S10: Critique & Contemplation

[esoap524]

But space to breathe does not mean to sit in one room having the same conversation.
It's the build up into the action, it's the quiet before the storm, it's the counterpoint to the excitement. If we are constantly on the go then the viewer gets fatigued, they lose concentration, and the only way to fix that (in the current TPTB opinion) is to have more action rather than better paced action.

Anyway, if the writers could remember how to write action and character we wouldn't have this extremely long thread.

Well, I suppose I'm just not watching the right episodes. Admittedly, I'm a newbie, but the episodes I've seen scattered throughout have a lot of exposition. So does 24 but that's usually delivered while someone is hanging out of a plane, has a gun to someone's throat or is plotting a major conspiracy I guess I like a helping of action with my plot and character development.

I'm committing myself to watching all 9 seasons this summer so I can truly analyze this like a pro and have a basis of comparison.

[smurf]

Good on you for intending to watch all the episodes, but I suspect if you like the 24-style running about exposition you probably aren't going to enjoy earlier seasons SG-1 so much.

I've only watched the first season of 24, and frankly I got bored of it halfway through. The constant action was grating, and mildly illogical in the context of of the shows construct - I couldn't take seriously that much action every hour. It was so heavily reliant on moving the characters from place to place that I didn't get a moment to get to know them, like them and care about them.
Hmm, I was about to type, "The only reason I watched it through to the end", but thinking back I didn't, I stopped then watched the last three episodes only to see who dunnit.
Anyway, I think a good show should be paced in a way that allows growth in the story and the characters to sink in. It should be a journey you take with the characters, otherwise it's just a list of things that happened.

On the opposing side, you can have too much character information to the point you actually dislike the character and don't care for them. I'm getting this feeling when watching Lost now. So bored of the characters (apart from Sawyer and maybe Siad, although I'm waiting for their backstory splat), that I just want a entirely plot based episode.

Funny thing is that in S9 we have both situations. Too much plot, and being force fed character information, makes me find Mitchell an incredibly dull character.

[ReganX]

Spoiler:

Not only do we have Mitchell going undercover again, but we have him rescuing Teal'c (who is being tortured) all by himself again. Oh, and just rescuing Teal'c isn't good enough; he also gets to rescue Sam, Daniel, and Vala, too. And possibly the entire crew of the ship. Thank goodness SG-1 has Mitchell to pull their asses out of the fire. Mitchell appears to be the only competent person on the entire team. And Teal'c makes such a lovely punching bag.

I'm feeling both sleepy and nauseas already.

Seriously, are TPTB intentionally trying to destroy the show?

[ReganX]

Funny thing is that in S9 we have both situations. Too much plot, and being force fed character information, makes me find Mitchell an incredibly dull character.

A little experiment.

Imagine that you had never seen anything from Seasons One through Eight, but that you have watched all of Season Nine

What do you know about Sam? Daniel? Teal'c? Jack?

In contrast, we have had plenty of boring anecdotes about Mitchell's family, had his past traumas crammed down our throats and had it emphasized over and over again how great a leader he is and how generally great he is, without seeing any evidence of this greatness for ourselves, quite the reverse.

The writers weren't even trying to help newbies connect with the old characters.

[Skydiver]

thery're not. it's like they're doing thier best to make everyone forget that the 'old' ones ever existed

sam, daniel and teal'c are being treated like Jack and Jonas....ssh, they're a sekret. and if we don't talk about them, people will forget all about them and if we distract them wtih enough bombs and boobs, they won't even notice that they're going away

the way they 'wrote out' jonas was clumsy, rude and a joke; the same has been done to jack and it seems like they're trying to write out sam and teal'c while they're still on the show and the only reason for daniel to be around is to be vala's sidekick

so much for him starring on the show huh????? he's nothing more than a male body to be the butt of vala's jokes. a role that any fit, nice looking male could slip into

[Amanda Eros]

Hi all, I just wanted to apologize for acting pretty rude lately. I've been displacing a lot of outside feelings on the forum and am sorry for posting a few things, too. There is a way of posting with class, and I've totally lacked that lately. I'm really going to try to keep the id under wraps.


To get back on topic:

I missed how they used to show us the character development. Now they are trying to tell us. All the other seasons it wasn't obvious that the season was a year long. This season it was the first three episodes in a few days then from there it's like they skipped weeks and months with every episode after that. Then all of a sudden they are mentioning six months have passed, then nine months then a year. What happened in between?

[smurf]

A little experiment.

Imagine that you had never seen anything from Seasons One through Eight, but that you have watched all of Season Nine

What do you know about Sam? Daniel? Teal'c? Jack?

In contrast, we have had plenty of boring anecdotes about Mitchell's family, had his past traumas crammed down our throats and had it emphasized over and over again how great a leader he is and how generally great he is, without seeing any evidence of this greatness for ourselves, quite the reverse.

The writers weren't even trying to help newbies connect with the old characters.

Which is why I lost interest in season 9. If you didn't manage to connect with Mitchell you had nothing else to work with. The only reason I watched more than three episodes is my previous connection with the other characters.
If TPTB had actually stuck to their guns and called it Stargate Command I probably would have given up early on. So in a way they win, because by not renaming it they probably saved themselves a larger drop in viewer numbers.

[ReganX]

Which is why I lost interest in season 9. If you didn't manage to connect with Mitchell you had nothing else to work with. The only reason I watched more than three episodes is my previous connection with the other characters.

There certainly wasn't much there for anybody who happened not to adore Mitchell and Vala. I think that TPTB were trying to win over Farscape fans by showcasing Ben Browder and Claudia Black's characters, and at the same time trying to appeal to the young male demographic, seemingly forgetting that the show as it was had it's own appeal for many and ignoring the idea that the existing viewers might not welcome the change.

If TPTB had actually stuck to their guns and called it Stargate Command I probably would have given up early on. So in a way they win, because by not renaming it they probably saved themselves a larger drop in viewer numbers.

Or perhaps people might have been more willing to give a new show a chance. It could have gone either way.

I don't see Stargate Command appealing to me, though.

[smurf]

Or perhaps people might have been more willing to give a new show a chance. It could have gone either way.

I don't see Stargate Command appealing to me, though.

True, but looking at the numbers for S9 I'm inclined to believe the movement would be more down than up.
There would be a second season of SGC of that I'm sure, but I think it'll end up like SGA with a drop off in numbers between seasons of those who tried it until the end but weren't interested enough to come back.

[ReganX]

True, but looking at the numbers for S9 I'm inclined to believe the movement would be more down than up.
There would be a second season of SGC of that I'm sure, but I think it'll end up like SGA with a drop off in numbers between seasons of those who tried it until the end but weren't interested enough to come back.

If it was like Season Nine, you're probably right. I don't think that 'The Mitchell and Vala Show' is strong enough to survive.

[smurf]

If it was like Season Nine, you're probably right. I don't think that 'The Mitchell and Vala Show' is strong enough to survive.

Come on, you don't honestly believe that TPTB didn't actually make Stargate Command?

Now, along with all those great character moments on the cutting room floor, I have to imagine there's a well thought out pile of scripts for the development of a whole new show, which got dumped because Skiffy wanted the bragging rights to the longest sci-fi show.

Nope, not working.

[ReganX]

Come on, you don't honestly believe that TPTB didn't actually make Stargate Command?

They made Stargate Command and slapped a "Stargate: SG-1" sticker on it.

[kazzyk]

I dont know about anyone else but it says alot for the original Stargate that fans watch it over and over again (previous seasons). For me--this is huge as I am not one to watch anything beyond the first airing.

However--I can watch and watch Stargate and as I do I always find something new in an episode that I have seeen 10 times!
A little something--a look--a word or two--something that either I missed or didnt pick up on prior--I dont know how to explain it but this is the beauty of the orginal Stargate.

I can not bring myself to re-watch S9 and I doubt I will watch S10 with the exception of perhaps a few episodes but the only reason I will tune in to S10 at all will be simply curiosity.

[pittsburghgirl]

I'm feeling both sleepy and nauseas already.

Seriously, are TPTB intentionally trying to destroy the show?

yes!

[esoap524]

Good on you for intending to watch all the episodes, but I suspect if you like the 24-style running about exposition you probably aren't going to enjoy earlier seasons SG-1 so much.

I've only watched the first season of 24, and frankly I got bored of it halfway through. The constant action was grating, and mildly illogical in the context of of the shows construct - I couldn't take seriously that much action every hour. It was so heavily reliant on moving the characters from place to place that I didn't get a moment to get to know them, like them and care about them.
Hmm, I was about to type, "The only reason I watched it through to the end", but thinking back I didn't, I stopped then watched the last three episodes only to see who dunnit.
Anyway, I think a good show should be paced in a way that allows growth in the story and the characters to sink in. It should be a journey you take with the characters, otherwise it's just a list of things that happened.

On the opposing side, you can have too much character information to the point you actually dislike the character and don't care for them. I'm getting this feeling when watching Lost now. So bored of the characters (apart from Sawyer and maybe Siad, although I'm waiting for their backstory splat), that I just want a entirely plot based episode.

Funny thing is that in S9 we have both situations. Too much plot, and being force fed character information, makes me find Mitchell an incredibly dull character.

Completely agree with you on Lost. What started as an interesting premise turned into predictability. As for 24, I've been with it 5 seasons and since that equals 5 days, there's definitely a bit of "compression" that goes on character development wise.

I'm a Farscape fan and started with that late in season 1. I thought they did a good job of balancing action, exposition and characterization. The episode with which I started gave us insight into Claudia's character on the show--the exiled soldier who has the chance to see/remember what her life was once like while balancing it with what her life is now becoming. The show's tag typically gave the emotional pay-off between two characters who'd been in conflict during the episode. In the case of this episode, Claudia and Ben's characters. I was hooked by the end of the episode, for that very reason. There was character stuff going on inside and you could see it on the characters' faces. While all this character stuff is happening, the crew is hunting down a virus.

At any rate, SG1 is a likeable show. I can't compare s9 to s1 or s10 to s2 so I figure, it's summer, my other stuff is gone (24 and House) and I can catch up.