude of 'Earth is right and sovreign, Pegasus is unimportant' - which was only exacerbated in subsequent seasons.
They have a female civilian leader for the expedition who's been given a negotiating history...yet she's rarely shown to negotiate, let alone with any of the cultures they meet. The show could have been more about Earthlings negotiating a tricky path between cultures that have equivalent weaponry but who are willing to talk turkey if they're not condescended towards. Not everything has to descend into Cold-War status the way things did with the Gennii. Sure, it makes for drama, but there are other ways to develop drama. Laura Roslin vs. Tom Zarek, anyone? I ain't never seen those two take up weapons against each other, but their early fights sizzle with Laura's hatred vs. Tom's ambition. And that could have been a big part of the situation - the ups and downs, the changing alliances, with Earth walking into an already loaded situation.
They created a female alien leader but missed the opportunity to develop anything about her people - and patriarchy is the implied default yet again, where I would have supposed that matriarchy would be more likely since proof of maternity is unimpeachable - who must have had some cool bits and pieces once-upon-a-time (firelighters, anyone?), but who are dismissed wholesale because they're not technocrats in the now. She's got a hereditary connection with the enemy they're trying to fight...what if other cultures have similarly gifted people? This legend of people taken by the Wraith and then returned must have happened elsewhere - surely someone made the connection before this?
They've got a biogeneticist in their midst who worked on some kind of antivirus to stop the Wraith from being able to feed back in S1 Poisoning The Well - why didn't that go anywhere? They kept working on the Wraith humanizing virus, why not the Wraith anti-virus (or whatever it was)? There's a lot of places they could go if they were working a biological weapon.
Now, they've got a guy who spent seven years eluding the Wraith - day to day, hand-to-hand. Ex-military, from another planet that was destroyed, with the suggestion that a remant of his people are still scattered around the galaxy. He's got front-line practical experience that Sheppard uses as an argument for including him on his team...and then rarely actually uses.
While I'm aware that the writing team for SGA is essentially the same as the writing team for SG1, I still feel...cheated, I suppose. There was a lot of potential for SGA to not be about Earth. For it to be about developing and negotiating relationships, for it to be a commentary on real-world politics and bite-you-in-the-ass consequences that then have to be dealt with and aren't dismissed by a general's wave of the hand.
I'm a storyteller. And SGA cries out to me like a million voices suddenly silenced.
I loved SG1. But when they set Atlantis in another galaxy with a civilian negotiating leader, I expected that they'd use that other galaxy to go boldly go where few sci-fi programs have gone before, to use that leader to negotiate and not just prop up the military. I hoped they'd develop a new paradigm, go to new places in character conflict and plot development, do things that the Stargate franchise haven't tried before.
Instead, it's a military man and his scientific geek running around spreading the Earth-superiority all over again.
I guess, basically, I want SGA to be written by the people who write BSG.
That would rock.
no subject
I feel like other sci fi shows on the otherhand, like BSG and Farscape think about what they are doing to their characters and make sure it has an affect. Or even B5 with the whole Sheridan - "if you go to Z'ha'dum you will die" - it happens as it was supposed to. Or D'argo and Chiana on Farscape. Chiana has sex w/ D'argo's son and that has a big impact on characters. It takes a really long time for D'argo to forgive both her and his son. And he doesn't forgive his son for a long time.
SG1 and SGA are dominated by action. They went with the Star Trek formula of every episode having to be about saving something. What I do like about this second half of season 3 if that they have started to remember that Ronon and Teyla are actual characters. And they are letting them be more than quiet members of the team. They have had some great interactions the last two episodes, and not only with eachother. There is a great Teyla/John scene in Irresponsible that illustrates their relationship beautifully.
I don't think the SG1 or SGA writers know how to write women, and I hope that changes b/c as you pointed out, they have two very interesting female characters that they essentially squander. And I would love for the characters to explore the fact that Carson is essentially trying to figure out a way to commit genocide. He is skirting the limits of biomedical ethics, and this is something that the show is not dealing with... b/c it's a topic that requires a lot of emotional investment and that is not something the show provides. Frankly, I would love to know who the bad guys for the season are. Most of the episodes from season 3 are essentially stand alone. There is no real arciness. And I'm so annoyed at how they handled the Return Part II - if you go to my lj, you can read me episode reviews, which tend to start out with "As is typical of SGA's episodic nature...."