The Stargate Franchise - A First Timer's Watchthrough

[DonIago]

I do think it's a little sad that Atlantis wraps things up in a standard episode, versus any sort of arc or even two-parter. I mean, yeah "Vegas" sets the stage, but you don't really miss anything essential to the finale if you miss that episode.

Granted SG-1's finale was a standalone episode too, strictly speaking, but then they got "Ark of Truth", which I consider more of a proper finale, with "Continuum" being more of a fun appendix than anything that really builds the series.

 

[bigdaddy]

What Joe Flanigan said in that clip kind of strikes me as what happened with Star Trek, and the comment about Spyglass reminded me of it. Hollywood goes for glitz and glamour but through all of that they forget what made a franchise successful in the first place. This is also the first time I've heard an actor actually wanting to lease the show away from a company to continue it.

The idea of doing two Stargate movies, then a full reboot trilogy was completely insane. The one benefit of Independence Day 2 is that at least killed the reboot good and dead. I don't understand what MGM is doing, why not make a new Stargate show? It makes no sense. Same with the Sliders creator wants to buy the rights, but he can't. It's all insane insane and just bad business.

But that's some damn love for the job to buy the rights to your show. And worse yet it would still work! Just get whomever they can back, no one but Aquaman seems overly busy. RDA and Amanda Tapping would love to be part. Just give us more classic, not Universe BS, Stargate.

 

[Farscape One]

Can I make a recommendation for a series watch after SGU?

SANCTUARY

It's created by Damian Kindler, the guy who wrote the "RECKONING" two-parter and a LOT of episodes since season 6. It stars Amanda Tapping, and Martin Wood was the main director. Christopher Heyerdahl (Todd) also stars... in more than one role.

It was a very good show. I will say it got a little into the fantastical later on, but it was always a solid premise with some really great gems of episodes.

4 seasons in all, not including the original 8 part web series, which if memory serves me, was rewritten to be the first 3 episodes of season 1. It's only 59 episodes, if I did my math right on episode count for the seasons... it's been a long time since I saw it. (Pretty confident about the number, as SEAQUEST had the same number of episodes.)

I enjoyed that show a lot, and I commented that to Tapping when I met her at DragonCon years ago. (She even did her British accent for me... LOVED her for it. Hell, if you ever do find a convention that has her in it, go see her. I've met literally hundreds of actors/actresses over the years, and she has always been one of my favorites that I got to meet. Super nice and just a really fun person all around.)

 

[Jayson1]

I know Joe Flanigan did a episode of Fringe but I also wondered why we haven't seen him at all since the show ended. As a Stargate fan I find it kind of funny and interesting that Momoa ended up being this huge big star many years later. I bet nobody ever predicted that back then. I always get a little nerd annoyed though when they talk about his past credits they go straight to Game of Thrones. I am like "Mention Stargate you people!!"

Jason

 

[captainkirk]

I know Joe Flanigan did a episode of Fringe but I also wondered why we haven't seen him at all since the show ended. As a Stargate fan I find it kind of funny and interesting that Momoa ended up being this huge big star many years later. I bet nobody ever predicted that back then. I always get a little nerd annoyed though when they talk about his past credits they go straight to Game of Thrones. I am like "Mention Stargate you people!!"

Jason

Stargate should seem like an obvious mention because you can make jokes about how he returned to Atlantis for Aquaman.

 

[The Wormhole]

Was it? He said he had met the Atlantis team and John was the leader of it. The only time I can think that actually happened was M & MM. If it was a different Rodney, that kinda confused me.

I suspect the intention while writing Vegas was that this was indeed the alternate McKay's reality from McKay & Mrs. Miller, with the writers having forgotten that that McKay talked about Sheppard of his reality.

An attempted rationalization I've seen is that since alternate McKay was making his Sheppard sound more analogous to our McKay was that alternate McKay was pulling a prank on our Sheppard. Though, IMO that doesn't really hold up too well and seems like a lot of tapdancing for what was likely just the writers being forgetful.

 

[Jayson1]

I suspect the intention while writing Vegas was that this was indeed the alternate McKay's reality from McKay & Mrs. Miller, with the writers having forgotten that that McKay talked about Sheppard of his reality.

An attempted rationalization I've seen is that since alternate McKay was making his Sheppard sound more analogous to our McKay was that alternate McKay was pulling a prank on our Sheppard. Though, IMO that doesn't really hold up too well and seems like a lot of tapdancing for what was likely just the writers being forgetful.

I think that makes a lot of sense. I never really considered the idea the writers simply forgot about the Sheppard line. I can't decide though if I like the idea of Mensa Sheppard or the chance to see that Rodney's world to choose to go with the likely intention of the ep or the head canon out.

Jason

 

[Astra]

David Hewlett seems to be set on the (crazy) scientist role now, I’ve seen him turn up in some B-movies. The kind where they thaw out a monster in Antarctica.

Last year when there were the heavy fires in California there was a video where Joe Flanigan got interviewed as his house had burnt down, although I doubt the interviewer knew who he was. He was going around the neighbourhood, helping people.

 

[Samurai8472]

Here's an interview with Flanigan from 9 months ago

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Video where he was interviewed during the California fires

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David Hewlett is on youtube every few days

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I'm surprised he's into Linux. It don't hear about alot of actors who know computer programming

 

[Farscape One]

Something to consider, too. "VEGAS" was actually the 100th episode produced. It was filmed after "ENEMY AT THE GATE".

Season 5 only had a couple episodes aired out of production order... season 3 had a bunch, and season 4 had half their season out of order. (Example: "DOPPELGANGER" was filmed first, then "ADRIFT" and "LIFELINE".)

I think part of the "VEGAS" flip was because they wanted to make sure there was enough budget money for the finale, so having made first and then doing a relatively low key episode was sort of the reverse bottle episode strategy.

 

[tomalak301]

@Samurai8472

I saw the first interview last night. Just watched the one in Malibu and it was so weird that the reporter didn't know who he was. I'm not surprised (Atlantis is a niche show). Good on him actually helping his community during that time.

 

[captainkirk]

Video where he was interviewed during the California fires

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Wait, does that say Woolsey fire?

 

[tomalak301]

Can I make a recommendation for a series watch after SGU?

SANCTUARY

I decided I'm going to do Agents of Shield next. (Still not sure if I will do a review thread) I do like Amanda Tapping so I will probably get to Sanctuary eventually, or next year.

 

[JD]

It was? I thought everyone agreed it was garbage and should have NEVER been written.

Yeah, maybe "controversial" was being to nice. It's one of those plot points that really makes you wonder what they were thinking.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm looking forward to seeing what tomalak thinks of SGU.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I'm looking forward to seeing what tomalak thinks of SGU.

Me too.

 

[tomalak301]

Air (Part 1)

So here we are, Stargate: Voyager (I mean Universe).

On a serious note, it was a good start to the series. I liked how the beginning of the episode showed everyone coming through the gate and pretty much being thrown on the ship, and then at the end we saw why. O'Niell, Jackson, and Carter were merely cameos, but they were pretty good cameos. It seems like this will be a little bit of a darker series, but for it only being one episode it's hard to say. I brought up Voyager mainly because it looks like this series will be about them being transported billions of light years from home and they have to get back somehow. I did like Eli and Rush so far, even though there were some instances where it did feel like watching a CW show, like the dinner scene with Chloe and her father (The Senator).

 

[Romulan_spy]

Air (Part 1)

So here we are, Stargate: Voyager (I mean Universe).

On a serious note, it was a good start to the series. I liked how the beginning of the episode showed everyone coming through the gate and pretty much being thrown on the ship, and then at the end we saw why. O'Niell, Jackson, and Carter were merely cameos, but they were pretty good cameos. It seems like this will be a little bit of a darker series, but for it only being one episode it's hard to say. I brought up Voyager mainly because it looks like this series will be about them being transported billions of light years from home and they have to get back somehow. I did like Eli so far, even though there were some instances where it did feel like watching a CW show.

Yeah, it will be a darker, more mature series. And fair warning, it takes a few episodes to really get going. The first 6 episodes are literally just about survival. The second half of season 2 starts to really pick up. "Time" and "Human" are a couple of my favorite S1 episodes. The series is entirely serialized so there is a main story arc that really builds across episodes.

Watch for a spectacular moment in the episode "Light". Destiny is an amazing ship. And you will find out it's purpose, which is really cool.

The comparison to Voyager is interesting. But there are definitely some big differences. I won't say more to avoid spoilers. But one obvious difference that you probably noticed from the first episode is that this expedition are on a completely alien ship whereas in Voyager, the crew knew how Voyager worked. Also, the tone is very different. But you know how some Voyager fans wanted the series to deal more with survival and conflict between the Starfleet crew and the Maquis crew? Well, SGU is what Voyager would have been like, if the writers had tackled those issues.

 

[tomalak301]

The comparison to Voyager is interesting. But there are definitely some big differences. I won't say more to avoid spoilers. But one obvious difference that you probably noticed from the first episode is that this expedition are on a completely alien ship whereas in Voyager, the crew knew how Voyager worked. Also, the tone is very different. But you know how some Voyager fans wanted the series to deal more with survival and conflict between the Starfleet crew and the Maquis crew? Well, SGU is what Voyager would have been like, if the writers had tackled those issues.

The only reason I compared it to Voyager was because it's about this expedition trying to get home from the far reaches of space. I actually did like the idea that this was a very different and new ship to them. They said it was of ancient design.

 

[bigdaddy]

Watch for a spectacular moment in the episode "Light". Destiny is an amazing ship. And you will find out it's purpose, which is really cool.

Spoiler

The ship is how the Stargate network was set up right?