Season Three

[kriadydragon]

This is why it sucks being a season behind. Season 3 is "been there and done that" for everyone else, not leaving much to talk about. And most are caught up in the excitement of season four.

But I still have to put in my season three two cents now that I'm catching up.

Season three is really, really getting me to dig Ronon even more. He is so awesome.

Also, is it just me or do they do more with Teyla's little bit of wraith DNA than they do with Sheppard's gene? A lot of shows seem to do this. In SG-1 it was always Carter and that brief moment of having a symbiote in her. I got so sick of that after a while. If you are an Andromeda fan, I always felt they milked Becka's back-story to death while barely scraped the surface of Harper's (to me) more interesting back ground (an abused slave - come on, that's every fanficcer's dream!) I always feel they play favorites with the female characters - possibly because all the writers are males, I don't know.

Oh well, at least fanfic satisfies what canon doesn't. Still, a lot of shows have copped out of great potential episodes due to playing favorites. I always say, if you're not going to use it, then why have it in the first place? All you're doing is creating red herrings.

There will probably be more thoughts, probably not many since they've already been voiced.

Comments

[sholio]

Also, is it just me or do they do more with Teyla's little bit of wraith DNA than they do with Sheppard's gene?

Oookay, this is one of my canon vs. fanon peeve areas, so I hope you don't mind this little bit of venting, but ...

... I'm pretty sure that Sheppard's magic/special version of the ATA gene is mostly a fanon invention. The only canon support for it is the premiere episode, before they'd gotten the gene therapy to work, they indicated that he can use the chair better than the other natural gene-bearers that they'd found so far. Subsequent to that, once they got the gene therapy working, the "artificial" gene (kind of a misnomer, since once a gene is part of your DNA, it's part of your DNA just like it had always been there) appears to work exactly as does the natural one. There is no canon support for Sheppard being called to the labs to activate objects, or being able to use technology better than the scientists. He's certainly the best that there is at dealing with flying vehicles or using Ancient weapons systems (like the drones), which makes sense as these are his areas of expertise, but as far as just having the ATA gene, he's only one of dozens of people in the city who are more or less equal in that area.

I have no problem with people enjoying fanfic that uses the vaguely AU/what-if-ish idea of Sheppard being able to use technology that other people can't, but then to take the extra step and expect it to be a part of canon ... it's just not. Or, at least, no more so for Sheppard than for Beckett or McKay or Lorne.

Of course, I may be forgetting other bits of canon that reference it; I've been known to do that. :) But as far as I can tell, any specialness that attached to Sheppard's stronger-than-usual expression of the gene was made obsolete once they developed the ability to modify people's DNA.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

My thing isn't what canon is doing versus fanon. It's the fact that, in the beginning, with Rising, they'd made such hoop-lah about it being such a strong gene that I thought they would do something more with it beyond him merely having an easier time lighting the chair.

Or, at least, that had been my hope. It didn't have to be anything overly fancy (like him communicating with Atlantis, although that also would have been cool). I'm just one of those that, if you give the character a unique trait, background, whatever, you use it to its fullest.

I gave the example of Andromeda. I don't know if you've ever watched Andromeda but there was a character (Harper) Who I felt had such a fascinating background with so much potential, but the writers barely touched it. They had gone for the other character's (Becka) more generic background (She had daddy issues, go figure.) That had never sat well with me.

It's not a big disappointment that they didn't do much else with John's gene besides have it get him on the expedition and do what Ancient genes do. It's just one of those things that I felt had the potential to be more, and so had hoped it would be more (even before I got into SGA fanfic, mind you.)

[bratfarrar]

If I remember correctly (although this is based mainly on season 2 and whatever transcripts of the other seasons I've been able to read), the show doesn't really do much with the ATA gene. It seems more like a hand-wavy thing. Which is a bit disappointing. And if friendshipper is right, and there isn't really any difference shown between Sheppard's ability to use Ancient tech and Rodney's - well, it sort of goes against the rules in my head. Y'know, the ones that say stuff like "the original is always better/stronger than the copy".

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

True. I always feel that if you give a character a unique trait of some sort, then it should be expanded on. For example, the episode where they're stuck in the illusion and only Sheppard was able to manipulate his hallucination. I would have liked to have seen more done with that. Not that I'm bummed because they havne't, it's just stuff like that has such potential to either be something more or be used again in some unique way. And when it isn't, it gets to feeling a little too much like a red herring deal.

"the original is always better/stronger than the copy".

Exactly. Although we do get some good gene action in season three (finally.)

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

I'm a HUGE fan of Sheplantis, as I'm sure you're aware, but I don't expect the show is ever gonna make much of his gene. It seems really to have just been a convenient plot device for getting Major Sheppard on the expedition.

I do disagree with Friendshipper, though, that his gene isn't anything special in canon. In Sanctuary, Chaya identifies him as closer to one of her own than the others, and that's after the ATA gene therapy. Teer, also, saw the potential in him to ascend if he wanted to. Of course, she didn't really spend a lot of time with the others.

I do agree that he's not called down to the labs all the time to activate things. Of course, they seem to do precious little activating of Ancient tech unless its part of a lame plot device (ie. the exploding tumors that you made not have gotten to yet in season 3.) But even if they did, Sheppard's the military commander, not part of the science team, so continually calling him down to assist with science-y stuff would be a very inefficient use of his time, which is no doubt already pretty well occupied by his official chores, especially when there are plenty of gene carriers on the science team.

Which is not to say that I wouldn't LOVE to see him interact with Ancienty stuff more often. *grumbles*

All in all, season 3 has been, so far. my least favorite season. It has some of the weakest, laziest writing of the show and is often prone to tossing continuity out the window, which always drives me mad. There's a lot of relationship building, leading to some beautiful friendship/family moments, but the episodes as a whole are very hit and miss for me. What they did well, they've did very well, and they rest, well... I'd really like to whap 'em upside the head and make 'em write a lot of episodes over, or scrap a few of them altogether in favor of something less predictable, or a least a slightly better spin on the same old, same old.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

When it comes to the shows I watch, I'm not easily diappointed. But I haven't watched all of season three, yet (I'm skipping around.) I did just watch The Arc and I was a little surprised that Sheppard wasn't in the infirmary (and I got the impression that he never was.) I know it hasn't been confirmed in canon that Carson is a mother hen, but I thought, at least, that there should have been more indicating that Sheppard had been in a crash (Carson asking a follow up question when he walked in, or something like that.)

Other than that, I liked the episode. Still, the writers need to get a little more realistic when it comes to rough aftermaths. You'd think by now they'd realize it's what the audience wants.

Sheppard's the military commander, not part of the science team, so continually calling him down to assist with science-y stuff would be a very inefficient use of his time, which is no doubt already pretty well occupied by his official chores, especially when there are plenty of gene carriers on the science team.

Very true. Although, we do see him popping in on Rodney from time to time, so I can see Rodney asking him to light something up real quick (which is usually what's done in fandom). Having him stick around for long periods of time, or being called down... yeah, I don't see that happening.