SGA Review: "No Man's Land" and "Misbegotten"

[icarus]

idlerat mentioned an assessment of SGA canon so far.

Er... I confess to being so squee-ish over "No Man's Land" thought was not possible. But I can assess it now that I've seen "Misbegotten."

I loved "No Man's Land." Great sci-fi adventure, takes advantage of how Flanigan is studying Hewlett and learning to act with his eyes (his "oh shit" response to Michael picking up the radio call to Rodney was classic). I love how they unflinchingly killed a lot of sci-fi cliches. John did get shot down. The Wraith ship bearing down on Earth got turned around when all the signals were that it would end up in orbit. Ronon and Rodney focus on sabotage when they escape (good plan, the sci-fi trope is to work on escape but in reality, no, that's not feasible).

Seeing Lorne take command of the Orion was a treat, and the fact that Zelenka had a choice, weapons or shields, was very believable. Usually in sci-fi the half-repaired ship saves the day. I'm getting bummed out about how many good ships they keep losing though.

Loved Lorne's flat military response to the world's most obvious communication "there's a Wraith hive ship heading your way" -- "I see that, Sir" and then his very informal "Zelenka, you're killing us here!" David Nye just keeps getting better and better, I love his Radek Zelenka.

The twists and turns in "No Man's Land" kept me on the edge of my seat, but they really should have made it just one episode. The "second part" wasn't a second part at all, but a separate episode entirely.

"Misbegotten" was good, fine, so long as you don't try to think of it as a separate episode and don't look too closely. I believe that they would attempt to keep the Wraith human, yes. I don't believe for a second that the doctor would have been left there. No way. And leave him there with a nuclear bomb as a safeguard? What? Did they plan to blow up Carson as a back-up plan? That episode was poorly planned, in stark contrast to "No Man's Land."

The sudden Wraith ability to "call" the mothership is just silly. Why would they have needed subspace communications in the earlier episodes if that were the case? Granted, Teyla was able to connect to the Wraith hive mind in the first season, so, okay. I can let it pass.

I loved Sheppard setting Rodney up in that meeting, "So tell him the progress you've made." Heh. They said they were going to include plenty of John/Rodney banter this season, and I look forward to it.

I continue to love Sheppard's aura of command incompetence. He just radiates "in over his head" and "shouldn't be above the rank of Major." I watch Flanigan and I believe everything his commanders have ever said about Sheppard, and I get the sense that Sheppard doesn't think he can do this job either but he's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He's a nice break from the hero mold and amuses the hell out of me.

Overall, I expect the same uneven writing and careless logic the show has displayed from its first episode, and I'm still along for the ride.

Oh, the plotline that bugged me: Elizabeth. And I like Elizabeth. (I didn't buy handing authority of Atlantis over to Teyla at all.)

If she's an international diplomat, then why the hell did Elizabeth handle the heat so incompetently? She was in a position of strength -- they were in the midst of a crisis with no replacement in the wings. Even if she would have come through the stargate when called (if it were me, I would have told them to make an appointment for after the crisis), when they had their indecisive moment and decided to let her handle the current problem -- if I were her, I would have said, "No. I'm not going back there."

"But- but we don't have anyone else to send!"

"I'm glad you finally recognize that. Here are my demands." And I would have put Sheppard on that list of demands, along with a contractual guarantee for my job for the next year thank you very much. "Don't think I haven't guessed that you intend to replace him."

"You can't hold us over a barrel like this!"

"You put yourselves in this position by pulling me out of there in the midst of a crisis. Perhaps you should have waited."

But I'm enjoying the show just as much as ever, for the same reasons, none of which have ever included brilliant writing. And I'm panting, just chomping at the bit for some of the coming episodes, "McKay and Mrs. Miller" in particular. I want more background on these characters.

Comments

[lillian78.livejournal.com]

Don't they always? Whoops. Missed him. I still want to see some action between him and Teyla. That Wraith gene you know. *nods*