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Navel-baring pants and the Athosians who wear them
It's times like this that I suspect I spend WAY too much time obsessing on the finer points of TV canon and not nearly enough time thinking about other things, like where I put my passport for the trip I'm taking in two days...
But still.
Back when Return aired, I remember that someone's episode commentary (can't remember whose) pointed out that when Teyla is wearing Athosian-style clothes, her pants come all the way up to the bottom of her blouse; the infamous midriff-baring shirt actually ... isn't.
And I was watching Suspicion yesterday with that in the back of my brain, and darned if it doesn't go all the way back to the beginning of the show. The traditional Athosian style that she wears is very chaste, especially with that long coat on top of it; it's only when she starts mixing Athosian clothes with Earth clothes that she ends up, accidentally, with a look that's sort of unintentionally "hot alien babe"-ish, because Earth pants are cut too damn low for all of her shirts.
It's so very intentional-looking that it makes me think someone in the production department was actually thinking about this. Which is very cool, actually. For all the show's flaws, every once in a while you run into a nifty little detail like that, where you start to think about the "why" of something they do and it actually makes *sense*.
But still.
Back when Return aired, I remember that someone's episode commentary (can't remember whose) pointed out that when Teyla is wearing Athosian-style clothes, her pants come all the way up to the bottom of her blouse; the infamous midriff-baring shirt actually ... isn't.
And I was watching Suspicion yesterday with that in the back of my brain, and darned if it doesn't go all the way back to the beginning of the show. The traditional Athosian style that she wears is very chaste, especially with that long coat on top of it; it's only when she starts mixing Athosian clothes with Earth clothes that she ends up, accidentally, with a look that's sort of unintentionally "hot alien babe"-ish, because Earth pants are cut too damn low for all of her shirts.
It's so very intentional-looking that it makes me think someone in the production department was actually thinking about this. Which is very cool, actually. For all the show's flaws, every once in a while you run into a nifty little detail like that, where you start to think about the "why" of something they do and it actually makes *sense*.
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The dress she wears in (crap, I can't remember what it's called - season 2, bomb, Charin, she sings) - ah no, got it "Critical Mass" (!) is perfectly decent too. Was it you whose sister saw the same dress in a shop somewhere?
The flaws make it fun. When you can sit there and got "but personal shields don't work that way" (though Mallozzi has tried explaining it away saying "Grodin got it wrong")
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SGA does have flaws and forget things, but they get things right plenty of times.
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Although I suspect it's more casual-unexpected than intentional. But I'm a cynic that way. :)
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Oh yeah, and I certainly don't think the way she normally dresses is inappropriate. For someone who is athletic and unselfconscious of her body, it only makes sense that she would wear light, comfortable clothes and not worry too much about whether she's showing an undue amount of skin.
I suppose it mainly strikes me as a neat detail because it seems like someone behind the scenes thought about the "why" of the situation rather than sticking her in a short shirt to give the fanboys something to drool over. *g* (Not that I mind, considering that there is absolutely no shortage of male eye candy on this show.)
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I'm pretty sure the shield thing is a total continuity error. Not that one can't come up with a way to explain it if one tries hard enough (sort of like I've been doing with some of the other continuity goofs, over on your blog, such as the Rodney's apartment one).
Back in the day -- "the day" being the 70s/80s, Marvel Comics used to award No-Prizes (http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq11204.html) to fans who came up with explanations for obvious continuity errors. (See link for explanation -- the link probably explains the whole concept more quickly and concisely than I can.) The point, though, is that I'm thinking *every* canon has its goofs, and every goof has some sort of explanation that works within the context of the world (even if it's a very convoluted one). But the writer probably wasn't thinking of the explanation when they wrote it. *g*
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Nitpicking the flaws is part of the fun of fandom. I always liked the philosophical way that Red Dwarf fans approached it, because they had to deal with a canon that was so massively full of continuity errors that it was perfectly obvious the writers of the show simply threw in whatever jokes they felt like, or whatever props were lying around the BBC backlot, without regard for little things like internal consistency. The fans just had a ball finding the mistakes, explanations be damned.
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I've always gotten the impression, however, that the Athosians are fairly restrained with public displays of emotion and affection. Most of what we've seen about them tends to indicate this, including the very formal "head-hugs" which seem to take the place of hugs in public. It's taken Teyla *years* to loosen up enough to joke with her teammates.
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And I've also discovered that that concept gets a pretty hard workout in just about every show I follow. *g*
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Since Teyla (and a few other Athosians) have mentioned being traders originally), and as leader she's probably quite familiar with formalities and protocol and it probably makes sense to be formal in public. She may see wearing part of the Atlantis uniform as a compromise between or indicative of her two roles ('Underground').
Sorry for the long-winded explanantion.