Why did Vala get so much attention?

[jckfan55]

This is such a pathetic excuse. After all, they rewrote pretty much the whole 10th season to deal with Claudia's real life pregnancy just so they could get her back on the show. I will never believe that writers who consider themselves to be such wonderful craftsmen could do that for one actress, while dismissing the other with a pathetic "we don't know what to do with her character". Perhaps the writers should have considered turning on a few more of their brain cells in order to get a few more good ideas?

And iirc, they wouldn't even decrease Claudia's days/hours when she asked due to exhaustion.

Carter was, IMHO, too good of a character for the spoof fest Coop wanted to make. Coop didn't need CHARACTERS for his 'new and improved show' he needed CARICATURES. He needed cliches and plot devices. He didn't want to make Top Gun, he wanted to make Hot Shots.

[Snowman37]

Didn't Claudia Black have a pregnancy scare during The Ark of Truth? This resulted in reduced set time for Continuum. I hate that we didn't get to see Vala follow SG-1 to the original timeline. Imagine if Vala had come face to face with herself possessed by Quetesh. That'd make for a powerful scene, no?

[fems]

Carter was, IMHO, too good of a character for the spoof fest Coop wanted to make. Coop didn't need CHARACTERS for his 'new and improved show' he needed CARICATURES. He needed cliches and plot devices. He didn't want to make Top Gun, he wanted to make Hot Shots.

Also, seeing how AT already refused to wear skimpy clothing for Sam in the beginning (since the character was a soldier/scientist and not some sexed up female), I really doubt TPTB could have convinced her to go along with said 'spoof fest' too.

On a related note, I can totally understand why AT chose Sanctuary over SGA's fifth season with how they had been treating Carter for the past few years...

[Schmacky]

And iirc, they wouldn't even decrease Claudia's days/hours when she asked due to exhaustion.

Yeah, that's pretty messed up. I think she and her husband were both really sick, the baby was sick, and they had no family support having recently moved there, she asked for reduced hours and they said no because the scripts had already been written. Yowch, that would blow.

On a related note, I can totally understand why AT chose Sanctuary over SGA's fifth season with how they had been treating Carter for the past few years...

I was never fond of SGA and only watched the 4th season because Carter was in it. I would have loved for her to be on the 5th but cannot blame AT for choosing to start up Sanctuary. She was so limited with Stargate the last few years as an actress, couldn't blame anyone for moving on from that point.

Still annoyed how crappy they treated her character at the end though.. *shakes head* Getting replaced by Woolsey? For doing a damn good job? What the... *sigh* Sorry, I'm sure it's been hashed about a lot on here.

[RealmOfX]

Didn't Claudia Black have a pregnancy scare during The Ark of Truth? This resulted in reduced set time for Continuum. I hate that we didn't get to see Vala follow SG-1 to the original timeline. Imagine if Vala had come face to face with herself possessed by Quetesh. That'd make for a powerful scene, no?

No, not with the juvenile writing that infected Stargate once Cooper became an EP. Sure the potential was there but the later years of Stargate proved that they simply didn't use that potential and would opt for the cheap, low brow, crass version every time.

I always got the impression that as the years went on Stargate was being written via network notes. Throw a whole lot of buzz words and "oh this works on this show" into a hat, draw out a handful and stitch them into a script.

The show was doomed once Cooper floated to the top of the feeding chain, you can't expect much from someone who actually thinks SG-1 is "a bunch of screwups". I guess that's why his two new caricatures (Vala & Cam) were totally unsuited to being on SG-1.

[Skydiver]

SG1 and the SGC were never screwups. THey were humans tossed into an almost unbeleivable situation who made their way through the best that they could, often making it up as they went along.
They were NEVER screwups. They may have fumbled, they may have failed, they may have made mistakes - gee like real people, but they were never screwups.

And hte fact that coop thought that is a very good reason things ended as they did. Obviously he didn't have a firm grasp on the show he was running.

[Dave2]

Before SG1 was cancelled half way through Season 10, did the producers have scripts for a Season 11, and does anyone know what those included?

[gateraid]

A very good question. Not so far as I've heard, although I gather they 'sped up' the telling of the Ori arc in the last few episodes of s10. The general rule of thumb is that they don't write anything if they're not going to get paid for it. It's possible they had an outline of what they wanted to do/achieve in s11, but no actual scripts.

[Skydiver]

That's what I would think...some 'we can do this....' notes but nothing more. Ark of Truth is the closest to a continuation that there is.

[Snowman37]

I found it to be a satisfying conclusion. What about ya'll?

[RealmOfX]

I found it to be a satisfying conclusion. What about ya'll?

I thought it was trite, boring rubbish. Coop is good at copying other people's style but since he has none himself anything produced and directed by him has no heart or originality or substance. I tend to think of him in terms of he's a half decent technician rather than an artist.

Vala got so much attention because of Coop, he was bored and wanted something new to destroy do. According to him SG-1 were a bunch of screwups and the show a comedy. He threw around all the industry buzz words and tried to fool people that he was writing/creating a new, innovative, "breath of fresh air" series. What he was doing instead was systematically destroying a show, writing for the lowest common denominator with base humour, scripts with plot holes galore and calling anyone who didn't think he was brilliant, names. Sad thing was, he again tried to do it with SGU. I'm not sure what he tried to do to Transporter but he disappeared from that series 5 eps in along with M&M.

[jckfan55]

can't green ya.

[Skydiver]

Coop and M&M are very, very confident in their own abilities...unfortunately they have yet to find a venue with a fanbase that agrees with them.

[Mrja84]

First I loved season 9 & 10. It was very dark and pushed the show up against an impossible enemy. Of course as what became common place, solutions sometimes came from nowhere like the wormhole drive, etc.

However...

New characters get attention because they're new.. we don't know about them. We don't know their history. I don't begrudge the show for giving attention to Vala (or Mitchell for that matter). They're new and I wanted to know about them.

However, I didn't like how they introduced Mitchell (even though I started watching the entire series because of Farscape). This dude comes out of nowhere and we spend SO much time on him at the beginning of the season... why should we care about him? I didn't at that point. I wanted to know where Carter was (she was my fave at that point). And I really disliked Mitchell for basically taking Carter's place.

As far as Vala goes.. them spending so much time on her, I didn't mind at all because she was such a completely different character than any of the others. She was interesting and I wanted to know more about her.

I liked both Vala and Mitchell. Mitchell was the right choice as a lead for the show as he was there at the beginning (S9E1) and he provided the questions for the fans, Who? What? Where? When? and How?

I accept the dual-leadership explanation. Officially by the military he may be the lead, but on the field you always let the most experience person take charge whether it be scientific, archeological, or Goa'uld.

Whose to say he doesn't have experience of on the ground tactics? I know I was upset with Sheppard being placed in command in Atlantis because all we saw was him as a pilot and never saw or heard of any training the SGC did with expedition members.

So I gave Mitchell the benefit of a doubt. Plus, since he was already apart of the SGC command structure as an F-302 squadron leader he could have been threw the stargate before, but to what extent we don't know.

It's never been stated whether he's been apart of an SG team, which if he was, they would/should have mentioned it when he first appeared.

Claudia and Michael had great chemistry in Prometheus Unbound and the creative team took notice of that. I loved their scenes because they worked so well off each other. It was great very Daniel get angry and assertive while being pushed and pulled by her and vice-versa.

I don't know what happened behind the scenes and no one's provided links so I'm not assuming anything. Vala only became a huge part of the show when S10 came around. as she joined full-time.

I'm glad they broke up the dynamic and added new personalities. After 8 years the show needed new blood. And I absolutely loved Landry and Lam. I think the only reason they didn't get more time on the show is new to pressure from the networks and once the cancellation was announced, they had to take a back sit to the team.

Besides, I would have been curious to see Dr. Lam and Mitchell's chemistry as had been hinted at a future possibility.

[Snowman37]

Landry was pretty front and center as the rest of the main cast during Seasons 9&10. As for Lam, wasn't the actress on maternity leave?