Stargate Atlantis Tomorrow

BadDream writes "I read an old slashdot article about Stargate Atlantis comming this summer. Well its summer, and guess what starts this friday." You can also enter to win a walk-on role on SG1, but I call first dibs, no cuts.

Comments

That link has flash

[superpulpsicle]

Looks like that link has flash or something. It's going to be slashdotted to hell.

Re:That link has flash

[Saxton]

Avoiding the flash...Check out this related article at Sci Fi Wire: Atlantis Forges Own Identity and another at the Florida Sun-Sentinel: Stargate SG-1 spinoff tinkers with the tale of the lost continent in a planet far, far away.

This doesn't look very promising, imho.

-s4xton

Re:That link has flash

[Zaranne]

So, did anybody actually watch this? I liked it. In fact, I liked it more than the first SG-1. I think there's more chemistry with the actors, Richard Dean Anderson always drove me nuts in the first one. I especially like the scottish guy who thinks he breaks everything...and the Wraith are very cool. Very scary looking, sounding...and well, they're eating habits are pretty gross.

hmph.

[Mukaikubo]

The only good thing is that since Farscape's a miniseries now, it can't be pushed back an hour to make room for back to back episodes of Stargate every freaking week.

Not that I'm bitter.

Re:hmph.

[JaffaKREE]

Farscape had a loyal following.

Stargate has a huge, insanely loyal following. It deserves it. I didn't discover SG1 until sometime in season 5. Once I got the dvds, I could not stop watching them. SG does such an incredible job of building upon previous storylines, it's like one continuous movie. Some of the episodes, like 'Window of Opportunity' (The time ripple), 'Upgrades' (The super-arm bands), 'Jolinar's memories'/'The Devil you know' (Sokar) are so damn good, and really funny.

In an interview with the writers on the Stargate documentary (the one they aired before season 7 premiered), one of the writers said something to the effect of "Stargate is actually a comedy, we've just managed to keep it a secret for 7 years". It really is funnier than any given sitcom. Whether that reflects greatly on the SG1 staff or just makes the recycled sitcom writers look even worse is up to you.

Re:hmph.

[daoine]

Some of the episodes, like 'Window of Opportunity' (The time ripple), 'Upgrades' (The super-arm bands), 'Jolinar's memories'/'The Devil you know' (Sokar) are so damn good, and really funny.

Indeed. [/Teal'C]

Re:hmph.

[AKAImBatman]

Indeed. [/Teal'C]

+5 funny

Re:hmph.

[Mukaikubo]

Bigger? Without dispute. More loyal? No objective way to tell unless some mental-defective suits try to cancel *your* show. Then we'd be able to compare fanbase loyalties with some kind of accuracy.

Re:hmph.

[jmccay]

I am licky enough to have started watching when it hit syndication (I didn't have show time). One of the best thing about Stargate is that haven't had to resort to over sexual themes to achieve this success! The have had good storylines and a lot of depth to the characters. I loved season eights big start. They did a great job, and I am looking forward to Stargate Atlantis. I have some reservations about the main vilans in the new series. It seems like they might be atempting to make it a bit of a horror series.

Re:hmph.

[avgjoe62]

One of the best thing about Stargate is that haven't had to resort to over sexual themes to achieve this success!

Whaddya mean, "sexual themes"? It's not like any other science fiction franchise has had to resort to coed back rubs, nubile aliens in skintight uniforms, lesbian kisses, sex with androids or women dressed in tinfoil to keep an audience....

Oh.. wait. Never mind...

Re:hmph.

[Jerf]

They have "tried" cancelling it. They already weren't going to do this season, but pretty much had to.

Also, did you even see the fan effort to bring back Daniel? That was just for one character.

Yes, the test of loyalty has come and gone; SG-1 passes.

Re:hmph.

[JAD lifter]

haven't had to resort to over sexual themes to achieve this success!

Just curious, what is wrong with over sexual themes? Lexx is one of my favorite SF shows ever and it is just one big over sexual theme. I also tend to enjoy classic Star Trek more than the newer ones just because all the classic episodes had all kinds of hoochie girls in ultra short skirts while all of the newer Star Treks are just way to god damn politically correct.

Re:hmph.

[JWSmythe]

Get a TiVo. :) I had mine recording Stargate from three different stations (two local, and the SciFi channel). I've seen every episode at least once now. I actually told it to stop recording until this new season started, it was really boring watching the first two seconds, saying "seen it", and deleting it.

I guess that's a good and bad point of TiVo, especially with DirecTV. You can't miss a show, because it'll always record it. I already have it set to keep the Atlantis shows. I won't be rushing home on Friday to see it, it'll be patiently waiting for me when I sit down on the couch. I can have it recording two shows, and be catching one that I missed at the same time. :)

Unfortunately, the girlfriend's daughter has figured out the magic too, so I get a bunch of daytime soaps and teen shows on there too.

I think Stargate has such an insane following because the cast could be real people. I'd kinda expect any of the SGC people to be my neighbors, and they reinforce that idea with the real-world scenes, like at the houses.. They're living out a fantasy of many. Visiting far distant (and impossible) places, going through exciting adventures, and playing with nifty technology. Oh ya, and big guns. Can't forget big guns.

Re:hmph.

[halowolf]

One of the best thing about Stargate is that haven't had to resort to over(t) sexual themes to achieve this success!

Ho! We must of watched different pilot episodes! :)

I mean I wasn't exactly expecting full frontal female nudity in the SG-1 Pilot, but its what we certainly got, at least in Australia...

Re:hmph.

[BoneFlower]

" I think Stargate has such an insane following because the cast could be real people."

Twice the cast was real people! Two US Air Force Chiefs of Staff have appeared, playing themselves.

Seriously though, from my military experience, *if* there was such a thing as a real Stargate, it would very likely be run like that program... except that the military personnel would get promoted somewhate more often and be transfered a lot more.

Re:hmph.

[LordLucless]

I watched every episode in season 1, and tapered off in season 2. I'm in Australia, and I'm not sure how our schedule compares to yours, but that was a few years ago. I found the overall story great, but all too many episodes just seemed to be "find civilization that is not as good as ours"->"be told not to interfere by boss"->"interfere anyway, and win the boss over, because he's an old softy deep inside." For most of the series, they were a bunch of galaxy-hopping philanthropists. Even that one episode where they contacted a human society more advanced than earths (because they hadn't been through the dark ages) was re-visited later so the SG-1 team could save the day and show the superiority of earth (American) culture again.

Not that I have a problem with American culture, but it just got boring.

Re:hmph.

[JWSmythe]

I can almost agree with the promotions. All the main characters would be higher ranking than they were. But are you sure about the transfers? I'd think they'd want to keep the number of people knowing about the project as small as possible, to prevent leaks. Keep the people working on the project happy and well paid, but don't let them out.

Imagine .. ummmm, what's his name, the guy who works the iris .. he goes out drinkin' one night a year after he's transfered off to some BS assignment (definately not as exciting as SGC), and starts blabbing in the bar about the SGC..

Well, who would believe it.

"Ya, I worked at this super secret government operation where we have a device that lets you travel between planets in our galaxy and there's a whole bunch of evil aliens out there that are trying to conquer us."

Of course, I'm a believer in the fact that the government *DOES* do plenty of stuff without telling us about it, and reinforce their protection with plausible deniability. They referenced it in the show with allowing the "Wormhole Extreme" show to be made.

Just think of how many really whacked out scenerios the government potentially covered up with just the X-Files. I'm not saying the shows were based on real things, but if any one episode had a factual basis, the simple defense is "Oh, you saw that in an X-Files episode"

The only way to ever prove it is if the governments of the world take on a full disclosure platform. Imagine what would happen if absolutely every government facility were open to the press. Sure, go ahead, take your cameras in. No video, pictures, or reports of names, faces, written documents, or broadcast of current tactics. A horde of press corps guys go running into Area 51, cameras rolling, and see a bunch of failed experemental aircraft, and an illegal oil dump. Or they see a bunch of alien aircraft, and a bunch of little green men tuning up their spaceships. :)

Re:hmph.

[bgarcia]

Some of the episodes, like 'Window of Opportunity' (The time ripple), 'Upgrades' (The super-arm bands)... are so damn good, and really funny.

I've actually kept these two episodes on my ReplayTV because they are so, incredibly, immensely hilarious.

If you haven't watched SG1 yet, make sure you watch one of these two episodes! You'll be hooked!

Re:hmph.

[jmccay]

The amount of nudity in SG1 and sexual themes is very minimal compared to the number of episodes. Unlike Lexx and Farscape where you seemed to have to have at least on sexual reference a show at the minimum.
Let's face it. Lexx was Sci-Fi. It was some Sci-Fi geek writer trying to let off a lot of pent up sexual tension.
Sexual themes are usualy a sign the the writer can't think of anything better to write about. Take the misguided atempt to remake Battlestar Galactica. In the first hour, there was 2 sex scenes. That is an aweful lof of sex scenes for small mini-series!

Win a chance to be on an episode

[Cat_Byte]

Oh man that commercial for winning the chance where that guy walked up to audition then ran for the stargate & was tackled by security had me rolling. He stole my idea!

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[locr1an]

I've been trying for 3 freaking days to enter for a chance to be on the episode,but everytime I try to "click here to register now," it says that "This service is temporarily unavailable while we upgrade to serve you better." 3 days is NOT temporary. And now it's been Slashdotted?!?!? Thanks a lot :|

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[RobertB-DC]

Oh man that commercial for winning the chance where that guy walked up to audition then ran for the stargate & was tackled by security had me rolling. He stole my idea!

It had me thinking of an Ask Slashdot question: what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part, but is there something you could do to make the director's job easier? Keep your mouth shut, or be knowledgable about the show and its premise? Walk on, walk off, say goodbye... or be noticable in the scene? What could a fan of the show, given the opportunity to be ON the show, do to make the show better?

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[JWSmythe]

They'd probably judge it by how good you were. I kinda feel sorry for them. They'll get some 300 pound completely geek freak that wouldn't even fit into a SGC uniform, that they couldn't even have as an SGC soldier extra.

If they were *LUCKY*, they'd get someone with at least a little acting experience and ability, but I kinda doubt it.

I'd love to get the walk-in part just for the sake of meeting the folks, and walking around the sets for a few minutes. If they'd let me talk, all the better. All in all, I'd say I look something like Daniel Jackson, unless I ditch my glasses, then I could fit in as any generic role.

I've been tempted to edit myself into some clips and send them over as an e-audition. :) Too bad I don't live in Toronto.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[satoshi1]

I laughed out loud when I saw that. But, my question is, why would they have the gate open during auditions?

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Cat_Byte]

I'm not sure if the commercial is more funny or the moderator that did this....rofl.
70% Funny
30% Insightful

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[magarity]

what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part

Yes, they are. All the filler people just standing/walking around in the background cost too much if they're all 'real' actors who have to get paid union scale. Extras are just people off the streets who have spare time, from the acting equivalent of temp worker agencies, contest winners, non-actor friends of the regular actors, etc, etc..

but is there something you could do to make the director's job easier?

Yeah, don't bother him/her. Do just walk or sit where the set manager tells you and whatever happens, do NOT mug at the camera.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Quarters]

So the humans on other planets can come in to audition....duh.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Could always turn the fat geek who can't act into a stupid alien who can't communicate.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[phek]

Extra's arent just people off the street (even the ones who just walk accross the screen 100 feet in the background). They're all a bunch of aspiring actors and most of them are totally nuts. Non-union extras get payed $10/hr usually for 10 - 14 hour days, plus the benifit of some really good food. Like I was saying, it's mostly a bunch of crazy people who come from other states wanting to be famous. Well its those kind of people and ex-cons who can't get a regular job. To be an extra you need to sign up with a casting agency which usually costs about $20, central casting being the largest agency. Then once signed up you call their automated line which has a bunch of casting director's giving a description of the type of extra's they're looking for for tommorows shoot.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[JWSmythe]

Hmmmmm.. Thinking back to all those 3-5th season episodes, you're absolutely right. On the first lowdown, didn't they reference those seasons as the ones they try to pretend never happened? :)

I'm worried about Atlantis. The first season of almost any show pretty much sucks until the actors and writers really figure out the new characters. Obviously, if they bring the SG1 characters in, they'll be well defined, but these new characters are going to be less than perfect.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[king-manic]

what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part

Yes, they are. All the filler people just standing/walking around in the background cost too much if they're all 'real' actors who have to get paid union scale. Extras are just people off the streets who have spare time, from the acting equivalent of temp worker agencies, contest winners, non-actor friends of the regular actors, etc, etc..


Actualyl most extras don't get any lines. The guild specifies talking part get paid more. so extras are ussually background noise. So he was correct. No talking part.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Marxist Hacker 42]

I'm worried about Atlantis. The first season of almost any show pretty much sucks until the actors and writers really figure out the new characters. Obviously, if they bring the SG1 characters in, they'll be well defined, but these new characters are going to be less than perfect.

At least one isn't exactly a "new" character- she was on the last three episodes last season (but leaves unexplained why the United States would send a *civilian* and their *best negotiator* to do that job).

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[AKAImBatman]

At least one isn't exactly a "new" character- she was on the last three episodes last season

But was played by a completely different Actress with a completely different personality. Actually, I kind of liked the old Weir better. There's nothing worse than changing the character in midstream.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Tharian]

Actually, that does have me curious. Why, exactly, did the actress get changed for this particular role? A few of us here at work have wondered, but we haven't come up with any good answers yet.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[octothorpe]

That may be true in New York or Hollywood but here in Pittsbugh, it's usually just normal folks who have some free time. There are usually a couple of movies filmed here every year and I've know a few friends who aren't actors and were extras just for a small stipend and the chance to be seen in a movie.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[multipartmixed]

> At least one isn't exactly a "new" character- she
> was on the last three episodes last season

Better make that two, then. We're running about a year behind in Canada, but the SG-A home page -- look at the guy on the right. Look familiar? Yeah, that guy. That annoying motherfucker. Rodney what's his face.

Remember, he spent half an episode telling Sam how stupid she was, and then cried mommy when he couldn't save the universe? And then they sent him to work in the Siberian desert or some place?

Hmm.

I think I just figured out why nobody discovered Atlantis first. It's too cold in Siberia to bother looking for anything.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[JWSmythe]

Ha ha.

It worked just after the Lowdown for Atlantis was on. I guess that means I'm signed up, and all the Slashdotters who want to get in on it too are out of luck! Yippie! I hope it stays broken, it increases my chances of winning. :)

{ducking}

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[JWSmythe]

Maybe we can start our own show..

Lets call it, "Wormhole X-Treme"!

(hehe)

But lets make an effort to have more mostly naked green alien chicks. That was the best part of the original Star Trek series, and since we don't have a budget for writers, props, or even a decent editing crew, we'll have to have something going for us. :)

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Hes Nikke]

There's nothing worse than changing the character in midstream

Like Daniel Jackson? or Jack O'Neil? (different actors in the movie that started it all)

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[AKAImBatman]

Like Daniel Jackson? or Jack O'Neil? (different actors in the movie that started it all)

That's different. The entire background changed in the translation from Movie to TV. The characters actually redefined who they were. (Anyone remember Daniel's alergies?) In this case we're just supposed to believe that this new Weir is the same as the old when the environment hasn't changed at all. Even more annoying is that the new Weir doesn't even remotely resemble the old Weir. Compare that to Dr. Jackson. He was so convincing that I at first thought they had the same guy from the movie.

Re:Win a chance to be on an episode

[Lord_Breetai]

...so extras are ussually background noise.

Not even that. That stuff will get added in during editing. And believe me, pretending to have a conversation, but actually just flapping your gums and gesticulating without saying anything feels really weird at first.

Stargate rules

[SeanTobin]

There are a few rules when it comes to the Stargate. I thought everyone understood them; however it appears that not everyone got the memo. So, please follow this simple list of things not to do with the Stargate:

• Do not attempt to travel through the path of a solar flare.
  
• Error messages are there for a reason. Do not override them.
  
• Do not hit golf balls through the Stargate.
  
• Do not contact the Guinness book of world records about your 45-lightyear drive afterwards.
  
• Do not place stuffed aliens on the MALP.
  
• Do not invite the goa'uld over for 'tea.'
  
• Do not place a fifth finger slot in the handprint scanner.
  
• Even if you are the last person through, do not spit while in the wormhole.
  
• Absolutely under no circumstances should you ever slashdot the Stargate.
  

Re:Stargate rules

[scharkalvin]

OH and STAND BACK from the 'gate when the
wormhole opens!

Re:Stargate rules

[ePhil_One]

Do not hit golf balls through the Stargate.

Ah, one of my favorite episodes ever. I'm a little disappointed that they never used Jack O'Neill's and Teal'c knowledge of the ancient language again. They reached the point that they knew it better than Danny boy, after all, since they were effectively the ones who translated the inscriptions.

I've been patiently waiting for Mr. Jackson to start struggling with a translation and Jack walk up and say "No, that's 'keep your arms and legs inside the tram car while gating'" then look over to Teal'c for his confirmation, where he'd get the little head nod and "indeed."

But thats just me :^D

Re:Stargate rules

[Meneudo]

You forgot..

Be sure to close the iris...
Never be partway through the stargate when it closes...
Don't fuck with Teal'c, or any other Jaffa for that matter!

Re:Stargate rules

[Vrallis]

I don't think they *could* use their knowledge because it was lost. Once the time loop was stopped, it was as if it never happened.

Mostly.... Don't you just love paradoxes?

Re:Stargate rules

[crazyaxemaniac]

They didn't really know the ancient language. They just kept telling Daniel what he had figured out last time they went through the loop.

Re:Stargate rules

[ePhil_One]

I don't think they *could* use their knowledge because it was lost. Once the time loop was stopped, it was as if it never happened.

No, this very specifically is not what happened. The Tokra made a comment becoming concerned that they could not reach Earth, and were becoming concerned enough that they almost sent a ship to investigate. So Earth and everywhere else involved "snapped back" to the present. It was the download knowledge of the Ancients that was erased from Jack's brain; this was learned naturally.

Mostly I just love how the series blindly ignores these paradoxes with a wave of the hand, and occasionally a wink. We got more entertaining things to do that come up with midiclorian theories. Stuff just is.

Re:Stargate rules

[Eowaennor]

In fact I beleive Teal'c and Oneill did not lose this knowledge. At the end of the mentioned episode Daniel realized that the two could have done anything at all during the period of time that they were trapped in the time loop. When he mentions this to Oneil, Jack looks at Carter and smiles...

I think that is sufficient evidence that they knew what they did.

As for not using that knowledge about the ancient language... who knows, ask the writers =P

Re:Stargate rules

[Damek]

They've probably forgotten much of it by now. I mean, they were just learning enough to tackle that specific problem, and assuming they're like me, they probably just don't have a head for languages. I did OK in French in high school, but if you don't practice it and keep it up, epsecially when it took great effort to do well in the first place, you quickly lose it.

But just as I still recognize a little French here and there from time to time, I would expect them to say something once or twice, like recognize a word here and there...

Re:Stargate rules

[AndroidCat]

Golfballs? What happens if you take a whizz through the Stargate? "Watch me write my name on another planet!"

"That would be bad", as Egon might say?

Re:Stargate rules

[Masami Eiri]

My guess is that they really didn't know the language, per se, just the translation.

Or it could be a plot hole.

Re:Stargate rules

[Eudial]

Additional rules for tourists:

• Do not feed or pet the Guo'uld and the Jaffa
• Keep your arms and legs inside of the wormhole at all times
• Do not eat icecream, hotdogs or other messy food while in the wormhole
• In case of a fire, please remain calm and follow the emergency exit signs on the worm hole walls
• Do not create a feedback loop in your naquadah reactor while in the facility
• Do not stick pointy objects in the power outlets
• Always exit the wormhole at the same planet as the rest of your tour group
• The DHD is not a toy. Keep your kids away from it and do not spill icecream on it

Re:Stargate rules

[Jerf]

I'm going to go with crazyaxemaniac here; you can't learn a language just by doing one translation. Even the first time I saw it, I knew that when Jack corrects Daniel, he was just shortcircuiting to a decision Daniel eventually came too; odds are Jack heard it a couple of times before remembering.

SG-1 does a pretty good job of this overall. It's not perfect (most recent pet peeve: A planet rich in neutronium... yeah, sure!), but only a masochist still expects perfection from a TV series. It does as well as or better than can be expected.

Evidence: I frequently disagree with people's nitpicks, even the "scientific" ones. The Stargate writers actually know more science (even the real stuff!) than many of their fans! This is in stark contrast to Star Trek, the Golden Standard of Shittiness, which actually and literally destroys and inhibits scientific understanding. (If you think Star Trek is at all realistic, you don't know anything about science.)

Re:Stargate rules

[ePhil_One]

(If you think Star Trek is at all realistic, you don't know anything about science.)

First, I don't think any Sci Fi show is realistic, that wasn't my point. A Sci-Fi show establishes its universe; Magic is real, communism works, Reagan caused the fall of the Soviet Union, whatever. Once it establishes this "reality", it should try to remain consistent with it. I don't care that Zat guns stun with one shot, kill with two, and make things disappear with three. Thems the rules, don't bore me with how Steinberg-Theta energy disrupts the milecular bonds of the atoms without generating any heat. Star Trek was doing well if it held to its rules, realistic or not, through a single episode.

I just think it would be fun to include this ability in a show. The character Col. Jack O'Neill isn't dumb, quite the opposite. Given his background in special ops (I even choose to overlook the fact that the Air Force doesn't really have a Special Ops group like the SEALS), he likely already knows a few other languages. Teal'c definately knows at least two. (I also overlook the fact that humans on other planets except one all speak english (that exception being the now eradicated Egypt-world of the original movie

Re:Stargate rules

[gnugnugnu]

> My guess is that they really didn't know the language, per se, just the translation.

I'd agree with that. It is just the kind of neat answer that Jack would give.
They might be a little less clueless about the language but memorizing the translation is a whole lot easier and more likely than actually learning a whole lot about the language.

I've learnt plenty of stuff long enough to do exams and then forgotten it. Sure it is easy enought to relearn but I'm damned if I can still recite whole tracts of Shakespeare from memory.

Re:Stargate rules

[multipartmixed]

Actually, It's been a while since I've see the episode in question.. but I kind of thought Jack learned most of the text more by rote than anything else.. and probably needed prompting at that. You know, like that song you hear on the radio, that you can sing, only when you hear it?

Re:Stargate rules

[JWSmythe]

Ahhhh, television/movie physics..

It's the same reason the unnamed Star Trek guys in red uniforms would be dead within minutes of landing on a planet, and all the stars would survive seemingly deadly wounds.

So far, O'Neill, Carter, and Jackson have had their consciousness sucked out of their bodies and deposited into computers, and they've all traded bodies at least once.

They've all been shot, and beaten. They've all been killed (or mostly dead) at least once. But no, send the nice Doc Janet through the gate once, and she survives just a couple minutes.

I'm still wondering when or how the air force built all those fighters for last epsiode of last season. Since they obviously aren't using regular gov't contractors for the build, and they would have taken years building those anyways, who did it? :) But hey, it's TV, they can bend logic as they see fit to make an interesting show.

It's really amazing what they've done with the single concept of "What if the pyramids were made by aliens"

Re:Stargate rules

[JWSmythe]

'm going to go with crazyaxemaniac here; you can't learn a language just by doing one translation. Even the first time I saw it, I knew that when Jack corrects Daniel, he was just shortcircuiting to a decision Daniel eventually came too; odds are Jack heard it a couple of times before remembering.

If I remember the episode right, they were in the loop, Daniel suggested that since they had all the time in the world to figure it out, maybe they should learn the language to do the translation. So they learned the language to do the translation, not just hit and miss interpretations out of a book.

And juggling.

And making out with Carter. (whoohoo)

And stargate-golf.

But through each iteration, O'Neill and Teal'c remembered.. And if I remember right, at the end of the episode, they were still the only ones who remembered any of it.

I think it was 100 or so partial days, so they couldn't have a full grasp of the language.

But hey, it's TV.. So the writers "forget" that they learned anything. Big deal. :)

Re:Stargate rules

[JWSmythe]

I just think it would be fun to include this ability in a show. The character Col. Jack O'Neill isn't dumb, quite the opposite. Given his background in special ops (I even choose to overlook the fact that the Air Force doesn't really have a Special Ops group like the SEALS), he likely already knows a few other languages. Teal'c definately knows at least two.

Most officers aren't exactly stupid.. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe you must have a bachlors degree to get any sort of officer rank, no matter how talented you may be. Being dumb, and playing dumb are two different things. For example, walk into my office when I don't want to cooperate and ask me anything. I may have forgotten even my own name. Sometimes it's safer to be like that. Dumb people don't know anything and aren't worth bothering for information. Not so smart people get bothered all the time. Playing dumb has helped me out of plenty of situations. I don't know anything unless I want to.

Ok, so O'Neill doesn't have a grasp of astrophysics, (or plays like he doesn't). No one's going to ask him to do anything like fix a DHD. But he is responsible for being a military leader, so he does that effectively. You've never seen him trying to figure out which end is the working end of a P90.

The show would be pretty boring if every alien spoke a different language. Every conversation would be through Jackson, and that'd get old *REALLY* quick. Well, it would have been harder for that year that he was dead too.

Re:Stargate rules

[halowolf]

Never be partway through the stargate when it closes...

Ahh this is one rule where epidodes contradict. In the pilot, or following episode of Season 1 there was that officer taken over by a Gu'old, who had his head sliced off by the Stargate to kill him.

Subsequently a few seasons later (where O'Neil hunts down the NIS alien artifact thieves with the help of the Tolen and Asgard) it was established that transmissions, and Colonel O'Neils arm could be used to keep the gate open using the Ancients Stargate safety lock to stop these types of accidents happening.

Ahh farewell continuity, you were gone before your time... I can quite easily overlook these types of discrepencies as I really like SG-1 and I have hopes for SG-A.

Re:Stargate rules

[Snaller]

"Do not hit golf balls through the Stargate."

Why not? Never seen any negative things about that :)

Re:Stargate rules

[Suidae]

I attribute this to them not knowing how to run the gate properly at first. We know that even now the software isn't full implimentation of what exists in the DHD's (although they may have made some improvments since the episode where their error handling caused problems). Presumably that first version was even more rudimentary.

Of course, it could also be that long FX sequences cost more and get tedious after the first few viewings :)

Re:Stargate rules

[ePhil_One]

I like your theory. O'Neill and Teal'c don't want anyone to know they know a good bit about the ancients language, and nobody but them knows they know it. All they had to do was not mention that they learned it during that last cycle ["Dr Jackson translated it on another cycle" they said] an nobody comes bugging them every time theres some ancient text that needs translating, leaving more time for fishing.

It works for me...

Re:Stargate rules

[BoneFlower]

Might not be discrepancies. Those were different stargates IIRC, its entirely possible that the Ancients made changes to the design of the Stargate and there are several different models floating around. As for the arm vs head keeping it open, it could also be a matter of how much mass was put through the gate that kept it open. O'Neil may have had more of his arm than Kawalsky had his head through the gate, that might have been enough of a difference to keep it open.

At least, thats a perfectly reasonable way to get around just about all the "but the gate doesn't work like that" goofs they've had. Its perfectly plausible, in fact almost guaranteed that the Ancients would tweak the Stargates to work better or to adapt to locally available materials. Not all upgrades would necesarily make it to all gates, and adaptations to local materials obviously wouldn't be ported to other gates(unless it was discovered to work significantly better). If you recall the one ascended Ancient that made one in Carters basement out of some titanium and a toaster, its clear they knew how to build gates in multiple ways.

Re:Stargate rules

[indiechild]

Actually the US Air Force does have special operations groups that operate on the ground as well as in the air, aka "Air Commandos". They're not as famous as the SEALs, but every service has their own special forces.

Re:Stargate rules

[BoneFlower]

The english thing is in the official FAQ. Basically, they don't want to spend 15 minutes of every episode working through the language barrier, so unless it has siginifcance to that episode or it is a very important new contact, they simply ignore it without explanation, rather than trying to tack on some ridiculous "universal translator" thing on.

And you are wrong about only one planet not speaking english. The Jaffa of Chulak speak a form of Arabic, this was shown when they went there to meet Ry'ac for the first time.

Re:Submission practices

[jayhawk88]

Not closing your HTML tags properly might help too.

SG-1 Continuity?

[angrist]

I've never gotten into watching SG-1 (although it comes highly recomended) but have meant to.

This looks like a great place to pick up the series, but i have to ask all you SG-1 fans... how friendly do you think Atlantis will be towards new viewers?

First post? ::crosses fingers::

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Vaevictis666]

Very friendly, actually.

From what I know, during the premier they get off to Atlantis, and then goof up and get themselves stuck there - it's mostly autonomous from the original show. I do recommend you hunt down the Stargate Atlantis Lowdown on bittorrent or something (it aired last week) that should bring you up to speed on what's happening with the main Stargate storyline and universe. They're spending their time in another galaxy, no Gua'uld, new bad guys, new stuff going down. Should be fun :)

One of the things the writers mention is that for it to work as simultaneous shows, the one thing they _don't_ want to be doing often is invite the crew from show B to save the guys on show A. Regardless which show is A and which is B.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[AKAImBatman]

From what I know, during the premier they get off to Atlantis, and then goof up and get themselves stuck there - it's mostly autonomous from the original show.

I don't think that's right. I've seen previews where Doctor Weir is telling the troops that they're not sure if they can get back, but they're going to find new technologies to defend Earth. I think the idea is that SGC will occasionally open a wormhole and they'll exchange data via radio.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[raygundan]

I started watching the old episodes in order via Netflix after I gave in to the repeated recommendations my friends gave it.

I must say that I MUCH prefer this method of watching/paying for TV. Screw commercials and schedules-- I want everything on my own terms, in high quality, from now on. Now if only they'd start doing releases on the same day as the show first runs or the movie opens, I'd be very happy.

But I digress. Netflix, for $20/month, will get you through the first six seasons (they don't have the seventh yet, but i assume they will) pretty quick.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[SpecialSauce]

Stargate: Atlantis should be fine for new viewers, but the baddies look like Marylin Manson's extended family.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[bigbigbison]

You could probably watch any single episode of SG-1 and figure out 90% of what is going on. There is continuity but it is more in terms of reoccuring characters where there are a few people who keep returning as guest stars, but the plots are definitly on the side of action so it is not generally that confusing. There is the ocasionally plot heavy show, but they generally do a "last time on Stargate" where they show you all the relevent storylines even if they build on things that happened several episodes ago.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[nes11]

"From what I know, during the premier they get off to Atlantis, and then goof up and get themselves stuck there"

actually, the problem is that it takes so much energy to get them from earth to the new gate, that they have no idea whether the other gate will support it coming back the other way.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[kjh1]

It's too bad that they (the shows' producers/writers) have already stated that they don't want too much or any intermingling of plots and characters between shows. I usually find that really interesting. It makes it seem like the show is really part of a bigger picture. I think it's something audiences in general like as well. After all, it's done all the time.

Someone else made the comment that you can figure out 90% of what's going on just by watching one show. I disagree. I got into SG-1 in about the 4th season, and if I didn't know someone who had been watching it all along, it would have taken me significantly more time to get up to speed. That's another thing that I find compelling about the show - there *is* a lot of 'backstory' that drives each episode. They are all part of a much larger story arc. Think Bablyon 5.

Unless I got it mixed up, I think they may have goofed already: Why is Dr Weir involved with the Atlantis program when she said in this season's 1st episode of SG-1 that she was going to be an ambassador of sorts among all the nations that now know about the Stargate and the various aliens?

Other than that, I'm really looking forward to this new show. Hopefully, double the workload for this group of writers/producers/etc. won't result in half the quality that has been present in SG-1 so far.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[meta-monkey]

Eh. If I were you I'd either get the torrents for SG-1, or you can catch the re-runs on Sci-Fi. They have like a four hour marathon every Monday night. The show is pretty good...I'd say probably the best sci-fi on TV right now.

I'm worried that I'm not going to like Atlantis, though. One of the things I liked about SG-1 was the characters seemed much more "real." Take a look at the Atlantis cast and they all look like Hollywood pretty boys (and girls). On SG-1, well, there's Richard Dean Anderson, who looks pretty much like a normal guy. His character jokes around too much for a Colonel in the Air Force (B. General, now, actually). Before they made him start working out and cut his hair, Michael Shanks did look like a befuddled scientist. Amanda Tapping is cute, but not exactly a starlet. Chris Judge looks big and mean, and has a misshapen head (Don't tell him I said that!). The dude who plays General Hammond is probably one of the best charicatures of career military on TV.

Now flash foward to Atlantis. The leader is a slender civilian woman with high cheekbones. The military commander has spiked hair, and looks like he's just about old enough to have finished basic. Then there's the Atlantean chick who looks like a bit character from Xena: Warrior Princess. It just seems fake... It reminds of one of the best episodes of SG-1, in which Jack (Anderson's character) served "undercover" as a technical adviser on a TV show that seemed too similar to the real Stargate project so he could find out what was going on. They called the fake show "Wormhole Xtreme!" and it was loaded with bad acting, casting, cheap sets, and cliches. I'm afraid Atlantis is going to be the real Wormhole Xtreme!

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Wolfrider]

--Hmm, sounds a lot like ST:Voyager. I have mixed feelings about this...

--To me, what makes SG1 work:
Richard Anderson (O'Neill)
Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter)

(To a lesser extent)

The hot doctor - Teryl Rothery (Doc Frasier is now dead, unforch)
Teal'c
Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks)
General Hammond (Don S. Davis)

--Without *any* of the "original crew" (Hey, how about bringing Kurt Russell or French Stewart into Atlantis?) signing on, it's a 50/50 chance the show will struggle. IIRC, they had to bring Michael Dorn (Worf) onto DS9 before the ratings started to climb back up.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

8th season started last week- I assume the 7th will be out on DVD within the month.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[nukem1999]

I think the idea is that SGC will occasionally open a wormhole and they'll exchange data via radio.

I don't know, that doesn't sound right to me. Which is more likely to be able to produce the power to span galaxies more than once : A place that we are lead to believe holds advanced technology unrivaled in the universe, or a place where someone needed to have the collective knowledge of another civilization (the civilization that allegedly built the other place, along with the entire gate network) to do it *once and only once* last time?

*shrug* I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[crazyaxemaniac]

Atlantis has a whole new cast and takes place in an entirely different galaxy than SG-1. I imagine it should be fairly easy to pick up.

SG-1 is pretty episodic in comparison to other series like Deep Space Nine or Babylon 5. Since it is more comedy than drama it's not like you don't enjoy watching an episode without background information.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[NoodleSlayer]

Well as seen in previous episodes of SG-1 it takes a lot more power to create a wormhole to another galaxy then they have readily available at the SGC. The one time they did it, and I feel like such a dork for knowing this, was in the episode "The Fifth Race" where O'Neill had the Ancient's Library uploaded into his mind. He created a device, that was subsequently destroyed upon use, that allowed the gate to dial up one of the Asgard worlds.

So as they don't have the power readily available in the Pegasus Galaxy to be able to get a wormhole back to Earth they're stuck, for the time being.

If you want to find out more information you can go to GateWorld and start reading their spoilers. The Episodes, "The Fifth Race", "Ascension", "Meridian", "Frozen", "Maternal Instinct" and "Absolute Power" should give you a rough idea, although not necesarily in that order. I'm sure I left out a couple too.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[raygundan]

Oct. 19th, according to Amazon, but maybe NetFlix will get it quicker. We'll see.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[AKAImBatman]

Well as seen in previous episodes of SG-1 it takes a lot more power to create a wormhole to another galaxy then they have readily available at the SGC. The one time they did it, and I feel like such a dork for knowing this, was in the episode "The Fifth Race" where O'Neill had the Ancient's Library uploaded into his mind. He created a device, that was subsequently destroyed upon use, that allowed the gate to dial up one of the Asgard worlds.

But since then they've been contacting the Asgard on occasion, it would follow that they have enough power generation ability to establish wormholes with them on a regular basis. Remember, when the "Fifth Race" aired, the SGC didn't have Naquada power generation yet. Now they use them as portable generators.

Also, the Asgard don't seem to have too many qualms about giving the SGC technology. They just don't have the time to give Earth a proper education.

So as they don't have the power readily available in the Pegasus Galaxy to be able to get a wormhole back to Earth they're stuck, for the time being.

That's my understanding. Basically, there's no "goof up" as the original poster suggested, but rather they get stuck there intentionally. Since the SGC can obviously establish a wormhole, they'll be calling up the Atlantis team on occasion to say "how ya' doing"? Unfortunately, matter can only propagate one direction, so they can't bring them back that way.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[justanyone]

The role of Samantha Carter (played by Amanda Tapping) is a great boost to women. WE NAMED OUR DAUGHTER 'CARTER' AFTER HER (and the president).

I recognize that they give Carter too many responsibilities (being uber-brilliant and super-soldier). My wife commented that they got rid of the Dr. Janet Frasier (played by Teryl Rothery) to make sure the show wasn't too heavy with women in top positions, that would be threatening.

I doubt my wife is correct, but she makes a good point. Are they going to replace and add characters to regain the male / female balance on this show?

One of the PREMIER COOL things that shows like Stargate do, IMHO, is allow stodgey males (young and old) to VIEW women soldiers, and thus experience them as highly capable, rough-and-tumble, smart, and fallible human beings.

Just seeing a woman in a role allows you to change your preconceptions of what roles people should be in. That goes for having a handicapped person (amputee, maybe) working in the SGC as a technician. The part would be small, in the background, but it would make a big difference in how people saw people with physical limitations.

The original Star Trek put a black woman in a senior leadership position (Lieuntenant Uhura, communications officer, okay, it isn't a huge department, but it's important, and it's on the bridge). That redefined what was possible for black women both on TV and off.

I hope Stargate continues to push boundaries and explore what we perceive as normal.

Of course, they could just ignite a firestorm and introduce a Gua'ould named Jesus. Or another namd 'Moshe' (Moses). Or another named, 'Siddhartha'. Or 'Mohammed'. I would recommend they stay out of that territory, though, there'd be LOTS of pushback from their fanbase and zealots alike.

-- Kevin J. Rice

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Binestar]

He created a device, that was subsequently destroyed upon use, that allowed the gate to dial up one of the Asgard worlds.

Wasn't destroyed, the SGC was just unable to ever getting it working again until later when they were contacted from another universe by Dr. Carter and one of the guys who was killed in the original episode.

They brought it to the other universe and it was used to dial the Asgard to save the planet from Apophis.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[AKAImBatman]

From what I've read, the same generators that allow the gate to dial another galaxy, (an area code via the 8th chevron, so to speak) also power the city, but they are either a) failing b) drained.

I think it's (c) needed for defense of Atlantis. IIUC, there's constantly a shield around the city that keeps it high and dry, and keeps baddies out.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Geek of Tech]

>>I personally have no hope for the show after viewing the web site.
>>
>>Why oh why does every great SF show spawn really, really sucky sequels?

I know parent got moded as a troll, but I'm going to run with the ball here for just a second. A lot of the time sequels do tend to stink (to say nothing of a sequel of a sequel), but I believe that is due to their trying to ride the coattails of the original, without bringing anything new into the equation.

Stargate Atlantis seems to be bringing in a fair amount of new things. The Graphics are supposed to kick butt (and from what I've seen, they do). Major aspects of the plot are different. etc, etc, etc...

I believe that Stargate Atlantis has a fair chance of success. It appears that they're bringing more in than they're trying to take out.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[FingerDemon]

I did this too, but I found one weird thing. One of the episodes had a technical problem. Not artifacts or anything, it just didn't have the voice track for Apophis with his Goa' uld growl/voice. It was the episode where they go to the planet with the Nox. Maybe it was called "the Nox"?
I wonder if anyone bought the DVD's, did they notice this too, or was it fixed in later releases?

Anyway the Netflix copy I rented had the problem. I had to wait for Sci-Fi to rerun the episode to learn what Apophis had been saying.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[bigbigbison]

As I recall, Teryl decided to leave, so the elimination of her character was initiated by her. Now, of course when the guy who plays general hammond decided to leave the show they didn't kill his character or anything!

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Starsmore]

The problem with that is in that episode, they took it back to the home universe of Mirror Carter (or was it Dr. Samantha O'Neil?) and Mirror Bronski (yay geek points!), so Carter could contact Mirror Thor (and Mirror Spock!)

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[lrucker]

My wife commented that they got rid of the Dr. Janet Frasier (played by Teryl Rothery) to make sure the show wasn't too heavy with women in top positions, that would be threatening.

It was more a case of they wanted to kill off someone that people cared about, but not one of the primary characters. That pretty much limited it to Frasier; I don't think we'd care too much if the guy who says "chevron engaged" bought it.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Grishnakh]

Of course, they could just ignite a firestorm and introduce a Gua'ould named Jesus. Or another namd 'Moshe' (Moses). Or another named, 'Siddhartha'. Or 'Mohammed'. I would recommend they stay out of that territory, though, there'd be LOTS of pushback from their fanbase and zealots alike.

Personally, I'd like it if they did this. It'd make more sense that these religious figures were actually aliens than the superstitious BS that organized religions ask us to believe.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[TerryMathews]

I recognize that they give Carter too many responsibilities (being uber-brilliant and super-soldier). My wife commented that they got rid of the Dr. Janet Frasier (played by Teryl Rothery) to make sure the show wasn't too heavy with women in top positions, that would be threatening.

I doubt my wife is correct, but she makes a good point. Are they going to replace and add characters to regain the male / female balance on this show?

I think that was a nod to realism, given that Rothery wanted to leave. A General can get promoted out of a Top Secret-level command. What are the odds a doctor would?

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Colymbosathon ecplec]

And sometimes they have a "clip show", like the time General Hammond was revealing the existence of the Stargate to some Earth representatives. That serves to both bring viewers up to date as well as make us sorry we missed something, yet you can come in any time, as a previous poster mentioned, and not be too lost.

I didn't discover it until maybe the 4th or 5th season, and now I shall get the DVD's to see what I missed as it started out. IMO it is one of the best sci-fi/comedy/action shows on TV, even better than many films. I especially loved the episode where they were spoofing their own show, in the interest of credible denialability. As a bonus, my girlfriend even loves the show.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[dorsey]

Why is Dr Weir involved with the Atlantis program when she said in this season's 1st episode of SG-1 that she was going to be an ambassador of sorts among all the nations that now know about the Stargate and the various aliens?

That isn't what they said she was going to be doing. At the end, when she told Jack about his promotion, she said she was being sent to head up the international team of scientists going to Antarctica.

Presumably, this is the team that discovers how to and ends up actually going to Atlantis.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[David_W]

I do recommend you hunt down the Stargate Atlantis Lowdown on bittorrent or something (it aired last week)

Actually, it'll be airing tomorrow at 6pm and Saturday (i.e., Friday night) at 1am if you want to avoid hunting down torrents.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[ebassi]

IIRC, they had to bring Michael Dorn (Worf) onto DS9 before the ratings started to climb back up.

Nope: the authors of DS9 had to write the whole super-plot of the Dominion Wars, to which Worf was a nice (and logical) addendum, before the ratings started to climb back up.

You might go as far as saying that they had to actually write good stories, in order to get good ratings, but that would be hardly a news (even though having good stories does not mean having the show renewd for another year - see Futurama and Firefly).

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[cowscows]

From the trailers and commercials I've seen so far, the part that's got me worried the most is the uniforms they're wearing. Why weren't they wearing normal military gear? Aren't they basically going on an off-world mission like all the SG teams have been doing for years? Why do they all of the sudden have clothes that look like they're from babylon 5?

Although SG-1 is definite sci-fi in a lot of its plot, the characters (except maybe teal'c, but he's got an excuse) feel pretty real and contemporary. I think if they try too hard to set atlantis completely apart from the SG-1 universe, they're going to lose a large part of what makes it so good.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[meta-monkey]

Of course, they could just ignite a firestorm and introduce a Gua'ould named Jesus. Or another namd 'Moshe' (Moses). Or another named, 'Siddhartha'. Or 'Mohammed'.

The problem is that it wouldn't work in terms of the story. The mythologies the Gau'ould pretended to be are ancient...like 3000 B.C. and earlier. In the movie, Ra first came to the Egyptians in 8000B.C. This is all far back enough in time, with few written records, that the acts of these "gods" could be written off to superstitions and what not. That's really not the case with Jesus and Mohammed, who existed only 2000 (or 1400) years ago. I think I've got that right...Mohammed was around in 600AD, right? There are too many written records from those times, that the acts of the Gua'ould would be well-known.

Anyway, I also don't think the stories would mesh well, either. I don't seem to recall any stories about Jesus killing people with a flick of his hand or commanding people worship him or be destroyed. If the Stargate writers did something like this, it would seem like a stretch and a gimmick, as the story of Jesus is nothing like the stories of the angry, vengeful gods of ancient mythologies.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[irving47]

--To me, what makes SG1 work:
Richard Anderson (O'Neill)
Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter)

Gack! You're a shipper. You're automatically disqualified from having an opinion!

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[orkysoft]

They had an episode with a mediaeval village and an Unas who pretended to be the devil and demanded sacrifices.

I think the writers handled that pretty well. Those people were abducted by a ship (people claim that happens all the time!), and of course no Goa'uld could play a good-aligned god, so it chose to play his nemesis, the devil.

And of course the sets, they're always very good. Especially that 1940s planet with all the old-fashioned lab equipment, that was really good.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[sadler121]

slightly OT, but I wonder if the SGC will just ship about a 100 or so Naqidah generaters to Atlantis that should provide enough energy to open the gate back to Earth, and allow them to come back home.

Though I think a more likly way to handle the Atlantis team coming home is to bring Atlantis back to Earth. From what I could get from the season 8 premeire of SG-1, Atlantis was actually built on Earth, but soon after left to head toward the Pegasus Galaxy.

Image the international bickering that would insue if said "Lost City" happened to come back to Earth, and they thought they had there hands full with the bickering over the Antartic Ancients base. ;-)

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Planesdragon]

Why do they all of the sudden have clothes that look like they're from babylon 5?

Because it's not a military excursion. It's the multi-national scientific research coalation that's taking one additional step to go from the outpost to the lost city itself.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[achaudhary]

Just like ST:TNG... Hot redhead doctor is a key ingredient :)

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[EvilIdler]

What about Yu? Wasn't he a more recent ruler in
Asia? He was also a more reasonable goa'uld, so
it would make sense if he went to Earth after
the brats packed their larvae and left.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[meta-monkey]

Yes, you are missing something. RDA plays Jack O'Neil, the Air Force colonel. He looks right for the part. The "befuddled scientist" is Dr. Daniel Jackson, played by actor Michael Shanks. In the first two seasons, he had long unkempt hair, and usually acted awkardly around others. After about season three, he cut his hair short and built up a lot, until now he looks like more a jock than the military officers. If you look around enough on gateworld.net you can find some pictures of him from the beginning of the series, and some from the end to see the difference.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Zey]

The original Star Trek put a black woman in a senior leadership position (Lieuntenant Uhura, communications officer, okay, it isn't a huge department, but it's important, and it's on the bridge).

Space Receptionist isn't really much of a senior leadership position.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Crimson Midget]

Geek points deducted for not knowing his name was Kowalski, not Bronski. And I think with what they learned in that episode and the fact they know how to make naquada reactors now, dialing the Asgard probably isn't a big deal. I bet to get to Atlantis they'll need to use up that crystal that's powering the uber-weapon in Antarctica. (Thus leaving Earth in a weaker position so season 8 will be more dramatic. :))

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[BoneFlower]

Jesus might make sense as a Tok'ra. Though if they were smart they would simply imply that rather than outright state it.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[LordLucless]

Of course, they could just ignite a firestorm and introduce a Gua'ould named Jesus. Or another namd 'Moshe' (Moses). Or another named, 'Siddhartha'. Or 'Mohammed'. I would recommend they stay out of that territory, though, there'd be LOTS of pushback from their fanbase and zealots alike.

I think they already covered this. Wasn't there some episode where they found a little snakey-critter (can't spell it anymore, haven't watched in ages) that ruled some really hot planet as Satan? That is, they used the Biblical milieu but chose the bad guy for the go'auld instead of Jesus? Besides, I don't think the judeo-christian god would make a good go'auld - he was only incarnate for twenty-odd years, all the rest he was spirit.

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[abreauj]

It's too bad that they (the shows' producers/writers) have already stated that they don't want too much or any intermingling of plots and characters between shows.

That's not what they said. Brad Wright and Robert Cooper's exact words, from the "Lowdown" last week, were as follows:

(Bob)
Originally it was more of a hand-off, and now both worlds had to co-exist.

(Brad)
And not step on top of each other. And, more importantly, we didn't want to have a situation where the solution in one universe would be to "Just call the other guys!"

It sounds to me like it doesn't preclude cross-show plots; it's just that they want to reduce the burden of maintaining continuity between the two shows by limiting the interface between the two.

Unless I got it mixed up, I think they may have goofed already: Why is Dr Weir involved with the Atlantis program when she said in this season's 1st episode of SG-1 that she was going to be an ambassador of sorts among all the nations that now know about the Stargate and the various aliens?

No, that's not a screw-up. We won't know the details until tomorrow (well, this evening), but it seems clear to me that Dr. Weir is indeed leaving the SGC to take over negotiations with the other 11 countries that are signatories to the Antartica research treaty, and her role as leader of the Atlantis expedition will be a consequence of that.

to Antarcticaon

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[DikSeaCup]

First, let me say I'm a fan of SG-1.

But it has to be said:

Doesn't this premise kind of parallel Voyager?

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[Suidae]

I win. My daughters name is Chiana. Seriously. And she has a sister named Kira :)

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[BoneFlower]

Space receptionist would be Yeoman Rand. Uhura was the Communications Officer.

Communications is a huge deal. Without it, you are completely isolated. A Communications officer is in charge of all aspects of communications, internal and external. Without a competent person in charge of it, a starship would be severely weakened.

Having a black woman in charge of such a critical department was pretty much unheard of at that time. Having someone who was black, or a woman, in charge of something that important was pretty strange, for someone in that position to be both... a huge advance.

Just think about it... The intercoms throughout the Enterprise. Those were Uhuras responsibility. Talking to Starfleet- Again, her job. Translation- Guess who? Those flip communicators- Again, thats Uhuras job to make sure they have enough of them and they are in working order. Communications is a huge responsibility in any military, scientific, or diplomatic endeavor, and the Enterprise's mission included responsibilities in all three areas. And the only person on the Enterprise with the authority to override her in communications matters was the Captain. Even Spock didn't have that authority except when serving as acting Captain.

Uhura was most definitely in a senior leadership position. As far as responsibility and authority over the ship as a whole went, she was even with LtCmdr Scott(though he outranked her, that only really mattered when both Kirk and Spock were unable to command).

Re:SG-1 Continuity?

[vena]

no Yu was the oldest of the system lords, that's why he went senile.

New Slashdot tag line?

[mr_zorg]

News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. Stuff that we told you about last week. Stuff that's exaggerated. Stuff that's on TV.

Re:New Slashdot tag line?

[JaffaKREE]

I'm sure this has something to do with Amanda Tapping's pseudo-clothesless role at the end of last week's episode.
.... slow down cowboy... yeah, I got it, thanks

This is what confused me...

[HunterZero]

I thought that SG1 was cancelled. Now, why would they cancel one show and then start up another show that will probably be the same, except with a new cast and no McGyver.

I mean, I don't know about you, but without McGyver it just won't be the same.

Re:This is what confused me...

[Xylaan]

Stargate SG-1 hasn't been canceled yet. They just had the season premiere last week. SG Atlantis is a new spin-off series.

Re:This is what confused me...

[Omega1045]

Do you even watch the Sci-Fi channel? I don't think they have had a commercial break in the last 2 months where they haven't shown the SG1 Season Premiere commercial back-to-back with the Atlantis promo.

Your nerd privileges have been revoked. You must now go hang out with the jocks.

Re:This is what confused me...

[Azrael Newtype]

I don't really know why this is considered funny. Well, the McGyver reference is almost certainly what did it, but if you watched Sci-Fi, you'd realize not only was it not cancelled as the new season started last Friday, but also 'McGyver' is back as a Brigadier General.

So... seriously was the whole ignorance thing supposed to be funny, or was it just the belief that Richard Dean Anderson actually is McGyver (who I'd like to mention was extremely anti-gun, unlike Jack.)

Re:This is what confused me...

[archen]

Brigadier Genral? Pfft. Call me when the give McGyver 5 stars. =P

Re:This is what confused me...

[Chiron Taltos]

From Scifi.com ...

Read transcripts of our exclusive chats with Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and all the cast of Stargate SG-1. See new episodes starting SCI FI Friday, July 9!

Re:This is what confused me...

[justanyone]

Your nerd privileges have been revoked. You must now go hang out with the jocks.

It's not _that_ bad. He should just have to hang out with the Band geeks, and learn their lingo before returning.

• Ombrurshure
• 8th position trombone
• 26-inch step
• split reed
• 7th-grade oboe
• bassoon strap
• 2nd chair blues
• tight embrasure

After all, the jocks don't respect nerds, but band geeks cross many high school subcultures.

If the writers at Sci-Fi's Stargate shows understood their target audiences, they would feature many references to the above and other in-jokes from high school subcultures that could be dropped in to make for greater entertainment value.

Re:This is what confused me...

[Wolfrider]

--I'm just waiting for the episode where O'Neill realizes that being a general means too much paperwork and not enough away-team time, and gets himself busted back down to Colonel so he can do what he likes.

--Just like Jim Kirk. ;-) :b

Re:This is what confused me...

[kilogram]

Well, SG: Atlantis is a spin-off of SG-1. As far as I know, there will be another season of SG-1 as well.

However, Atlantis fits very nicely into the story set forth in SG-1, and my guess is that it will be a decent show.

Looking forward to seeing this in Norway.

Re:This is what confused me...

[Snowbeam]

You are all fools!!!! Let the truth be known. The show was to be cancelled, but they found it in themselves to do one more season, plus start a spinoff to continue when they ended this last and final season.

Re:This is what confused me...

[proj_2501]

crikey!

it's embouchure!

Re:This is what confused me...

[Omega1045]

Season 8 Breaks Records

If I recall, SG1 was Sci-Fi's highest rated series last year, but I can't back that up. However, the season premiere last Firday broke almost every record they had.

Re:This is what confused me...

[yodaj007]

Did you know that in the first episode (maybe the second?) of the first season of SG1, Samantha Carter said something to the effect of
"...we had to McGuyver the DHD back home..."
Its hard to catch because it goes by so quickly.

Re:This is what confused me...

[chmod000]

Band Geek Alert!

(But I was gonna say the same thing, actually. What was your instrument? Clarinet, here. )

Re:This is what confused me...

[steveha]

It was the first episode of SG1.

A woman character said something like "you've managed to McGuyver up a gate interface!" The actress ad-libbed that, they liked it, they kept it.

steveha

Re:This is what confused me...

[sadler121]

they would feature many references to the above and other in-jokes from high school subcultures that could be dropped in to make for greater entertainment value.

uh this is Stargate NOT Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you want refrences to high school subculture, and jokes about said sub culture, go get seasons 1-7 of Buffy off of Netflix.

Stargate SG-1/Atlantis is geered way more towards sci-fi than Buffy ever was, (it amazes me how someone can classify Buffy as Sci Fi, where in they have some elements of sci fi, all in all the show is not about sci fi), also Buffy, for the first three seasons is in a high school setting. Stargate is set in a MILITARY setting. It would be hard pressed for any writer to attempt to conform Stargate into refrences of a sub culture that is many years younger than the characters themselves.

Re:This is what confused me...

[multipartmixed]

> Ombrurshure

That's "embouchure". The etymology is French. (Bouche means mouth)

I wish to hell I got the Sci-Fi channel, I'm still catching up on Season 7. I need to get one of those illegal US dishes..

Re:This is what confused me...

[Joe Tie.]

That's the way I'd hope it'd happen. But it seems like they tried really hard to leave it open so that the position means pretty much that he's allowed to do anything he wants. From staying back and doing paperwork, to taking a swiss army knife and jumping into the gate alone to fight off an invasion. Which I was going to say would be a fairly unrealistic idea, but then I realised I was saying this about a show where people jump through gates to other planets. I think I need to just take my suspension of disbelief up a notch.

Re:This is what confused me...

[proj_2501]

flute

best way to experience female companionship in high school as you overhear all the gossip

Re:This is what confused me...

[rilian4]

That was Samantha Carter(played by Amanda Tapping) who said that.

Re:This is what confused me...

[Suidae]

You must now go hang out with the jocks.

And he's not talking about he people.
(insert image of nerd clothespined to clothesline along with several althletic supporters)

...and last but certainly not least...

[MoxCamel]

...do not taunt happy stargate.

Re:...and last but certainly not least...

[suss]

In Soviet Russia, their stargate overrides YOU(rs)!

Re:...and last but certainly not least...

[Lord_Dweomer]

Hey, that was supposed to be my joke you insensitive clod!

SciFi's Battlestar Galactica

[Goo.cc]

Does anyone know when SciFi's Battlestar Galactia miniseries will be released on DVD? I really liked it and would love to own a copy.

Re:SciFi's Battlestar Galactica

[SquadBoy]

netflix does not have it so I'm guessing no.

Re:SciFi's Battlestar Galactica

[rlp]

The Galactica series starts next January. I assume that they will re-broadcast the pilot immediately prior to the series start. Just fire up your VCR or DVR then.

Re:SciFi's Battlestar Galactica

[Chiron Taltos]

Indeed ... here's the link for those interested.

Battlestar Galactica

Re:SciFi's Battlestar Galactica

[PortWineBoy]

The DVD is to be released in November of this year according to www.bsg2003.com

Love the commercials

[Archfeld]

especially the one where the interviewee doesn't even say anything just makes a break up the ramp for the gate, and the AF security jock lays out in a full on body tackle. I laughed lemonaid out my nose when I saw that ad... I hope it is good, maybe some NON-BIPEDAL, non-symmetrical aliens :)

Re:Love the commercials

[slashjames]

Your aliens are quite like us. But instead of Teal'c, we get Teyla. A bit easier on the eyes methinks.

Re:Love the commercials

[Mysticalfruit]

My wife and I are both SG-1 fans and when we saw that commercial we ended up laughing our asses off.

I also liked the people who do the flips across the stage and carter and teal'c flip the pads over to show 10's.

On a side note, did anybody else notice that in the "pumper" for "New Order" they stated that "Finally the replicators will be destroyed". Needless to say, not only did the replicators get away, but it looks as though they've become even more distructive since it looks as though they've become self aware. However, one thing that I've really liked is that SG-1 never fully puts a plot string to rest so they've got enough material for easily 10 spin offs.

Re:Love the commercials

[Anonymous Coward]

But, see, the problem here is that Atlantis isn't based on any long term or developed plot string. That's why it's going to fail as a spinoff. That and the annoying egomaniac who kept doing the condescension-flirting game with Carter.

A much stronger spin off would have indeed spun off from an existing thread... an undercover cop show featuring the Tok'ra, or an Aaron Spelling-type melodrama about the system lords. Just imagine what the Henson workshop could do with a series about the Asgard!

Sorry...

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

I'll be at I, Robot

Re:Sorry...

[Zaranne]

Me, too...providing I can find an appropriate companion to go with me. I really need to get new friends...ones that don't like "chick flicks". Ick.

Zar
I've learned that you can't make someone love you. All you can is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.

Re:Sorry...

[CoffeeJedi]

Is somebody forcing you to see what is likely to be the worst movie of the summer?

someone is forcing him to see Catwoman.... oh god.... oh god no!!!!!! its torture!!!!

Re:Sorry...

[Marxist Hacker 42]

What gets me about I Robot is that I always pictured Michael Donovan as a Scottsman, not an African American. Something about the last name just doesn't fit.

Of course, with the Strange Worm Unknown to Science long dead, do we have any hope at all that this movie is the same script printed in IA Magazine back in 1984?

Re:Sorry...

[GlassUser]

It's a slave name, plain and simple. Kinda like the very black man working here named O'Bryan. He was talking about how a black man got a name like that, and said it just came to him one day in his teens. Never occured to me, but I don't have similar ancestry. Makes sense though.

Re:Sorry...

[dcstimm]

did you already see it? I did, the trailer completely gives away the movie..

Re:Sorry...

[lrucker]

I'll be at I, Robot

Don't you mean iRobot?

Re:Sorry...

[king-manic]

Don't you mean iRobot?

$1000 hardware masqurading as $3000 hardware with a limited utility but it looks like a colored candy condom. Likly made by a megomanical corprate primadona.... Yeah thats soudn abotu right.

Re:Correction

[missing000]

Is that better? I swear I closed the tag, but accidents happen to everyone.

Accidents happen? Nope. Not to grammar nazi's :)

So?

[john_smith_45678]

What compelling reason is there to watch Stargate Atlantis? I have no plans to otherwise.

Re:So?

[pico303]

What's the compelling reason to watch anything on television? It's merely a form of entertainment you might enjoy.

I've never found any compelling reason to watch movies or television, aside from entertainment value. Even informational programming, such as documentaries, is much more lightweight in content richness than a book on the subject.

Re:So?

[goetzAThome]

Tomorrow? Gen. O'Neil & Dr. Jackson, cool fx.....

a walk on role?

[Savatte]

so if you win this contest, you get a walk-on role. What's the consolation prize, a staring role?

thank you, ill be here all week. don't forget to tip your waitress

Re:a walk on role?

[Anonymous Coward]

so if you win this contest, you get a walk-on role. What's the consolation prize, a staring role?

staring - To look directly and fixedly, often with a wide-eyed gaze

starring - To play the leading role in a theatrical or film production

So yeah, a staring role would probably be what you get as a consolation prize. You and everyone watching at home.

Re:a walk on role?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Given that Richard Dean Anderson has now fallen into a second series where he's trapped by a stereotyped character (although this time exactly the opposite character he played before- the guns issue being the most obvious, and apparently from his interview in "From Stargate To Atlantis", he's personally a lot more like McGyver and a lot less like Jack O'Neil); the staring role would be a death sentence to an emerging career. In fact, I think it has to Amanda's.

Re:a walk on role?

[king-manic]

Sometimes you count your blessing and roll with it. For each person who is viciously type cast there are 4000 who would kill to have that roll. None of the cast of SG1 would stand much of a chance at having a success movie career as anything more then supportign actors. I'm sure the roll has opened more doors then it has closed.

FLASH! Firefox + FlashBlock prevent Slashdotting

[cuzality]

Check out FlashBlock, an extension for Firefox which "[a]dds an XBL binding to Shockwave Flash object tags that replaces them with a button you must click in order to play the animation. Quite nice for restoring sanity to your browsing session."

Indeed.

Re:Submission practices

[coyote_oww]

For the good of all, please add and preview.

Now I know what I will be Torrenting on Saturday.

[guidryp]

Well that and some TDF coverage. Go Lance!

Is there a TVAA?

I'm bummed dudes

[confused one]

looks like my wife's going into labor now; and, I'm gonna miss the premiers for both Stargate Atlantis and I, Robot.

*looks around* What am I doing still posting on /.

*grabs keys*

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[multriha]

Man, you need to get your priorities straight.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Sheesh, dude, don't they have taxis where you live. *rolls eyes*

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[Mysticalfruit]

Seriously! I mean, she's probably going to be in labor for hours and hours. While she's busy in the birthing room screaming in agony, go out in the lounge and watch some SG-1!

Also, why doesn't this guy have a laptop with wifi?

Otherwise, you'll be in there holding her hand and she'll be all like "I can't believe you made me have this f*ing baby, you bastard!". Then there's the squeezing your hand until it looks like a turnip.

Just imagine how happy his wife will be when she's like "Honey, it's a girl!" and he responds with "Honey, I got a +5 funny!!!"

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[infinite9]

While she's busy in the birthing room screaming in agony, go out in the lounge and watch some SG-1!


When my wife was in labor with our second child, there was a tv in the delivery room on over her. It was playing a particularly good episode of ST:TNG. Me and the nurse were both glued to the tv. I think my wife still hasn't forgiven me for that one.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Don't be bummed, bro. You're in for the most exciting time of your life. I've been there and done that. Nothing like holding your own lifeform in your hands for the first time.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[ediron2]

looks like my wife's going into labor now; and, I'm gonna miss the premiers for both Stargate Atlantis and I, Robot.
*looks around* What am I doing still posting on /.
*grabs keys*

I've got 2 kids, age 4 and 2. Trust me, you're gonna miss more than just the premiers. In fact, your movie-theater days are about to be significantly altered for several years. Not curtailed (unless something bad like 'Garfield' pushes you to suicide midmovie). But definitely fewer, and with many compromises. Many compromises. In fact, let's all say it together... "I for one welcome my new stinky, screaming, drooling 2-foot overlord."

BTW, 'Netflix' is your friend. And any gaming habits can continue only if you're wearing headphones. If you're ambitious, you'll learn to rock the baby with one foot while fragging aliens at 3am.

The good news is that if you're an attentive dad, you're gonna be busy and having enough fun that you won't big-M *MISS* these shows. You just won't see them anytime soon.

(Heh... Call her a cab... I'm still laughing about that reply. While you're at it, call and reserve yourself a bed at the morgue).

Obligatory Lame OT buster: Did I mention Stargate on DVD has some cool supporting material? Lots and LOTS of commentary, featurettes, etc.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[roystgnr]

looks like my wife's going into labor now; and, I'm gonna miss the premiers for both Stargate Atlantis and I, Robot.

At least with "I, Robot" you can always read the book instead of going to see the movie.

In fact, judging by the trailers that might be a good idea even if you're not going to be busy opening night...

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[Zarquon]

Heh. Reading I, Robot will tell you absolutely nothing about the movie. But it has several good stories in it.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[damn_hippy]

What are you doing leaving the house? Don't they have midwives where you live?

While your wife is in labour, go to amazon and order "Immaculate Deception", read it while she is recovering from her cesarean (up to 40% rate in some hospitals) and wonder why you ever went to the hospital in the first place.

That book changed my whole outlook on pregnancy and birth in America, and opened my eyes to just how backwards this country is in that respect.

Sorry to sound preachy.. my wife has had all 3 of our children at home with a midwife and I just cannot see any other way to do it.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[Cavee]

Are you nuts? Of course it's good! If it wasn't good, why would there be enough people to be able to afford all the special effects that will be necessary during the rape--eh, Moviefying, of said novel. On another note, sometimes it is better to watch the movie first. It took me that long to get through Fellowship. Finished that one in line for my third viewing.

Re:I'm bummed dudes

[BoneFlower]

My youngest nephew was out in about two hours.

So he might be lucky:)

Re:Correction

[VoidWraith]

Not to grammar nazi's

Now, since you're just begging to be grammatically corrected, the word should be "Nazis." Its a proper noun, and is plural, not possessive. =P (And yeah, you also forgot a period.) All in good fun =)

Re:Correction

[momerath2003]

nazi's

There we go; I closed the tag on that one.

And I'm a grammar nazi, not an HTML-strict Nazi.

And me without my own uniform

[gelfling]

http://www.thegateroom.com/forsale.shtml

Damn, they're surely gonna kick me out of the club now.

Re:And me without my own uniform

[ronaldb64]

Who cares about the uniform, where can I buy a gate???

Re:And me without my own uniform

[glass_window]

You can always tell when a show has a cult following by the availability of websites like these. Especially when their products are probably better made than those on the show:

"Our ZAT holsters is quality crafted by a well known "webgear" manufacturer using ballistic nylon and heavy grade nylon strapping. Double stitched at all stress points and made to last! Now you won't have to walk about "unarmed" at conventions which don't allow realistic weapons or airsoft.

Re:And me without my own uniform

[Hobadee]

I just want a good P90 airsoft for cheap... (P90 is my favorite gun - Its a real gun, but still looks kinda futuristic!)

Re:Correction

[awhelan]

It's "nazis", "nazi's" is posessive.
As in my personal opinion: Sheesh I can't stand you damn grammer nazis!

Re:Submission practices

[PapaBoojum]

Not closing your HTML tags properly might help too.

You must be using Firefox, as I've heard it fails at rendering invalid HTML.

Re:FLASH! Firefox + FlashBlock prevent Slashdottin

[smooth wombat]

How about not using &%@!(^ Flash in the first place! It is not needed to simply enter or use a web site.

There is a site out there (which shall remain nameless) that I had visited a few times but which now requires Flash just to enter the site. Obviously I don't go there any more.

Flash should be used for enhancement purposes. Not to gain entry.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Is it just me...

[Cyno01]

Or do the Wraiths (the new baddies) all look like Marilyn Manson?

Re:Is it just me...

[tb3]

Can you think of something scarier?

Re:Is it just me...

[realdpk]

They remind me of the twins in one of the Matrix movies, except with color and a kind of vampiritic quality.

Re:Is it just me...

[burns210]

and they seem a lot like the Lord of the Ring evil-doers that Frodo was being chased by...

I have high hopes, but low expectations from what I have scene thus far... Atlantis? They jump to another side of the galaxy(for new plot/enemies and to be independent of the Stargate show)... Wow, sounds like Voyager all over again!

Re:Is it just me...

[PhrostyMcByte]

Developers! Developers! Developers!

Re:Is it just me...

[drinkypoo]

Michael Jackson?

Re:Submission practices

[Quirk]

Over a deeply boring, unemployed period I tried to develop a method for story submission. I was trying for 80% plus acceptance but barely made 50%. Sourcing the stories was pretty easy. There's about a dozen sites that provide a high percentage of /. stories. I found quoting from the articles the best submission practise as usually the writer has provided a good summation and has set out the key ideas. Gawd I lead a small existence. No wonder I'm divorced and have /. as my main social artery. Sad very sad :(

Re:Boycott Stargate...

[satoshi1]

You do know that they're bringing FarScape back, right? If you were watching the season premiere of StarGate SG-1 last Friday, you'd have seen the commercial for Farscape. So nyah.

You ruined the whole sries for me!

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

I never really watched McGyver when it was on, so I didn't really remember the actor - I have heard all of the jokes about nuclear bombs from bubble gum and such, and use some of them from time to time (albeit infrequently). Up until now I watch SG1 on and off and tend to enjoy it (until now). Everytime I watch it, I'm gonna expect O'neal to create a wormhole out of a pack of cigarettes or something otherwise silly.

Re:You ruined the whole sries for me!

[da3dAlus]

That's O'neill with 2 L's. Shesh, you must not watch it THAT often ;)

Re:You ruined the whole sries for me!

[MorePower]

There was a line in the pilot episode, where Carter talks about the DHD. She mentions that it took a long time to "McGyver" thier own dialing device for the gate. The camera cuts briefly to to O'neall just as she says "McGyver". It was hilarious!

Re:You ruined the whole sries for me!

[Koatdus]

I did watch some of the original McGyver.

The idea was good, a special agent who has a lot of knowlege and is a clever about improvising when things go wrong. But the lack of believable science and technology killed it for me.

If they had only hired some decent writers...

The ones that they had seemed to have flunked out of 3th grade science class. I seem to remember one episode where McGyver manages to set off an explosion by shining sunlight from a hand held mirror on something like a bullet from across a small field. I mean come on! If the sun was that hot we would all be crispy critters in about 2 seconds.

Re:You ruined the whole sries for me!

[eboot]

Actually if you worked on the series writing team as I did you would know that a theory on light magnification used in weaponary was posted in an important science journal commented that 'under the right circumstances a ray of light from the sun could in fact cause extreme heat through the application of said ray to metal in a bullet shaped object from a great distance' they planned to use it to detonate bombs without risking bomb crews lives. Unfortunately it was obviously highly impratical and was only successfully achieved once under lab conditions and once on the television show 'McGuyver'. oh by the way IANAWFMcG Cool huh?

Feh!

[Art_XIV]

I still want Crusade back. :(

Re:Feh!

[Lordrashmi]

I liked what I saw of that show, is it out on dvd?

Re:Feh!

[hords]

is it out on DVD?

It is coming out on DVD. I think they are bringing out all of the Babylon 5 movies and then they are bringing out Crusade on DVD.

Re:Feh!

[gargan]

me too! it had so much potential. i want to know more about the technomages and the drakh war and the telepath war and all we get's a bunch of nothin'. damn tnt. damn them to hell!

Re:Feh!

[nzhavok]

If you are really interested in the technomages I can recommend reading the Technomage trilogy (actually four books if you include the prequel). This happens around the times of the shadow war but is still very interesting.

The Cemtauri trilogy is also pretty good, a lot of Drakh stuff is covered there. There is also a psi-corps trilogy but this almost misses the telepath war, it happens between books 2 and 3. Still interesting if you want to know how the psi-corps is formed (first book) and a biography of bester (2nd and 3rd books).

I'm a pretty big B5 fan, i.e. I have all the books, novels, episode guides, comics, and magazines as well as the episodes themselves. I'd say these 10 books are must reads for fans, the rest can be comfortably skipped for all but the biggest fans :)

Sorry but I'm not gonna put the links here, but you can check out the novels page at the lurkers guide. All should be available at amazon still, oh and the name of the prequel to the technomages is "The Shadow Within".

Hope that helps :)

Re:Feh!

[gargan]

Hell yes that helps. I'm a pretty big fan of B5 myself (it's the ONLY scifi show on tv that I've ever thought was any good at all), and I hadn't thought much about the books. I needed some new books to read, looks like I found them :)

Re:Feh!

[nzhavok]

Hell yes that helps. I'm a pretty big fan of B5 myself (it's the ONLY scifi show on tv that I've ever thought was any good at all), and I hadn't thought much about the books. I needed some new books to read, looks like I found them :)

Glad I could help :)

I wouldn't go as far as saying it was the only show that was any good. I enjoyed Stargate also and am slowly collecting the DVD sets. If you really are as you claim a pretty big fan of B5, then I feel it's my duty as another pretty big fan to let you know there's a new movie coming. TMoS (The Memory of Shadows IIRC) it's not in production yet but apparantly approved. You can read JMS's posts at JMSNEWS

Cheers

Stargate Atlantis - and SG-1 Season Eight Premiere

[rogerborn]

Don't set your Tivo or tapes to record just Atlantis on SciFi.

Set them two hours early and record the first two episodes of SG-1, season eight.

IMO, season eight is already way better than atlantis may be.

For a scifi junkie, SG-1 is the best there is, and its on everyday.

Re:Boycott Stargate...

[rogerborn]

Lord Wu!

Get off the damn Internet, you fossil!

Go back to your galaxy and leave us alone!

Better yet, climb into your Sarcophagus and never come out again!

Not a fan of Lord Wu

Spoiler!

[Kredal]

I hear the Lone Gunmen die in this episode!

Re:Spoiler!

[ClosedSource]

No, but they do ascend!

Something is missing here...

[raygundan]

I think there's some words missing from your sentence, or possibly a typo. Either way, I can't tell what you're saying.

If you mean "you're putting your DivX on Bittorrent," no. I'm too lazy for that. And if I wasn't, I'd use xvid.

If you mean "You're paying for your own DivX Bittorret," it's sorta like that, except I get non-recompressed DVD quality, minus all the illegalness.

If you mean something even more bizarre, like "I'm paying for bittorrent with DivX" or "You're playing your DivX on Bittorrent," then I'm not even sure how to answer.

Please check to make sure all the important words are present in your sentences when you post. Otherwise, it is difficult for the rest of us to convert the little symbols back into coherent ideas.

Re:Boycott Stargate...

[Lordrashmi]

sadly, just a miniseries. It will be good, but not as good as the show.

Re:Correction

[momerath2003]

grammer

Grammar.

Forget the Goa'uld

[T-Kir]

Do not invite the goa'uld over for 'tea.'

Once you see the Pilot, I think you'll find that you ought not to invite the Wraith over for tea either... these pics might show you:

Eating time.

After eating (or whatever has happened to the poor bloke).

Re:Correction

[Moloch666]

You forgot a period as well. ;)

I feel your pain

[Damek]

I'd be bitter if my lovely Stargate were pushed back to make room for your Muppet show, so I understand.

Re:I feel your pain

[NanoGator]

"I'd be bitter if my lovely Stargate were pushed back to make room for your Muppet show, so I understand."

I don't like Farscape, so I enjoy making fun of it to rile up the hardcore fans. Unfortunately, the common alternative is a dude with a bumpy head. So.. well shit, I wish my fav scifi shows had muppets for aliens, too.

Re:I feel your pain

[Damek]

Some things are just too sarcastic to be taken for the sarcasm as which they were intended. Troll, my ass. But I'm not bitter. :P

Re:I feel your pain

[Anonymous Coward]

So.. well shit, I wish my fav scifi shows had muppets for aliens, too.

You're just jealous that your show's bad guy doesn't dress like an escape from homosexual S&M pr0n...

Re:I feel your pain

[Anonvmous Coward]

"well shit, I wish my fav scifi shows had muppets for aliens, too."

What's your favorite sci-fi show?

Re:I feel your pain

[Stitch_626]

If I had mod points I would either mod this as "Funny" or "Insighful".

I love both shows and this was one of the funniest posts I have read on here so far.

Re:I feel your pain

[NanoGator]

"What's your favorite sci-fi show?"

Quantum Leap!

Re:I feel your pain

[Jerf]

Stargate chintzes out even more; most "aliens", the Goa'uld, are snakes inside of perfectly normal humans! :-)

Stargate does have the Asgard, though, who are real, honest non-human aliens.

Re:I feel your pain

[tonejava]

"I wish my fav scifi shows had muppets for aliens, too." Well Thor and the Asgaard in SG-1 aren't exactly real now are they? ;-)

Re:I feel your pain

[cardshark2001]

Make fun of Firefly (aka Gunsmoke in space)

Hehe. Okay, you got me. I can't help but reply to this. I've been an avid science fiction reader for over 15 years. In my opinion, Firefly is easily the best science fiction that's ever been on tv, and it rivals anything that's ever been in cinema.

The "western in space" thing is an unfortunate quote from Joss Whedon, the creator, that people like you have been taking him to task for ever since. Here's the thing: every science fiction show you can name is a western in space. The difference is, Firefly was more honest about it. They all have gunslinging, kidnapping, gang leaders, etc. Joss was smart enough to realize that and built a really original show.

In terms of SF literature, there's not a whole lot I would call original in the show. In terms of tv SF, it breaks all kinds of new ground, for example in its depiction of the space scenes. There's no sound in space, objects have inertia. The science is nearly perfect, every time, and Joss doesn't assume you're dumb and need to have everything spelled out for you..

For instance (SPOILER), the captain defeats a certain villian by standing on the hull of his ship and pushing him off course, so the villian can't spacewalk to his ship. No guns, no knife battle. And the great thing is, Joss didn't feel the need to explain the physics of the thing to us like we were idiots. He just assumes that we're smart.

If you are an SF fan (especially SF lit), forget about the "western in space" canard, and watch it for yourself. There are only about 13 episodes, it won't kill you. You might just find that it's the show you've been looking for all these years.

Re:Stargate Atlantis - and SG-1 Season Eight Premi

[dentar]

You've got to be kidding. Firefly and Farscape were both much better with dialogue and writing than SG-1 ever was.

SG-1 ranks as "good" but it's definitely NOT the best there ever was.

Re:Correction

[Kredal]

You mean "It's a proper noun"

Sorry. Well, not really. (:

*Spoiler* from the site

[AndroidCat]

"Entry the first.

"We slept -- and while we slept, intruders from distant stars broke through our doors. We have had to rise prematurely, stirring forth from our cells to find this enemy upon us -- as well as an opportunity from beyond the horizons.

"Here begin the Annals of the Curator of the Feeding Grounds, in the first rotation of the New Awakening of the Wraith. Further entries forthcoming."

Okay, sounds like they've got the mysterious creepy bad guy angle covered. It's just too bad that they rarely stay mysterious and creepy -- look at the Borg in Star Trek.

Re:Obligatory...

[momerath2003]

What are you, a Dadaist?

Re:Boycott Stargate...

[Teknobob]

Wu peed on my rug.

Or

[bizpile]

Or just a movie to show how it ends (a cure is found somehow, blah blah blah).

Re:Or

[technomancerX]

Galen gets sick of it and destroys Earth (and yes, he IS powerful enough, read the books).

Re:Correction

[Dr Caleb]

I think all grammar Nazis are on their period.

Re:Correction

[$nyper]

I could be wrong but I was pretty sure that words which end in "s" such as "Nazis" have the mark after the "s" when shown in the posessive form.

Nazis'

I could be wrong though since I have always been horrible with regards to the proper uses of grammar.

What happened at the end of season 7

[Zed2K]

Of stargate? And is Atlantis a continuation or a completely new thing?

Re:What happened at the end of season 7

[Marxist Hacker 42]

They used the "outpost" in Antartica to kill that freak of a half-ascended, half Gua'ald SOB, then they froze O'Neil until the Asgard could come save him ONCE AGAIN from brain overload due to too much crap downloaded. Thus begins Season 8- with O'Neil fighting Replicators and Dr. Jackson playing negotiator with the remaining Gua'ald.

Re:What happened at the end of season 7

[Starsmore]

I was kinda let down by the superweapon though

SPOILERS!!!

Millions of yellow glowing jellyfish are the Ancients superweapon? WTF!? What kind of letdown was that! I was hoping for a superlaser or something ripping out of the antarctic surface, sending penguins flying.

Modded down as a troll?

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Nicely done, moderator..

The thing that greatly amazes me about slashdot moderation hypocrisy is that the same people who rail against censorship by others seem to delight in censoring posts that disagree with their agenda.

For the record, the I, Robot comment was posted to open a dialog discussing old-SF vs new-SF and what geeks' priorities are. Sorry you didn't/can't get it.

Re:FLASH! Firefox + FlashBlock prevent Slashdottin

[Mad Marlin]

enhancments like ads enlarging and taking over the whole screen like they do on weather.com? Flash is cool, but too easily abused.

May I recommend Weather.gov? After all, you are paying for it even if you don't use it, and it is actually better too.

Canadian air date

[Archibald Buttle]

For those that live north of the border Stargate Atlantis airs on Monday (July 19th) on The Movie Network and also Movie Central at 8pm (EST).

Looks like we've got to wait a few extra days.

I don't know aboout Movie Central but The Movie Network is a subscription channel. I'm already a subscriber so I'll be sure to be watching on Monday. TMN is also airing a "making of" documentary at 7:30pm.

The TMN web site has a brief "making of" video online right now.

I hope that TMN puts Atlantis on TMN On Demand too... That would be sweet.

Can't wait til monday!

I seen it comming on thursday

[gosand]

Not to mention "Stuff that is spelled incorrectly."

Come on, "comming"? Like in an earlier story, where the poster said they "seen" something. And they couldn't take a second to capitalize "friday"? Sheesh.

Jokes around too much for the AirForce ?!?

[LordPixie]

His character jokes around too much for a Colonel in the Air Force

Bah, I think a bit of eccentricity is a prerequisite for the USAF. Zipping about at the controls of an oversized Buick travelling several multiples of the speed of sound must rattle the brain. Or require a rattled one to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I'm the son of a USAF pilot, I've got nothing against them. But they've got a pretty distinct type of humor. Jack O'Neil seems to portray a good deal of that. (Admittedly, maybe this is the sort of thing that tapers off as one ascends the chain of command ?)

But otherwise, I agree with you wholeheartedly on the WormHoleAtlantis X-Tream fears. I guess only time will tell. Afterall, not every spinoff sucks.


--LordPixie

Re:Things to consider

[rogerborn]

Nah.
The real Atlantis was on the First Earth, from before the flood of Noah, by ancient tradition.

There was only a single continent and it was called Atlandis, named in honor of its first emperor, Atla, who was also the man Adam from the creation account in Genesis.

Atlandis, as you know, was an advanced civilization which suddenly destroyed in a great flood.

Here is the link:

http://writing.borngraphics.com/ADAMintro.htm

Roger Born

Re:Boycott Stargate...

[satoshi1]

Interesting how people complain when something gets canned. Then, when it's brought back, they complain that it may not be as good as the original, without even watching it. Hey, mini-series or not, at least it's coming back for a while. Be happy for what they're giving you. They could've just done nothing.

Re:Boycott Stargate...

[Lordrashmi]

I wasn't meaning to bitch, whine and moan. I am very excited about getting new content. I just wish I would be getting more then 4 new hours. There are only so many times you can watch the same episodes...

Re:Correction

[da3dAlus]

Grammar.

That, my friend, is a sentence fragment.

ST's Brannon and Braga sent through Stargate

[IronChefMorimoto]

In other news, the Star Trek series was saved as the infamous Brannon and Braga duo who have single-handedly butchered the ST universe were sent through the Stargate BACK to Earth WITHOUT a GDO code.

The trip was actually an elaborate plan by a group of serious Star Trek fans -- fans who only wish that their franchise would have as much life again as the Stargate franchise appears to enjoy.

Brannon and Braga were "invited" to the "set" of Stargate SG-1 under the pretense of a review of the show's innovative special effects. In reality, the Star Trek fans begged the Stargate crew to actually build a REAL Stargate and send the duo out to the far reaches of our known galaxy, where they met the REAL G'hould (sp?) enemy depicted in the show.

According to reports from the set, the two reported back from the other side of the REAL working gate, pretty much screaming their asses off and begging to be sent back. After being ass-whipped by a lesser G'hould god named Lohr Atana (a.k.a. Frank the Destroyer), the Butchers of ST were sent back through the G'hould Stargate to Earth -- without a GDO.

Had Brannon and Braga actually ever shown an ounce of consistency with some of their ST storylines, they would've remembered such key AND CONSISTENT plot elements as the GDO, the code, the iris, etc. and asked for a GDO transmitter before being sent through the Stargate.

The last "communication" ST fans at the Stargate SG-1 set had with Brannon and Braga was the dull thud of their bodies slapping up against an improvised iris on the REAL Stargate. A few minutes later, the Stargate was reactivated, and Frank the Destroyer sent a handwritten note asking the crew to never send idiots like that to his domain again or suffer enslavement at the yada, yada, evil bad guy bullshit talk, yada.

After the REAL Stargate was dismantled (at the request of SCI-FI CHANNEL lawyers insistent on not actually allowing Frank the Destroyer free access to Earth and our solar system), the cast and crew of Stargate SG-1 treated the elated ST fans to a catered party and autograph session.

Plans are in the works to have the ST: Enterprise crew find a Stargate in the third season of the poorly rated show so they can travel back through time and save themselves from cancellation. Brad Wright, of Stargate fame, will direct the pilot episode of Stargate ST-1: Enterprise.

Gay-ass pop music will NOT be used in the title sequence and credits of the revamped show. Some of the ST fans at the SG-1 set have vowed to send the guy that sings the current theme song through the REAL Stargate as well. They are negotiating rights for a legal transfer of liability for said Stargate with SCI-FI CHANNEL lawyers.

IronChefMorimoto

Re:ST's Brannon and Braga sent through Stargate

[IronChefMorimoto]

In a moment of complete stupidity, I managed to split Brannon Braga into two people. ST fans were pleased with the concept, but not the idea of having two of them to really screw up their beloved franchise.

IronChefMorimoto

Re:ST's Brannon and Braga sent through Stargate

[Jerf]

In a moment of complete stupidity, I managed to split Brannon Braga into two people.

No no... transporter accident. See, the holodeck interacted with the Particle of the Week, and etc. etc. etc.

Come on, think like Brannon and Braga.

Re:Stargate Atlantis - and SG-1 Season Eight Premi

[dentar]

You "manage" to enjoy it, eh? Sounds like an effort.

Sorry but it'll suck

[g0bshiTe]

Come on SG Atlantis bieng as good as the original. I think naught.

And the villans, these wraith things. Are we really to believe these creatures who killed the ancients are stupid enough for a lesser lifeform (humans) to fool like what happens to teh Ghou'ld every week. Come on now. At least tehy were parasites.

Re:Sorry but it'll suck

[BoneFlower]

Well, apparently the Wraith have just woken up from hibernation or something like that... So they aren't at the height of their power. Even if they were, the super powerful often become incredibly arrogant, and don't recognize a rising threat until it is too late to defeat said threat.

Re:Sorry but it'll suck

[Suidae]

It could also be that they aren't all that bad-ass, its just that for whatever reason the Ancients were particularly vulnerable to them. At least, thats what I'm hoping for.

Re:Sorry but it'll suck

[BoneFlower]

Or it was the Ancients that got caught up in arrogance, allowing the relatively weak Wraith to defeat them.

Also, its been said countless times that physically, the Ancients were basically human. Its even been hinted that either the Ancients were a subspecies of Homo Sapiens or Homo Sapiens a subspecies of the Ancients. It was really just their technology and knowledge that gave them their power- and there are plenty of real world examples of a technologically inferior force kicking the ass of the "superior" opponent.

And lastly, it has been said many times that the Ancients fell due to some disease. If the Wraith managed to come up with a quick spreading biological weapon that killed Ancients but not Wraith, the war would be trivial to win. Humans may have a shot of beating said disease, since they recovered the Ancient that was buried in Antarctica and had a chance to study the disease... They might be able to come up with a cure before the Wraith can cook up another batch.

Re:Sorry but it'll suck

[Suidae]

Or it was the Ancients that got caught up in arrogance, allowing the relatively weak Wraith to defeat them.

No fair watching the show first, then posting! :)

I hope they expand on the defeat a bit, maybe make the Ancients pasifists or something. Because if they were not, it seems they would have been extemely stupid to have lost control of 1000 populated planets.

The new gates are cool, the remote activation feature is neat, but when you are fleeing an enemy, it seems really dumb to broadcast the gate address, of your final destination, even if you do have a gate force-field.

Re:Sorry but it'll suck

[BoneFlower]

Actually, I hadn't watched it first.

It was interesting though how they mentioned that humans are the second evolution of the basic form of the Ancients. Normally, when one form evolves into another the new one is superior. So while humanity does not have the technology or wealth of knowledge of the Ancients, they have more potential to achieve great power.

grammer

[Hognoxious]

I am an actor with a vaguely-British-sounding accent you insensitive clod!!!!

Charlie says...

[Hognoxious]

• Do not return to a lit Stargate, even if it appears to have gone out.
• Never throw a Stargate

Re:Correction

[Zirnike]

Gramm-Arrr. Because it's not spoken right unless it's spoken like a pirate, you landlubber.

(p.s. I have no idea where that came from)

Re:ObFightClub

[TrentTheWiseA]

And the second rule about Stargate is you do not talk about Stargate!!

I think its time you just end it

[benzapp]

Clearly, for a variety of reasons, you have failed to achieve a meaningful place in our decadent society. You have little of your youth left, I suggest you spend that last remaining vigor on something meaningful, such as instigating a revolution.

You can be a one man revolution! Think of the chaos, the disorder, the death, destruction, pain, suffering! You can be the antithesis to this putrid, overipe civilization of ours! Can't you smell the stench?

Revere death! Revere all that destroys life! Relish in the power you have over the world! Free yourself from your computer, let the rage flow from your heart! Taste the blood on your lips! Imagine that moment as your last breath is spent in mortal struggle!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Anti-American

[barc0001]

No, we're just pro-Canada. And they film it 1000 meters from my house. No joking...

Re:Obligatory...

[Pfhorrest]

The tagline is an OR, not an AND. If it's news for nerds OR stuff that matters, it gets in. Doesn't have to be both.

Re:I don't have a television, and despite. . .

[Chairboy]

I'm not sure if you heard or not, but you're not supposed to actually breath through the bong.

Just inhale once in a while.

The real Atlantis

[rogerborn]

Actually, this world wouldn't have such a 'memory' of Atlantis if it were somewhere else but here on this planet. This is the only flaw I see so far in Stargate's Atlantis.

Logically, they would have had a much better premise for the show if they time-traveled back into Earth's past to the original Atlantis, instead of dancing off to the Pegasus galaxy.

As to where or what Atlantis really is, Plato almost had it right, but he failed to take into account how old Atlantis really was. That fact has kept anyone from discovering its true location.

Tradition and mythology place Atlantis back before the Flood of Noah, in the near mythical First Earth, when men lived to be a thousand years old. Then there was only one massive continent, and it was also home to other beings besides humans.

In fact, the 'real' story of Atlantis could rival Lord of the Rings in both scope and magnitude, as well as in legend and mythos.

Legend has it that its great and most advanced city, as well as the continent, were both named for its one great Emperor, Atla, who was also believed to be the original Man, Adam, of the Genesis account.

Here is a link to the real story of Atlantis. This is a free 500KB download of a short novel in RTF format, which will open in any word processor.

http://writing.borngraphics.com/ADAM.rtf

Enjoy!

Roger Born

Re:The real Atlantis

[BoneFlower]

Apparently Atlantis is a huge starship, that at one time was actually on Earth. At least thats what I've seen reported in various places, but until tommorow we won't know for sure.

Quick question....

[Fnkmaster]

Alright, I'm about to expose myself as a huge nerd.

Was anybody else bothered by the fact that Dr. Elizabeth Weir was played at the end of the 7th season by a different actress? All the character development was done by Jessica Steen, who did a bang up job with a hard role to play, so much so that a lot of us were really looking forward to seeing her in SG:A. Now they bring in a replacement, Torri Higginson, who looks and acts nothing like Jessica Steen. I don't know the reasons behind it, but they should have cast somebody in the first place they were happy with and wanted the role. Having the actress swap created major cognitive dissonance for me watching the 8th season opener - from a purely aesthetic perspective, I could barely stand to watch Higginson, she didn't play the same character at all that Steen played.

Anyway, I don't mean to sound like a fanboy bitch, I'm not a nutcase zealot about this stuff. I just think this issue was not handled well by the show producers. Maybe I am noticing it in particular because they usually handle these kinds of things so well on SG1 that it's one of the few sci-fi shows that I find easy to achieve suspension of disbelief with. Please, SG1 production team, don't do this to us again. I just hope going into SG:A that Higginson does a better job developing this character, or I don't know how I'll be able to watch the show.

As it is, I'm desperately afraid that Teal'c with a fuzzy head and O'Neill in charge of SGC is going to fundamentally change the 8th season for the worse. Come on guys, remember what happened when you tried to kill off Michael Shanks? Did anybody like that season?

Alright, now I've gotten this off my chest. I hope Season 8 is as good as SG1 has generally been and I hope that SG:A doesn't sully the name with a crappy spinoff.

Re:Quick question....

[Fnkmaster]

For some reason, the aliens speaking English doesn't interfere with my ability to suspend disbelief with respect to the characters and story lines, which is what really matters to me. I'm a scientist by background, but it's sci-fi, it's not about absolutely realistic physics, linguistics, whatever. It's about suspending disbelief enough to relate to the characters and immerse yourself in the story.

Basically, language is always a problem in science fiction - no way to totally eliminate it, and I think they've dealt reasonably well with it in SG-1. Of course, it's not realistic that the many humans taken from Earth several thousand years ago would speak English - they'd speak something derived from whatever the source language of the human stock they came from. Many of the other alien races are much more advanced anyway, and presumably either learn our language easily (like the Gou'ould) or use their own translation devices.

But then, if they dealt with this issue realistically, the whole show would be about learning the aliens' languages before interacting with them. Shows like Star Trek dealt with this explicitly by having "universal translator" devices. *shrug*, it's hard to tell a good story in one hour episodes involving space/planetary exploration without giving this issue short shrift.

Re:Anti-American

[mdrn28]

I did notice that all the alien planets look very much like Colorado. Maybe they really look like British Columbia instead?

Re:Anti-American

[RobinH]

I did notice that all the alien planets look very much like Colorado. Maybe they really look like British Columbia instead?

They look just like all the locations in the X-Files, if you ask me. :-)

Sounds awfully similar to...

[Mag7]

Star Trek Voyager. Lost and isolated from their main command, ultimately trying to get home. New aliens, no inter-show crossover (unless the ratings are really suffering). Yawn. Voyager is a dog of a show. Hope this doesn't end up the same.

This idea has been flogged to death- off the top of my head, The Time Tunnel and Sliders are just 2 more examples of this "lost" theme. After all, how long can you get teased about the prospect of them returning home before you get bored to tears with it? But at least this show with have some advantages in story building by having a base of operations, thus providing some continuity ala ST:DS9.

Re:Sounds awfully similar to...

[Mag7]

I hang my diminished geek head in shame ;-)

Bong-master. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

I'm not sure if you heard or not, but you're not supposed to actually breath through the bong.

"Breathe" is spelled with an "e" at the end. --Though, I'm guessing your superior knowledge regarding drug paraphernalia came at a price, and as such, you should probably be forgiven.

-FL

Aussie air date

[the_enigma_1983]

And for those who live in Australia, be prepared to wait at least 6 months. Rumors are that the 2nd half of season 7 (Yes, we still haven't finished season 7) will air on Channel 7 after the Olympics, so either season 8 or Atlantis will probably show at the beginning of next year. And they wonder why people download the tv shows in Australia ...

We use the term 'music' loosely

[68th Overlord]

Describing the horrible ST: Enterprise title sequence music as "Gay-ass" is an insult to gay people and their asses. On the bright side, I think my reflexes improved from lunging for the remote to hit the FF button quickly so's not to inflict the trauma of that garbage on my psyche again.

Re:We use the term 'music' loosely

[Cavee]

Then you obviously haven't realised that the opening sequence is usually about 4 and a half minutes long (Including theme song), and the actual storyline bit is useless, as it is reintroduced after the commercial break. Therefore you needn't actually WATCH the first 5-6 minutes of the episode because nothing worth watching is in that part.

Re:We use the term 'music' loosely

[Suidae]

Kind of like the first two frames of of the sunday comics?

Biased review

[LionMage]

I read the Sun-Sentinel article you linked to, and it's really a very slanted piece written by someone who obviously does not appreciate Science Fiction in general, and Stargate in specific. Here are some choice quotes:

The success of Stargate SG-1 has always been a head-scratcher. Really, there's little difference in storytelling or production quality between this show and, say, First Wave, Forever Knight, The PSI Factor, Andromeda or any of the other competent, made-in-Canada mediocrities that fill up the cable dial.

There's very little difference in storytelling or production quality between SG1 and crap like Andromeda? I beg to differ. SG1 has a bigger budget than a lot of other made-for-cable properties. It also got its start on Showtime, so they had a good seed to start with -- freedom to do storylines that you couldn't get away with on basic cable channels, money to make good sets and props, etc. SG1 also has a lot of very competent people writing for it, and does a much better job of preserving continuity than even shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and its follow-ons.

Stargate Altantis sends a team of intrepid Earthling explorers -- via the stargate, of course -- to an underwater city in an unexplored galaxy so distant there may be fuel for only a one-way trip. Yes, that sounds like a dumb scenario, but silliness has never been much of a barrier for science fiction.

OK, so this writer is apparently confused enough that he doesn't understand, or care to understand, the internal reality of the show. Fuel? But in addition to that, he takes a swipe at an entire genre of fiction, showing an incredible bias that should have recused him from writing this article in the first place. And what, pray tell, is dumb about a scenario in which scientists and explorers go on a one-way mission? It's been done before, and has been proposed seriously for manned missions to other planets in our own solar system. But since all of science fiction is apparently "silly," any ideas it puts forth must not be worth taking seriously.

Never mind that science fiction has predicted technologies decades in advance of their introduction.

The plot of the two-hour pilot is little more than the set-up for the series to follow, and its details are of negligible consequence, since an inventive mythology has never been the strongest element of the Stargate universe.

WTF? Seriously, WTF? An inventive mythology has never been the strongest element of the Stargate universe? Gee, that's funny, since the show (and the movie it's based upon) has all of the collective mythology of the entire human race to draw upon, blended together with a sprinkling of SciFi concepts to make something new and (somewhat) original. I'd like to see what this author's idea is of a truly inventive mythology.

And yeah, I know, there's better SciFi out there, most of it in print form, stuff that's really mind-blowing (and some stuff that simply can't be done on SG1's budget, which is why the good SF books never make it to the small screen, let alone the big screen). But I sincerely doubt that this author has read/seen any of that material.

I wouldn't be basing my opinions of Atlantis on the scribblings of one mentally stunted writer from a podunk newspaper who tacitly admits in the first three paragraphs that he despises science fiction.

Actually...

[Kjella]

[Asbestous suit]

Jesus would be an interesting character to do. Look at the old testament, lots to pick from there... fall from Paradise (forbidden knowledge about the Gau'ould), destroying whole cities (Sodoma and Gomorra), tower of Babel (slaves uniting and revolting?). Sounds like the work of a Gau'ould to me. From afar, he played with them like toys. Oh and don't forget the chosen people with Abraham. Particular breed of human hosts?

Then something big happened. Make up a good story. Senile like Lord Hu, had a "religious experience", touched by the Ancients, take your pick. Or better yet, Jesus is the human host after the parasite died. He still commands the Gau'ould devices to perform "miracles", but is the good guy. He regrets all that has been done in the past, and tries to take on all human sin as absolution.

Of course, you're about to screw up the whole trinity thing (with the Holy Ghost being some Gau'ould magic), rewrite the Bible since Creation, claim that neither "God" nor Jesus is of the divine, that Christianity is worshipping an evil alien and a plain human and that the Jews are equally wrong too. Oh, and the muslims will be pissed already, since they claim to decend from Abraham too. Any more we could piss off?

[Keeping asbestous suit on]

Re:Actually...

[meta-monkey]

That's actually a pretty good story. That would work out well in the SG-1 mythos. However, real-world politics would abolutely forbid this from ever happening. As much as the generally atheist /. community would like to see this, I would imagine that a large percentage of SG-1 viewers are Christians and Jews. Not too many people are going to get pissed off when they claim ancient Egyptian gods are evil aliens, but the Judeo-Christian God? It's just not smart to insult the religion of a large portion of your fan base.

Re:Actually...

[Suidae]

As much as the generally atheist /. community [...]

Is that true? Or are they just not the highly visible religious type? As an atheist myself it seems that there just aren't many atheists around, but that could easily be a selection bias, its not like we attend meetings or anything, and I think its not uncommon for atheists to deny it just to avoid being recognized (I used to do that).

Re:Actually...

[meta-monkey]

I would say there is a high concentration of atheists on /. You generally can't post anything that even hints at the idea that there might be some kind of god without getting about a dozen angry replies about imaginary freinds and weak minds and what not.

I suppose if you define "opposed to religion in any form" as "not the highly visible religious type" then you're in business.

Death sentence?

[Kjella]

Perhaps you're pretty stuck at the level where you're at. But most fade away again faster than that, and that is a death sentence to their career. Being lead character in a popular TV show is hardly low on the ladder.

So what if RDA is stuck in his second stereotype. He got out of the first one, so well... a decade here, a decade there... together it makes up a lifetime as a publicly well-known TV figure pretty quick. It's more than most manage.

Of course, they'd all want to be the kind of superstar that you can count on one hand - pretty much like a billion other people. And I'm sure they sometimes wonder "What if I had..." just like the rest of us. But I don't think any of them really regret being where they are.

Kjella

I doubt I'll be watching it much

[sanermind]

Although I adore SG1, atlantis looks really dumb. I mean, creatures that suck life-force? How unscientific. Vampires don't belong in scifi. I used to like Earth Final Contact until the later seasons when they changed it and brought in the 'atavist' creatures, which were also scifi vampires. Totally ruined the show.

Re:I doubt I'll be watching it much

[wolverine1999]

Well Doctor Who did successfully have vampires and it was still very 'scientific' (if you can call a show that way)...

Summer? Summer???

[ignavus]

I beg to differ, you insensitive clod. It is a rather cold winter at the moment.

##rant-begin
Why do Americans keep referring to non-weather things as happening during particular seasons - seasons don't translate onto the world stage, they are parochial. I can understand weather-related events being expressed in terms of seasons (winter sports, summer fashions, summer vacations, etc), but software and television shows are not outdoor activities.

In my local brand of English, we never talk this way about non-weather-related activities. We might say that a new software package will come out in the "third quarter of 2004" or in "September 2004", or in "the second half of 2004" - but NOT in "summer 2004", because it is so vague and confusing. My mind simply goes blank when I see Americans referring to "summer" - it is so confusing to try to work out *when* you are referring to.

Our summer lasts from 1 Dec to 28/29 Feb - our seasons don't align with yours, they are not simply the opposite. Using seasons to describe time is NOT internet friendly - it doesn't scale.
## end-rant

Me - feeling grumpy this winter.

Voyager?

[ElDuderino44137]

Hey There,

I see far too many similarities ...
w/ StarTrek Voyager!

Stranded in another galaxy.
Female in charge.

Has to deal w/ the challenges of being cut off from home.
As well as, the difficulites of being the "woman" ... :)
in charge.

Don't get me wrong,
I hope it doesn't suck, :)
--The Dude

Re:Anti-American

[really?]

So, whwre in Burnaby do you live?

Re:Obligatory...

[Daetrin]

I tend to think of commas in a list of descriptors as "and"s. However you have to judge by context whether it's inclusive(?) or not. Ie, "I like the colors red and green" means they like both colors, and although something with both colors would be great, something with just one color would be good too. "I like sandwiches with pastrami and mustard" tends to imply that the two are required together.

Seth (Set, Setesh, Setekh, etc)

[vena]

they've dealt with the idea of a Gau'ould forming a present-day cult, so the idea of them sticking around on Earth still pretending to be gods isn't outside of the rules.

episode info

timetable for friday night

[strider44]

stargate: 8:30
stargate atlantis: 9:30
both episodes on suprnova.org: 10:30

Re:timetable for friday night

[rogerborn]

Strider44:

What planet is that schedule for?

Pacific Time, Planet Earth:

7 PM Stargate SG-1

9 PM Atlantis

Both are two hour shows.
6 PM is the background introduction show to Atlantis.

Regards,
Roger Born
writing.borngraphics.com

Re:timetable for friday night

[strider44]

lol sorry since I live in Australia I was pretty much just guessing. Of course I live in Pacific time anyways - wrong side of the pacific. Remember not everyone lives in America.

Re:Anti-American

[barc0001]

Just by Boundary and Canada Way....

Mod this guy up, he's right.

[cbreaker]

You nailed it.

I don't know why on earth someone that obviously doesn't like Sci-Fi in general would even think about reviewing a Sci-Fi show. And he doesn't even *attempt* to hide it.

I think that SG-1 is one of the most well thought out Sci-Fi shows ever, if not THE most. The continuity is unmatched, the 'world' of SG-1 is believable and ties in very creatively to ancient human history.

The character development has been really top-notch, and the actors have done an excellent job in the last seven years. Playing a role in a science fiction show/movie can be the most difficult acting there is. You have to be believable, viable, and versatile.

It's entertaining, thought provoking science fiction. It's a shame that some people just can't appreciate it. Science fiction broadens your mind and people just don't know what they're missing.

Same cast kicks ass.

[cbreaker]

I thought that the Battlestar Galactica miniseries was really good stuff. It was great all around - the music was awesome, the sets/atmosphere was unique, and the actors were really good.

I was actually kinda shocked that it was only the two shows - it was SUCH a cliffhanger. I mean, we know the story already and stuff, but they kinda just made two episodes of the show and ended it =)

Using the same actors is great. I pretty much figured that they would make a series out of it, after it being as good as it was. But I figured they wouldn't be able to use the same actors and it could very well suck. What a pleasant surprise to find out that they were casting the same people!

SG1 will be over this year, but at least we have BSG to look forward to.

In the immortal words of Pat Rafter....

[jotaeleemeese]

.... those parochial USians should apologize like this: "sorry mate!".

It feels so good.....

[jotaeleemeese]

.... not to fit the geek stereotype.

I can say with full relief I don't give a rat ass about this history.

Phew!

Re:FLASH! Firefox + FlashBlock prevent Slashdottin

[Pusene]

No, I'm not paying for it, you insensitive clod! Why must Europeeans and tax evaders always be picked upun....

Another Stargate series?

[alien_blueprint]

Excellent ... because the original is a well-plotted piece of non-claptrap that never made me want to retch.