Meta: Atlantis Needed A Daniel
Oct. 11th, 2014 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magnavox_23I am mid way through season four of Atlantis on my rewatch of the entire Stargate franchise (what? Infinity? Um...), and what is really striking me by this point is the lack of moral input when it comes to the plans they devise. Where is their Daniel? Elizabeth played this role somewhat, but she let things get out of hand as far back as Michael. Now (Be All My Sins Remember'd) Rodney creates F.R.A.N. and argues to Sam that she is not even alive. This is completely at odds with Sam's beliefs expressed in Unnatural Selection, as well as her experiences with Reese and Fifth. (I am not even going to go into the subtext of having a programmable woman with these writers). There was such an opportunity for Sam to bring her close personal experience with Replicators to the fore, and nothing. Here she is free to express her opinion and ideas, she is not Jack's underling merely following orders, and she's letting MacKay convince her otherwise? This also speaks to the many wasted opportunites that having Sam in a command position could have entailed.
I feel Atlantis, especially in the later years, has a lack of idea exchange (mirrors the behind the scenes stuff, huh). Teyla objects some, but she exerts no great influence over those making the decisions. It's such a shame because that ever present arguement was one of the core driving forces in the original series, and it adds a much needed layer to the process of making those all important decisions before and during the battle.
Atlantis needed a Daniel.
That just happens to be the way I feel about it. What do you think?
I feel Atlantis, especially in the later years, has a lack of idea exchange (mirrors the behind the scenes stuff, huh). Teyla objects some, but she exerts no great influence over those making the decisions. It's such a shame because that ever present arguement was one of the core driving forces in the original series, and it adds a much needed layer to the process of making those all important decisions before and during the battle.
Atlantis needed a Daniel.
That just happens to be the way I feel about it. What do you think?
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Date: October 11th, 2014 07:07 am (UTC)Only Jack wouldn't let him go...*snerk*....
I think I read somewhere that if a Season 6 had been given the go ahead, Joe Mallozzi said that they would most definitely planned to have Michael go there and Daniel would have been either a regular or a semi-occuring regular throughout the season....not 100% sure on that but I do seem to remember reading it on his blog somewhere...
Oh how wonderful that would have been imho...
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Date: October 11th, 2014 08:20 am (UTC)So I am kinda glad Jack kept Daniel so close at heart. *g*
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Date: October 11th, 2014 09:37 am (UTC)Still, and as much as I loved Jack keeping him, I feel Daniel should at least have some time on Atlantis, if not premanently, because it was his baby, he found it and Atlantis would have loved him :)
But agian - yes on the Daniel-Rodney show, sadly.
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Date: October 11th, 2014 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: October 11th, 2014 09:40 am (UTC)And yes, amen to all you said - they could have done wonderful things with Sam at the helm, but they left a lot of that potential unexplored. I still loved her on SGA because she was allowed to step out of Jack's 'shadow'.
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Date: October 11th, 2014 09:44 am (UTC)Amanda was totally wasted on S4 I agree....Sam should never have been sent there....but hey ho, TPTB had some doozy of ideas of when they "didn't know what to do with people"..;)
Yes, it would have become the Daniel and Rodney Show sadly, but if Michael had been in it, I'd have watched!!...
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Date: October 11th, 2014 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: October 11th, 2014 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: October 11th, 2014 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: October 12th, 2014 02:39 am (UTC)I don't think they anticipated Amanda being on the show until it was too late; sometimes her character felt very pasted on. Not really what Sam would have done or said, given her back story.
Sigh.
Basically IAWT.
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Date: October 12th, 2014 02:59 am (UTC)I don't think Sam's place on the show was very well thought out. There were so many opprtunities she could have bought, but this was left largely unexplored because of the writer's other interests.
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Date: October 12th, 2014 07:09 am (UTC)And I think they tried from time to time to add a bit moral input or showed characters struggling with their decisions (for example in Miller's Crossing when Sheppard "persuaded" Wallace to sacrifice himself). But on the whole you are absolutely right, Atlantis should have had more moments when somebody critized/thought through their decisions.
And I have to admit I was afraid that Atlantis would become the Sam-Rodney show and was pleased to see that it was not. Although there were some episodes with her where she should have been more in the focus.
And Daniel/Rodney is something I always love to read, but unfortunately there aren't much stories. Perhaps that would have been better if Daniel had been a longer time on Atlantis. (Although Jack should have come and taken him home after a certain time. *g*)
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Date: October 14th, 2014 09:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: October 12th, 2014 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: October 14th, 2014 09:59 am (UTC)