From day one there was no I.  In Children of the Gods (the pilot movie) onward there was a coming together of disparate individuals that, by the end of the second episode, formed a team. They moved through their paces wonderfully, exhibited bits and parts of themselves so that we got to know them as individuals and as a group. And what an exceptional group they were. 

Each so different yet sharing the common goal of finding ways to defeat their greatest nemesis, the Goa’uld, while discovering allies and still more enemies along the way. Acting always with a core humanity that made them the best possible representatives for their world. Each fulfilled a function within the whole that made them stronger as a whole than they were apart. Each function was a necessary element to the whole and when one element was missing the whole was fractured.

A key element to the success of the team, in my estimation, was the way in which each strength and weakness was counterbalanced by the others. Each area of expertise, as well as the common goodness of each as human beings, filled a niche in times of need that led to success. By knowing those strengths and weaknesses in each other, the balance was achieved and held for three seasons.

And then the balance slipped. 

From the beginning of season four onward, the balance was off - at least to me. The things that had made the team so strong were undermined and, with some notable exceptions, were never fully retrieved.  The cohesion slipped, there were far too many I’s and not nearly enough we’s. Without the we’s, there was no team, without the team...there was just four people on the screen who bore the faces and names of people we knew, but which many began to suspect had been replaced during the nine days between Nemesis and Small Victories with pod people, evil clones, or look-alike’s from Holly-weird. Those weren’t the people we knew. It was a very long time until they began acting as if they were. We started to breathe again, started believing they were back and bad as ever...

Until they weren’t again.

The characterization, again my opinion, has been uneven and in some cases downright out of character to the people we came to know so consistently in the first three seasons. Brief flashes do not consistency make. Without consistency the characters become a strange mix of I’s and no longer the team we’ve come to know. I miss that part most. 

I came to this show as a result of seeing this team/family work and work well. I liked what I saw and wanted more, and was never disappointed.

Until the pods broke and the I’s had it - and I’m not so sure I haven’t had it at this point. In some very important ways this is no longer the show I knew and loved. Whatever the core problem is, something changed, the team changed, and in the words of Daniel Jackson, I’m not so sure we can ‘get it back’. 

I hope we can.

JayEm

(c) 2002 JayEm.  All rights recognised.  No copyright infringement intended.