Stargate SG-1 1015 Bounty

[fignewton]

Oh, SG-1. And you were doing so well in this second half of the season…

Most of this was typed out as I watched, although I went back and added some extra comments here and there. Spoilers ahead, obviously!

With all the upheaval and struggle with the Ori, and worrying about the new warships that have entered the galaxy, SG-1 takes time out to go and worry about some addictive corn? And playing near-to-terrorist roles, in beaming onto a ship with people aboard and blowing it up? No. Just – NO.

The bad guys have Earth-like projectile weapons, instead of the usual energy stuff? And really, who cares about the Lucian Alliance and this guy whose name I can’t be bothered to remember, even though I just heard it on-screen? The premise of a thriving underworld in the galaxy, operating in spite of the Goa’uld, was intriguing. Its actual presentation? Mind-numbingly boring and cliched as anything. And I’m supposed to be worried about this LA guy setting a bounty on the heads of SG-1? Sorry, writers, but we did this already in S3, and it was entertaining then. We’d better at least have a guest appearance from Aris Boch before this episode ends!

Tremendous charm in SG-1 actually taking downtime for a change. What a pity we can expect this bounty thingy to interfere. Teal’c with the Jaffa, natch. Not sure how much fun Sam will have at a conference, but… Daniel is taking downtime at a museum? He’s still my Daniel, even in S10! Yay! But why in the world does Mitchell want to go to his high-school reunion? Much less drag Vala along? “Don’t make me beg you”? What was she doing until then?

::blinks:: Mitchell is from Kansas? I always pictured him as being south of the Dixie Line.

Bill Lee! Bill and Sam at a conference together! Oh – it’s not down-time for her. Too bad. But it’s fun to see them together, and that’s actually quite an intelligent premise – that alien technology is slowly revealed via these kinds of conferences, by making them not-quite-right at first so that it seems sensible that they’re eventually perfected. Very nice. Bill seems to enjoy it more than Sam though – but huh? Why did I have the very distinct impression that Bill is happily married, with a couple of kids? Could it be… ::gasp:: FANON? :) Seriously, I’m sorry to see that my impression was wrong, because aside from Colonel Dixon and Simon Wells of SG-13, we never get to see any SGC members with families. But Bill’s happy advice to Sam, and the pole-axed expression on her face? Priceless.

Are we supposed to think it’s funny that Vala is talking to Mitchell’s parents like this? If she doesn’t realize how offensive she’s being, then yes, it’s funny – although it makes her look pretty stupid. If she’s doing it deliberately, why? It’s cruel and unneccesary, and Mitchell doesn’t deserve it.

On the other hand, Mitchell’s parents are wonderful. :)

Daniel in his natural habitat! Whee! Daniel looking mighty fine in his natural habitat! Daniel being… stalked in his natural habitat. Oops. This woman is definitely odd. And HEY! ::carefully rewinds:: She’s wearing a big honkin’ ring that looks decidedly like the one Martouf had before he got killed. Red Alert! We’ve got bounty hunter here, don’t we? And a rather clueless/shameless flirty one, too. If she’s going to stalk Daniel Jackson in a museum, do some research first! Silly bounty hunter.

Bounty Hunters From Outer Space! Sounds like a cheesy sci-fi movie, doesn’t it? And Star Trek makeup for the loss win! They have “three signals” but not four? Guys? Even I know there are five members of SG-1 nowadays, and the writers forget that? No one notices the mysterious explosions so close to Earth? And ARGH! This guy is supposed to be the Aris Boch of the episode, isn’t he? Just from that one line of dialogue, I can see that he’s nowhere near Boch’s class.

“I like your mother.” Yeah, I do too. “Your loss.” That is so Vala.

Teal’c of the Tau’ri with the Jaffa! Yay! But doesn’t he already have a seat on the Council? I really thought he did. And hasn’t much of the Council been decimated by various stupidies inflicted on us by the writers? Nevertheless, I was really pleased to see Teal’c treated by respect for a change.

It is WONDERFUL to see Teal’c holding a staff weapon again. Teal’c with a P-90 just isn’t the same. And yes, a bounty hunter attacking Teal’c off-world is twenty times more believable than the apparent idea that at least two bounty hunters have snuck secretly onto Earth – and that they can easily track them. But it was hard to believe that both Teal’c and the other Jaffa would just shoot blindly in one direction without guarding their six. I was cringing and expecting them to be shot from behind, not for a stray shot to have gotten through before they took cover. Bad tactics, Teal’c. Bra’tac would be disappointed. Does shirtless!Teal’c make up for that?

::covers eyes and sighs:: Look, I’m not a Vala fan. I’m not. She annoys me and bothers me and I have a very hard time accepting Vala 3.0 as being the same person as Vala 2.0, much less the original Vala 1.0. But she’s played by a marvelous actress who, quite frankly, has chemistry with everybody (except Daniel in my opinion), and she should not be reduced to the role of eye-candy in those ridiculously skimpy shorts and midriff-baring shirt. Just… no. But I’m beginning to think that Vala was being clueless with Mitchell’s parents in the earlier scene, because she happily starts telling a very-obviously-off-world story before Mitchell – erm. Pinches her?

Am I really supposed to care about Mitchell’s childhood sweetheart? And, hey! That’s the woman from Euronda! Even the same hairstyle, if I'm not mistaken. Sweet SG-1 and its amazing ability to recycle guest stars. :) I did like Vala whapping Mitchell on the head. Why don’t they put Mitchell and Vala together more often? If it’s because the actors were major leads on Farscape – who CARES?

Darren is one of the more engaging minor characters we’ve gotten, I think. Decidedly clueless but a nice guy. Very likeable.

Oh, I laughed at Daniel’s expression when the woman told him she’d been watching him and why. He actually looked around and expected someone to jump out and shout, “You’re on Candid Camera!” And while he has certainly been incredibly impulsive in the past about attractive women, good for him for showing a little sense. Until – whoa! And shame on you, Daniel! Shield yourself with the laptop and not the valuable book. Daniel should have known better.

This is just one huge cliché, isn’t it? Woman (with child) in danger. Eeeevil bounty hunter with ridiculous spike heels. And then she gets HIT WITH A BUS??

…This is a fanfic, right?

So. Sam talking to Landry. Are we really supposed to blandly accept that anyone and their brother can waltz into Earth’s airspace in a cloaked ship? Why haven’t they figured out how to defeat a cloak yet? I’d say they’re incredibly luckly the Goa’uld didn’t send someone in a cloaked ship with a naquadah bomb to the coordinates of Cheyenne Mountain. But hee! for Sam’s hasty offer to get away from the stupid conference.

I really enjoyed Lee’s presentation, especially since he was acting – as he said at the beginning of the ep, he knew it wasn’t going to work, but he went all-out anyway. Not quite sure when I became a Bill Lee fangirl, but apparently I am. :)

Sam or someone from her division must have come up with some way to get better reception in case of emergency. And surely Mitchell knew how bad reception was in his home town? It just seemed silly to me. But “Me and Daisy” was great. Now, that’s a pop reference that fits (especially with that insane outfit of hers) and is appropriate to the setting, unlike his blathering last ep about The Da Vinci Code to a bunch of natives off-world. And Vala as a dead-shot – “Accounts. Receivable.” Hee!

And here’s the bounty after Sam. Nice set-up with the hologram, and Sam after the bounty was Whoo! Go, Sam! :) She and Bill make a pretty good team, don’t they? “Nice demo.” Heh. And did anyone notice the actual (gasp) continuity, even if it was to a lousy ep like Covenant? And I liked the slight alienness of this bounty hunter – just a bit off, instead of the Star Trek putty-faces of the guys blown up in the solar system.

Teal’c sets himself up as bait and bags yet another bounty hunter.

Okay. Every. single. bit. of the reunion was awful. Innocent people killed, and played for laughs. Rings in public. It became a farce, and a really stupid one. The charm of “PDL for Class Secretary” and “Damian Kindler for President” wasn’t enough for me to avoid rolling my eyes at a member of the SGC reduced to using a pay phone. And the bounty hunters – are we supposed to believe these are the best in the business? – were more like the Keystone Kops. I only liked three bits, and astonishingly enough, they were all Vala’s. First, her inability to remember what a “cover story” is. Second, her mature discussion with Darren re Tomin. That really moved me, and Darren is still a very likeable character – “So you’re separated?” in that hopeful voice. Third, her natural assumption that the bounty hunter was after her, and her determination to do something about it. But that’s it. And I really didn’t like the way the bounty hunter hit her. Very ugly. Although it was nice of her to offer herself to protect the civilians.

So, there were only four tags instead of five because Vala had stayed with the ship when they were busy blowing up space corn? I did like Daniel’s distinct look of discomfort as Sam is explaining this, tough. Daniel + radiation is not a good mix, as far as he’s concerned.

Why are they wearing their SG patches for an on-world mission?

WHY DOES ANYONE EVEN PRETEND THAT THE STARGATE PROGRAM IS STILL A SECRET? Ahem. Excuse me. I just have no words left. At least they took off their patches before they beamed in. And Daniel as soothe-the-agitated-natives was at least the right choice.

“Yeah, but what happened to Vala?” Darren doesn’t seem too worried about Mitchell, does he?

Daniel quotes Scooby Doo? Er. Right.

Do I care that the LA guy – Natan, that’s it – is dead? Nope. Not in the slightest. Do I care about Mitchell’s girlfriend? Even less.

Conclusion: Despite some nice character bits here and there, this was not the ep of Stargate that we were supposed to see. Someone accidently filmed the screenplay of a badly-written fanfic instead.

Now I can go read the reviews on my flist, and Whee! Got my sd_ficathon back from my marvelous beta! Time for the fun stuff. :)

Comments

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Codger says it's cool. ;-) Just heard back from him.

Look forward to reading the latest entry.

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hope to have it up some time before the end of May, but you know how famous last words like that can be. :)