SGA 4x10: This Mortal Coil

[sholio]

... hmmm.

Main thought upon finishing the episode ... THAT'S the mid-season cliffhanger? Not much of one, really. There are lots of Replicator ships out there. Uh ... we knew that already! I don't think I've been really, truly disappointed in an SGA cliffhanger before, but this one -- uh. Yeah. I was expecting more. Lots more.

Okay. The good (probably not everything squeeful, and I'm sure I'll remember more later, but all that's coming to mind at the moment) :

- Rodney's scene with Radek at the end ... and how he thanks Radek for worrying about him. Awww! Coming right on the heels of his little speech about Carson and Elizabeth, it was just a nice reminder that he really is learning from his mistakes and trying to be a better friend.

- THEY HAVE A READING LIBRARY! I love it. And they don't really have to explain it, because it's Atlantis and they're in another galaxy and it's perfectly obvious that this is the equivalent of the shelf in the college dorm (at least, my dorm had one) where everyone brings their old paperbacks and leaves them for someone else -- or, in this case, probably lots of issues of old scientific journals and dog-eared copies of Gun&Ammo and Tom Clancy novels, but still! They have one! In canon! *loves*

- The team's interactions with their doubles -- the two Rodneys going into "argue about science" mode, the two Sheppards looking exasperated, and especially the two Ronon-and-Teyla combos coming upon each other while bitching about their doubles in the woods. HEEEEEEEE. (And they remembered to cover up Ronon's tattoo! Go them!)

- Continuity with past episodes. Lots of it! They remembered the retrovirus! And they got the Season 3 uniforms right (a detail I didn't pick up on until the "real" team showed up, incidentally). And they mentioned Carson, and Rodney's still having trouble dealing with it. All in all, good job on the continuity.

- Cool f/x as Atlantis blows up. And the jumper catching a ride into hyperspace. Nice!

- Elizabeth. Sadly, she's always been kind of low on my main character squee list, although it's mostly a process-of-elimination thing because the rest of them make me squee so hard. I've always adored Torri, but Elizabeth, not so much. Which makes it very sad that she actually had to leave the show to really make me appreciate her -- her quiet dignity, her self-possession, her rapport with John. I loved seeing her here. I just wish she'd had a better plot. Which brings me to ...

The bad:

- Oh heavens, THE PLOT. About five minutes into the episode, I turned to my partner and said, "They're all Replicators." Hey, I've seen too much SG-1 for that particular twist to still be that much of a twist. But it's really a twist with lots of potential ... except ... AAARGH.

SO. MUCH. TALKING. You'd think I'd enjoy that they spent a bunch of time on dialogue rather than explosions, and I would ... if the dialogue hadn't been so wooden. The middle 20 minutes of the episode was basically just exposition, and clunky exposition. I gotta hand it to the cast, they were all doing the best they could with what they had to work with (especially Jewel Staite, poor thing) but ... OH. They were trying, they really were, but every other line was just stiff and LAME. (And why did we need to see RepliLiz telling the real Sheppard & McKay the whole story AGAIN when we'd just seen it a few minutes before? Give me more real character interaction instead of people standing around telling their life stories, please!)

The switch from inside the cell with Our Replicated Heroes to the shot of the ship lowering over the city broke the fourth wall utterly because up to that point, we'd been in the characters' POV, and then we get this shot of something they cannot possibly see and do not know about yet, and ... GAH! (It especially bugged me, and I noticed it in specific, because in some episodes -- Doppelganger comes to mind here -- the show is fantastically good about staying in the viewpoint characters' POV and showing only what they could see. But not here.)

And then the replay of Carter's vision, practically shot-for-shot. Which I saw coming a mile away. SO PREDICTABLE! HELP! (Which also makes me wonder why the heck the Seer would have shown her a vision that had nothing whatsoever to do with Atlantis? She wasn't even there! She didn't even have a Replicator clone there! It's like, "Hi, I'm a fortune teller, here's a vision of something that has nothing whatsoever to do with you. Have a nice day!" WTF?)

And RepliKeller's painfully predictable death scene just annoyed me. Well, it annoyed me while also making me feel for her, because it's Jewel and Torri, and they're really good. But the utter contrived-ness of it kinda ticked me off. And DO NOT GET ME STARTED on how easily they wrote off the RepliTeam at the end. RepliTeam: "Hey, you guys are real and we're not**, so we're going to go die so you can live." RealTeam: "Sure! Seeya, suckers!"

**despite being living human beings, a point which we've just spent most of the show making. But there's that Earth Logic again.

This DROVE ME NUTS. It drove me nuts because it was just sloppy storytelling, a really easy and predictable way of writing out a potentially sticky plot point. And it drove me doubly nuts because it doesn't say a whole lot about our team, at least not a whole lot that's good, that they're willing to let five people (including the last living vestige of Elizabeth in the galaxy) die so that they can escape. And it drove me TRIPLY nuts because RepliTeam are supposed to be Our Heroes through and through (you know, stubborn? persistent? never-say-die?) and yet they're all five willing to throw away their very real lives to let the "real" team get away? Plus, quadruply nuts, because ... SO MANY INTERESTING FANTASY POSSIBILITIES (re: Jack's teenage clone on SG-1) with the RepliTeam making a new life for themselves somewhere else, thrown away on a stupid plot contrivance.

And, yeah, I am well aware that the Replicator goon squad were wielding stunners, which means we might see the RepliTeam in the second half of this alleged "two-parter" (Jan. 4! Yay! I am so there!). But this is where this episode wrapped up, and that final scene with the crashed jumper is all we have to work with right now, and I am ANNOYED.

(And, on a purely personal matter, I am ALSO annoyed because we still haven't seen Teyla tell her team about her pregnancy yet, and she is so obviously pregnant by this point that I'm starting to come to the conclusion that it really IS going to happen off camera and cheat us of that scene. No! Please!)

Okay, ranting over. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong. *g*

Comments

[naye]

Commenting before writing my own post this time! But I was so curious to see what you'd written!

First of all - um. In my head, the RepliTeam will be dead when we see their cold dead bodies get burned, and their ashes scattered on the wind! In other words - I will be pissed if that happens in canon, but as it were, I was just waiting for Ronon to stand up behind the replicator pointing the gun at Sheppard! Then all of them would kick some Replicator ass, steal the Replicators' ship (possibly the ship the patrol came down in - they don't have beaming tech, do they?), and fly off into the sunset. That is what happened. You cannot convince me it's not, because it would make me SAD. And very, very annoyed. And it would make no sense!

Sadly, the above denial only half-works. But seriously - until they're killed off in a more final way in canon, the writers really could bring them back again. Which would be great. I loved the RepliTeam, even if I figured the whole thing out in the first five minutes. (The old uniform, and then they even used an old exterior shot I haven't seen for a long time - plus I've read fic where they think they're real, but are in fact replicators, so~ I was kind of prepared for that twist. ^___^)

What really bugs me right now is that, again - they SUCK at writing Teyla. Even when she's right there, it's like - GAH. I swear, the reason why Teyla is the only one who doesn't exchange any lines or anything with her own double (at least not one-on-one like the others) is because JM doesn't really have a clue how Teyla would behave. There's nothing instantly Teyla-like for her to do, because they just don't give her those moments. I absolutely loved what they did with John and Rodney and Ronon, and their interactions with their doubles and each other, but Teyla... what? What's her reaction to seeing herself, pre-baby, pre-Missing? What's her reaction to seeing Elizabeth? The two of them were close, and so much has happened, but - no, the guys get the good lines and the emotional scenes and Teyla gets the short end of the stick, and right now I'm just letting off steam, and maybe I should go do that in my own journal? ^^;; Because - um. I really liked this episode, so... It's not blind hate, it's just - the culmination of a lot of frustration, including the frustration that Teyla's pregnancy still hasn't come up with the others on-screen, and I'm going to be so very ticked off if we don't get to see the reveal!

The Seer's prediction showing something completely unrelated to Sam... On one hand, it really doesn't make sense. On the other, he asked for "the leader of these people", so that he could show her what he had seen of the fate of the city. It wasn't her prophecy at all - he never said that. It was something he'd seen, and probably only made sense of once he got to see Atlantis. So in that context, it actually makes sense. Dramatically, though? Meh. Waiting two eps for the "big reveal" after all that setup? That's a bit too short.

What I liked about this episode was the emotional part - I really loved the creepy tension and the team drawing together in RepliLantis, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I loved Ronon and John (duplicates or not, they're still Ronon and John!) sparring, and then the five of them being so determined to help Atlantis, even if they themselves won't ever be able to go home there. I loved Zelenka talking to Rodney, and Rodney thanking him, and then John coming to check up on him. Patting him on the back! Because they're dealing with so much loss, and all of this tore open so many wounds that have barely started to scab, much less heal... And I do love the idea of a RepliTeam, somewhere out there, fighting the good fight.

There's more, but I'm probably forgetting it in my stunned "no cliffhanger" reaction. Because - yeah. What happened to the cliffhanger? (Though I won't complain, since this will make the waiting easier, and won't lead to any disappointments a la magically disappearing Ancients in Return!)

[sholio]

Did you read JoeM's version of the original "Teyla and Ronon walking in the forest" scene on his blog. It's SO much better and it actually lets Teyla deal with her sorrow for Elizabeth -- I'm starting to think I'm better off not knowing about the cut scenes because I really, really want them in the show itself!

I'm starting to feel so bad for Rachel Luttrell when there's a group scene and she basically gets "wallpapered" into the background. There were several scenes like that in this episode.

The one thing I think they did right with Teyla in this episode is that, once again, they subtly implied that she's pretty knowledgable about science and technology. She and John didn't even discuss it before she just went over and started operating the medical scanner while he lay down. Presumably this means that she's better at such things than he is, and he knows it. And she's the one who realized that the different stars would have tipped them off that they weren't on the real Lantea (which is very astute; I certainly hadn't thought of that).

The emotional and team stuff was really well done, though -- I keep thinking of little moments that I really liked (including that bit at the end with John coming to check up on Rodney and patting his back ... awwww!). It's really nice to see that they're drawing closer together as the stakes get higher and people keep dying; you could so easily see someone like Rodney or John pulling back, closing themselves off, after losing not one but two close friends in rapid succession, but instead they're going out of their way to look out for each other and show how much they mean to each other. They're still a sweet and adorable little family-of-circumstance, and I'm happy for that.

[naye]

I just did now - the net here has just been down for twelve hours! And - meep. It's so bad - I want that scene so much. For me, that would have taken care of a whole lot of problems! And I would've loved to see more of Ronon being comforting. He does it so well. ♥

The other major problem was also touched upon on the blog, when he says the RepliTeam were trying to escape, but - as a plan, it sucks. It's not what our team would've done, and it totally does come across as them sacrificing themselves for the "real" team. All of them. Which, again, makes no sense - the Rodneys said it themselves, having two of him in the galaxy would be a brilliant asset! So can I just keep pretending they got away? ^^; And might even travel around the galaxy looking for their fellow copies? Because that would be neat!

The one thing I think they did right with Teyla in this episode is that, once again, they subtly implied that she's pretty knowledgable about science and technology.

Oh, yes! I'd noticed that, and really liked it. That, and the stars, and didn't she come with some kind of suggestion when they were all cluttering around Rodney's computer? I think - yes, she mentioned how all the scanner results are entered into the system automatically! Again, displaying her knowledge of Ancient tech - she's made Atlantis her home, and she's getting as apt at reading its signs and understanding how it works as she was with the wilderness of Athos.


I'm starting to feel so bad for Rachel Luttrell when there's a group scene and she basically gets "wallpapered" into the background.

Maybe they're already making an effort to not write too many scenes for Rachel? Out of consideration/just in case? ...I know, it's a stretch, but I so desperately want the writers to be aware of what they're doing, and have some reason for it!

The teamy stuff I loved, though! ♥ Mallozzi can do that. He was doing it in "Reunion", and now again - when they're together, when they have scenes with each other and with other friends outside the team, it really works, for me. (And then he writes even more scenes like that, and they get cut, and I'm sad!)

I also liked the many references to past episodes, the memory the show has for things like Sheppard's healing powers = retrovirus, Sheppard's double and the Doppelganger, and for some reason, they're finally dealing with the loss of Carson being felt more acutely.

The whole bit where Rodney explains that he has to bury himself in work, and how Radek is worried about him, and how John understands only too well himself - for Atlantis, that's practically a full, on-screen therapy session right there! (Which they're handling without having gotten a new psychiatrist.)

you could so easily see someone like Rodney or John pulling back, closing themselves off, after losing not one but two close friends in rapid succession, but instead they're going out of their way to look out for each other and show how much they mean to each other.

And how much do I love that? A whole lot! ♥ I think it's because - Rodney or John might want to do that for themselves, but then they'd leave the others fighting the whole mess of Pegasus galaxy issues and enemies all alone on so many levels, and they just can't do that at this point. Can't. Aww.

[sholio]

Yes ... the references to past episodes, and the character interactions, were wonderful. The first half loses a little impact from knowing that it's not really our guys -- and yet, in some sense it still is; our team loves and trusts each other, and so does the RepliTeam, and awwwww.

I think - yes, she mentioned how all the scanner results are entered into the system automatically!

Aha! I knew there was another scene I was forgetting, and I can't believe I forgot that because it really struck me as technical knowledge that even most of the Atlanteans probably don't have. She knows a lot about how their systems work. I wish the show would address it overtly (even a throwaway line about Rodney or Zelenka teaching her stuff would do!) but I'm very happy for what we're getting.

Like I responded to xparrot's post below, the more I think about it, the more it starts to seem that there really might be more to the dead!RepliTeam scene than meets the eye. It's very interesting that we didn't see what happened when the Replicator shot John, and it cuts away immediately after that. I'm starting to suspect that the writers might be sharper than we think they are *g*, and might have something hidden up their sleeve.

[naye]

I watched it again today, and it was actually lots of fun. A bit talky, but the character interaction is still there, even if they are "copies" - their feelings and actions are still them. The trust, the way they turn to each other when things get totally weird, the support and determination to get away, do some good... yeah. It's them. ♥

I'm really hoping you're right, and the writers do have more up their sleeve! I thought it was definitely set up like that - reminded me of the way Kolya gets shot and falls through the gate, it's... very open-ended, in a way. Especially since none of the others stir when the Asurans board the jumper - but then Sheppard looks up and he's all healed already! So are we really supposed to believe that Ronon was completely knocked out by that blow to the head, despite his nanite-induced super powers? And Teyla? Yeah... I think it's much more likely that they were just waiting until all the Replicators were gathered together in a tight space, and then - bam! Our team + Elizabeth + super powers? They could take them, and kick their little nanite butts! ♥

...I want next episode now! *g*

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Yes! Mostly, I thought they improved upon the draft (and I'm fascinated to see earlier versions), but I thought they totally dropped the ball on that Teyla scene! I wish they'd kept the earlier version!

I think a big part of the problem is that most of the writers, and M&M certainly, will go for humor wherever they can, and sacrifice characterization for it. I think it most often affects Rodney, but the best example I can think of is "The Game"; I can totally understand John and Rodney playing the "game" and ribbing each other about it, and even sometimes getting caught back up in the game once they find out that it wasn't a game. But the episode went much too far: they keep forgetting that there are real people and real lives at stake, and worse, Zelenka and Lorne make the same mistake! Four characters, all of whom behaved out of character to my mind, to make cheap jokes.

Teyla doesn't have a lot of comic moments, and I honestly think that's one of the reasons why they neglect her! The other, of course, is that I don't think they're fully comfortable writing women. Some men can write women, but the writers' room has been a boys' room for far too long, and I think even having a single woman in there might help. (Having fresh blood would also help! Alan McCullough is the newest, and he has been there two or three years now!)

It was the team and friendship material that made me love the episode. I think they could have done better, but I think that every week; this time, I'm happy with what I got.

You and Tipper both write Teyla much better than the show's writers usually do! I'll give them--and Rachel Luttrell--credit for creating the character and giving her some good moments, but she's one of the most neglected characters--and, shoot, the other neglected characters have already been offed! Ford! Carson! Weir!

I found this photo a while back at Atlantica screencaps and thought, "If I were Rachel, I'd be worried!"

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Agree with pretty much everything (big surprise there!) except that the lack of Teyla didn't bother me so much because I'm just resigned to it...they just don't know what the heck they're doing with her (except for Carl Binder). Sigh. Do wish the Teyla-Ronon scene on JM's blog had been kept!

And as far as the RepliTeam's end went, did you see on JM's blog about that? Because he says the plan was never for the RepliTeam to die, they volunteered because they thought they might be able to get away...now if only that had been included in the ep!! (why oh why are M&M still allowed to write for this show? siiiigh!)