'The Daedalus Variations' (504) General Discussion

[Jeffala]

IMO Keller is just so ordinary in every possible way that she doesn't mesh with the rest of the expedition.

Why is having someone who's just ordinary a bad thing? She's obviously proficient in her trade as evidenced by the procedures she's performed and the fact that the IOA hasn't replaced her yet. Does she need to be an excellent fighter, an über-genius, or have the super-gene to play in Atlantis?

Having someone who's just ordinary isn't a bad thing.

[jelgate]

Why is having someone who's just ordinary a bad thing? She's obviously proficient in her trade as evidenced by the procedures she's performed and the fact that the IOA hasn't replaced her yet. Does she need to be an excellent fighter, an über-genius, or have the super-gene to play in Atlantis?

Having someone who's just ordinary isn't a bad thing.

That reminds me of Dr. Fraiser.

[Cap116]

Really liked this episode, never went stagnant and gave a new piece of tech.

[Cautious Explorer]

Why is having someone who's just ordinary a bad thing? She's obviously proficient in her trade as evidenced by the procedures she's performed and the fact that the IOA hasn't replaced her yet. Does she need to be an excellent fighter, an über-genius, or have the super-gene to play in Atlantis?

Having someone who's just ordinary isn't a bad thing.

No. But a personality would be nice.

Everybody else has quirks. Keller is competent, nice, dull. The only thing unique about her is her annoying voice. Not someone I want to watch every week.

[amconway]

No. But a personality would be nice.

Everybody else has quirks. Keller is competent, nice, dull. The only thing unique about her is her annoying voice. Not someone I want to watch every week.

Anyone that ever saw Firefly knows that this is a writing problem, not an acting problem. It also goes far beyond Keller. Compared to the expertise at the SGC, it's like they sent the "B" team (er, Rodney, excluded).
None of the characters (again, except Rodney ) have been written as particularly interesting individuals- they started out good, but were left to stagnate. Again, I don't blame the actors. The good thing is that they seem to be making a serious effort to rectify this. So far, so good...

EDIT: Just a note that Woolsey is the most fully developed character on Atlantis (Uh, except Rodney ), and his character has had way less screen time (both series included) than any of the lead characters.

[PG15]

Well, I'm with you there. It was Shep, yet it wasn't somehow!

Same here. I thought it was Lorne.

[Linzi]

One can always hope it was a whump-free Shep

Nah! Whump free Shep? Wash your mouth out young man!

The aliens were great. As hard to kill as the Wraith used to be. I hope we see them again.

Me too. I thought they were brilliant. To be honest, I thought they really were so much better than the replicators. There's something scary about aliens who look frightening. The replicators look like us...hence, yep, not so scary, IMO. These aliens were just... well, something from a nightmare!

I laughed when Ronon hit the contols. But yea....it did make him look foolish. It was out of character. I feel the same about Sheppard complimenting himself. It was cute at first, but went on a little too long. That was out of character for him. I thought they were all a bit off. It was so good to have the team all together again that I'm willing to overlook some things, but I would have liked it so much more if the team had been more true to character.

I can't disagree there. Though on first glance I listened to Shep complimenting Alt Shep and sort of did a second take, once someone had suggested to me Shep was doing it to perhaps annoy Rodney, it sat easier with me. But yes, Shep being immodest? Very out of character, IMO.

Exactly. Of all the things for TPTB to decide to be consistent on, it had to be Teyla's baby angst? I want to see Teyla back with the team 100%. She had all of season four and all of BT this season to make a decisiion. That's an eternity in SGA world. Please, it's time to drop it.

Ditto. Time to let it go, methinks!

I did kind of miss Woolsey. Just because I was so pleasantly surprised by how well he fit in his first few episodes. But you're right, there really wasn't a need for him here.

Yes, Woolsey has been excellent, I'd agree and perhaps surprisingly so, and I say that as someone who was quite happy to have him as leader and who admires RP very much. Even I have been pleasantly surprised by how well Woolsey has been integrated into the show. And I would have liked him here, certainly. But, I felt it was ok without him, if that makes sense?

ITA about Keller. Part of me wishes they'd just scrap continuity and go back to the drawing board with Keller. Give Jewel something decent to work with and see if her character can fit in better. IMO Keller is just so ordinary in every possible way that she doesn't mesh with the rest of the expedition. I'm beginning to wish they'd cast Biro as the new head of medicine. At least she'd be good for a laugh and convincing as a seasoned professional.

I do think she's been better in season 5, to be fair. But, I think it's time to ditch the angsty less than self confident young woman. She's CMO supposedly, not a newbie doctor, so let's have her ACTING like CMO and whatever else she's supposed to be....micro-biologist, geneticist, surgeon, research scientist, xenobioligist...the list is endless

Why is having someone who's just ordinary a bad thing? She's obviously proficient in her trade as evidenced by the procedures she's performed and the fact that the IOA hasn't replaced her yet. Does she need to be an excellent fighter, an über-genius, or have the super-gene to play in Atlantis?

Having someone who's just ordinary isn't a bad thing.

It isn't. I agree. But Keller can come across as being very dithery and lacking in self confidence. Now, if she was a new doctor, just out of studentdom, I'd find that totally believable, but, hello! She's CMO...thus, please PTB, let's see more of the Keller we've had at the beginning of season 5, and not season 4 Keller, please!

That reminds me of Dr. Fraiser.

I never doubted old Doc Fraiser once. She was so skilled at her job, yet compassionate too. Can't say I'm feeling that way about Keller as yet.

No. But a personality would be nice.

Everybody else has quirks. Keller is competent, nice, dull. The only thing unique about her is her annoying voice. Not someone I want to watch every week.

Have to say, my family finds her voice incredibly annoying at times. Me too But, I did like her in the first three eppies, so I'm hoping future rumours about Keller, spoilers for season 5, generally:

Spoiler:

being not self confident again and her being multiply kidnapped in the woods AGAIN, are exaggerations, because, quite frankly, that'd just be boring and same old, same old for Keller! Let's move on, huh??

[starfox]

I'm going to have to disagree with those who wish the baby storyline would be dropped. While I don't want it to take over the show, I think they do need to at least mention him every couple of episodes. You can't just forget that you have a kid, nor would it make sense for the team (esp. Rodney, who's made mentions of wanting marriage and family eventually) to ignore his existence. Plus, Torren is a great window into the lives & customs of the Athosians and all those fun cultural things that have been more or less left out of Teyla's character since season one.

That said, I think they'll back off on the baby thing after DV. S&R was the birth, BT was the decision to come back, and DV was her first off-world mission officially back with the team, as Rodney pointed out; it made sense for her to be a little worried. Now that we've established that the team can still get out of bizarre scrapes, Teyla's probably going to calm down a bit, and the baby worries will diminish.

[PG15]

Yeah...it's puzzles me why people would want to drop a character arc cold turkey when it's something the show's always needed.

[Saquist]

EDIT: Just a note that Woolsey is the most fully developed character on Atlantis (Uh, except Rodney ), and his character has had way less screen time (both series included) than any of the lead characters.

It think Picardo's acting talent lends to this in a significant way.

[amconway]

It think Picardo's acting talent lends to this in a significant way.

I would have to agree with that. He is a superb actor. It doesn't hurt a bit that the writing on SG-1 allowed his character to grow and change, either...

[Saquist]

I'm going to have to disagree with those who wish the baby storyline would be dropped. While I don't want it to take over the show, I think they do need to at least mention him every couple of episodes. You can't just forget that you have a kid, nor would it make sense for the team (esp. Rodney, who's made mentions of wanting marriage and family eventually) to ignore his existence. Plus, Torren is a great window into the lives & customs of the Athosians and all those fun cultural things that have been more or less left out of Teyla's character since season one.

That said, I think they'll back off on the baby thing after DV. S&R was the birth, BT was the decision to come back, and DV was her first off-world mission officially back with the team, as Rodney pointed out; it made sense for her to be a little worried. Now that we've established that the team can still get out of bizarre scrapes, Teyla's probably going to calm down a bit, and the baby worries will diminish.

The story line is and was already predictable. There are also concerns when a baby gets this invovled with a plot. Production issues. There are laws to follow concern child labor that still apply to infants as well as children and it limits there production time.

I could get into all the...cliche's that have been forged every time a baby in danger enters the story line and I for one don't want to put the Teyla character in that situation....I would have to question if she really loved her child if she continued with active duty and the child was continuously in danger. It wouldn't be believable.

It is believe and realistic for a mother to have a dangerous job. I pray that the Michael line of events will end swiftly with his death in this season and yeild to more action such as the daedulus variation did. If we had four episodes like Daedalus variation every year it would help keep the show fluid.

[Linda06]

I finally finished capping DV... Can't remember who was asking for caps

Daedalus variation caps

[Snookie16]

Ah, this episode was just fun!! I really enjoyed it. Just plain and simple, a good episode.

Those aliens sure reminded me of the borg, anybody else get the same impression? Well... not the ship, but the aliens themselves. Evil creepy dudes they were, nice change of pace though from all the other evil guys we've seen on Stargate. These were by far the most malicious bad guys on the show. They sure were way cool and very creepy and just plain evil looking, I like!

The very end! Omigosh I was howling!! Rodney as a dad, now that's a thought!! LMAO!!

Overall a very enjoyable episode, nice pace and it didn't lag at all. I was afraid it might on the way back, but it didn't... ok, maybe a hair, but it wasn't bad at all. I just plain enjoyed this episode.

Great episode. The alien baddy did also remind me of the borg. I thought the weapons were cool. I agree with Sheppard about Rodney becoming a father very scary thought and something I did not need to imagine. The episode also reminded me of the alternate reality episodes of SG-1 back in the day. Also I like to see more of these alien bad guys the symbol looked ancient to me so maybe they were a higher evolution of an alien bad guys of the ancient times.

I'm going to have to disagree with those who wish the baby storyline would be dropped. While I don't want it to take over the show, I think they do need to at least mention him every couple of episodes. You can't just forget that you have a kid, nor would it make sense for the team (esp. Rodney, who's made mentions of wanting marriage and family eventually) to ignore his existence. Plus, Torren is a great window into the lives & customs of the Athosians and all those fun cultural things that have been more or less left out of Teyla's character since season one.

That said, I think they'll back off on the baby thing after DV. S&R was the birth, BT was the decision to come back, and DV was her first off-world mission officially back with the team, as Rodney pointed out; it made sense for her to be a little worried. Now that we've established that the team can still get out of bizarre scrapes, Teyla's probably going to calm down a bit, and the baby worries will diminish.

I agree with you somewhat in about the baby storyline. At least it did not mention Kanaan in it. I do feel that Torren does need to be mentioned less often. The problem I have with Kanaan and I sure my mom agree with this is that he was once one of Michael's hybrids that is kind of creeping me out.

[Platschu]

That was really good. We got better battle CGI than in the DVD movies! I liked that they made Teyla and Ronon a much better usable character in this season. The story was good and entertaining, but I missed the name and motivation for the new race, so I can give 9/10.