Different, yet similar...
Okay, it's taken me a while to update this blog, but here I am. As mentioned in the previous entry, I find it really interesting to see how fast time goes by; now we're in the second half of the season, and it's only three and a half months until the season finale premiers.
Well, today I'd just like to comment a little on the two latest episodes: "Gambit" and "Equilibrium". As usual, you might want to hold off on reading this, if you haven't yet read the episodes. Spoilers ahead...
Two episodes, as different from each other as they can be, but at the same time they've got some remarkable things in common. Alright, let's start with the differences -- "Gambit" is a more action oriented, but mainly thrilling episode, "Equilibrium" is a character piece; "Gambit" focuses on the large scale events of the series, in terms of mythology, "Equilibrium" focuses on one of our characters, and develops this character in an interesting way, namely Sivea. Now, what these two episodes do have in common are their philosophical background. Don't worry, I'm not getting philosophical here; although you should know that philosophy is sort of a hobby of mine -- certainly it's one of my many interests; I could go on for hours debating about those kind of things of life; but I'll spare you that today.
Anyway, with philosophical background I just mean some simple things; if you look at "Gambit", there's a nice scene in the mess hall, in the first act; in this scene our Teluran guests mention one of their culture's holidays. It was called 'Renovation Day'. And there's this discussion between the Telurans and Sivea, who's a typical scientist 'I don't believe in things without having proof' character, and they talk about the fact that there are things in the universe which exceed our level of comprehension, such as beings existing outside of time (the correct line was "none of us is able to comprehend an existence beyond space-time"). Sivea's perfect response to this comment is that it should be our goal to aspire towards being able to comprehend the nature of the universe. The idea for this whole scene came out of the notion that the nature of philosophy is basically the drive to understand things, we might not even will be able to understand; the curiosity to question things out of life, which most of us would take as natural; the fact, that the term philosophy translated means 'love=philos and wisdom=sophia', in other words 'love for wisdom'. It's the urge, the drive to learn whatever one can learn; and that's basically what that little reference in this scene stands for.
Now, not that this has any importance whatsoever, but every now and then it can be fun including those kind of things. And after all, if you're reading this blog, I'll assume you're interested in at least a few of these things. You can leave your comments, by the way, if you like. I'd be very interested in seeing them.
Okay, now here's what the episodes have in common: Something similar went into the whole Cai'nan way of life in "Equilibrium", where the Cai'nan are basically people, who aspire towards evolving to a state in which they are able to comprehend the meaning of all existence. They call it 'being closer to who and what the Originators were than anything else', which I would assume is true. Me'vel puts it so nicely in a scene with Sivea, where he tries to convince her. So you might find some references in the whole Cai'nan philosophy and belief. And it was completely coincidential that these two episodes were 'aired' back to back. Well, of course there are those who don't believe in coincidences; hm, now there you got something to think about. :-)
I personally like the fact that there are these Vorians, who have these special telepathic abilities, and that -- if taken to an extreme -- they can cause serious trouble. I don't know yet where we will go with this story-line in the future; we haven't had any discussions yet regarding that, but I believe this will be interesting. I also must say that I'm very satisfied with the way Sivea's character has been evolving; in fact, I believe she is starting to become one of the most complex and three-dimensional characters on our show. She went from this attractive Vorian woman, who finds it hard to trust new people, to a far more complex personality. Now, obviously she's still very attractive -- I won't deny that; both Sivea and Christine are some very attractive ladies; just have a look at our cast picture -- but we've learned a whole lot about her past, about what motivates her, about where she came from, and what kind of experiences she's made; hey, we even got to meet her Dad; so I'm very happy with the way her character is growing. And if you look at her background, you'll start to understand why she finds it hard to trust people; on the one hand there's the fact that Vorians in general are a bit overly cautious when it comes to meeting new people -- as in people from other planets (which I think hasn't been too deeply developed yet) -- but there's also her personal history, such as mentioned in "Power Play" and in last week's "Equilibrium"; these are the things that make you understand why she might be careful and reluctant to trust people, having had her share of bad experiences in her past.
Now, you wanna know the real reason I'm pleased with this? I'll let you in on my little secret: Well, simply because way back before we premiered in November of last year, people were voicing concerns that this show might have those type of characters that are only there for their looks, as opposed to their skills. Now these people were only giving their honest reviews on what they had heard about this show, so that's not a bad thing at all; but if these same people were to look at the way our characters have been developing, and continue to develop, they would have no choice but to admit they were wrong. I keep saying that this show will be possibly one of the most character driven shows of all, and you can quote me on that. I believe in order to make an audience want to see a group of characters every week, you have to make them care for these characters, they have to get to know these characters, as if they were old friends of theirs. If there are people out there, who truly love these characters, who care about them, and who don't want to see them harmed in any way, then I know we have done our job well.
So I can say I'm pleased with pretty much all of our character's developments; I think some could use some more development here and there, but I can promise you, they shall get this development. There'll be a big Lenori episode, followed by a big David Connor episode, both coming up in March, before we start our final seven episodes, which will present some really big things, which I believe you'll enjoy.
So I'll leave you with the notion that we will continue developing these characters, and I can assure you, you'll be learning more and more about each and every one of them. I guess it's a we keep developing, you keep reading deal.
I also want to use the chance to mention again that everyone can post comments or questions in this blog, and I invite you to do so. We're making this show for you, our readers, and we care about what you like, what you dislike, and what you think about the episodes, the characters, the mythology, and the whole package that comes with it.
~Alex~
Well, today I'd just like to comment a little on the two latest episodes: "Gambit" and "Equilibrium". As usual, you might want to hold off on reading this, if you haven't yet read the episodes. Spoilers ahead...
Two episodes, as different from each other as they can be, but at the same time they've got some remarkable things in common. Alright, let's start with the differences -- "Gambit" is a more action oriented, but mainly thrilling episode, "Equilibrium" is a character piece; "Gambit" focuses on the large scale events of the series, in terms of mythology, "Equilibrium" focuses on one of our characters, and develops this character in an interesting way, namely Sivea. Now, what these two episodes do have in common are their philosophical background. Don't worry, I'm not getting philosophical here; although you should know that philosophy is sort of a hobby of mine -- certainly it's one of my many interests; I could go on for hours debating about those kind of things of life; but I'll spare you that today.
Anyway, with philosophical background I just mean some simple things; if you look at "Gambit", there's a nice scene in the mess hall, in the first act; in this scene our Teluran guests mention one of their culture's holidays. It was called 'Renovation Day'. And there's this discussion between the Telurans and Sivea, who's a typical scientist 'I don't believe in things without having proof' character, and they talk about the fact that there are things in the universe which exceed our level of comprehension, such as beings existing outside of time (the correct line was "none of us is able to comprehend an existence beyond space-time"). Sivea's perfect response to this comment is that it should be our goal to aspire towards being able to comprehend the nature of the universe. The idea for this whole scene came out of the notion that the nature of philosophy is basically the drive to understand things, we might not even will be able to understand; the curiosity to question things out of life, which most of us would take as natural; the fact, that the term philosophy translated means 'love=philos and wisdom=sophia', in other words 'love for wisdom'. It's the urge, the drive to learn whatever one can learn; and that's basically what that little reference in this scene stands for.
Now, not that this has any importance whatsoever, but every now and then it can be fun including those kind of things. And after all, if you're reading this blog, I'll assume you're interested in at least a few of these things. You can leave your comments, by the way, if you like. I'd be very interested in seeing them.
Okay, now here's what the episodes have in common: Something similar went into the whole Cai'nan way of life in "Equilibrium", where the Cai'nan are basically people, who aspire towards evolving to a state in which they are able to comprehend the meaning of all existence. They call it 'being closer to who and what the Originators were than anything else', which I would assume is true. Me'vel puts it so nicely in a scene with Sivea, where he tries to convince her. So you might find some references in the whole Cai'nan philosophy and belief. And it was completely coincidential that these two episodes were 'aired' back to back. Well, of course there are those who don't believe in coincidences; hm, now there you got something to think about. :-)
I personally like the fact that there are these Vorians, who have these special telepathic abilities, and that -- if taken to an extreme -- they can cause serious trouble. I don't know yet where we will go with this story-line in the future; we haven't had any discussions yet regarding that, but I believe this will be interesting. I also must say that I'm very satisfied with the way Sivea's character has been evolving; in fact, I believe she is starting to become one of the most complex and three-dimensional characters on our show. She went from this attractive Vorian woman, who finds it hard to trust new people, to a far more complex personality. Now, obviously she's still very attractive -- I won't deny that; both Sivea and Christine are some very attractive ladies; just have a look at our cast picture -- but we've learned a whole lot about her past, about what motivates her, about where she came from, and what kind of experiences she's made; hey, we even got to meet her Dad; so I'm very happy with the way her character is growing. And if you look at her background, you'll start to understand why she finds it hard to trust people; on the one hand there's the fact that Vorians in general are a bit overly cautious when it comes to meeting new people -- as in people from other planets (which I think hasn't been too deeply developed yet) -- but there's also her personal history, such as mentioned in "Power Play" and in last week's "Equilibrium"; these are the things that make you understand why she might be careful and reluctant to trust people, having had her share of bad experiences in her past.
Now, you wanna know the real reason I'm pleased with this? I'll let you in on my little secret: Well, simply because way back before we premiered in November of last year, people were voicing concerns that this show might have those type of characters that are only there for their looks, as opposed to their skills. Now these people were only giving their honest reviews on what they had heard about this show, so that's not a bad thing at all; but if these same people were to look at the way our characters have been developing, and continue to develop, they would have no choice but to admit they were wrong. I keep saying that this show will be possibly one of the most character driven shows of all, and you can quote me on that. I believe in order to make an audience want to see a group of characters every week, you have to make them care for these characters, they have to get to know these characters, as if they were old friends of theirs. If there are people out there, who truly love these characters, who care about them, and who don't want to see them harmed in any way, then I know we have done our job well.
So I can say I'm pleased with pretty much all of our character's developments; I think some could use some more development here and there, but I can promise you, they shall get this development. There'll be a big Lenori episode, followed by a big David Connor episode, both coming up in March, before we start our final seven episodes, which will present some really big things, which I believe you'll enjoy.
So I'll leave you with the notion that we will continue developing these characters, and I can assure you, you'll be learning more and more about each and every one of them. I guess it's a we keep developing, you keep reading deal.
I also want to use the chance to mention again that everyone can post comments or questions in this blog, and I invite you to do so. We're making this show for you, our readers, and we care about what you like, what you dislike, and what you think about the episodes, the characters, the mythology, and the whole package that comes with it.
~Alex~
posted by Stargate:Horizon at 5:27 AM
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