Briefly: Sci-Fi Friday (on Monday)

[butterfly]

First off, I'm officially registered and paid for VividCon. Yay! Is it too soon to start thinking about flights and roommates?

Secondly, I didn't want to watch Battlestar Galactica. And I successfully avoided the premiere. But then it was airing between Stargate: Atlantis and the reairing of SG-1. And I was weak.

Now, why didn't I want to watch it?

I had the feeling that I would adore it and thus gain a new fandom that I neither want nor need.

I was right.

Bastille Day

Dude, Apollo utterly kicks ass. He's completely hot, plus both smart and determined.

Actually, he kinda reminds me of Buffy. It's the 'finding a third option' thing, I think. Anyway, I quite like him.

I also really like what I've seen of the Cylons. Six (?) looks interesting, as do the two Boomers. Baltar (and we're absolutely sure that Alexander Siddig isn't playing the role? He's changed his name before, you know.) looks like much crazy fun. Starbuck will probably grow on me. I like the President. Cally was kick-ass. Liked both her and... Dee, quite a bit.


Gemini

I'd heard quite a lot about SG-1's Gemini before I saw it, so I knew what I was in for going into the episode.

This does not mean that Sam's stupid moves didn't make me blink. It's like having a show with very smart female characters on earlier (later... both) in the night sucked all the brains away and there just weren't enough for Sam. All of her cool points are gone. Even the ones from blowing up a sun.


The Eye

I've also heard quite a lot about the second half of Atlantis' first season. Judging by this episode, things do start to perk up. Sheppard is bad-ass (and thought of McKay as his inspiration, which was so incredibly sweet), McKay is brainy, and Beckett was amusing. The villains could use some work, but it's the first season, so I forgive. And SG-1 inherited its kickass villains from the movie, so they had a head start there.

Very good start to the second half of the season, definitely.

Comments

[logovo.livejournal.com]

Alexander Siddig - - Is that the actor who played Dr. Bashir? Because if that is the case you are not the only one who has doubts :)

Actually he looks a bit taller and his face is different... maybe?

*confused*

OK, going to IMDB.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Siddig was Bashir.

And the name 'James Callis' is in the credits and is apparently playing Baltar.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who's a member of Alexander Siddig's fan club, and we both agreed that Baltar looked like it was written with him in mind. But I find myself liking James Callis quite a lot.

I offer up 13th_colony for BSG discussion in sync with the SciFi airing schedule.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I do really like the actor, he just looks like Siddig most of the time, which feels very odd. There was one scene at the end where the lower part of his face looked a bit wider though.

And oo! Fun community stuff is good.

[sperrywink]

This does not mean that Sam's stupid moves didn't make me blink. It's like having a show with very smart female characters on earlier (later... both) in the night sucked all the brains away and there just weren't enough for Sam. All of her cool points are gone. Even the ones from blowing up a sun.

Oh, I so agree. The amount of unwarranted access and belief she gave her replicator double was mind-boggling. At the end when everyone was saying how it wasn't her fault I was yelling at the screen vehemently disagreeing. Only an idiot (which Sam is not and should not have been written as) would have taken replicator!Sam's word alone as proof that the replicators were immune to the disruptor. That whole premise bugs the heck out of me.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I can sorta make sense of it -- Sam was overidentifying with another 'victim' of Fifth, she's had a habit of letting people into her head in the past (Ascension), and in a particularly stupid frame of mind in any case (I really have issues with the whole 'pining after someone while being engaged to someone else').

But it's still stupid and shows, along with the way that she hasn't had a successful mission yet, that she wasn't ready to be promoted.

And all that makes Jack look bad, too. He promoted her when she wasn't ready and then he coddles her after she fails. He trusts his people too much (we've seen it with Daniel, too). SG-1 are still his team. Militarily-speaking, the teams should have been rotated at some point, on the other hand, I can understand wanting to keep a team like SG-1 together, especially considering that it's a secret operation.

But they've gotten too close. In The Fifth Man, we saw Sam, Daniel, and Teal'c strongly display that their loyalty is not to the military or the SGC, but to Jack (which is not a shock in the case of Daniel or Teal'c, but more troublesome when a military officer feels that way). They dropped into a 'SG-1 against the world' mode really fast.

Several times this season, Jack has trusted in SG-1. Now, Hammond did as well, but Hammond said 'no' a lot more. And Hammond didn't have anyone on base who regularly called him by his first name. Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c don't treat Jack any differently and he doesn't want them too. And both sides of that are problems.

[wesley-pryce.livejournal.com]

Resistance is futile. Enjoy the series, but don't let it detract from MORE SERIOUS STUFF like your other smaller fandoms... that... less people.. will be in...

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it looks like BSG is the new big thing. New and Big can be fun, but that's no reason to abandon the other stuff, definitely.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

I's never too early for vividcon.

Llama llama llama....

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

A very good point.

[inyron.livejournal.com]

Heh. I had the same thoughts about BSG, and also sucessfully avoided the mini-series and premiere.

And I also got sucked in by Sci Fi Friday, and now have much Apollo love.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Heh. I had the same thoughts about BSG, and also sucessfully avoided the mini-series and premiere.

We tried so hard and got so far. But in the end? It doesn't even matter.

And I also got sucked in by Sci Fi Friday, and now have much Apollo love.

Apollo was so great. He started out all buttoned up and clean-cut and then, boom!, with the sleevelessness and being cut-up. Very cool. Principled but also with that edge of ruthlessness. Very hot.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Give in to the love. It's good for you. And good for the ratings, for I do not want my new show to be cancelled. Also, buy the miniseries on DVD to catch up with the backstory.*g*

Agreed that there are distinct Buffy parallels with the refusal to give in to an either/or scenario and coming up with a third option instead.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Give in to the love. It's good for you. And good for the ratings, for I do not want my new show to be cancelled. Also, buy the miniseries on DVD to catch up with the backstory.

Oh, I'm already doomed. If Apollo and his arms weren't enough, if NotSiddig weren't enough, it has smart, tough, and multi-dimensional female characters.

Agreed that there are distinct Buffy parallels with the refusal to give in to an either/or scenario and coming up with a third option instead.

I love people like that. Original thinkers. Very nice.

*stunned*

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

It's not Alexander Siddig? But... but... it looks like him, it sounds like him, it has that bubbling-over confused arrogance... IT QUACKS LIKE A DAMN SIDDIG, PEOPLE!

Re: *stunned*

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I know!

But apparently it is James Callis.

(To which I say, it isn't as though Alexander Siddig aka Siddig el Fadil didn't change his name once. He could so do it again.)

[larakailyn.livejournal.com]

I got your e-mail. Will read this week and get back to you as usual. Looking forward to reading your new material.

And BSG...I love it. We've actually just finished the season run here in the UK last night (Sky One is a co-financer and get first run rights before Sci FI), so I won't spoil it for you, but this is a show that definitely pays dividends to its audience. The characters are well-rounded and the plotting is intricate. Edward James Olmos as Adama is by turns chilling and fatherly.

And you know, I was wondering why James Callis looked familiar to me (besides the fact he was in a few of the recent The Scarlet Pimpernel movies). He and Siddig could almost be brothers.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I got your e-mail. Will read this week and get back to you as usual. Looking forward to reading your new material.

Sweet.

And BSG...I love it. We've actually just finished the season run here in the UK last night (Sky One is a co-financer and get first run rights before Sci FI), so I won't spoil it for you, but this is a show that definitely pays dividends to its audience. The characters are well-rounded and the plotting is intricate. Edward James Olmos as Adama is by turns chilling and fatherly.

Yay. Now that I'm hooked, I'm very much looking forward to how it all pans out. I want to know the Cyclon's plan (they have a plan!).

And you know, I was wondering why James Callis looked familiar to me (besides the fact he was in a few of the recent The Scarlet Pimpernel movies). He and Siddig could almost be brothers.

They really could. There's only one moment in Bastille Day where I said to myself, "Okay, maybe it isn't Siddig."

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

There's only one moment in Bastille Day where I said to myself, "Okay, maybe it isn't Siddig."

In the few moments when he doesn't look like Siddig el Fadil/Alexander Siddig, James Callis reminds me of Anthony Andrews (who was probably way before your time -- very popular young British actor in the late 70's through the 80's, from "Danger: UXB" to "Brideshead Revisited" to some "Scarlet Pimpernel" TV movies, to a bunch of American made-for-TV movies, for a decade or so he was the cute upper-crust British scamp of choice for a lot of folks.

That sort of too-cute-and-boyish-for-my-own-good pursed-lip smile that Baltar sports when he's trying to flirt with Starbuck at the poker table is pure vintage Andrews.