100 Reviews: 63
Jul. 1st, 2013 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthThis episode barely deserves a review, but I guess I do have some things to say
SG-1: 1x03: Emancipation
This episode jack-knifes rather abruptly into the planet of the week style episode. I can’t say I was ever surprised this was the prominent style of episode the show had, but it is a mark of when this show was made. Serialized elements were included, but not exactly the focus. And while I do love me some serialized soap opera style shows, it was probably good for this show not to be completely serialized. It needed room to breathe between the big events, otherwise they’d have ended up with a show where Earth was always in danger of being destroyed by bigger and bigger threats and that wouldn’t have been sustainable for more than a decade.
Anyway, as this is the first Sam centric episode it is naturally about women’s rights. They did start to expand her character after a bit, but at this point she was there to spout FEMINIST THOUGHTS for a while. And while you can *almost* fanwank a theory as to why she was so hyped up on it at the time and mellowed into actually being a feminist icon later it’s pretty obvious that the real reason is Doyalist rather than Watsonian and rough writing at the beginning. They needed to make sure we would all know she was a Strong Independent Woman (tm), no room for doubt when they had her say stuff like that all the time right?
I’m not going to dwell on the white savior aspects, if that sort of thing bothers you this show probably isn’t for you in the first place. But it does bother me a touch that Nya is the only woman from this culture given lines and she’s the whitest one there. That combination does strike me as pretty unfortunate.
However I do like how Daniel’s talking out his ass explanation of why it was so important to get Sam back ended up playing a part in the final resolution.
And I know it’s a Sam episode but her arc is pretty obvious in its writing and moral, so I’m going to talk about Daniel for a second. The writing of Daniel here was obviously done *very* carefully to not make him come off as a total hypocrite. He easily could have, but thankfully the writers seem to have remembered his story with Sha’re even though it wasn’t directly commented on. And being so early in the show it’s pretty easy all around to see the influence of his time on Abydos playing a role in his attitude towards dealing with other cultures (even ones who inexplicably speak English), because he *did* immerse himself in the other culture and have to respect their ways and customs so he’s using the same philosophy in dealing with other other cultures too.
While Sam didn’t look bad in the local garb, I’m not sure why the guys all seemed so dumbstruck by the sight (Teal’c may have just been being Teal’c about it though). And there were a couple times I really wanted her to take the damn headdress off when she was trying to run away; it was bright blue and clunky, surely it would have been easier if she’d taken it off.
Next time:
Hmm, still don’t know.
Suggestion box always open
SG-1: 1x03: Emancipation
This episode jack-knifes rather abruptly into the planet of the week style episode. I can’t say I was ever surprised this was the prominent style of episode the show had, but it is a mark of when this show was made. Serialized elements were included, but not exactly the focus. And while I do love me some serialized soap opera style shows, it was probably good for this show not to be completely serialized. It needed room to breathe between the big events, otherwise they’d have ended up with a show where Earth was always in danger of being destroyed by bigger and bigger threats and that wouldn’t have been sustainable for more than a decade.
Anyway, as this is the first Sam centric episode it is naturally about women’s rights. They did start to expand her character after a bit, but at this point she was there to spout FEMINIST THOUGHTS for a while. And while you can *almost* fanwank a theory as to why she was so hyped up on it at the time and mellowed into actually being a feminist icon later it’s pretty obvious that the real reason is Doyalist rather than Watsonian and rough writing at the beginning. They needed to make sure we would all know she was a Strong Independent Woman (tm), no room for doubt when they had her say stuff like that all the time right?
I’m not going to dwell on the white savior aspects, if that sort of thing bothers you this show probably isn’t for you in the first place. But it does bother me a touch that Nya is the only woman from this culture given lines and she’s the whitest one there. That combination does strike me as pretty unfortunate.
However I do like how Daniel’s talking out his ass explanation of why it was so important to get Sam back ended up playing a part in the final resolution.
And I know it’s a Sam episode but her arc is pretty obvious in its writing and moral, so I’m going to talk about Daniel for a second. The writing of Daniel here was obviously done *very* carefully to not make him come off as a total hypocrite. He easily could have, but thankfully the writers seem to have remembered his story with Sha’re even though it wasn’t directly commented on. And being so early in the show it’s pretty easy all around to see the influence of his time on Abydos playing a role in his attitude towards dealing with other cultures (even ones who inexplicably speak English), because he *did* immerse himself in the other culture and have to respect their ways and customs so he’s using the same philosophy in dealing with other other cultures too.
While Sam didn’t look bad in the local garb, I’m not sure why the guys all seemed so dumbstruck by the sight (Teal’c may have just been being Teal’c about it though). And there were a couple times I really wanted her to take the damn headdress off when she was trying to run away; it was bright blue and clunky, surely it would have been easier if she’d taken it off.
Next time:
Hmm, still don’t know.
Suggestion box always open
