ebonlock | (no subject)

First I have to admit I'd read spoilers for "The Last Man" and knew the basic outline of the plot, John thrown 40,000+ years into the future and Holo-Rodney working to get him back. My original thought was, "Oh this could be so good. It won't, of course, but it could be." I hate to think that way about the show, but damned if the writers don't prove me right time after time after time.

The basic concept reminded me a lot of the DS9 episode "The Visitor", arguably the greatest hour of sci-fi (and possibly of television in general) that's ever aired. The elements are similar, main character trapped in time-related weirdness and what happens to the remaining characters without them. Finally a huge sacrifice to bring that character back to where they belong. I swear I was outright praying that the SGA writers would simply steal the plot outright and keep those elements of the pacing and character interactions that made "The Visitor" so damned amazing. The tragedy of Jake Sisko's life and death was handled with such skill and finesse that I was praying the same would be true of Rodney.

And there were some aspects there in the script, certainly watching Rodney lose everyone in his life and focus his brutally obsessive genius on the single goal of "fixing" what went wrong, which I definitely appreciated. The problem was they were trying to tell so many stories at once that they began to lose what should've been the focus. When they took the spotlight away from Rodney to say, "Oh yeah, and Ronon got blown up, so did Sam, and Michael continued to be a raging dick" I just wanted to shake someone. It's something "The Visitor" did perfectly, the story was about Jake and the ultimate tragedy of his life when he decides to "fix" what happened to his father. "The Last Man" likewise should've been the story of Rodney trying to "fix" what happened to John, and consequently, to their timeline.

But the writers ended up hand waving so much that I almost felt like crying. And why did they have to do the hand waving? Well partially because they were throwing way too much exposition at us with their "And this happened, and this happened, and this happened" approach. In addition to that, though, it was because they decided to end the episode in a way that, well, makes precious little sense. The logical point to end the season would've been with John stepping into the stasis chamber and saying his good-bye to Holo-Rodney. Instead they let John get back and launch into Rodney's laundry list of steps to make everything right. Off they go to one of Michael's warehouse/labs and, hey, surprise surprise it's booby trapped! Boom! Explosion! Lorne and Rodney are trapped in one room, Ronon and John in another, the roof collapses, DUN, DUN, DUN!

I felt like I was watching a goddamn 30's cliffhanger serial. Will the team escape in time?! Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of Stargate: Atlantis!

Seriously? We got that rather than a real scene between Rodney and Jeannie as she tries to convince him to let go of his obsession and salvage what's left of his life. I mean what the hell? What about the scene where Rodney returns to Atlantis? God the dramatic potential that was thrown out the window for no damn reason just makes me want to cry.

Now I know that fanfic will fix this, I mean jeez it was already being posted minutes after the episode aired. These gaps will be filled in. But it's a downright crime that the fans have to fix this themselves. Maybe I'm just expecting too much from anything airing on the SciFi channel, but dammit the potential for this show is so great and they just keep botching it. Just a little respect for the taste and intelligence of the fans is all I'm asking for here.

I should say I didn't hate the episode, far from it, and there were certain moments that made me squee aloud like the hopeless fangirl I am. The scenes between Rodney and Jennifer were absolutely adorable, as were the little glimpses that we got to see of Rodney's life on Earth as he throws himself into his quest to make everything right. I loved the stuff between Rodney and Sam as they worked to get her ship up and running and Sam flying off to do battle with Michael's fleet. The Ronon and Todd finish was at least amusing in that it's going to inspire some really fucked up slash which I will probably read.

I did love that Rodney remained quintessentially himself, when he loses Jennifer, the last person left from his Atlantis family, he breaks in a perfectly character-driven way. He sees the universe as a giant machine, a broken machine, and he's the guy with the brains and the toolbox to fix it. To hell with the consequences, particularly to himself, he's going to make everything right. And then he does.

Aside from the very end of the episode the other moment that disappointed me terrifically was John's return to his proper time. Was that scene not begging for a Rodney hug? I mean Jesus, the man had totally earned it at that point.

Letting it go...letting it go...