Stargate SG-1 Turns 25!
July 28, 2022 6:31 AM Subscribe
The unexpected TV spin-off of a box office sleeper hit helped to create a new renaissance in science fiction on cable television. The future of Stargate could be looking brighter as word of a pilot script from one of the original SG-1 producers is being pitched to the franchise's new owner, Amazon. Also, look back at the third SG-1 film that was never made and check out members of the cast performing a script written by an AI.
SGU: We have no oxygen, no food, no plan, but at least we have loads of lipstick!
posted by pompomtom at 7:02 AM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by pompomtom at 7:02 AM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
Watching the movie for the first time just this year got me into SG1 which of course got me into Atlantis. Once I'm done with that (I'm in the latter half of the final season) it'll be on to the movies. Stargate is The Little SciFi Franchise That Could.
posted by tommasz at 7:04 AM on July 28, 2022
posted by tommasz at 7:04 AM on July 28, 2022
Might someone point me to how the spoiler hidden-comment thing works? Given the previous comment, I don't want to say a cool thing that I liked.
posted by pompomtom at 7:08 AM on July 28, 2022
posted by pompomtom at 7:08 AM on July 28, 2022
SGU: We have no oxygen, no food, no plan, but at least we have loads of lipstick!
SG:U was the best series in the franchise, and it's not close. I don't mean to take anything away from SG1: it was some good old fashioned Macgyver-roleplaying-Jean-Luc-Picard fun, and I really liked it. SG:U was a perfect blend of hard sci-fi, survival horror, and actual complex decision-making with consequences. (IIRC, when the series was announced, someone on MetaFilter identified themselves as the show's keeper of internal consistency, so we didn't end up with Star Trek: Voyager with an infinite supply of photon torpedoes)
posted by Mayor West at 7:09 AM on July 28, 2022 [8 favorites]
SG:U was the best series in the franchise, and it's not close. I don't mean to take anything away from SG1: it was some good old fashioned Macgyver-roleplaying-Jean-Luc-Picard fun, and I really liked it. SG:U was a perfect blend of hard sci-fi, survival horror, and actual complex decision-making with consequences. (IIRC, when the series was announced, someone on MetaFilter identified themselves as the show's keeper of internal consistency, so we didn't end up with Star Trek: Voyager with an infinite supply of photon torpedoes)
posted by Mayor West at 7:09 AM on July 28, 2022 [8 favorites]
OK, I went and looked it up. Not only was it a MeFite, it was John Scalzi!
On Being the Stargate Universe Creative Consultant
posted by Mayor West at 7:12 AM on July 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
On Being the Stargate Universe Creative Consultant
posted by Mayor West at 7:12 AM on July 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
Fair play to you Sir and/or Madam, but I respectfully disagree.
Bigstyle.
posted by pompomtom at 7:14 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Bigstyle.
posted by pompomtom at 7:14 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Really though, what Amazon should do* is make a series of Wormhole: Extreme.
* die in a fire.
posted by pompomtom at 7:23 AM on July 28, 2022 [8 favorites]
* die in a fire.
posted by pompomtom at 7:23 AM on July 28, 2022 [8 favorites]
Might someone point me to how the spoiler hidden-comment thing works?
I just re-learned this myself. It’s the <details> tag.
posted by gauche at 7:28 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I just re-learned this myself. It’s the <details> tag.
posted by gauche at 7:28 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
One of the subtle but appreciated touches in SG:U was that in the pilot, when they used solving a puzzle in a video game as a plot point, they didn't use some random game footage, but footage from the cancelled Stargate MMO.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:29 AM on July 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:29 AM on July 28, 2022 [7 favorites]
I underappreciated Stargate for the longest time. I had liked the movie OK and happened to have Showtime during the first season. I caught a few episodes and just wasn't very interested, so I didn't watch any more of it until SG:U.
I liked that well enough to go back and watch the whole thing again and I have to say that most of it was really good. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Atlantis was also enjoyable.
I rewatched them all a couple of months ago and enjoyed them just as much. I can't recommend the franchise enough.
posted by wierdo at 7:53 AM on July 28, 2022
I liked that well enough to go back and watch the whole thing again and I have to say that most of it was really good. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Atlantis was also enjoyable.
I rewatched them all a couple of months ago and enjoyed them just as much. I can't recommend the franchise enough.
posted by wierdo at 7:53 AM on July 28, 2022
The future of Stargate could be looking brighter as word of a pilot script from one of the original SG-1 producers
Does that mean we'll finally get to meet the Furlings?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:43 AM on July 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Does that mean we'll finally get to meet the Furlings?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:43 AM on July 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
I’m in the SG:U calling you being the best of the series camp. That really is not to diminish the original or even Atlantis. Especially the original, which SG:U would not have existed without. But of the series, that one was the most compelling.
It also didn’t have that weird feel of a Syfy show, at least not the way most do. I can never put my finger on it, but there is a certain feel to many Syfy shows that is a turn off. Some is repetitiveness, but not all. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it exactly, but I can often tell a SyFy show without knowing it’s a SyFy show. And it has killed many a great concept for me. SG:U only barely had it.
But! I’m a fan of big spaceship scifi, so that helps.
Mind you, many hours of enjoyment have come from SG1 and SGA. It’s just SG:U was better.
And of course was canceled just as it was really getting good. Because SyFy.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:45 AM on July 28, 2022
It also didn’t have that weird feel of a Syfy show, at least not the way most do. I can never put my finger on it, but there is a certain feel to many Syfy shows that is a turn off. Some is repetitiveness, but not all. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it exactly, but I can often tell a SyFy show without knowing it’s a SyFy show. And it has killed many a great concept for me. SG:U only barely had it.
But! I’m a fan of big spaceship scifi, so that helps.
Mind you, many hours of enjoyment have come from SG1 and SGA. It’s just SG:U was better.
And of course was canceled just as it was really getting good. Because SyFy.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:45 AM on July 28, 2022
Pours one out for SGU
posted by riverlife at 8:46 AM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by riverlife at 8:46 AM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Rewatching Stargate a while back and it was really refreshing to see a scifi show again with proper full length seasons and episodes.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:56 AM on July 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:56 AM on July 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Spoiler
This is how you do spoilers:<details><summary>Spoilers</summary>This is how you do spoilers.</details>
posted by zengargoyle at 9:08 AM on July 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
The show's only 25? It feels like I've been watching it since sometime in the 80s!
posted by Thorzdad at 9:33 AM on July 28, 2022
posted by Thorzdad at 9:33 AM on July 28, 2022
I like the first eight seasons on SG-1, and was pretty happy to watch Atlantis, but I couldn't get into SGU at all. I'm surprised to see the love for it here. Maybe I should revisit it.
Nah, I've got too much else going on.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:04 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Nah, I've got too much else going on.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:04 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I wish I had the binge time everyone else here does. I've been trying to work my way through the series since the start of the year and I've made it to Season 4 of SG1. Still looking forward to seeing Parker Lewis come in.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 10:29 AM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 10:29 AM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
It's nice that this thread is only one over from the thread where the AV Club interviews Ronny Cox a/k/a Senator Kinsey.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:34 AM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:34 AM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Stargate SG1 The Very Best of Vala Mal Doran Part 6 - YouTube
Favorite Vala moment. Step 1... oops... recalculate... step 1...
Bringing in Chriton and Aeryn from Farscape was genius. SG had a good sense of humor. Fun to watch, don't over think it.
Yep, definitely a favorite show, a good suspension of disbelief romp.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:43 AM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
Favorite Vala moment. Step 1... oops... recalculate... step 1...
Bringing in Chriton and Aeryn from Farscape was genius. SG had a good sense of humor. Fun to watch, don't over think it.
Yep, definitely a favorite show, a good suspension of disbelief romp.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:43 AM on July 28, 2022 [6 favorites]
It's nice that this thread is only one over from the thread where the AV Club interviews Ronny Cox a/k/a Senator Kinsey.
It was definitely an inspiration.
posted by tommasz at 10:49 AM on July 28, 2022
It was definitely an inspiration.
posted by tommasz at 10:49 AM on July 28, 2022
Huge fan of SG-1. My family has binged the whole series probably three-four times in the last 10 years. It ticks off all my desired binge qualities - hour-ish drama with some humor and light episodes thrown in, ensemble cast with appealing characters, reasonable representation of women, long story arcs combined with self-contained episodes, easy to follow when you're doing a jigsaw puzzle or cooking dinner, quotable dialogue, not too unrelentingly grim. The grim-factor is probably why I prefer the Goa'uld era to the Ori era.
Every so often I search for the perfect Comtrya t-shirt for my son; if anyone has a recommendation it would be greatly appreciated. Indeed.
posted by rekrap at 11:24 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Every so often I search for the perfect Comtrya t-shirt for my son; if anyone has a recommendation it would be greatly appreciated. Indeed.
posted by rekrap at 11:24 AM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
SG:U suffered from broadcast scheduling tomfoolery, I think. I remember being Very Annoyed with how long it took to get on with things and y'know, do some _gate_ stuff, instead of fucking around with the communications rings and partying on Earth and blah blah blah. But as a bingeable series where you can get through the 10-ish episodes that set it up and get past the "gosh wouldn't it be great if we could just get home and hey where's the water and air going?" episodes in a few days, it's great. Totally worth watching if you bounced off of it in broadcast.
posted by Kyol at 12:40 PM on July 28, 2022
posted by Kyol at 12:40 PM on July 28, 2022
I love Stargate! I have always felt that the story isn’t done until we see the gate become public knowledge, and those stories get told. One of the major missed opportunities was to have the Earth civilians and the humans from other planets really dig in to why Earth is the one planet in the galaxy that keeps something like this a secret.
posted by BeeDo at 1:59 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by BeeDo at 1:59 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I actually felt that SG1 under Showtime was the best of the series. There was more a focus on discovering different alien species and the Ancients weren't implied to be ascended beings. Latter seasons and series had a higher focus on ascension, which I felt ruined the physics of the setting. The alliance of the Furlings, Asgard, Nox, and Ancients works if the Ancients weren't so overwhelmingly powerful compared to the other three.
posted by DetriusXii at 3:58 PM on July 28, 2022
posted by DetriusXii at 3:58 PM on July 28, 2022
Maybe it's time we took Stargate over to FanFare?
I see the original movie is on Amazon prime. Chevron 1 encoded...
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:10 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I see the original movie is on Amazon prime. Chevron 1 encoded...
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:10 PM on July 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I really enjoyed SG:U, enough to watch through it twice. It also got me interested enough in the franchise to start watching SG-1. I finally pooped out after, I don't know, the first thousand episodes or so. Talk about an eternity of network TV! I just couldn't keep going.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:24 PM on July 28, 2022
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:24 PM on July 28, 2022
I miss Stargate terribly. The last two seasons of SG1 are really a different series (and was meant to be), and I was sad they didn't get more time with it. As others have said, SGU really came into its own and S2 is some of the best SF out there. Canceled way too soon. If they bring it back I will be very excited.
posted by rednikki at 6:56 PM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rednikki at 6:56 PM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Y’all have convinced me to give SGU another shot. I love SG-1 so much and was meh on Atlantis. I did watch SGU at the initial airing- or at least some of it -but I am swayed by the argument above that it works better as a binge watch.
Atlantis, and a lot of SG-1 seasons 9 and 10, has that hard to describe quality of SyFy shows… sort of glib and superficial? When I rewatch SG-1 I stop at season 8. And sometimes at 7.
posted by janell at 7:02 PM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Atlantis, and a lot of SG-1 seasons 9 and 10, has that hard to describe quality of SyFy shows… sort of glib and superficial? When I rewatch SG-1 I stop at season 8. And sometimes at 7.
posted by janell at 7:02 PM on July 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm always awed by how tight and unpresumptuous Stargate the movie is. It's an original concept, the pacing is great, the exposition flows naturally and is never more than the audience needs to know, and the film ends without dropping any real sequel hooks and never once aspires to be a franchise. They save the day and go home. That's it.
SG-1 takes this and adds some klunky backstory which shouldn't really work but does because the series commits to it even when the writers know it's absurd. Is it stupidly convenient that a Zat'nik'tel stuns with the first shot, kills on the second shot, and vaporizes with the third short? Of course it is. Is it silly that you can hold a stargate open and prevent it from closing by leaving your hand in it as though you were holding a door open? You bet! Chevron 8 lets you call other galaxies like an area code? Woah! But this is the way the universe works, and we're not even going to pretend that there's some reason for it so repeat to yourself that it's just a show and relax...
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:38 PM on July 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
SG-1 takes this and adds some klunky backstory which shouldn't really work but does because the series commits to it even when the writers know it's absurd. Is it stupidly convenient that a Zat'nik'tel stuns with the first shot, kills on the second shot, and vaporizes with the third short? Of course it is. Is it silly that you can hold a stargate open and prevent it from closing by leaving your hand in it as though you were holding a door open? You bet! Chevron 8 lets you call other galaxies like an area code? Woah! But this is the way the universe works, and we're not even going to pretend that there's some reason for it so repeat to yourself that it's just a show and relax...
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:38 PM on July 28, 2022 [9 favorites]
Also, coming back to the content - oh, this is Brad Wright's new script, not the long rumored Dean Devlin one. I've always sort of wondered what Devlin's proposed series would have looked like, apparently he didn't like a lot of what where SG-1 went?
(Also also: I maintain that a lot of semi-maligned TV series are a lot better as bingeable streaming shows now. Heroes? You don't have a month of "Oh no Hiro teleported everybody to olde-timey Japan, what will happen NEXT?!?" previews and cliffhangers, you get a cliffhanger and you resolve it right away. All the marketing sturm and drang that the episode writing didn't actually support just sort of disappears, and the rapid pace tends to paper over plot holes that develop.)
posted by Kyol at 7:51 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
(Also also: I maintain that a lot of semi-maligned TV series are a lot better as bingeable streaming shows now. Heroes? You don't have a month of "Oh no Hiro teleported everybody to olde-timey Japan, what will happen NEXT?!?" previews and cliffhangers, you get a cliffhanger and you resolve it right away. All the marketing sturm and drang that the episode writing didn't actually support just sort of disappears, and the rapid pace tends to paper over plot holes that develop.)
posted by Kyol at 7:51 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Come to think of it, SG-1 is at it's best when the show comes off as a bunch of uncontrollable tabletop gamers roleplaying Stargate. Like, the DM originally said "there's this gate, and you enter a sequence of symbols which opens a wormhole to another gate" and Carter was like "I try a different sequence of symbols" and the DM was like "it doesn't work because of.....stellar drift" and then Carter was like "But I'll do the math to account for stellar drift" and rolls a natural D20 then DM was like "FINE. The gate opens and connects to some planet called Chulak. Happy?"
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:51 AM on July 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:51 AM on July 29, 2022 [4 favorites]
...and that's why you can only go through one way, except for the first episode?
I like it.
posted by pompomtom at 8:00 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I like it.
posted by pompomtom at 8:00 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't rewatch many shows but SG-1 is very high on my very short list of comfort rewatches. I love Carter to the end of the universe and back, and enjoy yelling at Daniel (in my head) because he's the worst.
For me, a big part of why the last few seasons don't work as well is the fucking Ori. I was a huge Farscape fan, so I enjoy watching Ben Browder and Claudia Black (especially) but the Ori are garbage villains. The Goa'uld are flashy and camp and emotional and varied, the Replicators at least mostly keep their fucking mouths shut, but the Ori are just blah blah blah self-righteous judginess and complete lack of humor.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 8:45 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
For me, a big part of why the last few seasons don't work as well is the fucking Ori. I was a huge Farscape fan, so I enjoy watching Ben Browder and Claudia Black (especially) but the Ori are garbage villains. The Goa'uld are flashy and camp and emotional and varied, the Replicators at least mostly keep their fucking mouths shut, but the Ori are just blah blah blah self-righteous judginess and complete lack of humor.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 8:45 AM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]
The whole SG franchise is criminally under-appreciated, especially Stargate Universe--which ended on such a cliffhanger! The rich storytelling, great characters, and long episodic arcs are the equal of DS9 or Farscape.
posted by LarryC at 8:55 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by LarryC at 8:55 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
The bit I like about the Ori is that you have these All-American Heroes (implicitly Proddies) who have already defeated one bunch of 'false gods', having to then wriggle around the question of 'what is (a) god actually'?
IMHO they largely fail in distinguishing the Ori - qualitatively - from YHWH or whatever.
posted by pompomtom at 10:11 AM on July 29, 2022
IMHO they largely fail in distinguishing the Ori - qualitatively - from YHWH or whatever.
posted by pompomtom at 10:11 AM on July 29, 2022
(Daniel should return from ascension-land and say 'so it's great that we're all free from the Ori, but I have the five really important ideas - let's call them "pillars" - which must guide our new way of living)
posted by pompomtom at 10:52 AM on July 29, 2022
posted by pompomtom at 10:52 AM on July 29, 2022
Did a complete binge watch during lockdown, catching up with episodes I had never actually seen. While I will always be a star trek girl, I love Stargate so much, because, despite the inplousabilies, it a bit more real, more grounded. SGU took a wile to get good, yet the struggle for survival was what STVOY should have been.
(I will heart jack/Sam to the Atlantis star system and back)
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:41 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
(I will heart jack/Sam to the Atlantis star system and back)
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 11:41 AM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
IMHO they largely fail in distinguishing the Ori - qualitatively - from YHWH or whatever.
I think one thing they established was that the Ori gained their powers from being worshipped -- more worshippers meant more power, with the eventual end goal of challenging the ascended beings. So when SG-1 managed to kill the Ori in Season 10 (spoilers? I guess?) all of that worship power went straight into Adria, until the events in Ark of Truth.
The snarkier answer I could give is that the Ori actually sent Priors who could do actual magic (or sufficiently advanced science, I guess) whereas YHWH... hasn't done that in a while, if ever.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:42 AM on July 29, 2022
I think one thing they established was that the Ori gained their powers from being worshipped -- more worshippers meant more power, with the eventual end goal of challenging the ascended beings. So when SG-1 managed to kill the Ori in Season 10 (spoilers? I guess?) all of that worship power went straight into Adria, until the events in Ark of Truth.
The snarkier answer I could give is that the Ori actually sent Priors who could do actual magic (or sufficiently advanced science, I guess) whereas YHWH... hasn't done that in a while, if ever.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:42 AM on July 29, 2022
HAMMOND OF TEXAS!
I will argue that seasons two through six are the best. Things went off the rails after that. I do like the Farscape infusion but the Ori were insufferable. The cat we named after DanielJackson (it's one word, just ask Teal'c) died last year but we replaced him with an obnoxious kitten named Jack after General O'Neill. I think the next guitar I get should be named after Sam Carter.
We loved Atlantis as well. It never got the movie it deserved and that's a crime MGM should be prosecuted for. SGU we never followed all the way through because of the scheduling. The tone was quite different that the other two and while I appreciate it, I think a lot of fans did not, including my beloved.
posted by Ber at 3:16 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I will argue that seasons two through six are the best. Things went off the rails after that. I do like the Farscape infusion but the Ori were insufferable. The cat we named after DanielJackson (it's one word, just ask Teal'c) died last year but we replaced him with an obnoxious kitten named Jack after General O'Neill. I think the next guitar I get should be named after Sam Carter.
We loved Atlantis as well. It never got the movie it deserved and that's a crime MGM should be prosecuted for. SGU we never followed all the way through because of the scheduling. The tone was quite different that the other two and while I appreciate it, I think a lot of fans did not, including my beloved.
posted by Ber at 3:16 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think one thing they established was that the Ori gained their powers from being worshipped -- more worshippers meant more power,
cf the conversion of Rome, or the Battle of Badr and subsequent conversion of polytheists. In each case more worshippers meant more power to a single point.
Tetragrammaton or some other monotheism: - can there even logically be more than one 'monotheism'?
posted by pompomtom at 9:29 AM on July 30, 2022
cf the conversion of Rome, or the Battle of Badr and subsequent conversion of polytheists. In each case more worshippers meant more power to a single point.
Tetragrammaton or some other monotheism: - can there even logically be more than one 'monotheism'?
posted by pompomtom at 9:29 AM on July 30, 2022
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posted by Servo5678 at 6:34 AM on July 28, 2022 [1 favorite]