S10: Critique & Contemplation

[Skydiver]

i will say something in defense of mitch.

it's like the writers pimped mitch to high heaven and tehn ben read the script and went 'wha????' and has tried on his own to tone mitch down.

he has enthusiasm, certainly. and a bit of giddiness and 'wow mom, look where i am'...but he's not arrogant. he's not 'me boss, you not, bow to my greatness'

he has some humility in him that recognizes that he just might be in over his head.

i think the writers just got too carried away with 'isn't he great? isn't he grand? isn't he super?' and forgot to take a step back and realize jsut how THEY would feel if Joe Blow writer was brought in and THEY were told, yeah, he's great, he's super, he's gonna be your new boss.

Do you really think, say if mgm brought in JMS and coop and the boys were ALL demoted to only writers, that it'd be a smooth transition????

they needed to touch on that insecurity and anxiety and angst and tension.

[Rogue]

i will say something in defense of mitch.

it's like the writers pimped mitch to high heaven and tehn ben read the script and went 'wha????' and has tried on his own to tone mitch down.

he has enthusiasm, certainly. and a bit of giddiness and 'wow mom, look where i am'...but he's not arrogant. he's not 'me boss, you not, bow to my greatness'

he has some humility in him that recognizes that he just might be in over his head.

i think the writers just got too carried away with 'isn't he great? isn't he grand? isn't he super?' and forgot to take a step back and realize jsut how THEY would feel if Joe Blow writer was brought in and THEY were told, yeah, he's great, he's super, he's gonna be your new boss.

Do you really think, say if mgm brought in JMS and coop and the boys were ALL demoted to only writers, that it'd be a smooth transition????

they needed to touch on that insecurity and anxiety and angst and tension.

Its not the way Mitchell acted when he got the assignment that bothered me. You can't blame him for asking for the assignment. Jack wrote him a blank check.

Problem being, he was put into a position he didn't earn or have the qualifications for. You have to give him credit for knowing he was over his head and wanting experience personnel on his team. If they hadn't come back, Mitchell would have gotten his new team killed already.

[Skydiver]

he woudl have.

his lack of experience and knowledge, and i'm not just talking 'book learnin' i'm talking practical knowledge, would have gotten his team killed.

he had the enthusiasm, but not the knowledge, and no amount of report reading would have taught him that.

In fact, i'm frankly surprised that he never had to go through an orientation period. Police offiers aren't just graduated out of the academy and tossed into a car and told 'go, enforce the lay'

they have a probationary period where they're assigned to a training officer adn given a chance to learn the ropes while keeping the safety net of someone watching their back and guiding thier actions/decisions

I would expect no less from the SGC

yet another plot hole that they didn't care to address

[ReganX]

Maybe but I took the cock pit scene as passing the baton to the new guy. Sometimes visual leaves more of an impression than audio. Why have the scene if they weren't wanting to leave that impression?

Of course the whole Jack send off was strange anyway.

I'd say that the cockpit scene was intended to look as though Jack was passing the torch to his chosen successor, but the dialogue and Jack's demeanour don't really fit with that - especially when you compare it to a scene like Sam's promotion at the end of "New Order, Part 2".

[Zoser]

I think for one Mitchell knew he was over his head. He came in with the expectation of being one of the team and now he is the leader without an experienced team. Another is that after reading all those mission reports, he has this fantasy about running around the galaxy/saving Earth with the original SG-1. He gets to the SGC and his bubble pops.

I was put off with Mitchells character from the beginning. The hero backstory was lame. Jack at his bed side promising him the world. Sam bowing down to his greatness. After gracing the SGC with his presence we find out that he is now the leader of SG-1. Huh? All the qualified officers at the SGC and a newbie is put in charge. He had never even seen the gate much less traveled through it. That decision alone made Landry look like an idiot. Oh and then Jack giving him his seal of approval was just the icing on the cake. The guy must be ok if Jack thinks he is. It makes me wonder if a side effect of frequent gate travel is insanity.

And gives us headaches - didn't you read the warning on the gate ramp?

[Skydiver]

oh well, that explains it

pops an excedrine

[Jackie]

Intresting assesments on Mitchell. I do believe the very first mistake they made was in the flashback scene when Jack tells him he can have anything he wants. Give me a break--that would never happen in real life.

I find it really hard to believe a general of the USAF would even tell a "dying" solder that if he pulled through he could get anything. That in itself was just a bunch of hoowey. The general should be keeping the expectaions real and stating something like, "You went above and beyond the call of duty..."

Then Mitchell showing up to finding SG-1 was disbanned. That was redicuals...SG-1 is SG-1 because they were the first in line of defense/offence team. Not because they were perfect and wonderful and got a "A1" title. There should have been another team in place if Sam, Daniel and Teal'c left.

When Mitchell showed up for his "new assignment" he should have found another team in place. Mitchell should have discovered that the team was REPLACED, not disbanned. That would have been far more intresting to see Mitchell show up and find SG-1 was now a whole different group of people.

Maybe he could have used the new team in finding out where the old team went and why they split up. Instead of the skit of: "I have to get SG-1 back because everyone else who works here are losers."

The show used to pride itself on being in regulation with the USAF...I haven't heard them making that claim lately. Not in Atlantis or SG-1.

There was also intresting takes on Landry. There was even more mistakes about command. Landry doesn't come off a a General but more like a Dad figure. Putting Vala on SG-1--highly questionable even with Daniel's pleads. Telling Mitchell he felt like he wasn't in charge either and just over all stupid things he did.

Daniel pleading for Vala to be accepted! Hell, that was bizzare due to the fact she beat him up and stole his stuff. They could have toned Vala down and still kept her at odds with Daniel...kept her around for a liason figure instead of "SG-1 Vala."

Poor Sam, she never gets a break. The absence was half heartedly explained and it is as if the writers were hoping she wouldn't come back. She was dumb-down and placed on the back burnner. I will be glad when she goes to Atlantis and I hope she tell Rodney where to shove a lemon. (SGA is becoming SG McKay. Augh!)

[JessM]

Very true.

Can anybody here see Hammond or Jack

(a) putting a green newbie in charge of the flagship team, the team most likely to run into trouble?
(b) leaving said green newbie in charge despite the presence of a far more experienced officer and of a known threat?
(c) allowing a close relative of theirs to remain as CMO, despite the obvious potential for favouritism and for personal issues to affect command decisions?
(d) allowing Vala to join SG-1 despite having met her?

Nope, I certainly can't.

It's funny (or maybe not) - when he did that in MM, at first I thought he'd been replaced by a pod person.

But then I remembered those other things he'd done - and although his allowing Vala to join SG-1 still seemed very odd and nonsensical, it began to make a little more sense.

[ses110]

Excellent points Jackie.My thought after watching Avalon were this is not going to work.I was shaking my head at the scenes when Mitchell was interviewing SG-1 candidates.That's not really true.I thought things would not work when I heard BB and CB were being brought in.I thought the mix would just not work.In regards to McKay I do not understand why McKay gets soo much screentime.Do TPTB know there are other characters on Atlantis? I'm not sure how the rest of the cast can stand it.

[JessM]

Intresting assesments on Mitchell. I do believe the very first mistake they made was in the flashback scene when Jack tells him he can have anything he wants. Give me a break--that would never happen in real life.

That was pretty unbelievable. First thing that made me believe he was a Marty Sue...

When Mitchell showed up for his "new assignment" he should have found another team in place. Mitchell should have discovered that the team was REPLACED, not disbanned. That would have been far more intresting to see Mitchell show up and find SG-1 was now a whole different group of people.

Maybe he could have used the new team in finding out where the old team went and why they split up. Instead of the skit of: "I have to get SG-1 back because everyone else who works here are losers."

Those are pretty interesting ideas. I think they would have worked much better than that whole "Gotta get the band back together again!! I gotta be on that fabled, super cool SG-1!"

The show used to pride itself on being in regulation with the USAF...I haven't heard them making that claim lately. Not in Atlantis or SG-1.

Really makes me wonder what they did with the Air Force advisor.

There was also intresting takes on Landry. There was even more mistakes about command. Landry doesn't come off a a General but more like a Dad figure. Putting Vala on SG-1--highly questionable even with Daniel's pleads. Telling Mitchell he felt like he wasn't in charge either and just over all stupid things he did.

Daniel pleading for Vala to be accepted! Hell, that was bizzare due to the fact she beat him up and stole his stuff. They could have toned Vala down and still kept her at odds with Daniel...kept her around for a liason figure instead of "SG-1 Vala."

One thing I have to give Landry credit for is that when Daniel did all that bizarre pleading, Landry said something along the lines of "What? You of all people should know how she is!" Although, that attitude evaporated after about five seconds...

The comparison of her to Teal'c was also bizarre at worst and a stretch at best.

Poor Sam, she never gets a break. The absence was half heartedly explained and it is as if the writers were hoping she wouldn't come back. She was dumb-down and placed on the back burnner. I will be glad when she goes to Atlantis and I hope she tell Rodney where to shove a lemon. (SGA is becoming SG McKay. Augh!)

I did get that feeling, the way they didn't explain her absence very much (the Cassie excuse sounded like an afterthought). None of the team seemed overly enthusiastic about her coming back either, except for Daniel's quick little "good to have you back" and Cam's gushing about getting the band back together, if that can be counted.

It's pretty sad how Sam and even Teal'c have been pretty much reduced to wallpaper the past season and a half.

[nell]

Uninvited repeated tonight on SciFi. This is the description from GW episode page:

General Landry has ordered SG-1 and Vala Mal Doran to join him at General O'Neill's cabin so they get to know one another better -- and to take a break from the constant pressure of the Ori.

So, this is yet another example of an infraction of regulations by the SGC commander. Smacks of favoritism to me. A real morale buster for the other SG-1 teams.

TPTB built a foundation of military protocol and respect during most of seasons 1-8. I learned alot about military ranks and command (I'm not naive, I know they stretched things sometimes). But, TPTB blew this out of the water over and over with attempts at character/team development stories like Uninvited.

[ChevronSeven]

General Landry has ordered SG-1 and Vala Mal Doran to join him at General O'Neill's cabin

And, this part still gets me - Jack's cabin is in MINNESOTA, not Colorado. They botched that part big time. They should've just made it Landry's cabin in Colorado.

[ses110]

Great point nell.I wonder what the reaction would be if Gen Hammand ordered Sam/Jack on a date? I thought the Regs were important? When it suits TPTB the Regs can disappear.If the Regs were such an issues Sam Jack Daniel and Teal'c would never have been keep together soo long.

[Skydiver]

And, this part still gets me - Jack's cabin is in MINNESOTA, not Colorado. They botched that part big time. They should've just made it Landry's cabin in Colorado.

yes, there is that. jack's minnesota cabin is now in silver springs colorado

i think the continuity guy is locked in the closet with the AF advisor.

and the regs???? guys, the regs were a convenient excuse to avoid doing what they didn't want to do and something to ignore when they're inconvenient.

[nell]

And, this part still gets me - Jack's cabin is in MINNESOTA, not Colorado. They botched that part big time. They should've just made it Landry's cabin in Colorado.

That irks me, too! It's as though TPTB thought their audience would not notice or they didn't care. Don't TPTB remember that they have an audience of intelligent fans? Are TPTB so desperate that they will do anything to keep the franchise going?