Re: 4th Season Stargate Atlantis - The Last Man - 5 star poll - SPOILERS

In article <13t8fm4qssrmt22@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, mikeb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Michael Bowker) writes:
| Martin wrote:
| > "It's the Principle!" <brandykat@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
message 
| > news:Xns9A5C672EC6D5E8675309@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
| >> Eva <eva1removethis@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in rec.arts.tv:
| >>
| >>>> | I've just finished watching the episode and before I start
| >>>> | thinking
| >>>> about it
| >>>> | I have to say I did enjoy it very much.
| >>>>
| >>>> Thinking about it will spoil it.
| >>> Unfortunately!  Reading other people's opinions will do that, too.
| >>> <g>
| >> Not usually on this end.  I read some of these comments from kids
like
| >> the one depicted in Galaxy Quest,

Best Star Trek movie ever...

| >> and just shake my head that they
| >> can't just sit back and enjoy the escapism.  Lately I've seen that a
| >> lot of shows and movies with medical I thought were really well done
| >> haven't done their homework now that I work in healthcare, but it
| >> doesn't make me enjoy them any less.  It's right up there with, "Why
| >> does the bad guy have to hold the gun and discuss his evil plot for
an
| >> hour before killing someone he's been trying to kill for 2 decades? 
It
| >> only gives the guy time to figure out how to thwart him!"  It's just
| >> the way it is.  Most programs would last a mere 3 minutes if it
wasn't
| >> illogic and stalling, so forget and about and eat the damn popcorn.
| >>
| >> -- 
| >> Brandy Alexandre
| > 
| > What people want is for the script writers to stick to the "rules" of
their 
| > own world. We know that many of the things depicted are not
"accurate", what 
| > the writers should try to do though is have consistency through the
show. I 
| > feel it gives the show a solidity that other sci fi shows don't. For
example 
| > in Star Trek I was always fed up with then simply having to generate
some 
| > type of "wave" using the array or similar. So predictable and they
seemed to 
| > write and change the rules as they went along.

Predictably inconsistent?

| > 
| > 
| > 
| > 
| > 
| > 
| Agreed.  All science fiction is more fiction than science.  But the 
| im****tant point is to setup the rules.  We can have FTL star****ps, and 
| trans****ters, and energy weapons and still have good science fiction, if

| they maintain consistency in the universe and otherwise obey the rules. 
|    But to do that you need GOOD writers (both to keep track of the rules

| and to write interesting stories).  Which are apparently hard to find. 
| Early SG-1 (first five or six years or so) did a good job of that. 
| Atlantis not so much.  It's still better than most stuff, but it's a 
| pale imitation of SG-1 (just as TNG was a pale imitation of TOS).  In my

| opinion. of course.
| 
| Which leads to the question of how do you keep a show from collapsing 
| under the weight of it's own mythology?

You can't do the kind of stories that seem to be popular (humans defeat
enemy that has godlike technology) over and over without eventually
elevating humans to godlike status.  TOS largely ignored the problem
by having Kirk show little interest in scavenging the technology of
the defeated enemy of the week (except for some reason in the case of
Vaal--probably the least interesting example).  SG1 worked hard to keep
big ****ps out of Earth's hands, but they were reaching the point where
even the characters had to comment on the absurdity.  Fortunately they
decided to be realistic (if you can call it that) and let Earth advance.
Unfortunately, that pretty much doomed the franchise in the long run.

N.B. I'm not convinced that this is a problem with all mythology.  It's
mostly the godlike technology that gets you in trouble.

				Dan Lanciani
				ddl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]