Just getting the opportunity to sit down and record my thoughts on last week's episodes. Best get this posted today as tomorrow night are the season closers (high-def digital cable to be installed the day after - *sob*). Onto the rambling and incoherent commentary:

SG-1: Crusade - Claudia Black is one damned fine actress. Chewing through well-written, emotionally charged scenes isn't much of a challenge for an above average thespian but making dry discourse told while sitting in a chair in an undecorated room interesting? Now THAT is talent. I've long been annoyed by the amount of telling rather than showing that SG-1 does and really this could have been the ultimate in bad. This episode lacked everything I love in the show: team, adventure, use of the Stargate,Teal'c/Cam subtext, Daniel...but I still came away thinking, "huh, there's still some kick left in the old girl."

Vala was toned down enough that other characters in the room had a chance to be noticed but she still has what I've come to think of as the Claudia Spark. My hopes for next season are buoyed; I just hope this is a case where the writers can follow through. *fingers crossed*

For the first time ever, I feel some menace from the Ori. Or, more accuately, their followers. The white hat vs. the twirled mustache version of conflict long ago lost its sense of menace. Evil ascended beings who somehow feed off the adoration of the masses (does this mean the key to their defeat is to either convert or kill their believers and thus deny them their energy?) just doesn't seem very scary. Evil is best shown in the personal - how it affects characters I love or can identify with. One of my complaints about the goa'uld was how I heard how many evil things they did but with only a few exceptions, they mostly seemed a foppish cast trotted on to be killed by our heroes that week. Whack-a-Mole gone galactic.

An enemy that can warp a gentle, decent human being into a murderous Crusader bent on dealing death to infidels? Now that is something I can fear and worry about the survival of our galaxy and get behind the effort to defeat. I gotta wonder what's happening in the Ascended Café these days. (Gods but I hate that they turned the mystical Oma into a hash-slinger.) The Ori are attacking humanity, the group they apparently spent a long time hiding from said bad guys, but there seems to be no action from them other than allowing Orlin to be institutionalized with other assorted half wits. *sigh*

Not certain why the writers are making obvious references to Christianity (Crusade? Immaculate Conception? Leaving home to battle the unbelievers?) but refuse to so much as name it when it's the obvious answer to the question. It seems cowardly but maybe there's another plot going on? 'Cause the Cam who incessantly references his grandmother's religion would seem the natural character to name Jesus when asked about other Immaculate Conceptions.

Cam's reference to Arthur's immaculate conception? No. They could get away with twisting Egyptian mythology to their ends because it was long ago and not much of their audience would have cringed at the movie's "Eye of 'Ra'." Arthur, however, is much more recent and it's better known to the viewers. Changing what's canon in myth should be done with an acknolwedegment that the writers know it's being changed. Else they run the risk of looking ignorant and lazy.

Episode highlights? Teal'c. I love what he's being given to work with this year. He has retained his dignity but is facing new challenges -- and still given that zinger line to remind us he grew up on another planet. Michael Shanks did a very good job of being CB as Vala; very convincing. Sam's reaction to Cam. Vala suffering in the village square. The tender way Vala's husband treated her. How much he wants to believe her. Vala's ability to twist even dire situations to her advantage.

Very, very good episode. I'll hold on to my hopes that this marks the end of the show's exposition overindulgence in the same way I hope the world will some day break out in peace.

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SGA: Inferno -- Please fire your casting director. Brandy Ledford as a scientist?!? Um, no. Her body language and movements were more sex-kitten than scientist. The actress's talent is playing sexy. Then again, the scientist was given the thankless task of dogging Our Heroes and making breathy, double entendre-laden exclamations over how wonderful they are. Maybe the casting was no accident. Blech. I did enjoy the mutual snark between Rodney and John when they weren't taking their turns drooling all over Science-Major Barbie.

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BSG: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part One -- Won't comment too much here, I think. Somebody is either cheating or not watching the final cuts of the show. The voice over, "Previously on Battlestar Galactica" means you shouldn't be showing clips of things that didn't happen perviously on. *g* I don't know if they were cheating because it let them do a plot point of two without devoting time to it, but really, that's just bad. *shakes finger admonishingly* I'd prefer that doesn't become a t.v. trend.

Much like the evening's SG-1 episode, this felt like it was mostly set-up for the finale. I can't imagine that they're willing to trust Sharon to that extent. By now they have to understand that even if Sharon wants to help and genuinely regrets anything bad that she's done, the "toaster" is still a Cylon and when it's time for her to turn on the humans she will have no choice. I'd like to have seen how Starbuck finally convinced them to let her lead a rescue mission back to Caprica - wasn't it vetoed the last we heard?

*sigh* Another character struggling with suicidal tendencies. OK, yeah, I'm sure it's more realistic but as a viewer I'm finding it boring because the previous two leads I've watched struggle with it seem to have acquired the problem offscreen, suffered for a single episode, and then magically moved on. I don't find that interesting -- unless it turns out the Cylon agents are spiking the drinking water or something.

Also? Watching the Chief beat the living shit out of Callie didn't add anything to my experience. I'm a particularly squeamish viewer when it comes to personal violence. I wasn't really certain what the point of this was. I'm more than willing to cut the writer's slack because they haven't truly let me down yet but it sure felt gratuitous.

I'm taken aback that the military is visibly behind Laura and that Baltar is openly supported by the very terrorist whose presidential aspirations he so soundly dissed on wireless radio not so very long ago. I suppose politics does make strange bedfellows. Baltar is wonderfully amoral and sometimes I gasp over his decisions. The screen crackles any time he or Laura appear.

Tomorrow's the big night. Three and a half hours of season finales. I can't believe BSG won't be starting up again until October (waaaa!) but I guess they're experimenting and working on how best to add Dr. Who to the line up. It'll be a long enough drought, waiting for summer's return of SG-1.