Opinions on the original Stargate series?

My wife and I are currently watching the series through again. It still holds up well, IMO. It's always been a favorite. I like that it is (was) set on present day earth while depicting a sci-fi universe that the general public isn't aware of.

The slow advancement of Stargate Commands abilities, weaponry etc. is fun to watch as well. The scattered bits of humor (mostly by O'Neil) is fun too.

I have a serious admission to make. I've seen the movie many times but I have yet to see any of the Stargate tv series. I do plan on seeing them eventually though.

My impression about SG-1 from friends who are avid fans is that the early seasons were not that great but the quality got better and better with the later seasons. Do you find that is the case?

Several early episodes are weak, I wouldn't say any are embarrassingly so. But there are some pretty good early episodes too, so it's not like suffering through the first season of Babylon 5

It does get better as it goes however.

When I last watched through SG-1 I cherrypicked which episodes I watched.

I went with ones connected to the main plot, and also the best rated episodes.

The "groundhog day" episodes was always awesome

+1!

I haven't followed it as closely as my wife. What I liked was that humanity found itself in a precarious position from which it struggles to get out of for quite a while. The chemistry between the main actors seemed to work well. The basic concept of a teleportation network over which you initially know very little (except that it exists, and that it may lead to dangerous places, and that it may lead dangerous forces to your doorstep) was a very solid basis for a TV series. The original movie defined the art concept well. Also, there is an overall progression of the story rather than returning back to the status quo with the ending of each episode.

So far, so good.
What I didn't like was the somewhat formulaic storytelling for many episodes, and the fact that the main cast is wrapped in plot armor. Unfortunately that takes away too much of the suspense - at least for me. I'm not saying that killing your cast is the only way to create suspense, but it shouldn't be limited to end-of-season cliffhangers with impending contract negotiations. Post ST NextGen/Voyager/DS9 it was a solid science fiction series with some highlights, and some of the unfortunate limitations that were still the norm at the time.

We just happened to watch the season 7 2-parter "Heroes" yesterday evening. Wow. Since PM hasn't seen the series I can't go into detail but man part 2 is tough, really emotional.

Great dramatic TV.

while good, I always prefer Atlantis...(the Rodney factor)

What did you guys think of SG: Universe? I know a lot of hardcore fans didn't care for it at all since the overall mood and feel of the show was a significant departure from SG-1 and Atlantis.

I liked it and thought it was getting better when cancelled.

Meanwhile you need to get on Hulu and start watching SG1 or your SciFi ManCard is going to be revoked.

I thought that SG-U might be just the show for me since it had most of the ingredients that I dig; what killed it for me was their discovery in the 3rd or 4th episode that the hard timer that they had before the local gate would be terminated and the ship would move to the next system actually wasn't a hard limit if only someone stuck his arm through the gate.

That would have been an awesome opportunity to leave two guys stranded on an alien planet (with pretty much no hope of being rescued), and one guy to lose an arm.

If two episodes later they would have managed to activate an autodoc on the ship that would create a bionic prosthesis for him (to cut down on the SFX budget), that would have been perfectly fine.
If at the end of the season the ship on its erratic course would have moved back to the system where they left the team behind, and rescued them, that would have been perfectly fine.

As it was: Plot armor for main protagonists, again, and therefore pseudo-drama in every race against the clock (as the clock would be plot-synchronized).



With regret, I realized that this new show was not meant for me.

Game of Thrones = Most definitely NO plot armor there.

This thread has made me think of the young lady I went to see the film with, we both enjoyed the film and we both had to make a bit of an effort to meet up and see it in Plymouth when the film came out. She is now has a Doctorate and lectures in a university in Holland.

So I'm sure we are all brimming with curiosity here. Was it a date or were you guys just friends?

...up to season 5, maybe 6. Season 7, full of it. Which really irritated me.

GoT writers: You have five seasons to learn the basic tenets of proper suspense building from the undisputed master, and as soon as he can't keep up with his writing you relapse into old, bad habits? Really?

SG1 is 20+ years old, not killing off main characters was the norm in those days. Don't judge it by current standards.

This is quite true and a fair statement. With very few exceptions, the only time major characters were killed off back in the 1990's was when the actor left the show for whatever reason.

Really good friends, she is Dutch and a fair bit younger than me (about 15 years), we met at Manchester University at a lecture about marine bio diversity, I was busy writing notes while the floor had been opened to questions and this female voice with a funny accent started to ask and make comment on the lecture, but I sat up and took notice as she was making some good points, I then looked across at her and wow she was nice looking too After the lecture I went down to have a word with the lecturer and she came across too and we were both saying pretty much the same thing about the lack of integration between the different agencies that were looking after our coasts and seas. Anyway we went off and had coffee and chatted for a while, a few months later she came to stay with me on holiday, I helped her with her dissertation and I still have all her research notes stored in my garage.

She is now married with kids and is a dr at Groningen University

https://www.rug.nl/ucg/education/bettina-van-hoven?lang=en


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFZg4MvaDxQ

We're watching Atlantis now. I won't say I prefer it over SG1 but it certainly is no slouch, a rare case where a spin off is at least the equal of the original series.

Watching SGU now. I may be enjoying it more now than I did years ago when I first watched it, but it is still my least favorite series in the SG genre.

As I told my wife if the original SG had started off with a dark tone like SGU I would probably have liked it, and then been disappointed if they had to gone a lighter tone later on. I think it is largely just what someone gets used to and expects from a given series. There are some light moments in SGU however, mostly from Eli.

If you read up on the history of the whole Stargate franchise you'll find that the economic downturn of 2008 was devastating. A third planned DVD movie was lost and there was a far along plan to revive SGA that died with the economy. Probably played a big part in SGU ending when it did too.