Revisiting Stargate SG1...

[darkwing_duck1]

^^ Right! I forgot about that.

This is one of the things I love about SG1 and SGA, we see our heroes' off-duty side with their interests and hobbies and whatever. We also see their personalities beyond their professionalism and their duties. It really helps ground the series and makes the whole setting and situations more accessible and credible because we feel these characters are similar to us.

This and the characters are allowed to let their hair down a bit when off duty...can you see Trek ever mentioning the Simpsons, or Jello Wrestling?

 

[Warped9]

^^ They've tried that in Trek, but the everyday existence of the 23rd or 24th centuries isn't the most accessible to contemporary viewers. With Stargate the off-duty interests of the characters resonates because they exist in the same contemporary reality as we do. Their popular culture is the same as ours.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

^^ They've tried that in Trek, but the everyday existence of the 23rd or 24th centuries isn't the most accessible to contemporary viewers. With Stargate the off-duty interests of the characters resonates because they exist in the same contemporary reality as we do. Their popular culture is the same as ours.

And that is entirely the studio's fault (the inaccessability of Trek off time) because Paramount would never fork over the license fees to get things like contemporary music for characters to listen to, so (for example) everyone listens to "long hair" classical that's 100s of years old in the 21st century, let alone the 24th.

 

[Warped9]

I'm a third of the way into SGA S3. The series has gelled into a comfort zone and I'm enjoying it. Every so often I hit a rough spot, such as "The Real World," but I can also be surprised. The beginning of TRW seemed familiar enough in that a character is experiencing something that doesn't make any sense. But then the revelation that nanites are trying to take over Weir's body was a surprise I didn't expect. The story took on a different dimension after that.

 

[stj]

I just watched seasons 9 and 10 and Ark of Truth in close succession. It is surprising how much it improved the experience. Doing it separately highlighted how much they were actually a sneaked in new series, diminishing misleading expectations of the old show.

 

[Warped9]

I'm enjoying the characters of Shepperd, McCay, Beckett, Zelinka and the rest of the newbies more than I tolerated Mitchell, Landry and Valla. It was also fun seeing O'Neill again in the "The Return" two-parter.

 

[Chris3123]

Hey Warped9, I'm glad you are enjoying SG-1 and Atlantis. I'm a big SG fan myself.

BTW, I noticed you didn't give your thoughts on "Unending" (the last episode of SG-1). I'm wondering what you thought of it.

I'm enjoying the characters of Shepperd, McCay, Beckett, Zelinka and the rest of the newbies more than I tolerated Mitchell, Landry and Valla.

Same here. McKay is by far my favorite SGA character, followed by Zelenka.

If you really like watching David Hewlett play a quirky character, I suggest checking out the indie movie "A Dog's Breakfast". Hewlett wrote and directed it himself. It also stars his sister, Kate, and Paul McGillion. Rachel Luttrell and Chris Judge make small appearances too. The ending is predictable, but it's worth watching even if just for Hewlett's performance.

 

[Warped9]

I recently watched "Sunday" and near the end is when I clued in that this was the episode where Carson Beckett dies. I thought it pointless to kill him, but often enough TPTB feel you have to kill off a significant character to make your show seem more unpredictable and risky.

It didn't have the impact that Janet Fraser's death had because her death was more sudden and not telegraphed in the same way even though I knew she was slated to be killed off at some point. I missed Fraser keenly because I was never really okay with her replacement(s).

"Unending" struck me as just another episode with something of a forced ending. The Ark Of Truth was the real ending (for the Ori story) and Continuum the real ending for the Ga'ould/Bal story.

As I understand it isn't there supposed to be one more SG1 dvd movie and perhaps one SGA dvd movie?

 

[DonIago]

I certainly wouldn't say no to another SG-1 movie, but given it's now had 3 separate finales I'm not sure another movie is necessarily a good idea.

I picked up SG-1 and SGA in full on DVD, but my watching of SG-1 got horribly, horribly stalled (I have a massive DVD backlog right now) before I even started with SGA. One day...

 

[Warped9]

I've got the last two episodes of SGA S3 to go and then Seasons 4 and 5 (I've never seen anything of S5) then I'm done with Stargate. I have no interest to watch SGU. I suppose I'll get into JAG from the beginning since I did like the show quite a bit. I also have to complete my season collections of Batman TAS and Futurama.

 

[DonIago]

I have needing to be watched (or watched on DVD for the first time)-

SG-1 & SGA (mid-S2 on SG1 currently)
Daria (about halfway through the series)
DS9 (in S2, want to watch S3, may rewatch S4-7 but I've owned them for awhile)
Family Guy and American Dad - at least one volume of each
Scrubs - 1.5 seasons (I think), more if I continue liking the show
LOST
Sarah Connor Chronicles (have S1, may pick up S2)

Oh, and a ton of movies.

I've been fighting a flu bug for the past week, which you'd think would help with the movie-watching, except I've been making an effort not to take time off and have generally been sleeping when I could rather than watching movies.

Bastards that they are, Borders kept sending me coupons that let me pick up DVDs at prices that were beating Amazon's (wouldn't have bothered otherwise). I also got some rather good deals through Warner Bros and Disney, which offer "Upgrade your DVD to Blu Ray!" offers.

I shudder to think that I may have a year (or more) of DVD watching ahead of me.

...and let's not even think about special features I haven't even watched.

 

[Warped9]

...and let's not even think about special features I haven't even watched.

Yep. Although I've watched the vast majority of films and TV series I've collected there are tons of special features that I have yet to revisit. At one time I thought I would never be interested in such stuff (and some of it is lame), but there is occasionally some fascinating material in there.

Before Stargate I watched all of The X-Files and I haven't seen anything of all those special features.

Another fascinating aspect of the Stargate series has been its sense of scale: it's huge. They tell stories spanning not just our galaxy but multiple galaxies. That scale, that canvas comes across to me as one larger used by the Treks. They often don't talk in terms of just tens of light years but in terms of hundreds or thousands or even millions of light years.

I also take their references to "all over the galaxy" (whether Milky Way or Pegasus) with a grain of salt because in reality it's an unimaginably immense amount of space that beggars the imagination.

 

[DonIago]

Oh, and of course many episodes of SG-1 and SGA have commentary tracks as well, effectively doubling the number there.

Yeah, I'm screwed.

 

[Warped9]

Audio commentary tracks while an episode is in progress is something I've never been keen about. I just find it way too distracting, either trying to watch the episode or trying to listen to the commentary.

 

[DonIago]

That's why I watch the episode first, then watch the commentary while the ep's fresh in my mind.

 

[Warped9]

I'm down to the last three episodes of SGA S5. All I can say is it's been a fun ride through both these series. SG1 and SGA have their highs and lows, but overall it's good fun.

SGA feels a bit more space adventure with its more futuristic setting of Atlantis and the puddle jumpers. And it's a shame the series didn't continue because there's more story in it to tell. I was surprised that after a few episodes I didn't mind having Robert Picardo's Mr. Wolsey along even though I was sad to see Carter removed from command. Even so, Carter was more enjoyable when she's the one figuring things out. I still don't really care for Beckett's replacement, Keller. She just seems so bland...although McCay finally scores. And I loved seeing Daniel Jackson making a return appearance! It just reminded me of how much I missed the original gang.

If "Family Ties" was SG1's absolute worst episode (and it is) then I nominate SGA's "Vegas" as the nadir of that series. That said I liked "Enemy At The Gate" and seeing as it was the final episode I really thought Ronin had finally bought the farm. But now with Atlantis on Earth all kinds of new stuff could be happening story wise. What a drag we won't see any more.

Great ride and I'm sad to see it come to an end. I guess, though, that I can wait a year and do it all over again.

 

[caisson2delta]

I finally watched Ark of Truth and enjoyed it. I will wait on Continuum, for a bit, because I want to start my rewatch of SGA. I have been looking forward to it for a while. I had to force myself to not watch it while finishing up SG1. I took a bit of a hiatus to watch some of TOS season one (just bought the remastered set) and rewatched Firefly. I have to say, out of everything I've rewatched, I miss firefly more than anything. I wish we had more of that to see. It has been interesting hearing Warped9's take on the SG universe and enjoyed his input.

I have to add that you might give SGU a chance. Although it is drastically different, it does have a few redeeming qualities. It will be interesting to see where it goes and if it will even last, but has had a few very good episodes. They could probably do half of a season just exploring this massive ship and find interesting things to share with us.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Part of what bugs me is that I got into the SGA characters and that setting and then they bailed on it. Too bad we couldn't have gotten one more season out of it to wrap things up properly or at least give us some sense of where they were going even if they left it open ended. As it is Atlantis is back on Earth and who knows what they'll do with it. There are a lot of folks left out in the cold back in the Pegasus galaxy with Atlantis gone. Are they now just going to abdicate what they started there?

 

[Harvey]

Well, on one hand, Stargate Atlantis didn't exactly have a brief run. Five seasons and 100 episodes are more than Star Trek ever had. On the other hand, the writers/producers retooled the series so many times that it sure felt like it didn't get a chance to have its say.

 

[Warped9]

Why did Tory Higginson (Weir) leave? Did they want to replace her or did she want out? I can understand if Amanda Tapping (Carter) mightn't have wanted to commit to another full time series, evidenced by how many S4 episodes she wasn't in. Robert Picardo (Woolsey) could have been interested in something to do after VOY ended some years ago. On that note I grew to like Woolsey and appreciated him having a better role than what he had before. Seriously I thought his VOY character was beneath him as an actor.