SG-1
Decent episode.
I liked:
- Michael Shanks' comedic performance of Daniel Jackson's utter frustration when he's in Vala's presence.
- The smuggler-turned-priest.
- The space battle.
- The fact that the episode was just one big roundabout with an anti-climax at the end. Kind of mirrored Daniel's own frustration with Vala by making the episode's non-conclusion frustrating for us viewers. I thought that was clever.
- The possible homage to Farscape's pulse pistols. Vala's gun looked awfully similar.
- There were a few giggle-worthy jokes scattered about.
Didn't like:
- Vala's return to being one-dimensional and innuendo-driven.
- The complete squandering of an opportunity to deepen Vala's character at the hearing by elucidating for the government dude exactly what's out there in the big, bad galaxy to show him how utterly naive he is to believe Earth is capable of defending itself from everything. That snicker in her glass held a promise of development but nope, just turned out to be a segue to more clichéd sexual jokes.
- Mitchell and Teal'c might as well not have even been in this episode. They were tag-alongs to Daniel and Vala 100%.
- The Jack mention. How about someone just tells us where the hell Jack is and what he's doing now instead of dropping crytpic junk like this? We know now that he's a superior to Landry in some way, since I doubt a subordinate's going to bat for Landry would have any impact on the SGC's funding. We know that he's off doing
something....
somewhere. Great.
Atlantis
Awesome episode. I've always loved the Stargate franchise's lighter moments. Some of my favorite episodes are hilarious stand-alones like "Window of Opportunity," and "Duet" was a great addition to Stargate's repertoire of those episodes.
Likes:
- David Hewlett's performance. He acts surprisingly well as a woman.
- Dex's badassery. The shooting range scene in particular was great.
- McKay and Cadman's antics were a lot of fun.
- The recovery of a Wraith dart! Hmm, methinks future plot points are a-brewin'.
- The nice save they did with Zelenka's apparently dumbass move to rematerialize one of the two lifesigns on the spot rather than just going back through the gate, getting a Naquadah generator, and supplying enough power to the dart to rematerialize both. Apparently the transformer that enables the dart to interface with power units was busted.
- Cadman's hotness.
Dislikes:
- None, really. Great ep.
So, I'm ok with Vala although she's starting to annoy me again, but I'm really just counting down the weeks until Carter's return. I can't wait to see the team come together again as an actual, cohesive unit. That should hopefully return the team interaction that made the show so great initially and eliminate the current feeling that everyone else is just tagging along on the Daniel & Vala Variety Hour.
