SGA "The Intruder" Thoughts
Jul. 22nd, 2005 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thegrrrl2002First of all--GIP!! Look at the wonderful icon ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mmmchelle made! It makes me giggle every damn time I look at it.
This ep made me giggle too. And squee. And slap my forehead in disbelief.
Okay, first of all, the opening scene with Sheppard and Weir--Worst Exposition Scene Ever. I mean, really, could it be any clunkier? Let's spoonfeed the viewers everything thing they need to know to pick up the story from here. Man, they could have just done a voiceover and had done with it! Hell, even I know better than to start stories out like that. Bad writers! Bad!
But you know, even that didn't matter too much, because I loved this ep. Oh how I love my gay, geeky show. It was the cliche to end all cliches, it's been done a million times before, but I'm a big ole geeky dork and will never tire of it, sort of like how I'll never tire of Aliens Made Them Do It fic. It's that whole "trapped in a small space with things going very wrong" storyline that I just adore. An episode focusing on my favorite characters doing my favorite kind of geeky things. And, even more conveniently, all of the extraneous people on the ship are confined to quarters so that they don't get in the way of my favorite characters. Shameless, yet squeeful at the same time. This way I got loads of John and Rodney in almost every single scene. Not to mention Rodney's nipples. And his ass. I think they need to get separate billing. (There's going to be some serious screencapping going on of this ep, believe me).
But okay, the show. Virus in the ship's computer. Wraith virus, actually. I can buy that. It's a tired storyline, but I thought it was pretty nicely done. It was actually pretty damn creepy watchingIngraham Lindstrom die. (thank you, coreopsis) (Dr. Lindstrom, BTW, was the original name of McKay's character, wasn't it?) That scene was genuinely intense, especially since we watched Rodney witness the whole thing. His horror was palpable. The resolution to the problem --rebooting (how cute is it that Sheppard does the same thing with his laptop?), and then rebooting again, and then cussing and futzing and then rebooting again--hell, I can't help myself, it was fun to watch. No genuine tension, because obviously we are not going to lose the Daedalus, or Weir, or Sheppard, or McKay, or Caldwell.
There were lots of fun moments, too, like Sheppard getting a little freaked out about Hermiod (he's naked!) along with that whole "ten fingers and I'll check the rest later" moment. (Rodney was definitely going to help out with that part). Not to mention the slashy moments, (touchies!! They touched!! Or more like: Rodney pawed John!! OMG!). Plus they got to stare into each other's eyes in the bay, and then get shut up in an fighter together, and, if that wasn't enough fun, Rodney gets taken for a ride when Sheppard goes out to shoot down the rogue fighter. Have I mentioned how much I love this show?
By the way, what happened to Novak? Did she remain back on Atlantis?
It was frustrating, though, that the earth-based SGC part of the storyline got scant attention. Finally getting back to earth, after thinking they'd never see it again, and we don't get to see their reactions? Not to mention that the wisdom of taking all the senior staff off of Atlantis for a month is rather questionable. (Yeah, we're pretty sure the Wraith won't bother us for a while...) And the storylines from the SGC--god, Weir gets one good scene at that briefing with General Landry, and then it's back to the ole lovelife storyline, which seems to be the only kind of personal story the writers can think of for women on Stargate. It's sad, really. I hate to break this to them, but women are not defined by their romantic involvements. Really, they're not. If they wanted to tell us a little more about what kind of person Weir is, there are all kinds of ways to do it that don't involve romance. The whole thing was just painfully bad.
In sharp contrast, we get a wonderful scene with Sheppard visiting Ford's cousin, presumably breaking the news to her that Ford is MIA. JF plays this scene beautifully, you can just see the pain and the weight of his responsibility in his face. The bit about "misplaced trust" was heartbreaking. I'm glad Ford isn't being totally forgotten, and that there are lingering consequences to people's actions.
I'm still sulking that we didn't get to see Rodney enjoying the wonders of being back on Earth. But we did get to see him being smart and mostly saving the day on the Daedalus. This is classic Rodney, snarky and whiny and a little freaked out by it all. I love that it was Sheppard at the end who realized that there was one computer left for the virus to hide in (I'm not going to go into the technical silliness of all that, because, come on, this is Stargate. Of course it's technically silly!). There's always a teamwork aspect to solving problems on Atlantis, and I appreciate that, a lot.
Plus John told Rodney that he did a good job on the fighter. *g* I so love when John teases Rodney. Especially about 'taking the stick'.
Last but not least, when the team arrived back in Atlantis, I thought it was incredibly sweet how happy Teyla was to see everyone. And my, she was acting awfully protective of Weir. Are Radek and Teyla going to have to duke it out over Weir? I'm guessing Radek isn't much of a fighter. But he's wily!
So, overall: dopy plot, but I had so much fun watching John and Rodney, that it just didn't matter. Hell, I'm easy.
mmmchelle made! It makes me giggle every damn time I look at it.This ep made me giggle too. And squee. And slap my forehead in disbelief.
Okay, first of all, the opening scene with Sheppard and Weir--Worst Exposition Scene Ever. I mean, really, could it be any clunkier? Let's spoonfeed the viewers everything thing they need to know to pick up the story from here. Man, they could have just done a voiceover and had done with it! Hell, even I know better than to start stories out like that. Bad writers! Bad!
But you know, even that didn't matter too much, because I loved this ep. Oh how I love my gay, geeky show. It was the cliche to end all cliches, it's been done a million times before, but I'm a big ole geeky dork and will never tire of it, sort of like how I'll never tire of Aliens Made Them Do It fic. It's that whole "trapped in a small space with things going very wrong" storyline that I just adore. An episode focusing on my favorite characters doing my favorite kind of geeky things. And, even more conveniently, all of the extraneous people on the ship are confined to quarters so that they don't get in the way of my favorite characters. Shameless, yet squeeful at the same time. This way I got loads of John and Rodney in almost every single scene. Not to mention Rodney's nipples. And his ass. I think they need to get separate billing. (There's going to be some serious screencapping going on of this ep, believe me).
But okay, the show. Virus in the ship's computer. Wraith virus, actually. I can buy that. It's a tired storyline, but I thought it was pretty nicely done. It was actually pretty damn creepy watching
There were lots of fun moments, too, like Sheppard getting a little freaked out about Hermiod (he's naked!) along with that whole "ten fingers and I'll check the rest later" moment. (Rodney was definitely going to help out with that part). Not to mention the slashy moments, (touchies!! They touched!! Or more like: Rodney pawed John!! OMG!). Plus they got to stare into each other's eyes in the bay, and then get shut up in an fighter together, and, if that wasn't enough fun, Rodney gets taken for a ride when Sheppard goes out to shoot down the rogue fighter. Have I mentioned how much I love this show?
By the way, what happened to Novak? Did she remain back on Atlantis?
It was frustrating, though, that the earth-based SGC part of the storyline got scant attention. Finally getting back to earth, after thinking they'd never see it again, and we don't get to see their reactions? Not to mention that the wisdom of taking all the senior staff off of Atlantis for a month is rather questionable. (Yeah, we're pretty sure the Wraith won't bother us for a while...) And the storylines from the SGC--god, Weir gets one good scene at that briefing with General Landry, and then it's back to the ole lovelife storyline, which seems to be the only kind of personal story the writers can think of for women on Stargate. It's sad, really. I hate to break this to them, but women are not defined by their romantic involvements. Really, they're not. If they wanted to tell us a little more about what kind of person Weir is, there are all kinds of ways to do it that don't involve romance. The whole thing was just painfully bad.
In sharp contrast, we get a wonderful scene with Sheppard visiting Ford's cousin, presumably breaking the news to her that Ford is MIA. JF plays this scene beautifully, you can just see the pain and the weight of his responsibility in his face. The bit about "misplaced trust" was heartbreaking. I'm glad Ford isn't being totally forgotten, and that there are lingering consequences to people's actions.
I'm still sulking that we didn't get to see Rodney enjoying the wonders of being back on Earth. But we did get to see him being smart and mostly saving the day on the Daedalus. This is classic Rodney, snarky and whiny and a little freaked out by it all. I love that it was Sheppard at the end who realized that there was one computer left for the virus to hide in (I'm not going to go into the technical silliness of all that, because, come on, this is Stargate. Of course it's technically silly!). There's always a teamwork aspect to solving problems on Atlantis, and I appreciate that, a lot.
Plus John told Rodney that he did a good job on the fighter. *g* I so love when John teases Rodney. Especially about 'taking the stick'.
Last but not least, when the team arrived back in Atlantis, I thought it was incredibly sweet how happy Teyla was to see everyone. And my, she was acting awfully protective of Weir. Are Radek and Teyla going to have to duke it out over Weir? I'm guessing Radek isn't much of a fighter. But he's wily!
So, overall: dopy plot, but I had so much fun watching John and Rodney, that it just didn't matter. Hell, I'm easy.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:09 am (UTC)But nipples! We'll always have the nipples!
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:17 am (UTC)OMG what did they do to him? He looked awful.
Zelenka looked good, though.
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:17 am (UTC)Hasn't anyone done the "protect the penis" icon yet? Hee!
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:20 am (UTC)Which one was that? It was Lindstrom that got sucked out the airlock, right?
Are Radek and Teyla going to have to duke it out over Weir? I'm guessing Radek isn't much of a fighter. But he's wily!
heee. Yes, and when they do, I wanna see it. *g*
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:22 am (UTC)thank you for you review/recap. and yeah for john asking rodney to "take the stick". bwahaha!
ps. my money's on radek. ;)
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:27 am (UTC)And ohmigod, Hermiod muttering so crabbily. Can we keep him, please?
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:27 am (UTC)Oh yes. The nipples. They're so fabulous, aren't they?
My squee is on overdrive, so I found the ep to be ridiculously enjoyable. Even though the backstory aspects of it, like you said, were totally neglected. It was very frustrating. I would have loved to have seen an entire ep based on their time back on earth, but that wouldn't have action, adventure, and things blowing up, oh my!
::sighs::
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:29 am (UTC)And why was she so shocked that Simon had moved on? Didn't she tell him to back in "Letters"? I mean, I'm sure it still hurts, but should it have been such a surprise?
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:31 am (UTC)Yay! *g*
It's impossible to resist, even with hokey storylines. Especially if you're into the whole Rodney thing. And the John thing. Or the Rodney/John thing.
I think John should have been the one protecting Rodney's ..er..assets. *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:33 am (UTC)I'm finding Caldwell's role very interesting. I like that he's not overshadowing the rest of the cast. He's sort of in the background, but yet still very *there*, with a strong presence. It will be interesting to see where they go with him.
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 03:43 am (UTC)I was thinking that myself. Then I just shook my head because clearly I've arrived at the Hopeless stage of fannishness.
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Date: 2005-07-23 03:56 am (UTC)affectionattention. :)And an Asgard on the Daedalus? Rodney's SO not impressed. ;) I love how he considers Hermiod to be just another colleague. An equal. And yet John is so uneasy about the whole "alien" thing. It just reinforces the fact that Sheppard is still very new to the Stargate world, and to me, it made me realize that we as an audience have that advantage over him, because the Asgard and the SGC are so familiar to us. It's like seeing the old through new eyes.
But seriously. How much do you want to bet that the Daedalus computers are running on Windows? ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 04:02 am (UTC)The Ford stuff was really good, and JF handled the scene well. I agree with you too about Weir.
And the eyefucking in the bay made me very happy.
And John was so proud of the fact that Rodney was using the same strategy to fix the problem that John used.
They were very cute together, and now I really am going to bed.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 04:19 am (UTC)I really loved John's reaction to Hermiod. That was a wonderful moment. And like you said, it does remind us that this is all new to John. I really wish we could have seen what it was like for them to explain the whole Stargate thing in the first place, back in "The Rising".
How much do you want to bet that the Daedalus computers are running on Windows? ;)
Probably Windows 95. *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 05:11 am (UTC)It was actually pretty damn creepy watching Ingraham Lindstrom die.
Yes, indeed it was. And DH does Face of Doom very well; he really has that grief thing down. Seriously, tho, it's disconcerting, how many people he's watched die. Especially awful when they are shouting HELP ME in your face, and there's nothing to be done. Yikes.
Plus they got to stare into each other's eyes in the bay,
Erm. I almost dread to say it, but I did have a bit of an Abyss 'and then sparks flew' moment, there. That was, huh. You know. *waves hand vaguely rather than going on about it* *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 06:27 am (UTC)And they had done the exact same thing to Jonas in SG1. The last episode where he guest-starred had him sporting a horrible, horrible '60s haircut.
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Date: 2005-07-23 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-23 06:40 am (UTC)Awww, but they were cute.
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Date: 2005-07-23 09:45 am (UTC)