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Amazon! \o/
(I *will* answer comments on the last post, btw; it's just that it takes a lot more time and effort to write about serious stuff than fannish stuff, and I've been trying to stay focused today on the original novel that I'm writing. So, it may take me a day or two, but I will get there!)
Meanwhile, my Amazon.com box is here! I now have oodles of books, Continuum, and my SGA Season 4 DVDs.
I loved watching the deleted scenes and wish that we'd been able to have most of them in the episodes. On the other hand, the thing about being a writer as well as a fan is that I know they're *right* -- if the scene doesn't add to the story, it needs to be gone. As a fan, I want to see everything that the characters do; as a writer, I can agree that most of the tag scenes and filler scenes really don't need to be there from a story perspective. (Though I do kinda disagree on "Trio" -- storywise, we *did* need a little bit of transition from Keller/Ronon to Keller/McKay. I realize that, according to real world logic, there's no reason to believe that anything happened between Keller and Ronon after "Quarantine", but in terms of "TV logic", viewers are primed to expect that their scenes in "Quarantine" were a setup for more, and the transition is a bit jarring.)
Random comments on a few individual scenes:
- I've already squeed about the "Ronon as artist" bits, back when Mallozzi posted the deleted scenes from the "Reunion" script on his blog, because that's been personal canon for me for a long time, and I so desperately wanted it to be real canon as well. *sigh* Even though they don't advance the plot, I would have really loved to see that scene and the cut bit in his quarters with Carter stay, because we get so few glimpses of what Ronon's life is like outside his interactions with his teammates; it's sad to lose some of the few bits that have ever been put in to develop that.
- I miss having the extra Caldwell scenes, too, on purely fannish grounds, because I really love Caldwell and the two scenes that were cut both humanized him (not to mention, I was writing about Caldwell having had a failed marriage way back in season 2, and it was almost canon, darn it!). Plus, it was interesting to find out that the Daedalus had gone on permanent Pegasus assignment after the Midway station was built -- so the Daedalus and crew were permanently stationed in Pegasus for, what, half the season? I was really fascinated by that, and I really do wish that they'd kept a line in there somewhere to that effect.
- I'm glad they cut the scene with Ronon mistaking TV for real life -- it's just an uncomfortable, unnecessary gag. I like the idea, and think it's perfectly understandable, that he'd see a science fiction clip and think it was actual news (look what their lives are like!) but it goes on too long and it's way too "primitive is confused by Earth technology, isn't it funny, har" for my liking.
- The bit with Ronon and Sheppard in McKay's quarters at the start of "Miller's Crossing" is one where Writer!Me definitely agrees that the show was stronger without it ... but Fan!Me is sad that it didn't stay. (Wee baby turtles! And teamy teamness!)
Meanwhile, my Amazon.com box is here! I now have oodles of books, Continuum, and my SGA Season 4 DVDs.
I loved watching the deleted scenes and wish that we'd been able to have most of them in the episodes. On the other hand, the thing about being a writer as well as a fan is that I know they're *right* -- if the scene doesn't add to the story, it needs to be gone. As a fan, I want to see everything that the characters do; as a writer, I can agree that most of the tag scenes and filler scenes really don't need to be there from a story perspective. (Though I do kinda disagree on "Trio" -- storywise, we *did* need a little bit of transition from Keller/Ronon to Keller/McKay. I realize that, according to real world logic, there's no reason to believe that anything happened between Keller and Ronon after "Quarantine", but in terms of "TV logic", viewers are primed to expect that their scenes in "Quarantine" were a setup for more, and the transition is a bit jarring.)
Random comments on a few individual scenes:
- I've already squeed about the "Ronon as artist" bits, back when Mallozzi posted the deleted scenes from the "Reunion" script on his blog, because that's been personal canon for me for a long time, and I so desperately wanted it to be real canon as well. *sigh* Even though they don't advance the plot, I would have really loved to see that scene and the cut bit in his quarters with Carter stay, because we get so few glimpses of what Ronon's life is like outside his interactions with his teammates; it's sad to lose some of the few bits that have ever been put in to develop that.
- I miss having the extra Caldwell scenes, too, on purely fannish grounds, because I really love Caldwell and the two scenes that were cut both humanized him (not to mention, I was writing about Caldwell having had a failed marriage way back in season 2, and it was almost canon, darn it!). Plus, it was interesting to find out that the Daedalus had gone on permanent Pegasus assignment after the Midway station was built -- so the Daedalus and crew were permanently stationed in Pegasus for, what, half the season? I was really fascinated by that, and I really do wish that they'd kept a line in there somewhere to that effect.
- I'm glad they cut the scene with Ronon mistaking TV for real life -- it's just an uncomfortable, unnecessary gag. I like the idea, and think it's perfectly understandable, that he'd see a science fiction clip and think it was actual news (look what their lives are like!) but it goes on too long and it's way too "primitive is confused by Earth technology, isn't it funny, har" for my liking.
- The bit with Ronon and Sheppard in McKay's quarters at the start of "Miller's Crossing" is one where Writer!Me definitely agrees that the show was stronger without it ... but Fan!Me is sad that it didn't stay. (Wee baby turtles! And teamy teamness!)
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I agree about most of the scenes not being in the show, in fact, most of them seemed awkward somehow - the extended scene between Carter and Ronon, for example, and Caldwell really did seem to be flirting with Carter on the Daedalus. Having said that, I liked the scene with Sheppard - it showed how much Caldwell has "softened", and how Sheppard responds to that.
I disagree about the TV scene, inasmuch as being glad it wasn't in the show. Yes, it is a bit "primitive is confused by Earth technology", but that's not all I got from it. Ronon's concern and immediate reaction that "we have to help these people" is really touching, even if it's misplaced. Plus it's BSG, a show almost devoid of humour, so having a humorous point made about it has a wonderful irony to it.
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It *does* really say a lot about Ronon that he's gone from a total lone-wolf to someone whose first impulse in a situation like that is to help people. Still glad that scene wasn't in there, though.
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I so mourn the loss of that "Ronon as artist" scene. We've been given so little to play with when we write Ronon (Sateda. Wraith. Revenge. Guns. Fighting. Guns. Fighting. And, yes, I know he's a lot more than that, but quite a lot of episodes and fanfics do reduce him to the snarling hard man who wants to shoot things.) Even in Sunday, when he has time off, his only chosen leisure activity that we see involves sparring. It would have been so great to have had a whole new facet of his personality to explore.
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Of all the clips, the Ronon-as-artist one is the one I wanted most, for purely personal reasons. And it was so SHORT! How hard would it have been to cut another few seconds of the fight scenes to keep that in there? *weeps*
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I didn't like some of Martin Gero's comments, though. I was particularly annoyed to find out that they've "abandoned" the concept of Sheppard being smart enough to be a Mensa candidate, and quite surprised to learn that MG believes that none of the characters like Zelenka.
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See my answer to Ali, above. I more saw that as "I've been wanting to put in a gag about [x]" than "[x] is literally true".
Which is not to say I didn't find the interviews annoying at times. There were times when I really wished they'd just give us the deleted scenes and stop telling us all about them. I tend to find a lot of commentary-type stuff has the same effect on me as the mega-long authors' notes that some people like to stick at the top of their fic -- it doesn't make me want to read the story, it just makes the author sound like an idiot. *g* I prefer to have the work stand on its own, usually.
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The Ronon gag, yeeeeah, especially doesn't work given that he canonically watches scifi movies. That being said, I think it was meant as a meta dig at BSG more than anything else - the writers for the most part do not take the show nearly as seriously as we fans do!
All that being said - I'm just glad we got that "Miller's Crossing" scene in some format. Turtles! team! Scene like that are why I watch this show.
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Yeah ... I tend to cut writers a lot of slack on interviews and such because they're not performers; it's not what they/we do. I know that writers work with words for a living, but that doesn't necessarily translate into public speaking skill. My absolute least favorite question in the world is "What is your book about?" ... because I can pretty much guarantee that I am going to sound like a total blithering idiot when I start talking about it.
At least, even if they consider the character scenes the most extraneous scenes in the episode and the first on the cutting room floor, they do *write* them -- and they did talk about the importance of creating that connection between character and audience. They recognize that it's important to us, and I like knowing that they occasionally think about things like Ronon's life back on Sateda, or whatever -- even if they don't develop it as much as we'd like.
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