sholio | SGA 5x04

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episode reactions:sga

SGA 5x04

I'm starting to really wonder if my "meh" reaction to Seed really did have a lot to do with just being stressed-out and unhappy, because the rest of this season is totally knocking it out of the park. We're now four-for-four with strong team episodes, in which everyone gets something to do, the characters get to pair off with their teammates (YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN) in all kinds of interesting ways, and stuff blows up! With extra bonus feelings and teamy squishiness!

The most squeak-and-flail moments in the episode:

- RODNEY AND BABY. (And John: "There are FEELINGS happening here!" *flees*) As adorable as the introductory scene was -- yes, I'm SO easy; stick Rodney and John in a room and let them snark at each other, and I roll right over like a fangirl puppy -- I felt sad for Rodney, not getting to hold Teyla's baby. And then ... BABY!

- Rodney and Teyla! Doing technical stuff! Together! I had so much love for techie-Teyla in this episode that I could EXPLODE.

- Speaking of explosions, John and Ronon blowing stuff up! Ronon and his railguns. Awww. And John fanboying himself! (Much as Rodney was doing earlier with his alt-self's science.) Oh, DORKS.

- Ghost ship! I love derelict ships and abandoned space stations/top-secret facilities of all sorts. I mentioned I'm an easy sell for this stuff, right?

Extra bonus love for the team running the whole ship by themselves. Which, well, logistically, I tried not to think about too hard, really. But the whole theme of the team stranded, alone, forced to rely on themselves and each other, having to improvise and figure things out in a hurry -- that's really the core of what I love most about Atlantis, right there.

And so far, the season is four-for-four with delivering teamy aftermath scenes in the infirmary, too! DID I MENTION HOW EASY I AM? Every single episode, someone's been hurt and the episode wraps up with the characters, in different combinations, having a team moment around the bedside of the hurt one. I don't know whether to be thrilled or slightly worried, because this is pretty much what started burning me out on Supernatural -- it was fun for a while, and then it was just too much. Not that I'm complaining in the meantime, though.

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This season is shaping up marvelously - such a fun ep! And oh, I love Alan McCullough's Teyla so very very much. He likes to have her actually DO stuff (much to Rodney's astonishment). And his Ronon's also very smart, which I also highly approve of (loved when Ronon was discussing AUs with Teyla, referring to what Rodney says about them - he actually listens!)

Easy sell, hee - for me it was the AUs. Even if it didn't do much with them, I just am so very very in love with the concept of the multiverse that I was bouncing and squeeing for half the ep about that alone.

Also, the 4th ep of every season apparently has to put Rodney in the infirmary. I am not complaining!

Also, the 4th ep of every season apparently has to put Rodney in the infirmary.

*snicker* They DO, don't they? And the 3rd ep of every season is a Ronon ep.

I honestly don't pay a whole lot of attention to which writer does which episode (except for a bit of squee when a Gero episode comes up because he focuses more on people than on explodey stuff); I tend to see them all as one big blended mass. So I hadn't specifically noticed that he gives good Teyla and Ronon, but I do approve! I'd love to see more of this rendition of them!

except for a bit of squee when a Gero episode comes up because he focuses more on people than on explodey stuff

I pay attention, because I've noticed a couple of things:

Alan McCullough writes great team episodes, and he doesn't write Ronon as the big dumb guy. I really think he writes Teyla better than anyone else (not saying much, but still.)

Joe Mallozzi may be a jerk, but he does write Ronon very well.

Martin Gero needs to give Hewlett a blowjob already and stop expressing his mancrush by writing episodes that are All McKay, All the Time. (Also, Martin? David Hewlett is NOT FAT. That stopped being funny a while ago.) There are three other people on Team AR-1--and Keller? Not one of them, kthxbai. Also, Gero is one of the worst offenders in terms of writing Ronon as the one-note, big guy who shoots stuff, and about ignoring Teyla completely. ("Quarantine" was the rare exception.)

Binder's not great, but he's tolerable most of the time. Cooper seems to have issues writing believable characters; the fact that he said with both Ford and Weir that "Well, the characters just didn't work out," should have been a hint: Writing--you're doing it wrong.

Thank you for the observations! I do have trouble connecting individual writers to their different writing styles, aside from having noticed that Gero loves writing Rodney and tends to like writing slice-of-life or small set-piece episodes as opposed to sprawling "blowing stuff up" episodes.

Admittedly, while I do recognize *why* people are frustrated with the writers' focus on Rodney and, as a writer and a person, I think there are a ton of very valid points that have been made (both regarding the actual writing on the show and the larger sociopolitical picture that it paints), as a fan, if they changed the name to The David Hewlett Show: The Further Adventures of Rodney McKay, I'd be there with bells on. I feel ungrateful complaining about getting exactly what I want out of the show, even though I think other people are totally justified in being unhappy with it (and pointing that out) and I wish that everybody was getting what they want out of it...

It's fascinating to see that I have an entirely different take on most of the writers! ...which I'm just mentioning here, and not getting into details of because I'm really not sure this is the time or place.(And it's not like personal likes and dislikes is something you can really debate). But since Brad Wright wasn't mentioned - in a nutshell, seeing Wright's name in the credits makes me squee in anticipation of wonderful, wonderful h/c. ♥

Just a brief passing note that I'm certainly not going to stop anyone from debating it here, if you're so inclined. This is not something that I'm really qualified to comment on (and my tone-deaf-ness in this area goes way back; I was always kind of an outlier in comics fandom because I generally didn't have the foggiest clue which artist or writer had written or drawn which issue of what; I just don't *retain* that stuff). But I find people's interpretation of the writers' styles interesting and thought-provoking.

But it's such a weird thing to debate! I love most of Gero's scripts, and I think the handful of episodes Cooper's written for SGA have been some of the best of the show. (He introduced Ronon in Runner, wrote Sateda, and then Doppelganger. He also came up with the character of Rodney McKay back on SG-1. So you see why I can't do anything but love him helplessly.) But if someone else doesn't like the Rodney-centric episodes, or doesn't care for the fact that Cooper makes executive decisions that I personally think were for the best... I can say what I think, but I'd never expect to change anyone else's mind on the subject! Because it's so highly subjective.

About retaining it - heh. When I started watching SGA last year, I made a list of the episode titles I'd seen in my journal. (Clarifying: paper journal! Which is where I was organizing all of my thesis stuff, too.) Then I thought a lot about which episodes I liked best, and why. And then I got a hold of a list of writers, and matched them to the episodes. And then I organized another list of episodes, this one by writer, and I kept adding to it as I watched more of the show.

Um. I can't really explain this behavior except that I was right in the middle of thesis writing, and organizing lists and looking at who had written what seemed like a sane thing to do at the time. *g* But that laid the groundwork for my opinions on the writers, and since then I've been able to memorize episodes by title & writer, in most cases!

(The lists were good, though! They told me that the people who'd written "Sanctuary" were never allowed to write anything else ever again, which increased my faith in the staff writers. XD)

Wait ... Cooper wrote Doppelganger? Admittedly, I really don't pay a whole lot of attention to this kind of stuff (and your methodology cracks me up -- because I have *totally* been that anal about certain things, especially whole collections of character-related data from certain shows when I was a teen). But Doppelganger is probably one of my favorite episodes of any show EVER, so ... I really must give some love to any writer who wrote that. (And, uh, Tao of Rodney is one of my OTHER favorite episodes of any show ever. I AM SO EASY.)

I can recognize good writing, certainly. But as far as fannish love -- that's a whole separate thing for me, I think. And it's totally subjective. In fact, I think the things I love most as a fan can't be well written (well, can't be *that* well written) because the plot tropes I love the most just aren't really good writing choices. XD

Yep! The scripts that have been all Cooper (which he all directed himself, too!) are Runner, Sateda and Doppelganger. I LOVE COOPER. \o/

And Gero wrote Tao and M&MM and Miller's Crossing, soooooo~. Yes. There's a lot of Rodney, but there's also a lot of adorable, adorable team in his eps. He likes downtime! He likes writing snark and cute interactions! He's also usually the one to write season finales and premiers. (For example The Siege was his, as was were Adrift and TLM and Search & Rescue. The man can do epic, with lots of team on top. ♥)

*picks Gero-ep icon for comment*

Ah, no, Gero didn't do "Tao" - that's Damian Kindler (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0454307/)'s ep. He wrote only a little bit of SGA. He's also responsible for "Trinity"...basically, if you think Gero is the McKay fanboy, you don't know Kindler. He's left the show to do the Sanctuary TV show now, which is VERY VERY sad-making. VERY VERY VERY. *whimper*

(And Mullie wrote TLM, and also Siege 2...)

*headdesk*

Always eat breakfast before trying to make a point!!

...so embarrassed now. orz

Ack! You reply too fast! I hit 'post' before my comment was done, wanted to edit it with: Kindler also wrote the story for SG-1's "Need", if you were looking for other reasons to love him.

Also wanted to share in the Cooper love (I've loved Cooper since SG-1, he's one of the very first writers I ever started watching for, because I loved his Daniel so) and the Wright love (Wright looooves the physical h/c. He did "38 Minutes," my favorite Sheppard-whump by far. He also wrote SG-1's "Serpent's Lair", with the first Jack-Daniel hug, which gives me...hope...for certain eps-to-come...)

Oh, oh! And Cooper wrote "Hide & Seek" (or at least co-wrote?), which was the episode that made me fall in love with Rodney. In case I needed more reasons to love him. XD

Man, Kindler also did "Trinity"... Too bad he's vanished.

Didn't Wright also write SG-1's "Abyss"? Or was that Cooper, or someone else? (Both Wright & Cooper are SO about the team love and the bonds the character share, seeing their names in the credits does make me squee!)

...Gero wrote Siege 3 is totally what I meant to say. The rest I DON'T KNOW. Stupid brain. *kicks*

if they changed the name to The David Hewlett Show: The Further Adventures of Rodney McKay, I'd be there with bells on.

Yeah, see, this is me, too. While if David were to choose to leave, I'd still watch the show, my enthusiasm for it would plummet. He's my guy (much as Jack was on SG-1), and I love the McKay heavy episodes.

I don't pay all that much attention to who's writing the episodes except for the fact that it seems Mallozzi tends to screw up canon more than any of the other writers and that drives me a little batshit.

Also, I noticed in this episode that McCullough had McKay pissy in the 'jumper long before there was any need for Pissy!McKay. While I love Rodney being pissy under pressure, I don't like it just for the sake of making him snotty and nasty.

But I absolutely adore Gero's episodes.

As a Rodney fan I like Gero, but I've got issues with him, too. But Gero didn't write "Quarantine", that was Carl Binder. Binder's one of my favorites, actually, when it comes to team eps; while he doesn't really have plots so much, I find his eps some of the most rewatchable - he balances everyone well, and tends to include a lot of cute moments (see "Aurora" or "Echoes"). McCullough, as new kid on the Atlantis block, seems to take his cues the most from Binder (such as tech-savvy Teyla); he's better at handling plots, but doesn't have as much sweet.

I've been meaning to do a post on the SGA writers, because they're as distinctive in their characterizations and styles as fanfic writers. Run into trouble with Mallozzi & Mullie, though - they write separately but are always credited together, and I don't know which wrote what of s1-3. They're both the worst writers on the show (imo) but they have different weaknesses - Mallozzi can't write exposition to save his life but is into TEAM and occasionally can pull off genuinely touching moments; Mullie has a better handle on scifi plots than most of the writers, but is utterly emotionally tone-deaf. Am very curious which of them is responsible for the quite-decent "Suspicion" or the awful "The Tower".

Cross-commenting!

I think you need to write your post on SGA writers so that I have somewhere to show people my opinions on them. *g*

Er, re-reading my answer, I hope it didn't come across as dismissive to you. I'm only just now (in other threads) working through *why* I don't really get into that particular level of meta-commentary, in most cases -- and I didn't mean to toss off an overly glib answer and dismiss the points you made.

No, no problem at all! I totally understand not being into some kinds of meta, or not feeling like doing meta in general sometimes. We're good. :)

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SGA 5x04

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My opinions on the SGA writers; let me show you them

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Re: My opinions on the SGA writers; let me show you them

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Re: My opinions on the SGA writers; let me show you them

Re: My opinions on the SGA writers; let me show you them