S5: Critique and Contemplations

[Linda06]

I pretty much liked and disliked the same things you did, except it felt like there was a Daniel and McKay overload. Way too much standing around talking, and to make it even worse it was all played for laughs. Where's the suspense?

I hated the idea of yet another recycled enemy. It's a whole new galaxy and they just have to dredge up the Asgard? There was no purpose for it either -- except the "shock" value I'd imagine. Some tough enemy. Daniel and Rodney talked them to death. (I'm a bit vague on that since there were large portions where my mind wandered.)

I'll add that I hated John being stuck with the Travelers again. This one was far better than Larrin, but they still come off like a bunch of Barbies. What do they do, hold a beauty pageant to see who gets to be in charge? They're supposed to be so tough, yet they come off as flakey.

Keller ordereing Ronon around was infuriating. Suddenly the weak little girl who's afraid to set foot off Atlantis is telling Ronon how to run a mission. He must have been giving her lessons in strategy and weapons handling in between those self-defense classes

Again, Teyla gets left behind to babysit the city...or the baby.. or something.

What a way to waste the build up from FC.

Don't you know. Keller can do everything now. Everyone else can go home now

Yes a sad sad truth. Teyla gets left behind again to babysit something, someone, whatever is lying around at the time. Well on the bright side she can spend more time with the other invisible babysitter

And the sadder part is even Keller gets in on the action Who's the leading female again? Cause i'm damn sure it was never Teyla in all the five seasons i've seen

[Cautious Explorer]

Don't you know. Keller can do everything now. Everyone else can go home now

Yes a sad sad truth. Teyla gets left behind again to babysit something, someone, whatever is lying around at the time. Well on the bright side she can spend more time with the other invisible babysitter

And the sadder part is even Keller gets in on the action Who's the leading female again? Cause i'm damn sure it was never Teyla in all the five seasons i've seen

You have to realize, Linda that mothers can't be leads. The lead has to be a sexy woman and mothers have no sex appeal regardless of how they look. They also lose all their former abilities that don't pertain to child care.

[Linda06]

You have to realize, Linda that mothers can't be leads. The lead has to be a sexy woman and mothers have no sex appeal regardless of how they look. They also lose all their former abilities that don't pertain to child care.

ahhhhhhhh, so it's because she was a mother in S5, and because she was pregnant in S4.....So what was the excuse in S1,2 and 3 again?

[Rac80]

amusing side note--- I recently got the season 5 dvd set (at a huge discount! yep I am still cheap!) and found it fascinating that on the three covers we had several pictures of Teyla, Sheppard, and Ronon. Only one pic each of keller and mckay on ONE cover(very small pics too)....talk about misleading advertising! "oh yes, they were important, see we put them on the covers.... no mckay and mckeller weren't, they aren't on the covers!" they couldn't even feature the correct (corresponding) eps on the covers! although teyla as the wraith queen is there!

Well have recently watched fc and tlt and yep rantin'rod was at it again, I didn't see jackson as overly arrogant-- I was hoping he'd pop mckay in the jaw one. (ok my knee-jerk reaction probably!) I actually liked the idea that the asgard were evil and they obviously KNEW the Ida galaxy asgard were dead. makes ya wonder if loki survived and turned to "the dark side" and headed out to pegasus.

[Killdeer]

ahhhhhhhh, so it's because she was a mother in S5, and because she was pregnant in S4.....So what was the excuse in S1,2 and 3 again?

Yeah.

I guess we're talking about The Lost Tribe now?

Umm. I guess my impression is pretty much the same. I enjoyed it mostly. I liked the Daniel/Rodney storyline - what can I say, I love the snark.

I could have done without the Ronon/Keller stuff. Especially that scene where she tries to tell him she's interested in someone else. It didn't make either of them look good, and it especially made Ronon look childish. Actually, this was a bad episode for Ronon all the way around, since his recklessness almost got them all killed. I really don't like the way Ronon was written in S5 - in some ways it was as bad for him, if not worse, than it was for Teyla. Oh, and Keller's mysterious curly/straight hair was distracting.

The rest of it I was alright with I think, although I attribute that more to lowered expectation than to the quality of the episode itself.

The thing with Teyla - I'm of two minds on that. I don't like that she got left out altogether. On the other hand, it would have been annoying just to have her trailing along on the Travelers' ship as part of the background scenery. If she'd been able to help Zelenka out in some way, that would have been one thing. But I don't know that just having her around as set decoration while Shep does his thing would be so great. Personally, I still would rather have had her on the Daedalus dealing with Todd, because they never did follow up on this thing about her supposedly being his Queen.

Teyla's not the only one who disappeared however. Caldwell's inexplicable disappearance bugged me even more, in a way, because unlike Teyla there was no reason given for it. He just vanished.

As far as the Travelers go - eh. I wish they would have developed that culture past the whole "hot chicks with spaceships" thing, but whatever.

And the new enemy - having them be "evil" Asgard. I guess we had evil Ancients, so...*shrugs* I prefer this to the Ori, but I do wish we would stop recycling old SG-1 races. At the same time, I kinda regret not being able to see where they went with this.

[Linda06]

Yeah.

I guess we're talking about The Lost Tribe now?

Umm. I guess my impression is pretty much the same. I enjoyed it mostly. I liked the Daniel/Rodney storyline - what can I say, I love the snark.

I could have done without the Ronon/Keller stuff. Especially that scene where she tries to tell him she's interested in someone else. It didn't make either of them look good, and it especially made Ronon look childish. S5 was, in some ways, as bad for Ronon as it was for Teyla. Oh, and Keller's mysterious curly/straight hair was distracting.

The rest of it I was alright with I think, although I attribute that more to lowered expectation than to the quality of the episode itself.

The thing with Teyla - I'm of two minds on that. I don't like that she got left out altogether. On the other hand, it would have been annoying just to have her trailing along on the Travelers' ship as part of the background scenery. If she'd been able to help Zelenka out in some way, that would have been one thing. But I don't know that just having her around as set decoration while Shep does his thing would be so great. Personally, I still would rather have had her on the Daedalus dealing with Todd, because they never did follow up on this thing about her supposedly being his Queen.

Teyla's not the only one who disappeared however. Caldwell's inexplicable disappearance bugged me even more, in a way, because unlike Teyla there was no reason given for it. He just vanished.

As far as the Travelers go - eh. I wish they would have developed that culture past the whole "hot chicks with spaceships" thing, but whatever.

And the new enemy - having them be "evil" Asgard. I guess we had evil Ancients, so...*shrugs* I prefer this to the Ori, but I do wish we would stop recycling old SG-1 races. At the same time, I kinda regret not being able to see where they went with this.

*bows* I aim to entertain

What was with the one minute it's curly hair, the next it's straight, the next it's curly again You'd think someone would notice But then again with these guys can't say i'm surprised

TLT was one of the worst mid season eppies in stargate history

As for Teyla, well shouldn't these guys be trying to write an ep that actually includes the whole team I mean they seemed to manage writing in gun totting Keller (as ridiculous as that was), yet they couldn't find a way to have Teyla more active Instead they just shuffle her off to the side to babysit the city with her invisible babysitter *shakes head* And we don't see her again for most of the rest of S5 till the dust her down and wipe the cobwebs off for "Outsiders" and "The queen", and then shuffle her out the road again

They could have had her on the Daedalus but nooooooooooooooooooo, they wanted Ronon and keller there so they can write in this stupid love triangle from hell And have Ronon following her around like a love sick puppy I'd rather have had Ronon and Teyla on the Daedy keeping an eye on Todd.

The Travellers are a pretty ridiculous race. Geez, what do they do...Go to the pretty people planet to pick their crew

And do we really have to keep using SG-1 aliens Replicators, asgard, can't they think of something original

[Cautious Explorer]

ahhhhhhhh, so it's because she was a mother in S5, and because she was pregnant in S4.....So what was the excuse in S1,2 and 3 again?

Seasons 1-3 she was splitting time with Weir, because it's just too hard to write for more than one woman at a time. Season 4 was split between Keller and Teyla's pregnancy cleavage. Season 5 was all about Keller with glimpses of that woman with the baby who rambled around Atlantis.

The thing with Teyla - I'm of two minds on that. I don't like that she got left out altogether. On the other hand, it would have been annoying just to have her trailing along on the Travelers' ship as part of the background scenery. If she'd been able to help Zelenka out in some way, that would have been one thing. But I don't know that just having her around as set decoration while Shep does his thing would be so great. Personally, I still would rather have had her on the Daedalus dealing with Todd, because they never did follow up on this thing about her supposedly being his Queen.

But isn't it sad that we've come to expect Teyla to either be absent or to follow someone around? Teyla may not be a scientific genius, but she's intelligent, she's had experience on a gate team, she can handle herself in combat situations. If there's a role for Ronon or a role for a marine, then it's likely Teyla is capable of just as much.

Maybe the timing was wrong for Teyla to be on the Daedalus (I found the show so uninteresting that I remember very little of it) but surely there was something she could have contributed on the Traveler ships other than standing in the background --although the Traveler's themselves pretty much just stood around and looked pretty

I don't know, I just don't think it's too much to ask for everyone to be included. Especially if pretty, pretty Keller had the chance to handle a gun, lecture Ronon on his tactics, style her hair and lead a pep rally on the bridge. Obviously we're not going for realism here.

Teyla's not the only one who disappeared however. Caldwell's inexplicable disappearance bugged me even more, in a way, because unlike Teyla there was no reason given for it. He just vanished.

Yes. That was bizarre.

Can you imagine Caldwell's face when Keller piped up with her words of wisdom? I think I would have enjoyed the look on his face.

[Linda06]

Seasons 1-3 she was splitting time with Weir, because it's just too hard to write for more than one woman at a time. Season 4 was split between Keller and Teyla's pregnancy cleavage. Season 5 was all about Keller with glimpses of that woman with the baby who rambled around Atlantis.

But isn't it sad that we've come to expect Teyla to either be absent or to follow someone around? Teyla may not be a scientific genius, but she's intelligent, she's had experience on a gate team, she can handle herself in combat situations. If there's a role for Ronon or a role for a marine, then it's likely Teyla is capable of just as much.

Maybe the timing was wrong for Teyla to be on the Daedalus (I found the show so uninteresting that I remember very little of it) but surely there was something she could have contributed on the Traveler ships other than standing in the background --although the Traveler's themselves pretty much just stood around and looked pretty

I don't know, I just don't think it's too much to ask for everyone to be included. Especially if pretty, pretty Keller had the chance to handle a gun, lecture Ronon on his tactics, style her hair and lead a pep rally on the bridge. Obviously we're not going for realism here.

Yes. That was bizarre.

Can you imagine Caldwell's face when Keller piped up with her words of wisdom? I think I would have enjoyed the look on his face.

I always love your reviews, they always make me laugh

Oh I forgot about these other things And yet they still can't find anything for Teyla to do other than to babysit

I would have liked Ronon and Teyla to go off together to get an band of pe3ople together to fight the wraith. To leave Atlantis and these so called superior humans

[Killdeer]

But isn't it sad that we've come to expect Teyla to either be absent or to follow someone around?

Oh absolutely. I completely agree.

Teyla may not be a scientific genius, but she's intelligent, she's had experience on a gate team, she can handle herself in combat situations. If there's a role for Ronon or a role for a marine, then it's likely Teyla is capable of just as much.

Well, I don't think there was any more of a role for Ronon or random marine on the Travelers' ship than there was for Teyla.

Maybe the timing was wrong for Teyla to be on the Daedalus (I found the show so uninteresting that I remember very little of it) but surely there was something she could have contributed on the Traveler ships other than standing in the background --although the Traveler's themselves pretty much just stood around and looked pretty

I don't think there was really a role for combat personnel on the Travelers' ship. You were either a pilot or a tech. I think they could have had her assisting Zelenka in some way, but unfortunately the writers have always seemed to have a mental block against showing Teyla with any technological proficiency. It appears occasionally, but it's never really developed.

I think there could have been a significant role for her to play on the Daedalus, however. She would have been more effective IMO as a negotiator than Keller was. In fact, I think my main fix for these two episodes would have been to drop the triangle storyline altogether, and put Teyla in Keller's role (that...actually would be my fix for more than one S5 episode, sadly). Keller still could have been there, but as a supporting character, not a spotlight one.

I don't know, I just don't think it's too much to ask for everyone to be included. Especially if pretty, pretty Keller had the chance to handle a gun, lecture Ronon on his tactics, style her hair and lead a pep rally on the bridge. Obviously we're not going for realism here.

LOL!

[Cautious Explorer]

Oh absolutely. I completely agree.

Well, I don't think there was any more of a role for Ronon or random marine on the Travelers' ship than there was for Teyla.

I don't think there was really a role for combat personnel on the Travelers' ship. You were either a pilot or a tech. I think they could have had her assisting Zelenka in some way, but unfortunately the writers have always seemed to have a mental block against showing Teyla with any technological proficiency. It appears occasionally, but it's never really developed.

I think there could have been a significant role for her to play on the Daedalus, however. She would have been more effective IMO as a negotiator than Keller was. In fact, I think my main fix for these two episodes would have been to drop the triangle storyline altogether, and put Teyla in Keller's role (that...actually would be my fix for more than one S5 episode, sadly). Keller still could have been there, but as a supporting character, not a spotlight one.

LOL!

It sounds like you're saying it was the Traveler's ships or nothing for Teyla, the way the timeline was set up? (I told you I barely remember this one.)

I think one of my many fixes for this episode would have been to scrap the Travelers altogether. They didn't bring anything new -- just the same old babes and flirting. Heck, Zelenka didn't even get a decent line. I would have preferred to see Sheppard, Zelenka and Teyla trying to handle things in a completely chaotic Atlantis, while Ronon, Woolsey and Caldwell (please, no Keller) tried to prevent disaster on the Deadalus.

What is it with TPTB trying to split the team up as much as possible? They don't even just split up on missions anymore, they have to each one be in an entirely different location.

I always love your reviews, they always make me laugh

I'm glad someone's getting some enjoyment out of my pain

Oh I forgot about these other things And yet they still can't find anything for Teyla to do other than to babysit

I would have liked Ronon and Teyla to go off together to get an band of pe3ople together to fight the wraith. To leave Atlantis and these so called superior humans

Maybe for an episode or two, but there are still Atlantis characters I like: Shep, Zelenka, Carson, Marie, Caldwell, even Woolsey...... I'm afraid I'd be bored to tears by just Teyla and Ronon on their own. I love a good mixture of characters.

[Skydiver]

it's like they fell into the same trap for SGA taht they did for SG1.

in season 9 and 10 on sg-1 (especially 10), the team was perpetually split up
cam/teal'c
daniel/vala
sam on her own

over and over and over, it'd be split up this way. (imho, twisting the team pairings to facilitate their chosen pairing to star the show, daniel/vala)...just like they did with keller/rodney

these writers find a comfort zone and get stuck in it.

[Killdeer]

It sounds like you're saying it was the Traveler's ships or nothing for Teyla, the way the timeline was set up? (I told you I barely remember this one.)

I'm not quite understanding the question. But assuming Teyla stayed on Atlantis for First Contact and didn't go with the Daedalus....yeah, I guess. I'm not seeing another option here, unless like you said they scrap the Travelers angle altogether. We already had three storylines going - Daniel and Rodney with the Asgard, the Daedalus, and then the Travelers' ship.

I don't know about scrapping the Travelers angle though, though I admit there are problems with it. At least, even though the team is broken up, the story draws them all (except Teyla) together toward the same point. If there was something they could have done from Atlantis to affect the outcome with the other two storylines, yeah, maybe that would work. But just seeing Sheppard and Teyla on an unrelated cleanup crew storyline wouldn't have been that interesting to me personally. *shrugs* YMMV.

it's like they fell into the same trap for SGA taht they did for SG1.

in season 9 and 10 on sg-1 (especially 10), the team was perpetually split up
cam/teal'c
daniel/vala
sam on her own

over and over and over, it'd be split up this way. (imho, twisting the team pairings to facilitate their chosen pairing to star the show, daniel/vala)...just like they did with keller/rodney.

Well, as I recall the splitting up of the SG-1 team actually started in S7. But yeah, it was a big problem for the last several years of SG-1, and it became a problem here in these last couple of seasons too. And yeah, there are several parallels between Daniel/Vala and Rodney/Jennifer.

[Killdeer]

I would have liked Ronon and Teyla to go off together to get an band of pe3ople together to fight the wraith. To leave Atlantis and these so called superior humans

I don't know that I'd want them to leave Atlantis permanently. But I would have enjoyed having a few episodes with just the two of them.

[Skydiver]

the splitting did begin in season 7, but it wasn't always a predictable pattern

in season 10 it was almost comical how predictable it got

[Killdeer]

the splitting did begin in season 7, but it wasn't always a predictable pattern

in season 10 it was almost comical how predictable it got

Oh I see what you're saying - yeah, I agree. That was frustrating.