SGA Episode Review 3x20 "First Strike"

[liresius]

Whoo! I love my show still ...

First Strike was up there with Echoes for the m/m character moments and interactions, Echoes being my second favourite ep of S3. I liked the general structure of the ep - all the scenes flowed well. It pretty much had everything I really love about the show – good character bonding, lots of cool SFX and the boys looked sexy as hell in their uniforms and the lighting was kind.

Loved the performance evaluations - Rodney trying to complain and wheedle his way out of it and John just giving everyone “Excellent/Above Average, *giggles*, and having a sassy answer about “telling lies” to justify himself. Very little boy, smarty-pants to the “teacher”! Very cute!

Why was I surprised to hear “Yes, Chuck?” Is that the first time his name’s been said on screen? I read an interview mentioning his name, I’m sure, but yeah ... this must be a canon moment.

Huh … I really enjoyed not liking that Col. Ellis guy – and I suppose that was the point! He played his part well, but where was Caldwell? I hope he hasn’t been dropped too. But where does Ellis get off just beaming scientists against their will? "Be still, my indignant heart!".

Hee! Loved Radek suggesting “sabotaging” the weapons. What a great subversive he is and that's a very Czech (albeit unreliant) trait! Loved that whole discussion, with Rodney almost willing but thinking better of it. He struck a lovely low register in that scene.

Yay, Rodney for “Yeah, I don’t think that’s your call.” And “Aye, aye, Captain.” So LOYAL!

Loved Teyla for “How come you get to be Mr Fantastic?” and John escapes to his one team/true member with a comic book super-hero passion. *g*

Ronon didn’t annoy the hell out of me, as he has in recent episodes with his short fuse and snippy, childish impatience. His frustration at inactivity came across as much more believable in this situation, ‘cus he didn’t take it out on anyone.

Oh god, John you’re so gay with the “Why don’t you guys just make out and get it over with?” Of course he can afford such generosity since he then does the whole “on the same wave-length unspoken conversation” with his boyfriend Rodney, and Radek’s left in the dust!

John doesn’t want to be The Man. ”Who would I have to rage against?” Nice to get the matched bookend to the performance evaluations.
I liked the way they played the tete a tete with Ellis verbally seducing Sheppard (military types) on the one hand, Elizabeth and Teyla (the diplomats) on the other and both of them dropping their mutually exclusive bonding sessions to come running ... to hear out the pivotal scientists who are going to save their arses!

Hey, so the planet has a name at long last! John calls it ‘Lantea when he gets the idea for the moon rocks. Cool!

Yeuch! at Ellis’ “I do know General O’Neill is awfully fond of you.” How patronizing.

I really liked John in this ep. Not only for the cool “flying Atlantis via mind meld in the chair” stuff but also because he hit the right note/tone with Rodney in various places … You too. Huge improvement on S1’s parting.

Atlantis was so pretty going down and up, and then out into hyperspace – all very grandly heroic music, intercut with shots of John in the Chair. Still, I can’t help thinking it would have had much more impact if they’d resisted showing the Replicator's Atlantis flying in Progeny. They lost a lot of dramatic effect by playing their hand too early. So if this was part of the surprises that were supposed to blow my socks off for end of S3, well, *looksdownatsocks* “Nup, still there”, I have to say.

So … Jewel Staite. I haven’t seen her before, except wraithified. Hmm, she’s not as frail or young as I’ve read her described. She seems quite a mature young woman. I think it was quite clever of TPTB to bring her up from the rank and file already on Atlantis and to have her very resistant to, and lacking in confidence in the job. It cuts down on the sense of antipathy some might feel at her replacing Carson. It’s early days but I doubt I’ll change my mind on wishing Carson was still with the team. ETA (9/2): The more I think about her introductory scene, the more I'm convinced that her "not wanting the job" was a politically motivated scripting decision to reduce fan backlash against her. Jewel even stated in an interview, "Please don't hate me." and it just demonstrates a PTB awareness of Carson's huge popularity with the fans, so yeah it just doesn't make sense to me as to why they dropped him, if they have to go to such lengths ... *colour me perplexed*

Also it’s pretty clear they’ve laid the foundations for Elizabeth being turfed. I kind of doubt she would really resign (given her state of depression in The Return) – I mean John was right when he said “You’ve peaked.”, so the injuries are probably going to work in with what she said about being pushed aside anytime there’s a crisis for Earth. None of this really surprises me though because of the casting news, so I’m a bit baffled about DH’s assurances of shock/surprise. I guess he must just mean Atlantis taking wing and getting LOST in Space! “Danger! Danger! John Sheppard!” So does that make Jewel the older sister? Hee!

Despite being vaguely disappointed with how “not shocking” the events were it’s my favourite finale of the three seasons. Lots of lovely, slashy sub-text moments with my favourite boys and loyalty towards everyone on Atlantis.

There's a .zip file of about 75 caps (mostly of John, Rodney and the SFX) here

and a few caps

Comments

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

You've totally put your finger on it. It's what all this obsession with "one true characterisation" is about - they really do think they're somehow "keeping it real" whereas I come from a much more playful, experimental, even, dare I say it, feminist/subversive tradition, and I transgressed new rules I didn't even realise existed. I agree with you that the real and fantasy are much better separated - it actually seems a little dangerous to me to think otherwise. Funnily enough I did a trawl of some LJs I wouldn't normally visit yesterday, looking for reviews of First Strike after I wrote mine to see what the general consensus was, and I noticed how often those very people were inclined to read *intent* into what they've perceived as slashy scenes. We've talked before about authorial intent and this seemed to me to be a very similar thing. I think if they took a step back they'd see there was clearly no intent there - even though the moment could be read in an entirely slashy way if one so wished. I've seen this use of intent before and it's always puzzled me slightly - as if it gives validation to our fantasies, and this yearning after the mainstream must be what's behind it, as you so accurately identified.

I'll tell you the other story privately some time!

Maybe one day we'll find out re the culture/stigma thing! I suppose I tend to get antsy if someone thinks I'm something I'm not, just because it's irritating. For men it seems to go a little deeper though...*g*.

[liresius.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about it being "even a little dangerous" from both the perspective of mental health (although that's only for some people - I'm sure most can keep the lines clear in their heads) and from a RL perspective.

I once used LJ slash related type language in a conversation with a friend and then realised my interlocutor had no idea what I meant. It was OK because the friend has similar quirky *g* interests. But it can bleed over if you're not vigilant *g* and surprise people and I don't want any fall out from developing a mindset that it's mainstream enough to think it's OK to talk about it to all and sundry.

I definitely take your points about intent. People can get too close and they start to lose the broader picture. The world seems to become quite narrow for them and everything is shaped in their heads to fit their perspective. It's a very weird twisting of things and I'm more comfortable with it separated.

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

Yes - you have to be very careful not to let your LJ/fandom side show too much in RL. When I first started out in fandom I had problems with that but I find it less of an issue now - apart from a desire to use "spanky" to describe people occasionally *g*. And once I worried I'd signed off a business email with "Hugs" but I checked and I hadn't! It was a polite "Kind Regards" as usual!

Yes re losing the broader picture. When you distill your entire life down to one TV show and one slash pairing within it, then I think it can be very easy to lose perspective. That's another thing I took from the wanky hoo-hah. These people really were overly obsessed to the point of a kind of paranoia. Scary!

[liresius.livejournal.com]

LOL! to the "spanky" and "hugs" Hee! I can't remember the word I used. Gah! It was more TV show fan specific - something like fangirling. It will come to me when I stop thinking about it!
And re losing perspective I fell into that over the "lemon incident" I felt really incensed at W&C for that and bashed them a bit in the review I posted. I think poor Blue-spirit fled for the hills when she read it and I felt awful. I really got myself infected from reading too many rash young fan girls' reviews and slipped into their personal attack style. I really regretted that and went back and shamelessly edited it out without even marking the edit, I was so appalled at myself.

Since that incident, I've gotten some distance. I'm not going to get so involved in a show that I feel such a sense of disappointment and lash out like that, so perhaps that's why I haven't reacted so badly to the show in general with Carson's loss. Although I do hold similar concerns to you re the military role in S4. Just, NOOOOO ...!

[xanthelj.livejournal.com]

Oh I didn't know that re the lemon thing. I remember being annoyed about it myself though! I know that sense of feeling you've lost perspective over a TV show - but I suppose the point is that it's more than that to us isn't it? We read and write about it to a far greater extent than most people do.

And is it possible to get some distance and still be involved? Because I kind of feel that I can either be into the show and flailing or step back and not care - is it possible to mix the two?

I was surprised by the vehemence of my own reaction to First Strike. Because I didn't have that reaction to Sunday. Or to the two non-descript eps that followed. And then suddenly with FS it was almost visceral. I was ANGRY all of a sudden - and really really pissed off. I think a few things came to a head for me. Not least that that kind of plot really irritates me. And maybe I'd been cutting the show a lot of slack for a while because it's *my* show and I want to be in the fun, happy place with it - and I didn't realise that Sunday had altered my perception of the show. The minute it disappointed me again I responded quite savagely. I think that's one reason why that John/Rodney little boy charm had the opposite reaction to usual. I found myself despising it rather than being charmed by it.

And my reaction made me reconsider where I was at with the show. I've been stumbling along in the fandom for quite some time but this just made me want to be done with it. I didn't want to feel like THIS over a TV show when I've been so down in my Real Life of late.