The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

[bigdaddy]

I am wondering how they are going to use Sam this season.

Poorly.

There is a lot you should look up if you can. Amanda Tapping did not want to do Atlantis. She was forced to by her contract. If I can find the Gateworld interview it's amazing she is being polite and professional but it's very clear she wanted to move on after SG1 was canceled.

Meanwhile Higginson moved to Canada because she thought she would be on this franchise for 6+ years and she gets completely fucked over. The issue with Jessica Steen's Weir was she didn't want to move / have a long term thing. Why she was hired then makes no sense to me, but then I question a lot of Stargate's motives.

At least you are enjoying the show a lot more than I did by this point.

 

[The Wormhole]

Poorly.

There is a lot you should look up if you can. Amanda Tapping did not want to do Atlantis. She was forced to by her contract. If I can find the Gateworld interview it's amazing she is being polite and professional but it's very clear she wanted to move on after SG1 was canceled.

Also, the SG-1 movies were being filmed at the same time as season 4 of Atlantis, which created limitations on how much time Amanda Tapping could spend on Atlantis to begin with. Really, during Carter's term running Atlantis she basically felt like Weir-Lite.

 

[bigdaddy]

Also, the SG-1 movies were being filmed at the same time as season 4 of Atlantis, which created limitations on how much time Amanda Tapping could spend on Atlantis to begin with. Really, during Carter's term running Atlantis she basically felt like Weir-Lite.

Which is in some spoiler code weeks ago when I had issues with Sam and Pete and what the writers did to Sam's character. She felt off in seasons 7-8. In Atlantis it's the same way. Like they wanted Weir, but played by Sam. The whole thing is weird.

I'll put this is spoiler, even though it's obviously not, it's common sense.

Spoiler

At least Sam is someone the writers won't needlessly kill off! [/spoilers]

 

[tomalak301]

Which is in some spoiler code weeks ago when I had issues with Sam and Pete and what the writers did to Sam's character. She felt off in seasons 7-8. In Atlantis it's the same way. Like they wanted Weir, but played by Sam. The whole thing is weird.

I'll put this is spoiler, even though it's obviously not, it's common sense.

Spoiler

At least Sam is someone the writers won't needlessly kill off! [/spoilers]

I went ahead and took a risk with your spoiler and I would have been pissed off if they had brought Carter back only to kill her off.

There is a lot you should look up if you can. Amanda Tapping did not want to do Atlantis. She was forced to by her contract. If I can find the Gateworld interview it's amazing she is being polite and professional but it's very clear she wanted to move on after SG1 was canceled.

That's interesting. I thought if a series got cancelled the contract would also get cancelled. Maybe after I finish Season 4 I will see if I can find that interview. I might even watch some various interviews on youtube with the cast of both series when I'm done with Atlantis. I really haven't see much hoopla on Universe.

 

[David cgc]

There is a lot you should look up if you can. Amanda Tapping did not want to do Atlantis. She was forced to by her contract. If I can find the Gateworld interview it's amazing she is being polite and professional but it's very clear she wanted to move on after SG1 was canceled.

Meanwhile Higginson moved to Canada because she thought she would be on this franchise for 6+ years and she gets completely fucked over. The issue with Jessica Steen's Weir was she didn't want to move / have a long term thing. Why she was hired then makes no sense to me, but then I question a lot of Stargate's motives.

For the longest time, I had trouble remembering Carter had even been on Atlantis. Worf on DS9, this wasn't.

Thanks to the TBBS Stargate revival, I tracked down the Big Finish Stargate audiodramas and have been listening through them. One of the interesting things was for a story featuring Weir, there was an interview with Higginson recorded around the beginning of Atlantis season 5.

Spoiler: Atlantis Season 5

At one point, the interviewer asks if Higginson is coming back to the show for any guest appearances, and she hedges for a while, then decides the release date for the CD is far enough in the future that everyone will already know the answer, so she talks a bit about why she decided not to come back for "Ghost in the Machine." I can transcribe the interview if anyone's curious, but what I took from it was that Higginson wanted some kind of conclusive transition for Weir, either killing her off, or setting her up with a new status quo that may or may not allow for recurring appearances (like what ended up happening with Beckett), and since "Ghost in the Machine" didn't do that, and left Weir in yet another ambiguous off-screen state where she may or may not come back in any number of possible forms, she decided it wasn't worth rearranging her schedule to keep the character dangling on the end of a string.

 

[Samurai8472]

Sucks about what happened to Tori Higginson. I read an article where she wasn't sure if she was needing to stay in her apartment or plan on moving out

https://web.archive.org/web/20170820093839/http://gateworld.net/interviews/leaders_legacy2.shtml

I think that my character -- we never found a place for her. I think everybody can take a bit of responsibility for that, obviously myself included. So yeah, I imagine that was it. They thought "here's this woman character that we're not really able to explore to her full right."

So many of the episodes I was just there in the background, which wasn't challenging for me. And I think they're going "Why are we paying this chick when she's only in for a couple of scenes?" You know what I mean? It made a lot of sense, I thought. That's how I hypothesize it. It makes a lot of sense for me.

See bolded part

But I found out, because I kept going to them, I kept going up to them saying 'I have a feeling my character, you’re not doing anything with me, and you guys have me for six years and I don't want to, you know, be here not doing anything. Let me know what's going on.' And they kept saying "no, no, no, it's great. We love you. We love you. Things can be great.' And I said 'well, if that’s the case, can we do something with her' and they kept reassuring me that nothing - and the very last day of filming season three, as I finished filming the last scene on the last day I was called up to the office and was told that my character was going to become recurring if I chose to be. So, I thought that was not very, um, dignified, way to deal with it, and I was a bit surprised. So I was— so my reaction was one of yeah, I was a little bit surprised. I was a little bit upset by how it was dealt with. But I wasn't upset at the decision because I understood it. I kept going to them saying 'I get, I get what's going to happen, just give me some notice so I can pack my apartment and move back to L.A. Really. So I wasn't upset with the decision. I was upset with how it was handled."

Also, the SG-1 movies were being filmed at the same time as season 4 of Atlantis, which created limitations on how much time Amanda Tapping could spend on Atlantis to begin with. Really, during Carter's term running Atlantis she basically felt like Weir-Lite.

Agreed. It really hurt the character of Samantha Carter because she was barely in the season she was brought in for.

"Where Carter?"

"Oh I don't know. Let's go hunt Wraith"

Spoiler: Season 5

When the brought in Woosley they were just getting back into normalcy with a new commander/actor

 

[bigdaddy]

That's interesting. I thought if a series got cancelled the contract would also get cancelled. Maybe after I finish Season 4 I will see if I can find that interview. I might even watch some various interviews on youtube with the cast of both series when I'm done with Atlantis. I really haven't see much hoopla on Universe.

She actually gave the interview before season 4 started, so if I can find it there aren't any spoilers besides Sam being on Atlantis.

In the interview she talks about how her and someone else had 11th season contracts already worked out. In her contract it had a clause saying that she could be used for a different show. She wanted to move on but the creators used that clause. It's really a fun interview because she is professional but not giving any fucks. What would she do get fired from a show she didn't want to do in the first place?

David, that spoiler with Higginson is amazing because I remember how PISSED she was when she was pushed to the side and she still was a class act.

I watched a couple season 1 episodes on Hulu and Sam is in the cast picture used for the show. Like she is in literally 13% of the episodes and they used her in the picture.

 

[tomalak301]

Quite the contrary, Teyla actually factors in quite importantly in season 4's arc.

That's good news.

 

[tomalak301]

In the interview she talks about how her and someone else had 11th season contracts already worked out. In her contract it had a clause saying that she could be used for a different show. She wanted to move on but the creators used that clause. It's really a fun interview because she is professional but not giving any fucks. What would she do get fired from a show she didn't want to do in the first place?

I guess that's the danger of being a part of a franchise. I wonder if something similar is happening now with the Arrowverse on the CW. You have these actors who have been part of this for years, they want to move on but because of a fine print in their contract, they are almost tied to the show indefinitely.

 

[Samurai8472]

I guess that's the danger of being a part of a franchise. I wonder if something similar is happening now with the Arrowverse on the CW. You have these actors who have been part of this for years, they want to move on but because of a fine print in their contract, they are almost tied to the show indefinitely.

Not a new occurrance. ALOT of actors have been in that situation. They want to leave but they're contracted for one or two more years

Pierce Brosnan wanted to leave Remington Steele for James Bond in the 80's but an eleventh hour negotiation had him contractually obligated to do another season.

 

[Jayson1]

I have a feeling they didn't want to get ride of Weir but didn't know what to do with her either because being a great negotiator doesn't come in handy with aliens like the Wraith who are basically part monsters most of the time. Also the show is a action show so that lends to you wanting more of a military person in charge I think because nobody wants to see the peaceful solution work. You want your action heroes out their kicking butt. With Carter being in the Air Force I assume they felt that would make more sense.


Jason

 

[JD]

So, @tomalak301, now that you are getting close to the end of Stargate, do you know what you're going to watch next?

 

[Jayson1]

I was mentioning that as well but lets not forget we still got Universe to re-experience!

Jason

 

[tomalak301]

So, @tomalak301, now that you are getting close to the end of Stargate, do you know what you're going to watch next?

Not really. I'm not going to do another review thread for a while, if at all. Maybe I might rewatch Star Trek Discovery, if Season 3 does premiere this year it will be a good refresher. I was also thinking maybe Agents of Shield but I'm not sure yet.

 

[Jayson1]

You can't quit doing review threads now! The people have spoken. This is your thing now! The key to trekbbs stardom. Soon you will be able to post anything you want anywhere you want because the mods respect board royalty.


Jason

 

[JD]

Not really. I'm not going to do another review thread for a while, if at all.

That's understandable.

 

[Farscape One]

You could always do SUPERNATURAL. Given how quickly you are going with the STARGATE shows, you could very well finish just before they air the final 7 episodes.

(I would LOVE for someone to do a rewatch thread of this. Possibly not a surprise to some, but I've got all these episodes in my head, too.)

 

[USS Firefly]

That's understandable.

No It's not!
He can't cut us of like that.

Not really. I'm not going to do another review thread for a while, if at all. Maybe I might rewatch Star Trek Discovery, if Season 3 does premiere this year it will be a good refresher. I was also thinking maybe Agents of Shield but I'm not sure yet.

Discovery can wait.
I would prefer AOS or what do you think of Continuum?

 

[tomalak301]

Discovery can wait.
I would prefer AOS or what do you think of Continuum?

I’m assuming you are talking about the movie because reading your recommendation I was thinking about the other shows airing on sci fi at the time, like Warehouse 13, Eureka, Sanctuary, Dark Matter and Continuum the series.

 

[USS Firefly]

I’m assuming you are talking about the movie because reading your recommendation I was thinking about the other shows airing on sci fi at the time, like Wherehouse 13, Eureka, Sanctuary, Dark Matter and Continuum the series.

I am sorry, I meant Continuum the series