When I’m a fan, I’m an industrious fan. I will seek out, view and own, if possible, every bit of work by an actor or group of actors that is available. It was through one such exploration that I discovered Stargate Atlantis.
I had never seen the Stargate movie. I forget why I didn’t, as my husband certainly saw it, as a rental if not at the theatre. He’s even convinced that I saw it, too, but I didn’t. I was feeling fairly defensive about the Stargate series, largely because of the perception of Stargate being in opposition to the Star Trek franchises. It’s silly, I know, for a science fiction fan to get competitive over something that they had no part in creating. The fact remains, I didn’t watch Stargate for two reasons. One, those stuck up Stargate fans thought that their show was better than Star Trek; Two, I didn’t have cable.
Only Nixon could go to China, to quote our dear Spock. And I guess, only Conner Trineer (and Robert Picardo) could go to Stargate.
During my avid (rabid?) phase of Enterprise fandom, I obtained from Netflix every movie or show that the cast had graced with their performances. This included such utter duds as Scott Bakula in “What Girls Learn” and, fortuitously, Stargate Atlantis with Conner Trineer.
The episode was “Michael” featuring Conner as a Wraith that had been transformed by a retrovirus into a human. The DVD had three other episodes on it. Within a month, I was actively seeking and reading fan fiction and downloading episodes from Amazon.
My favorite pairing in the SGA fandom is McShep (Rodney McKay/John Sheppard). The characters could be interpreted to be polar opposites, with McKay as the brilliant and abrasive civilian and Sheppard as the prototypical hero type. When I first heard of the pairing, I certainly thought it was bizarre. The gorgeous pilot and the chubby physicist seemed pretty ill matched.
However, the characters, thanks to actors David Hewlett and Joe Flanigan and to a lesser extent the show’s writers, have a rare chemistry on screen. You can see, after watching for awhile, how the pairing came to be and why it is far and away the most popular pairing in SGA fandom.
I am very sad that my show is gone, I hope the show’s creators and the SciFi channel are sincere in their promise of at least one DVD movie, and I look forward to writing and reading more unbelievably good fic about my favorite wormhole travelers.
