InsaneJournal

Dr. Carterlove
Dr. Carterlove

Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Weir and Hate the Show



It was insidious, this niggling, nagging worm which threaded its way in and ate a hole from my toe to my brain, allowing all my innards to spill out onto the streets and flood the plains with my discontent (read: spleen).

At first, I blamed the actor/actress for creating the worm. After all, it is the delivery of the line which forms my perception. It surely was the actor/actresses fault for poorly reading the script, misinterpreting a line and then failing to convince me, the audience, of the sincerity of their vocals. If one actor/actress had more failed lines than all others combined, it was surely the blame of the actor/actress. And if they looked like a wet monkey while delivering said lines, well, I'm not going to point fingers. But as much as I couldn't stand the poor delivery, it was excusable. It was, for all rationale, one person. It was the actor's/actress' fault. Ignore that person, love the show.

Eventually, I realized the fault in my logic and the vain desperate hope to limit the distressing ideals, tone and characterization to one person had fueled a path for a much larger worm boring through my body towards my brain. The problem was larger, grander, and far more terrifying. I pointed the finger at the writers and directors. The consistency and the multiple occurrences within bodies and environments limited to specific stories were the true monsters. Epiphany. The Tower. Irresistible. Irresponsible. Misbegotten. Sanctuary. The Ark. Inferno. Home. The list is endless. It couldn't be blamed on one actor, but I most certainly could see a theme. Poor writing. Poor directing. I could now easily ignore the cringe-worthy lines and the bad deliveries because it was the fault of the writer and director for failing to properly convey the tone or intended purpose of said line. Or for creating such horrible dialog, trite plot or veneering a destructive, amoral personality in comedy. So an anti-violence, anti-war negotiator turned to violence as a first action, that's the fault of the writer/director. I could live with that. I could ignore that. Because I loved my OTP, I liked some of the stories, I loved 'verse and well, I love me a geek.

Before I could stop it, the worm had branched, spreading the ilk throughout my body until I was thoroughly perforated and spilling belief-borne loyalty faster than I could replace it. And while I watched "Reunion," I realized what I had become. What Atlantis had made me. The relative pinprick marked by Weir at the beginning had grown into a festering wound I was encouraging by continued defense of the one abusing my faith. The worm made it to my brain, tearing into it with a veracity threatening life and sanity. I have no more defense for the discrimination, the poor morals, the shoddy ability to maintain plot and canon or suits for limiting budget/actors/actresses/etc... And most of all, I have finally reached the limits of my tolerance of characterization.

Who broke me?

Colonel Samantha Carter.

Why?

While watching "Reunion," I realized I was watching an expensively produced bad MS OFC SGA fanfic (god, how many acronyms can I toss into one line?).

To those not in the "know," MS means "Mary Sue" which is really just an extremely lazy way of writing a female character by idealizing the perfect woman, placing them in position of saving the hero/romancing the hero/saving the world, creating shallow 'faults' and is typically hyper-dramatized emotionally, set to extreme demonstrations of joy or sadness, fear or bravery. Often accompanied by TAS (Teenie Angst Syndrome - a co-termed slag on use of severe drama in search of cheap emotion/audience buy-in). "Gary-Stu" or "Potter-Sue" are the male alternatives. OFC means Original Female Character - the bane to many, many fics. OMC is an equal bane, but often times, less seen. SGA...well, duh.

Like a bomb (or a Wraith), she fell on Atlantis with an energy-draining force (no, literally. The SGC opened the Stargate for her -twice-. Don't believe me? Watch it again. Mind you, they have the Bridge, but all the same, in s1 of SG1 we learn that it costs between $7.2 and 7.4 -billion- per year to operate the SGC - and that was 10 years before current time in Atlantis. Is a run for the woman and then a run for the woman's shoes worth the energy and money expenditure?). In previous episodes, she was patronizing and condescending to a fellow (socially inept) scientist and managed to swoop in and save the day by following her gut (not science), performing a rescue mission against all odds. In "Reunion," she was condescending and scathing towards a fellow (socially inept) scientist, and managed to swoop in and save the day by following her gut (not science), performing a rescue mission against all odds after denying someone else the opportunity to swoop in and save the day (and dethrone her, mind you, can we say a little power-hungry?) by following his gut (backed by moderate intel), performing a rescue mission against all odds.

In another life, before the worm had come and created an instant path from toe to brain, I might have blamed the actress, or maybe the writers/directors - a condition I might have ignored. Instead, the entire series slips on my spleen and crashes into the dark, stank abyss of its own excrement. I reached the point amidst the caricatures (see: Dr. McKay, Satedans, villagers), the shameless repetition of lines directly taken from other epis to draw unnecessary parallels/attention to show changes, and the ueber-horrible direction (John shoving Rodney out of the way to what, poke at the Wraith computer? And Rodney didn't bitch? And did anyone question how Rodney was/where Rodney was?).

This is what "my" show had turned into - a farce of its genre.

Instead of pushing limits of current thought on social issues as Gene Roddenberry, Heinlein, LeGuinn, Asimov, Clarke, Dick et al do/did, Atlantis categorizes/discriminates (see: Sateda - the civilized, advanced culture compared to the drunken, boisterous, idiots in Trinity and Reunion; see: every episode - all characters demonstrate a het-lean, see: 90% of epis for predictable, stereotyped female characters).

Instead of science we get Dr. Kaylee the country bumpkin ("her head got knocked 'round a bit" "craniology") and Col Follows-her-Gut (good rationale, according to the US gov). Pure science is not respected (see: Dr. McKay, Dr. Lee) nor is prior experience acknowledged or heeded (see: Lt Col Sheppard, even Col Follows-her-Gut is an example, though we as an intelligent audience are supposed to forget about all the missions she risked herself/her team/the planet Earth/the galaxy to go on a rescue mission).

Instead of in-depth study of human nature pushed to extremes, we get poor logic, few to no consequences, even fewer lessons learned, and an even broader dearth character continuity from one lesson to the next.

And the thing that kills me the most? People (including people involved in the writing/directing) loved Reunion. They loved MS, OFC Carter. They loved the demeaning of McKay. They loved the answers why the team couldn't go after Weir. They loved the 'tearful' scene between Carter and Teal'c...because as an Atlantis viewer I give a rat's ass about SG1 continuity (and god, it's not like she's on a one-way trip to the Pegasus!). They loved Carter's 'welcome' speech to the pathetic few who managed to be awake at whatever hour she managed to show up (guess the others were otherwise occupied doing paperwork, brushing their teeth, or dying their hair).

Then, others, loved McKay shooting the Wraith elevator (completely ignoring previous McKay moments in "Phantoms" when he ridiculed the Genii for shooting up the Wraith tech and the fact that he would recognize the difference between bullets and energy weapon). They loved McKay joyfully believing he would be chosen for leadership (never mind his close relationship with Weir and a lack of ... any reaction to fitting her shoes). They loved John's willful deference to the IOA and the red tape preventing him from saving Weir (never mind his previous hardcore belief in 'leave no man behind' - experience or no, that is an ingrained character trait as much as his defiance of any and all authority).

It kills me, the disconnect from the 'others' (based on various comments from communities/forums). Apparently, I am in the minority. I want the basics. I want consistency in canon. I want an understanding of human personalities beyond the MS or the stereotype. I want Atlantis to be its own show. I want Atlantis to truly be the international expedition it is supposed to be. I want it to push limits, to evoke real emotion, to not turn characters into caricatures for comedy's sake. I want an intelligent show which doesn't act like the viewers are idiots. I want a show that learns and grows from epi to epi.

I want the show I once loved.

After "Reunion," I've lost faith in this series, which between it's parent SG1 and the original Stargate had managed to captivate me for over 10 years. The worm which began as a dislike for Weir has finally succeeded in exploding into a dislike for the show itself, breaking on the back of one Col Samantha Carter. I'll continue to watch, just because my OTP (well, one of two) lives and breathes in the 'verse. Maybe s4 of Atlantis will get better. Maybe it'll turn into the season I never watch again and don't bother owning (like s6 of SG1). But you'd better believe it no longer has my support nor my constant defense of its faults as I lay bleeding my spleen through my toe. It is what it is - a facsimile of science fiction - brain candy manufactured from an artificial sweetener to entice the masses while guaranteeing not to make you fat due to its lack of substance.