All right, time for my weekly SG-1 ranting. Honestly, I don't have too much to really say about Prodigy. I thought that seeing the team make a stand against the dangerous bugs was......oh, wait, this wasn't Prodigy, was it? No, this one was called The Scourge. Hmm. Funny, I thought that Mallozzi had already written this one once. I suppose I'll have to say something about how completely similar it was to that other episode then. Which I'm pretty sure I just did, so I'll let it go now.
And, despite the complete rehash and incredible unoriginality of the story, which really isn't SG-1's strength this season anyway, The Scourge actually turned out far better than I had hoped. I thought the script was rather weak, filled with cliches, illogic, and easy outs. But for all of that, the actors were rather good collectively, which in turn saved the story from being a complete waste. I'm not saying it was brilliant, don't get me wrong. There was no gain or loss either way for anyone or anything here, and the episode itself was rather flat, but for some reason things got reversed this week. Whereas throughout the season TPTB have had some decent stories to tell but managed to wreck the little things that make them endearing, here they got all the little things right in a less-than-stellar story.
To begin, let's get through the stuff I could have done without. At the top of that list is the Odyssey. No offense meant to anyone out there who enjoys this element of the show, but these damn spaceships are just about singlehandedly responsible for taking suspense and innovation completely out of the writer's repetoire. I'm well aware that there is a large, vocal segement of fans who get all hot and bothered each week with new CGI shots of the spaceships and what not, but I just don't see why the producers have to pander to them week after week. A pox on the Odyssey and all it's house. May they be blown to smithereens by Ori satellites and heard from no more.
And speaking of CGI, I was unimpressed by the CGI bugs in The Scourge. For some reason, they came across as particularly hokey and were integrated far less seamlessly than past effects in SG-1 have been. When they were oozing from dead bodies or busting out of the containment vessel in the lab they just didn't seem natural enough for the show. Eh, give me the big giant fly prop from Bane any day. Just my two cents. And why on Earth does Mitchell have a different gun than the rest of the team? Phallice or not, it's just another small thing to separate him from the rest of the team and make him different, which is not what the character needs. Besides, the P-90s look way cooler. And lastly, is it really necessary to be so over-the-top cliched with the Frenchman? Seriously, we've already got the untrustworthy Russians and the sneaky Chinese. Throwing the difficult, cowardly Frenchman into the mix is just a little sad.
Aside from the staggeringly unoriginal story and script, the episode played really well. The actors on SG-1 have always been great at making up for deficiencies in the scripts, and no place is that more the case than in The Scourge. This was at best a mediocre story. The only reason it succeeds at all is because of the considerable talents of the cast. Ken Girotti comes through again here, providing a well paced, well directed episode. Again, I can't help but feel that Peter DeLuise, Andy Mikita, and Martin Wood are just burdened with trying to direct too many episodes in too short a period of time. 30 hours of tv is too much for three guys to handle. I think the reason that Ethon and The Scourge came out so well is because Ken Girotti simply had enough time to prep and produce the episodes without trying to just get it filmed quickly and move on to the next one.
For me, Carter and Daniel really saved this episode. Carter's interaction with Woolsey and Daniel's scenes with the Chinese ambassador made the whole bug badness of the episode worth it. Snarky, cynical Carter needs to make an appearance more often. The character has a ton of presence and authority in this one. She's the one who has a grasp of the situation and is thinking clearly. Kudos to Amanda Tapping and to Robert Picardo. Likewise, Daniel's discussion of the Stargate program with the Chinese ambassador was a nice touch in an otherwise worthless bit of filler. That was great stuff for Daniel, all very much in character. I'd like to think that all of them--Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c--would work with whomever they had to in order to continue exploring through the gate and protecting Earth. Michael Shanks has always been able to be "on" when he gets his scenes in episodes, and that was certainly the case here.
I, too, liked the Mitchell and Teal'c walk and talk. It was a nice conversation, and Chris Judge's comedic timing with the character of Teal'c is spot on. I am sort of sick of the writers trying to imply that Mitchell knows every aspect of every mission and circumstance that SG-1 has ever been in for the last eight years, be it private or personal. Stop trying so hard to make it seem like he's been there from the beginning and participated in all that SG-1 has been through. The character would be alot more authentic if he didn't know all.
Mitchell, in general, continues with his Jekyll and Hyde nature. Luckily for me, we got Dr. Jekyll this week. Mitchell at least appeared somewhat competent in this one. He wasn't constantly annoying, and was much more in the background here. Mitchell works best when he's working with everyone instead of acting like a one man SG team replete with piloting, tactical, socioligical, and technical expertise that trumps all. There were definitely shades of that Mitchell here, though, which is worrisome. Mitchell's conversation with Daniel regarding the US's treaties with other nations was interesting and it warranted further discussion. I hated seeing that bit of conflict swept under the rug with Mitchell's idiot line of "I'm right". If you're going to have an ethical discussion about the American military's current or future role in a global Stargate program, then have it. Don't just push the idiot switch on Mitchell and have him be dumb and end the conversation. That scene was good for Daniel; it wasn't good for Mitchell. Mitchell has got to be smarter than "Go Airforce, screw everyone else".
One last bit of annoyance for me is the ever muddled command structure of the team. No one seemed to be in charge here. Not that it was much of an issue. Though, it was very strange to me that Mitchell had no clue when it came to the extermination protocols that would be followed by the SGC. That's something that all SG team members would know, most espcially a "leader". For a character who seems to know SG-1's past missions better than Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel do, it seemed like an odd, rather undermining decision for the writers to make. And I don't believe it was intentional, I just think the writers didn't think about how that would come across.
Anyway, to sum up--good acting from everyone, good directing. Bad story idea and script. And bad, bad, bad line about Starship Troopers. I've said this before and I'll say it again here. Winking at the audience, telling us that you're aware that the story is weak, unoriginal, and derivative does not make it ok to do the weak, unoriginal, and derivative story anyway. And Old School? Come on.
That's about all I've got to say for now about Prodigy, er, The Scourge. Crystal Skull is next week. Damn! I mean Arthur's Mantle. We'll see.
And, despite the complete rehash and incredible unoriginality of the story, which really isn't SG-1's strength this season anyway, The Scourge actually turned out far better than I had hoped. I thought the script was rather weak, filled with cliches, illogic, and easy outs. But for all of that, the actors were rather good collectively, which in turn saved the story from being a complete waste. I'm not saying it was brilliant, don't get me wrong. There was no gain or loss either way for anyone or anything here, and the episode itself was rather flat, but for some reason things got reversed this week. Whereas throughout the season TPTB have had some decent stories to tell but managed to wreck the little things that make them endearing, here they got all the little things right in a less-than-stellar story.
To begin, let's get through the stuff I could have done without. At the top of that list is the Odyssey. No offense meant to anyone out there who enjoys this element of the show, but these damn spaceships are just about singlehandedly responsible for taking suspense and innovation completely out of the writer's repetoire. I'm well aware that there is a large, vocal segement of fans who get all hot and bothered each week with new CGI shots of the spaceships and what not, but I just don't see why the producers have to pander to them week after week. A pox on the Odyssey and all it's house. May they be blown to smithereens by Ori satellites and heard from no more.
And speaking of CGI, I was unimpressed by the CGI bugs in The Scourge. For some reason, they came across as particularly hokey and were integrated far less seamlessly than past effects in SG-1 have been. When they were oozing from dead bodies or busting out of the containment vessel in the lab they just didn't seem natural enough for the show. Eh, give me the big giant fly prop from Bane any day. Just my two cents. And why on Earth does Mitchell have a different gun than the rest of the team? Phallice or not, it's just another small thing to separate him from the rest of the team and make him different, which is not what the character needs. Besides, the P-90s look way cooler. And lastly, is it really necessary to be so over-the-top cliched with the Frenchman? Seriously, we've already got the untrustworthy Russians and the sneaky Chinese. Throwing the difficult, cowardly Frenchman into the mix is just a little sad.
Aside from the staggeringly unoriginal story and script, the episode played really well. The actors on SG-1 have always been great at making up for deficiencies in the scripts, and no place is that more the case than in The Scourge. This was at best a mediocre story. The only reason it succeeds at all is because of the considerable talents of the cast. Ken Girotti comes through again here, providing a well paced, well directed episode. Again, I can't help but feel that Peter DeLuise, Andy Mikita, and Martin Wood are just burdened with trying to direct too many episodes in too short a period of time. 30 hours of tv is too much for three guys to handle. I think the reason that Ethon and The Scourge came out so well is because Ken Girotti simply had enough time to prep and produce the episodes without trying to just get it filmed quickly and move on to the next one.
For me, Carter and Daniel really saved this episode. Carter's interaction with Woolsey and Daniel's scenes with the Chinese ambassador made the whole bug badness of the episode worth it. Snarky, cynical Carter needs to make an appearance more often. The character has a ton of presence and authority in this one. She's the one who has a grasp of the situation and is thinking clearly. Kudos to Amanda Tapping and to Robert Picardo. Likewise, Daniel's discussion of the Stargate program with the Chinese ambassador was a nice touch in an otherwise worthless bit of filler. That was great stuff for Daniel, all very much in character. I'd like to think that all of them--Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c--would work with whomever they had to in order to continue exploring through the gate and protecting Earth. Michael Shanks has always been able to be "on" when he gets his scenes in episodes, and that was certainly the case here.
I, too, liked the Mitchell and Teal'c walk and talk. It was a nice conversation, and Chris Judge's comedic timing with the character of Teal'c is spot on. I am sort of sick of the writers trying to imply that Mitchell knows every aspect of every mission and circumstance that SG-1 has ever been in for the last eight years, be it private or personal. Stop trying so hard to make it seem like he's been there from the beginning and participated in all that SG-1 has been through. The character would be alot more authentic if he didn't know all.
Mitchell, in general, continues with his Jekyll and Hyde nature. Luckily for me, we got Dr. Jekyll this week. Mitchell at least appeared somewhat competent in this one. He wasn't constantly annoying, and was much more in the background here. Mitchell works best when he's working with everyone instead of acting like a one man SG team replete with piloting, tactical, socioligical, and technical expertise that trumps all. There were definitely shades of that Mitchell here, though, which is worrisome. Mitchell's conversation with Daniel regarding the US's treaties with other nations was interesting and it warranted further discussion. I hated seeing that bit of conflict swept under the rug with Mitchell's idiot line of "I'm right". If you're going to have an ethical discussion about the American military's current or future role in a global Stargate program, then have it. Don't just push the idiot switch on Mitchell and have him be dumb and end the conversation. That scene was good for Daniel; it wasn't good for Mitchell. Mitchell has got to be smarter than "Go Airforce, screw everyone else".
One last bit of annoyance for me is the ever muddled command structure of the team. No one seemed to be in charge here. Not that it was much of an issue. Though, it was very strange to me that Mitchell had no clue when it came to the extermination protocols that would be followed by the SGC. That's something that all SG team members would know, most espcially a "leader". For a character who seems to know SG-1's past missions better than Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel do, it seemed like an odd, rather undermining decision for the writers to make. And I don't believe it was intentional, I just think the writers didn't think about how that would come across.
Anyway, to sum up--good acting from everyone, good directing. Bad story idea and script. And bad, bad, bad line about Starship Troopers. I've said this before and I'll say it again here. Winking at the audience, telling us that you're aware that the story is weak, unoriginal, and derivative does not make it ok to do the weak, unoriginal, and derivative story anyway. And Old School? Come on.
That's about all I've got to say for now about Prodigy, er, The Scourge. Crystal Skull is next week. Damn! I mean Arthur's Mantle. We'll see.
Thor, ya got Aspirin?
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