Hello, LJ! I've missed you!

[sholio]

Long weekend and only three more weeks of classes before Christmas! I can't believe that school is kicking my ass this hard. I've been in the working world, for pete's sake! I've been a department head! And yet I'm paddling hard to keep my head above water. Though it doesn't help that I'm also working on a large freelance project at the same time.

Last week, I had derry667 visiting, and that was very awesome. We swam outdoors at -30F (in a hot springs), went to the North Pole (... it's a town), and marathoned our favorite SGA eps from any and all seasons. She posted some pictures here.

Derry also brought the series to date of SGU -- or, as my husband and I have begun calling it, Bastards in Space. We watched the first episode with Derry and then mainlined the rest of it after she was gone. It's so hilariously awful that we can't seem to stop. You know how this was supposed to be their big character-focused series? Yeah. Imagine a show with all the plot holes, dreadful science and skeevy politics of the other Stargates at their worst, only with characters that you really just want to toss out an airlock. And yet it's so terribly addictive, the way that badfic is addictive -- you know how sometimes you'll find yourself on chapter 19 of some goddawful fic and you just have to keep reading to see how much worse it can get? It's sort of like that. At this point I'm siding with the clever, evil, Macchiavellian bastard because at least he's more interesting than the dumb whiny bastards, and cheerfully rooting for a high body count. ("Dammit, s/he survived again!")

What else? I finished my sga_santa story, and it's even beta'd; now I just need to get it polished up and submit it. I haven't started my Yuletide story yet, but I have some ideas. I also want to try to get my SGA fic site updated this weekend; I haven't put anything new on there in over a year. In fact, perhaps after I'm done typing this, I'll go work on that ...

ETA: Oh, and the new challenge at sga_flashfic is a Gift Challenge, and you know what this fandom could really use right now? Warm, fuzzy, holiday team-exchanging-gifts stories. You know you want to. :)

Comments

[balikpulang.livejournal.com]

And yet it's so terribly addictive, the way that badfic is addictive
Indeed. I keep thinking enough is enough, but still watch the darn thing.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Ha! I know! It's so bad, and then we finish an episode and look around for the next one ... it's like a disease. *g*

[dreamingoctober.livejournal.com]

My husband and I have been consistently horrified by every single episode of SGU, and not, I think, in the way the writers would like us to be horrified. It even kind of makes us sick to our stomachs at times (the bodyswitching, omfg - you cannot make me believe that the SGC and JACK O'NEILL didn't lay down some PROTOCOLS for those stones). And yet... we can't. look. away.

My husband said something that I thought made pretty good sense - he said, "This might have been a great show, but they're filming all the wrong moments. Every single shot is the wrong moment. I don't want to see what they're showing."

[ratcreature]

you cannot make me believe that the SGC and JACK O'NEILL didn't lay down some PROTOCOLS for those stones

Yes! This. I mean, it should be common sense that you are more careful with a body that is not yours than with your own, but apparently not. Not just the creepy sex, but also with the getting intoxicated and such. I keep waiting for one of them to kill their host because they skipped the briefing on their body's allergies, and decided to have some peanuts without thinking...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

The bodyswitching! Oh god! With the total lack of logic or scruples or intelligence or ... anything! Like I said to my husband a couple of episodes ago, "Even O'Neill's an asshole in this reality!" It really does feel like we've jumped into the Mirrorverse of the SG universe -- a la Star Trek, the one where everyone's evil (not to mention, in this case, the universe where everyone's DUMB, because none of the things that they're doing -- either on an individual level or the SGC as an organization -- makes any kind of sense at all).

It used to really bother me, at first, that there are so many more useful ways that they could be using the stones if they're going to use them at all -- such as, for example, switching a steady rotation of EXPERTS onto the ship: physicists to fix the ship, linguists and computer programmers to study its database, doctors to help TJ, ecologists and xenobotanists to help them solve their food and water problems. Every scientist in the SGC would be jumping at the chance! Get Carter or McKay on the damn ship and your problems will be solved! Instead, they're using the stones so that civilians and accidental tourists on the ship can get intergalactic booty calls, with minimal or completely nonexistent safety or secrecy protocols. WHAT. The stupidity and lack of ethics is just so mind-boggling on all levels that I've given up trying to make sense out of it and just decided to pretend that it's a badfic AU of the actual SG-verse.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

the bodyswitching, omfg - you cannot make me believe that the SGC and JACK O'NEILL didn't lay down some PROTOCOLS for those stones
Yes! There are actually things about SGU I like, but this is driving me insane!

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

the bodyswitching, omfg - you cannot make me believe that the SGC and JACK O'NEILL didn't lay down some PROTOCOLS for those stones

YES! My husband came up with this scene where Jack basically had the, "I can't believe I have to actually tell you this, but: DO NOT use another person's body to have the sex," talk. And was amazed the whole time this actually had to be said.

Because... my God, it's NOT YOUR BODY! I'd be nervous enough about peeing, let alone sex.

[with-apostrophe.livejournal.com]

At this point I'm siding with the clever, evil, Macchiavellian bastard because at least he's more interesting than the dumb whiny bastards

Pre-cisely! This may simply be what you get when you cast Robert Carlyle.

I've not seen all the episodes yet, but the one with the time loops wasn't that bad, even if the explanation for them was totally out of left-field as far as I know.

It might be more worth watching if it were funny. Eli is sometimes funny, but often his jokes are just poor. Ah well, back to Sanctuary, Psych, and Eureka. They generally hit the humour mark.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

This may simply be what you get when you cast Robert Carlyle.

LOL. This is probably true. (Although ... I know it's terribly American of me, but was I the only one getting Star Trek flashbacks when he was telling Young -- in his lovely Scottish accent -- that the engines just don't have the power? And then they recycled that clip for the intro montage! I can't help cracking up every time!)

In any case, Carlyle is immensely fun to watch, and far more entertaining than most of the other characters on the show.

Eli is sometimes funny, but often his jokes are just poor.

Not to mention that I feel like we've taken a giant step backwards with the lone nerd character cracking bad jokes so that the others can give him funny looks and then ignore him. I miss SGA, where nerds were liked and valued ...

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I was hoping you'd like SGU (unlike the rest of my flist), since you're not, natively, a slasher, but I'm not surprised you don't.

I'm loving it. It hits a lot of my kinks hard. I've always been fascinated by the dynamics of groups trapped together, and first went to sea (spent six months on scientific research vessels between 1989 and 1993) to see whether RL looked at all like fiction. And it didn't, until SGU. I love watching Chloe trying to build a social network that will work for her, using materials at hand. I love how useless Lt. Hapless is. Eli is a much more recognizable form of mathy guy than Rodney. Rush got me to change my default icon. I could go on, but you get the picture.

I'm mostly responding here in case anyone on your flist reads this and feels similarly - I'm friending madly within SGU right now. The fandom is sweet, but very, very young, and I'm feeling lonely (heck, I've written 10% of the SGU stories on FF.net!)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm. I do have a couple of flisters who are enjoying it (lunabee34, sgatazmy ... I know I've seen a few other positive reaction posts, but those are the ones that are coming to mind). It'll be interesting to see how the fandom goes -- I expect this one will probably lean pretty heavily in a het direction (demographically young fandoms often seem to, in my experience) and I don't see much in the way of major slash couples materializing yet, though it'll be intriguing to find out if they do.

I do hope that you're able to get some nibbles of interest here.

I've always been fascinated by the dynamics of groups trapped together, and first went to sea (spent six months on scientific research vessels between 1989 and 1993) to see whether RL looked at all like fiction. And it didn't, until SGU.

I like groups-under-stress dynamics, too. The big problem I'm having with SGU, I guess, is that for me, it's realistic in all the wrong ways and none of the right ones. I already know that the majority of humanity are selfish, unethical, and incompetent in a crisis; I know that being thrown into close quarters with strangers is more likely to breed mortal enemies than lifelong friends. I enjoy the fantasy of heroism and bonding under pressure in the knowledge that it's largely a fantasy -- still, it's one of my favorites. But I'll forgo the fantasy if the rest of the show (book, movie) is sharp enough to be convincing: complex and believable characters, solid plotting, worldbuilding I can believe in. "Lost" had me for a couple of seasons on the strength of its cast of characters -- most of them were incompetent from the get-go, and some of them turned into dangerous bullies or organized factions around themselves, but they were interesting, and believable, and even the borderline stereotypes played against type at times. I watched for three seasons before the characters' inability to form bonds with each other and predictable backstabbing got to be too much for me.

SGU, though -- clearly YMMV on this, but I don't see much in the characters beyond broad stereotypes, and the lack of plot logic is too much for me to handwave. I love the idea of a paramedic thrown off the deep end and forced to serve as sole doctor for an entire group of refugees, but the fact that they could swap an actual MD into her body at any time, or send her back to Earth to consult with one, and yet don't, blows the plausibility of the situation for me. Some of the stereotypes are outright offensive, like Greer, who makes sense as a character -- I've totally known soldiers like him -- but becomes stomach-turning when he's not only the only black character on the show, but frequently contrasted against level-headed (white) Scott. The handful of characters who had me at the beginning are losing me one by one through their lack of ethics -- like Young, who I really liked and found sympathetic right up to the point where he used another man's body to have sex with his wife (which Telford clearly did not consent to, judging from his shocked reaction). And Young's jealousy of Telford, when he himself not only had an affair but is still in close contact with the woman he had the affair with, cemented my lack of sympathy for him.

The similar sci-fi that I grew up on (Asimov, Clark, Niven, etc) had plenty of tales of flawed characters trapped on leaky spaceships, some of them with no more than the sketchiest attempt at brushing in character traits (Asimov in particular was not a characterization guy at all), but the situation was the thing -- and the situations were solid, hard SF. Gimme a solidly researched and scientifically plausible tale of 80 people trapped on a leaky spaceship and I will be so there, even if the characters can only be distinguished by their surnames, even if they're all ethnic stereotypes of one sort or another. Instead, this show is making me eyeroll at the SF until my eyeballs are ready to drop out.

... um, yeah. Sorry about the screed. I'm glad you're enjoying the show, and I actually am enjoying it (and plan to keep watching), but not at all, I think, for the reasons that its makers intended.

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

Hi! And good luck with the end of the semester; it always feel like it is impossible to get everything done and survive but it always happens.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Hi! *waves* I can't wait 'til the semester's over -- but at the same time, I'm having a marvelous time cramming knowledge into my brains again!

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Glad I'm not watching SGU, then. I have a terrible habit of reading bad!fic to the point that I want to see how the fic ends, while also wanting to jump through the computer and strangle the author :P I don't need that kind of aggravation from my TV ;) Plus it'll just make me miss my team and watch SGA.

Aw, the Santa village. I remember visiting that :D It's one of my more clearer memories of Alaska during our move. That and the giant Paul Bunyen and Babe (I still have my stuffed Babe, among other Alaska-related stuffed animals.)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

It's not making me miss SGA (much) because it's so completely unlike it. I used to occasionally have that problem with SG1 -- I'd watch an episode and want to see the SGA version, or think wistfully, "Why can't they do more of [xyz] on SGA?" SGU is totally not doing that to me, because thus far, there's very little that I would have wanted to see on SGA at all. (The only thing I wish they'd been better about is the variety of planets; so far, we haven't seen a single world that looks like BC! Which is cracking me up a little bit, to be honest.)

I had forgotten you were here once. Did you guys actually live here or just pass through?

[x-varda-x.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you say about SGU! I don't know if you ever visit the GateWorld Forum, but over there it's classed as 'soap opera' by many (including me) or TMTNED (too much talking, not enough doing) Or indeed, slightly lewder, SG-Poo or SG Puny-verse... but that's probably just me.

Like you, I can't stop watching it. It's a compulsion I know I should give up, like writing Rodney whump!fic, but for some reason I just can't!

It may be because I watch it on the way into work (train commute) on Wednesdays after downloading off iTunes (only way in the UK for me), so it's either that, sleep or stare at the person opposite me for 40 min!

I finished my SGA Santa fic too, I'll probably leave it until the last minute to send it over... it's embarrassingly long, and I've also spent more time working on it than I have done for any other fic of the same length :o

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

I am amused that for obviously being aimed at a "younger, edgier!" crowd, it's so slow-moving. I don't have a problem with soap-operatic stuff, assuming the characters are strong enough to carry it (which is my biggest problem with SGU), but the lack of action is kind of mind-numbing at times. Maybe if they were running around shooting at things, it'd be easier not to pick apart the plots (though at this point I'm not sure if it would really help all that much).

I do feel like I went into this show with as reasonably close to an open mind as it is possible to get (what with all the fannish history surrounding the show). I miss having a space show to look forward to every week. But this isn't doing it for me.

[amalthia]

sounds like an awesome time was had by all! :) My husband I were talking about maybe heading for the hot springs at Chena over x-mas but...we're still playing it by ear. I still need money for school next semester.

p.s.

[amalthia]

the stupidity of the characters in SGU hurts my head. It drives me nuts that they have those stones but aren't getting anyone actually useful on the ship to help out with repairs.

My husband and I concluded it would be better if the stones fell into a black hole and never came back.

Re: p.s.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

LOL ... yeah, while I have a great many issues with many of the things the characters have done, my very worse issues always come back to those damn stones. SGU would be so much better as a show if the stones didn't exist at all; what's the point of cutting off your characters from civilization if you give them the opportunity to pop back home whenever they want?

I hope you are able to get up to the hot springs! It's really a lovely experience, especially in the winter when you can swim outside with snow all around and your hair freezing up while your body is toasty. =) And if you come up here, we'll have to drag our respective spouses along for lunch or coffee or something!

Re: p.s.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I agree wrt the stones, and hope that the hints of complications we saw at least reduce their use.

My husband, OTOH, says that what he's always liked about Things Stargate is that they're present-time and in contact with Earth (save for S1 of SGA). It's not about aliens or generic humans, it's about us. It's not what I've liked about SG, but I see his point.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You've just confirmed to me that NOT watching the show was the right decision. It sounds atrocious and not even Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na could save it for me.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*g* Well, as noted above, I'm actually enjoying it -- but not exactly in the way its makers intended. There are far, far better shows out there to spend your time on!

[iamrighthere.livejournal.com]

Such an interesting post! And where do I jump in?

SGU vs. science: And also, SGU vs. Scalzi. I think we're all pretty liberal in what we expect the science in our science fiction to ask of us. We want good stories enveloped in interesting (not necessarily perfectly accurate) science. But SGU gives us terrible stories, and the characters are the dullest crew I've ever watched.

Example: Almost halfway into the first season, we finally see the crew exploring the ship. We,the audience, are science fiction freaks. What would we do from day one? Explore the ship, of course! But we get only little peeks here and there, and then last week, when the chair was found, what did we get? Rush and Young bickering about it. Minute after minute of bickering. Okay, okay! The chair could be dangerous. I. Get. It. So: either put that useless slut Chloe in it, or exchange bodies with someone on Earth who has a brain cell or two to figure out how to safely operate the device. Jeezus! This isn't, you know, rocket science, people, this is simple common sense!

*breathes into paper bag*

About the body switching, I'm pretty sure the dudes and dudettes whose bodies are being used signed some kind of "Sky's the Limit" document, perhaps to get more bonus pay. I'd also assume (dangerous!) that the people with whom they are having sex are checked out for STDs and whatnot.

That said, note that "Dollhouse" has been canceled. Because it is, when you boil it down, totally 'ewwwww'. And if SGU left the having-sex-with-another-body for the rarest of occasions, that would be cool, I guess. But to have it going on every week? Ewwwww! And whoever mentioned it above is right: I would hardly want to do it with someone who didn't look like my spouse; going to bed with him would be more for his benefit than mine.

But that's what the show has that annoys me. What it lacks:
--Humor
--Alien encounters
--Alien enemies and friends (Because why be in space if there aren't aliens? You think we want an entire season of Sartre's "No Exit" aboard the Destiny?)
--Compelling characters
--Interesting back stories (Remember Hugo's/Hurley's back story in "Lost"? Was that not the best???)
--Sensible and satisfying (to us) relationships between characters. I know Rush is a dick and all, but he could try to pal up with someone because this lone-wolf deal is getting tiresome.
--Killing off useless characters--like guess who?
--Explosions. Because I like explosions.
--Space battles. Because I like space battles.

This series has failed on so many levels, I watch it just to poke fun at it.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, this comment (http://aelfgyfu-mead.livejournal.com/172447.html?thread=1295263&format=light#t1295263) (at another journal) was the Lost-related one I was thinking of when I left that comment at yours; I'd forgotten it wasn't here!

If I were to label anyone on the show a slut, it'd be Scott -- who keeps proving that he simply can't keep it in his pants, and disregards his duty in order to do so. But that's kind of a theme with these characters, I guess -- sex is the main thing they want, and it trumps duty or responsibility. Possibly that's one of the things Rush has got that the others don't; he may be a paranoid, ethics-free asshole, but at least he's not trying to sleep his way around the ship!

I'm pretty much with you on the show's many lacks. Like I've said a couple of times, I think I'd be on board with what they're doing (a slower, darker, less action-focused sort of show) if they had the characters and writing to back it up. But these people aren't interesting, they aren't likable, they aren't even intriguingly mysterious like the ones on Lost. (Hugo's backstory was awesome! Actually, a lot of the flashbacks in the first season made me go OMGWTF...OH!, with awesome and cleverly-concealed twists like the POV shift in Sawyer's flashback, or Locke's big reveal. None of SGU's backstories are anything like that -- we've gotten unsubtle pathos and melodrama instead, little of which actually touches the characters' lives on the ship.

Basically, you can either give me an exciting show with explosions and aliens, or a slow-moving show with intelligent and interesting things to say about the human condition. This show is neither.

[indusnm.livejournal.com]

I wanted to watch this show and love it, I did. But I loved SGA and SG-1 from the very first episode of watching those shows, and I didn't feel any connection to SGU at all...

I had hope for the diplomat/military thing this time around because of Camille. Stargate always handles that so badly because a)they capitalize on the problems that both branches have and b) they make the diplomats look bad and the military look good. Which is stupid. I've worked for both branches and I can honestly say that while both branches don't get along, there are hard and equally valid considerations on both sides that dictate the very different tactics they take. Someone who goes to serve at the Iraqi embassy is risking their lives for their country, like a soldier, and both of them are worthy of respect. Sorry, I may sound like I'm taking this personally, and maybe I am because I am personally involved in this line of work, but all I can say is that anyone who sees one institution as good and the other bad is naive. Both consist of good and bad people, with good and bad goals, and both of them often pay the ultimate price for policies and decisions that, most of the time, other people make.

Stargate always makes the diplomats look stupid or unethical, etc. unless they defer to the military... I had hoped that SGU would be different because a star like Ming-Na is with the IOA, but that didn't happen. Has that changed or is it still like that?

As for the characters, the problems is that I didn't really like any of them except Eli, and sometimes i just want to cringe on his behalf too. I need to connect to a character to watch a show. In SGA I connect to Sheppard and Teyla the most, then Lorne, Rodney, Ronan, Carson and Elizabeth--no shortage of characters I actually liked though they were imperfect. And in SG-1 I adored Jack O'Neill. The guy in SGU who has a similar face and name isn't Jack at all. I can't see them as the same person.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Character is where it begins and ends for me. I'll suffer through a lot of bad writing for characters I love (see: both previous Stargates *g*). SGA grabbed me right off with McKay and Sheppard; SG1 had me from the beginning with Jack and Daniel. And in both cases I quickly fell in love with the rest of the cast, even the minor recurring characters like Zelenka or Walter.

SGU has been doing the opposite; the more I see of these people, the less I want to know them. None of them seem to be forming bonds with each other; they're all out for themselves. Their ethics are terrible, and the organizations that they represent seem to be worse. With the previous Stargates, despite their problems, I wanted to explore that universe and be amazed by it. I just don't want to hang out in this universe at all.

[sheron]

[the other Stargates at their worst, only with characters that you really just want to toss out an airlock.]

LOL!