Goodbye Teyla hello Cadman.

[the dancer of spaz]

I merely pointed out that wanting a new character because the old ones aren't "hot" enough is ridiculous. Plus, I hear that tons of men think Teyla is hot, so not only is the point silly, but it's completely subjective. However, I've edited my previous post in case my point wasn't clear.

Oh, dude. Sorry. I was totally agreeing with your original assessment. That was just me and my innate (and evidently illegible) sarcasm. I totally understood where you were coming from with what you said.

[RoryJ]

No harm, no foul! I figured we both got lost in translation for a moment there!

[kkfan]

Ok I'm sure we've all noticed the back seating of Teyla lately, who agrees that TPTB should just go ahead and get rid of her somehow, and replace her with someone like maybe Cadman. Cadman was an awesome Character and would make a gerat addition to the team IMO.

yah, they should do that

[ladysarah]

However, the casual viewer, or someone who doesn't already like a character, isn't going to do this because it requires too much effort. That's why people can be fans of characters that you never thought twice about and hate characters that you think are incredible.

What I would love to see across the board is some indication that the writers have developed a character bible for each character (including recurring) because that's the only way we'll get any substantive character development.

You make a brilliant point. Let's face it, SGA is not a character driven show, and it shows.

Us fans have to take the crumbs that are thrown our way. We've had bits and pieces of every character, (aside from Sheppard, who is just a sucking hole of 'who is he?'.

That's it' easy to confuse fanon from canon in this fandom.

[ladysarah]

Watch out with that statement..others on this board have been attacked, by other posters for having this exact same view. They claimed it was sexist to even suggest it. So be careful of possible backlash, !

I don't know. It's a valid point. Some male writers can't write women characters, not everyone can be Whedon (but then again, some people debate Whedon's characterisation of woman as well).

It would be nice to have a woman on board the writing team.

(yo, TPTB try Liz Friedman, she's brill.)

But maybe it has less to do with the gender of the writers, then the percieved demographics of the audience, if they think most of the viewers are men, then they are going to write a certain way to please that demographic...

[Easter Lily]

Me, I love Teyla. I don't want to see her go. But I'd also like to see more of Cadman, and yes, I think that all the characters need development as Maxbo said. But that might be the price we pay for a plot driven show.

I think that's basically it... it is a plot driven show, certainly more so in S2 than it was in S1.

I'm not convinced that the problem with character development lies with the fact that there are too many main characters. My feeling is that the character development is not deliberately incorporated into the overall narrative structure. I apologize for dragging out Firefly once again. But here was a show that had 9 main characters (3 of which were women) and after a mere 14 episodes, we get a very good sense of who they are or might be. Babylon 5 is another good example of an ensemble cast in which every character was distinct and interesting.
Furthermore, I don't think the gender of the writer have a great deal to do with it. Again, consider Firefly and B5... predominantly male writers.

It's no big secret that McKay is the blue eyed boy on Atlantis but the show needs to be written for all fans not just a segment of fandom (even if it is a sizeable one).
It can be done... occasionally we catch glimpses of it but it really boils down to TPTB having the will to do it.

[Willow'sCat]

Actually if you notice what I said...I just mentioned episodes..Ididn't sit there and go into the details of accounts.

Well I only skimmed so I may have not picked that up... Anyho; I still stand by what I said, for the casual viewer you would be asking what is she there for? Yes she is strong and can fight, so being on the team I understand plus being alien makes her able to communicate better with the other alien cultures *apparently*.

But a small snipped here and there does not in my mind make a whole of character, we have had one real episode dedicated to her, not counting the all singing one as it bored the life out of me, CM full stop was a boring silly silly episode IMHO.

So like Ford before her and Weir to this day, what is the point of the character?

She is no more an ethical balance now then Carson. In The Tower

Spoiler:

she made IMO a really bad decision to go along with Ronon, it was out of character if her character indeed is one of leadership, morality and caring. Maybe it isn't, maybe she is no more ethical then the rest of SGA, if push comes to shove she too may go with murder/torture rather then talking.

Now as for off-topic and needing female writers. I think if you are a good writer it shouldn't matter if the gender of the character is different to your own. Now TPTB can take that anyway they like but far be it for me to suggest they are not good writers. Mostly because GW would Mod that comment, heck they may Mod this one anyway.

I still say Joss Whedon writes well for female characters or at least as well as the female writers on Buffy/Angel did, so it is possible and many TV shows with strong female leads still have majority male writers as there are more male writers being employed in the industry *or so it seems* my only caveat on that would be females may come up with a slightly different concept then male writers or may like to see the character go in a different direction then male writers but again it is still IMHO more about writing ability full stop then gender. Also lets remember the scripts go through a lot of stages and reviews and they are often done by males, working to another agenda. That being, the show as a whole, not as seen from the perspective of one character, or what one writer might like at this stage to do with a character. Look at Epiphany, back-story black hole even though JF *apparently* wanted that, TPTB vetoed it in favour of a watered down version of SG-1's One Hundred Days. *don't hit me*

[Gilgamesh]

Just to toss around some of my own thoughts.

I like Teyla well enough, but as a leader, she seems to be more figurehead like a Queen in a Parliamentary system of government, than a day-to-day leader like a Prime Minister. Or, another analogy might be more Chairman of the Board than CEO.

Cadman is interesting too, and I keep waiting for some fallout from Duet. I mean, come on! Literally being inside McKay’s head had to be more intimate than sex, and more intimate than many married couples ever achieve. And when Cadman was ready to give up and die, McKay kept hard at work and saved her. That’s got to count for something! In the very least, Cadman ought to be conflicted now in her interest in Dr. Beckett vs her intimacy with McKay. Never mind how weirded out McKay may feel, after being inside his head, Cadman has a better understanding of him than any other woman he will ever meet.

And besides, Cadman got to see McKay naked. When is she going to return the favor? Think how badly it would freak out McKay if Cadman flashed him.

[Beal]

I've got to agree with some of the posters in here. Until Vala came along it seemed like every female character came from the same mold. It worked with Carter because she was the original, thats HER character, but then Weir and Teyla came along and it seemed like they were exactly the same. Calm, measured, always diginified, honestly it makes for a boring watch. Weir has had her moments when she's fighting with the man, but Teylas never had her equivilant.