Contrariwise

Jesus H. Christ, he's Dawn. Oh, dear. I... don't know how I'm going to feel about that one.

I mean, it could be made to work. I'm just wary.

(I'm going to treat him as a spoiler until he appears on the screen, personally; that's my rule about this sort of thing, though I very much doubt anyone will avoid the news that BB is coming onboard. I really think it would be decent behavior not to post anything about the character outside of spoiler-cuts, though. I know there are people who want to avoid that knowledge.)

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destina.livejournal.com

I'm kind of freaking out, now, because how could there be two lt. colonels on the same team? That'd be a waste of manpower. What if...oh, no. They wouldn't.

*goes to hide under the bed*

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Oh. Yes, of course.

See, I knew they wouldn't leave it open at the end of the season, dammit, I knew it!

(Okay, I don't know it yet. But it does look awfully suspicious, doesn't it?)

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What? What? This is a Gemini thing isn't it? I haven't seen it but neither I nor Orca_girl fear spoilers. What are you suspecting?

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I'm not actually sure if this is what Des is thinking, but I'm wondering if they're going to have Sam retire from the military to be with Jack.

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What?!

Um. That would pretty much break the show for me. I really, really hope that's not true.

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Oh, I don't have any spoilers that indicate that might be the case. But I've always assumed the writers want to go with a J/S ending, and if RDA's leaving the show... well. And a civilian Sam would give a reason for there having to be another CO for the unit, without making it explicitly a judgement on her fitness to command.

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Okay. I agree with Len, here -- I cannot count the ways in which I would *NOT* like to see this actually happen. *sigh* Now I'm all worried, because I hadn't even thought of that.

It would make some sense. Although... okay, wait.

1. Isn't it more likely, what with one thing and another, that if Jack and Sam wanted to be together, Jack would retire?

2. Including, more likely given the logistics of the show (RDA's reduced time, etc.)?

3. Would Sam have to retire from the military *too*? Both of them?

4. If Sam retires from the military so that she can marry Jack or whatever, does that mean Jack stays a general? Does that mean that they're currently thinking they're still going to have Jack as a general somehow in S9?

5. If Sam retires from the military to be with Jack, does she still get to stay in the SGC as a civilian scientist because, you know, she's too valuable to say to her, "don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out"? Because Cooper's quotes *seem* to indicate that he's thinking about "SG-1" as Daniel, Teal'c, Sam, and BB.

6. But like Destina, I still don't get how you can have two lt. col's on the same team. That's dumb.

7. How might the AUs play into this?

My head hurts.

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Oh, yeah, I think it would make more sense for Jack to be the retiree. I'm just a little leery about what's going on here, you know? And a civilian Sam would let them put BB's character in charge.

There's a story on Gateworld RE S9 and Jack/RDA, incidentally--I don't want to talk about it if you haven't read it.

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One thing I wonder is, is it absolutely for certain BB is American military? Maybe he could be Russian or British. RAF Ben! Maybe..okay, I'm grasping. I just don't want Sam demoted or retired or relieved of command. Unless she retires, realizes she loves Jack but isn't in love with Jack, and then embarks on a crazy mission to resurrect her true love, Janet, so Cassandra can have two mommies again. This will involve copious wandering the earth on her motorcycle and...

Wait, what was I talking about?

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Um, I think you were talking about that Faith spinoff Joss wanted to do. Chicks and their motorcycles, baby!

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I *did* read it, actually -- and boy, that just kind of muddies the waters, doesn't it?

I don't know *WHAT* to think...

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You mean other than "wah, Jack, don't go"?

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Actually, I'm kinda-sorta trying to avoid specific plot spoilers for the upcoming eps. I've looked at the pics from the eps as they've gone up, but avoided reading heavy plot stuff. Because I want to be a tiny bit surprised.

I am seriously going to have to wrestle with myself over the issue of reading peoples' spoilers for "Threads" onwards -- because on the other hand, sometimes I like to find out ahead of time what happens, in detail, if I'm worried about something and feel that I might need to be braced for it.

But I already sort of get the sense, without spoilers, that most folks deeply disliked "Gemini". And that's a pity. RepliCarter had such promise!

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Okay, now you're freaking *me* out.

But yes. That detail immediately *pinged* warning bells in my head...

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I'm assuming he's not Dawn only in the sense of... he will actually have existed prior to his introduction, only, for some reason or another, we in the audience haven't been aware of him. On SG, this isn't impossible, after all. I mean, we in the audience are lucky if we can name two or three other SG team leaders out of how many teams? In the double digits, anyway. Not that I'm saying he's another team-leader, he's not, but -- just that it's clear that the world of the show and who the people we see in the show interact with and know is larger than what we in the audience see.

Case in point -- when Adam Baldwin played Col. Dixon, it was clear that Jack knew him from before. Because he was calling Jack "Jack", and Jack was calling him "Dave", even when they were talking over the MALP. That implied to me that Col. Dixon had been a team-leader for longer than just that episode, and/or that Jack and he knew each other from before. (Because except for Ferretti, I don't think Jack ever calls other team-leaders by their first names.)

So, you know. Could be not-so-bad. Depending on how it's done.

For example -- could he have been a pilot in the F-302 program? Didn't somebody have to be squadron-leader or something of the group of those that engaged in the dogfight in "Lost City"? Wouldn't that somebody be someone Jack and maybe the others know? etc.

(It's not that I'm not worried, mind you. It's that I'm trying hard not to panic.)

I agree, too -- am personally planning to hold off on mentioning BB as the new cast member until perhaps he appears in promos or something; and yes, all character info belongs behind spoiler-cuts until S9 premieres.

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barkley.livejournal.com

My first thought was that perhaps they came across him when he was a shuttle pilot for NASA and he was the one that picked them up from their gliders at the beginning of the second season. From there he hopped into your F-302/Lost City timeline. And then he does something fantastic at the end of season 8, and thus gets his choice assignment onto SG-1.

My next thought is that they can easily slot him into SG-1 by changing all the billetting. I mean, it's not like it's strict in makeup how it is. Sam's been promoted from Captain to Major without leaving the team. And she's currently leading it as on 05 when it was billetted as an 06 slot. So maybe they'll promote her again.

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I did some research recently that suggested that Sam *might*, depending on her age, have enough years in service to be promoted to 06. But doesn't it screw that up if she was only promoted to 05 a year ago? Doesn't she have to stay at 05 a minimum of 3 years before she can be promoted to 06?

I mean, not that they couldn't be all, like, "details waived on account of saving the Earth" -- but they've tended to try not to do that, from what I've seen. (If estimates of Sam's time in service are correct, her promotion from captain to major was likely overdue, as was her promotion from major to lt. col -- if you figure that somebody in the SGC ought to be on a fast-track to promotion, what with all the world-saving and all.)

Or maybe I have it all wrong.

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Oh, yeah, I think it could be done fine. Of course they'd know each other; it isn't that big a program, I'm sure they all know each other at least a little. I'm just a little leery of this whole "flashbacks" thing--I don't want to end up in a situation where the stories we already know are being changed instead of added to.

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I just want to point out, in light of Brad Wright's statements today:

For example -- could he have been a pilot in the F-302 program? Didn't somebody have to be squadron-leader or something of the group of those that engaged in the dogfight in "Lost City"? Wouldn't that somebody be someone Jack and maybe the others know? etc.

Damn, I'm good!

I hear you on the flashbacks deal -- but the best-case scenario for those I could imagine would be that they go back and show us something we have already seen, and then in the new flashbacks, show us other things going on that we didn't see at the time.

And that, I'm fine with.

I totally agree with you about *changing* rather than *adding to*.

But the new info from BW makes it sound like it's the latter.

Somebody always had to be the guy who led the squadron that went into that dogfight -- we just never knew who he was. But in another show, or from another perspective, *that guy* would have been an interesting character to follow in his own right.

Oh, and now it looks like we do get to follow him.

Interesting path for them to decide to take.

(I'm still all in a tizzy with regard to the Jack situation, plus with Sam. I hear you, that in many ways the solution of Sam becoming a civilian would make several things possible and make them make sense. But... I still wouldn't *like* it. For a couple of reasons. *shrug*)

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You are good. Very impressive speculative skills. Go you!

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I think that once Sci-fi starts airing "Ben Browder joins SG-1" promos, his existence is fair game for open discussion. Of course, actual character or plot spoilers would remain spoilers I suppose.

I fear Cooper's comments. Because as much as I love Stargate, I'm not sure the writers have the chops to pull off a character intro that's as tricksy and clever as they're making this sound. The SG-1 team already knows him? He's secretly been all important but we've never seen him before? Flashbacks will weave him into the universe?

Fear.

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