Okay, I’m going to start this one:). I just watched it today, as we’ve had company.
First post for mouse rollovers/non-spoiling.
E.
I enjoyed the episode, although not as much as Avalon. I’m still enjoying the chemistry between Daniel and Vala.
Ben Browder impressed me - he always does, but I was more impressed with how he held his own throughout the whole show.
Okay, please don’t smack me - but I thought Richard Dean Anderson really felt very wooden in his short appearance. Is that typically how he is? Or was this an unusually bad performance for him?
The Ori - any chance this is a play on the fundamentalist onslaught that’s been sweeping the US over the past few years? Even my husband mentioned that and he’s not really watching it. Either way, it looks like it’s going to be a pretty intense storyline.
I was so excited when Daniel and Vala woke up - I thought we were going to see Harrid and Sallis in Daniel and Vala’s bodies, so that was somewhat disappointing.
And I’m definitely curious about the relationship between General Landry and Dr. Lam - there’s something there.
And yes, I am still crushing big-time on Michael Shanks. Huge.
Next week’s episode looks funny - it’ll be interesting to see more about why Vala’s around.
Thoughts?
E.
So I’m the first response, huh? We need to work on getting a dedicated group to the Stargate threads 'round here.
This episode was all right, I suppose. It wasn’t really thrilling or anything, but it was necessary to establish the new bad guys. I can’t think of much else to say.
(Bear with me; I’m really not a decent judge of anyone’s acting.) Sometimes his character is in a spaced-out, airhead mode, usually in some kind of comical contrast to someone else’s highly complicated thoughts and such, like with the “I’m hungry” reply in this case. I think he’s supposed to appear rather disconnected, willfuly or otherwise, from a lot of what’s going on around him. Now that I think about it, he was like this for a lot of the previous season, when he was on the base all the time with much more mundane occupations than when he was leading SG-1. So I think his performance was how it was supposed to be, but I suppose it’s kind of annoying, and I liked him better when he wasn’t like this all the time. Still, I miss his character already!
I think RDA was off in the ep, it felt like he was phoning it in. I would not be surprised to find that he was nowhere near the the shoot and this was just some footage he shot off site.
I like the idea of the human beings protected by the Ancients and the fact that Daniel is scared for the first time, it brought home how powerful the ascended types are. I think this might get the Ancients off their asses.
I too was surprised at how Vala is jsut sitting there in a briefing after the bracelet is off, I thought for sure Landry would have tossed her through the gate, as soon as it was off and there were no more threats to SGC. (isnt landry the new Gen at SGC or am I confusing him with the new guy at ATL?)
On first viewing I felt all the alien bluster about creating a huge army and destroying the unbelievers was just that, bluster. But that’s beacuse I’m not actually there. It’s just a story. Realizing that, I replayed it mentally and find that it is a good episode.
It sets up the bad guys as fanatics. We’er jaded by special effects but imagine really seeing a wall of fire, powerful gods that can wield fire, give you psychokinesis, and … raise the dead. Now, we could all suppose that Vala/Sallis was in the village fire pit and transported away while a charred dummy was left in its place. This left Daniel/Harrid holding this corpse and the prior just trigerred the subtle beaming back of the real body. But that’s just it. We can come up with any convincing technological reason for … anything. But right there, in that world, that’s pretty powerful stuff.
So I now feel it when Daniel says that he’s scared. And I especially like the staff meeting when the group notices that it’s more than just a new bunch of bad guys that need to be fought. It’s a message that can sway peoples through the galaxy who have had their gods/lives turned upside down. People looking for guidance. This can provide for powerful storylines.
And I think the connection to modern day events, terrorists and radical fundamentalists, is playing a part and will prove very interesting.
I like Vala’s swallowing her apple when the prior comes to take Daniel to see the Doci. These kind of little things add to a character.
I like Daniel’s hearing the Doci and saying that he’s heard all that before. It’s a bit chilling if you’ve seen the previous seasons because you feel that realization of Daniel that these people are unmovable fanatics.
I agree with both Pigboys and MikeGs summary of Anderson/O’Neill. Perhaps he was offsite and recorded his part because they wanted Daniel’s exposition, so it’s a little disjoint. The potrayal though feels like O’Neill. When he’s involved, he’s a leader and a catalyst (and an airhead to give the geniuses exposition time). When he’s not on a mission he’s more of a listener that prokes people to talk. If someone says something actionable, he takes action; if not then he takes whatever action is there - like having lunch.