Originally Posted by jckfan55:
IMO, Sam didn't even look like she wanted to be there in the first scene with the team. But I may need to go back and look at it again--maybe it was just that she was paying attention, unlike CM.
IMO, Sam didn't even look like she wanted to be there in the first scene with the team. But I may need to go back and look at it again--maybe it was just that she was paying attention, unlike CM.
You know, I was always bothered by a comment made earlier in the year by I think, Rob Cooper, proudly declaring that this year things would be more like season two of SG-1. That sort of scares the hell out of me. I mean, I get it; the last two years the writers have taken way too much flack for writing almost all character driven stories. Seasons seven and eight are about the four members of SG-1 way more than they were in earlier seasons. And, for me, and I think alot of the silent majority of long time fans, seasons seven end eight were a lot more rewarding. I watch SG-1 for the team, but more than that, I watch for the characters. I got hooked on O'neill, Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c. I want to see what keeps happening to them. Writing stories as they were in season two may work for the new characters, but it's not going to work for Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel. Those three characters are about as developed and fleshed out as any character on tv gets to be. To try and write them into a season two episode now seems damn near impossible to me. Any one of those characters now is way, way bigger than any single season two episode.
By and large, the characters should always be driving the story, driving the episode, no matter how plot heavy it may be. And, as they are now, Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel demand that the stories be constructed more as they were in later seasons than they were in the earlier ones. This is, afterall, the how and why all tv shows evolve. No series ends the same as when it started. The best example I can think of to illustrate my point is compare The Fifth Race and Lost City. Generally speaking, Fifth Race is about what happens in the story. The episode is told with a clear purpose; it's a series of events, leading to O'neill's meeting with the Asgard. And it works great. Fifth Race is still, to this day, one of the most successful episodes of SG-1, ever. Lost City, generally speaking, is the same story told over again. I know, it sounds like a horrible idea, but let's face it, it works great. And it works great because the writers were able to tell the same story better. Lost City, not solely because of the fact that it's a two parter, is a more meandering look at the same series of events. In Lost City, the overriding purpose of the story is not to achieve it's denouement. The events of Lost City happen primarily to allow us more insight into the characters. Here, O'neill doesn't just transform as a result of the knowledge his mind holds. Here, we get to see Jack slowly lose himself, watch as he struggles to hold on to...to...what? To events of the story? Sure, that's in there. To what he has to do? Well, sort of, but there's not too much of that. To the other characters that have come to define who he is? Absolutely. That's what Lost City is about. It's about Jack and SG-1. It's about the relationships he has with Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel. And it's entirely what makes SG-1 the show it has become. Lost City provides an insight into all of the characters in a way that Fifth Race never could. And it's not because one episode is inherently better told than the other, it's because it is told differently. One is a more mature telling of the same story. And if season nine is going to revert back to season two in terms of storytelling than I'm going to have a hard time ever seeing it as anything more than a step backwards.
All of that being said, I really don't think that season nine, so far, has come across like season two. At least it hasn't to me. So far, for me, season nine is very much like season six. The stories are good, the acting from the principles is very good (as always), but the in depth character stuff is, for now, on the back burner. And maybe that's not a bad thing. Acting wise and writing wise, this probably makes things much easier for the cast and crew. Shows that go guts for glory all of the time are doomed to burn out and be forgotten as quickly as last week's news. See Battlestar Galactica. I do, however, miss RDA way more than I missed Michael Shanks. And as far as Mitchell is concerned, I'm getting that Jonas vibe all over again.
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