Aquarium commentary -- 3.15, "The Game"

[hth]

"The Game" starts with what is so clearly a shameless attempt to suck up to me personally with a random Team Lunch (I think the four of them should actually be called Team Lunch, in fact. What are they called, anyway? I'm one of those who wants to call them SGA-1 for no canonical reason, but because it seems to follow that their internal org is the same as the SGC's in that way, but I've also started to see some other designation popping up -- SGA-R? Something like that? What's that from, and what does it mean? Dear God, who are these people? And why are they not having sex with each other?!? I don't expect you to answer that last, btw. Clearly no excuse will satisfy me.) I'm rather willing to buy that Teyla and Ronon are on the up and up with not understanding this argument -- it seems like life in Pegasus rewards the practical decisions, rather than the abstract theoretical mocked-up "moral dilemmas" that this show so often-- dear, um, obviously I mean that Rodney is putting forth. Sheppard, I think, is just fucking with him.

You might think I'd be tense about Katie Brown, but I'm really not. God forbid TPTB ever really try to write Rodney in a relationship with one of the main cast. And while I can totally justify that Sheppard is too weird to have a SigO and Teyla is too busy and Ronon is too monogamous, I like to think that Rodney has a life. It's actually kind of hilarious to realize that canonically, he's the only one of them who does have a love life. What's not fabulous about that, really?

SGA has graduated from stealing its plotlines from Star Trek, to stealing its plotlines from Firefly. ...Yay? It's the crappy town where McKay is a hero! Although Jayne is still the awesomer of the two, because he has a theme song. I'm surprised Rodney didn't write the Geldar national anthem, actually.

How awesome would this episode have been if it had been planned -- I don't know, even eight or ten episodes in advance? And they could've dropped in little throwaway moments about McKay and Sheppard's computer game, just having a call come in while they were down there in the Battleship Room sniping at each other or whatever. And we all would have said, aw, that's cute (with varying numbers of exclamation points and/or sexual innuendos, to taste) -- and then how cool would it have been to hit us with this, where it suddenly becomes a plot point? So much cooler than this klutzy, grade-school retcon. "Oh, didn't we tell you about the game?" Oh, gee, no, I guess you didn't, probably because someone thought it up two weeks ago because they have the long-term planning skills of beta fish in that writers' room, Jesus fuck.

Is it just me, or does Sheppard seem weirdly energetic in this episode? Particularly right there early on, talking to Elizabeth, he's all with the hand gestures and the eye-rolling -- he's practically Rodneyesque! Did they just get fifty gallons of Red Bull in from the Daedalus? Or does he just care about computer games about a hundred times more than he cares about his actual job? I could actually buy it either way.

I like that the game isn't really "about winning" -- just about proving how much better than you are than your opponent. Which is different from "winning" how, now? Okay, it's subjective, but so is ice skating, and someone still wins at the Olympics. Actually, the thread of this episode that I genuinely did love was this early thing about how insanely competitive Rodney and Sheppard had become -- squinting suspiciously at each other over their monitors, running down each other's playing style to anyone forced to sit still and listen, etc. etc. And then you have that kind of clever little oh, shit sort of thing, where they realize that their safe outlet for being bratty and difficult with each other, which was probably totally set up to keep them being less dickish in the field (and must've worked, mostly, because they're much *more* dickish to each other in this episode than usual), is actually not a safe outlet at all. That's, like, the first half of the episode. The part I liked.

Ronon is fun to watch while he's taking in the McKay Art Gallery. I mean, fun in addition to all the ways he's already fun to watch.

I'm never sure -- am I supposed to be skeeved by the Ancients this week or not? Because the episode clearly establishes that Treating Real People Like a Game is Very Bad, but when the technology was put into place to -- not even to *treat* them like, but to use them *as* a social sciences experiment -- is that Bad? It doesn't sound Good.

Okay, Zelenka's kind of freaking me out in this episode. With love, I say this. Also, Lorne finally has enough lines for me to form an opinion on him, and it's cautiously positive. I could potentially grow fond of Lorne.

Is Sheppard's guy Australian? And is that a vagary of the Pegasus Galaxy, the fact that he has an Australian accent, or did Sheppard engineer his society to match Mad Max? Because I'm looking at the wardrobes, and it's difficult to say.

I think my Heather Hearts McKay moment this week is, "Oh, you know, enough with that already," and I'm not sure if it's because of Hewlett's delivery, or just because Rodney should say that to Sheppard so much more than he actually does.

I think it's really interesting that people kind of treat the developing war as if it's some kind of rank silliness that McKay and Sheppard started through the game, when in reality it's as absolutely real and legitimate as, well, any other war in the history of ever. These nations are philosophically opposed, they share a border, and one of them needs access to resources that the other possesses. What about that *wouldn't* make most countries in the history of Earth start a war? To suggest that the Halona/Geldar war is ridiculous is pretty much to say that all war is ridiculous -- which is an argument some would make, but generally not Stargate, which as a franchise is usually at some pains to cast military service as heroic and decent work. I'm not sure if the show even really realizes that real war is much more like what's going on on the Halona/Geldar border than it is like what's going on with the Ori or the Wraith.

In my own bleak way, I kind of love that Elizabeth the Mighty Diplomat's accords go basically, Elizabeth: "Let's find some common ground" The relevant parties: "Do not want. They suck!" Elizabeth: "They're so irrational! Nothing can be done!" Where, pray tell, has Elizabeth brokered these peace treaties in the past? I hate that this show, knowing full well that they wanted to make an action/military space opera, set up their female expedition head to be utterly incompetent by making her a diplomat and then never once writing a plotline that could in any way be solved through diplomatic means. You know, if you want to have your fight scenes at the end of every ep, just make it a fucking military outpost and be done with it. Don't tell us over and over how capable and important Elizabeth is, and then make sure that every episode is about how she fails to fix problems and sends in the troops. It's demeaning to the character and illogical to assume that the Atlantis population would have all this loyalty to someone whose leadership never seems to get them anywhere. I would think her Mom Voice would only work in real life if she were, you know, useful in a crisis so that people were conditioned to fall in line when she started barking orders.

I like to imagine Ronon and Teyla hanging out together after this episode, having a beer and being all like, "Was your husband being a complete asshat all through this whole thing? Mine, too!" That's the kind of thing I like to imagine.

"Why are you asking me?" is a beautifully delivered line, and only reinforces my opinion that Rodney just by nature plays to dramatic effect (who doesn't love a rhetorical question? *g*), and Ronon is deadly pragmatic (save that shit for someone who has the fucking information you need!) And that they are adorable together for that very reason. Also, their whole thing on the mezzanine was ridiculously marital. "All I need to do is this!" "In no way can you do this." "Can't you please just be supportive of me for once?" I love how Rodney manages to turn it from a tactical argument into a relationship discussion. *g*

The end of this episode is basically, how can I put this? A huge fucking insult to our intelligence. I hate the stupid, pat lie that oh, if people only knew what war was like, they'd stop immediately. That only works in dumbass science fiction shows, you dipshits, and it's exactly the reason that real people think science fiction shows are all retarded. In real life -- and I feel like an asshole explaining this, because it should be fucking self-evident to anyone with a frontal lobe, but apparently it's not -- knowing that your neighbors would totally kill you if they thought they could get away with it makes you want to kill them *more,* not less. But then you'd be looking at the possibility of generations of armed conflict built on a history of violence and deadly grudges, and we only had eleven minutes left to care about the Halonians and the Geldarites.

Next week: a...rescue of some kind, and possibly there is fire? I didn't really get a lot out of the preview.

Comments

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

People should shower your episode summaries with more love. *showers* Srsly, I laugh, I cry, I agree.

I also pointed out that John & Rodney dress up for their dates (http://mecurtin.livejournal.com/428007.html#cutid1).

Team Lunch is good, because Team Out to Lunch is an insult to Teyla and she will kick your ass.