This show I my happy place. A light-hearted ensemble cast space scifi with adventures and aliens. :)))

I'm starting a new series of posts with this, 'Java watches SGA'. Expect spoilers for the episode I'm writing about, and vague references for future episodes and recurring themes/tropes, nothing really spoiler-y. Commentary, speculation, half-assed and serious analysis, screen caps and shipping Sheppard with almost everyone.

Lets get to it.

Rising

I adore Weir. She is so excited and dedicated.

I wish Col. Sumner had had a bigger role in SGA, I've been huge fan of Robert Patrick ever since Terminator II.

The snarky exchange he has with Sheppard, about who is in charge, is a great character insight to Sheppard.

It's awesome how the city just lights up when Sheppard walks in.

From the get-go, the relationship between Sheppard and Weir is different from the relationship between Weir and all other military personnel. Sheppard defers to Weir, the rest of them firstly to Sumner. But there is a marked difference between how Sumner was at Earth, and how he is in Atlantis. Despite what he said to Sheppard earlier, he recognizes and respects Weir's authority.

I think that was the first difference between SGA and SG-1, that made me like SGA better. The expedition being under civilian command and not military.

And we have the first alien encounter: Halling [Christopher Heyerdahl FTW]. I loved him as the other character he would play later in the series. Todd is, hands down, my absolute favourite character in the show.

I came to SGA from SG-1, so I knew the Stargate universe beforehand. How through the gate travel the Goau'ld populated a lot of planets in the Milky Way with with humans, so encountering very much human-like alien in Pegasus galaxy [even though the Goau'ld didn't go there, the reason for it becoming evident later in the episode] is not a stretch for imagination.

The sequence where the City rises from the water is pretty epic.

- Yes, we are.. traders.
Sheppard is flying by the seat of his pants, for the first of many, many times :P

I never warmed up to Teyla. I have no idea why. She is a capable and intelligent woman who is also badass and beautiful. What's there not to like?

I don't know if it was the intention of the showrunners to build up to John/Teyla romance, but those two did have a connection from the first time they met, and the scene where John puts the necklace Teyla had lost and he found on the caves, around her neck, seemed like a beginning of a build-up to something.

Yes, the Wraith are the enemy, but my $deity the ones with long white hair and billowing leather coats are hot. They seem sort of vampiric, even before you know that they basically are life-force sucking space vampires.

Ford: Gateship one, ready to go
Sheppard: Gateship one? A little puddle jumper like this?
Ford: It's a ship. It goes through the gate. [He makes a sort of an 'ergo' gesture.] Gateship one.
Sheppard: Oh, no, no, that's all wrong.
Ford: Dr. McKay thought it was cool.
Sheppard: Oh, okay, it's official, you don't get to name anything. Ever. Flight, this is, puddlejumper. We're good to launch.
And so the puddlejumpers got their name :)

The ancient gene is really strong in Sheppard:
He says to Ford: Tell you what, lieutenant. A lot of fighter pilots would kill to fly this this thing. It's like it reads your mind.
And then later the ship gives him the life signs detector.
Ford being in awe about it is pretty much where I started shipping Sheppard/Ford. When their commanding officer/lieutenant dynamic became more evident later in the episode, cemented it for me. I can't help but wonder if it is because of racism, that the juggernaut slash pairing in SGA fandom is McKay/Sheppard, and not Sheppard/Ford and later, when Ronon Dex shows up, Sheppard/Dex [who is played by a Hawaiian actor (beefcake) Jason Momoa]. Both of them have more chemistry with Sheppard, whereas Sheppard and McKay read as friends, most of the time, except when McKay screws up so badly Sheppard can barely stand the sight of him.

Sumner isn't afraid of anything. I get that Sheppard being a main character, he'll have to be the military commander of the expedition and therefore there isn't really room for Sumner, but still. *Le sigh*

Another one of first of many: Sheppard snarking at the Wraith, here at the Queen even.

This just occurred to me. McKay is Canadian. The Canadian stereotype is polite. He is just about as far from that as you can be.

Observation from the last minutes of the episode with closeups of Sheppard; he has really cute elf ears.

This might not be the best episode to introduce new people to SGA, since the tone of this is more serious than that of the overall series. I also think that it was unnecessary to introduce and give that much screen time to characters who were prominent members of the expedition but did not make it past the pilot. But that is a very minor gripe. The whole Stargate: Universe debacle was so overwhelmingly shitty on the part of the Stargate franchise showrunners, that no idiot balls or anvils dropped come even close. Except maybe the gene therapy storyline. That was horrendous and exhibited a complete and utter tone-deafness from the powers that be. Once I get to those episodes, there will be griping about it.