The franchise was dead as soon as they used the word 'Atlantis' as far as I'm concerned. I don't mind space fantasies based on something on Earth that is tangible, like pyramids and pharaohs but an 18th century myth? Forget it.
I am not one of those people that celebrates the death of a show I don't like. There's no value in that. BUT... SGU was just so unbelievably dull, I am kind of glad that this... blockage... in the Stargate universe has gone. I'm not sure what the future will hold for the franchise, but I missed Stargate and wanted new Stargate, and this 'thing' of no value was on air masquerading as Stargate. I hope they realise they just went too far off course with this one.
18th century? I thought the story of Atlantis was from the ancient Greeks? As for the SGU cancellation I'm not surprised this is the channel that canceled Farscape, and Mystery Science Theater. Both BSG and SG are victims of diminishing returns the channel needs a new franchise for their next space show either that or revive a forgotten one that hasn't been played out.
I seriously doubt it's actually lost money for anyone once worldwide broadcast rights and DVD sales etc are factored in, but low profits kill a company's margins, which matters to them more than the actual dollar figure they make from it.
This is HORSESHIT! I've never been a Stargate fan, never watched the others, this show alone got me to test the waters of said universe for the first time, and now they pull this horse shit?! SyFy is fucking STUPID! I'm done with them! For good! Idiots! Total fucking idiots!
Please explain how they are "total fucking idiots" for declining to order a third season of a show when the ratings didn't justify a third season. As far as I can see, the only "idiot" move that Syfy made was moving the show to Tuesday night, instead of leaving it on Friday.
You would think so wouldn't you? From what Plato describes, it's a bit of Gibraltar. It's such a disappointment.
Stargate started out with Ancient Astronauts New-Age hooey (from the movie onwards). That's very much in the same vein as Atlantis. Where the Stargate writers went wrong is in presuming that just because the BSG writers were good at "dark, grown-up" drama, that they could imitate them successfully. But the Stargate writers just didn't have that level of talent, and the result was worse than just sticking with the fluffy level they were capable of handling. I could stomach SG:A mostly; SG:U was unwatchable. Someday I've love to see the entire franchise rebooted from the ground up, in the hands of better writers. The material has never really been mined for its full potential, not even in the early days of SG-1, when it was by far at its best.
Too bad, I was enjoying this one, despite its flaws. I never really watched Stargate before, aside from the movie. So the plus side is that SGU has got me watching the earlier series now...
The 2 biggest things affecting the ratings of this show were the slow pacing, and the 6 month wait between half seasons. Then you figure in the fact that Sy-Fy barley advertised the show at all. People wonder why the ratings were low. Sy-Fy as a channel/network is killing ANY chance these shows have and then sit back and let people say stuff like, "Well the show sucked, look at the rating". When you dont have a clue when the show will be back after a 4-6 month break in between half seasons its no wonder the ratings suck. Im not even talking a 6 month wait between actual seasons. Im talking half seasons. What the Fuck are the people at Sci-Fy smoking? But you have to lay a bit of the blame at the writers who are largely the same shit-assed writers who wrote the shit on SG:A. They took too long to develop any story. It seems like they took an idea that should have lasted 1 episode and stretched it out to 3-4 episodes. That not good writing, thats lazy...
The move to Tuesdays and the lack of advertising was a bad move and I say this as someone who thinks the show really wasn't that good. However, IIRC the ratings at the end of season one weren't great either.
I wouldn't praise BSG too much. That show also had a phase where it wasn't much more than a third-rate soap opera.
Syfy may bare some responsibility, but the series started at 2.346 million viewers and the last episode aired achieved 1.093. The writers & producers who couldn't keep an audience from leaving for other options are just as responsible as anyone else.