Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

I’m finally caught up on Stargate, thanks to Jerie. It’s taken me a year and a half to cover seven and a half seasons of the show. I missed an episode here and there, but I got the general idea.

So where do I go from here? Atlantis? Farscape? Battlestar Galactica, of all things? I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi instead (and getting behind on the reviews), but at some point I have to decide what’s next. And whatever it is, even Stargate S9, it will be sadly Jackless.

I did a Stargate meme in the LiveJournal, but I left out Sam/McKay as one of my favorite pairings. He’s definitely a love-to-hate kind of character, and I’m looking forward to seeing him on Atlantis—as soon as I figure out what order to watch SG-1 S8 and SGA S1 in.

Warning: S8 spoilers ahead.

So far I’ve seen New Order. I thought Sam was too harsh with Fifth—one minute she’s all weepy and regretful, and a commercial break later she’s telling him she’ll never love him and never be happy in replicator fantasy land. She could have at least admitted that it was possible, or that she was tempted. Fifth is a nicer guy than McKay, and she admitted she was attracted to him. And Fifth is much cuter than Pete.

I just watched “Birthright,” the Season 7 Stargate/Xena crossover episode. I didn’t recognize Jolene Blaylock as a blonde, until she opened her mouth and I started getting splinters. (Ba-dum!)

But seriously, the best thing about the episode was the cheese. I love it when the faux-Elizabethan Jaffa-speak comes out, and having the women dressed like refugees from the Thunderdome was a nice cheesy touch. The conflict over harvesting your fellow Jaffa for parts was interesting, too; the Amazon babes seemed more in Jaffa character about that than Teal’c and Drey’auc.

It’s strange to wake up without 2,000 words hanging over my head. I didn’t write a thing today, but maybe tomorrow I’ll start in on the short story that I’ve wanted to write for a few weeks now.

I don’t hate the characters as much as I thought I would after spending four weeks with them. On the other hand, I think I’d have trouble writing fluff after 50,000 words of Serious Plot. I could write something short, gen, and episode-like, like “Revisions.” I enjoyed the Twilight Zone plot of that episode.

Warning: Spoilers for SG season 6.

I’m still stuck in Season 6 of Stargate SG-1. (I’m that far thanks to Jerie’s ceaseless efforts to spread the SG love.) “Disclosure” (617) was a frightful low, not just in the total absence of Jack but also with the Kinsey acting like a great big whiny brat. The government can’t make up it’s mind who’s running the Stargate program eps never work for me. I didn’t buy the logic of his whining to foreign ambassadors in order to get a domestic policy change. I also didn’t understand why the Thor ex machina worked here but not in season 7. The West Wing it ain’t.

So I was despairing in the desert of no Jack when I started “Forsaken” (618). And there was Jack! Looking back on it, I’m not sure it was all that great an episode. I just enjoyed the challenge of trying (and failing) to figure out what exactly was going on.

The real thrill was “The Changeling” (619). I’m not big into the Jaffa Rebellion arc—it’s just as clunky and cheesy as the NID Politics arc—but at least the Jaffa have an excuse for being cheesy. The Goa’uld made them that way. And they turn the cheese into something almost moving.

So I’ve come to expect Jaffa Cheese from the average Teal’c episode; Teal’c with lines makes up for it. Instead, I got Teal’c Decheesed, plus a mystery to figure out, plus pleasant lingering questions like:

1. Did Daniel actually do anything?
2. What happens now?
3. If Teal’c can speak colloquial English when he’s dying, why can’t he do it every episode?
4. How does he know so much about firemen, anyway?

Jack and Sam were phoning it in, but they were still cute as firemen. Jonas stole every scene he was in, as usual. Ascended!Daniel is a little too saccharine for my tastes, but I hear he’s descending soon. I’ll miss Jonas.

There’s a drabble and an icon in the LiveJournal. That’s all you’re getting today (Thursday), since I’ll be out of town.

Ten new drabbles are up on my Stargate fic page, mostly from season 5. Thanks to Jerie and Jade for betaing. They haven’t specified a favorite drabble this time.

There was one Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis) panel at Noreascon, and it was one of the most entertaining events I attended. Because most of the attendees I know are Real Writers, the comments on media fan writing have been snide at best, so it was great to see panelists get up in front of a huge room of people and admit to writing fanfic and lusting after Michael Shanks.

The most interesting comments were about the future of Atlantis—that the characters are blander than the SG-1 cast and the situation inadequately dramatic. More than one comparison to Voyager was made, and outside of VOY fandom such comparisons are not positive.

Unfortunately I had to leave right after the panel, so I didn’t get to meet my fellow SG fans. I suppose there’s always the Internet.

There are ten (yes, ten) new drabbles up on the Stargate fic page, for the first ten episodes of Season 5. The Betas’ Choice for this batch is Black Widow, a drabble coda to “2001.” The Author’s Choice is Chaka Zulu, inspired by the real Shaka Zulu.

This brings the Stargate by Drabbles project up to 70 drabbles, a fine biblical number to go with Alas, Tollana. In a few months I may even reach a drabble of drabbles.

Weather of the day: The Perseids (spaceweather.com), but I’ve got clouds.
Contest of the day: Die J/C Die is open for voting once again.

I’d say it’s an honor just to be nominated, but since self-nomination was allowed I can’t even go that far. Let’s say, it’s an honor not to have nominated myself for the 2004 Stargate SG-1 Fan Awards.

I can’t really complain about my failure to place; I didn’t read or vote because I was out of town during the duration. I don’t know what the fic was like. But cgb thinks it was a wash and I respect her opinion. I may never know whether the best ficcers won, and I’ll probably be happier that way.

I can complain, however, that I got 1500 hits directly from the Awards site during the course of reading and voting, and not a single person sent feedback. I admit that due to technical difficulties the feedback form was not linked from the stories at the time, but my email address was on every single story. Does no one in this fandom send feedback?

Fortunately, I’m not in it for the feedback. Three “new” Stargate drabbles are up. I actually wrote them before I went away (thus the June dates on them), but I’m just putting them up now. The betas are in no way responsible for my being too lazy to polish them up. And the drabbles are: Marty’s Memories, on “Jolinar’s Memories,” Under the Ice for the 7th season cliffhanger, and yet another 2010 drabble, The Way the World Ends.

Season 5 is in the works, and I’m trying to catch up on the S3 and S4 episodes I skipped.