SG-1: Camelot -- Not the whiz bang ending I was hoping for after the lead in, so my disappointment will color my remarks. Keeping that in mind, I thought it was, "ok." I didn't feel the malice of the closers from seasons 1 or 3, but it was better than Anubis. I won't babble about magnetic boots, electricity, and naquadah because I've made an uncomfortable peace with naquadah, the metal of all properties. Or at least the one property needed at this particular moment in the script.

Didn't like their splitting up the team. It didn't seem necessary. I've been enjoying this bad ass Teal'c but appealing to the galactic patriotism of dealers of crack corn (*eye roll*) was poorly thought out. Cameron's haring off at the end for the 302 seals my opinion of him as unfit for command because he really doesn't seem to be a team player. I'm sure the writers don't see it the same way. Whatever.

Yay for the girl that she pulled the sword from the stone; I was amused and relieved that the townspeople crowded around her rather than Cam, who was still face down in the mud. I'd have enjoyed it more, though, if the gril's role hadn't been semaphored to us by Cam's questioning her about her trying to pull the sword. Daniel's reading speed is still Upgrades speed, I suppose, if he can find and assimilate the clues within such a vast library.

Yay for a sense of continuity with the reference to the machine from WoO. I cackled at the team getting beamed up just as Daniel is trying to make the point that there was no magic involved in the Merlin tricks. Twice. Daniel messing with Cam's head in the library sequence was amusing. If the town leader isn't Merlin, I'll be very much surprised. (Please don't spoil me if you know; I avoid spoilers.)

Poor Sam. Gotta be a bad, bad feeling to watch helplessly as the Bad Guys slaughtering your side. I felt for Sam; Amanda Tapping sold me on the moment. I could have done without the gratuitous shot of Vala at the end. I know she's regular cast next season but I love the original cast and I'd like to see some kind of closing for them. Not to mention her presence didn't add anything. Since we'd already spent a lot of the episode on a quest that didn't apparently add anything to the underdeveloped story for the episode, anyway, I'd prefer to take her moments and add them to the time spent developing the plot.

Too bad the SGC didn't ask the Asgard to make a huge iris for the Supergate as soon as they saw the first one.

In short, the humor bits worked for me while the story -- not so much.

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SGA: Allies -- The amoral and unethical behavior of the "heroes" astounds me.

~~00~~

BSG: Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2 -- Huh. Hard to know what to say. I think the brilliance - or not - of this ending will be determined by how next season plays out. I have a hard time believing that less than a year after the devastating Cylon attack, that people would be willing to settle on a single planet where they could be wiped out again. Of course, I'm not living on a cramped space ship with 1,000s of strangers after having lost everything that I know.

I loved the plot about Roslin stealing the election! Now that was some fascinating stuff. Even Baltar couldn't countenance her involvement. Just like so many other decisions that she made when faced with bad choices, I could see why she made it but it left me bleeding for her to see the personal price she paid. Thus, although I was glad to see her strength of character in not hiding behind her minion (Cheney? Bush? You listening?), I was sorry to see it end so abruptly. OK, she's restored to her path of truth and light and all...but it was the internal conflict that I enjoyed watching. Ah well.

I didn't like the year's jump. Why? The character changes are so jarring as to not jibe for me. Starbuck goes from hot shot pilot to long-haired wife chasing down an idiot of a husband and begging old foes for medicine. Laura goes back to school teaching. Not to belittle it or the place of education, but a prophecy-driven woman who thinks the president is in league with the Cylons doesn't mesh with someone happy to give up involvement and bury herself in teaching. Apollo as the jowly commander? Um, okay, someone should get an award for the astounding makeup job in making Jamie Bamber anything less than insanely hot, but why?!? Callie and Chief? They decided to introduce this pairing through the romantic avenue of one beating the daylights out of the other. There's a relationship with some unpleasant overtones.

Not that I wanted to see every tiny step in these transformations, but a case needed to be made to show me these people becoming the opposite of how I think of them. I can draw my own lines and wank it but 180 character moves shouldn't happen entirely off screen. Where was Helo's Boomer? Has Six been haunting Baltar during his backslide into mad excess?

In all, the second season felt very much the sophomoric outing for characterization. There seemed to be lots of dead-ends (how're Starbuck and Cat doing, btw? what about the suicidal tendencies in the Galactica crew?) and too many things, e.g., Apollo's prostitute girlfriend and said suicidal tendencies, came out of left field and were never again heard from in subsequent episodes. Season 1 felt more mapped out and I hope they can regain their footing for Season 3.

The Cylons detected the detonation of a single nuclear bomb? In the vastness of space and against the radiation of stars? I'm no atstrophysicist but that seems...unlikely.

I'm intrigued by the possibilities opened by the occupation. I find the Cylons endlessly fascinating. Figuring out what motivates them and how they do, or don't, work together to achieve goals is fascinating. I'm dying to know what the new version of Cylons, presumably loving humanity under the aegis of Caprica Six and the Chief's Boomer, will be like. Somehow, I doubt it'll be a very benevolent love since their regard for humanity hasn't stopped any of the models' taking out any number of humans, now has it?

As a total aside, I was rewatching SG-1's Maternal Instinct this weekend and realized that the injured trainee that Brat'ac drags through the gate is none other than Aaron Douglas, the Chief from BSG. Love that cozy Vancouver acting comunity. *grin*