Just started Stargate!

[hyzmarca]

Watching the whole thing, you can really tell that the show too often held back by creative cowardice, especially after RDA left. There hits a point in Season 7 where it is fairly obvious that the writers were planning dramatic world-changing plot lines, mostly because SG-1 was going to be replaced by Atlantis. They backpedaled after Sci-fi renewed SG-1 and flimsily tied off those plot threads, mostly just ignoring them. And then in Season 8 you can tell that they're winding down towards a series finale and tied off most of the remaining loose plot threads. And then it got renewed again. At that point, they just threw good storytelling and actual plausibility out the window. They didn't want to make any big changes, they didn't want the world to evolve, because that would damage their cash cow. Instead they relied on deus-ex machina, technobabble solutions, reset buttons, villain stupidity, and the Sunnydale Effect to such a degree that it seriously damaged the series, in my opinion. Still, it was decent.

And Atlantis parallels this. It stated good in the first season, but by the middle of the second they seem to care about nothing but fanservice. Essentially, they fell into the same trap that Andromeda did, the belief that pretty female guest stars in skimpy costumes was a substitute for good writing. It wasn't. And by the time they figured that out the show was already canceled.

 

[stonester1]

I've just begun watching through once again. A quality, smartly written show

Did I watch the same show as you?

Smartly written? It was written fine, and even in the first few years when it was much less silly/dumb then the later seasons I wouldn't call it a smartly written show.

It's a fun popcorn flick like ID4, which was never a sequel idea to Stargate!

Yes, I would agree that it's fun popcorn. But not STUPID. Some of the better episodes deal in moral complexities or the fun thought puzzles good science fiction throws at you. It most closely reminds me of Star Trek when comparing to other science fiction series.

Now, there's smart, then there's DEEP. Stargate is rarely deep, though every now and then. Trek is more often deep, but even more often smart.

Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica? DEEP. Lost? Deep. X-Files? At times deep, at times smart, at times, both.

Yes, Stargate is often just fun popcorn science fiction action. But with fast paced stories and engaging characters, that's fine, too. Fun popcorn doesn't have to be dumb, and Stargate proves that.

 

[stonester1]

Watching the whole thing, you can really tell that the show too often held back by creative cowardice, especially after RDA left.

This is true, also largely what happened to latter day Star Trek as well. Either cowardice or burnout.