Stargate Monday

[raven]

Yes. Well.

I am a sad, strange, frightening person, but I am now going to regale you all with the events of the last couple of days. Get out while you can, etc. Em and I decided we absolutely must have a fannish evening. There were complications. This is what transpired.

I did drag myself out of bed in the end. It was about nine in the morning, which meant I wasn't at my best, but in the pursuit of life, love and fandom, I managed to get outside and on my way to the station in time. The weather was beautiful; cold, bright, sunny, as perfect as it could possibly have been. And I caught the train, and I started reading Moving Pictures and everything was fine.

At Central, I noticed a familiar face somewhere in the crowd, and by the time I'd reached the escalator, I was sure. Which was how I emerged onto the station concourse straight into the arms of purplerainbow, gathered myself together, and yelled, "Patrick!"

He hadn't seen me, and Hannah seemed rather amused by proceedings. I was rather afraid she was going to scare him to death, but she didn't, merely subjecting him to intense scrutiny, and when he'd gone, she told me the list of things she wanted to ask him. I was afraid. And suddenly thankful for small mercies, I rang Becca. She was apologetic, having overslept and missed three trains, and when I informed her whom she'd missed, she was somewhat aggrieved. I rather think that Becca and Hannah together would probably have scared Patrick to death. As things stood, Hannah and I went off into the city to wander round and wait for Becca.

Who arrived some time later looking flustered. We went down to Central again to retrieve her, and then ambled off to Quiggins. I'd bought a bag for customisation purposes, and wanted patches for it. We went to Grin first and delivered a few blows to the jukebox before going up to Woodstock. In the tin of badges by the counter we discovered a small Something Corporate badge like the ones we got at the gig last March. Hannah remembered that Emily (shipperkitten) hadn't got one, and so Clare (osiris13) had handed over hers. Therefore, we resolved to buy this badge and put right an old wrong, so to speak. Sadly, none of us had thirty pence in change and so we had to donate all our coppers. Following that, I got my patches for the bag. I have one large red sequinned star, one medium silver one and a small gold one. Becca and Hannah were no help at all. I also got a small rainbow for the purpose of subtlety.

I suppose it was inevitable that we should end up in Subway, sitting in the front bit looking out at the people. We were playing some sort of a game in which we were trying to tell who, out of all the people going past, were happy. There was surprisingly small amount of actually happy people. They all looked bored or depressed; maybe half a dozen people were smiling and only a very few were actually laughing. We tried cheering people up by swivelling around on the chairs and following them as they went past, and as we did startle a few people into laughter, I would say some good deeds were committed. Then came the eternal question: if we'd seen ourselves going past, would we think we were happy?

Colleen (hathy_col) could have answered the question, I suppose. She came past the glass and came in to meet us at about half past three. At which point we all realised how late we were and hurriedly departed for Central. Once there, Becca was going in a different direction, so hugs (touching or otherwise) were exchanged and then I went down with Hannah and Colleen to the other platform.

I was really surprised that we weren't late. Well, we were, but all of three minutes late as opposed to about an hour late which was how I imagined it. Clare had given the ticket people the slip and come down to the platform to meet us. In the lift on the way up, I gave her the badge, which may have amused her, and then Hannah deserted us in favour of yoga. Not that I blame her, considering subsequent events, but at any rate more goodbyes had to be exchanged, and then there was, as Colleen put it a few days ago, an influx of public transport. I don't do buses, which is why Clare had to come and pick us up in the first place. We would have got horribly lost otherwise. It'll be worse for her when she passes her test - then we'll probably all badger her to come and get us in Dick Turpin, which is the name of the car. I later asked her what colour the car was. "Maroon," quoth she, cue laughter and a suggestion from Colleen to call it Ron, Ron Weasley or Foul Ole Ron depending on mood.

But I digress. We were going to sing at Em when she opened the door, but she didn't actually open the door. Besides, we couldn't actually think of anything to sing beyond "It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere..."

Talking of which, I actually got birthday presents, believe it or not. Em gave me two of the Red Dwarf books - Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life - and Clare, who can be remarkably self-effacing, gave me one of the Discworld maps - Death's Domain. I have yet to open it, but when I do it's going up above my desk.

That was a nice surprise in addition to everything else. In case I hadn't said so before, this was above all a gathering for the express purpose of a fannish Stargate Monday. I would like to point out that it was Monday, but even if it hadn't been, I'd still have called it Stargate Monday. The term is borrowed from gamesiplay and her younger sister, to give credit where it's due.

We were all exchanging emails over last week, arguing over which episodes to watch - which I dolefully predicted right at the beginning in my potted history of my life in fandom - and although we did reach some kind of an agreement, it's impossible to watch fourteen episodes of one television programme without your brain imploding, fangirls or not.

We didn't watch fourteen episodes. We watched ten. How we did it, I don't know.

Colleen and I could have watched these ones beforehand on Sky, but we both refrained out of deference to last night. Having said that, everyone except me had seen part one. I liked it. The basic premise was similar to an X-Files episode, the name of which I have forgotten, that involves Mulder, Scully, some policemen and a fly-on-the-wall documentary crew. There was a documentary crew in this, headed by some guy whose name I never quite caught, possibly because he was the same actor who played Donny in Frasier. It was made worse by the fact the two characters being played were so similar. Anyway, ignoring that, it was a good episode. I did like the idea of the team being subjected to the interviews, which were done in major tongue-in-cheek fashion. For example:

"Major Samantha Carter, the six and a half billion people of Earth!"

"...hi."

I also liked the parody of SG-1 in SG-13 - Cute!Ginger!Guy (that's "ginger" pronounced the Scouse way, for the record) was... well, cute and ginger and very Daniel-esque. And he had the feed for the best line in the episode:

"Dr Jackson is going to die when he sees this!"

(and everyone's thinking it, absolutely everyone)

"What, again?"

Even Daniel uses the joke in the second part of the episode: “This is where I died.”

Ah, yes, the second part. The real reason for the lj-cut. The infamous death. There was Colleen, talking about editing and camera angles and all the rest of it, but I think everything she said boiled down to the fact it was very clever. The editing was such that all the way along, you’re meant to think it’s Jack who’s dead. But the focus, unusually, was still on the documentary crew and then the horrible guy from the NID. Another piece of deja-vu (Em got annoyed at my yelling, “It’s the Doctor from Voyager!”, but it was!) but a really clever sequence where the interview cuts from Sam to Daniel to Teal’c (whose interview technique is to say nothing and look menacing) and they all react exactly in-character. I loved it.

Then it becomes clear who did die. I can’t believe they killed off Janet Frasier, but the effect was slightly diluted by Colleen crying on top of me. I told her she was cute (Colleen, that is) and I stand by that. In short, it was a very good two-parter, although I would like to know why they killed her off. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to do it at this point, in my ever-so humble opinion.

Em didn’t cook this time. Instead, there was the usual conversation over pasta (which I liked very much, for the record) and pie (similar). We did get into something of a debate over BNF-age. I don’t like the idea of BNF-age, myself. I like small fandoms – M*A*S*H comes to mind – where the BNFs are incidental, for lack of a better word. They don’t attract the sort of worship that annoys me so much.

Having eaten pie, we went on.

The Fifth Race! It was entirely due to my constant plugging that we watched this one. It’s one of my favourites and for good reason. To start with the truly superficial, it’s an early one and therefore Daniel still has the long hair. I am so predictable. But even ignoring that, it’s just good on so many levels. Lots of Jack-sarcasm – “Well, this was an intergalactic waste of time.” – and a carefully unfolding plot that is intriguing as well as providing fodder for even more great moments. The brief section of “cruvus” dialogue lives on in infamy, as there was a time where Em and I used to quote it at each other to wind everyone else up. Every time we got into an argument that had descended into “Did.” “Didn’t.” “Did.” “Didn’t.” someone would then have to say “Cruvus! What is that?” just to bring it all to a satisfactory conclusion.

I have to admit, I like it when characters speak Latin. I like it when they get pissed off and write “Shut up and go away” on small pieces of notepaper. I liked the sequence where Daniel is fed technobabble by the ‘experts’, and proceeds to use their own words against them seconds later (this prompted Colleen to exclaim, “He’s such a bitch!”) And I liked the moment of real slashy potential where Daniel refuses to leave Jack despite having been ordered to go.

Above all, I like the conclusion of this episode. It’s so sweet and uplifting without being saccharine, and really does provide a neat counterpoint to “all that meaning of life stuff.” Clare and Colleen promised me an Asgard for Christmas. It’s all good.

Fragile Balance, next. A whimsical episode, again. Just the other day I was watching the TNG episode where Picard and Guinan become children, and thinking Stargate never did that… well, it did and I never knew about it. I don’t think they were trying to make much of a point with this episode – after all, Heroes had a few disturbing themes about the role of the press in war and The Fifth Race was meaning of life stuff –as this smacked of “hey, you know what’d be cool…”

Which is not a bad thing, necessarily. Young!Jack is lots of fun, and his alien abduction is rather cool. So is the original Jack’s reaction to everything: “I return to my original question – what the hell is going on?”

In short, nothing special but not bad, either.

Fallen and Homecoming – another two-parter. I have to admit to mixed opinions to Daniel’s return (or descent, or resurrection, or whatever you liked to call it). On the one hand, it’s good – Daniel’s back, yay. On the other hand, Meridian was such a good episode, and this could be said to ruin that. When people die, they’re supposed to stay dead. And I know he wasn’t dead, per se, but still. I do have a point.

Colleen described Fallen as “the one with nekkid!Daniel!” and it speaks volumes about my life in fandom that I could hear both the alternative spelling and the exclamation mark in the way she said it. The beginning of the episode was disturbing. What followed was very much like Daniel-on-Abydos. The same gentle cluelessness about him, the robes, etc. I liked those scenes best; I’ve never been a fan of action-type episodes, which this one certainly was. But it did have something to say, as well – I liked the way Jonas’s personal issues were tied into the fate of his world as a whole. But one thing I disapproved of in general was the way Daniel came back and Jonas chose to leave in the same episode. That’s just too convenient; besides, I’m biased. I really liked the interplay between Daniel and Jonas – they’re so similar and so different, and there’s no rule saying that four is the limit for a Stargate team. A five-member team would have been interesting and full of potential Jack-sarcasm. But no, it didn’t happen. I suppose you couldn’t have expected it to. I did like the slow, gentle way Daniel’s memories came back (and a mention of Sha’re, yay) and Jonas’s final words – “Daniel, feed my fish!” – as he left.

So, not perfect, but not bad.

There But For the Grace of God – another one I wanted particularly. Actually, the shippers like it because of the AU Sam/Jack, but I like it because it’s So Damn Good. It’s an old one, of course, Daniel has the floppy hair, and he’s so himself in this episode, for lack of a better way of putting it. He’s got this immensely whumpable, doe-eyed, on-the-edge-of-screaming-hysteria thing going on throughout. And it’s such a good basic premise, so simple and so perfect. Daniel touches something he’s not supposed to and complications ensue. Simple as that. But it’s all in the details – obviously the AU Stargate Command he ends up in isn’t going to be exactly the same, and little things, like the similar-but-different logo, the fact Sam has long hair, the idea of Jack being the general. Their reaction to Daniel’s appearance is plausible, too; surprise, but overlaid by panic at everything else that’s going on. It’s all done so cleverly, and as we all realised, the tension rises and rises even when you know exactly what’s going to happen. I mean, I knew that yes, Daniel will make it, but was still on the edge of Em’s bed as the episode unfolded. I think it’s the end of the episode that’s the best part. I love the way Teal’c appears just as Daniel runs up the ramp and fires at him in such a way that you could interpret it however you wanted. It’s perfectly plausible to think that he purposely fired off-centre so Daniel wouldn’t be killed. And then, the self-destruct – nothing dramatic, just the white-out. Brilliant. And to finish, a lovely piece of slashy whumpage – Daniel more or less hanging off Jack as he yells, “They’re coming!”

Slash, whumpage, high tension, floppyhair!Daniel and AU ship, all in one episode. What more could you want?

Urgo. I have written about Urgo at length elsewhere, as it’s generally obligatory. The coffee. The blue jelly. The pie. The lost time. The “au revoir, mon general” sequence. Row, row, row your boat. The continued references to Mary Steenburgen (sp?). Daniel saying “Woof?”

There are no words to describe Urgo. It’s simply Urgo.

Paradise Lost – well, the shippers said it was shippy but I didn’t see it. What I did see was continual references to Lord of the Flies. The beautiful (possibly island?) paradise. The need for survival. The onset of savagery. The pig!

In short, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was carefully written, but seemed somewhat plotless to me. I couldn’t help but think it was supposed to be a character-driven episode that didn’t quite come through the way it was supposed to, and in other ways it seemed like a rehash of a A Hundred Days. Jonas wasn’t given nearly enough to do, similarly to Daniel in that episode, although he (Jonas) did mention the Furlings in this episode, which amused me. Yes, they do sound fuzzy and small! I agree!

Maybourne being in it was rather weird. I suppose they have to sort out his sub-plot for once and for all, but this didn’t seem the way they ought to have done it, if that makes sense. I wish we’d seen him being turned over to the Tok’ra. It might have provided a satisfactory conclusion to an otherwise rather lacklustre episode.

And, lastly! Death Knell. I was falling asleep by this point (on top of Colleen) so I wasn’t really taking much in, and all I can remember is how depressing this one was. Also, scary. I had to have Anubis’s drones explained to me in reference to other fandoms. We finally settled on their being a mixture of the Borg, the Jem’hadar, the Nazgul and the Dementors. Whatever they were, they were scary. The episode took place in bright sunlight and they were still scary. Something about the way they look and stand and gesture at the sky just freaked me out. Terrifying. And depressing. Not a very cheerful episode, all told.

I eventually fell asleep on top of Colleen, which is hardly surprising as we were sharing the (single) bed, which led to all kinds of unintentional double entendres. It seems that even in the aeons-deep somnambulistic haze we are both capable of achieving, a civilised friendship was maintained and no-one fell out of bed. We were planning to set an alarm. My alarm was set for nine, but that was only because I’d forgotten about it. Em said she’d set an alarm for half ten, but Colleen wanted midday. I said there was no way in hell we’d sleep until midday.

I was right. We slept until ten to twelve. I was absolutely astonished. Even more astonished, Colleen and I immediately started to have a sensible conversation in which smiling was involved. It seemed that for once, we had both slept enough to be cheerful and happy morning people. Having said that, it wasn’t morning. It was afternoon, and a bright sunny afternoon at that.

We departed shortly after and went to Liverpool; Colleen and me, that is. She bought a book, I bought a bottle of apple sparkling water (an event in my life) and we eventually parted at Central. I went home and have spent most of the afternoon writing this. I have a headache. Maybe because I watch so much television.

Seriously, I am glad we arranged for this. We hadn’t done it in years and never do have enough time to devote to fandom like this. I think that possibly, if I saw myself passing the glass in front of me, I’d think I was happy.

Comments

[shipperkitten.livejournal.com]

The basic premise was similar to an X-Files episode, the name of which I have forgotten, that involves Mulder, Scully, some policemen and a fly-on-the-wall documentary crew.

It's called "X-cops" I think. Watched it not to long ago, in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. :)

Em and I used to quote it at each other to wind everyone else up.

Hee! I loved that time...

Paradise Lost wasn't shippy - we were told it was going to be, and got frustrated when it wasn't (apart from that scene, which can be interpreted in two ways). But they gave us Metamorphosis the next episode, which has it's moments. :)

Lalala... 30 minutes of computer-ness left... *Wails*

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading this. Not just because I'm wildly jealous that your real life and your fannish life can converge so smoothly (although there is that!), but also because I love the way you put this entry together.

That sounds strange, doesn't it?

Anyway. Apparently they air episodes over there before they do here, because I hadn't seen Heroes Part II. Still, I don't have much will power; I snuck a glance at your discussion of it, so now I know who dies. I went downstairs just now and bragged about this to Kib, who begged to be let into the loop as well. I spared her the spoilers, because I'm a good big sister. *clears throat*

There's still a standing theoretical invitation to our version of Stargate Monday, if you ever get over here and I'm at home and my parents suddenly lose their paranoia. Um. So, yes, "theoretical."

Re:

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You know, I am glad you enjoyed this. I'm aware that a lot of people would have found it boring, which is why I broke the habit of a lifetime and used cut tags. I'm now doubly glad I used them; I didn't want to spoil anyone! That said, I think you'll like Heroes. So will Kib, who will probably be absolutely convinced it's Jack who's dead - we were! Colleen was already crying by that point and when the truth came out, she became a small gooey heap on the floor. It's so devious, for lack of a better word. The scenes where SG-1 are being interrogated about it all are the sort of thing that makes people shout at the television.

I will remember that invitation! I'd like to take you up on it some day. It's a two-way thing, of course - you're invited to any of our fannish evenings. We need another slasher! Right now it's variable - Em's a rabid Sam/Jack fan, Colleen's convinced S/J is the spawn of Satan, I subscribe to the theory that Daniel and Jack are having a co-dependent fuck-off friends-with-benefits thing underneath the briefing room table, and Clare's terminally on-the-fence.

In other words, it's lots of fun.

Re:

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Me, too! Loved that time, that is.

Like I said, PL really was like a Hundred Days. Similar ambiguity to it.

Re:

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

I probably would have been convinced, too! I tend to be skeptical about commercials, so I didn't expect Jack to die (since the commercials indicate that he does) -- but from what you've said, at some point during the episode I would have been converted. Ah, well. At least I can watch Kib's suffering now.

The only problem there is that I'm not sure how much back-up I could lend, because I'm still on the fence about the Jack/Daniel. But I'll support it over S/J, so I guess that would help....