u/No-Yak6109

I been making may way through the series for the first time, as Stargate is one of the few major sci-fi franchises I didn't get into.

As I reached season 8, I have also been watching Atlantis season 1. I've watched up to and including episodes 18. For Atlantis, that is The Gift (where we learn that Teyla has Wraith DNA). For SG1 that is Threads.

Thus far I've been enjoying the show as a fun adventure. I'd call it like a consistent B+/A-. Rarely does it the special heights of great moments from Trek or B5, but it also rarely does it dip into levels of cheese or awfulness that those shows do at their worst.

Carter and Jackson are the likable characters. Carter especially becomes a favorite as Jackson disappears for a season. Tapping/Carter are like the heart of the show for me, Atlantis has thus far failed to capture my interest, I'm finding it hard to give a damn about any of these boring characters.

Part of it could just be spreading it out too thin. I believe a major problem with modern franchise entertainment IP is they just don't know when to quit. Hello, Marvel and Star Wars.

A good ending is key to a story and stuff today just don't know how to end.

Threads is the end of the story. All the major Gou'auld (sp?) are gone (granted I didn't see Ba'al's corps but it's safe to project that he died during the off screen battles with the rebel Jaffa). Yu and the other system lords that ever gave our heroes a problem are gone. Well, I guess Osiris might be kicking around? But that is small potatoes after everything. Most importantly, Anubis and the replicators are gone.

More important- Jack and Carter dumped their SO's (poor CIA lady that shows up just to be Jack's gf for one ep lol). Now- I really kinda hated that tbh. Carter had that big emotional episode where she realized she crushed Jack as a way to shield herself. It was really poignant and now this negates that. And I'll admit I just think it's lame when the two lead male/female HAVE to hook up (still mad at X-Files). But, regardless, it happened, ok.

Tealc and Brelac saw their crazy dream of Jaffa liberation come true. The Asgard are saved. Daniel Jackson is alive and presumably doesn't have to deal with Oma, Ascension, or any of that nonsense again.

We end with them all fishing! I mean- try to come up with a great final scene.

I don't know if I wanna keep going now. There's two eps left in the season and apparently it's some time travel / alt universe business and I can't roll my eyes hard enough at that kind of stuff (blame Marvel?) Then two whole other seasons.

I know Claudia Black comes back, and if there's ever been a cooler/hotter sci-fi babe than Samantha Carter, it was Aeryn Sun. But her one appearance so far was absurd- yes, I expected sexy badass but it was like a parody of it.

Is Atlantis worth continuing? I understand first seasons are always the weakest. I was fine with SG1's first season. I actually like first seasons for that reason. But Atlantis being a spin-off, that charm is gone. It's just... more content. I'm stunned by how absolutely a bland dud the hot warrior native chick is. The annoying asshole genius science guy has amusing moments but that act wears thin. Weir is the only compelling character (my favorite episode so far was the one with her being super old). Oh yeah, there's "we have O'Neill at home" who talks like Owen Wilson, too.

I know I'm in a Stargate sub and folks enjoy the whole thing, that's cool. But honestly, from the point of view of story telling and getting the best of the show, am I crazy to feel like this is a good place to just... stop?

Canceled plans led to a little binge watch since my last thread, allowing me to run up to the mid point of the first season. Episodes watched:

1.7: Cold Lazurus (O'Neill back story)

1.8: The Nox (pacifist pajama party)

1.9: Brief Candle (a TNG style ep if I've ever seen one)

1.10: Thor's Hammer (great lore-heavy ep with an infuriating ending)

1.11: The Torment of Tantalus (Dr. Catherine Langford!)

A couple of things I meant to get out before:

- General Hammond used to live in Twin Peaks with his real name Garland Briggs. After resolving his relationship with his estranged son after a series of murders by interdimensional evil forces, he learned to communicate better and re-focus on his career enough to be ordered to oversee the Stargate project. He changed his name for security reasons. He is also hoping to find answers about what happened on Twin Peaks with the Stargate project. This is my head canon now.

I wonder if they'll ever bring back General West (equivalent role in the movie), and it's curious that created a new character instead of just recasting him.

- Everybody pronounces Goa'uld differently. Sometimes it is annoying, but sometimes I like how it reflects everybody. Like how O'Neill says it "ghoul" like he's the Crypt Keeper making a female pun because he don't GAF, while Teal'c pronounces every vowel including the apostrophe, because he his whole life was in service to them, even if he hates them now.

This batch of episodes is highlighted by two things:

1- O'Neill stretches out. One episode goes into his whole tragic family backstory while another gives him a showcase where he grows old. Ultimately, I feel these episodes fail under the weight of their gimmicks: O'Neill faces the ghosts of his recent past because a doppelganger acts on his behalf, and the actor and/or writers decided that meant he had to play it woodenly. Typical (and frankly annoying) sci-fi trope where displaying less emotion is somehow supposed to unlock emotional truth. It rarely actually works (you're not gonna repeat Spock's death scene in Wrath of Khan).

2- Lore. Exciting! There's a device that can pop the parasite buggers out of their loved ones. There were other powerful aliens and maybe not all of them were evil slavers. None of this is surprising but it's a good pace of delivering rewards for continued viewing.

I had been wondering what happened with Catherine Langford, the setting-the-plot-in-motion character of the movie. Like, did she die? Why wasn't she involved in Stargate any more? Turns out she was just told to f*** off by the government lol.

It's a reminder at how confusing the timeline of the show is across episodes. Early into the series the characters were making references to other of-screen adventures, which made it seem like they've been doing this for a while. Teal'c complained about not seeing the world, so does that mean he's living in the Stargate mountain complex this whole time? Poor guy. At least in ep 11 they say 6 months had passed so I was glad to get that.

I know, chalk it up to it being episodic TV but by 1997 DVDs were coming out, maybe they didn't yet foresee "binge" watching, I dunno.

Thor's Hammer was a wild ep- Thor is a person, James Earl Jones (!). I though the whole Thor thing was corny but fun. Best part of the episode was the stone cold beauty leading them into the labyrinth (and, crucially, proving that a person can be saved from the parasite).

Worst part was the ending- they chose to destroy the machine that could save their kidnapped loved ones in order to save Teal'c. My problem is- couldn't they have spent some time running tests, studying it, trying to figure out how it works? I'm sure Teal'c would have waited. He needed to get out, sure, but he didn't need to get out immediately. I'm fine with plot holes for the sake of it being a TV show, but this one is just too big. I'm sure that, at the end of the day, Daniel would always make the morally correct choice to free Teal'c, but to just go along there to potentially condemn his wife was messed up. Side-quest > main-quest syndrome hit me too hard in that moment.

Armin Shimerman as the Nox leader was a trip. That dude played Quark in Deep Space Nine and the principal in Buffy so I'm used to him playing some loveable sleazebucket. The wise patient quiet smarty pants bit was weird. Speaking of pants- my god, that costume and wig- so bad lol.

Greetings fellow fans of millennium-era sci-fi television!

I've had a hankering of late for some old-school genre fiction and decided to get into the one big show of that era that I skipped over- SG1.

I love Trek, watched and re-watched the first three series over and over. Babylon 5 is my favorite, just finished a re-watch. Watched and liked X-Files, Farscape, Firefly, etc. And of course the Stargate movie. There's no particular reason I skipped SG-1, just never stumbled into it back when it was on and by the time 10 season aired, it was too daunting to pick it up.

Well I'm a bit burnt out by modern TV- the cancellations, that short seasons not allowing levity and character development, the grimdark self-seriousness of so much of it. Re-watching B5 made me realize how much I miss just having a series of something where I can watch an episode that tells a complete story.

I figured I'd start this thread and post thoughts and impressions as I make my way through the episodes. I will start with a rewatch of the movie- I don't really remember it all that well, but Kurt Russel is always a good time.