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Stargate SG-1 Gets A Seventh Season
An anonymous reader writes "Farscape may or may not have been cancelled [does anyone know?], and Enterprise is so politically correct I can barely bring myself to watch it, but with MacGyver onboard, it looks like Stargate SG-1 will be back for a seventh season."
Sorry, I should have clarified, I was talking about Farscape. And then there was Space: Above and Beyond.
Since the show sucks now that they killed off Daniel. Oh well, it was good until then. I'm guessing this will probably be it's last season.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
Really? I've just started watching them and feel it's no where near as PC as TNG or Voyager. I guess if you compare it to something like Firefly... OK.
Just how bad is Andromeda?!?! Or is just me who thinks it's shite?
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
Farscape is still cancelled, but some people are trying to save it, and the jury is still out. It's a dead man (show) walkin' but it's not over till the switch is thrown.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
I havent sat down and watched an episode of SG-1 yet. Seeing MacGyver without his mullet just un-nerves me.
That means we'll probably have to wait yet another year for the MacGyver Reunion Special, or the Richard Dean Anderson E! True Hollywood Story. Oh well, I guess there's always of catching him on the old reruns of General Hospital on Soap Network.
You're only as smart as your brain.
Hi,
I have never watched this show but am curious how it compares to the Star Trek and Babylon 5 series in that does it have a story arc and continuity between each episode? I think the show started on the Showtime network, didn't it? How did it become syndicated?
Thanks.
for those of us that did not watch it from the get-go, it did not make much sense.
that is the best way to guarantee your show will have a short run: confuse the new viewers.
Farscape was super cool for a season or two when they really did romp around the universe and see what was out there.
Unfortunately near the end it degenerated into self-introspection and self-pitty that was made two billion times more annoying for criton's (sp) whining, indignant yelling.
If they could fire the writers and get people who had imagination and drive to explore the incredibly vast universe then sure, bringing farscape back would be a great thing. But as it stands now, it's a mercy killing, putting it down before it becomes a parody of itself and another star trek universe where they're more interested in psycoanalyzing everything than exploring.
Rumors have it that in the 1st episode of Stargate next season, MacGyver builds a new stargate out of three tablets of XTC and a paper clip, and Kurt Russel (from the original StarGate movie) comes back as Tango and gives MacGyver some Cash.
Best of all, the show has a memory... every episode takes into account EVERYTHING that has happened in previous episodes, something that happens in real life but rarely happens on TV. Looks like the Enterprise people are starting to understand that... pity they haven't figured out how to write interesting stories, though.
I had my doubts about Michael Shanks leaving, but the show doesn't seem to have suffered. I'm very, very pleased that it's continuing... but I hope that the producers will have the good sense to pull the plug when they start to run out of steam.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
Just wait long enough; eventually we will begin to see photon guns made out of chewing gum and rubber bands....
Look at it this way: do you think that a phenomenon like Doctor Who (which ran for about 30 YEARS) would ever happen in North America? Only the Beeb would think of doing that (and THEY had to stand up to Mary Whitehouse and her censorshit brigade).
No, here in the land of Hollywierded entertainment, if it isn't a smash success within it's first week it gets canned. If it is too 'cerebral' (meaning the viewer has to remember what happened the week before) it gets dumbed down. That doesn't quite explain how the X-Files survived, but in general it's a good rule of thumb.
The best TV sci-fi doesn't happen in north america. American execs don't have the balls to tell a good story.
Enterprise is so politically correct I can barely bring myself to watch it
Yeah if you want a good idea of how overly PC that show is, this season of enterprise had the first mention of actually GOING TO THE BATHROOM (on the minefield episode) ever on star trek.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
You can get Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD.
Andromeda is total shite. It has become Hercules in Space and any depth to the show was destroyed when they fired Wolfe.
The reason Wolfe was fired was because Sorbo (Hercules) thought that he was too smart and that the Andromeda should be made more episodic and less about science-fiction and story arcs. Now it's about Dylan Hunt, Hercules of space.
The cool characters like Rev Bem, Tyr, Trance, etc have been discarded or destroyed in favour of Sorbo.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
I think the writing in Firefly is really good, but the setting is crap. They put too many western elements in it. I guess they were going for an origional setting, something to set it apart from the other sci-fi shows.
But I grimace every time I see someone pull out an ancient six shooter. Funny thing though is that they do some things really right. I love how in space there is no sound.
I think SG-1 has more of a "formula" than Farscape... and as another poster mentioned it is great how true to past episodes they are. They never break the "SG-1 Reality".
Farscape on the other hand is much more on the edge. The first couple seasons were pure genius but honestly this season felt more like the writers were making things up as they went. The best series have some kind of continuity. Anyone have any idea what changed?
Anyone else head about this? Apparantly theres some new saturday morning cartoon called Stargate Infinity, i just got the first ep off kazza, but i havn't been bored enough to watch it cuz the quality is shite. Speaking of shitty quality anyone else seen the pilot for firefly? Why didn't they air that!?!??
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Farscape is/was uneven from episode to episode, but the good ones were amazing. Soooo many TV shows are just plain mediocre, with nary a flash of brilliance. Also, Farscape was the first strong break with the threadbare Star Trek straitjacket to make it on the air. I loved the substitution of largely organic technology for electrical, and was rather fond of Moia (in a platonic way). Aeryn's cool, too. Trek never really pulled it off I think with strong female characters, so rare in scifi.
... I just keep expecting him to "leap," you know?
I'm surprised to hear of the cancellation, but true it is -- see the horse's mouth. However, I doubt it's dead. Farscape has the backing of the brand-name Jim Henson Company, a great premise (IMHO), and a solid library of four years that breaks the magic 88-episode threshold needed for successful post-series syndication.
I bet they'll go to syndication, as all the modern Treks have done, and maybe even score a better channel than SciFi, which can have John Edward for all I care (gag). Keep an eye on UPN. The Farscape season was not set to start until February, being from Australia and all, so there's time.
Enterprise is in its childhood. TNG was VILE for its first three seasons and would have rightfully died if not for the intervention of the Borg and a stunning season-end cliffhanger ("Best of Both Worlds"). I think it will show some decent character development, and I appreciate that they've deprived themselves of 3/4 of the technology that yielded too many pat technobabble solutions on shows like Voyager. Scott Bakula annoys me, but I guess I can get used to him
Yes, I watch too much TV, but mostly science fiction.
"that is the best way to guarantee your show will have a short run: confuse the new viewers."
Makes you wonder why the broadcast industry's so anti-Tivo, doesn't it?
First season was cool and funny... but as soon as they changed the title theme from cool riffs done by the guy from Rush to the "Hercules in Space" orchestral wailings... everything else seemed to begin to suck as well. My understanding was that some of the good creative talent was kicked out. Can't watch it anymore.
Enterprise
The captain strikes me as whiny... I prayed for the dog to die in one of the more recent episodes. But a lot of the episodes have a cool spooky atmosphere.
Odyssey 5
The science sucks... but the dialog is great. "Praise Jesus... and fuck you."
Firefly ... except... I do like how every explosion in space is not accompanied by these nifty sound effects that noone should hear. I also like how the captain has no objection to just outright killing defenseless bad guys.
Great funny dialog... poor science... (Still using gunpowder, but somehow they have excellent gravity generators and inertial dampeners)
Farscape
I loved the show... but it seemed to go down hill in the fourth. The end of the second season was fantastic. I liked how they never tried to explain the science... and especially how the aliens looked more like the guys in the mos eisley cantina that stupid trek aliens with head and nose ridges.
What does the Maxim link have to do with anything? Some cheesy pun on the word "barely"? :)
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
I've already spent £500 of SG1 dvd's - and with another season to buy?!? /me goes off to celebrate
The other commenters obviously live in a country with a half decent
In Australia - not only is cable TV way overpriced (and broadband charges seriously suck even before you put in installation and new modem cost), we simply do not get decent sci-fi.
How many seasons of Farscape have been made? Most of the episodes were shown I think but some episodes were missed (dropped for sport) and never reappeared. And it was made less 100km from where I am sitting.
Voyager is still in season 6!!
Cable TV is seriously screwed. But the gov and regulators look about to stuff up the commercial fix being proposed.
What about Space-Above and Beyond (simple storyline but done semi-well even if a bit corny)?
Not only do the programmers (TV schedules - not the nice people who write code) - have seriously lousy taste, they do not seem to manage to get it - put the show on same time each week.
Thankfully we have 3 hr video tapes - show can start anywhere between 30min and an hour late, then run for 1hr10min with the ads. Also 11pm Tuesday or Thursday is not what I would call an audience friendly time.
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
Not just new viewers...I hate it when there is a series I like and then I miss one episode and it just seems as though I missed so much I can never get back into it.
If you have a Tivo, turn on the statistics collection, and hope Tivo people publish the data.
Je ne parle pas francais.
This, they hope, will segue directly into filimg a 'feature'. Smith said this a couple of times, but he emphasised the feature is not yet 100% certain. After that, the spinoff.
I really think loosing Shanks was a horrible blow to the show and the story, but you have to admit they have been doing well with the direction things are going.
I wonder though how well they can do a movie. Very very few TV->Movie moves have gone well if not simply OK, I would hate to see them fall into this pit. I'm starting to wonder if it's possible to do the TV->Movie transition.
As for the spinoff I don't think it will go anywhere. I watch SG-1 but I don't think I would watch it if not for the current cast. Guess I'll see...
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
If you like Sci-Fi, check it out.
They get home.
The captain strikes me as whiny... I prayed for the dog to die in one of the more recent episodes. But a lot of the episodes have a cool spooky atmosphere.
Let me get this straight: that episode featured a main plot of the dog getting sick and a subplot of Capt. Archer fantasizing about his super sexy vulcan science officer and you wasted your prayers on the fuckin' dog?!?
Man, I was on my hands and knees praying that T'Pol was going to help our dashing captain get "Long And Prosper"!
GMD
watch this
My problem with S.T. Enterprise is that, more than any Trek since TOS, its Captain expects things to go his way and it usually portrays foreign cultures as inferior. The societies that do have higher tech are shown as either evil or condescending; Archer calls genetic engineering one's own race a deal with the devil and he believes that humans are entitled to all Vulcan technology. And almost no time is spent showing the ways that their cultures are superior to human ways. The only really redeeming moments were when he did an elaborate apology dance to get some equipment, and when he refused to help either side on the Desert Planet.
Ultimately, Enterprise reminds me of USA today: ignorantly pushing itself on the world and expecting to get better treatment than anyone else. I suppose that's what now gets high ratings in terrorized USA, but it sure doesn't live up to the best of sci-fi, or even the best of Trek. The Q and the Borg are races that humans should look up to!
Firefly is also hindered by the fact that it's on Fox, which has a horrible record of giving up on sci-fi shows right as they start to get good and build a following.
A querky show like Firefly isn't going to catch on right away. It takes some time for the word to pass on, and people to start reccomending it to their friends. Unfortunatly, Fox will never afford it this time. It'll be gone by December.
Another strike against Firefly this week is that in the Minneapolis-St Paul area, the broadcast was delayed until late nite hours due to the local (and overdone) coverage of the Wellstone plane crash.
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
I'm with you on Firefly. I expected to detest the SF/western hybrid flavor of it, but it works... and, once again, the dialog is GREAT.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
When you realize TV networks are in the business of selling ads, not the business of entertaining viewers, their decisions make more sense.
This
That episode is a 'time loop' episode...not only do they play golf though the stargate, but at one point Jack starts tossing some balls...then cuts to the next day...Jack and Teal'k are both tossing balls up in the air...cut again, and they're juggling perfectly. It's absolutely hilarious.
That episode is one of the all time best...the plot is, basically, that they need to learn an alien language to figure out how to stop the time loop Jack and Teal'k (Actually, the entire planet, and a few other planets are caught in a screwed up time travel experiment, but only Jack, Teal'k, and one other guy know it.) are caught in...but Daniel can't deciper an entire language in the eight hours or so the time loop is over...so Jack and Teal'k have to learn it. Which learns to a great scene where Jack corrects Daniel on some obscure alien language point.
And the straight forward time travel cliche episode was funny, too. it's called '1969', and that should give you some clue as to why it's funny.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Two minor points of Starlost trivia: Harlan Ellison came up with the concept, and Ben Bova was credited as an advisor. Harlan would have nothing to do with the series by the time it made it to production; the credits list "Cordwainer Bird" as having conceived the series. That's Harlan's personal codename for "GOD, THIS SUCKS, STAY AWAY". Bova later wrote a savagely satirical and very funny novel called The Starcrossed (plot summary).
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
The rumors are that the movie will set up a spinoff series, akin to the way the Showtime movie set up the series. (Not the original movie, since in that movie there was only one Go'uld and he was killed.)
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
*** YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ***
The expected premise of the movie is the final battle with the Go'uld, closing the original series, and the discovery of the "ancients" who were behind the Atlantis legend, setting up the spinoff series. According to Plato, Atlantis disappeared beneath the waters of the sea, but as countless primitive cultures have pointed out the event horizon of a stargate looks a lot like a watery surface. It's not hard to connect the dots and believe that the Ancients left earth through a stargate and later generations morphed the story into Atlantis disappearing under the ocean.
Since it would be a very short series if humans immediately hooked up with the Ancients, I expect the spinoff to follow a human team searching for evidence of where the Ancients went. We might even see the 8th lock used on the gate again, or dare we hope even the 9th?!
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Which brings up an interesting point-- Where are all the freakin MacGyver reruns?!? That was the best show when I was growing up... Every other bad show and it's mother seem to have reruns, but Mac? NoooOOOOoooo...
-grumbles something about Night Rider and Air Wold-
You need a FREE iPod Nano
For that there's broadband...
.mpg's
I've got every ep of Enterprise in SVCD format
because the Austin TX UPN station has about 100W of transmit power and DirectTV wont carry them as a local channel.
Got all of Farscape and Firefly too.. Now if only I could upload them back into the Tivo..
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
Typo. Kill me now.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I don't know, Star Trek the Next Generation might have been like USA Today (generally interesting and harmless, but vapid and shallow.) But Enterprise is more like the National Enquirer (Man has sex with big titted vulcan: Says love child will be named Spock.) Now SG-1 is more like the Wall Street Journal, but still not as good as Babylon 5.
P.S. This is niether a Troll or a Flame, just a poor attempt at humor.
They actually had an episode where they tried to use a gun out in space. They had to bring along a space suit so the gunpowder could get oxygen, and they only got one shot. Now it still doesn't explain why they don't have a rail gun, or some similar weapon, but then again most merchant ships on earth's oceans don't have ship mounted weapons either.
You should not judge art or a story, by its politics
but by artistic criteria. The claim "Babylon 5 was made for people who don't strive for the perfection that could be achieved if we set aside our differences and work together (a la STTNG)", is in
case completely wrong. In Babylon 5 the races started at odds with each other, Earth vs Membar, Narns vs Centari, and through the story ark, evolved
into a cooperation, sending there old gods away in the process.
Ugh, farscape may be cool but Space: Above and Beyond was mind-numbingly dull. Almost as bad as Earth 2 or Earth: Final Conflict in the dullness department.
Or refined, or mature, or analytica, expecting something of quality or even something which isn't just more shallow pseudo sci-fi-drama junk.
I could sit through show after show of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, which are masterpieces compared to today's stuff, and most of those shows originally aired well before my time, I just catch them on cable and am completely fascinated with how well they told a story in 30 minutes (less commercial breaks) I've seem enough of today's "writing" to leave my TV off and go outside to play. It's going to be tough when I get my knee worked on and am stuck inside for a while. I guess there's always coding up those projects I've never had time to get around to. :-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I think with the addition of Roger Engels as the head writer the upcoming season(s) should prove more interesting.
I never understood that. I can only guess they threw in the requirement for having oxygen around the gun as an additional complication to be solved. Which leaves the question of how did Jayne work the trigger through the suit?
No flash and dash like Enterprise, but I watch firefly because I KNOW they're gonna do something that exceeds my expectations of what sci-fi on TV normally delivers.
For example, despite the horrible sounding teaser for last weeks episode, where they're stranded in space with failing life support (a textbook sci-fi cliche if there was ever one), I watched it, knowing they'd deliver some unexpected take on the idea. So far, I'm pretty pleased with the show - but it is a much slower paced delivery than the rest of the stuff on TV these days.
Regarding Daniel Jackson, I hope the rumors of his death are overstated, since I'm still one season behind (watching it on the local network, as a syndicated show.) It wouldn't be the same without him, and putting John deLancie in as that spook Colonel is just weird... AND, if they ever do a feature, there'd better be Daniel as part of the team, or else I ain't gonna spend money to see it, no matter if they toss Apothis, the replicators, and whatever the hell else at SG-1 and Earth!
Anyone know if there will be a tie-in (and if so, what kind) for that new animated show, SG-Infinity?
BTW, has anyone managed to figure out how Enterprise has managed to stay in such nice shape, without resupply or docking facilities? I would have dirtied up the ship a bit more for the show, after all, it has been a year since it started it's mission...
The more I think about it, the more farsical the Firefly universe seems. As other authors have pointed out, my earlier post on gunpowder not working in a vacuum is not correct (even if it is how they explain it in the show.) But as I said, there are many reasons why a gun wouldn't be useful on a space craft. For one, a differential velocity of several hundred miles per hour would be trivial compared to the speeds at which space craft normally travel. Surely in order to travel through space, one would have to build a craft which could deal gracefully with small debris traveling at large velocities.
Coming back to topic (*cough*), this is just what happened in Stargate SG-1 with regards to the Asgard - a highly evolved extragalactic civilization - and the Replicators - just like it sounds, a bunch of erector-set robots that simply kept "eating" the Asgard's technology and reproducing themselves. (Where is Bill Joy when you need him?) The replicators were (for some twisted logic reason) "immune" to the Asgard's energy weapons and other defenses, but sure blowed apart pretty when hit with SG-1's MP-5s and P90s!
All that being said, Stargate sucks without Daniel Jackson. We used to play a drinking game where we'd watch Stargate and drink whenever we'd hear Teal'c refer to him as Danieljackson (as though it were one word). Now we're just sober, and what fun is that?
Carthago delenda est!
I miss the dolby digital sound of SG-1 on commercial free Showtime, but will settle for new episodes. It has become one of my favorite shows, and although I enjoy the earlier season shows, I am looking forward to new episodes. The toughest acting job must be Tealk ( not sure how they spell it) - that guy walks around the entire show with a disgusting look on his face. However, the witty humor of the O'neil really adds to the show.
>>>please remove "nospam" from email address
Very happy to see this :)
SG-1 is definitely the best Sci-Fi on TV at the moment, so more of it is definitely a good thing!
Chris "Ng" Jones
cmsj@tenshu.net
www.tenshu.net
You may have hit on something there. Why should we consider it a problem if the show doesn't move like a scalded cat? I find the pacing a welcome relief from the frantic flash and jiggle that you see all too much of these days.
SEMI-SPOILER: Don't worry about that too much; you'll be rid of him soon enough.
Anyone know if there will be a tie-in (and if so, what kind) for that new animated show, SG-Infinity?
I seem to recall reading that the SG-1 team has disowned SG:Infinity. That's just as well... I've seen the animated series, and I'll be charitable and say that it isn't my cup of tea.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
In the worst episode ever
This used to be excellent, with proper stories for each episode, each series and the whole arch, decent plot development, proper character development and decent plot turns. However it all started going down hill when they introduced all the new age mysticism junk, when Daniel Jackson 'transcended'.
People use "politically correct" to mean just about anything they want to now, so can we come up with some variations that actually mean something again?
Every time I've seen "Enterprise" it's done a stupid "Perhaps one day we'll have a... a 'directive' to use in interacting with new civilizations..." thing that makes me just cringe, it's so predictable. It makes the history of the Federation look pat and boring. It's not that great a show, okay.
But "politically correct"? What does that mean? Does that mean the vulcan woman isn't wearing her form-fitting uniform any more? I have no idea. Basically the only meaning it has any more has to do with the person who says it, not the noun it's modifying...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Technically, in the show Daniel isn't dead because he appears in season six (after he suposed death). He's ascended to a higher level--the same level as the powerful alien that taught meditation and took the child. I don't remember enough of the two previous episodes that talk about the child and the ascended alien, but in the one centering around the child, Daniel gets power hungry with a new weapon which the child told him how to build.
I am currently watching the fifth series (in sindication(sp?) (during/after watching the sixth season), but I still look forward to the seventh series.
I am glad Sci-Fi has been rerunning the entire series from the beginning on Monday nights. I have recorded everyone so far, and I have seen a couple episodes I missed because of sports events. It's been great catching up on old story line details.
At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
I'm going to spoil it - even though this is a guess.
The mystery man the Suliban work for is a ROMULAN. Think about it. We've met the major players from TOS except for the Romulans. The shadow looks like a Romulan in the chamber. Archer looks at "The Romulan Star Empire" book in the future.
Am I the only one detecting some weak foreshadowing?
Anyway, the temporal cold war is a weak premise. What happens when they end it? Enterprise never happened (which would suit the pre-Enterprise Trek timeline)? They can't just end that future without changing the timeline before the show - they didn't really touch on how the loss of Archer didn't totally frig the past, as the future leader would never have existed to help them...
Also, thre are some weak continuity issues... No Vulcan mindmelds, yet by Spock's time they are so common that it is Vulcan custom for a son to bond with his father.
Oh, and villifying the Vulcans. As my friend said, it's the only group out of which they hadn't already made bad guys.
I still watch it. Partly because I like Trek, partly because I want to see how the hell they clean up their loose ends.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
The happiest day of my life will be three years from now when I have the entire B5 series on DVD sitting on my shelf. And the week I make my kids watch it with me, non-stop from start to finish, nothing will match it.
You know, karma and kids being what they are, your kids are going to grow up to be hardcore Trekkies, and probably Renaissance Faire wibbly eared elf lovers as well.
Da Blog
The problem with Farscape is the characters are all too angry. I stopped watching it when every story line became too predictable.