The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

Seizure

If you're going to bring in McKay, Woolsey, and the Lengarins, maybe having some dialogue about Atlantis and Jonas Quinn would have been nice. Heck, Jonas should have been in this episode. He was one of the scientists of the Nequadria project and would have fit right in with this story. Yeah I know this wasn't really an official crossover with Atlantis, but you bring in McKay and it feels like Atlantis never happened. With that said, it's not going into my top 5 of the season but it was decent. It was shocking that earth lost this one (And maybe now they can stop the dialing to Destiny or Earth project because it seems doomed to fail. I really liked the simulation subplot and Parry keeping Rush almost hostage. Eli really has gotten pissed off this season. It's nice to see.

 

I'm not sure if I spoilered it when it came up earlier, but the producers didn't give up on more direct-to-DVD movies until SGU was cancelled, so I'm sure they were very intentionally playing coy about the status of the SGC, SG-1, Atlantis, and the ships other than the Hammond so they didn't paint themselves into a corner if they couldn't pay off whatever seeds they planted because of actor availability or budget or something when the movies were finally produced.

In this case, it might've been a little too coy, there could've been a way to say the word "Atlantis" without giving anything away regarding its location or physical status, but, then, they didn't know this would be their last chance and thought all would be made clear within a year when "Extinction" was released.

 

The Hunt

Eh, it was ok. Kind of the cliche hunter/prey story with the hunters having to rescue part of their team that is injured. It was nice they went off world though, even though We didn't actually see the Stargate. Heck, we really haven't seen the Stargate effect that much at all. Like I said, sometimes I forget this is a Stargate Show.

I felt bad for Volker. Nice guy, wanting to get closer to Park and finds out Park is already taken. That's a bummer.

Anyway, not much to say about this episode, but I've got 4 episodes left of the Franchise. I think I'm at the point where I'm glad I have 4 episodes left of this franchise. It's been great but man it's a lot.

 

Well you could then rank every single episode and movie in the Stargate franchise in one combined list from best to worst with some opinion on why you feel they deserve the spot on the list as opposed to being higher or lower.

Jason

 

Even in a lockdown that could take me the rest of the year.

I think the earliest thing I remember from this whole thing was thinking Emancipation was not that bad. It's amazing what I've learned about that episode since then.

 

You should see Origins...it is just 1 episode length or so. And your insight would be valuable in evaluating where they went wrong.

I forgrt...did you watch the original movie?

 

If I do see origins it will be later on. I just feel liking taking a break from Stargate for a while.

I did see the original movie a few times but it was years ago. I was thinking about seeing it again eventually, but like I said, I kinda want to take a break from it.

 

@tomalak301 I would recommend you watch "Common Descent" and "Epilogue" together, back to back, since they form a two part episode. And it is a big deal two parter that is a sequel to "Twin Destinies".

 

Yeah I know, even though it does seem like some of the episodes have already been an aftermath of Twin Destinies. Besides, I have 4 episodes left. Hopefully I finish the series tonight.

 

I don't want to give too much away but "Common Descent" & "Epilogue" deal with what really happened to the expedition that went through the unstable wormhole after Telford crossed. We know from "Twin Destinies" that they never reached Earth so where did they go?

 

I have a question regarding origins. I’m searching on ITunes and it says Origins: Cathrine and it’s an hour and 44 minutes. I’m thinking that is what I’m looking for but it’s more like a double episode than single episode. I just want to be sure that was the same one.

 

That sounds right. The full name is Stargate Origins: Catherine. It should be 10 mini-episodes, 10 minutes per episode. So around 100 minutes total or 1 hr 40 minutes. Although my understanding is that it was very low budget. It's more like a fan film. So don't expect the same quality as SG1, SGA or SGU.

 

Ok. It looks like I can rent it as a singular movie so just wanted to be sure.

 

They later released it as just one full movie instead of the individual webisodes. I still haven't seen it beyond the first parts they put up for free. What I did see wasn't exactly gripping.

 

That was why I was hesitant but I am actually a little curious and it is part of the franchise. Also some people (like @Morpheus 02) were curious on my thoughts on it.

 

It's pretty lousy. I recently had a thought about a better take on the same basic concept (show what Mitchell was up to while he was waiting for Ba'al to arrive in the past during Continuum, maybe with a similar broad-strokes plot with the Nazis that had the DHD trying to use the Stargate), but, for one thing, that would've required them to be able to afford Ben Browder, which I don't think they could do.

 

I think for me the worst one of these was Bones. The creator/showrunner said somewhere that the two main characters were going to be getting together in an upcoming episode, and that it would be real, not a fantasy or dream or anything like that, but then when the episode aired, it was a dream. When he was asked about it later, he didn't hide the fact that he lied. That one still pisses me off to this day, when you're promoting something like that, it's really shitty to outright lie like that. If you want to stretch things a bit or imply things, that's one thing, but you should not lie.

How long has it taken you to get this far?

It's free on Amazon Prime in the US right now.

 

I think tomorrow will be 10 weeks. Not too bad for 17 seasons and 2 movies.

 

What I remember bothering me about that episode is they make such a big deal about the fact Greer had never used the stones before, and well, yes, that's true. But TJ hasn't used them either, in fact, I don't think she does use them ever in the series. Why was that never a plot point?

As already mentioned, the likely intentionally avoided mentioning Atlantis because they believed they would still get a TV movie for it and didn't want to step on its toes if so, As for Jonas, yep, I agree they totally dropped the ball there.

What I did find odd is I think in Telford's office there's an Atlantis arm patch on display, which raises a question, was he ever assigned to Atlantis? If so, when? If he had, and depending on when he was promoted to full bird Colonel, he would have outranked Sheppard or at least been of equal rank, making it odd we never saw him.

This episode does establish something which will end up integral to the finale.

 

Origins is definitely a bit of a fan film. The sets are small. The dialogue is clunky. The acting is pretty bad. But it does work as a nice little prequel to the original stargate movie:

Spoiler

Aset uses the hand device on Catherine and her father and removes the memories of the entire adventure but also plants the idea that they should assemble another team in the future capable of defeating Ra thus explaining both why Catherine never mentioned going through the gate before and also setting up the premise of the Stargate movie.
At the end of Origins, Ra comes back and reasserts his control over Abydos thus also setting up why the Stargate team in the movie will encounter Ra on Abydos. We even see Ra put the serpent guard helmets on the Abydonians thus setting up the Serpent Guards we see in the movie.