Collateral Damage (912)

[ShimmeringStar]

I didn't really think much about the inappropriateness of Cam's behavior and what it potentially says about his character's judgement until I read your post, but then I realized something. Can you even imagine Daniel, Teal'c or Sam acting this same way at a party on a diplomatic mission to an alien planet? Hmmm? Going home with the first available hottie while on duty?

That's what I was concerned about in my first post on this thread. To the jaded TV viewer part of me, it didn't surprise me because the 'new and improved' direction of the show has been heavy on the T&A content and it was only a matter of time before their new male lead was hooked up with *somebody.*

But immediately the SG fan in me said "Wait a minute!" Because unless they were under alien influences (Need, Brief Candle) or stuck out in the middle of the galaxy with no hope of a quick rescue & under the influence of homebrew (A Hundred Days), the characters weren't shown on screen nor were off-hand references made to their having 'liaisons' with the native populations. (Or we weren't shown them and we as viewers could live in our blissfully innocent little worlds thinking highly of these characters.) The team who set the standard for all the teams that followed them *had* high professional and personal codes of conduct.

In terms of any ordinary scifi show plot device, I wouldn't care. But this is SG1! They are supposed to be the elite team of the SGC and representatives of our entire planet. Seems a bit tawdry for a team member somehow.

I wonder if there is still AF oversight to the show anymore.

Now I'm not saying that Cam doesn't deserve to get some from time to time. He's a good-looking, healthy American boy after all (yum!). But in retrospect, his choices in this situation seem very ill-advised to me.

Unless he was taking Jack at his word that once he joined SG1 he could "do anything he wanted."

And I agree... in a more *appropriate* situation... I'd be like every other red-blooded female who's posted that they liked seeing Cam in an interesting situation. But the fact that until he returned home he was still on the job, still representing the SGC and the Tau'ri to a race of people who could only judge us through this team's actions... it kinda turns the SQUEE factor to a squick....

It's interesting too, that fully-clothed and covered and in non-sexual situations each and every member of SG1 had sex appeal to the fans in prior seasons. We don't have to see skin to see sex appeal.

Best I can think of is this is the incident the team will always rub in Cam’s face whenever he gets certain urges in the future… “Hey Cam remember that time…” Like they probably did to Jack about not eating the cake after his Brief Candle incident....

[ann_sgcfan]

That's what I was concerned about in my first post on this thread. To the jaded TV view part of me, it didn't surprise me because the 'new and improved' direction of the show has been heavy on the T&A content and it was only a matter of time before their new male lead was hooked up with *somebody.*

But immediately the SG fan in me said "Wait a minute!" Because unless they were under alien influences (Need, Brief Candle) or stuck out in the middle of the galaxy with no hope of a quick rescue & under the influence of homebrew (A Hundred Days), the characters weren't shown on screen nor were off-hand references made to their having 'liaisons' with the native populations. (Or we weren't shown them and we as viewers could live in our blissfully innocent little worlds thinking highly of these characters.) The team who set the standard for all the teams that followed them *had* high professional and personal codes of conduct.
I wonder if there is still AF oversight to the show anymore.
And I agree... in a more *appropriate* situation... I'd be like every other red-blooded female who's posted that they liked seeing Cam in an interesting situation. But the fact that until he returned home he was still on the job, still representing the SGC and the Tau'ri to a race of people who could only judge us through this team's actions... it kinda turns the SQUEE factor to a squick....

It's interesting too, that fully-clothed and covered and in non-sexual situations each and every member of SG1 had sex appeal to the fans in prior seasons. We don't have to see skin to see sex appeal.

Best I can think of is this is the incident the team will always rub in Cam’s face whenever he gets certain urges in the future… “Hey Cam remember that time…” Like they probably did to Jack about not eating the cake after his Brief Candle incident....

I agree. I think BB is really cute! That said however, there is a time and place for such actions and it's not while off world as a represenative of Earth and the SGC like you said.

[Dani347]

A few more impressions. The scene with him walking with his dad didn't come off to me as us being told how great Mitchell is. Just that Mitchell wasn't the type to be content with a boring commercial flight job. And, that he's strong. But, not anything that came off as pumping him up for the audience.

I also didn't mind that he wasn't at fault for bombing the refugees. I mean, I do want to see him make a real error (okay, I thought the going home with Reya was an error, but the show didn't portray it as one) or do something where someone has to tell him to step back, that he's getting too involved, or making the wrong decision. I'm still highly interested in finding his Achille's Heel. But, for the purpose of this, what I felt was important wasn't that he had been following orders or had bad intel. It was that he felt responsible. The death of innocent people stuck in his mind, he knew he dropped the bomb on the target. Extenuating circumstances aside, the emotional connect was the same. He also knew he hadn't murdered Reya, but the memories made him feel like he had.

And, I did feel a connection with the others. I felt Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c were concerned.

[Pharaoh Atem]

This was the first stinker of the season i didn't like this episode to much it was good to to get back story on mitchell

[Pharaoh Atem]

And, I did feel a connection with the others. I felt Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c were concerned.

Sam seemed very concerned and has anyone noticed that her and mitchell have seemed to connect very quickly

[Dani347]

No connect beyond teammates and friends. And, here's hoping that it never becomes anything else.

[Agent_Dark]

No connect beyond teammates and friends. And, here's hoping that it never becomes anything else.

lol I agree in Canon. However there's lots of potential for fanfic

[Shipperahoy]

True. And, I really don't need to see any of them "get some" I mean, I never see them brush their teeth or go to the bathroom, or a lot of things, and it doesn't bother me, because it's beyond the scope of what their showing about their lives.

What?! They go to the bathroom?! Nuh uh! You'll never prove it! It's like the tree in the forest, if nobody ever sees it does it really happen?

[AGateFan]

What?! They go to the bathroom?! Nuh uh! You'll never prove it! It's like the tree in the forest, if nobody ever sees it does it really happen?

Well, its not cannon at least.

[Dani347]

Okay, there really is no reply I could give to the bathroom thing that wouldn't be completely in the gutter.

[AutumnDream]

This whole "memory device" setup for the episode just oozed of "cheap setup to shove some more Mitchell down our throats". Not only was it executed poorly, it was unoriginal, and what we did learn about Cameron was not all that interesting or unique after all. Okay, that's too bad... he was involved in an unfortunate accident in his war pilot days. Lots of soldiers from every country have seen and done a lot worse than that, accidental or not. I feel sorry for the character for that, but it's really not all that compelling a thing in the sense of making him a good character. Any normal guy would feel bad about that. In that sense, I say, "Big deal".

His father went through a few things too. That doesn't really make me any more inclined to place interest in Mitchell. Again, sure, it's sad. But not all that revolutionary or compelling for an episode that was written for the express purpose of giving Cameron some real character.

I felt a little bored more than once throughout the episode. It could be because of the dull sets, the repetitive events, the flat dialogue, or the "suspenseful who-killed-the-girl" plot that has been done in fourty thousand TV movies starring Gene Hackman. Or whatever. The memory twist didn't add much other than, like I said, the impression of a cheap plot device to get inside Mitchell's head. I'm certain a more inventive writer could have come up with a subtler way of exploring his character than literally probing his mind. How much more obvious can you get?

The other characters could have added interest to this episode by doing... well, anything remotely cool. Like sneaking in their "top secret guarded labs" or whatnot in an attempt to clear Mitchell's name and/or find damning proof that the minister-guy was up to something. Anything that would have raised the stakes. "Cameron might get imprisoned if the memories prove to be geniune, which we highly doubt they aren't!" isn't really enough to add any suspense to the story, especially because almost none of the fans have any sort of attachment to the character yet. Not to mention the furthur knowledge that Stargate makes generous use of the "reset" button, and whatever happened in this episode will definitely be forgotten by the next. We can rest assured that nothing bad would really happen with Cameron.

While I think he's an alright guy, he still doesn't have enough substance or originality to make me interested in him at all. He's just some guy. Jack was cool because he was just... cool. He was quirky, confident, and surprising a lot of the time. Even by the 12th episode of Season 1. Cameron is just dull, dull, dull, and this didn't do anything to remedy that. It had nothing to do with his acting, just the writing.

I absolutely adored Fourth Horseman Part II and I'm really looking forward to the great Ori stuff coming up. While I don't mind a good stand-alone episode, this just didn't cut it. Here's hoping future stand-alones get better.

I give this episode 2/5, just because Walter made me chuckle.

[LMichelle]

Um, I knew from the teaser where this was going. I was hoping for a twist, but no dice. This was similar to an ep of TNG, but can't remember the title. Hey, at least we got some backstory on Mitchell's character, but other than that it was okay. Nothing great.

Okay, here comes the nitpicking.

Can Mitchell walk me home? I don't like walking at night either. I'm assuming he slept with Raya, but I guess we don't know for sure. Hey, I don't blame Dr. Varrick.

I really could have lived without the multiple flashbacks of Ben beating a woman. *shudder*

I don't know much about casting, but you'd think they could have found a child that looked remotely like Ben. Sheesh.

I heard the word reception and was hoping SG-1 would be dressed up at the party, not in their freakin' uniforms. I wanted my suit porn, dammit.

Speaking of fashion, did anyone else need CPR after seeing Ben in the leather jacket? It was close for me.

It looked like Mitchell was in the same outfit that he had on in the flashback scene with his dad in the park. However, I think he had a brown suede jacket on and in the locker room it was a leather jacket, right? But the picture in his locker didn't match the outfit he had on with his dad. I think the t-shirt was a different color. I know I shouldn't be analyzing this. It was Ben in leather. Enough said.

[majorsal]

okay, the day after view now.

i 'still' think this was good mitchell character stuff, but... i won't be watching this ep again most likely. it felt like there was actual time spent on this script, and i really liked the suprise ending, but for me to want to watch it again... i think if i were a big mitchell/ben fan, i would watch it repeatedly. but i'm a sam fan (and team doing things together fan) and it just didn't grab me to make me crave to watch it again. and that's not a slam on the ep. i really can't find any laggings in the writing or directing and such (and ben was great in this), but... even with sam being in it, i won't bother rewatching the ep.

(i'm also afraid the mitchell i liked in this ep is going to go back to onelinermitchell )




sally

[nccjones]

What most aggreived me was that last scene with Mitchell. Here is a real chance for him to have some kind of meaningful interaction with anyone from his team. What the hell was Landry doing there? That should have been either Daniel, Teal'c, or Sam in that lockeroom with Cameron. Those are exactly the kind of scenes that SG-1 is missing this year, and this one was wasted. Cam is no closer to being "one of the team" after this episode, and that scene could have done it for him. What a waste.

I'm tremedously looking forward to Ripple Effect, though. Bring it on.

I think a good "team" ending would have been Daniel coming into the locker room to ask Mitchell if he wanted to go to (is it O'Malley's?) the steak house with Sam and Teal'c. It definately would have shown the team bringing him into their circle.

[AGateFan]

I think a good "team" ending would have been Daniel coming into the locker room to ask Mitchell if he wanted to go to (is it O'Malley's?) the steak house with Sam and Teal'c. It definately would have shown the team bringing him into their circle.

Yep that would be nice. Something like we saw with the team and Sheppard after Conversion. We have never seen that with Mitchell, he is always on his own or with Landry or Lam or in this ep Sam.