A Stargate universe REBOOT - how would you do it?

A post I just made in another thread (re: ancients and time travel) made me think about this topic - so allow me the indulgence to quote myself from there:

So if you had the opportunity to reboot the SG universe (not the upcoming show, all of SG1 and SGA), what would you do? How would it be different that the current universe? Where you "your" universe diverge?

I have already put out some of my thoughts (less ancients, less ascension, less time travel) - any additions or arguments with my list?

 

1) not so many different human tribes scattered around.
2) not everybody happens to speak perfect english
3) the team actually winds up rotating out main characters as they get bumped off during dangerous missions periodically.
If the US military is involved I would not have them all portrayed as cartoonish goody-two shoes "we wouldn't break that rule" types
4) tone down the usage of the names of ancient gods and making that association... it was ok when it was just Ra then when they start going through the norse and greek pantheon it all got pretty silly. maybe they should throw in Yahweh too just to be fair eh?
5) if ancients are to be featured then let it remain in hushed whispers and enigmatic clues only.
6) Parallel universes yes, time travel NO!
7) if there is going to be a carter character, please do not make her an unrealistic super genius that can figure out in minutes what would take years of postgraduate work. If anybody really was that smart why would they be in the air force? She'd be making high six figures at SAIC or some other place.

 

Actually, the basic premise behind the Stargate franchise is sound enough that it doesn't need rebooting. The only things a reboot would be needed for is to eliminate all the super-advanced tech Earth now has. A fleet of starships that can travel galaxies in a week, squadrons of space fighters that fly better than anything in Star Wars, transporters that put anything we've seen on Star Trek to shame, and so on. Make the show modern-day, that's what was unique about it to begin with. With the way things are now, it's damn near difficult to distinguish between it and other sci-fi.

 

I am mixed on that. For one, it would be more realistic, but for then it would also become obnoxious where the characters will have to learn the new language of the week again and again.

Interesting as that is one of the major complaints people have with Atlantis.

You are joking, right? How many times did SG-1 break the rules for what they (and the viewers) saw as the better good? And how many corrupt military/government agents have we had over the years?

Really? I would feel the reverse. Stargate, imo, never overdid the time-travel. It was used very sparingly over the years. However, I did think the parallel universes was used A LOT over time.

In fairness, though. The show evolved up to that point. It wasn't like "Oh, we now have fleets of ships out of nowhere!"

 

Actually, the US Air Force did require them to make the military "look good" when they began advising in season 2. And considering how much that advising helped the show technically, I really have no problem with that. (It's the reason the NID had to be a civilian agency.)

It evolved a bit too much if you ask me. In the early days, they would find some cool tech, then later figure out a nifty way to utilize it. Now, they have so much regular cool tech that all the new stuff "must" be lost/destroyed/detrimental, so it doesn't upset the status quo.

I think the most important single change they could have made would be to keep the human understanding of the technologies they use limited. Make an Asgard advisor necessary on the 304s because no one else fully understands the systems. That would have at the least added some additional punch when the Asgard went bye-bye.

Remember when humans couldn't get their home-built hyperdrive to work reliably, and were trying to use an Alkesh drive in a ship 5x the size it was designed for? That sort of thing was interesting. Giving humans full access to and understanding of advanced Asgard systems was a pretty big mistake, IMO.

 

The universe doesn't need to be changed. It's just the writing and production needs to mature. They should look at filming elsewhere instead of BC so we no longer see forest planets. There needs to be a wider variety of societies they encounter. I don't mind the military being goody-two-shoes, but they need more recurring characters, a wider array of personalities that aren't one-offs. The writing needs to mature. Adults writing adult characters. I guess the best way to put it is the franchise should become more PG-13. It doesn't need to be darker, moody or brooding, but we should have characters that are far and away removed from Sam Carter. Finally, they have to learn from Trek's failures. Less technobabble saves the day. They have to write down their common premises and not do thoses. So if someone suggest "character A's body is taken over by..." then they immediate stop developing that into an episode.

We just have writers who have stopped trying to outdo themselves.

 

If they're going to kill of main characters, they need to show the rest of the team dealing with grief, not reset them in the very next episode. That's my beef with Atlantis--not that it loses main characters left and right, but that it loses them and then forgets them. There was some attempt to address this in season four, but to varying degrees of success.

The writers need to stop escalating the "ancient technology saves the day" plot device. It's old hat, and undramatic.

The show needs to be set in the real world again, or start to carve out its own world in more definite terms.

 

I think they should have had the SG teams meet a lot more advanced Human societys, I was sick of always seeing primitive tribes. Surely the Goa'uld didn't keep track of all the Galaxys planets, it would have been nigh on impossible because there are that many, there's ample time for some societies/civilisations to develop to an advanced stage. That's why I liked the introduction of the Tollan but was disapointed they killed them off.

and I want more none human aliens!

 

Less pine trees.

 

that's why I would want less numbers of scattered human groups to deal with with relatively fewer languages. For more regular character you can contrive some excuse as to why they speak english but for goodness sakes let's not make it where everytime you go to a new planet you are greeted by perfect american accented english - it's just silly.

No i don't mean that typical sort of "we have to bend the rules to get the bad folks" type of goody-goody stuff that is so prevalent on television - I mean doing shit that soldiers really do that people seem to not like to think about.

I thought the opposite actually. the thing about time travel is that it gives the ability to reset button everything - look at ark of truth. You can right every wrong with it.

Yeah there's too much power now. Besides what reason would the goody-goody air force in the SG universe have to keep it a secret - alot of people could benefit from Asgard tech.

 

You must mean Continuum, but Ark of Truth is symptomatic of the ancient tech saves the day problem that would need to be fixed.

 

To an extent, yes. I didn't mind when it was just the Prometheus, since that was a logical progression of the things that were developing. Really, they should have just left it at the Prometheus, though for certain story purposes, I understand introducing the Daedalus just so that Atlantis could have its own starship. However everything after that is really stretching credibility. Hell, they had three ships built in one year (Daedalus, Odyssey, and Korolev) with another built a year later (Apollo). In real life, it takes five years to build an aircraft carrier.

 

Indeed! thanks for the correction

 

I posted a big ole rant about rewriting the Goa'uld and Tok'ra (it's down there somewheres) describing how I would make the villains and sort-of-allies more dramatically interesting. That, combined with a mandate for the heroes to get no more easy outs via the usual things - easy escape from enemy spaceships; solving problems with C-4 or Ancients tech; Asgard ass-saves; and enemies dumb enough to start fighting with each other - is what I'd do.

 

Something occurred to me during the latest SGA episode: They don't take nearly the same amount of equipment and precautions with them that they used to.

Remember the FRED? All sorts of useful junk (like bazookas) on there. Why not have one of those tag along every episode?

And claymores! Is there any good reason not to set up claymores with a killzone around the entry to the Gate on every mission? Maybe try to keep them pointed away from the DHD, but otherwise....c'mon. Button press and it don't matter how many Wraith are clustered there, they'll all be mincemeat.

 

When it comes to necessary equipment they don't carry with that they should, I remember when I was watching SG-1's Bad Guys. When they first discover the DHD was fake, Mitchell says there's nothing to worry about, when they don't make their scheduled check-in, the SGC will dial the planet, they'll explain the situation, and the SGC will send a laptop with a portable dialing program. Why isn't this laptop standard equipment for all off-world SG teams?

 

Why would they? The important part was the naquadah reactor, anyway. The dialing program was a luxury item, since a single person can dial the gate manually.

Either way, naquadah reactors are heavy, cumbersome, and expensive, so it really doesn't make much sense to strap one to your back on every mission when you almost certainly won't need one (most every planet has a functional DHD, and if they don't, that's why the SGC makes check-ins). Carrying them around everywhere also makes it more likely one of the reactors may be captured by a hostile force, which never turns out well.

 

I would ditch everything except Jack, Daniel and the Stargate.

 

go back to the orginal movie and keep it faithful to that. make the stargate a rare thing not a dime-a-dozen. keep it dramatic and not campy like it has become. no gould (or whatever their name is), no ancients. i think their original concept of ra was that he was actually like the asgardians. before he blew up he looked like one of those types of aliens and not human looking. keep it focused and not all over the place with the mythology.