Naturally, as soon as I bitch about SGA, tonight's ep is pretty good, despite groaning over the previews for it. Especially since the McShep ship is back. And Dr. Keller is somehow not annoying. But, they're making me care, dammit.

I'll wait for them to screw that all up in the next ten minutes.

I'm skeptical. David Hewlett has to know he will never again have a job where the producers are willing to focus so intently on his character for so long, and I don't see Joe Flanigan being eager to contend again for a world record in failed pilots per year like he was doing before SGA stuck.

This. Damn it.

I definitely agree that Ed's choices in the first two seasons have been spot on. Cranking up the whole mean/combative thing would have been reductive, not to say cheesy.

Reductive, cheesy - don't forget insulting to the characters and actors, but also off-putting to the viewers. Sure, a humorless, nastier Stark might be more realistic - after all, who among us has not experienced the tender mercies of a boss whose ego couldn't fit through the double doors of the workplace. But, and it's a big but, those are the jobs about which "Take This Job and Shove It" was written. Why in tarnation would any sane viewer want to stick around to watch some other poor shlub stuck in that environment?

The reason the Carter/Stark dynamic was so dynamic is that, while Stark might have a pure numbers advantage in IQ over Carter, they both did their jobs with a comparable level of competence and skill. That is the fundemental reason that they both end up doing those jobs in Eureka. You don't get to work in Eureka if you are not dead brilliant at what you do. And the two men have a fundamental respect for one another, because of that.

Also, if they wanted Stark to be in any way believable in winning Allison's love back, or have been capable of winning it the first time around, we the viewers have to see some glimmer of not-asshat.

SGA was a win for me tonight. Nothing flashy, not too much technobabble or gauntlet of snafus to overcome and therefore overwhelm any character moments, great structure. I need to go back and figure out who the writer and director is. Me liked.

Forgive any typos, I'm lacking an index finger tonight due to unscrewing a multitude of hoses, several of which were stubborn.

I thought tonight was surprisingly good too, despite the derivative [i]Flowers for Algernon[/i] premise. I actually liked Jeannie Miller for the first time, and I don't think we're ever going to get closer to canonical Sheppard/McKay than that pier scene. If I just squint and pretend that Rodney first woke up sluggish and confused ten days after the brain surgery instead of refreshed and alert after a couple of hours, it's golden.

I need to go back and figure out who the writer and director is.

I'm pretty sure the writer was Brad Wright and the director was Andy Mikita.

And now I will wait for Dana to get the episode so we can flail at each other.

Really liked last night's SGA. I thought DH did a lovely job. It's really the first ep of the season that I've felt engaged by. Figures.

Last night's SGA was really good. Yes, hand-wavy medical stuff. But I think Hewlitt did a great job. I wish that there'd been a bit less magic cave from Ronon, and more cave with mysterious healing effects. The latter's more "science we just haven't figured out" than, well, magic cave. Dex's from a very techie world and background--I don't think they should be playing him as superstitious as the writers seem inclined to do.

Still, it's a minor nitpick, I guess. I loved the McKay/Sheppard interaction, and I really liked the tension between the team and Keller. It seemed very character driven and believable.

Dex's from a very techie world and background

This is the problem I had with him banging on the ship's firing panel like a gorilla in that episode where they kept jumping to alternate universes. The writers seem to be dumbing him down.

And word to everything else that's been said about last night's ep.

Isn't that just the way—now that it's cancelled it'll probably be stellar episodes all the way to the finale. Oh well, if so I'd rather have 2/3 of a really enjoyable final season than a couple more lackluster years.