Stargate Continuum - Grading and Discussion

[Borg451]

So what did everyone think?

I liked it. tho seemed too episode like for a movie. Also reminded me of Moebius and The Quantum Mirror episodes too much..

it could of served to be longer, there needed to be more to the end then flying to russia and finding an ancient device.

also who else thought the 'shifting' of the timeline was stupid.. people fading away like in Back to the Future... things either happen or they dont.. not half half.

anyway discuss..

[Xerxus]

I don't actually think it was an Ancient Device.
Subspace beacons are entirely doable with current technology.

I liked it a lot. I loved seeing all the system-lords again. Brings back all the memories of 8 years of SG1.

I feel like they should have mentioned the Asgards or whatever, but I guess that they've been destroyed by the Replicators and never became human form. Maybe they're all chilling with the Asurans (next highest level of technology? )

[backstept]

it's out already?

[auntiehill]

Rats. It's not out on DVD here until the 29th.

[SalvorHardin]

backstept wrote:

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it's out already?

Not officially... Some leaked dvd screener or something.

I just finished watching it.
It was nice,liked it more than Ark of truth. Though I guess I was expecting something a bit more... epic perhaps.

I was really sadened to see Hammond again, knowing Mr Davis passed away.

And it was also nice seeing all the familiar faces of the system Lords.
Kudos to Claudia Black who was gorgeous and acted well as the evil Qetesh.

That's about it, don't want to talk about the plot too much at this point.Have to dwell on it for a while and maybe see it again.

[Lindley]

Thought this wasn't out until the 29th.....

[backstept]

I think I'll wait and get it for my birthday

[Frodo Lives]

Just finished watching it, and... well, meh.

It was definitely a fun romp, cool to see all the System Lords again, the effects were a little patchy in some spots, amazing in others, Jack's presence amounted to sweet FA, and the ending was clearly rushed - and once again the SG crew are Aces at missed opportunities.

Did anyone else get really pissed when Vala/Qetesh betrayed Baal? Dammit! I wanted to see how his plan to take over the Earth would have worked! Him calling President Hayes on that cellphone was classic!

But, sadly, after that it degenerated into standard "Bwahahaha, wipe them out!" villain plan.

Oh, and when SG1 sees Hammond again: Very bittersweet. There's almost something there, almost like Desmond Llewellyn's last scene in The World Is Not Enough, but obviously not as poetic or thought out. Shame.

[AJBryant]

Frodo Lives wrote:

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Oh, and when SG1 sees Hammond again: Very bittersweet. There's almost something there, almost like Desmond Llewellyn's last scene in The World Is Not Enough, but obviously not as poetic or thought out. Shame.

Well, darn them for not knowing the guy was going to die.



Tony

[Rowan Sjet]

Sure, it wasn't Shakespeare.

But it was a fun romp through the Stargate lore. I did a little manly squee every time a familiar face showed up, I laughed out loud in several places and the story surprised and excited me. A definite step up from Ark of Truth.

[firehawk12]

I think I liked this better when it was called Moebius.

[Technobuilder]

I liked it pretty well over all.

It wasn't the best Stargate I've ever seen, but it was good and better than many of the things they've done recently.

The time travel plot actually makes sense, save for the disappearances, but when dealing with fictional sciences, you can't say with definite certainty for example that one thing would happen where as another thing would not.

For all we know, the reason that people were disappearing *seemingly* at random could've been caused by the changes to the timeline IF time can in "reality" only change through the expanison of a temporal shockwave. The wave would progagate, causing various changes at different moments UNTIL all of reality has shifted, in order to preserve the Law which states that energy is neither created or destroyed... blah, blah-blah, blah, blah...

You see where I'm going with this?

Not a deal-breaker here folks.

And no, this wasn't Moebius either.

[Frodo Lives]

AJBryant wrote:

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Well, darn them for not knowing the guy was going to die.



Tony

Hey, I'm not judging them or anything, as I know full well that the producers had no idea Davis would be leaving us so soon - but then again, I'm sure the Bond producers had no idea Llewellyn was going to be lost so soon at the time of The World Is Not Enough either. I was just commenting on the similarities. Sorry if I offended.

[firehawk12]

Technobuilder wrote:

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And no, this wasn't Moebius either.

I was being snarky as I watched the episode.
Honestly though, I always hated time travel stories because they are fairly pointless. They almost never have any REAL consequences (other than fishes in a pond, I suppose) and serve as little more than a tired SF cliche. They only work in movies because, well, a movie is a self contained story without continuity. Alternatively, they can serve as a premise for a brand new story based around the alternate timeline (a space man drops a laptop in the 20th century in Germany... let's do a series of stories where the Germans rule the world).

But never, never, never do they work on an established television show because you know right at the end, none of it will have mattered. Hell, this time there wasn't even a small 'gimme' at the end. At least in Moebius, they used the whole thing as a plot device to conveniently introduce another ZPM into the universe.

So, let's ignore the concept for the moment. As for the show itself, it was ultimately bloated with that tired science fiction exposition that I wish writers would get over. Landry's tirade about changing the timeline would have carried much more weight if there were actually more stakes. Imagine if Baal was not conveniently killed and given the opportunity to peacefully take over Earth. Would the President have authorized SG-1's plan to attack the Goa'uld then? Well, it doens't matter because that ethical quandry isn't addressed.

I swear, they should have just went the cheap route and made that woman that Mitchell talks to his wife instead of his neighbour, so that at least he would have had to consider the consequences of erasing his relationship with that woman (and perhaps his son). At least there would have been more impact, and more importantly, made Landry's speech more than just a tired, simple SF cliche.

I'm really mixed about this. On the one hand, I genuinely do miss SG1. On the other hand, they keep producing very, very poor scripts that feel like they were picked out of Gene Roddenberry's (or maybe George Lucas') trash bin.

Hell, they didn't even do the fanservice found in Moebius. For an expanded budget, all they could bring back were the Goa'uld System Lords? No Frasier? Bra'tac? Kawalsky (thanks daeana )? Instead we get glamour shots of the Arctic? Great.

I'm going to buy this if only because I want to have a complete SG-1 collection and I actually don't mind this model of production and distribution. If Whedon went this route with Serenity, we'd probably be on the 6th DVD by now.

Still, I can't help but think of this as a squandered opporunity for the SG franchise... and I'm in the stupid position of WANTING more SG-1 movies, but also realizing that in all likelihood, they will be as conservatively written as Continuum. So yeah, mixed feelings.

Oh, I shouldn't admit this, but there's a small part of me that believes that the alternate SG-1 from Moebius came back to Earth to pick up alternate Cam to have some fun adventures.

[Australis]

Well, I just watched it and enjoyed it a lot. Not Best Stargate Ever, but pretty good. I do agree with some of the points above, like if they'd allowed Baal to make a smooth takeover, that could have been pretty interesting, but it would also have been much longer.

Funny to think there was another, much older Cam Mitchell living on Earth all that time.

And I loved it when Baal stepped through the gate, full of bounce and swagger, to get a bullet to the head, and just as he died, thinking, "Shit, it's gone wrong..." After all he'd done, I liked that moment a lot.