S10: Critique & Contemplation

[ShadowMaat]

The writers killed at the drop of a hat and they also never took the evilness to the extremes they could have. As with everything else, there were very few lasting effects to anything the Goa'uld did. Although Jonas developing a tumor from what Nirrti did was pretty good. And Cassie had aftereffects, too.

Repercussions. We need repercussions. And we need truly evil enemies that stay evil and that pose a genuine threat.

I miss Nirrti. And I miss Baal's dark, menacing (and singular) atmosphere.

Another example of wasted potential? That troop of Jaffa SG-1 ran into who were learning how to be SG soldiers. OMG, can you imagine if they'd followed through with that?? You'd never know who to trust. Or shoot. That could have been a fantastic twist, but it was wasted on one ep. *sigh*

[kazzyk]

So now SG1 is going back to being the under dogs as in S1. The enemy will invade our galaxy and succeed.
OK-huummmm My problem with this is the bad guy--the ORI a religious villian. A no win situation which IMO will get really boring. We like our heros--yes--give us a good enemy buttttttttttttt???

Why didnt they just make their new show!?

So in the middle of this doom and gloom scenario we are going to have episode 200 thats going to be fun and funny?

Ok--they are to drag this ORI thing out and I am willing to bet (my opinion only) it will not work.

PS--the Destroyer of Worlds could have gotten her memory back. (just another example)

[Mr Prophet]

And even for Earth-bound episodes you can be pretty scary. Earth is palpably unable to detect cloaked vessels, the world could be crawling with Goa'uld agents since the Protected Planets Treaty collapsed. Not just Ba'al cloning himself, but spies in the heart of government, Jaffa terrorist cells - ooh, look; topical - or even ashrak assassins; instead, the Goa'uld just wait for the SGC to find them.

How did these guys manage to rule the galaxy for so many thousands of years? (Answer: badly, it seems) The only possible conclusion is that everyone in the galaxy apart from the glorious SGC (including many Americans and all foreigners or aliens) are completely apathetic.

"Yes, well Lord Zipacna is a trouserless ninny, but revolution is such a fuss..."

But hey, at least the ancient Egyptians managed to rebel without any help from...Oh wait! They didn't!

[Skydiver]

yeah, i find the 'fighting the religious dogma' to be massively depressing.
you CAN'T fight an idea. With the goa'uld, you could show the masses evidence of thier evilness. enslavement, atrocities, being mean, etc.

what can you show them with the ori???? sore knees from praying too much?

It's a lose/lose situation.

Other consequences they ignored

Aris Boch
Yu's/Cronos' 'if yourun afoul of us, you will not be given a freebie' (whatever he said in fair game)
nirti's genetic experiments (given all the genetic illnesses we have NOONE tried to figure out her machine/????)
the foothold aliens
the aschen (even though they were about as boring as the ori)
ambassador shiny shoes
machello's toys being used as weapons
the reetou
the rogue sgc was wrapped up too neatly, imho. imagine having to deal with other humans out there being bad kids??
entity - imagine if the machines came back for revenge?
enemies/exodus - sam blows up a sun and no one cares?
the cure - the asgard clone, no one thought to suggest to the tok'ra cloning egeria?
the ziraken
the planet from memento. they totally altered the balance of power between the 'normal' folks and those that used to worship heru'ur

[Vyse]

Another example of wasted potential? That troop of Jaffa SG-1 ran into who were learning how to be SG soldiers. OMG, can you imagine if they'd followed through with that?? You'd never know who to trust. Or shoot. That could have been a fantastic twist, but it was wasted on one ep. *sigh*

Yeah very true. Always pissed me off that they never followed through with that idea. It showed that Apophis (at that time) was very intelligent. He realized that he couldn't beath Earth with the same run and gun tactics used against the other system lords. I can see those tactics working against other system lords who don't give a ***** about the Jaffa lives, but SG-1 was whipping their butt way too easily.

[Zoser]

So, reading the Gateworld news article on how the plan for Season 10 is that the Ori force SG-1 'back to square 1', exploring other planets and facing a credible threat rather than the Goa'uld who weren't scary anymore, I found myself getting kind of...angry. And it comes down to this question:

Why aren't, or weren't, the Goa'uld scary?

They had millions of followers, even disregarding the Jaffa, and clearly there were Goa'uld, such as Yu, whose Jaffa would stay loyal to the death, whether they knew them to be a false god or not. They have fifty thousand years of technological accumulation, millennia of knowledge and genetic memory and more experience of battle than the entire US Air Force put together (and it's rubbish to say they hadn't faced a real battle, because they've fought the Asgard).

So why the hell weren't they scary?

Well, they weren't scary because no-one was scared of them. Because the protagonists had stopped being written as scared of them. No-one seems to have seriously worried about the Goa'uld since about Season 6; they just mock them.

The thing is, the Goa'uld always had the technology and the manpower, they just never tried. And they were dumb as rocks and SG-1 got lucky (I'm not sure they really thought their way out of a serious problem from Season 7 onwards). All you would have needed to make the Goa'uld scary was a leader who didn't camp it up in a big cloak, but actually made good plans. Imagine if, in Season 9, Ba'al had been presented as a formidable strategist, using the relicts of Anubis' technological and industrial base to create a small force of advanced ha'taks and kull-armoured Jaffa shock troops who were actually good at what they did. Wouldn't that have been scary? Just imagine it: SG-1 facing Earth's destruction, but there's no superweapon to take out and no exhaust ports to shoot down.

And there are a dozen other ways to make the Goa'uld scarier, none of which involve a superweapon or a mysterious glowing mask. The idea that the Ori are the way to put SG-1 on the back foot again annoyed me because it's so lazy. It's creating the big scary menace by having a man behind the curtain go boogedy-boogedy rather than using what is already there in a different way.

Gah!

I did work for a Parasitologist and believe me I found the very idea of the Goa'uld scary, revolting if you will.
In the begining our intrepid heroes winced at the thought of implantation ('a word I intend never to use again'). When did the Goa'uld become a joke? O'Neill mocked them because it made them less frightening to him, not because he didn't respect them as an enemy. Of course most of the Jaffa couldn't shoot straight but if they could, with their superior numbers and technology, we would be toast.
No, I think TPTB turned a formidable enemy into a joke and season 8 and 9 did the trick. We became the arrogant ones. We lost an interesting enemy (with personality something the Ori lack) and got boredom in return (the Ori, who are in fact a bunch of flamers!).

[Zoser]

The writers killed at the drop of a hat and they also never took the evilness to the extremes they could have. As with everything else, there were very few lasting effects to anything the Goa'uld did. Although Jonas developing a tumor from what Nirrti did was pretty good. And Cassie had aftereffects, too.

Repercussions. We need repercussions. And we need truly evil enemies that stay evil and that pose a genuine threat.

I miss Nirrti. And I miss Baal's dark, menacing (and singular) atmosphere.

Another example of wasted potential? That troop of Jaffa SG-1 ran into who were learning how to be SG soldiers. OMG, can you imagine if they'd followed through with that?? You'd never know who to trust. Or shoot. That could have been a fantastic twist, but it was wasted on one ep. *sigh*

I loved Nirrti and Ba'al - they just oozed evil. And I loved Yu, the crazy old man. They have good ideas and, as you say, waste them. They let intriguing ideas die and pick up on lame ones.

And if Aphophis thought of the Jaffa SG troops what other plots could have the other System Lord thought of. With all the Jaffa with maturing symbiotes will there be more Goa'uld coming to the fore?

[ShipShape]

course...you know, for many, the prospect of vala or shark baby getting killed off would be rather....non-angst inspiring

kinda lik CAm, unfortunately.

Personally, I would sleep just fine---perhaps a *tiny* bit of angst over Vala, only because I could see some humor in her character, besides the obvious "sex-appeal" thing. For Cam, though, absolutely nothing, except relief.

[binkpmmc]

Personally, I would sleep just fine---perhaps a *tiny* bit of angst over Vala, only because I could see some humor in her character, besides the obvious "sex-appeal" thing. For Cam, though, absolutely nothing, except relief.

Sad to say but I'm right there with you guys on the mitchell thing - wouldn't miss him one whit. Nor would I miss the cliche caricature either - both are damaging the show as written and portrayed, IMO, of course.

[ShipShape]

Sad to say but I'm right there with you guys on the mitchell thing - wouldn't miss him one whit. Nor would I miss the cliche caricature either - both are damaging the show as written and portrayed, IMO, of course.

Yes, that's definitely true. I don't think they can change them now, though, unless we see Cam go to college and get an astrophysics degree in the space of 3 shows and so starts talking like an intelligent human being.

And Vala, you see, they ARE trying to change her character from what it originally was--the ep of S9 where she told about her "immaculate conception" and such (can never remember names of eps, *sigh*) showed a much more serious character than what we had seen in the early eps of S9. Must be TPTB's attempt to make her more than a one-joke character in preparation for her joining the cast full-time in the fall. If she only appeared once in awhile, like the half-dressed Goa'ould villainesses (or Tokra ladies for that matter), it might be OK, but I agree that she definitely should not be on the show full-time.

Both characters look like a**es next to the original three. I'm curious to see how RDA is going to interact with them--if he's smart, not at all.

[Skydiver]

true. they are trying to change vala. time will tell if they accomplish it or if we get a dose of 'she's here, she's great, get over it or go to netu' attitude

cam?????

sigh, poor cam.

cam is simply a more butched up (as in macho'd) version of felger

[binkpmmc]

cam is simply a more butched up (as in macho'd) version of felger

Classic and so true - great observation, Sky. Love it.

[Seshat]

cam is simply a more butched up (as in macho'd) version of felger

A bit prettier. But not as funny.

[Skydiver]

I still think that Cam has a twin brother who keeps impersonating him

goofy cam is the bro, 'good' cam is the real thing

either that or someone keeps messing with his zoloft prescription

[Seshat]

I still think that Cam has a twin brother who keeps impersonating him

goofy cam is the bro, 'good' cam is the real thing

either that or someone keeps messing with his zoloft prescription

I was kind of hoping for an "evil" Cam in there somewhere, but no luck so far.