I've often opined that I wished Blond Doctor Weir would've continued the role, as I've always been been annoyed by Tori Higginson as an actress, ever since seeing her in TekWar (Years before I saw her in Stargate). I've recently finished SG1 rewatch, and am now at episode 2.7 of Atlantis, and I'm actually pretty impressed with Doctor Weir, she's tough, she knows how to deliver a threat like Janeway, but, she's not nearly as unpredictable and split personality. I think I'll rewatch Tek War when I finish SG:Atlantis, to see if I can find a new appreciation for Tori (I plan to rewatch Quantum Leap soon, too, to see if I can mange to not hate Scott Bakula as Sam Beckett, after recently rewatching ENT and learning not to hate Captain Archer nearly as much)
I always wondered if Atlantis would have been a little better with Jessica Steen playing Dr. Weir. Tori Higginson did grow on me after awhile but her character didn't seem to have that much to do.
I loved Elizabeth Weir, and the show just never felt the same after she left. She got to a point where her leader role didn't serve a huge purpose, but I still enjoyed having her around. She kind of like the "mom" of the whole expedition.
I really wish they would've kept her as well. I agree the writers should have kept her more in mind and given her more to do, but as with Hammond her position on the base is to spout expository dialogue and send the team on their missions. Trying to "fix" it by replacing her with Carter didn't help any, as she was barely there. They had started to get it right with Woolsey, but it was just too late by then. Ditto with the good Doctor Beckett. Just too many cast changes does not breed confidence in a show. Among the many problems in this series that couldn't be remedied... Mark
I was glad to see her go. By the end of season three she was nothing more than a utility-character, a plot device that could do or say whatever the plot required, even if it did completely contradict her earlier stances. It was particularly frustrating to watch her flop flop from a humanitarian, to someone who orders torture based on next to no evidence... and back again.
Ah, so she does become a split personality like Janeway afterall? Bummer...Her characterization has been pretty consistent up through these first few S2 episodes.
I liked Weir. For me the point that she left was the point at which the series went bad. Not entirely based on her absence, but at the same time.
Season 3 wasn't exactly the best season of the show anyway, but I agree getting rid of Weir didn't improve anything. They replaced her with Carter, who was used even less in season 4 than Weir was in any given season.
Wow I feel like I watched a completely different show than you all. Tori Higginson is my benchmark for bad acting. She seems to be completely at a loss for most of her lines and the scripts seem to reflect that. Weir (quietly): We should do this. Shepherd: We can't do that because blah blah blah we should do this instead. Weir: Okay. That was in just about every episode. Sometimes more than once. It was such a shock when Carter took over, actual facial expressions and liveliness of lines delivery. I did feel some pangs over Weir's fate, but it wasn't thanks to the acting.
Well in my first post, I did declare I always had a problem with her since Tek War. But, S1 and early S2 Weir, did have her own mind, and she was quite forceful, and I think she mostly delivered her lines well. Now that I'm up to the end S2, yea, I see she is going back downhill.
I've only watched SG:A through once. With Trek I just about always end up liking people I'm meh or bleh about more on rewatches so who knows.. maybe I'll see it.
I'm not saying Tori Higginson's portrayal didn't grow on me, but I think I preferred Jessica Steen's portrayal of the Character. Though I think perhaps the episode "Sunday" when they killed Beckett off was the turning point for the show. From memory the fans reacted badly to the killing of Dr. Beckett, so much so that they had to bring the character back.
Sunday made me cry, so I thought it very good. Done well, the heroism of the everyday commitment. I was spoiler free when I watched it so it was quite a shock. Bringing him back was a shock too! The clone thing was explored well I thought.
I disagree it was done poorly. It could possibly have worked better as an everday heroism moment if the exploding tumour had gone off, whilst Beckett was still operating. Rather than having been removed and handed over to the bomb tech and Beckett walking away.
^^ You realize that you attempted to explain how best to handle a character's death due to an exploding tumor. No amount of when and where he was when the tumor exploded will negate the fact that it was an EXPLODING TUMOR. That single moment ruined all credibility for that show for me. I couldn't feel anything for Beckett's death because of how stupid he died, and the preview for his return was even more stupid ("You won't believe the last 5 seconds of next week's show!" and then they showed it). A lot of bad decisions were made in the production of that show.
Oh I agree, it was a terrible plot device they used. It still doesn't mean they couldn't have done something vetter with the plot device.
While I liked Dr. Weir, I would generally say that the show got steadily worse during Seasons 2 & 3, especially starting with the whole Michael mess at the end of Season 2. I thought Seasons 4 & 5 were much better, if only because they seemed to finally rediscover a balance between the characters and started using Teyla again.