As someone who's seen the first two seasons of AoS but never got back to it, and fairly enjoyed them, I'd certainly be curious to hear your thoughts. I probably should get back to them, I just haven't had the oomph, and right now I have a ton of other tv I could watch too... (eyes his unopened West Wing set).
The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough
- Thread starter tomalak301
- Start date
Well, more or less.
I'm not sure what the deal is in "Brain Storm," since in "Enemy at the Gate," we see the entire main SGC set is still in one piece, gateroom, control room, and briefing room. It's probably less that the set wasn't available than that they didn't want to do a lot of set up and hire a lot of extras for a five-second gag, so they just set up in the smallest corner possible.
The SGC was converted into Icarus Base for the SGU pilot. I'm not sure what happened to the set after that, or how quickly it was dismantled. I'm pretty sure we never saw it again, and all the other Milky Way scenes with Stargates used one of the portable props (and scenes that would have been set in the SGC during SGA were set in the Pentagon.
The SGC was converted into Icarus Base for the SGU pilot. I'm not sure what happened to the set after that, or how quickly it was dismantled. I'm pretty sure we never saw it again, and all the other Milky Way scenes with Stargates used one of the portable props (and scenes that would have been set in the SGC during SGA were set in the Pentagon.
Well I 3rd the nomination for the AoS thread...interested to see how a c9nde set viewing is compared to long term
Infection
I think this is what "Whispers" wanted to be but failed. This also had the return of Todd, which automatically makes it better. The reason I compare this to Whispers is because the Wraith here who were infected (And I too didn't know those helmet things came off) were creepy as hell. I also liked how we do see actions of consequences in terms of Keller's treatment having a nasty side effect. I'm glad they let Todd go at the end as well. I'm not sure if we will see Todd again in the final 3 episodes, but I'm really glad they had a Wraith recurring character. Todd was great in all his episodes.
I think this is what "Whispers" wanted to be but failed. This also had the return of Todd, which automatically makes it better. The reason I compare this to Whispers is because the Wraith here who were infected (And I too didn't know those helmet things came off) were creepy as hell. I also liked how we do see actions of consequences in terms of Keller's treatment having a nasty side effect. I'm glad they let Todd go at the end as well. I'm not sure if we will see Todd again in the final 3 episodes, but I'm really glad they had a Wraith recurring character. Todd was great in all his episodes.
I’m surprised we didn’t find out earlier. If there is one criticism I have with the Wraith, when all is said and done I wish we found out more about them. They were pretty cool for this series but they interspersed a few things about their culture and I wish it was a whole lot more.
Me too, I could have sworn they did that back in the first season.
They took down the sets right away to make room for Universe. I think they even filmed things out of order to make it work.
Plus...
I don't remember Universe that well but they seemed to explain this by moving the Stargate to the Pentagon which makes no sense at all to me.
Did they move the stargate? I don't remember that. I'm doing a rewatch of SGU now in preparation for tomalak's rewatch. We see the stargate on Icarus base. And the crew of Destiny communicate via the stone with the Pentagon. But I don't think we see the Earth stargate at least not in S1, I don't think. I could be wrong.
We never saw the Stargate on Earth on the show, aside from the Daniel Jackson "Stargate 101" video, which was probably a greenscreened stock photo. After the SGU pilot, we also never saw the spinning SG-1 gate again, suggesting the whole thing was dismantled pretty quickly. The other times we saw Milky Way stargates, they were CGI or the portable gate.
Part of that was probably some degree of hedging on the part of the producers; when SGU was being made, the additional DVD movies were still on the table, and "Extinction," the first Atlantis movie, was going to start with Atlantis having been moved to the moon, and the IOA deciding to mothball the Giza gate and the Cheyenne Mountain facility and move the SGC to Atlantis permanently (before the plot kicked in and they had to move the city back to Pegasus). They probably didn't want to establish anything concrete about what was going on on Earth with the stargate until they started making those movies and knew when they'd be set in relation to everything else.
Part of that was probably some degree of hedging on the part of the producers; when SGU was being made, the additional DVD movies were still on the table, and "Extinction," the first Atlantis movie, was going to start with Atlantis having been moved to the moon, and the IOA deciding to mothball the Giza gate and the Cheyenne Mountain facility and move the SGC to Atlantis permanently (before the plot kicked in and they had to move the city back to Pegasus). They probably didn't want to establish anything concrete about what was going on on Earth with the stargate until they started making those movies and knew when they'd be set in relation to everything else.
I know @tomalak301 is almost done with SGA so I've started re-watching SGU to prepare for when he reviews SGU.
I will say it is better than I remembered. But it is definitely different than SG1 and SGA. It is basically Stargate's NuBSG. It's more gritty and more mature. It has more interpersonal conflict and focused more on character drama and survival. It is entirely serialized. There are definitely a lot of twists that happen to the characters. It does not have the easy fun factor or comedy of SG1 and SGA. It does not have the campy aliens of SG1 or SGA either. But like NuBSG, It has some tense drama and tense character development. It also adds a lot to the Stargate mythos. The Destiny itself is remarkable. And we learn more about what the Ancients used it for which is super cool. The revelation is very cool. There are also some really well done stories like "Time" and "Twin Destinies". I still prefer SG1 and SGA but it is a shame that it only lasted 2 seasons. While it is not everybody's cup of tea, I think season 2 was starting to find its legs so to speak, and in my opinion, it might have become something great if it had been able to continue.
I will say it is better than I remembered. But it is definitely different than SG1 and SGA. It is basically Stargate's NuBSG. It's more gritty and more mature. It has more interpersonal conflict and focused more on character drama and survival. It is entirely serialized. There are definitely a lot of twists that happen to the characters. It does not have the easy fun factor or comedy of SG1 and SGA. It does not have the campy aliens of SG1 or SGA either. But like NuBSG, It has some tense drama and tense character development. It also adds a lot to the Stargate mythos. The Destiny itself is remarkable. And we learn more about what the Ancients used it for which is super cool. The revelation is very cool. There are also some really well done stories like "Time" and "Twin Destinies". I still prefer SG1 and SGA but it is a shame that it only lasted 2 seasons. While it is not everybody's cup of tea, I think season 2 was starting to find its legs so to speak, and in my opinion, it might have become something great if it had been able to continue.
Identity
It was a decent episode, but I don't remember the Ancient Device actually switching bodies. When it was first used, Daniel and Vala just entered the bodies of the two villagers. On the second time, Vala used the device to enter into Daniel, but Daniel wasn't in Vala. It seemed like a continuity error in this episode that Keller and Casol actually switched. Other than that, I enjoyed it for being a Keller episode. The stabbing of Zalenka was pretty shocking. Considering it is the end of the series I was expecting him to die. Glad that didn't happen. Honestly though, there have been a few episodes in the back half that have just been ok and I don't really have much to add. It sounds like the next two episodes will be exciting (One being the finale) so hopefully Atlantis ends with a bang.
It was a decent episode, but I don't remember the Ancient Device actually switching bodies. When it was first used, Daniel and Vala just entered the bodies of the two villagers. On the second time, Vala used the device to enter into Daniel, but Daniel wasn't in Vala. It seemed like a continuity error in this episode that Keller and Casol actually switched. Other than that, I enjoyed it for being a Keller episode. The stabbing of Zalenka was pretty shocking. Considering it is the end of the series I was expecting him to die. Glad that didn't happen. Honestly though, there have been a few episodes in the back half that have just been ok and I don't really have much to add. It sounds like the next two episodes will be exciting (One being the finale) so hopefully Atlantis ends with a bang.
I don't think there was any continuity error. The device works by swapping minds into the different bodies. Yes, we can assume that Daniel was in Vala's body, we just never saw Vala's body in the Ori galaxy since the episode was focused on what Vala (in Daniel's body) had to say, warning the SGC about the Ori Crusade.
In this SGA episode, it worked the same way. Their minds swapped bodies. So Keller's mind was in Casol's body and Casol's mind was in Keller's body. That's exactly what we saw in the episode. But keep in mind that the show will sometimes show us the body of the person talking, not the actual body to make it less confusing to the audience who is really talking. So when we see Keller's body on the planet, it was actually Keller's mind in Casol's body. We just see Keller to indicate who is really talking. The bodies did not switch, just the minds. Plus, it gives the main cast more screen time. Hopefully, I am not making it more confusing.
It was the Quantum Leap effect. I was just confused on the whole switching of minds thing I guess. When we see Daniel and Vala use it the first time, they were unconscious. When we saw Jack and Joe sharing the device, it was mainly just memories. I think this was the first time we saw both minds in different bodies, which might be construed as a retcon rather than continuity error.
By the way, I appreciate you watching the series with me, and everyone else who has been doing this by memory, I'm impressed. There is so much to take in on these series there are episodes I watched in early April I don't remember.
Yes, you are right. Retcon is probably the best way to describe it since "both minds changing bodies" is how the stones are shown to work from here on out.
Uh... there's an incompatibility in the Ori and Ancient versions of the Stones, so it only allows one-way connections. Using Ancient stones on both ends of the connection causes a two-way swap.
No you and David are probably right, I only watched Universe once and just assumed things because they did take the sets down, but probably just saved them in a storage unit.
Right. Thanks. I forgot about that.
Similar threads
