Stupid Show...
Jun. 25th, 2008 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljIf this keeps up, I'm going to have to make a "Stargate is really annoying me!" tag for my LJ.
I'm now halfway through season 1. And it's still insanely frustrating.
It's not that the show is bad. Or boring, or uninteresting. That's kind of the problem: it's good enough to keep watching, but so very annoying to watch...
Mainly because the characters are so completely dense.
Take The Broca Divide, for instance.
I will skip past the whole "nice people in the sunny world, nasty people in the night-time world" thing, and get straight to the bit where they manage to infect about half the base with a new disease. And then the Colonel, looking absolutely horrified, says "You mean, we might have brought back a new disease to Earth?" as if it's a shocking revelation.
YOU'RE EXPLORING UNKNOWN WORLDS, AND YOU DIDN'T THINK OF THIS?
And then, knowing that they've brought back a highly contagious disease, they continue to wander round the base as if nothing was wrong. Um... biohazard gear? Anyone?
And Jack asks for more sedatives, and the nurse says "No! You've already had double the safe dosage!" and then he looks at her and asks again, and she goes "Oh. Okay, then." and gives him more! She's a nurse! Why is she listening to Jack's opinions on medicine? And for that matter, why did she give him double the safe dosage in the first place?
Then there's The First Commandment. These people have been worshipping the captain like a god. A god. They are quite happily dying for him. Until Daniel and Jack stand up and say "Wait! He doesn't know what he's talking about!" and, without even waiting for proof, they all go "Oh. Really? Okay. Then he should die." and kill off the guy they were worshipping until five minutes ago. For no reason at all.
It's not so much the fact that Daniel and Jack want to tell them how stupid the captain is - it's the fact that it works...
Cold Lazarus doesn't contain people being dense so much as people not thinking things through. Jack, in particular. Your wife has spent years mourning the loss of her only child: who here thinks it's a good idea to walk past her with said deceased child, have it smile happily and say "hello, mom," and then disappear forever?
It was all really poignant and everything, but part of me was just thinking "...wouldn't that cause horrible emotional scarring? Just maybe?"
...which was followed up by The Nox. Which did not contain any stupidity whatsoever. But the all-knowing all-powerful peace guys bugged the crap out of me.
Back to disease control.
In Brief Candle they discover that Jack has contracted a disease from having sex with one of the ladies of this week's planet (which just made me yell "Don't sleep with alien women! Didn't Captain Kirk teach you anything?" But, to be fair, Jack O'Neill probably hasn't watched much Star Trek...).
They decide that he's the only one who's caught said disease, and therefore it must be spread through close physical contact - so they're all fine.
And they decide to analyse the disease, in the hope of curing it. Jack, not wanting any of his team to be infected, sends them back through the Stargate, to analyse it back on Earth.
Anyone see the problem here?
His team (possibly being Star Trek fans) had not had sex with any alien women. So they were fine. Not in much danger of infection. But instead of risking their non-existent infection possibility, they took the disease back to Earth! Intentionally! ARE THESE PEOPLE COMPLETELY MAD?!
This is followed by Thor's Hammer. Which was a great episode.
Because it was so fun, I'll forgive it for destroying the planet's only protection just to get themselves home.
On the other hand, the team are going to a planet where the rulers hate Goa'uld. Really hate Goa'uld. And the Goa'uld are all afraid of the planet. And they take Teal'c with them.
Did they just not learn about the concept of "consequences"? Or "thinking through what might happen"?
And then we have The Torment Of Tantalus. And more emotional scarring: they send the guy's fiancee through the gate, just because he might be alive. After fifty years. Um... what if his horribly disfigured corpse had been lying in front of the Stargate, for her to be traumatised by the moment she got through?
And Daniel insisting on risking certain death just so he can get more information from the electronic book when the guy who's spent the last fifty years of his life analysing the book is standing right in front of him? And will be coming back to Earth with them? Along with his detailed notes on the book's entire contents? What is wrong with the man?
It was a pretty fun episode, too, but the last few minutes just ended with me yelling at the screen: "LIGHTNING DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!!!"
*sigh*
Alright. I think I'm okay now...
I'm now halfway through season 1. And it's still insanely frustrating.
It's not that the show is bad. Or boring, or uninteresting. That's kind of the problem: it's good enough to keep watching, but so very annoying to watch...
Mainly because the characters are so completely dense.
Take The Broca Divide, for instance.
I will skip past the whole "nice people in the sunny world, nasty people in the night-time world" thing, and get straight to the bit where they manage to infect about half the base with a new disease. And then the Colonel, looking absolutely horrified, says "You mean, we might have brought back a new disease to Earth?" as if it's a shocking revelation.
YOU'RE EXPLORING UNKNOWN WORLDS, AND YOU DIDN'T THINK OF THIS?
And then, knowing that they've brought back a highly contagious disease, they continue to wander round the base as if nothing was wrong. Um... biohazard gear? Anyone?
And Jack asks for more sedatives, and the nurse says "No! You've already had double the safe dosage!" and then he looks at her and asks again, and she goes "Oh. Okay, then." and gives him more! She's a nurse! Why is she listening to Jack's opinions on medicine? And for that matter, why did she give him double the safe dosage in the first place?
Then there's The First Commandment. These people have been worshipping the captain like a god. A god. They are quite happily dying for him. Until Daniel and Jack stand up and say "Wait! He doesn't know what he's talking about!" and, without even waiting for proof, they all go "Oh. Really? Okay. Then he should die." and kill off the guy they were worshipping until five minutes ago. For no reason at all.
It's not so much the fact that Daniel and Jack want to tell them how stupid the captain is - it's the fact that it works...
Cold Lazarus doesn't contain people being dense so much as people not thinking things through. Jack, in particular. Your wife has spent years mourning the loss of her only child: who here thinks it's a good idea to walk past her with said deceased child, have it smile happily and say "hello, mom," and then disappear forever?
It was all really poignant and everything, but part of me was just thinking "...wouldn't that cause horrible emotional scarring? Just maybe?"
...which was followed up by The Nox. Which did not contain any stupidity whatsoever. But the all-knowing all-powerful peace guys bugged the crap out of me.
Back to disease control.
In Brief Candle they discover that Jack has contracted a disease from having sex with one of the ladies of this week's planet (which just made me yell "Don't sleep with alien women! Didn't Captain Kirk teach you anything?" But, to be fair, Jack O'Neill probably hasn't watched much Star Trek...).
They decide that he's the only one who's caught said disease, and therefore it must be spread through close physical contact - so they're all fine.
And they decide to analyse the disease, in the hope of curing it. Jack, not wanting any of his team to be infected, sends them back through the Stargate, to analyse it back on Earth.
Anyone see the problem here?
His team (possibly being Star Trek fans) had not had sex with any alien women. So they were fine. Not in much danger of infection. But instead of risking their non-existent infection possibility, they took the disease back to Earth! Intentionally! ARE THESE PEOPLE COMPLETELY MAD?!
This is followed by Thor's Hammer. Which was a great episode.
Because it was so fun, I'll forgive it for destroying the planet's only protection just to get themselves home.
On the other hand, the team are going to a planet where the rulers hate Goa'uld. Really hate Goa'uld. And the Goa'uld are all afraid of the planet. And they take Teal'c with them.
Did they just not learn about the concept of "consequences"? Or "thinking through what might happen"?
And then we have The Torment Of Tantalus. And more emotional scarring: they send the guy's fiancee through the gate, just because he might be alive. After fifty years. Um... what if his horribly disfigured corpse had been lying in front of the Stargate, for her to be traumatised by the moment she got through?
And Daniel insisting on risking certain death just so he can get more information from the electronic book when the guy who's spent the last fifty years of his life analysing the book is standing right in front of him? And will be coming back to Earth with them? Along with his detailed notes on the book's entire contents? What is wrong with the man?
It was a pretty fun episode, too, but the last few minutes just ended with me yelling at the screen: "LIGHTNING DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!!!"
*sigh*
Alright. I think I'm okay now...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 09:38 am (UTC)You makes me laugh. :-D
I love the way you pick the poor show apart- you sure you want to watch all 200-odd eps?
Boy, can't wait til you get to some of the *really* good ones.
Heehee.
But yes, nice pickup on the whole let's-bring-diseases-back-thru-the-gate thing. They seem to quite happily risk the life of Earth's entire population on a daily basis.
But I do love watching it. I just don't nitpick as much as you do...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 11:55 pm (UTC)Glad to oblige. :)
It really is fun to watch - and kind of addictive. But it definitely causes ranting...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 10:00 am (UTC)ARE THESE PEOPLE COMPLETELY MAD?!
I'm going to go with yes.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 10:10 pm (UTC)=)
no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 04:23 am (UTC)