Reflections on SG1

[fireproof78]

I found Vala to be kind of annoyingly over the top. And Browder a little wooden.

But the bigger problem with the last two seasons of SG1 to me was that the Ori were too powerful to be interesting. You couldn't bring them down with the same cool ground battles and pyrotechnics we got early in the series. You needed to discover an ancient deus ex machina. But I guess that wasn't a new problem with the series, it'd been a problem since Anubis.

Browder wooden? I'm sorry to hear that

The Ori were a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, you had an all powerful force that couldn't be reasoned with that forced Earth to join forces with Ba'al for a while in order to survive. I thought that was interesting.

Though, I agree the deus ex machina solutions were getting a bit tiring, but then that had been around since, what, Season 2, or possibly even Season 1.

As I understand it, the Ark of Truth was basically a condensed version of the original plans for Season 11. They would have spent the season searching for the Ark and used it at the end to defeat the Ori.

Ark of Truth could have worked better if they focused more on that and not other, less relevant plot points.

 

[Skywalker]

I also think The Ark of Truth would have been better served if they'd used both of the direct-to-DVD movies on that storyline and to wrap up SG-1 as a whole, instead of using one on Ark and then the other on a regular SG-1 adventure. (Although I actually liked Continuum a lot more than I liked Ark.)

 

[sttngfan1701d]

I liked Continuum a lot more than Ark too. While I was disappointed in the latter, I thought Continuum did a great job being a "Stargate movie." But I admit that it's been a long time since I've seen Ark, and I've only seen it once.

 

[MacLeod]

What I disliked most about Ark of Truth was the use of the Replicators.

 

[Mr Light]

I thought Ark was a great movie except for the completely wasted use of the Replicators. I thought Continuum was a massive waste of time and just a recycling of the same story we'd already seen five times on the show.

 

[JD]

I enjoyed Ark quite a bit, but I thought Continuum was the better of the two movies. I thought it was just a fun alternate universe story, and a nice little tie-up for the B'al storyline.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Well if the show had continued for an 11th season would they have used a similar plot device to wrap up the Ori storyline as they did in The Ark of Truth?

I would imagine so. By that point, the show was in a pretty dull pattern of ending each arc with some Ancient weapon saving the day. First, you had the Ancient outpost in Antarctica in Season 7, then the Temple at Dakara in Season 8, then Merlin's weapon in Season 10, and finally the Ark of Truth in "The Ark of Truth." (Which is also such a weird concept. It's a brainwashing machine but it can only brainwash you into believing things that are actually true? Right... )

Killing Beckett there was kind of dumb and random but it didn't piss me off as much as caving into fan demands to bring him back.

If they were always planning to bring him back, fine, but I hate it when writers change their plans for pandering reasons.

I dunno. I think the first appearance of the Dr. Beckett clone is one of the show's best cliffhangers.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

Thanks to this thread I've done some mini-binging on SG-1 lately. The pilot, the end of season 7, most of seasons 9 and 10...and last night I watched Ark of Truth for the first time since it was released.

...Still didn't like it much. Why the heck did they have the evil IOA agent/replicator storyline? And the ReplicaTerminator fighting Mitchell? Lame. Cut that crap out of the script and add more exploration (Indiana Jones style) or Ori action and it would've potentially been an awesome movie. I know they were also hamstrung by Morena Baccarin's limited availability and had to write around it, but it seems like a big opportunity lost. 3.5x the budget of the average Stargate episode, yet it still felt like an episode. I dunno...I just wanted it to be more than it turned out to be, I guess.

 

[fireproof78]

Thanks to this thread I've done some mini-binging on SG-1 lately. The pilot, the end of season 7, most of seasons 9 and 10...and last night I watched Ark of Truth for the first time since it was released.

...Still didn't like it much. Why the heck did they have the evil IOA agent/replicator storyline? And the ReplicaTerminator fighting Mitchell? Lame. Cut that crap out of the script and add more exploration (Indiana Jones style) or Ori action and it would've potentially been an awesome movie. I know they were also hamstrung by Morena Baccarin's limited availability and had to write around it, but it seems like a big opportunity lost. 3.5x the budget of the average Stargate episode, yet it still felt like an episode. I dunno...I just wanted it to be more than it turned out to be, I guess.

Yeah, that felt completely unnecessary to me. The whole of the film should have been dedicated to hunting for the Ark and the Ori hunting them.

They functioned so well without Baccarin (as much as I liked her) that they could have built up a great scene and have the final showdown be not only a personal showdown, but a battle as well.

But, that's just me.

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah, the entire Replicators/IOA subplot was just horrible.

 

[DWF]

There was only one Ori by the time of the movie and that was Baccarin, I don't tink there was any problem with her availability, Julian Sands however hada limited availability. I really liked the movie, it shot on film and Goldsmith went all out on the score and Teal'c was awesome in it.

 

[fireproof78]

There was only one Ori by the time of the movie and that was Baccarin, I don't tink there was any problem with her availability, Julian Sands however hada limited availability. I really liked the movie, it shot on film and Goldsmith went all out on the score and Teal'c was awesome in it.

Teal'c was fantastic in it, I definitely agree.

Also, when I refer to the Ori, I get that they are beings but were their forces referred to something specific?

It was a good film, but could have done a little bit more, in my opinion.

 

[JD]

While I do enjoy AoT, I do agree the Replicator stuff was unnecessary, but it wasn't enough to ruin it for me.

 

[fireproof78]

Please don't misunderstand me. I enjoy AoT just find and think it is a thoroughly enjoyable film. It resolves the Ori plot very well, and there are many great moments in it.

My general attitude is that there could have been more to the film, if they had cut the Replicators out. That's my general reaction to many films-if this changes, how could it have been better?

It may be an odd way to approach it, but that's how I process through it. It's the same reason why I enjoy talking about AoT or the SW Prequels, or ST 09 or what-have-you. There are so many possibilities, and potential within different films that I find discussing them and analyzing them fun. It probably comes across as nitpicky or whiny, but it's not intended that way. I still enjoy films. I just think about them too.

 

[sidious618]

I agree with what folks are saying about Weir. I thought she was a fantastic actress and the most interesting character on the show by a mile. Her interactions with Shep worked really well and I liked her style of leadership. The show absolutely lost a lot when she left and it's a heavy knock against the writers that the reason for killing her wasn't plot based, but because they couldn't manage to figure out what to do with her character.

 

[Skywalker]

I actually stopped watching SGA after Season Three when both Beckett and Weir were killed off. (Well, Weir's fate was left hanging, but I knew she was being written out.) Sheppard and McKay were my favorite characters but I really liked both Beckett and Weir, too, and getting rid of them really ruined the great balance between the characters that the show had developed.

Honestly I've always thought the Stargate shows were way too quick to kill off characters.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

How was Teal'c good in Ark of Truth, though? I mean, he got shot with an Ori staff weapon and...walked. I get that those scenes were meant to show his strength and determination, but it came off more as an excuse to show sweeping Canadian vista shots than anything else.

If anything, his greatest contribution was that he had the presence of mind to shoot the table leg to make the Ark fall on the floor, so I guess you could say he saved the day, but he still didn't do much in the movie leading up to that.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

Honestly I've always thought the Stargate shows were way too quick to kill off characters.

Well, that and they couldn't figure out what to do once they got rid of a character. But that's a criticism you can level at a lot of shows.

Stargate was great when they showed the fallibility of the characters. SG-1 or Atlantis team members messing with shit they didn't understand, and accidentally blowing something up or creating something they'd regret later. Or stumbling into a victory on pure luck. Or having what they think is a good plan that they work hard on implementing, only for it...not to work the way they hoped.

On the one hand, the writers were good at stuff like that (that and the overall show mythology and galactic politics). But then they'd shoot themselves in the foot by creating dumb dilemmas for the sake of "action and things blowing up", or killing someone and not knowing what to do later. Killing Beckett was a gut punch. Killing Weir off was another. But bringing back Beckett's clone or making the Atlantis expedition Commander's position a revolving door later on kinda cheapens your gutsy move.

 

[DonIago]

To be fair, while taking Weir out may have been intentional, they hadn't intended to replace Carter. And calling it a revolving door seems like a bit of an overstatement. It was hardly Murphy Brown's secretary, or even the perennial problem TNG had with the Conn position once Wesley was no longer there.

 

[MacLeod]

Honestly I've always thought the Stargate shows were way too quick to kill off characters.

Well, that and they couldn't figure out what to do once they got rid of a character. But that's a criticism you can level at a lot of shows.

Stargate was great when they showed the fallibility of the characters. SG-1 or Atlantis team members messing with shit they didn't understand, and accidentally blowing something up or creating something they'd regret later. Or stumbling into a victory on pure luck. Or having what they think is a good plan that they work hard on implementing, only for it...not to work the way they hoped.
.

Time for plan B, though given how well plan A usually went perhaps they should have gone with plan B to begin with.