![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wraithfodder) wrote2007-01-15 05:12 pm
Season 4 SGA: What the heck are they thinking?! (yes, a rant of sorts)
Well, the week’s been total crap, and then I watch the videotaped interviews over at MGM with RC Cooper, Brad Wright and David Hewlett.
Do I smell smoke? Is that fandom burning? Yup.
Okay, this what it boils down to… Atlantis is getting hacked up, changed and for what? Why? Will they tell us? Probably not. Do they care about the fans? Probably not.
1) Beckett’s being removed from the show. Does he disappear? Is he killed off? One of the aforementioned folk above said nobody dies in scifi, but... if a character is gone, they’re gone. Poof. Nada. No longer on the show (I hope McGilion resurfaces on Starcrossed) The news on this broke back in November and die-hard Beckett fans are campaigning to get him back (at least let’s hope the episode shows that he’s not dead, toast, a corpse in a coffin as that would suck).
2) Jewel Staite is the new doctor. Now, this is not the actress’ fault. She took a job and she seems like a very sweet lady However, advance stuff off her own website is that her character is a wunderkind kind of doctor (the actress herself is in her mid-to-late 20s). Fans are steaming over a ‘Doogie Howser’ type character and I can understand that kind of fear. It’s obvious they want a doctor on the show, hence the new doctor (who will be Canadian, by the way) but what was wrong with the new doctor? Written into a corner? Don’t know how to fix? Oh, let’s get a new one. And Beckett will probably going out heroically (shades of SG1’s “Heroes”)? Yeah, better Paul McGillion was as thrilled as Teryl Rothery was when he opened up that script. By the way, she’s contracted for 12 episodes. Doesn’t mean it will be that many, or could be more.
3) Torri Higginson (Weir) is no longer a regular, but a recurring character. For us fans, that sucks. For her, it’s probably worse. It’s like going from a regular job to being a temp. SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS. I speak from experience. While I think few of us can argue that Weir was an incredibly developed character, why couldn’t they develop her? Are the writers that at a lack for ideas that their only way to fix a flaw is to jettison the problem (chracter) and bring in a new shiny toy?? This news broke back in November, but people kept going ‘no, no, she’ll in the show.’ Yeah, well, betcha she’ll in 4 episodes max.
4) Col. Carter is coming to Atlantis – for 14 episodes. It’s been known for a while that Carter was coming to the show; Amanda Tapping let tidbits drop, there are ‘moles’ out there who leak more info. Squabbling’s been going on for a while on various boards as to how many episodes. Not even AT knew the exact episodes. Well, it seems she had a contract for season 11 of SG1 – which ain’t happening – so the producers optioned her for Atlantis. As many of the producers are incredibly enamored of AT (and I think she's a lovely person too), they gave her a LOT of episodes to be in. I have no idea how this is going to be worked into the show itself, but as a die-hard SGA fan, it’s worrisome. Why? Because Zelenka was brought on board SGA to help with McKay’s technobabble. Carter is the queen of technobabble. Will Zelenka be needed anymore? I don’t know. I sure hope so!! Will McKay spend his time lusting after Carter as he always does, acting like an idiot? I sure as hell hope he loses his drooling over Carter after one episode or else it will become tiresome VERY fast. Will Carter be in command of Atlantis now that Weir is being knocked down to a few episodes? No word on that, but we can speculate and I hope not as because of the way the writers portrayed Carter on SG1, she has very limited command capabilities. Sure, she’s a whiz in the science department but when it comes to command, I would cringe when she would second guess her decisions or being overridden by Jack. The writers left all the emotional baggage/indecision and dumped it on Sam. As if guys don’t worry too? Aieee…But it’s also sad to see die-hard AT/Carter fans going “I’d watch her read the phonebook” (type analogy) and not care WHAT she does on Atlantis as long as she’s standing on the set. I mean, if the writers go with that, SGA is doomed.
5) Oh yeah, the worst news. Mallozzi and Mullie are the showrunners. I’ve never hidden the fact that I don’t care for a lot of their writing. Since they joined the show, it’s been uneven, and when I go back and check who wrote what I felt were horrid episodes, Mallozzi’s name is invariably tacked on as the writer. I think they’ve both become complacent in their little ivory towers, doing what they want and not daring to push any envelopes, strive for better scripts (no, they retread their friggin’ script from SG1 over to SGA!). I don’t like the fact that they’re taking over SGA. They LOVE Carter. The producers (Wright/Cooper) also said that one reason Carter’s coming over is to draw SG1 viewers over to SGA. Never mind that SGA viewers are happy with their show as is. It’s sadly all about the bucks. In some way, I would almost rather have one SG1-entirely-free season of SGA and then the show cancels, then have SG1 people constantly dumped on as ‘guest stars’. It’s stuntcasting, pure and simple, and detracts from the storyline and SGA character development.
Nope, not thrilled with all that’s come out but I will watch as I do like Shep’s team. If they screw with that, I’ll scream bloody murder. And what of Caldwell? Pileggi’s ABC show is dead, so there’s no reason not to have him on board still, or will they blow up the Daedalus. M&M are fond of blowing up spaceships. Never mind that building them in a month is impossible – have they no idea of how inept world governments on Earth truly are? Hmm…
I want SGA to be Stargate ATLANTIS, not Stargate-let’s-add-in-some-SG1-folk-Atlantis.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
*sigh* Being a Star Trek fan, I think I'm having Enterprise flashbacks to when Brannon Braga and Rick Berman where in charge. I have the feeling that this will turn out about as well.
no subject
I know that they're all in love with Amanda. N. John Smith was actually embarrassing at Creation Vancouver last March when he went on and on about how wonderful she is to work with. From what I understand, she's a nice person and they all like working with her. But it sure doesn't translate to writing well for her. I like Amanda, but it's been hard not to dislike Sam for a few years now.
I simply cannot understand the Paul MacGillion thing. If they weren't bringing in another doctor for so many shows, I would think they felt they have too many characters. But, geez. I think Paul might have been a bit upset to be dropped back to recurring, but it's certainly better than being canned altogether! Oh, yeah, he MAY be back--look how well that worked for Rainbow.
The only thing I can think to explain it is that Paul has pissed off somebody behind the scenes that we just don't know about. I have no idea what and no idea how, but why else would they dump him for seemingly no reason? Please, nobody start any rumors--I have absolutely no inside knowledge on any of these shennaningans. It's just the only thing I can think of which explains the stupidity.
no subject
no subject
As for Amanda, you made some good points. THe writers may not be totally objective or whatever in bringing Sam over to Atlantis...
no subject
no subject
Everyone out in the fandom seemed so together and now.. pfft!
And I think they PTB did all these big changes now before the actors got to do it themselves since the PTB wanted control over it (still stinks but..)
I'll still watch but geez let stuff be handled a bit better Season 4 (and its sure looking like thats the last and I doubt any movies for us)
Oh and my fan concern (petty it be) is how this wil affect the WONDERFUL fan fic writers out there?