Thank you again :) I'm quite overwhelmed by how much you like it.
I wasn't sure about Elizabeth as a character at first. I liked her, but I was never convinced that she was actually a sufficiently strong leader for Atlantis, at least not until the latter half of the season. In fact, I saw the events of Hot Zone as down to a combination of John being headstrong and having issues with authority, which he has no call to be acting upon in a situation like that, and Elizabeth having deferred to him too often in the past (for example in Poisoning the Well), and leaving the decisions she didn't want to make to him to make, putting a heavy burden on him.
It was therefore not surprising that things came to a head the way they did, and John bucked her authority. I don't think that Hot Zone was a shining hour for either of them - I was sorely disappointed in Elizabeth for her sulking in the control room rather than dealing with the issue and making the best of a bad situation.
However, towards the end of the season, she started to find her feet, and came to be able to make the hard decisions. She really shone, as far as I was concerned, when it came to The Siege, both in calmly going through the Gate on her own to negotiate with the Genii - after everything Kolya and his people had done to her and her people in The Storm/The Eye - and in letting John attempt to sacrifice himself, giving him permission to do so with that small nod that said so much before turning back to the matter in hand.
That's the Elizabeth I was trying to capture here - the seeds of what she became more obviously in the later half of the season. The seeds had to be there by the mid-point of the season, and she did stand up to Kolya and hold herself together in what must have been a terrifying situation, both with Rodney's support and in supporting Rodney in these episodes. This is the Elizabeth I like and of whom I want to see more.
It's also interesting that you saw the progression of the story in terms of colours. I hadn't consciously thought of it like that. If I had a conscious idea for the thematic progression of the story - and strangely enough for this one I did (I often don't plan 'themes' consciously, but they're usually hovering at the very edges, something instinctual that I don't want to examine too closely while I'm writing in case they slip away again) - then it wasn't blue to gold, but cold to warm :) Which, of course, is the same thing. That's one of the reasons I picked up the autumn theme in the beginning - the vibrant 'warmth' of the autumn colours, where Elizabeth feels at home and at peace contrasting with the cold isolation of Atlantis. At least until she finds that peace and warmth again in her relationship (whether romantic or not; I think the story could still be read as gen and friendship) with John and Rodney.
I've thought of Atlantis as 'cold' not just because of the effect it has on McKay's nipples (heh) but because the colour scheme of Atlantis - all greys and blues and pale greens - makes me think 'cold', so you're quite right that I seem to have picked out those themes in colours. It was something I hadn't done consciously the way that I did the warm > cold > warm progression and that I hadn't quite picked up on :)
So thank you for that observation. It's given me more things to think about :)
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Date: 2006-01-06 01:46 pm (UTC)I wasn't sure about Elizabeth as a character at first. I liked her, but I was never convinced that she was actually a sufficiently strong leader for Atlantis, at least not until the latter half of the season. In fact, I saw the events of Hot Zone as down to a combination of John being headstrong and having issues with authority, which he has no call to be acting upon in a situation like that, and Elizabeth having deferred to him too often in the past (for example in Poisoning the Well), and leaving the decisions she didn't want to make to him to make, putting a heavy burden on him.
It was therefore not surprising that things came to a head the way they did, and John bucked her authority. I don't think that Hot Zone was a shining hour for either of them - I was sorely disappointed in Elizabeth for her sulking in the control room rather than dealing with the issue and making the best of a bad situation.
However, towards the end of the season, she started to find her feet, and came to be able to make the hard decisions. She really shone, as far as I was concerned, when it came to The Siege, both in calmly going through the Gate on her own to negotiate with the Genii - after everything Kolya and his people had done to her and her people in The Storm/The Eye - and in letting John attempt to sacrifice himself, giving him permission to do so with that small nod that said so much before turning back to the matter in hand.
That's the Elizabeth I was trying to capture here - the seeds of what she became more obviously in the later half of the season. The seeds had to be there by the mid-point of the season, and she did stand up to Kolya and hold herself together in what must have been a terrifying situation, both with Rodney's support and in supporting Rodney in these episodes. This is the Elizabeth I like and of whom I want to see more.
It's also interesting that you saw the progression of the story in terms of colours. I hadn't consciously thought of it like that. If I had a conscious idea for the thematic progression of the story - and strangely enough for this one I did (I often don't plan 'themes' consciously, but they're usually hovering at the very edges, something instinctual that I don't want to examine too closely while I'm writing in case they slip away again) - then it wasn't blue to gold, but cold to warm :) Which, of course, is the same thing. That's one of the reasons I picked up the autumn theme in the beginning - the vibrant 'warmth' of the autumn colours, where Elizabeth feels at home and at peace contrasting with the cold isolation of Atlantis. At least until she finds that peace and warmth again in her relationship (whether romantic or not; I think the story could still be read as gen and friendship) with John and Rodney.
I've thought of Atlantis as 'cold' not just because of the effect it has on McKay's nipples (heh) but because the colour scheme of Atlantis - all greys and blues and pale greens - makes me think 'cold', so you're quite right that I seem to have picked out those themes in colours. It was something I hadn't done consciously the way that I did the warm > cold > warm progression and that I hadn't quite picked up on :)
So thank you for that observation. It's given me more things to think about :)