S10: Critique & Contemplation

[CrazyCarter]

I didn't think season 10 was TERRIBLE.. but it really didn't have the same charm the other seasons had.. even 9.. and unending just felt like a cheat.. though it had it's moments.

[suse]

I totally agree. I think Sam fared far worse than anybody else in the transformation from SG1 to Stargate Command. Written out as SG1 leader in S9, written out as female lead in S10(despite what the credits say), dumbed down, wallpapered and made the butt of digusting jokes(the pedophile joke in FH1).

RCC said Sam had to be "isolated"(read wallpapered) in Aot because of her Atlantis schedule. Funny how BW didn't have that problem in Continuum.

Yes, still bitter. As long as RCC has any say in the SG universe, things won't change for Sam.

Mike

I noted that also. And she was used *less* in those earlier eps.
With the scheduling genius that is N John Smith there should have been no problem with having Sam a more active member in (B)Ark of Truth. Wasn't AT only on the SGA set 4 of 7 shooting days max?

1,000,000 times agreed about the first paragraph.

suse

[Skydiver]

sam's a victim of her own class.

and coop doesn't quite know what to do with classy characters.

There is part of me that can understand putting her off on her own. that's one reason the 'team' was so rarely together in seasons 8 on...so they could have 2-3 units going on at a time and basically do twice the taping in the same amount of time. the problem is, the team is always broken up and fans noticed

Sam wouldn't have been as painfully obvious had coop broken up his set pairings a bit more often. Daniel and vala, tea'c and cam and sam on her own....that's most of seasons 9 and 10. it got predictible and boring. the same interactions got boring. and then to keep the trend for ark, jsut - to me - contributed to its mediocrity.

coop's in a rut. he falls into a comfort zone and can't get out, and doesnt' realize that we get tired of the same set up over and over and over

[jckfan55]

sam's a victim of her own class.

and coop doesn't quite know what to do with classy characters.

There is part of me that can understand putting her off on her own. that's one reason the 'team' was so rarely together in seasons 8 on...so they could have 2-3 units going on at a time and basically do twice the taping in the same amount of time. the problem is, the team is always broken up and fans noticed

Sam wouldn't have been as painfully obvious had coop broken up his set pairings a bit more often. Daniel and vala, tea'c and cam and sam on her own....that's most of seasons 9 and 10. it got predictible and boring. the same interactions got boring. and then to keep the trend for ark, jsut - to me - contributed to its mediocrity.

coop's in a rut. he falls into a comfort zone and can't get out, and doesnt' realize that we get tired of the same set up over and over and over

So true. I'm far from a fan of Vala, but she did have moments where I started to kind of like her. Then it would be back to the dumb stuff. One of the more interesting pairings could have been Sam & Vala, but RCC apparently didn't know what to do with two female characters in the same room in a serious context. Bah!

He also forgot that "team" episodes don't just mean the team in the same room, they mean actual *team work.* ETA: and that can happen even if they're separated part of the time if written well.

[Silverwings]

Just saw Continuum with my wife last night. We borrowed it from her parents.

...which means that I don't regret not buying it.

In short? It was OK, but I'm not really all that interested in repeat viewing. Certainly not as long as I have Season 4 on DVD.

Good/Bad in spoilers for good form:

Spoiler:

Good:
*Interesting riff on time travel and AU stuff (despite not quite jiving with existing canon). I actually liked Mitchell in this one. Yeah, the final resolution is a bit of a Hewo moment for Cam, but surprisingly, it didn't feel as forced as previous attempts. I've always wanted to like Cam (BB is a good guy), and this time, I didn't have to work to do so.
*Ba'al is perhaps the most interesting Gou'ald, because he's not as over the top as the typical miniMongol. The phone call was especially entertaining.
*Quetesh was actually pretty well done. Certainly more interesting than Vala... though Vala's comments at the beginning were some of her best lines ever
*[qualified] Jack! It left me wanting more Jack, though. More Hammond would have been nice, too, but it was really good to see Don S. Davis again. Whatzhisfritz as the president was good again, too.
*Beau Bridges was good in this, too; his character (I can't think of his name, I didn't like S9/10 that much) was stronger and had some great lines.

Bad:
*Typical movie escalation; "darker, edgier, bloodier". Call me a squeamish prude, but the execution of Apophis, and the first three executions of Ba'al (I didn't mind seeing the snake keel over) were completely uncalled for. They fit squarely in the AoT Replizombie corner of "stupid teenage schlock". Wee kan do bloodz nao!
*Profanity... again typical. When will Hollywood (and/or America) realize that swearing doesn't make you "cooler" or "more real", it demonstrates ignorance, immaturity and incontinence.
*Dogfighting... I really wanted those Russian MIGs to have their heroic screen time with a complete rout of the Jaffa fighters. What we saw was good... but come on, even just another 15 seconds showing the Russians cleaning the deck would have been excellent
*Cold Weather Gear! Seriously, why wait until after the C4 explosion to look for that? OK, I can excuse Sam being a bit shell shocked, but the other two? Getting slow in your old age, guys.

So yeah, fun stuff... but it left me wanting to go back to Season 4-7, rather than wanting to go forward from here. Methinketh that's not necessarily what they were going for.

[Kestra Scott]

I loved the story for Continuum; however, I know they didn't have a lot of time for the movie, but if they could have at least put in a two minute scene at the beginning of SG1 just hanging out again with O'Neill than it would have at least made me look forward to watching the rest of the movie even more.

[Mandysg1]

I loved the story for Continuum; however, I know they didn't have a lot of time for the movie, but if they could have at least put in a two minute scene at the beginning of SG1 just hanging out again with O'Neill than it would have at least made me look forward to watching the rest of the movie even more.

Continuum spoilers

Spoiler:

Yea, they advertise it so much with 'Jack being back', but then they don't use him as much as they could have. Well if you think about it, Coop did stick his nose into this movie and 'suggest' they cut out the character moment with Sam, during the year they spent in that time line, in favour of the long drawn out time they spent on Cam

I think one of the main problems SG1 ran into in S9 and 10, was they didn't like character moments, and chose big shiny space ships and firefights

[Skydiver]

i don't see what's so hard to get.

what is one of SG1's more popular episodes??? WoO and Tangent. And why??? stuff doesn't really blow up. there are no space ships - not really anyway.

but in WoO we get to see Jack and Teal'c go bonkers as they deal with endless time loops, not to mention the lovely angst of Jack knowing you can't fix the past. and in tangent we get jack and teal'c struggling to survive while sam and daniel move heaven and earth and a few alien planets to save them

both eps are rich with character moments and light on the explosions.

the character stuff is what made the early seasons so rich because anyone can write up boobs, butts and bombs, but real character interaction is far harder, yet far more memorable

character stuff gives you something to empathize with. An emotional tug and tie. people can see themselves in the characters.

all you get out of boobs, butts and bombs is momentary 'cool' and then it's onto the next sensory input

[jasminaGo]

i don't see what's so hard to get.

what is one of SG1's more popular episodes??? WoO and Tangent. And why??? stuff doesn't really blow up. there are no space ships - not really anyway.

but in WoO we get to see Jack and Teal'c go bonkers as they deal with endless time loops, not to mention the lovely angst of Jack knowing you can't fix the past. and in tangent we get jack and teal'c struggling to survive while sam and daniel move heaven and earth and a few alien planets to save them

both eps are rich with character moments and light on the explosions.

the character stuff is what made the early seasons so rich because anyone can write up boobs, butts and bombs, but real character interaction is far harder, yet far more memorable

character stuff gives you something to empathize with. An emotional tug and tie. people can see themselves in the characters.

all you get out of boobs, butts and bombs is momentary 'cool' and then it's onto the next sensory input

Also an episode I have to mention is 1969. Time travel story, with great character moments, general team feeling, humor, and appropriate amount of shooting. A favorite for a large part of the fandom.

Some people have said that they want any future movies to be focused on just one character (Mitchell, apparently there wasn't enough of him in Continuum ) and have all the other characters follow him cause that would have made a better story. That's not a better story, that's an easier story. It takes some creativity to split the time and dedicate equal attention to all 5-6 characters, without taking away from the strenght or the speed of the story. Which again brings out the problem with the "closed circle" of PTB, their creativity is long gone.

Continuum

Spoiler:

Just how much power did RCC had over the final look of the movie? And WTH was the deal with that scene with Mitchell and that women? I really missed the point, if there ever was one?

[jckfan55]

Continuum

Spoiler:

And WTH was the deal with that scene with Mitchell and that women? I really missed the point, if there ever was one?

To tell us that Mitchell is a chick magnet?

Spoiler:

I wish they had spent more time on Sam and Daniel adjusting to their new lives. I didn't mind that Mitchell got time to deal with the fact that he didn't exist but the others should have had time too. Maybe a bit too much concern with special effects?

Not perfect, but still I liked the movie.

[Jackie]

LOL...I thought the wheelie popping was to show he was a chick magnet.

Ben Bowder is the chick magnet. Cam Mitchell...just a dork with a nice car of bike.

[AGateFan]

Also an episode I have to mention is 1969. Time travel story, with great character moments, general team feeling, humor, and appropriate amount of shooting. A favorite for a large part of the fandom.

Some people have said that they want any future movies to be focused on just one character (Mitchell, apparently there wasn't enough of him in Continuum ) and have all the other characters follow him cause that would have made a better story. That's not a better story, that's an easier story. It takes some creativity to split the time and dedicate equal attention to all 5-6 characters, without taking away from the strenght or the speed of the story. Which again brings out the problem with the "closed circle" of PTB, their creativity is long gone.

Continuum

Spoiler:

Just how much power did RCC had over the final look of the movie? And WTH was the deal with that scene with Mitchell and that women? I really missed the point, if there ever was one?

More recipe for failure.... but meh, I am at "apathy" now, I think. I couldn't care less about the movies and haven’t even watched Atlantis the last 3 weeks... has it been any good?

I do still yell at the top of my lungs that S9-S10 stinks every time someone brings it up though......... OK, so not quite at apathy yet.

[jckfan55]

LOL...I thought the wheelie popping was to show he was a chick magnet.

Ben Bowder is the chick magnet. Cam Mitchell...just a dork with a nice car of bike.

BB seems like a nice guy too. I just wish they had gotten a handle on Mitchell before S10. IMHO, he did improve (I wonder how much of that was BB's influence on *calming* him down a bit). I think most of Mitchell's problem was TPTB's belief they had to make him a "hero" and BB the "star." If they had just let Mitchell do the everyday heroics the rest of SG1 did all the time, he'd have fit right in. No need to hype him. (you have to wonder if all Cam-centrism in Continuum was compensation to BB for having dropped him when the Danubis/Vala show took over).

[Mandysg1]

BB seems like a nice guy too. I just wish they had gotten a handle on Mitchell before S10. IMHO, he did improve (I wonder how much of that was BB's influence on *calming* him down a bit). I think most of Mitchell's problem was TPTB's belief they had to make him a "hero" and BB the "star." If they had just let Mitchell do the everyday heroics the rest of SG1 did all the time, he'd have fit right in. No need to hype him. (you have to wonder if all Cam-centrism in Continuum was compensation to BB for having dropped him when the Danubis/Vala show took over).

Lol, Danubis...I like it

[suse]

BB seems like a nice guy too. I just wish they had gotten a handle on Mitchell before S10. IMHO, he did improve (I wonder how much of that was BB's influence on *calming* him down a bit). I think most of Mitchell's problem was TPTB's belief they had to make him a "hero" and BB the "star." If they had just let Mitchell do the everyday heroics the rest of SG1 did all the time, he'd have fit right in. No need to hype him. (you have to wonder if all Cam-centrism in Continuum was compensation to BB for having dropped him when the Danubis/Vala show took over).

All I know is the Cam-centrism in Continuum was the last straw. Da Hewo... hewoed. If even Brad is going to buy the party line, I quit.

I'll watch SGA if I'm home. It's fun to hang with family/friends and it's mildly entertaining. And if something is done well I can comment or poorly I can snark and have people find it funny.

Spoiler:

Besides in October it will lead in for Sanctuary, assuming they watch it. I'm a little afraid it's *too* monster of the week for them.

Yeah, popping a wheelie = boy stuff = chic-magnet.
What Cam was doing when the "trouble" approached him was chic-magnet stuff too All those muscles.

Apparently I'm not getting all my memos.




suse