From a fellow writer - Please hear me out.

[Easter Lily]

Knife fighting. That’s gotta count as a whole other dimension to her character.

You mean as well as the long, flowing locks...? We mustn't forget that.

[macktheknife]

My thoughts are whats the point? What will ford do when "demoted"? Be the reserve security officer? Be the quartermaster? Adding some dude wont help the fact they havent written for Ford or Teyla.

I would prefer Teyla get chopped, i went through the whole season, and thought the only dud episode was the gift, and the team would have to explore without a cheat sheet, so to speak, on what each culture does and has.

I think Beckett on atlantis has had much more screen time than fraiser did on sg1, and weir has the time you would expect of hammond, but a more of a focus on her character rather than command, basically because they all live on the planet, she's their all the time. Basically the time Beckett takes up, reduces the time that Ford gets on the show, especially as he is just a military dude. In SG1, big T got very few lines, and the problems were solved between Carter and Daniel depending on what they are, in this, McKay is solving the problems, Sheppard is the Jack type, Ford does nothing except stand their and be on guard or shoot at stuff, and Teyla does the Daniel type guide role. But with Tealc you could do episodes on his struggle against the False Gods, with ford you cant.

[Easter Lily]

My point of view is that the problem with Ford's character isnt that he's poorly writen or acted- his character just doesnt have a lot to work with. Ford is to Atlantis as Barney is to Half Life. Frankly it's not suprising that this is the outcome in the first season.

It seems to me that the writers/producers/powers see this and are pulling a daniel jackson on Ford in Season 2, and I think that's great. Ford's character needs to go through some trials and tribulations, much like how O'Neill had a past with covert ops/Iraq and Sheppard's universal scorn by his commanding officers about his past involving disobeying orders- a trait that has already caused him friction with Weir. Ford's character simply couldnt have done the same things. He's to wet behind the ears.

I find it kind of dissapointing that the powers that be dont take this opportunity to flesh out Ford in an arc over season 2, but I can also see the advantage in cuting his character down in order to give the character time to gain a bit of mystery and wisdom with whatever it is he has to endure.

-2 cents from a gateworld forum noob

What you say makes a lot of sense to me. While I like Ford's character, I do thing that he does need to be pushed outside the envelope and it probably isn't going to happen if he remains in Sheppard's shadow. I suppose I've seen this kind of thing happen in B5 and it has worked very well. Not many scifi shows switches commanding officers after one season, takes characters out (Lyta) completely and then bring them back or introduce new dominant characters for a couple of seasons (Marcus). As Atlantis is much more of an arc based show so I think it could work...

Good first post...

[ShadowMaat]

Teyla is also kept around so she can wear the short skirts that ride up when she's "fighting".

You can tell that she's being written by a bunch of men.

[macktheknife]

Bah, those men are deluded, I can't stand her. She is as wooden as keanu reeves, and is not alien enough to be the "token" alien, and somehow mastered earth tactics in a week or so? Bah. Need Jonas Quinn to come to the rescue. Maybe the Jonas Quinn People accidentally dial the gate, and he still has something that lets him come through, or the shield doesnt have enough power or something.

[ShadowMaat]

Jonas will never be seen and rarely (if ever) mentioned on Stargate ever again. *sigh*

It WOULD be nice, though. Jonas obviously has something "special" about him, and I'm inclined to hink he has the Ancient gene. Maybe even a few of them.

Unfortunately, he's also a white boy, so he isn't exotic enough to play a "real" alien. And while I find him plenty attractive, he isn't female, and it seems pretty obvious that TPTB want a sexy alien chick on the main cast.

Of course, Corin is not unfamiliar with wearing women's clothing (for roles, of course), but I think it's probably best not to go there.

[impulsivelad]

Unfortunately, he's also a white boy, so he isn't exotic enough to play a "real" alien. And while I find him plenty attractive, he isn't female, and it seems pretty obvious that TPTB want a sexy alien chick on the main cast.

I know you were trying to be cutesy and funny with this post, but I honestly do think they shouldn't dump her and work on her character because she is female. We have too many males on this show. I really wouldn't want Weir to drown in testosterone one of these day! Teyla as one of only two females needs more attention. The writers should spend a little more time in fleshing her out because she's being overshadowed by the boys (and even though Weir has grown as a character, the boys still greatly outshine her.) This show could really use a female writer....sigh.

And please, nobody mention Sora... she completely sucked.

[ShadowMaat]

There was a very interesting discussion in Gen Disc a while back about whether or not the writers were sexist. I lot of interesting points were made on all sides, but the one I particularly liked was something to the effect that the writers need to learn how to write really great characters who happen to be female, not females who also happen to be great (or in this case, maybe not-so-great) characters. Gender shouldn't be an issue, in other words. Don't emphasize the hormones, emphasize the person inside. That needs to be done on Atlantis, too. Very much so, in Teyla's case.

And it'd be nice to see a few more strong characters who happen to be female. I'm with you- Sora doesn't count. She's like the hysterical flighty girl who took kickboxing lessons to make her look tough, but she's still an hysterical flighty girl.

[LordAnubis]

I know you were trying to be cutesy and funny with this post, but I honestly do think they shouldn't dump her and work on her character because she is female. We have too many males on this show. I really wouldn't want Weir to drown in testosterone one of these day! Teyla as one of only two females needs more attention. The writers should spend a little more time in fleshing her out because she's being overshadowed by the boys (and even though Weir has grown as a character, the boys still greatly outshine her.) This show could really use a female writer....sigh.

And please, nobody mention Sora... she completely sucked.

Don't say Sora and sucked in the same sentence dude! She was soooo hot! Man, I love her! Hey, I love Teyla. Personally, I'd love to see an SG team comprised of only females! Man, I'd love that!

[DownFallAngel]

Don't say Sora and sucked in the same sentence dude! She was soooo hot! Man, I love her! Hey, I love Teyla. Personally, I'd love to see an SG team comprised of only females! Man, I'd love that!

SG-Amazon Squad?

[Easter Lily]

Jonas will never be seen and rarely (if ever) mentioned on Stargate ever again. *sigh*

It WOULD be nice, though. Jonas obviously has something "special" about him, and I'm inclined to hink he has the Ancient gene. Maybe even a few of them.

Unfortunately, he's also a white boy, so he isn't exotic enough to play a "real" alien. And while I find him plenty attractive, he isn't female, and it seems pretty obvious that TPTB want a sexy alien chick on the main cast.

Of course, Corin is not unfamiliar with wearing women's clothing (for roles, of course), but I think it's probably best not to go there.

I want Jonas back too... he added a whole new dimension to Season 6 but that's another story...

I thought they did the alien thing with Jonas much better... because in his case, everything was interesting to him. He was like a wide-eyed child, in awe of his new surroundings, trying to adapt to a new culture. In Shadow Play, you could really feel the agony of him being on the other side of the table... not really feeling that he belongs in one place or the other. The whole displacement thing. I'm only sorry that they didn't play it out more. Teyla, I feel, adopted earth culture far too readily... she should be more like Leela of Dr Who... more questioning of the new culture. I don't mean that they should dumb her down but they should differentiate her from Weir or Sheppard a lot more... If they wanted to make her an angry alien chick, they should have done it from the beginning.