the trouble with Teyla

[tielan]

Most people in Atlantis fandom don't like Teyla.

I know that most of my SG-1 friends aren't fans of the character, which I find surprising since most of them were Sam Carter fen back in the day. No, Teyla isn't Sam, and Rachel isn't Amanda, but their characters in S1 have the same potentiality: I just doubt that Teyla will get the run in Atlantis that Sam did in SG-1.

There are objections to her background, her lack of scenes, her dress style, the fact that she was originally slated to be the primary love interest for Sheppard... It goes on.

I'm kinda saddened that she doesn't get half the airtime or half the story that she could if they'd use her properly. It's a bit like the waste of Teal'c in the first six seasons. (Then again, CJ got paid to appear in every episode, whether or not he had lines, so it worked for him.) And the kind of contempt that's reserved for Teyla by the John/Elizabeth fen is rather like the vitriol reserved for Sam by the hardcore Jack/Daniel folks back in SG-1 fandom.

"And it's all just a little bit of history repeated!"

Never let it be said that fen learn, change, and/or grow in their journey through fandom. It's a little saddening, especially since the people doing the bitching this time around seem to be primarily those who were doing the defending of Sam last time.

On the other hand, my last Teyla-fic (Five Men Who Never Wanted...) got good responses, so there is a market out there for the character. We just need a few more people who like her and are willing to write fic for her.

Comments

[gate-girl.livejournal.com]

I think you've pretty much managed to sum up my feelings about the character of Teyla!

Personally, I think that both Teyla AND Liz have been somewhat under-used in Atlantis season 1 - whether that will change in S2 (or has changed)I don't know. Your comment about "The John Shepherd" show hit the nail on the head - when writers and producers create ensemble shows, I wish they'd actually WRITE ensemble shows, instead of spotlighting just one or two of the characters. Something which I think was also evident in season 1 of SG1 with the sidelining of Sam and Teal'c. I think that Teyla has so much potential to her as a character - just look at the growth of Sam in seasons 1-9 - and I hate to see a promising character being ignored by the writers (cough *Ford* cough) and torn down by the fans just because she's "in the way" of the two people they want to see snuggling. IMHO, I can see John/Teyla so much easily than I can see John/Liz - there's no denying that the latter two care for each other personally and respect each other professionally, but I just don't see that "spark" between them, whereas I can with John/Teyla. They have the same care and respect, with an added twist to make it a leetle more intense.

[tielan]

Oh, for sure the girls have been getting a bum deal. I think we were particularly lucky in SG-1, that AT was both a strong personality and a good actress and stood up to the PTB. Otherwise, we might have had the Jack-and-Daniel-pony-show in SG-1.

There are opportunities for using characters other than John Sheppard that have been manifestly passed up in Atlantis, and while both Liz and Teyla are getting a little more action in Season Two, it's still nothing compared with the boys. They really do need to manufacture a situation where the girls get to play the Big Damn Heroes.

[gate-girl.livejournal.com]

Hear hear. When you look around at other ensemble shows that are either airing now or have aired fairly recently, you see that there are so many strong female characters - Sam included - and it makes the lack of attention to the Atlantis women seem so obvious.

I think we were particularly lucky in SG-1, that AT was both a strong personality and a good actress and stood up to the PTB. Otherwise, we might have had the Jack-and-Daniel-pony-show in SG-1.

Oh god yes. It was bad enough as it was. As much as I love both Jack and Daniel as characters, there were times when I longed to smash some heads against the wall in order to make them see they had two great characters - and two wonderful actors - being completely wasted. That's also what I think is happening with the girls on Atlantis - I don't know whether they can't think of any good storylines to write for Teyla or Liz, or whether they just don't know HOW to write them, and so they focus the action on Shepherd, McKay et al.

They really should think about hiring some fic writers out there to give them some clues...

[tielan]

I think it's a combination of not knowing what to write and not knowing how to write them.

Basically, they're falling into the trap of thinking of them as 'women' and therefore different. AT overcame this in SG-1 by telling the writers to just write for her character like she was a guy and she'd do the rest.

I think they need at least one regular woman writer on the writing crew: and possibly a few more newbies, because the Stargate TPTB have shown themselves more than capable of bad 'groupthink' outcomes before.