SG:A Series Post-Mortem

[bigdaddy]

I'm not tired of good old fashioned space opera. Franchise fatigue my Auntie Loo. What I did grow tired of was the work from the mostly same group of writers. No matter how good a writer you are, you can. over an extended period of time, run out of interesting plotlines to spin within the confines of your own personal tastes. This is what happened here, just as it happened with Star Trek.

So you must've gotten tired of Star Trek after about three or four seasons of DS9 then. And yeah that's called franchise fatigue.

Star Trek had decent writers and some did leave and some new blood came in. The problem started when the new blood started to die down because working with Trek seems to be hell. Stargate has lame childish writers that hardly ever change, and the show runners never really do. Watch Star Trek, the names at the end changed until Star trek started to die, then the names stayed the same.

 

[DWF]

I'm not tired of good old fashioned space opera. Franchise fatigue my Auntie Loo. What I did grow tired of was the work from the mostly same group of writers. No matter how good a writer you are, you can. over an extended period of time, run out of interesting plotlines to spin within the confines of your own personal tastes. This is what happened here, just as it happened with Star Trek.

So you must've gotten tired of Star Trek after about three or four seasons of DS9 then. And yeah that's called franchise fatigue.

Star Trek had decent writers and some did leave and some new blood came in. The problem started when the new blood started to die down because working with Trek seems to be hell. Stargate has lame childish writers that hardly ever change, and the show runners never really do. Watch Star Trek, the names at the end changed until Star trek started to die, then the names stayed the same.

You mean like Brannon Braga who talked about walking though a 50 foot vagina, he was there for 15 years, blue bearded Ira Steven Behr who was there for 10 years, Ron Moore who admits to breaking the law by smoling in a public building in a Galactica podcast, he was there for about 12 years. And TNG had a revolving door of writers and producers in their first two seasons just as Enterprise had in their final two years and IMO that's not a good thing at all.

 

[Harvey]

Behr was on Deep Space Nine for the whole run, be he was only on The Next Generation as a producer for one season (he wrote one episode the season afterwards).

Braga started showing franchise fatigue with his work as soon as he jumped onboard Voyager.

Moore had a good run (that lasted 10 years), but became frustrated with Voyager and left after less than half a season. I don't know what the cheap shot about his smoking habit has to do with anything, but it falls on its face as an argument for much of anything here.

So...what's your point?

 

[DWF]

Behr was on Deep Space Nine for the whole run, be he was only on The Next Generation as a producer for one season (he wrote one episode the season afterwards).

Braga started showing franchise fatigue with his work as soon as he jumped onboard Voyager.

Moore had a good run (that lasted 10 years), but became frustrated with Voyager and left after less than half a season. I don't know what the cheap shot about his smoking habit has to do with anything, but it falls on its face as an argument for much of anything here.

So...what's your point?

For whatever reasons by the third season of DS9, Star Trek was losing ratings, media attention, talk show appearances and even the support of the fans, Star Trek was in decline years before it fell apart. Stargate on the other hand was pretty much unknown for the first five seasons of SG1 and yes they've also had a ratings decline but then that's true of every show on Sci-Fi.

Star Trek kept their writers for a long time too as well as directors, production designers and directors of photography and IMO it showed more the Star Trek shows than on the Stargate series. I'm still willing to wait and see what Stargate Universe will be like. By now though everything seems alittle tired even elements of the new Star Trek movie sound pretty tired and worn out, but it sould stll turn out to be a good movie none the less.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Star Trek had decent writers and some did leave and some new blood came in. The problem started when the new blood started to die down because working with Trek seems to be hell.

Maybe it was network interference that killed the creativity of VOY and ENT, and DS9 benefitted from benign neglect. But even the DS9 writers seemed pretty tired by the time that show ended.

For whatever reasons by the third season of DS9, Star Trek was losing ratings, media attention, talk show appearances and even the support of the fans, Star Trek was in decline years before it fell apart. Stargate on the other hand was pretty much unknown for the first five seasons of SG1 and yes they've also had a ratings decline but then that's true of every show on Sci-Fi.

So Star Trek and Stargate have both seen declining ratings over their runs - so what? The same is true of TV in general.

The issue of creative burnout is separate from the issue of ratings.

 

[sidious618]

To put it simply, SGA was a failure of a show. It had potential, it had good characters and it had a good mythology. The writers then took the base that season one set up and ran away from it as fast as possible.

The show took no risks whatsoever and never tried anything so daring as character development. The Shepherd of season one was the same as the one in season four (admitttedly, I stopped watching halfway through season four).

I loved Atlantis' first season. I own it and the second on DVD. The first season was fun and inventive. Did it have missteps? Yes but it had more hits than misses. Now, if they're lucky, they break even.

I blame Mallozzi the most. They need to cut him loose and do it now.

I don't know what the cheap shot about his smoking habit has to do with anything, but it falls on its face as an argument for much of anything here.

Yeah, what was that about?

 

[DWF]

Star Trek had decent writers and some did leave and some new blood came in. The problem started when the new blood started to die down because working with Trek seems to be hell.

Maybe it was network interference that killed the creativity of VOY and ENT, and DS9 benefitted from benign neglect. But even the DS9 writers seemed pretty tired by the time that show ended.

For whatever reasons by the third season of DS9, Star Trek was losing ratings, media attention, talk show appearances and even the support of the fans, Star Trek was in decline years before it fell apart. Stargate on the other hand was pretty much unknown for the first five seasons of SG1 and yes they've also had a ratings decline but then that's true of every show on Sci-Fi.

So Star Trek and Stargate have both seen declining ratings over their runs - so what? The same is true of TV in general.

The issue of creative burnout is separate from the issue of ratings.

No it's not, ratings are tied to success I've said nothing about quality and if people are tired of a show or franchise they'll just stop watching no matter how good or bad that show or franchise might happen to be. Creative burnout is a matter of opinion, success isn't that's just a matter of numbers and if a series doesn't get the ratings it'll be cancelled, whether or not the fans think the series is creative or creatively burntout.

 

[Kpnuts]

All roads lead to piss poor writers. The premise was sound and ripe with potential for high adventure unique from SG-1. But they blew their was with The Siege, didn't plan out where the characters or The Wraith should go and the rest was meandering with a bit of good stuff in the middle.

Exactly.

SGA could have been so much more than it was. Pine forests, replicators, faceless Wraith, primitive villages, a complete unwillingness to explore the city etc etc

Lots of problems with the show, but I enjoyed it more than the latter seasons of SG-1 and for the most part it was a fun enough ride.

 

[bigdaddy]

So Star Trek and Stargate have both seen declining ratings over their runs - so what? The same is true of TV in general.

But you are connecting ratings with how well planned/written a show is, they aren't.

The only thing the networks didn't want with DS9 is endless "To be continued..." episodes, so they made a 6 parter, then a stand alone, then a 6 parter.

I don't care if the ratings for Universe suck, unless of course they are so bad, if the show is decent.