Stargate Continuum - Grading and Discussion

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't think there was anything in particular wrong with it, but I also didn't think there was anything particularly great about it.

I guess it didn't have a big enough budget, or something. It's a movie, so why no real epic battles? I think we've seen bigger battles on the TV show. I know there was a lot of ships, but what exactly did they do, besides sit there?
Overall I think I have to agree with firehawk, there's too much missed opportunity in there, that makes you think of what could have been. Like it'd have been nice to see the alternate Jackson actually being encouraged, or at least feeling stalked, by our Jackson. Or people getting attached to people in this new time line, and making it more difficult to erase it.
I don't know, I think the writers are getting a bit full of themselves, in the same way the Trek writers did, and thinking the fans will buy anything they sell.
I'm not really a harsh critic of them or the show, but nearly everything in the last year or two has felt really lackluster.

The fundamental problem with time travel episodes in a TV show is that the alternate reality is almost always worse than the "real" reality, which means the characters have absolutely no incentive to NOT revert back to their original timeline.
Imagine if things were actually BETTER. What would SG-1 (or any random Trek crew or whomever) do then?
Hell, if they brought back Frasier and then Sam and Daniel were forced to acknowledge that restoring their timeline would basically mean killing her, the whole "consequences" thing could have at least been played up more.
Instead, we get Daniel telling off the President. Yes, we know you're right Daniel... and that's the problem.

I not holding that against it, given that it's the general conceit you get with pretty much all these stories. But given they have told pretty much the same story a couple of times now, and they've got 10 years worth of continuity to play with, couldn't they at least change something that gives them an alternative alternative story? Rather than just "We did something different early on, and now we're gonna get wiped out."

What if Jackson wasn't the one to solve it, but did prove his theory, and outed the stargate program unknowingly?

What if Jonas helped them find something that caused them to defeat the Goa'uld earlier, and they never ran in to the Ori?

What if they met the Furlings instead of the Asgard, and progressed faster because of it?

Or even, what if they accidently changed the timeline for their better, but someone else came by and told them it needed to change back? Do the story from the opposite perspective, with the other guy winning and changing the timeline, and just don't even try to explain it in Atlantis, just one week, all of a sudden everything is ever so slightly different.

 

[DWF]

Imagine if things were actually BETTER. What would SG-1 (or any random Trek crew or whomever) do then?

I have to wonder where the drama is in a story like that.

What if Jackson wasn't the one to solve it, but did prove his theory, and outed the stargate program unknowingly?

What if Jonas helped them find something that caused them to defeat the Goa'uld earlier, and they never ran in to the Ori?

What if they met the Furlings instead of the Asgard, and progressed faster because of it?

Yeah let's just throw out ten years of continuity, nobody'd complain about right?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Imagine if things were actually BETTER. What would SG-1 (or any random Trek crew or whomever) do then?

I have to wonder where the drama is in a story like that.

I suppose the drama is in the personal decisions they have to make... Change the time line to get back to what they know, but ruin all the good that has come of it, or live with it and never have had the outcome of certain events in your own time line.

What if Jackson wasn't the one to solve it, but did prove his theory, and outed the stargate program unknowingly?

What if Jonas helped them find something that caused them to defeat the Goa'uld earlier, and they never ran in to the Ori?

What if they met the Furlings instead of the Asgard, and progressed faster because of it?

Yeah let's just throw out ten years of continuity, nobody'd complain about right?

I'm not saying they should have done that in Continuum, or suggesting it should be done at all, just it'd be interesting to see.
Although, I think it could be done, and work but it would take a lot of planning.

 

[ITL]

As soon as the time travel plot was underway, I thought....RESET! As did you all. And it was. Meh.

But it was entertaining enough, mostly. Nice to see Jack again.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

As soon as the time travel plot was underway, I thought....RESET! As did you all. And it was. Meh.

But it was entertaining enough, mostly. Nice to see Jack again.

Shame he wasn't more involved though... and is it me, or did RDA look like he's gained a bit of weight?

 

[ITL]

He did. He really did.

 

[DWF]

Imagine if things were actually BETTER. What would SG-1 (or any random Trek crew or whomever) do then?

I have to wonder where the drama is in a story like that.

I suppose the drama is in the personal decisions they have to make... Change the time line to get back to what they know, but ruin all the good that has come of it, or live with it and never have had the outcome of certain events in your own time line.

But there's no real conflict there if the parallel universe is in someway better than the one you came from threre's no real story there.

What if Jackson wasn't the one to solve it, but did prove his theory, and outed the stargate program unknowingly?

What if Jonas helped them find something that caused them to defeat the Goa'uld earlier, and they never ran in to the Ori?

What if they met the Furlings instead of the Asgard, and progressed faster because of it?

Yeah let's just throw out ten years of continuity, nobody'd complain about right?

I'm not saying they should have done that in Continuum, or suggesting it should be done at all, just it'd be interesting to see.
Although, I think it could be done, and work but it would take a lot of planning.[/quote]

That would mean undermining everything they just spent the last ten years building in the first place.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I have to wonder where the drama is in a story like that.

I suppose the drama is in the personal decisions they have to make... Change the time line to get back to what they know, but ruin all the good that has come of it, or live with it and never have had the outcome of certain events in your own time line.

But there's no real conflict there if the parallel universe is in someway better than the one you came from threre's no real story there.

Personally I think there's plenty of room for conflict, from the characters emotional state, the conflict between wanting to stay in a better place, but if that came at the price of something bad happening, say the whole Jaffa race being extinct.

What if Jackson wasn't the one to solve it, but did prove his theory, and outed the stargate program unknowingly?

What if Jonas helped them find something that caused them to defeat the Goa'uld earlier, and they never ran in to the Ori?

What if they met the Furlings instead of the Asgard, and progressed faster because of it?

Yeah let's just throw out ten years of continuity, nobody'd complain about right?

I'm not saying they should have done that in Continuum, or suggesting it should be done at all, just it'd be interesting to see.
Although, I think it could be done, and work but it would take a lot of planning.

That would mean undermining everything they just spent the last ten years building in the first place.

Because you don't necessarily need to throw everything out, and if you have people who remember what's changed, or have what exactly changed be revealed over time, you could have a real meaningful change, without having to lose everything that was built up over the years.

 

[DWF]

Personally I think there's plenty of room for conflict, from the characters emotional state, the conflict between wanting to stay in a better place, but if that came at the price of something bad happening, say the whole Jaffa race being extinct.

I don't think even O'Neill would think twice about making a choice like that.

Because you don't necessarily need to throw everything out, and if you have people who remember what's changed, or have what exactly changed be revealed over time, you could have a real meaningful change, without having to lose everything that was built up over the years.

You're going to all that in a mere 100 minute movie?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Personally I think there's plenty of room for conflict, from the characters emotional state, the conflict between wanting to stay in a better place, but if that came at the price of something bad happening, say the whole Jaffa race being extinct.

I don't think even O'Neill would think twice about making a choice like that.

Doesn't even have to be something that big, could be something very personal, like Odo changing the timeline in Children of Time.

Because you don't necessarily need to throw everything out, and if you have people who remember what's changed, or have what exactly changed be revealed over time, you could have a real meaningful change, without having to lose everything that was built up over the years.

You're going to all that in a mere 100 minute movie? [/quote]

As I said, I'm not saying it should have been done in Continuum, and I don't hold the fact it holds to the usual conceit against it. It would just be interesting to see something like that, something different, happen. Basically, I'm thinking out loud.

 

[DWF]

As I said, I'm not saying it should have been done in Continuum, and I don't hold the fact it holds to the usual conceit against it. It would just be interesting to see something like that, something different, happen. Basically, I'm thinking out loud.

Continuum is all they've got and they have to think of it that way since this could be the end of SG1 it's all of nothing.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

As I said, I'm not saying it should have been done in Continuum, and I don't hold the fact it holds to the usual conceit against it. It would just be interesting to see something like that, something different, happen. Basically, I'm thinking out loud.

Continuum is all they've got and they have to think of it that way since this could be the end of SG1 it's all of nothing.

Well, personally, I think I'd have preferred something else to be the last SG1 story. But if that's all we've got, it could have been worse.

 

[AJBryant]

To the comments about things slowly dissappearing in the beginning: My take on that is that Ba'al was making changes slowly, and each change net a dissappearance in their future. Just my 2 cents.

Spoiler: If that's the case...

Why wasn't the FIRST change the disappearance of our intrepid Colonel? The first (and earliest) historical change was the destruction of his grandpa's ship, and the death of his grandpa.

 

[DWF]

As I said, I'm not saying it should have been done in Continuum, and I don't hold the fact it holds to the usual conceit against it. It would just be interesting to see something like that, something different, happen. Basically, I'm thinking out loud.

Continuum is all they've got and they have to think of it that way since this could be the end of SG1 it's all of nothing.

Well, personally, I think I'd have preferred something else to be the last SG1 story. But if that's all we've got, it could have been worse.

If Stargate Universe is greenlit it is possible that this'll be the last we see of SG1 although I hope not and I'm still looking forward to seeing this movie.

 

[firehawk12]

Or even, what if they accidently changed the timeline for their better, but someone else came by and told them it needed to change back? Do the story from the opposite perspective, with the other guy winning and changing the timeline, and just don't even try to explain it in Atlantis, just one week, all of a sudden everything is ever so slightly different.

You know what you just described? That DS9 Episode... Children of Time or whatever it was called, where "future" Odo stops the Defiant from crashing, saving Kira but "killing" all of the unborn children.

As a reset time travel episode, I think at the very least it had more of an impact that this one.

 

[OmahaStar]

Is there a reason this thread is even open before the dvd is available legally? Every person who has downloaded this should really be in jail, you know that, right?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Is there a reason this thread is even open before the dvd is available legally? Every person who has downloaded this should really be in jail, you know that, right?

Since when was copyright infringement a jailable offence? Fined, maybe.

 

[Valandil]

Is there a reason this thread is even open before the dvd is available legally? Every person who has downloaded this should really be in jail, you know that, right?

Not true.

There are legally available promotional discs out there as we speak.

 

[OmahaStar]

Is there a reason this thread is even open before the dvd is available legally? Every person who has downloaded this should really be in jail, you know that, right?

Not true.

There are legally available promotional discs out there as we speak.

True. What part of "downloaded" did you not understand?

 

[Valandil]

Is there a reason this thread is even open before the dvd is available legally? Every person who has downloaded this should really be in jail, you know that, right?

Not true.

There are legally available promotional discs out there as we speak.

True. What part of "downloaded" did you not understand?

Allow me to reiterate the line, "Is there a reason this thread is even open before the dvd is available legally?".

The DVD is legally available. By the way.

In the mean time, my thoughts are noted here: http://www.scifiheaven.net/index.php/2008/07/05/stargate-continuum-review/