So, Stargate season 10. I want to go find other people's observations (and, hey, if anyone wants to link me to theirs, I'd be very grateful!), but before I do, let me give you my thoughts, gratis, on the first episode.
---
My laptop is overheating, and I know how it feels. Sheesh.
Thank goodness for StargateWiki and for 'previously on's, because my season 9 set is at the bottom of a box, and I can't be bothered to go dig it out just to watch the last episode. Also, the name makes me want to mutter, "It's only a model." So I was glad, for once, of exposition talk. Sam floating in space, calling out for any survivors, was a really cool way to open it. Her and Cam's relief as they got back in contact, not knowing if they should be mourning Daniel - or indeed Teal'c - was really sweet.
The fact that, of all the people on all those ships that got blown up, SG-1 were (sometimes) the sole survivors struck me as, well, pretty damn unlikely - but nevermind, they're the stars of the show, and one can't expect them to get blown up in between seasons. But, still. Daniel could've died - it never sticks with him, so it's not like... Anyhow.
Vala, aside from a moment of anxiety when the baby was taken away, seemed remarkably blasé about her child being the Orici, out to kill everyone in this galaxy, etc. Giving Adria the name of a hated stepmother? It seemed all very emotionally throwaway. I kept wondering what they'd do if it were, say, Sam having the baby - I don't think they'd have made her quite so uninvolved. I think the writing does Vala a disservice, even though I did find it funny, particularly when she was telling Daniel about it. (How they'd play it if it were one of the boys having the baby, I don't know, and would never find out, because at that point I would be switching off and bleaching my brain.)
Cam got my admiration for standing up to Bra'tac, even though I did think he was in for a major ass-kicking later. And Daniel's decision to grab for Vala rather than Adria was, I thought, typical Daniel: deal with the current problem, and expect that you'll be able to sort out the more major, long-term problem at some future point. And then he did his coldblooded, "She's not a child" thing, and made me think more about that discussion last week on
sg_fignewton's LJ about Jack and the team and kids, especially the Reece issue. Could Daniel really have killed Adria-as-a-child? Well, he didn't... I think he'd avoid it at all costs, because he's all about working for the best possible outcome, even if no one else thinks it's possible - but if he had to do it, I didn't think he'd feel especially guilty about the fact that she looks like a child.
So! Ark of Truth is making a lot more sense, now. :)
Also,
holdouttrout and I held a mini, impromptu rewatch of 200, yesterday, and that episode just rocks. I just love the invisible scenes, and the puppets, and young!SG-1, and Teal'c, P.I., and Vala's attempts at storytelling, and the zombies, and all the technical talk, and.... And that wedding scene is so, SO wrong, and yet, a part of my shippy little heart can't help but get squeeful about it anyway. *g*
The fact that, of all the people on all those ships that got blown up, SG-1 were (sometimes) the sole survivors struck me as, well, pretty damn unlikely - but nevermind, they're the stars of the show, and one can't expect them to get blown up in between seasons. But, still. Daniel could've died - it never sticks with him, so it's not like... Anyhow.
Vala, aside from a moment of anxiety when the baby was taken away, seemed remarkably blasé about her child being the Orici, out to kill everyone in this galaxy, etc. Giving Adria the name of a hated stepmother? It seemed all very emotionally throwaway. I kept wondering what they'd do if it were, say, Sam having the baby - I don't think they'd have made her quite so uninvolved. I think the writing does Vala a disservice, even though I did find it funny, particularly when she was telling Daniel about it. (How they'd play it if it were one of the boys having the baby, I don't know, and would never find out, because at that point I would be switching off and bleaching my brain.)
Cam got my admiration for standing up to Bra'tac, even though I did think he was in for a major ass-kicking later. And Daniel's decision to grab for Vala rather than Adria was, I thought, typical Daniel: deal with the current problem, and expect that you'll be able to sort out the more major, long-term problem at some future point. And then he did his coldblooded, "She's not a child" thing, and made me think more about that discussion last week on
So! Ark of Truth is making a lot more sense, now. :)
Also,
---
My laptop is overheating, and I know how it feels. Sheesh.

Comments
I'm never sure how much of Vala's reactions are a front. She's a con artist to the bone, but I would have thought that so soon after giving birth post partum hormones if nothing else would have made it hard for her to throw up her defenses that quickly. On the other hand, I wonder if she had spent the entire pregnancy mentally divorcing herself from the kid and the moment of anxiety at Adria being taken away was partly physical/hormonal and her being more distant later was the months of negative feelings kicking in.
I just don't know. This is what makes her fascinating to me, but I think it also must have made it hard for the writers to get her character right and keep the action moving.
I would have thought that so soon after giving birth post partum hormones if nothing else would have made it hard for her to throw up her defenses that quickly.
Yes! What you said! Post partum! Okay, putting up a front is what Vala is good at - but she's just given birth, dammit. Like, a few hours before. That affects people (so I'm told). They aren't really in the state of mind to be completely rational. But, eh, this is a supernatural pregnancy, so it's possible to handwave a lot of it. :)
You'd definitely think that if there's any time when Vala would be vulnerable it would be then. But yeah, Ori-influence and all that. I wonder if also maybe the birth and just after was Vala's POV and the rest was more Daniel's POV so whatever Vala's reaction was doesn't come through as clearly? TV POV's are harder for me to get a handle on though. It's so much easier in print.