SGA 2x15 The Tower

[schneefink]

I watched The Tower instead of another episode because none of the other choices (38 Minutes, Grace Under Pressure) had Ronon & Teyla. In hindsight it was probably a mistake, the episode has only a few redeeming features. Notes will be out of order because I don't want to watch the whole episode again.


Very generic villagers, like always in Pegasus. Miles away from the tower and no Jumper, how did they get John and Carson there so fast, not to mention Rodney?
Also, team, you have no sense of diplomacy at all. In your defense, the villagers are apparently stupid, but come on. Your way of persuading the guy to help you get access to the Lord who terrorizes them with drones is "perhaps he will make an exception?" Seriously?

They let Rodney wander around on his own now? I very much liked his "minion". Rodney + minion = always hilarious, be it kids, Zelenka, or village guy. Wonderful exchanges.
Rodney is so lucky Teyla isn't offended every time he calls the locals "primitive". I liked him in this episode: exploring, ranting but not overly much so, and complaining to Teyla that nobody cares about him and then "Oh." The more early episodes I watch the more I like Rodney.

Whoever wrote this episode has a completely different picture of Sheppard than I do. I'm thinking about whether ignoring this episode for him or try to incorporate it somehow, currently tending towards the former. "Open-minded women", seriously? And infatuated with Mara - did the chamberlain put something in his drink? That's the only explanation I can find. (I quite like it, actually.) Next I need to watch an episode that has good Sheppard. (Grace Under Pressure?)

Not enough Ronon or Teyla. They were mostly standing there doing not much of anything. Then we had Ronon, defender of the poor maiden! Pity Teyla and Rodney's discussion what is worse, the Wraith or the current system, was not continued, it would have been interesting.
Loved the hand-holding scene at dinner.

The tower system made no sense, the people there were all stupid, enough said.

I remembered that the DVDs have audio commentaries! Unfortunately the commentary for this episode is done by Paul Mullie and Andy Mikita; I think it would have been more fun to have actors do it. (Joe Flanigan, for example...) I didn't listen to all of it, but they did admit that "it wasn't a very subtle episode." No kidding.
I can download episodes, but I have to give back the DVDs in a few days, so I'll try to watch a few more audio commentaries. Maybe. Or episodes first. Or maybe sleep...

Comments

[sholio]

The Tower was one of the worst of the season two episodes. And that's saying something, since I think overall season two was a fairly weak season. But that episode was an incoherent mess -- the basic idea was really interesting, but the execution? Not so much. Having writers who knew anything about, oh, history or anthropology or other cultures or ANYTHING might have helped ...

I quite liked both 38 Minutes and Grace Under Pressure. The biggest drawback to 38 Minutes is that it features Elizabeth's low point as both a leader and a character (IMHO). But otherwise I think it's one of the better episodes in the series. Both of them are bottle episodes, and I think the show did some very good bottle episodes in the early seasons. Both episodes have the characters being smart and figuring stuff out, which I always liked.

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Most of the season 2 episodes I've seen so far have very weak plots, but a couple of great moments. The Tower has far fewer than most. Better writers would have helped the series in general ^^

Elizabeth is exactly why I'm hesitating to watch 38 Minutes. I just started to like her, I don't want to watch an episode where she's stupid. Otoh I'm thinking about writing an Elizabeth fic, so I probably should.

Just watched Grace Under Pressure, much better :D

[kristen999.livejournal.com]

"The Tower" was written by Joe Malozzi. That's explains how bad it was.

And ditto to everything Friendshipper said about GUP and 38Mins.

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Heh, nobody seems to like Malozzi. I think xparrot did an analysis of which writer wrote the characters which way once, that was very interesting.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

I've been away from the episodes for too long and am least familiar with season two. So I'm both surprised and annoyed to learn that Rodney running around unaccompanied is canon. That's always annoyed me in fics because it makes no sense.

Oh, Malozzi? I guess that explains it, then. XP

But I will continue not to write that. I am defiant! (hee) And I really should get around to a series rewatch one of these days ....

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

He wasn't technically alone. Village guy was with him! But he did nothing but stand around and let Rodney do what he wanted (while warning him, yes, and occasionally making unintentionally funny comments) and wasn't much protection or even help.

Sometimes it is definitely necessary to save the characters from their canon selves! Or from Malozzi xP

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

See, to me, the whole reason the military was even there was to protect the scientists of the expedition. Sure, once they had an enemy to fight, the military had another primary purpose ... but that doesn't lessen their duty to protect their people-resources. Which makes leaving civilians alone — in the sense of "not having an expedition guard" — inexplicable.

So Rodney might not be alone in that he's got someone to talk to ... but what if the village guy had actually been a Genii spy or something, out to kidnap a nuclear scientist? Feh.

[schneefink.livejournal.com]

Exactly! If it had been one of the Athosians, their trusted allies, fine, but they didn't even know the village people, and it's not like they haven't been betrayed by harmless-looking village people before. It doesn't make any sense. (Not that all episodes usually always do *cough*)