Where should Stargate go now?

[gturner]

^ No, not till I was commenting.

That was actually all made up on the fly.

Just after I commented, I thought that maybe instead of a gate taking you to any other gate, giving everyone a home gate and a way to gate directly home, perhaps the system is connected in a more complicated or persnickety manner, so sometimes the characters have to try a bunch of jumps to avoid returning to a particularly troublesome station, to get them to a gate that would take them home. (Stargate played with that a few times).

[Temis the Vorta]

RoJoHen wrote:

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The first thing I would do is get rid of all the Medieval villages.

Damn, I knew I was forgetting something important!

Re, the workings of the stargates, sure, that can be modified. I'm sure the fine tradition of having the gates break down when the story demands it can be continued.

But the details of how the gates work is not what I think of as the premise. The premise is their existence and that they threaten Earth because there are critters out there who are powerful and use humans as hosts. So what do people do about that?

But mixing gates and ships sounds like it would increase the production budget substantially, and might be a nonstarter on that basis. Maybe save the ships and shuttles for stories where they are essential, and to provide some different settings.

[RoJoHen]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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But the details of how the gates work is not what I think of as the premise. The premise is their existence and that they threaten Earth because there are critters out there who are powerful and use humans as hosts. So what do people do about that?

So would you use the original movie as a starting point, or would you re-do that as well?

[Temis the Vorta]

Since the original movie has a different take on Ra - an alien masquerading as human but not using one as a host - I figure the series and movie premises have already diverged in a crucial way. I'd take the pilot episode of SG-1 as the premise but recast or change the characters.

It would be fun to give some of the original actors new roles. Christopher Judge as a Goa'uld, Colin Cunningham as a somewhat slippery Tok'ra...

[gturner]

The premise is their existence and that they threaten Earth because there are critters out there who are powerful and use humans as hosts. So what do people do about that?

^ Travel through the galaxy putting up wanted posters for Dick Cheney?

There were several layers to Stargate, the Ancients who built the network (for reasons never entirely clear), their contemporaries who mostly disappeared (the Nox, Asguard, and the never-used Furlings), and the parasite Go'uld who came later. Then they added the Ori and the Wraith.

The Furlings are still an unexplored element, and I once roughed out an idea for them where the SG-1 team travels back in time to discover that Furling agricultural scientists were modifying a primitive parasite (the Go'uld) so they could control farm animals (space cows!) so the animals wouldn't need Furling supervision in harsh farming environments and would be immune to disease and resistant to injury. But the ag scientists didn't want to have to train each new symbiant, so they added genetic memory. To guard against criminal use or out-of-control parasites, the scientists made sure that Go'uld couldn't survive very long in a Furling host. Then there was a lab accident... The Go'uld quickly took over important Furlings and destroyed their society with Furling weapons, and then had to find compatible hosts. Most of the lab-enhanced Go'uld died, which was why their race was dying when they first encountered Earth.

But that would get you a stand-alone movie, not a series.

[sojourner]

Get rid of the Ancients as humans. It made things way to earth centric. Leave the gate builders as a long dead race of mystery.

[JarodRussell]

Starkers wrote:

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I liked SG:U, they probably should have spent the first season getting to where they'd got by the middle of the second. Really the first season should have ended with them

finding the bridge

.

Much as I liked all the SG shows, I'm not sure it should really come back in any format. I wouldn't want to see it rebooted, and all that leaves is returning to the universe and they'd just be doing more of the same.

The first fucking episode should have ended with them finding the bridge.

[Temis the Vorta]

There were several layers to Stargate

I'm ignoring all the layers that I don't see the potential in, and just zeroing in on the few elements than I like best. The Furlings, for instance. Why even bother with them.

You can't do a reboot if you try to keep too much. The key is to simplify as much as possible without tossing out everything.

[The Grim Ghost]

#1 get rid of the entire idea of the Ancients and the Goa'uld. Reboot the whole series and forget the old continuity.

The Stargate movie isn't well known or particularly popular, there is absolutely no reason to stick with that stuff.

The premise is simple. The military finds a stargate of unknown alien origin. There is no need to go into the origins of it, at least not for a long, long time.

Our heroes go through every week to explore strange new worlds. Worlds with more variety than just reflections of ancient earth cultures (that's fine occasionally, but there was way too much of it).

More truly alien planets and beings to encounter, not just ancient humans and forehead aliens.

Ditch all of the stuff about humans getting starships. The humans should have the Stargate and the SMALL amounts of advanced tech they can occasionally get their hands on.

And keep the sense of fun. SGU lost too much of that. Perhaps SG1 was maybe a little TOO wacky at times. There is a balance to be found there.

There need to be at least a few likeable characters. That was another issue on SGU, I didn't hate it like some did, but it was trying to be way too grimdark and 99% of the characters were just unlikeable jerks.

Anyway that's my two cents.

[gturner]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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I'm ignoring all the layers that I don't see the potential in, and just zeroing in on the few elements than I like best. The Furlings, for instance. Why even bother with them.

You can't do a reboot if you try to keep too much. The key is to simplify as much as possible without tossing out everything.

Well, a reboot that would maintain continuity would be a bit tricky, but doable, perhaps by finding a non-overlapping set of gate addresses that the System Lords didn't know about (but other Go'uld did), or perhaps by finding a supergate to a galaxy that wasn't trashed with Ori or Wraith.

The only reason I'm suggesting that they maintain continuity is that some fans get very hung up on such things, and they'll need all the viewers they can get.

The Grim Ghost wrote:

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The premise is simple. The military finds a stargate of unknown alien origin. There is no need to go into the origins of it, at least not for a long, long time.

How about finding a Stargate system in another galaxy that wasn't built by Ancients, perhaps with the premise that the Ancients must've copied from someone else?

Our heroes go through every week to explore strange new worlds. Worlds with more variety than just reflections of ancient earth cultures (that's fine occasionally, but there was way too much of it).

More truly alien planets and beings to encounter, not just ancient humans and forehead aliens.

Oddly, Amanda Tapping is doing better than Stargate in that regard with her Sanctuary series that takes place entirely on Earth.

I think the only mythological Earth figures who didn't end up being Stargate aliens were Paul Bunyon, Santa Claus, and the Jolly Green Giant, even though delivering toys around the world in one night would have to involve Asgard stealth and beaming technology.

It sounds like we're poking at a Stargate Atlantis without the Ancients or the Wraith or the whole "cut off from home" angle, just explorers out exploring and encountering a variety of threats.

[DWF]

The Furlings were mentioned a mere three times in ten years, it's amazing how much interest there is in them. But in the end only a reboot will work or a minor reboot set years in the future. Strangely enough Stargate Infinity's concept might be one of the better ways to go.

[Agent Richard07]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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...I wouldn't want them to flat out imitate nuBSG. Stargate needs its own character.

SGU did eventually find it's own voice, but unfortunately it was too late. It had already been cancelled.

sojourner wrote:

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Get rid of the Ancients as humans. It made things way to earth centric. Leave the gate builders as a long dead race of mystery.

I actually liked that development. Even before that was revealed, I thought it would have been nice if they discovered that the stargates were built by humans from Atlantis.

[Ian Keldon]

I still think they should retcon Continuum to allow for the Third Reich to have experimented with the Gate and set up an off-world colony that not only survived, but thrived. Other humans are the worst monsters.

[Temis the Vorta]

Hah! Now we're talking, let's have the Nazis be the villains.

Ever better, Nazi Goa'ulds. They team up to conquer the universe!

The series would have that wonderful Indiana Jones retro feel to it.

[Skywalker]

Reboot the whole thing from scratch, even the events of the movie. Either do a loose remake of the movie as a two-hour pilot, or completely ignore it and go in an entirely different direction. My ideal "feel" for the show would be somewhere between the inane goofiness of SG-1 and the relentless moodiness of SGU.