I felt an instant attraction to the character of Daniel Jackson,  the first time the Stargate was opened, I think those who saw the film will always remember that scene in the Gate Room.

It mirrored my own feelings, how as a little girl I could watch with a complete feeling of wonderment, the clouds, or a river, or the ocean, for ever.

We are now hearing how “Daniel has reached the end of his journey” and how “Jonas will bring back the element of wonder to the show” and I’m left thinking, WHAT!!

At 42  the feelings I had as a little girl have not changed, I still find myself pulling over to the side of the road just to stare at a cloud formation. If I live to be 90, I expect that every spectacular sunset will be as breath-taking as the last. I have never let an eclipse or a comet, shooting stars or a full moon pass without looking up. Thunderstorms terrify me but you will always find me with my nose plastered against the window just to watch the lightening. I can never tire of watching the dragonflies that visit my garden during the summer.  And if someone needs a lift to the airport I never turn down the chance to watch a hulking metallic monster clamber its way into the sky.   No, these feelings of wonderment will never change and that’s what I thought I was seeing in Daniel Jackson.

I am wrong, I have been doing a lot of thinking about this and now I realize that I have been using the wrong words.  I have always put my feelings down to wonderment and yet at the back of my mind I’ve always questioned why they have never changed.  I am not a rocket scientist, but reasonably well educated and over the years I have tried hard to understand the world around me. I couldn’t give a lecture on these subjects but I now fully understand the reasons why Jumbo Jets fly, I have no problems with wind speeds, drag, lift etc.  I know how clouds are formed, I see wind variation and water vapour for what it is.  Electrical storms?  No problem.  Sunsets and dust in the atmosphere are all what they appear to be.  I have to admit I still have a little difficulty with bumble bees, but hey, I have to be left with a few mysteries in life.

 If I look hard at what I thought was wonderment, I should no longer be feeling the same way,  because the very word wonderment means that you are wondering about something and when you find the answers the wonder goes away.

All these years what I was feeling was *awe*, something that will never go away and something that will never need an answer.  It was these feelings that I transferred to Daniel and why I will never understand why he no longer has them.  If all he was feeling was wonderment and not awe, then all he was looking for was answers and  it is only my own flawed  perception of the character which is upsetting me, then, maybe yes, his journey would need to take another path.  But if only a tiny part of the reason he went through that gate was for awe-inspiring exploration, I think he would choose to carry on as part of his team.

Many people have said that Daniel’s wonderment was paramount in drawing them into the show and the loss of it during seasons 4 and 5 are among the things they hate most.   I am asking the question, was it the awe that was missing as well as the wonderment?

Now I have thought about it, I have to say I want an element of both, as an academic Daniel  naturally loves finding the answers, but without the jaw-dropping, stomach clenching element of awe, something would still be missing.

Brad Wright is saying its definitely just wonderment, Daniel must move on because his questions have been answered,  Jonas will have all the questions again and so will bring back the wonderment, and then we’ll all be happy.  This beggars the question “Do Brad Wright and co have any grasp at all on what we are trying to tell him?”   I’m really trying to be fair to the guy,  he knows by now (re his mail bag) what we are saying, and we have heard some of his responses, but I’m still wondering if he really understands.  

 This, I believe is where he has made his most terrible and unforgivable mistake.  When we first met Daniel Jackson, we knew next to nothing about him, we were allowed to connect with his wonder, or awe, or amazement, which ever way you want to look at it and follow his journey.   Does Brad Wright honestly believe that we could take a character as odious as Jonas into our hearts as we did Daniel Jackson?  Sorry Brad, but for me, never ,never, never, not in a million years mate.  I choose who to like and who not to like, I didn’t know anything about Daniel Jackson at the beginning, I couldn’t judge him as I had nothing to judge him on, so I was willing to stick around and find out. 

Jonas on the other hand appears straight out of the gate as someone I would never care to pass  the time of day with, I know Mr Wright thinks this is unfair of me, and all the others, who feel the same, but why was he written like this?  If there was a need for a new character, why weren’t we given a little leeway and granted the intelligence to make up our own minds?   I think I may have answered my own question there as Brad Wright and co. clearly  don’t credit any fans with having and ounce of common sense.   

Was Jonas always written as the replacement for Daniel?  If I look closely, and take the story at face value, not as Daniel’s departure, but as just another episode, leaving out the Jonas taking refuge on earth ending and Daniel choosing another path, then I can see it better.  Now I can understand that Jonas was always supposed to be seen as the traitor and coward he appears to be.  Was Robert C Cooper aware when he first penned the character of Quinn that he was creating the replacement for Daniel Jackson on Sg1?  Was it only later during casting and filming that Brad Wright jumped on a chance to exchange Shanks with some suitable “eye candy” in the form of Nemec?  Maybe he’s still so upset with us because he can’t see the difference.

This however makes me angrier still, as if this *is* the case, then when Michael Shanks told Brad Wright of his discontent and determination to leave, he not only didn’t think highly enough of the character to upgrade a few things, but added insult to injury by not writing a believable story to cover his departure,  just took one already in the pipeline, gave it a few tweaks and told us and him to “put up or shut up”.

 If Brad Wright believes that he is doing us a favour by putting a new character into a show just to bring back the sense of wonder that we all want, why didn’t he let Daniel have his sense of wonder back?  Mine has never gone away, why did his?  Why was Daniel allowed to become so jaded and cynical towards the end of season 5?  We were made painfully aware of this by his comments to Jack in the final lines of Menace.  I felt that those comments were partly introspective, spoken not only in frustration with Jack’s solution to the problem but also in condemnation over his own inability to communicate with the android or maybe Mr Wright himself. 

The more I hear from Brad Wright and co., the more disappointed I become, first the character of Daniel is not important, then the internet fans don’t matter, (if we are so unimportant, why do some of his own staff spend so much time here assuring everyone that everything is OK?)   Then the fans who write to him are being beastly, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

The only thing I can think of is that Mr Wright and co are having such good fun themselves that they have forgotten we are here and that they are meant to be entertaining us.

 Behind my workroom door is a plaque which says “Happiness is a perfume you can’t pour on others without getting a little on yourself “ 

What a pity it isn’t on Brad Wright’s desk.

By Ellie

(c) Ellie, 2001.  All rights recognised.  No copyright infringement intended.