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SGA - Midway
Warning: rant!
So the SGA writers can be really freakin' stupid, can't they? I could have really enjoyed this week's episode, but for one line.
Sam invites her old friend T'ealc to Atlantis to coach Ronon on an upcoming interview with the IOA. About T'ealc, she says to Ronon: "You two have a lot in common." And yet, NO THEY REALLY DON'T. They occupy a similar space in the narrative of SG1/SGA but their personalities, backgrounds and relationships are completely and utterly different.
As a viewer, I can handwave a lot, but I don't want to hear from the writers. I don't care about what they think. I don't care to hear what they think come out of the mouths of their characters. I especially don't want to hear that they think two very different characters "have a lot in common," and should be able to relate to each other on a personal level, simply because they're heavily armed Others. I can let go of Christopher Judge's bad hair, the silly fanservice throwdown and the plothole-filling narrative shorthand of Shepperd-is-awesome, but are you freaking kidding me with this shit? I mean, no wonder T'ealc and Ronon are consistently short-changed if the writers think of them as interchangeable aliens of colour, who like to shoot stuff.
The episode actually works against the idea of their sameness - the only thing that they do have in common (according to the episode!) is their shooting of things. Which kind of begs the question - why does Sam think that T'ealc would make a suitable mentor for Ronon? Wouldn't Shepperd, who also likes to shoot stuff, be fine? Or Teyla, who successfully completed her own interview without causing any waves? Teyla, who out of the entire SGA cast, has the most skill at navigating difficult political situations.
Sam is not quite this stupid about interpersonal relationships. I'm sorry but she's just not.
Aside from the obvious motivation of possibly upping the ratings with a crossover, it seems to me that there's something weird going on here. Something to do with race in America and the idea that people of colour have a shared experience of discrimination that white characters can't access, (hence Shepperd being an inappropriate mentor). And further that men of colour, particularly physically powerful men of colour, have yet another shared experience of discrimination that women of colour can't access, (hence Teyla being inappropriate). Except that neither Ronon nor T'ealc are earth-native people of colour and are the wrong characters with which to tell this story.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that it would have made more sense to have T'ealc come to Atlantis to coach the entire mission on interworld relations. The way it was done in Midway - the older and wiser T'ealc teaching the young hothead how to moderate his unseemly emotional outbursts and hostility to authority - hit a lot of my buttons in the worst possible way.
That's not to say that the crossover didn't make sense in other ways. T'ealc and Ronon do share a martial awesomeness that is a justification of its own, that by generic convention requires a testy throwdown. If the episode had been a 46 minute, non-stop, steel-cage bitch-fight, I might have enjoyed it more. It would have at least been more honest that way. I have no problem with the writers answering that most crucial of questions: "Who would win in a fight?" I do have a problem with the massive amounts of fail they generated in doing so.
I have a problem with their failure to think through the problems caused by casting people of colour in most of the 'alien' roles. I have a problem with their equating the experiences of fictional 'aliens' with those of real people of colour, without working out the implications for those 'alien' characters. I mean, what do T'ealc and Ronon think about their being thrust together? What exactly do the former First Prime of Apophis and a Satedan fugitive from a Wraith dinner plate, have in common?
*flail*
Ok, so was it just me?
ETA: interesting post about race in science fiction!
"Yes, we fucking can talk about constructions of "race" in "Earth" terms when we're reading/viewing a science fiction text."
I'm linking to this post for context, and contrast. It's not that I don't think we can talk about race in regards to T'ealc and Ronon. I actually think we should talk about it more often. My complaints above are meant specifically in regards to the episode Midway and the way I think they tried to equate 'alien' with non-white, but didn't realize they were doing it.
So the SGA writers can be really freakin' stupid, can't they? I could have really enjoyed this week's episode, but for one line.
Sam invites her old friend T'ealc to Atlantis to coach Ronon on an upcoming interview with the IOA. About T'ealc, she says to Ronon: "You two have a lot in common." And yet, NO THEY REALLY DON'T. They occupy a similar space in the narrative of SG1/SGA but their personalities, backgrounds and relationships are completely and utterly different.
As a viewer, I can handwave a lot, but I don't want to hear from the writers. I don't care about what they think. I don't care to hear what they think come out of the mouths of their characters. I especially don't want to hear that they think two very different characters "have a lot in common," and should be able to relate to each other on a personal level, simply because they're heavily armed Others. I can let go of Christopher Judge's bad hair, the silly fanservice throwdown and the plothole-filling narrative shorthand of Shepperd-is-awesome, but are you freaking kidding me with this shit? I mean, no wonder T'ealc and Ronon are consistently short-changed if the writers think of them as interchangeable aliens of colour, who like to shoot stuff.
The episode actually works against the idea of their sameness - the only thing that they do have in common (according to the episode!) is their shooting of things. Which kind of begs the question - why does Sam think that T'ealc would make a suitable mentor for Ronon? Wouldn't Shepperd, who also likes to shoot stuff, be fine? Or Teyla, who successfully completed her own interview without causing any waves? Teyla, who out of the entire SGA cast, has the most skill at navigating difficult political situations.
Sam is not quite this stupid about interpersonal relationships. I'm sorry but she's just not.
Aside from the obvious motivation of possibly upping the ratings with a crossover, it seems to me that there's something weird going on here. Something to do with race in America and the idea that people of colour have a shared experience of discrimination that white characters can't access, (hence Shepperd being an inappropriate mentor). And further that men of colour, particularly physically powerful men of colour, have yet another shared experience of discrimination that women of colour can't access, (hence Teyla being inappropriate). Except that neither Ronon nor T'ealc are earth-native people of colour and are the wrong characters with which to tell this story.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that it would have made more sense to have T'ealc come to Atlantis to coach the entire mission on interworld relations. The way it was done in Midway - the older and wiser T'ealc teaching the young hothead how to moderate his unseemly emotional outbursts and hostility to authority - hit a lot of my buttons in the worst possible way.
That's not to say that the crossover didn't make sense in other ways. T'ealc and Ronon do share a martial awesomeness that is a justification of its own, that by generic convention requires a testy throwdown. If the episode had been a 46 minute, non-stop, steel-cage bitch-fight, I might have enjoyed it more. It would have at least been more honest that way. I have no problem with the writers answering that most crucial of questions: "Who would win in a fight?" I do have a problem with the massive amounts of fail they generated in doing so.
I have a problem with their failure to think through the problems caused by casting people of colour in most of the 'alien' roles. I have a problem with their equating the experiences of fictional 'aliens' with those of real people of colour, without working out the implications for those 'alien' characters. I mean, what do T'ealc and Ronon think about their being thrust together? What exactly do the former First Prime of Apophis and a Satedan fugitive from a Wraith dinner plate, have in common?
*flail*
Ok, so was it just me?
ETA: interesting post about race in science fiction!
"Yes, we fucking can talk about constructions of "race" in "Earth" terms when we're reading/viewing a science fiction text."
I'm linking to this post for context, and contrast. It's not that I don't think we can talk about race in regards to T'ealc and Ronon. I actually think we should talk about it more often. My complaints above are meant specifically in regards to the episode Midway and the way I think they tried to equate 'alien' with non-white, but didn't realize they were doing it.
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