I was a huge SG-1 fan. It was my first fandom. Before that, I wasn't even a sci-fi fan. At all. I only wanted to know what Richard Dean Anderson looked like now. I had not expected to so completely fall into love with this show and team. As someone mentioned before, the characters all had such great relationships with each other. And I would want to include Hammond and Janet into this as well.
When I watched TOS for the first time ever many years later I often had to smile as so many things reminded me of Stargate, when in truth it was the other way around of course. I always say the episode with the Horta could be a Stargate episode as well, with Jack trying to shoot it and Daniel trying to save it.
I came into SG-1 it in season 4 so had a lot to catch up with. My local video library had a sale of old videos and I bought some. They had two episodes each. That was before DVDs even existed. When the first of those came out in Germany, instead of giving us the full first season, someone up there decided which episodes were the best and which to leave out. That was weird. We got them all in the end but not in the right order. I later bought a proper box set with all seasons.
Stargate has so many firsts for me. First computer, first online forum, first conventions, first fanfictions, first action figures, first trip to the UK (to meet RDA, who had sworn to never do a convention in his life so nobody believed the organizers at first).
In fact, I learnt all my English by reading fanfictions. For years I sounded like a cranky Air Force Colonel.
I didn't like the direction the show took in seasons 9 and 10. I already did not like the epic cpace battles with space ships that began in season 6, that was not the show that I had signed up for. But when magic was introduced it lost me completely.
I also did not like how divided the fanbase had become, between old and new fans. When you come new into a show, at least have the decency to catch up and find out why it is so much loved. I came into X-files when Doggett started and then went back to see why everyone missed Mulder so much. But it hurts to read when some new fan asks who is Janet and some other new fan replies "I think she was some kind of doctor".
I watched Atlantis as well and liked it in the beginning but the way it later went I was glad when it ended and I did not need to bother anymore. I gave up on SGU some episodes in, figuring that I'm not forced to watch everything just because it has the Stargate sticker.
Nothing ever beat the mother show for me. They had a great mix of stand-alone episodes and a bigger story arc, and all the guest and recurring actors were nicely cast as well.
What people probably don't realize is how much RDA was doing behind the scenes as a producer. He was the one asking "How come" and send the writers back to the drawing board to fill the plot holes, trying to keep things realistic and not too over the top. Once he was gone, nobody was checking the writers anymore as they had become their own producers. And when fans complained, instead of listening they became snappy.
It simply did not make sense to make a rookie that had never been through the gate before the leader of SG-1. There were a lot of heated discussions at Gateworld at the time.
What used to be a good drama show with some humor became a comedy in its later years, and not a funny one. I didn't touch my DVDs nor figures for years afterwards as it had left a stale taste. But once you go back to the early seasons, you realize all over again why this show was so great.
They could have continued with new faces and new teams, I certainly would have watched on if the quality was the same.
