the rest of Sci-Fi Friday
Call me contrary, but I'm starting to twitch when I see that Johari link. Actually, it goes with the "character in one line" thing that Sal wanted the other day. They both push that same button, the one that feels like an exercise imposed from on high. ::shrugs::
Hunkered down for snow. May go wandering in it later. Because, snow! (Hush, New England, you've gotten it all this season.) Had some of this written last night, but I got too lazy to write up the rest.
SGA 2.16
First episode in a while that I was truly happy with. Sure, Sheppard letting himself be talked into hosting Thalen wasn't the best move ever, but I can see it happening if I squint enough, and I'm handwaving the "if he hadn't, we wouldn't have had an episode" factor.
Anyway, happy, because:
* I love the idea, love anything with more information about other Pegasus societies. And this one came with a blood feud that you just knew had to have developed on/among some of these planets that can't be bothered to come together against something as Big Bad as the Wraith. Wheee!
* Caldwell didn't fit right in, but he wasn't incompetent, either. (I don't want to harsh my happy, which means I'm ignoring the "what, they just gave him back the Daedalus?" issues. For now. Argh, don't think about it.) The "I won't tell you what to do" line to Teyla was dumbass writer meta, so I'm not blaming him.
* Ronon needs a leader. He does more than fine on his own, as those seven years running show, but he needs a leader on a deep down level that makes him want to believe things. Like that he knows Sheppard.
* Teyla rocks. She's still not the Teyla that she could be, but like I told Katie, I don't know if the writers are finally getting a handle on her, or if Luttrel is settling in and bringing more subtleties to the performance, but we've been seeing a Teyla recently who thinks, who acts, who plans, who I can admire. Hmmm, maybe it's having Ronon around. Anyway, in this episode, she rocked.
* We got a feel for who Phoebus and Thalen were. I mean, they both obviously wanted the other dead, and they were both smart about it, but they went about it differently and that difference makes me happy. Phoebus used Lorne and his men, but only because they were in her way and she didn't cover anywhere near well enough. Thalen used Ronon, and he planned how to do it and what he'd do with Ronon when he had him. She was willing to kill anyone on Atlantis in order to kill him. He went out of his way to avoid killing/being the cause of the death of any Atlantis people. And so on.
* And on another level, I just love that Higginson came through with Phoebus so vividly. That had to be a blast for her, but it wasn't just the action that made the difference.
So yeah, happy. New lesson for Atlantis: Take a pass on the space debris, okay?
BSG 2.16
I'd found something relatively soft to throw at my TV, just in case. And then I would've headed west and thrown harder objects. Grrr. Thank you, RDM, for not making me go through with either plan, but! I'm not tossing those plans yet, oh no. You have used up your share of flashbacks, and the share of everyone else in the western hemisphere, understand?
Okay, the episode. Still think they could have done a FAR better job filling in the Dee/Lee background, because what we've gotten on screen to this point just...calling it a stretch to get to this doesn't do the maneuver justice. Past that, though, Billy proposing? Yeeks. He really doesn't know women. Even if she hadn't been waffling between him and Lee, that had "shoot down" or "pity acceptance" written all over it. I like how he reacted, though, both right then and in the club/bar/whatever. All the way through to the end, really, because we know he's the guy who does the stupid things he doesn't really know how to do in order to be the man who protects Dee. ::pats him:: I'm sorry, honey.
As for the rest of it:
* Oooh, Lee being smart. Love when my military folks strategize.
* Kara, Kara, Kara. You should have sent in the Marines.
* Speaking of, OMG SHE SHOT LEE. Didn't see that coming! On one hand, I think I like; the consequences for her wanting to be the one in there had to be more than the death of some civilians or some Marines. On the other, wow, do she and Lee really need more interpersonal angst?
* Saw that move with Tyrol's Sharon coming from light years away. And again, I think I like, because Adama being clever, just like Kara, had a consequence. Pleeeeeease let it affect his relationship with Roslin.
* Roslin looking at, talking to, and breaking down over Billy...ow.
* Tigh was giving Adama crap about the frakking Cylon! Yes! If I can't have Fisk, I'll take Tigh. Because COME ON. And they finally had Adama really push Sharon. Finally. Please keep doing that, thanks.
Hunkered down for snow. May go wandering in it later. Because, snow! (Hush, New England, you've gotten it all this season.) Had some of this written last night, but I got too lazy to write up the rest.
SGA 2.16
First episode in a while that I was truly happy with. Sure, Sheppard letting himself be talked into hosting Thalen wasn't the best move ever, but I can see it happening if I squint enough, and I'm handwaving the "if he hadn't, we wouldn't have had an episode" factor.
Anyway, happy, because:
* I love the idea, love anything with more information about other Pegasus societies. And this one came with a blood feud that you just knew had to have developed on/among some of these planets that can't be bothered to come together against something as Big Bad as the Wraith. Wheee!
* Caldwell didn't fit right in, but he wasn't incompetent, either. (I don't want to harsh my happy, which means I'm ignoring the "what, they just gave him back the Daedalus?" issues. For now. Argh, don't think about it.) The "I won't tell you what to do" line to Teyla was dumbass writer meta, so I'm not blaming him.
* Ronon needs a leader. He does more than fine on his own, as those seven years running show, but he needs a leader on a deep down level that makes him want to believe things. Like that he knows Sheppard.
* Teyla rocks. She's still not the Teyla that she could be, but like I told Katie, I don't know if the writers are finally getting a handle on her, or if Luttrel is settling in and bringing more subtleties to the performance, but we've been seeing a Teyla recently who thinks, who acts, who plans, who I can admire. Hmmm, maybe it's having Ronon around. Anyway, in this episode, she rocked.
* We got a feel for who Phoebus and Thalen were. I mean, they both obviously wanted the other dead, and they were both smart about it, but they went about it differently and that difference makes me happy. Phoebus used Lorne and his men, but only because they were in her way and she didn't cover anywhere near well enough. Thalen used Ronon, and he planned how to do it and what he'd do with Ronon when he had him. She was willing to kill anyone on Atlantis in order to kill him. He went out of his way to avoid killing/being the cause of the death of any Atlantis people. And so on.
* And on another level, I just love that Higginson came through with Phoebus so vividly. That had to be a blast for her, but it wasn't just the action that made the difference.
So yeah, happy. New lesson for Atlantis: Take a pass on the space debris, okay?
BSG 2.16
I'd found something relatively soft to throw at my TV, just in case. And then I would've headed west and thrown harder objects. Grrr. Thank you, RDM, for not making me go through with either plan, but! I'm not tossing those plans yet, oh no. You have used up your share of flashbacks, and the share of everyone else in the western hemisphere, understand?
Okay, the episode. Still think they could have done a FAR better job filling in the Dee/Lee background, because what we've gotten on screen to this point just...calling it a stretch to get to this doesn't do the maneuver justice. Past that, though, Billy proposing? Yeeks. He really doesn't know women. Even if she hadn't been waffling between him and Lee, that had "shoot down" or "pity acceptance" written all over it. I like how he reacted, though, both right then and in the club/bar/whatever. All the way through to the end, really, because we know he's the guy who does the stupid things he doesn't really know how to do in order to be the man who protects Dee. ::pats him:: I'm sorry, honey.
As for the rest of it:
* Oooh, Lee being smart. Love when my military folks strategize.
* Kara, Kara, Kara. You should have sent in the Marines.
* Speaking of, OMG SHE SHOT LEE. Didn't see that coming! On one hand, I think I like; the consequences for her wanting to be the one in there had to be more than the death of some civilians or some Marines. On the other, wow, do she and Lee really need more interpersonal angst?
* Saw that move with Tyrol's Sharon coming from light years away. And again, I think I like, because Adama being clever, just like Kara, had a consequence. Pleeeeeease let it affect his relationship with Roslin.
* Roslin looking at, talking to, and breaking down over Billy...ow.
* Tigh was giving Adama crap about the frakking Cylon! Yes! If I can't have Fisk, I'll take Tigh. Because COME ON. And they finally had Adama really push Sharon. Finally. Please keep doing that, thanks.