'Inquisition' (513) General Discussion

[Lythisrose]

OK, that cigar scene was excellent!

[Matt G]

Midweek, another ep of Atlantis...

1. Actually still an interesting concept for a clipshow.

2. Doubly interesting given that I had a recent debate with someone claiming that Stargate was "imperialistic". What some people call "imperialistic", I usually call "trying to do the right thing, even if you screw up", as I said back in '08, there are plenty of morons in this reality let alone the Gate one.

3. The main thing that annoyed me on Rewatch was the Genii being supposedly behind this. WTF? The Genii were allies of ours last we'd checked. Why the hell would they pull this stunt now? Change of regime?

4. "The IOA at their best"? At least one of the judges were in lynchmob mode and another was in the Genii's pocket! How else were our guys meant to get out of trouble?

[jelgate]

This felt too much like the SG1 episode Politics. Just switch the coalition with Sen. Kinsey and you have the same episode of the team defending their actions. And it was a clip show. I am not anti clip show. I always say the story behind the clips makes or breaks the clip ship. And this time its a mixed bag. The politics of the coalition and just the very nature of the coalition were an interesting idea. This is one of those episodes I thought had potential and made me sad we did not see more of this group due to Atlantis being cancelled. It was just too easily wrapped up of the tribunal being rigged from the start. I would have liked to see actual arguements instead of using blackmail and bribes. I really liked seeing Woosley show off his diplomat skills that it was sad that it resorted to Atlantis bribing their way out of the charges. So in summary it was an average episode. Not good not bad.

On a humorous note I remember this being another episode we put our crazy conspiracy theory that Woosley was a drunk given that hard liqour he had

[Lieutenant Sparrow]

Yeah easily the worst of the clip ep's.

The Coalition members were very irritating. Especially the woman who was very biased. Should not have been on the panel.

Woolsey was at his best in this ep.

[Lythisrose]

From Joe Mallozzi's Blog:

Photo of the Judges from the episode
INQUISITION (513)

There invariably comes a time in every season when the producers take a look at the bottom line and realize they’re over-budget and need to come up with a relatively inexpensive episode to put the show back on track – and, more importantly, ensure there is enough money for the big season-ender. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And just how desperate depends on how much money you’re looking to save. If you’re in not bad shape, you can look to do bottle show, an episode that takes place on the existing standing sets. No extra builds or moves to exterior locations are a big money-saver. An even bigger money saver is to eschew the bottle show in favor of the dreaded clip show, an episode that makes use of pre-existing material to tell a story. Sometimes, they can be great. While other times…well, they can be pretty forgettable.

One of the keys to producing a good clip show (relatively speaking) is to have a great story at its core – and, in the case of Inquistion, we had a pretty good one: Finally, after so many years of playing the role of galactic policeman, the Atlantis expedition was being held accountable for their actions. One the one hand, they had successfully defended the inhabitants of the Pegasus Galaxy from the wraith. On the other hand, at what cost? And there’s also an argument to be made for the fact that their presence in the Pegasus Galaxy only exacerbated the problem. It was an interesting debate that fandom had been heatedly discussing for years and, while there weren’t any easy answers, there were some convincing arguments on both sides. This then was the premise of the episode – at turns controversial and complex. But, hopefully, all sorts of entertaining as we would include flashbacks to various spectacular situations from seasons past. As clips shows went, it was a tall order – and it happened to fall on first-time writer – and longtime Stargate script coordinator Alex Levine.

Alex was more than up to the challenge. It was a tough script but, ultimately, a great learning experience – as he explained on his SciFi.com blog:

“Inquisition’ is a clip show, [and] that didn’t make it any easier to write. You see, there’s a particular aspect of writing clip shows that’s extra tough, and that is the part where they move in and out of the clips. Of course Paul Mullie, who did the re-write and produced the episode, has lots of clip show experience, but this was my first attempt. And writing specs and other scripts didn’t prepare me one bit. So let’s just say it was a great learning experience.

“At the end of the day, the writing staff was very kind. They met with me on my first draft, gave me notes and some time to re-write the script. I did another draft too on another round of notes. In the writing I found some things about the characters and the story that worked well; other stuff was discarded. There’s certainly some of my writing in the finished product, but I must credit Paul Mullie and the writing staff with much of the episode’s success. And my experience is not unlike other first time writers of any show. Stargate is no exception.

“The coolest part of the show, which is always why people watch clip shows, is that you’ll get to see pretty much every cool space battle we’ve done. There’s also great acting in this one — keep your eyes open for the character of Myrus (the Council Liaison), who is played by my real life brother, Tobias Slezak (different last name). He did a great job.”

Many of you will recognize his brother, Thobias, from SG-1?s Heroes in which he played the part of Tech Sergeant Dale James, or more recently from the SGU episodes Intervention and Visitation in which he played the part of Peter, or, perhaps even more recently, from my Superbowl get-together where he played the part of “Guy scoffing down doughnuts” -

Photo of Tobias

As for brother Alex, his writing career continued to blossom post-Stargate with credits on King, The Border, Verdict, Flashpoint, and an upcoming scifi series.

I knew him when…

[Cluas]

Interesting story (for a clip-show).
Woolsey was cool, the coalition wasn't. I was actually yelling at them
Why didn't Teyla, Ronon or Rodney get questioned? There was really no need for them to be in this ep, then...

And what's with Shep in the end scene? Is he rehearsing his golf moves or something?

The flashbacks were boring, 'cos I just seen all the seasons in a marathon, but maybe it caught the new viewers attention?

[Falcon Horus]

Why didn't Teyla, Ronon or Rodney get questioned? There was really no need for them to be in this ep, then...

Because that would have required TPTW to actually write for them, and since they weren't doing any sort of effort before (or after) this episode concerning writing good solid stories for either Teyla or Ronon, this one was just another one added to the pile. Rodney just got tossed in with them for once.

[Cluas]

Yeah I think you're right. It did seem lazy...

[Todd the Wraith Worshipper]

I always just skip this one in my re-watches because I loathe flashback episodes...and besides, it's just an Atlantis version of Disclosure.

[garhkal]

While it is a clip show esque, it still had its own plotline to it, that being the Atlantis crew was on notice the others in the galaxy are trying them for their crimes..