Col. Steven Caldwell

[PG15]

I think that Joe Mallozzi must not like to use the ships as often since the ship use dropped dramatically when he took over last year, although I have always liked his work on SG-1 and Atlantis before, this seems to be one thing he wanted to change. That and switching Atlantis back to running on Naqahdah generators instead of the ZPM for day to day use.

Vala,

That would make sense, given...

Anonymous #1 writes: “In the past, you've expressed your dislike for "ships" on SGA. Is this a general dislike for writing those kind of relationships in general or just those present on SGA?”

Answer: Actually, I was referring to spaceships and, at the end of the day, not the spaceships per se but their all-too-convenient beaming technology.

http://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/.../april-3-2007/

[Jeff O'Connor]

I definitely agree with Joe on that one.

[Alipeeps]

True enough. It can be too much of a deus ex machina to always have them beamed out in the nick of time.

It removes any possible drama from the situation if you can always say, "Well, just get the Daedalus to beam them out." If that solution is always available then there's no threat and no danger and no tension.

[jenks]

*sigh* That's not what a Deus ex machina is. Though I agree it's a pain, it's easily avoidable.

[Alipeeps]

*sigh* That's not what a Deus ex machina is. Though I agree it's a pain, it's easily avoidable.

A deus ex machina (Latin IPA: [?de?us eks ?ma?k?ina] (literally "god out of a machine") is an improbable contrivance in a story. The phrase describes an artificial, or improbable, character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot (such as an angel suddenly appearing to solve problems, or the entire story having been just a dream one of the characters was having).

I said it's a deus ex machina to have them always beamed out in the nick of time. That fits the definition of an implausible/improbable contrivance - that the ship should always arrive JUST at the right moment, when all hope seems lost etc...