Teyla is the problem in Atlantis

[waywardsage]

Look,

It's not because she's a girl. I actually think she's incredibly hot. But, character wise, she was never really fleshed out. And she just seemed like dead weight all the way up until recently with her "pregnancy storyline." Now i know that the producers did this because the actress was pregnant. But lets be honest. Teyla was never a really useful character in Atlantis.

I'd always wished they'd brought an actual Atlantean onto the cast. It would be interesting. Teal'c was the alien on SG-1. It just would have made more sense to have an Atlantean.

But overall, I REALLY tried to like Teyla's character but she was just always written badly.

Thoughts?

[Jeff O'Connor]

I'm going to wait for a bit to give you a full-scale response, until after there's more of a discussion on the matter and I can compare and contrast as I oh-so-love to do.

But I'll say this for the time being:

Look,

It's not because she's a girl. I actually think she's incredibly hot.

'I actually think she's incredibly hot.' That just makes you sound like you breathe stereotypical male, in which case, a lot of people will feel your opinion is skewed and ruined from the get-go. 'I actually think she's incredibly hot.' What the heck does that have anything to do with things? Had she been hideous but well-written, would you suddenly have felt differently about her acting skills? I don't get it.

[any_gopher]

Yeah, that was kind of weird.

[ShadowMaat]

I'm ignoring the whole "it isn't because she's a girl" thing as being too immature to warrant a detailed response.

As for the rest of it... Teyla is the problem on Atlantis? I think not. IMO Teyla is only a small part of a much larger problem, one that centers on the writing itself. I'd also disagree that she has never been useful- I think she served some purpose in S1, but for the most part yeah, I feel that she has been ignored by writers and characters alike. Both she and Ronon are the resident aliens (and part of the "hotness factor" for fans) and both of them have a lifetime of experience dealing with the Wraith and with the various quirks of the Pegasus Galaxy, but whenever they speak up about it or try to offer suggestions they get patted on the head and sent to the corner (also known as the B-plot) while the Heroes of Earth proceed to royally screw up everything around them.

I don't think Teyla has been fleshed out very well, either, and the whole baby plot has been handled in the usual ham-fisted way of TPTB, much to the detriment of an already underdeveloped character. Teyla isn't to blame, she's just a victim, here.

[waywardsage]

Look, i'm not a stereotypical male. What i meant was, she was obviously cast because she's an attractive woman. And she was the "7 of 9" of Atlantis. My point is, that her hotness does not make up for the fact that her acting is poor, and the writing for the character is sub par.

I'm not speaking from a stereotypical view, i'm saying that the obviously cast her to attract that segment, but it didn't help because of the reasons I stated above.

[Bareassedmunky]

1. She swings between being strong warrior (Jack) and being the conscience (daniel) figure. This inconsistency made her unbelievable as a character.

2. She was creepy - her mannerisms were odd and unnatural. She over expressed herself. I'm not sure if this was the way the character was written or the way she acted it.

3. Her and ronan made half the team being alien - I prefer my token character's to be actually token rather than make up half the main cast. I had the same objection to jonas, even though I liked his character being from earth would have been better


That being said, I don't think you could blame her for the cancellation - especially as it's cancellation had nothing to do with ratings or popularity.


4. I agree that highlighting her attractiveness was out of place but, and I don't care either way (I think if you want to watch something for the sake of sexual titillation, watch proper porn) but as it has been brought up she isn't that hot, she is a little too butch for my liking and like I said before, her mannerisms are creepy

[Moao]

To be honest, i love how she is "creepy" I also love how she is with kanann (sorry about that spelling murder).

I was worried from that start that they were going to stick her and John tougher, but they didn't (yay) and i think (correct me if im wrong) but she is the only person I can think of in stargate who has a stable relationship going.

So blaming the unique alien who seems to be the only one capable of a relationship is most likely a bad idea.

As for the whole hotness thing. I think most of the people on the team and even the show it self are very pretty. If they were casting her to make her a sex object for guys I doubt they would have put her into a relationship and have a child, that seems to turn guys off.

[morjana]

Look,

It's not because she's a girl. I actually think she's incredibly hot. But, character wise, she was never really fleshed out. And she just seemed like dead wait all the way up until recently with her "pregnancy storyline." Now i know that the producers did this because the actress was pregnant. But lets be honest. Teyla was never a really useful character in Atlantis.

I'd always wished they'd brought an actual Atlantean onto the cast. It would be interesting. Teal'c was the alien on SG-1. It just would have made more sense to have an Atlantean.

But overall, I REALLY tried to like Teyla's character but she was just always written badly.

Thoughts?

You know it's very hard to take someone's opinion with any "wait" when they don't even know how to spell weight.

I always thought of Teyla as the Sacajawea of the Atlantis team. I thought it was perfect, as 2004 (the year SGA premiered) was the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the historic Lewis & Clark awesome, amazing, and incredible exploration of the Louisiana Territory purchase.

In any case, Teyla and the Athosians are direct descendants of the Atlanteans...as are the people from Earth.

I've enjoyed Rachel Luttrell's performances, and I've enjoyed Teyla as a character, and I look forward to celebrating the remaining NEW season five episodes, and look forward to the Stargate Atlantis movie...and hopefully movieS.

[waywardsage]

You know it's very hard to take someone's opinion with any "wait" when they don't even know how to spell weight.

I always thought of Teyla as the Sacajawea of the Atlantis team. I thought it was perfect, as 2004 (the year SGA premiered) was the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the historic Lewis & Clark awesome, amazing, and incredible exploration of the Louisiana Territory purchase.

In any case, Teyla and the Athosians are direct descendants of the Atlanteans...as are the people from Earth.

I've enjoyed Rachel Luttrell's performances, and I've enjoyed Teyla as a character, and I look forward to celebrating the remaining NEW season five episodes, and look forward to the Stargate Atlantis movie...and hopefully movieS.

I fixed it. And thanks for being a total tool and pointing it out in such a snarky fashion.

[ShadowMaat]

Oh, sweet irony. Thanks for illustrating the point I made on the age thread, sage.

[TheLastSunset]

I never really had any particular liking for her character. In the show, she has never worked, in my opinion. I actually even thought Ford worked better than her as a character.

[Gollumpus]

Any problems with Atlantis are mostly due to writing, story arcs and the natural evolution of the show, not any one particular character (or actor).

Teyla is the Neelix of Stargate. Her character filled a necessary "native" guide/advisor role for the first 1 - 2 seasons, and yes, she was also there to provide "eye candy". After a period of time, her initial importance in any sort of on-going story arc was doomed to be minimized as events moved beyond the character's frame of reference.

Her importance was reduced even further with the introduction of the Ronon character. Teyla has experience of a limited number of worlds. Ronon has been out as a "Runner" for seven years and seems to have experience of a greater number of worlds. While Teyla is smarter, and by far the better diplomat of the two, this hasn't been used very often. Ronon gets to shoot things every episode.

What sort of role does Teyla fill by season three? She is mostly there in a combat role which could as easily be played by a series of different actors. Anything specific to the Teyla character are rarely used. Yes, there are a few episodes which actually require what the Teyla character brings to the show, but they are getting fewer and fewer.

regards,
G.

[Fedtekansler]

Look, i'm not a stereotypical male. What i meant was, she was obviously cast because she's an attractive woman. And she was the "7 of 9" of Atlantis. My point is, that her hotness does not make up for the fact that her acting is poor, and the writing for the character is sub par.

I'm not speaking from a stereotypical view, i'm saying that the obviously cast her to attract that segment, but it didn't help because of the reasons I stated above.

This statement just confirms the first you wrote, lol...

[Mclean]

After season 1 Teyla became a passenger to the show as she no longer needed to help them find their feet in the Pegasus Galaxy! And all her real usefullness came from her intruducing them to primitive traders and after that she sort of fell into a presence role.

I also agree that Teyla and Ronan's lack of understanding of technology (they are from fairly primitive worlds) is highlighted a lot by writers. All their suggestions and ideas are given a back seat and not taken seriously.

[MechaThor]

Teyla and Ronan are not the problem. Infact I think both of them work very well in the shows current format.

The Problem for Atlantis was timing and the Sci-fi Network