So I just finished Stargate season 10, episode 20… and other than going “wtf, that’s the final episode?” “(other than some movies coming soon?)”… I’m thinking “gosh darn, Stargate was a great series!”
More than Star Trek, I really dug SG. And I don’t quite know why…
It wasn’t as edgy as Farscape (which very much rewards watching from start to finish, god I love that SG resurrected so many Sci Fi actors from series I loved)…
It wasn’t as dark as Firefly
It wasn’t quite as epic as Bab5
It wasn’t as gritty as (revised) BSG
But…
I forgave it the technobabble I never forgave Star Trek for.
I loved the pop culture references.
I forgave the cliche.
I forgave the innevitable ‘lets run for another season’.
So, despite its oddities, Long Live Stargate! I know Atlantis carries on the tradition, but it just doesn’t quite do it for me like Old Skool SG does. They did such a good job, and highlighted just how poorly Star Trek has been handled by contrast. Well done! Well done all I say!
I enjoyed Stargate, mainly because of what you mentioned, I think the 100th episode where they did mini parodies of other sci fi shows, they showed the reasons why I’m not a fan of other sci fi shows.One of the best parts is that the actors all seem to get along and have fun with the show.
Yeah, the sense of fun is what got me too. Which I guess is why we forgave them all their sins. They knew sometimes, they could be a bit silly, and with a wink and a nod to the audience, they won us back again.
And god I loved having the Farscape cast transplanted into SG. I loved that series so much. The final miniseries rocked too. Firefly, in particular, owes a lot to Farscape… yet so many people never managed to get into it.
I never hated Farscape but I never really gotten into it. I did enjoy Ben Browder and Claudia Black on the show. My problem is that somewhere along the way all the episodes started to blur together for me, and they started to add so many new characters that it became easy to lose track if you missed an episode.
I think that’s the main reason why SG-1 was unique. At some level, it never really took itself seriously. I think having your lead character double as comic relief was a pretty unique thing, especially for a show as character-driven as SG-1. Think about it - the vast majority of the show takes place with only four characters (five with Vala). Compared to other major sci-fi shows, that’s incredibly tiny - Firefly’s the other “character sci-fi” show, and it has over twice as many. There’s a lot of good interaction there, too.
SG1 was a series that never grabbed me as a regular viewer. I watched a show here and there when I came across it while channel surfing but was never a regular watcher. The humor was ok, but O’Neil’s constant sarcasm got old for me.
Where and how did you see the Season 10 finale? It hasn’t aired yet on Sci-Fi Channel.
SG:1 has been a consistantly good show over the course of it’s history, which is pretty amazing considering that covers over 200 episodes across two vastly different networks. The producers and writers have, for the most part, stayed true to what made the show fun to watch from the get go, the exploration, the sense of the unknown, and the overarching meta-plot that is Earth’s tiny little part in the scope of galactic happenings.
I’m really hoping we see Browder and maybe Black as well move on to the new Stargate series. I wouldn’t mind if Chris Judge came along as well, but I doubt that would happen except as an occasional guest star. I think I’ve seen enough of Tapping and Shanks and would be OK with them fading off into the eventual movies and occasional referece or guest spot. I’m insanely curious as to how they plan to make the new series without it being a simple rehash of SG:1 with all new characters.
SG-1 has already finished airing in Britain. The season finale was aired about two weeks before Episode 11 was aired in the United States. So for those with access to a Bittorrent client, we’re already finished.
And I actually liked the final episode quite a bit. It wasn’t quite Sleeping in Light of B5 fame, but it was more of an All Good Things-style ending. I thought they did a great job.
Damn you UK people and your advanced viewings of stuff! First Dr. Who Season Three and now Stargate SG:1. Ah well, if I Bittorrent them then I have nothing to relax with on Friday nights for the next 8 weeks.
I loved the light in O’Neill’s eyes when Daniel says “You know, you could do anything. No consequences. Nobody would remember.” And he just looks at Teal’c, and Teal’c looks back, and it’s one of the greatest moments of the show.
Yeah, those little moments were great… like Teal’c enjoying Star Wars and other amusing alien-on-earth moments.
Claudia Black rocks my socks. She’s just so damn charismatic on screen. Hope we see more from all of them in some capacity or other.
And yeah, if you get the chance, give Farscape a chance. It takes a little while to get going, but you really get a sense of the interesting characters developing and it steps beyond the ‘everyone is a humanoid’ cliche that most sci fi makes do with. And it has some evil stories and themes!
Did they ever clarify what happened with RDA’s baby? Remember the episode where he was stranded for several months and shacked up with that gal? At the end when he was rescued they showed her left behind clutching her belly in the “I’m pregnant” pose.
I loved the show up through the end of season 8, then I really think it lost it’s way. After that point I think Atlantis was the better show. And McKay was great for the comic relief part.
Atlantis works because the setting is similar but the “team” is larger. Sheppard, Tayla, McKay and Ronin are the “SG team”, but they get far more input and assistance from Weir, Beckett and Caldwell (and other minor recurring characters like Zwlenka or however it’s spelled) which makes it seem a little less preposterous than the standard SG:1 plotline of Jackson figures out an alien language in 15 minutes, Sam reconfigures the alien device using only a Dell laptop, Tea’lk kills a few people, O’Neill cracks wise. Atlantis is just different enough that it works and hasn’t gotten old yet.
I’m insanely curious how they will craft the third show to not be a retread of either of the current ones.
