Continuum Q&A

[sid]

Some of my questions/reactions and some sort-of answers to questions/reactions I found in other people's journals.

I've seen pretty much universal hatred for the "Oh, just another extraction ceremony" opening that josses canon so bizarrely.  Don't take things too seriously, folks.  Taken together with its matching WTF bookend near the conclusion of the show movie, it's pretty much a break-down-the-fourth-wall, inside joke, Episode 200-ish piece of nonsense.  Hate it for that, if you will.

Questions about why Vala and Teal'c disappear first?  I read a very reasonable explanation: we only see Ba'al aboard the Achilles, we don't see what mischief he's been up to in other places/other times.  Would have been nice if this seeming discrepancy had been touched on in some way via dialogue, yes?

And Cam's only alive because he was in the wormhole when the timeline changed, according to Sam.  But I kept thinking, hey, the timeline has been changed, the Stargate won't reach its destination, this is before they enter the wormhole, whyfore is Cam still there?  Well, I guess it's because his grandfather hadn't/hasn't died yet (even though his grandfather had/will now died/die 70 years ago).  OKAY, in the MOVIE timeline, his grandfather's not quite dead yet.  *handwaves furiously*

Lots of complaints about Jack dying from a stab wound to the shoulder.  Did you see the length of that needle??  And Ba'al stabs with a downward motion.  The entry wound may be in the shoulder, but Jack got it right in the heart.  *weeps*

First word out of Sam's mouth is "Sir!"  Need I comment?  *eg*

Daniel is there with an anguished, "Jack," and Cam has to drag both of them away.

Next thing you know, Cam is having to snap unprofessional!Sam out of her grief.  Many, many people have a problem with this.  The writers are to blame, of course.  Daniel is carrying on stoically, but Sam's a woman, and she has a sekrit love, and she must take a moment to mourn her loss.

Well, of course she's heartbroken!  Teal'c vanished RIGHT BEFORE HER EYES!!!

*pauses for dramatic effect*

And now back to our movie. *g*

Oh, I have to comment on the handy gangplank that Ba'al left behind.  How silly is that?  The one and only time we see a gangplank come first through a wormhole is the one and only time one is necessary.  And it just happens to land just right, and not slide off the corner of a crate sending Jaffa tumbling like Olympic gymnasts.  LOL

Skipping ahead a bit: Daniel swears!  He's pretty much entitled, under the circumstances.

A bit more: some people maybe missed the line where Daniel says he's so pumped full of drugs that he thinks he might even be hallucinating Sam and Cam's re-appearance.  Because a lot of folks thought he was awfully calm about probably losing a limb.  I thought MS did a good job there.  He totally looked high to me, glassy eyes and all.  Yet even drugged, Daniel has examined his feelings and is counting his blessings, which just served to reinforce the peacefulness brought on by the drugs.

Hee!  And the faces Daniel makes after O'Neill comes into the room and Sam launches into her explanation of event horizons and alternate timelines.  He's back to wondering if he's hallucinating!

I liked what RDA did with alt!Jack.  Undeniably Jack, yet very different than the Jack we've come to know.

My one problem with alt!Jack?  

HELLO, dead astronaut here!  Might want to consider the possibility of maybe examining the idea of potentially LISTENING to what she's telling you!

Such a closed mind in the face of the inexplicable just seems so wrong.

And then we don't see him again.  :-(  I would have liked to see him come around.  :-(

Oh, well.

SG-1 sent to opposite corners of the country and forbidden to communicate with each other.  *sob*  Unrealistic?  They would have been locked up tight?  Well, my only explanation is that the government wants to keep them sweet so that they'll be willing to cooperate fully when the Stargate project gets up and running.  The carrot rather than the stick.

Did Claudia Black not rock?  I knew Qetesh was up to no good right away.  And yet, the third time I watched the movie, examining CB's facial reactions and body movements, it was all so subtle that it could mean nothing at all.

I loved the moment where she sliced Ba'al open and began stalking after Teal'c, hand device held high, bloody sword in her other hand.  *shivers*

Oh, yes.  Teal'c has Ba'al's little dial-the-gate device, I nearly forgot.  This fixes a problem that stretches all the way back to Children of the Gods!  Apophis and his minions came through the Stargate to Cheyenne Mountain, grabbed a woman, shot the place up and stepped back through the wormhole.  (So maybe the writers hadn't decided yet that matter can only travel in one direction through a wormhole.)  They obviously hadn't gone up to the control room and figured out how to operate the computer to dial the gate, so how did they Do It?

Now we know.  *g*

Oh, Super!Sam.  "It'll just take me a minute to figure out exactly how this time machine works."  *rolls eyes*

Poor Cam, all alone in the past, mission accomplished, gosh, what will he... aaaand we're back at the Extraction Ceremony.  *blink, blink*

Aaaand, if it's not a rude question, just WHO does Cam think that fellow standing next to his grandfather in the photograph IS?

Lunch is on Jack!  w00t!

I'm easy to please.  :-)

Comments

[cleothemuse.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU! I'm so tired of all the fan-wank on this movie. Seriously, it was fun. Annoying at times, but fun. A bit shy on character development, but you know what? It was FUN!

One thing I can't help but grin at--and it's partly 'cause I don't think anyone else has thought of this yet--is how "soft" SG-1 has made Baal.

Wait... did I just say Baal had gotten soft? The snake who killed Jack with a sharp pointy thing?

He secured Teal'c's loyalty by promising the freedom of the Jaffa... and he seemed very, very sincere about following through on that promise. He wouldn't let Qetesh out of his sight--even selected her host for her, I'm sure--and his admiration of Vala kept Qetesh at his side even when he probably should have been keeping an eye out for her to stab him in the back (figuratively AND literally).

He opened communications with Hayes instead of just bombarding the shit out of the planet. Anyone else think he was hoping to make advisers out of that reality's Daniel, Sam, Jack, and Cam? (And furthermore, would have been deeply disappointed to find Jack a cynical ass, Daniel a disgraced crackpot, Sam a dead hero, and Cam non-existent?)

Baal, you ol' softie...

[sid]

Yeah, he wanted to share the pleasures of Earth with his queen. I think he was sincere about that. So he doesn't want to bomb the hell out of the place.

I hadn't stopped to consider whether he meant to keep his promises to Teal'c or just spouted a line to hook him. He might be laid-back enough to keep them, as long as it's no skin off his (host's) back.

Soft, but still evil - hence the sharp, pointy thing... thing.

[hilarytamar.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes! Yes to all of this! *feels validated* Seriously, it is actually kind of nice to know that I wasn't the only person seeing some of the things I (thought I) saw – I'm usually so very bad at spotting anything like this, so it's nice to know I'm getting better at it.

So much love for Daniel's "Jack!" and his drugged!WTF face in particular: years of slash confirmed! Woo hoo! Like you, I am impressed by the chic battery-powered if-only-they'd-substituted-it-for-their-camp-stoves-in-their-packs-all-these-years iDHD nano dialing device. But then Ba'al arms his bomb before dialing the gate, because gates never go wrong, as of course Ba'al, aka Lord I'll-disable-the-gates-with-a-virus, couldn't possibly be expected to know. However, I will forgive him anything at all after seeing the way he holstered that sword. Not to mention his clothes. *drifts a little* *and again* *furtively covers up desktop pic, which is absolutely not set to rotate between the Browder-Shanks kiss and Cliff Simon in brocade* And also? Sam's the only one of 'em who's actually military: watch how fast her gun comes up when Teal'c disappears and compare it to the leisurely way Cam's does, and the positively languid way Daniel's does. Except that somebody packed a camp stove. No gun for Jack, because it was a peaceful mission, but they might get stranded, on a Tok'ra planet with hospitality suites, so they need a camp stove.
Hi! My name is Kate, and I'll be your journal hijacker today! Today's special is en-dashes with a side of <em>s, served on a bed of <small>s.

[sid]

Oh, yeah, I didn't make a note of the part where Ba'al arms his bomb a bit sooner than might be considered prudent. But I thought the same thing you did. *g* He did look good. Over-the-top in a very stylish, chic and HAWT way.

Sam reacted very quickly to her lover's Teal'c's disappearance. She was also the first one to move towards Jack when he fell. Cam fired at Ba'al and Daniel just sort of gaped in shock (the poor dear.)

Those camp stoves must be heavy. So naturally Teal'c gets stuck volunteers to carry it. (serves him right for never mentioning the iDHD thingy.)

[maab-connor.livejournal.com]

that's pretty much where i went with it too. my only real concern was that they didn't wrap MS's knee so that he would move it stiffly when he had the prostesis to where he could manage it.

though i did wonder why they didn't just go get Jack and get the time machine they freaking KNEW ABOUT! but that's another matter.

this movie rocked my socks... it took three viewings, but my socks are now throughly rocked.

as for the pic, i thought it was a nice nod to Back to the Future and the whole "Lone Pine Mall" signage at the end.

[sid]

There may have been just a hint of a limp when they turned to leave Hayes' office, but Daniel was moving pretty spryly when they were running for the 'Gate!

I thought about that time-traveling puddlejumper, too. But was it left in Ancient Egypt? No, no, wait! In the new timeline it's still on the planet where Maybourne isn't.

Don't know if they would have been able to convince Jack to help them time travel, but I'm sure they were planning to use him to power the chair once they laid their hands on a ZPM. But we know how that plan ended....

Oh, I don't get the "Lone Pine Mall" reference, but you're probably right - those guys are always 'homaging' something!

Yes, it took me 3 viewings (the last one by myself) to understand all the goings-on and keep things more or less straight and appreciate some of the nice acting. :-)

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

i think Time's Orphan Cam spun some kind of story to put himself in the frame. and Cam bought it.

Claudia SO ROCKS! plus she was so deadpan in the pre release interviews about how she was all just a splash of color in this movie, no big deal, that i wasn't expecting anything like what happened. and i was all OMG WTF WOW.

I like Sam more than you do, so we'll take that as a given!

and yes, I wanted so much more Jack, but I was pretty happy with what I got.

i do think they had a sekrit plan to stay in touch. that's my theory. :D. and i cannot make the timeline/wavy vanishing thing make any kind of sense in my brain, so i'm just ignoring it. which kinda works. since fandom is my happy place.

*clutches new canon to her breast*

[sid]

Right, there was probably (and always had been *g*) a family story in place to explain the photo.

Sam figuring out the time machine in the blink of an eye annoys me in a very Star Trek sort of way. Sit any Star Fleet officer down in front of an alien ship's control panel and their hands just start flying across the blue and yellow and red buttons - no problem. I handwave that as all Star Fleet officers being geniuses of the future, where technology is second nature.

Sam's a genius, and technology is second nature to her, sure. It's the line of dialogue itself that bugs me in this case. That she knows that she'll have it all figured out in just a minute. Sheesh! Before even looking at it!

But I do like Sam, and I should clarify that I'm not on her case for being unprofessional - that was more the reaction I was seeing from other people. I would've burst into tears, so I'm far from knocking (or mocking) her for being deservedly upset about Teal'c.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Teal'c has Ba'al's little dial-the-gate device, I nearly forgot. This fixes a problem that stretches all the way back to Children of the Gods! Apophis and his minions came through the Stargate to Cheyenne Mountain, grabbed a woman, shot the place up and stepped back through the wormhole. (So maybe the writers hadn't decided yet that matter can only travel in one direction through a wormhole.) They obviously hadn't gone up to the control room and figured out how to operate the computer to dial the gate, so how did they Do It?

Now we know. *g*

EEE! So we do! Awesome catch that solves that pilot problem; you rock!

[sid]

Heh. Well, I'll accept credit for catching the solution - but I must admit that I never spotted the problem! I learned about it in the CotG discussions in redial_the_gate. :-D

[lunachickk.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed it. I looked at it as a romp and it was!

I loved all the old System Lords popping up.

Two things that seriously bugged me were:
1 - Major Davis. MAJOR??? Couldn't they have promoted the man???
2 - Where the hell was Janet? She should have been in there somewhere. She could have been one of Daniel's doctors. *sulks*

[sid]

1. WORD, sister! I actually thought that he had been referred to in an episode as Colonel Davis, off helping build the Free Jaffa Nation, but my research proved me wrong. :-( A ten second appearance and no promotion. Boo! Hiss!

2. Well, maybe she was one of his doctors offscreen. After he got back to the lower 48. Maybe Janet just doesn't like cold weather. :-)

[jd-junkie.livejournal.com]

Well, I see yet again we're on pretty much the same page.
*hugs sekrit twin*
I've just posted my burblings having finally seen it.
Mostly Yay!
::email with attachment heading your way in the not too distant:: :-)
PS I love Daniel Jackson. For ever. In any timeline. :-)

[sid]

I thought I heard a burble! *g*

Daniel - one-legged or bipedal - it matters not. Rock on.

[delphia2000.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had a good time with it. I may try to re-watch and see if my feelings improve. After RL is done kicking my ass that is. Sigh.

BTW, I don't mind that Sam was being unprofessional because it was a horrible scenario for them, but they all needed to join in or none was my feeling. Otherwise, it just smacks of 'only girls do this and only boys do this' crap to me. Or the *gag* dingy of doom, which is even worse!

[sid]

Just once, Just Once, I would like to see on TV or in a movie where a man breaks down and a woman is strong. *sigh*

I could see Cam being the strongest of the three. As leader that would be his job, and he didn't know Jack as well. We saw Daniel quietly break down and cry after Janet died, so we know it happens, but that was after everyone was back home at the SGC. We don't know anything about his reaction 'on the spot' other than him getting on the radio and shouting for a medic.

But, ya know, enough about gender bias.

'Cuz we totally know it was all about the 'ship. 'Cuz we know these guys.

*aims staff weapon and fires*

[discodiva76.livejournal.com]

YAY!..welcome to the world of us "Continuum-ites"!!...*is only smug because she happened to be in the right bloody country on release day for a change!*....



Daniel does in indeed consist of "da rocks" stuff, doped up, snarky, wacky-faced alternate timelined, desolate at the loss of Jack, any guise really.....

Imagine what Special Ops Jack would do faced with our Daniel and Wacky Daniel who decided to return from Egypt to trace the "weirdo" who phoned him in the night!!!...*snerk*


Deeds xx

[sid]

He'd 'splode into little 'splodey bits. :-D

[nialla]

Much like the latter part of SG-1's run, there were some good bits, but nothing really held together beyond that.

Good to see the gang again, of course, but how long can they coast by on getting the band together and looking very pretty? Especially in the future, when it will be even harder to get everyone back.

I hated 200 with a burning passion and will never watch it again. Continuum didn't bother me that much, but my reaction was just "meh" because I burned out on the temporal wankfests from TPTB long ago. I can't get invested in the plot at all because I know it's all going to be reset at the end.

I wish they'd do a story that's truly "movie worthy" and not just silly fluff. I'm glad some found some squee, and I did find a few moments myself, but I can't live on just squee anymore.

[sid]

Fortunately I have low expectations. ;-)

And I thought 200 was a lot of fun. These people don't take themselves, or canon, too seriously, which is a bad thing if you're looking for meaty stories and think-y scifi. I'm always happy to actually get that kind of thing, but fluff works for me, too.

I'll rely on fanfic to give me the temporal stuff that has lasting consequences.

"I'll have lasting consequences with a side order of pr0n, please." :-)

[(Anonymous)]

First word out of Sam's mouth is "Sir!" Need I comment? *eg*

Daniel is there with an anguished, "Jack," and Cam has to drag both of them away.

well sam has always called him "sir" or by his rank, so it's a habbit with her. daniel, on the other hand, has always called him by his first name.
yes. a sam/jack shipper here. so what?

[sid]

In a moment of horror, seeing a loved one struck down, the fact that she still called him "Sir" just reinforces the fact that the established parameters of their relationship mean that she never calls him anything else. There is no secret, intimate connection.

I certainly wasn't trying to imply that she doesn't care.

Thanks for dropping in.

[lavenderlocks.livejournal.com]

I watched it without *thinking* too hard, if you catch my drift.

I was just so happy to get some SG-1 on the telly, my brain went 'auto-handwave' as it always did for the series!

My favourite parts were actually the Ba'al parts - snarky snake with just the best arms ever. Full marks. Qetesh also rocked, especially since we've never seen her before. Hopefully this will inspire a rash of fanfic.

Alt!Landry was spot-on with the 'arrogance' rant; and I though Sam, Cam & Dan (hehhehehe) looks suitably chastened. I then loved Daniel's sarcastic comeback to the Pres.

Teal'c is growing in awesomeness since he started growing his hair and getting more lines, eh? Loved him, all the way.

I was hoping for a little more RDA, but, as someone else pointed out, had they got him to Antarctica he would have been dedded.

I also really enjoyed the score (music). Beautifully done, and not overbearing or out of sync. I think, if it ever becomes available, I might actually purchase a soundtrack.

Finally, I thought it was most humourous - always a point with Stargate, it never took itself too seriously - and I found myself giggling quite frequently.

[sid]

I'm nodding my head and agreeing with everything here. Except that I really can't say I noticed the score. Which *nods head* means that it wasn't overbearing, so you're right again! :-D

Landry really did shut them all up with the arrogance remark. It took that for them to see his point of view. And they didn't like the truth of it, although it certainly wouldn't influence their decisions or actions for even one little bitty second.

[chattycatsmeow.livejournal.com]

Edited because I am, in fact, a doofus. :)

[sid]

Hee!

Hope you don't mind me butting in...

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Found via the debrief. I like your Q&A commentary.

1. "Oh, just another extraction ceremony" opening that josses canon so bizarrely. Don't take things too seriously, folks.
Snerk. It's funny, the biggest WTF things can have be handwaving with no problem, but these little things...yeah, they make me titchy.

Actually, I thought it was a joke because they never HAVE shown the extraction ceremony, and when they thought they did before "Dominion", realized they hadn't. (Even though they forgot they finally did). In the end, it's only a movie. LOL

BTW, did you notice the Ba'al snake was inordinately small? Heh. Maybe he was making up for something.

2. Interesting point about the Teal'c and Vala disappearance. I like it.

3. I kinda liked the Mitchell collapsing, but still around after the wounded part. It was very "Back to the Future"-ish. Time in flux and present/history erased.

4. I noticed how Cam had to pull Daniel and Sam out of the way too. :-) And of COURSE Sam's off her game. She saw one teammate disappear (and apparently the other) and her commander killed before her eyes and now they've left them all and in a really freakin cold place that's not home, which means of course *she's* going to be asked the science stuff. I can't blame her for tuning out a second--while Daniel uber focuses on the this is strange as a coping mechanism. (see what I mean about fanwanking the big stuff?)

5. See, that was the second time Ba'al arrived at the Achilles. The first timeline attempt, Ba'al didn't bring the gangplank and so the Jaffa tripped over each other and the crew got clued in enough to send a signal and it was just too messy, so he went back and tried again, this time with added props. Heh.

6. Daniel's totally entitled, but I actually fondly missed the "crap"--because it's been substituted for so long, it almost sounds more natural to the characters. Hee.

7. Totally agree with you about drugged Daniel. I love that whole scene.

8. I kept expecting Col Jack to join then on the flight to Antarctica--hey maybe he was co-pilot with Sam, and um...he dropped her off in Russia?). (Him missing just made no sense).

9. I agree re: carrot v. stick. But I fully expected Cam to be fixing up that hotrod to go crusing for Daniel and Sam--who'd been trying to make a stargate in her basement out of a toaster.

10. Qetesh Vala was cool. (I fanwank Ba'al chose Vala as Qetesh's new host to explain the fifty years--although forgetting Family Ties in toto works for me too. Heh)

11. I love the Stargate redially thing.

12. I think I'm going to write a missing ep/tag where right after the ship makes it to Boston and the pic is taken, Cam disappears a la Teal'c and Vala to make the time travelly things consistent. Leaving only a family story of this dude saved my life and then disappeared. Think he was a guardian angel except for this--so Cam's got it as a talisman.

13. P.S. Cam's STILL not from Kansas.

Lunch! I bet there'll be cake.

Re: Hope you don't mind me butting in...

[sid]

1. BTW, did you notice the Ba'al snake was inordinately small? Heh. Maybe he was making up for something.

Oh, that would explain so much. ;-)

4. Sure! Daniel was coping grimly so he didn't break down completely, and Sam just took a moment before getting back on her game. *handwaves with you*

5. That must be the explanation. And I think the entire movie hinged on that, so I'm glad to have a good answer now. ;-)

8. Jack = ancient gene. He needed to be there. :-(

9. Hee! Toaster. :-)

And strange how they were all forbidden to get in touch with each other, but apparently Daniel was never told: "And don't try to get in touch with yourself."

10. Bugs the hell out of me that we're never told how long Vala was a host; so she could be MUCH older than she appears, and yet Daddy barely looks old enough to be father to a woman of her apparent age.

Far better to leave Toto out of this, Dorothy, yes. *g*

13. *snorts*

Jack will have a hissy fit if there's no cake.

And nobody wants that.

:-)