Stargate - The Changeling (or, Raven is still being a catch-up fangirl and feel free to skip)

The Changeling! Squee!

All right, I admit it. I loved this episode. Teal'c never gets enough screen time, but that might be because every time he appears, he usually gets the best lines. This episode, for example: "I'd prefer not to consume bovine lactose at any temperature."

And the crucial part - the other world he had inside his head - was well done. I particularly liked the way it was shot differently from the SGC sequences. It was somehow brighter, with more colours and bright sunshiny weather, and it really got across the idea that this is different; a direct contrast to the muted military grey we're used to. Of course, there were other things that made it different, such as Teal'c's accent. I have actually met Christopher Judge. I know he doesn't go round saying nothing but "Indeed." But even so, a nice change to see Teal'c actually being slangy!

And Jonas. Wearing a pink frilly apron with "NEW GUY" on the front. Perfect. I suppose the pinkness of it was another example of bright colours, but I don't care, it was too cute and I want an icon of it. Actually, I really do like Jonas. I love the way he's so much like Daniel and so much not like him. This is yet another episode that features both Daniel and Jonas, and while they never actually meet in this one, it was good. I actually would quite like to write a fic featuring both of them. It would probably have to be AU, I suppose, as there's nowhere in canon I could realistically put it.

The firemen metapbor was clever in the way it brought everyone in. I have only two gripes. The first one could be disputed, I suppose, but if all of this was drawn from Teal'c's subconscious, then from whence came the slang, the knowledge of procedure, the technical detail? Surely it's not something he would have happened to know as First Prime of Apophis? I suppose he could have picked some of it up during five years on Earth, but still.

And the other gripe is nitpicky in the extreme but I can't stop myself. Daniel's turn as a psychologist was fun - it's nice to know he hasn't lost his look of blinky-eyed uselessness, and I did have a suspicion it might have been Mackenzie playing his role! - but he introduces himself as Dr Daniel Jackson. I know that the real Daniel was a PhD-type doctor, which is all well and good, but the implication here is that psychologists are doctors. Which they aren't.

All in all, though, a good one. Wasted on T4, of course - the presenters never seem to have a clue.

I'm aware that a large proportion of my entries lately have featured Stargate episode reviews. For which I apologise. I didn't hide this one under a cut because as far as I know, it's aired everywhere except Channel Four (which was put right this afternoon) but feel free to skip. I am simply catching up on the two seasons' worth I've missed. Which will probably take me about a month. Until then, c'est la vie.

Pairings meme

Like amchau, who I stole this meme off, I've had to use more than one fandom. It doesn't work otherwise.

Favourite Pairing:

Too many to count, really, but for a pairing to appeal to me it has to be soundly based in canon. Subtext will do, though; otherwise I'd never read any slash. I would say Hawkeye/Trapper and Sirius/Remus are my favourite pairings, as they're slashy, but the canon subtext is clear.

Cross-Gen Pairing:

I was going to say I didn't have one, but I've got a slight confession to make - I do like Remus/Hermione as a pairing. Not when she's still a student, and possibly not even requited. In my head, it works post-canon as a kind of angsty, twisted affair. But it does fulfill my criterion of being canonically plausible - it's clear that she does like him, and it makes the question of why she discovered his lycanthropy and yet kept it to herself much more interesting.

Old Fogies Pairing:

Crowley/Aziraphale, without a doubt. They're both coming up on six thousand years old, I believe.

Opposites Attract Pairing:

I'm not actually a huge fan of it, but Daniel/Jack does fit the bill. The problem with it is the way they start out polar opposites - military hardass versus whining liberal academic - but slowly become more and more like each other. Daniel can now carry a gun without getting twitchy; Jack can sometimes be persuaded to look at the moral ethical side of things rather than blowing stuff up. Perhaps that's an argument in favour of the pairing - their being together would go some way to explaining the way they move towards each other in patterns of behaviour.

Slash Pairing:

All my pairings are slash! Well, almost. The first one I really saw was Hawkeye/Trapper, though. They're so slashy in canon that you can't not see it.

Het Pairing:

The only het pairing I really do like is Daniel/Sha're. It's such an unbearably tragic set-up, and there's something very romantic about it. Their "marriage", their attempt at living happily after, Daniel's quest to get her back, then the way Teal'c has to kill her to save Daniel... all deeply angsty but very good. Although, I suppose the main thing I liked about the pairing is the way she's no shrinking violet. She "falls on the floor laughing" every time she sees him try to do something domestic, and then takes the utmost delight in embarrassing him with that kiss in front of SG-1. I'm getting distracted, but I really like this pairing.

Kink Pairing:

Well, I don't know if it counts, but it's common knowledge that I have something of a thing about dogtags. Perhaps it's not coincidence that they have cropped up in three of my fandoms - Stargate and M*A*S*H have the obvious military undertones, and Harry Potter brings up the whole concept of werewolf identification - and I have employed them in as many fics as I dare. Hmm.