From the Television Without Pity boards...

[khaosworks]

One of the threads on Enterprise is "Outside Trek: Enterprise vs other SciFi". Here's my post about Stargate SG-1 and the latest episode of Enterprise...

Oh, and SG-1, by the way, is how to write a leading man
who's um, not so intelligent - by making him just be ignorant in certain things but
have a superb level of competence in what he's best at doing. We laugh at Jack
O'Neill as he expresses bewilderment at the technobabble that's going on, but cheer
him on when he does what he's best at - being a soldier. And even Jack learned a bit
over the years, or showed knowledge in what he was interested in (astronomy, a hobby
of his). We also see Jack being intolerant and reckless, but we also see him being
able to defend his positions. God, I miss the Jack/Daniel dynamic.

Quantum on the other hand, is intolerant, stupid and reckless without any real
redeeming features or the ability to explain them, even if it's as simple as "I
don't trust people without a sense of humor". I'm trying to imagine Jack in A
Night In Sickbay.

"They're pissed off because of what?!? Oh for cryin' out loud..."

"Can't we just say we're sorry for peeing on their tree, give them some flowers, buy
them dinner and ask them to please let us have the plasma... plasma...?"
"Injectors."
"Thank you. Plasma whatsits. I'll give them a new tree, how about that?" 

"Or we could just blow them up..."
(everyone stares at him)
"Sorry, did I say that out loud?"

"Me and Carter..? That's against regulations!"
"But, Colonel.."
"Ah ah! I'm not listening!"

"I'm in Sickbay with the Night Of The Fifty Foot Tongue here. I've been chasing
bats, worried sick about my dog, and I've been having these dreams..."
"What dreams?"
"... Never mind. Point is, I don't want to hear it - you go figure out what these
Kreegahs want from me before I decide to stick two torpedoes up their..."
"Yes, sir."

That's the difference between good and bad writing - or characters, I suppose.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

But I still enjoy Enterprise more than SG-1.

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

I have ... brand loyalty to Trek. And Enterprise leaves Voyager in the dust ...

but SG:1's characters are better drawn, I think.

B

I started enjoying SG-1 even more when ....

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... it was pointed out to me that Jack gets every bit of terminology and jargon right, except when there's some invented technobabble or alien term, and he almost always gets those wrong ... it is such a strong correlation that it is easy to suspect that he realised (consciously or subconsciously) that those words are basically silly and is flagging them up in the show as basically silly.

When I heard Richard Dean Anderson was buying the TV rights for the film, I cringed, but having watched 75% of the episodes, I'm very impressed (oh sure, the Norse stuff added to the movie's Egyptian stuff was a bit strained, and then adding "greys" ... but it somehow all works, and yes, I'm going to miss Daniel and the Jack/Daniel dynamic too)

Reminds me of my comments about the difference between Star Trek and Babylon 5. In Star Trek if they have to make a choice between saving a planet or saving the life of a small child, they'll find a way of doing both, in Babylon 5 they'll probably fail to do either while trying to do both, and in SG-1 ... well, you can never be sure!

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

And in Farscape, they'll manage to save the planet and the child, but the planet turns out to be a bunch of bastards and the child dies anyway.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

The lj-cut text "a night in sickbay" popped into my head set TTO Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok." Ugh.

...

It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really kinda stuffy
To be watching 'Enterprise' when I could be watching 'Buffy'

...

you filkers are warping me, i swear.