And YES, the sex-and-math. Simply magnificent. (and like I say above, so nice to find someone who CARES!) I loooove the physics/math/science bits that creep in. (The one that absolutely KILLED me was the carryover from "Infinite Loops" where Rush and the AI talk about love as marginal utility and then it comes back in "What Goes Undelivered" -- OUCH OUCH.)
Though my math & physics education aren't advanced enough to explicitly understand the references in FoD, they are advanced enough to adore the feel of the references, the very real weight - adore to pieces :D The use of math, physics & code as narrative devices and POV for characters is just completely brilliant, right up there with Cryptonomicon in how much they add to the story and the characters. (and thats sayin' something, cause I'm a Cryptonomicon fiend :P)
ITA on 'loops' - ow ow ow, you just want to take the AI home and feed it cookies and read it a bedtime story, because it's so lost in this adult world of Big Emotions....when it's still an evolving child. *sniff*
And, and, and -- so that time loop chapter? Was when I fell really shatteringly in love. And the scenes of comic relief! Eli and Destiny Bingo! JUST.
OMG the time loop chapter was when I knew that this author was Going To Do It Right all the way through - the SG1 tone, the SG science, the way the one-offs manage to interrupt the arc without inspiring any resentment because the interruption to solving the problem of the hour (goa'uld, Ori, whatever) is somehow just as frustrating to the characters as to the viewer.....perfect.
And the humor bits? Fucking perfect :D They felt like genuine old-school Stargate, they felt like genuine SGU slice-of-life-music-montage, and they felt like the canon characters. And they were HILARIOUS :P I about died laughing at Rush protesting he doesn't swear, while Eli shuts him down with, 'You swear like a sailor. You swear in English, you swear in Ancient, you swear in languages I don't even know....Scottish or Irish or whatever,' while he's laughing so hard he can barely breathe :P
Eli interrogating drunk Rush about his favorites, bwaa ha ha ha ha!
Destiny Bingo slayed me - I go back & re-read that over and over. And Brodey & Volker singing the Immigrant Song at Destiny Karaoke.....omg. ded.
Eli's quips and moments remain just as delightful in FoD as they are in the dark world of canon :)
And the characters -- I love how even though it's Rush-Young-centric all the other characters are still well-rounded and in-character. LOVELY.
I always worry that fic will make all the secondary and tertiary characters one dimensional, and I happen to have a huge Military Nerd Crush on Greer and was prepared for disappointment there, too....and then we get EVERYBODY. EVERYBODY!!! With 100% AWESOME GREER!! With bonus From All Angles with EXTRA GREER!!!! *swoon*
I feel the same way about SGU that you do -- I loooove arc-driven TV. And honestly I didn't think much of the writing first season (at that point I was basically only watching for Carlyle), but second season was just starting to find its feet when they canceled it, BAH. AND THE ACTING. I think every single one of the actors on SGU did an incredible job. And the small-scale character writing is really good!
It's funny - my first watching through SGU, I couldn't deal with it. I was still missing BSG and nothing was going to distract me from that. I didn't like the characters, I couldn't tell them apart, and I was grumpy at the choices that led to both of those issues....in retrospect, it's very clear to me that the SGU writers room must have had as their watchword - WE HAVE 5 YEARS, WE NEED TO HAVE SOMEPLACE FOR THESE CHARACTERS TO GO. They had EVERY reason to think they'd get at minimum a 5 year arc, that they could do a very slow build on these characters. I remember reading an interview with Alexander Siddig late in the run for DS9 in which he pointed out that making Bashir an unlikable asshole was entirely on purpose on his part. He knew he had at least 5 years to develop the character, and decided starting out making him unlikable would make for the best story-telling, and the most enjoyable project for him as an actor. He *knew* he had the time. I imagine the SGU writers were sure they'd get at least five years, based on the record of SG1 and SGA, yk? Watching season 1, it's very apparent they were going for a slow build - slowly getting to know the ship, the many sections of the arc, and a really large ensemble cast extending out to tertiary characters who have almost as involved stories as the primaries. LOVE IT.
Speaking of arc-driven TV SF, have you watched ST:DS9? When it was doing arc I thought it actually did it really well. (Some of the standalones are also absolutely magnificent, although some are, well, not.) THe first couple of seasons are slow, but I think it gets quite good. (Not to the level of Farscape, mind, but what is?)
Oh yes indeed :D I watched DS9 through the initial run up through season 7, when I stopped having access to a TV - I recently went back and rewatched the entire thing and really enjoyed getting all the arc bits in sequence properly :)
Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, DS9 (all the Star Treks to a degree)....and less space-y X-Files, Fringe.... gimme arc story telling and speculative fiction and I'm alllll yours :D I haven't seen Veronica Mars tho, I'll have to look into that.....
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And YES, the sex-and-math. Simply magnificent. (and like I say above, so nice to find someone who CARES!) I loooove the physics/math/science bits that creep in. (The one that absolutely KILLED me was the carryover from "Infinite Loops" where Rush and the AI talk about love as marginal utility and then it comes back in "What Goes Undelivered" -- OUCH OUCH.)
Though my math & physics education aren't advanced enough to explicitly understand the references in FoD, they are advanced enough to adore the feel of the references, the very real weight - adore to pieces :D The use of math, physics & code as narrative devices and POV for characters is just completely brilliant, right up there with Cryptonomicon in how much they add to the story and the characters. (and thats sayin' something, cause I'm a Cryptonomicon fiend :P)
ITA on 'loops' - ow ow ow, you just want to take the AI home and feed it cookies and read it a bedtime story, because it's so lost in this adult world of Big Emotions....when it's still an evolving child. *sniff*
And, and, and -- so that time loop chapter? Was when I fell really shatteringly in love. And the scenes of comic relief! Eli and Destiny Bingo! JUST.
OMG the time loop chapter was when I knew that this author was Going To Do It Right all the way through - the SG1 tone, the SG science, the way the one-offs manage to interrupt the arc without inspiring any resentment because the interruption to solving the problem of the hour (goa'uld, Ori, whatever) is somehow just as frustrating to the characters as to the viewer.....perfect.
And the humor bits? Fucking perfect :D They felt like genuine old-school Stargate, they felt like genuine SGU slice-of-life-music-montage, and they felt like the canon characters. And they were HILARIOUS :P I about died laughing at Rush protesting he doesn't swear, while Eli shuts him down with, 'You swear like a sailor. You swear in English, you swear in Ancient, you swear in languages I don't even know....Scottish or Irish or whatever,' while he's laughing so hard he can barely breathe :P
Eli interrogating drunk Rush about his favorites, bwaa ha ha ha ha!
Destiny Bingo slayed me - I go back & re-read that over and over. And Brodey & Volker singing the Immigrant Song at Destiny Karaoke.....omg. ded.
Eli's quips and moments remain just as delightful in FoD as they are in the dark world of canon :)
And the characters -- I love how even though it's Rush-Young-centric all the other characters are still well-rounded and in-character. LOVELY.
I always worry that fic will make all the secondary and tertiary characters one dimensional, and I happen to have a huge Military Nerd Crush on Greer and was prepared for disappointment there, too....and then we get EVERYBODY. EVERYBODY!!! With 100% AWESOME GREER!! With bonus From All Angles with EXTRA GREER!!!! *swoon*
I feel the same way about SGU that you do -- I loooove arc-driven TV. And honestly I didn't think much of the writing first season (at that point I was basically only watching for Carlyle), but second season was just starting to find its feet when they canceled it, BAH. AND THE ACTING. I think every single one of the actors on SGU did an incredible job. And the small-scale character writing is really good!
It's funny - my first watching through SGU, I couldn't deal with it. I was still missing BSG and nothing was going to distract me from that. I didn't like the characters, I couldn't tell them apart, and I was grumpy at the choices that led to both of those issues....in retrospect, it's very clear to me that the SGU writers room must have had as their watchword - WE HAVE 5 YEARS, WE NEED TO HAVE SOMEPLACE FOR THESE CHARACTERS TO GO. They had EVERY reason to think they'd get at minimum a 5 year arc, that they could do a very slow build on these characters. I remember reading an interview with Alexander Siddig late in the run for DS9 in which he pointed out that making Bashir an unlikable asshole was entirely on purpose on his part. He knew he had at least 5 years to develop the character, and decided starting out making him unlikable would make for the best story-telling, and the most enjoyable project for him as an actor. He *knew* he had the time. I imagine the SGU writers were sure they'd get at least five years, based on the record of SG1 and SGA, yk? Watching season 1, it's very apparent they were going for a slow build - slowly getting to know the ship, the many sections of the arc, and a really large ensemble cast extending out to tertiary characters who have almost as involved stories as the primaries. LOVE IT.
Speaking of arc-driven TV SF, have you watched ST:DS9? When it was doing arc I thought it actually did it really well. (Some of the standalones are also absolutely magnificent, although some are, well, not.) THe first couple of seasons are slow, but I think it gets quite good. (Not to the level of Farscape, mind, but what is?)
Oh yes indeed :D I watched DS9 through the initial run up through season 7, when I stopped having access to a TV - I recently went back and rewatched the entire thing and really enjoyed getting all the arc bits in sequence properly :)
Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, DS9 (all the Star Treks to a degree)....and less space-y X-Files, Fringe.... gimme arc story telling and speculative fiction and I'm alllll yours :D I haven't seen Veronica Mars tho, I'll have to look into that.....