Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis Renewed

scifi451 writes "Both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have been renewed for another season, 9th and 2nd respectively. All of the key cast members are coming back for Atlantis, where as SG-1 stars are in negotiations, with Amanda Tapping expecting a baby in March right as filming begins. Also Richard Dean Anderson might look for an even further reduced role in the show. More news can be found here: Gateworld & Scifi-Wire"

Comments

To quote Teal'c

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. This is a cause for much celebration.

Re:To quote Teal'c

[Kethinov]

Jaffa cree!

Re:To quote Teal'c

[Anonymous Coward]

And to quote Daniel:

Maktel shcree lotak meta setak... Oz.

Re:To quote Teal'c

[magefile]

It's kree. Try watching with captions sometime.

Re:To quote Teal'c

[Johnny318]

Will there be cake?

Re:To quote Teal'c

[Anarke_Incarnate]

You are the great and Powerful Oz??

Somehow I don't think they will buy it

Re:To quote Teal'c

[Anonymous Coward]

No I'm sorry we're all out of cake. So your choices are death, or...death. We didn't think there would be such a run on cake.

Re:To quote Teal'c

[Cpt_Kirks]

Indeed. This is a cause for much celebration.

Dude, you forgot the eyebrow. It just doesn't work without the eyebrow.

Re:To quote Teal'c

[stevey]

Jaffa Cakes!

OK the spellings a little bit off, but still.. work with me here!

Re:To quote Teal'c

[da3dAlus]

No, but O'neill says there will be pie.

Urgo: "I want to live. I want to experience the universe and I want to eat pie!"
Jack: "Who doesn't??"

Teal'c: "I have read of a place where humans do battle in a ring of jello"
Jack: "Call Daniel."

Woot

[Stone316]

first post? Probably not but i'm glad Atlantis has been renewed.... It took me a few shows to get into it and i'm ignoring the fact the canadian guy is always yelling and that the doctor is a compete and utter wuss with his fake Irish accent..

Ok.. I think I just ruined the series for myself.

Re:Woot

[DarkAurora]

I think he's supposed to be Scottish.

Re:Woot

[PatrickThomson]

Aye, the guy is from Scotland but has been working in America for ages, and I can tell you that although the accent sometimes seems strained, it's a nice familiar touch for us Scottish geeks.

Re:Woot

[The One KEA]

Considering that the doctor is actually Scottish...

Anyway, I like the show - once the newness wears off and the actors 'learn' their characters, I'm sure it will do well.

Re:Woot

[EddydaSquige]

...and the actors 'learn' their characters, I'm sure it will do well.

The actors should have 'learned' their characters before the show went on the air. I really can't stand Atlantis, I find the acting to sup-par at best. It needs to up the cheese factor if the actors continue acting like they're in the lame spinoff that they are.

Re:Woot

[Anonymous Coward]

I find the acting to sup-par..

I find your command of the English language to be sub-par.

Re:Woot

[EddydaSquige]

this is slashdot incase you haven't noticed. Sub-par command of the English language is par here.

Re:Woot

[DavidTC]

And now it's time to point out that the Scottish, not Irish, actor, actually is Scottish, and doing his own accent. In fact, when he was up for the role, they were casting multiple nationalities for for it, and didn't care which they got. (The entire UN Security Council knows about the Stargate now. And Canada, cause, duh, they run half of NORAD.)

So he did his own, natural, accent. The only thing thing he's done is speak slower, at the director's request, because American's can't understand it when it's at normal speed.

Re:Woot

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing thing he's done is speak slower, at the director's request, because American's can't understand it when it's at normal speed.

Ha! I'm from New Zealand, and I couldn't believe some of the stuff Americans subtitle. They subtitle Taggart for God's sake! They subtitle British people speaking with accents that would land them newscaster jobs on BBC...

My brother has XBox LIVE and he had one situation where he had to interpret for two Americans who couldn't understand eachother! (One was from a Southern State apparently).

You know, Americans scare me sometimes.

Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Xpilot]

Will he disappear for most of the season? You know, be stranded on some strange world without a stargate, until he builds one out of bamboo, chewing gum and duct tape with his trusty Swiss Army knife...oh, wrong series.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[magefile]

Not the wrong series - just the wrong character. It'd be Carter who'd do that. Maybe Daniel, although I wouldn't count on it.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[metlin]

...stuck with a certain Colonel Mayborn and paranoid beyond words thanks to an Alien toxin.

You're not that far off ;)

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[metlin]

Nah, Daniel would just get himself killed. Just like the old times.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you saying that the secret ingredient in duct tape is naquada?

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[I_Love_Pocky!]

Please tell me that you at least caught the reference to MacGyver?

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Viol8]

Nice idea , but Mayborn died AFAIR back in series 4 or 5. Though with the storylines they've had on SG1 a resurrection is far from impossible.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[SlamMan]

No, he's saying they did that episode. Season 5 (or 6).

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Drachemorder]

No, that was a real episode. Maybourne and Jack were stranded on an alien planet. After that Jack promised that they'd find Maybourne a nice, out-of-the way offworld location to drop him off where he could live out the rest of his days without fear of being rounded up and executed for treason. As far as I know he hasn't surfaced again since that, but if they did want to bring him back, they wouldn't have to do any cheesy resurrection crap.

Of course, they COULD be setting themselves up for a "Wrath of Khan" knockoff...

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Viol8]

Yeah you're right actually , I remember that episode now. But then the fact that Maybourne character hasn't been back even those he was quite "deep" for that show and had lots of potential makes me think that the actor wasn't interested in doing it anymore anyway. I hope I'm wrong.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[metlin]

Shouldn't that be "Wraith of Khan" knockoff? ;)

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Kethinov]

Where are them damn sarcophagi when you need them...

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Have you ever seen a person break something bonded with duct tape?
2. Have you ever seen an enemy break through the iris?

I think the answer to your question is pretty clear!

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[magefile]

Caught the ref, didn't realize 'till after I posted that it was a reference to the actor, not SG-1's style. Oops.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, since it was an Ancient who built a Stargate out of Carter's microwave, and stuff he ordered over the internet, and O'Neill is the one who allways ends up with the knowlege of the ancients stuffed in his head, I'd say he's the one most likely to build a stargate out of stuff they find lying arround.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Anonymous Coward]

Richard Dean Anderson is such an awesome actor. He just keeps going, even though he died in a motorcycle accident in the eighties! GJ man, GJ! ; )

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[John Pliskin]

You'll see him in a few eps. later this season.

He's now a king somewhere....
$

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[miltimj]

Speaking of MacGyver (okay, it was inferred not spoken)... I was very pleasantly surprised to see that it will be released on DVD beginning in January!

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[jx100]

..and isn't that episode supposed to also have mini-O'Neil?

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[da3dAlus]

You have to love how they work in the quotes though, even from the first episodes:

Sam Carter: It took us fifteen years and three supercomputers to MacGyver a way to power the gate.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[handorf]

Is there a Daniel Death Count anywhere? I want a SG1 bodycount page!

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Suidae]

Actually he just made a giant gemstone with the microwave, he built the stargate with parts he ordered online with her credit card(and Carter's toaster).

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Suidae]

funny how they powered it with the alternators from a couple of 6-by's and various other sources later in the series.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[Khan Fused]

Carter did do that.

In her house.

Re:Richard Dean Anderson has a reduced role?

[mdfst13]

"Sam Carter: It took us fifteen years and three supercomputers to MacGyver a way to power the gate."

Interestingly enough, it was that ad lib that got Tapping the job. Last piece of trivia on the page

All I have to say is:

[Masami Eiri]

w00t!

I just hope the main cast is back, even if characters, like Jack, are reduced in screentime. SG-1 isn't SG-1 without... SG-1...

Re:All I have to say is:

[wertarbyte]

I just hope the main cast is back, even if characters, like Jack, are reduced in screentime. SG-1 isn't SG-1 without... SG-1...

In my opionion, SG1 has lost much of its appeal with O'Neill becoming brigadier general. It's just not the same anymore. Stargate-Atlantis has the advantage for bringing fresh new ideas (and a fresh new cast) the the concept of the series

Re:All I have to say is:

[T-Kir]

Even though RDA (hoho, we need a Recommended Daily Amount of Richard Dean Anderson in SG1) had a reduced schedule for season 8, I feel he has had a much better presence since the promotion... mind that may be due in part that all his filming is done on the main set.

Even if there are cast changes for season 9, I think the Stargate series has developed such a strong mythology and sheer amount of storylines that it could keep goign for a while longer. Plus, I'm extra happy that they aren't permenantly stranding the Atlantis team... and looking forward to seeing the Daedalus and Atlantis showdown with the Wraith hive ships. w00t! indeed! :-)

Re:All I have to say is:

[LWATCDR]

I miss Hammond. RDA is not really a good choice as a general.

Re:All I have to say is:

[Wylfing]

Stargate-Atlantis has the advantage for bringing fresh new ideas (and a fresh new cast) the the concept of the series

I enjoy Atlantis quite a bit. However, I don't feel like they have achieved the character depth of SG-1. The four SG-1 characters all carry pain, which makes them interesting to begin with, but what is fascinating about them is their pain is connected -- they've hurt and healed each other. Example: Daniel carries the with him the loss his wife, but what's worse is that she was ultimately killed by Teal'c, which adds betrayal. Killer lines:

TEAL'C - Is there not some form of human ritual by which I can ask your fogiveness?

DANIEL - No.

Their relationship does heal over time, but there is always something between them in the background. That is an astonishingly complex character relationship for a science fiction series. All four of those characters are interconnected in similar ways. There's some tension between the Atlantis characters, but I'm waiting for something more, er, painful between them before it gets up to the level of SG-1.

Re:All I have to say is:

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Yeah- but it will happen after time. After all- the only character with pain in the original Stargate Movie was Jack O'Neil- fresh from the death of his son, ready to blow up himself with a nuclear weapon to prevent the Gua'uld from coming to Earth.

Re:All I have to say is:

[ravingsanity]

I agree. When I saw the episode where Hammond retired and O'Neill got his promotion, I thought the show would be losing a significant amount of its character and that it was the beginning of the end. Off-world missions/episodes just aren't the same without O'Neill along.

Re:All I have to say is:

[a3217055]

I never knew that, wow gotta subscribe to the SCI-FI channel but I was wondering where I can go and get some more information about the 4 charcters ?
thanks
take care
-A

Re:All I have to say is:

[LWATCDR]

Frankly I really like Hammond he was the anchor. He was the one that had to always make the hard decisions of no we can not do that or yes we can. O'Neill is not the write off a team kind of guy. Hammond was the adult. Jack is the Cowboy, Carter the wiz kid, Jackson is the dreamer, Teal'c is the noble warrior. With out the adult it just falls apart. You could have some interesting shows of O'Neill being forced to grow up and away from the rest of SG-1 But you need a new commander of SG-1. Franky the interesting choice would be Jackson. For him to have to decide that talking is not the solution to everything. Or for him to make mistakes and get people killed.

3 fans?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Sci-Fi's most successful original series. Atlantis' debut drew over 4 million fans.

Re:3 fans?

[Kethinov]

One thing I always found interesting was how Enterprise is consistently regarded as a failure even though it gets more viewers than Stargate which is considered a success. I guess Star Trek is held up to a higher standard or something.

That said, I just started watching Stargate a month ago. I blasted through seasons 1 through 7 in that time and I'm just about to start with S1 Atlantis and S8 SG1. I've thoroughly enjoyed the series.

Re:3 fans?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the difference between cable and broadcast television. Getting a 1.0 rating on cable makes you a decent success. Getting a 1.0 on broadcast makes you the bottom of the barrel.

Re:3 fans?

[JPelorat]

Because Enterprise generates its fanbase from the horny teens who watch in the hopes of seeing some more Vulcan skin. Writing, plot, acting, can all fall by the wayside when softcore TV porn is involved in getting ratings.

Bad softcore at that, but they don't know that. Nor do they care, apparently.

Re:3 fans?

[aquabat]

I have to say, that's pretty impressive:

seasons 1 to 7 = 154 episodes.

at ~44 minutes per episode, that's 113 hours of TV.

Assuming 30 days in a month, that's 5 episodes a day, every day, or about 3 hours and 45 minutes of SG-1 every day, for the entire month.

If you watched one disk every day, it would take you a little over a month to complete the whole series.

Of course you could binge watch on the weekends too. I watched season seven last Sunday, but I was really burned out after that (probably because I watched Farscape season 4 the day before).

Re:3 fans?

[Dusabre]

Enterprise is viewed as a failure because it is an abomination that only gets higher ratings because there are more viewers on its network and trekkies would eat treeble shit if it was labelled "Star Trek". Enterprise is a failure compared to TNG.

Stargate on the other hand does not have almost forty years of fandom and generations of geeks propping up its numbers. Stargate is a success because its not built on the back of a franchise.

Don't mention Firefly though...

Re:3 fans?

[Kethinov]

Well consider my schedule. I'm a college student and generally only have to bet at class a max of 3 hours a day. I get paid to babysit a computer lab, which generally means me with my laptop sitting in there doing whatever I please. I tended to watch a minimum of 3 episodes per day (on days when I only had time to watch during work) and a max of around 10 on weekends or on light weekdays. The average was probably somewhere around 6 a day, close to your figures.

Re:3 fans?

[metlin]

TNG was awesome only because of its characters.

Agreed, it had good storylines too -- but then so does Enterprise, for that matter even (eww) Voyager. But the way the characters handled it was what made it better.

I mean, I simply love Patrick Stewart's speeches, and the way he handles situations. It's... impeccable. Ditto for Brent Spiner and a lot of other characters.

The characters in ST:TNG were strong, and they felt real. The characters in Voyager felt ridiculous. Enterprise tries, but sadly they do not have the kinda cast that TNG did.

I guess that's one of the reasons SG:Atlantis is failing too. While SG-1 had a good cast -- not exemplary by any standards, but good for sure -- SG Atlantis has a mediocre cast. The difference shows.

And whos' the guy behind the camera of SG:Atlantis? Half the time he's showing the sky and not the faces.

Re:3 fans?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

It helps to be on broadcast- not everybody spends the extra money on DSS or Cable.

Re:3 fans?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

You mentioned Brent Spinner- what do you think of his acting as an earlier version of Dr. Soong in the last three episodes of Enterprise? (on the plus side- at least *somebody* writing for those episodes had researched the Eugenics Wars, TOS, TNG, and probably also TWK, and merged the Soong Family interest in Eugenics quite smoothly into the Soong Family interest in Cybernetics).

Re:3 fans?

[Badfysh]

at least *somebody* writing for those episodes had researched the Eugenics Wars...

That would be Manny Coto who took over from season 4. He was the guy responsible for the brilliant but short-lived 'Odyssey 5'. We don't get Enterprise season 4 for a while in the UK, but I have high hopes for it..

Re:3 fans?

[sadler121]

on the plus side- at least *somebody* writing for those episodes had researched the Eugenics Wars, TOS, TNG, and probably also TWK...

While not being a huge fan of Enterprise, I do like to catch that ep's at the very least from Suprnova, and I have to say, the last 3 ep's were impressive, if only from the POV that the Eugenics Wars have been a huge inconsistently all throughout Trekdom (from TNG onward). Its a little hard to reconcile the Eugenics wars, and Khan's shining moment in history, happening in the 90's (per TOS) when the 1990's has already happened!

Granted they mentioned being impressed by 20th century genetic engineering, when the first clone of a mammal happened in the last half of the 90's, so barring government conspiracies about super-solders, that's one huge plot hole right there.

All in all, I think I liked the first 2 ep's of season 4 better (alternate timelines are always fun in my book) even though I disagree with the outcome, (come on, Germany had no interest in taking over America, all they wanted was Europe!) I still thoroughly enjoyed the ep.

Back on topic with SG1 and SGA. I'm not looking forward to the time change that is coming on January 21st, which will put SG-1 in direct conflict with Enterprise. Enterprise fans already had to fight to get this season made, being in conflict with SG-1 will more than likely seal Enterprises fate for good...

Re:3 fans?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Back on topic with SG1 and SGA. I'm not looking forward to the time change that is coming on January 21st, which will put SG-1 in direct conflict with Enterprise. Enterprise fans already had to fight to get this season made, being in conflict with SG-1 will more than likely seal Enterprises fate for good...

However, I've noticed that when SciFi Channel does things like this, they re-run three hours later- so there's no conflict for me (besides, I time shift everything anyway- and Enterprise is already in conflict with Joan of Arcadia to me).

Slashdot ruined this for me

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

A while back someone on slashdot pointed out to me that Colonel O'neal (sp?) was MacGuyver. I can no longer watch SG-1 with a straight face. I'm always waiting for him to create an event horizon or temporary wormhole out of a bubblegum wrapper or something.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Anonymous Coward]

That's O'Neill, with 2 L's. ;)

I really hope he doesn't reduce his role too much, I was really hoping he would end up resigning from SG Command and take a bigger role in the show, as he is one of the best characters in the series.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Unkle]

I can no longer watch SG-1 with a straight face.

You mean you could before? Andersen's O'neal is much different than Kurt Russel's in the origional movie. He is much, MUCH funnier, while Russel was more serious (But, of course, in the movie O'neal had just lost his son...). The show would not be the same without him.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Anonymous Coward]

There's an outtake from the first season where O'Neill and Carter are trapped in the Antarctic with a broken Stargate which features Carter going into a rant about being trapped with MacGyver and how he should be able to make a working gate.

In the pilot, Carter also describes how they made their own dialing device and says they "MacGyvered it."

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[JPelorat]

If you didn't know he played MacGyver, then how could this possibly ruin anything for you?

It'd be like finding out the guy who had his hand up Grover's butt also had his hand up Yoda's. Doesn't necessarily ruin Star Wars by associating it with a children's tv show.

Or does it? Hehe.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[paRcat]

So many people think they're actually funny rehashing a joke that wasn't funny to begin with.

Anyway, if you'd actually sit down and watch the show, you might be surprised that RDA can in fact be something other than the 80's TV show. He's really an amazing actor... to the tune that I don't believe the show would ever be as good without him. Of course, he's one of the producers too, so the show may not even BE without him. :)

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Zach Garner]

In the episode "Secrets", Col. O'Neill tells a reporter "That's O'Neill, with two L's. There's another Colonel O'Neil with one L. He has no sense of humor." In the feature film Stargate (1994), the lead character, whose name was spelled with one L, was played by 'Kurt Russel' and was a much more humorless character. [link]

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[the Man in Black]

In the feature film Stargate (1994), the lead character, whose name was spelled with one L, was played by 'Kurt Russel' and was a much more humorless character.

What's funny about that is, it's 'Kurt Russell', with two 'l's. Oh those wacky guys at IMDb.com

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[eht]

Two L's
Kurt Russell .... Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
Richard Dean Anderson .... Col./Gen. Jack O'Neill

people often confuse one guy for the other...

something O'Neill (Anderson) says in one of the episodes.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Anonymous Coward]

Correction: forget about your silly whim, it doesn't fit the plan.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[aquabat]

OMG!

Sorry, my mind's ear just made the connection.

Great, now I'll never be able to watch the trilogy without giggling.

Mmmmm... supergrover...

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[bmongar]

Mmmm near, far, near, far; distance matters not when you use the force.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Richard_at_work]

How come they both have the same dead son and Daniel Jackson knew O'Neill in the series 1 episode pilot by sight, as well as several others on Abidos? That and a few other things prove they are the same character in the series and the movie, regardless of the inconsistent spelling of the name.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just a joke. Sheesh. The show regularly took shots at the movie (and people associated with it) in earlier seasons. When they're facing alien invasion, Daniel offers the sarcastic suggestion that they just upload a computer virus.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[H0p313ss]

Parallel universe

Foolish mortal...

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Wylfing]

In the feature film Stargate (1994), the lead character, whose name was spelled with one L, was played by 'Kurt Russel' and was a much more humorless character.

Russel played him stoically because that's the only character Russel can play. Anderson has a far greater range as an actor, and although he doesn't come right out and say it, Anderson's comments in the DVD extras pretty much amount to "Russel's treatment of this character bit." For comparison, look at the way Daniel Jackson was portrayed by Spader and Shanks. No personality transplant necessary there, because Shanks had something to work with.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[jx100]

well.. O'Neill's son is Charlie, and O'Neil's son is Tyler. (look at the certificate on the kid's shelf in the beginning of the movie)

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[njfuzzy]

They played with this in (I believe) the very first episode. Dr. Carter, resident science wonk, talks about solving a problem by "MacGuyverying" a solution. O'Niel just gives her a weird look.

I think they handled it perfectly, and then moved on.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[the gnat]

That and a few other things prove they are the same character in the series and the movie, regardless of the inconsistent spelling of the name.

I think this is the creators poking fun - at the audience or Russell, I'm not sure. It's like the classic DS9 episode where they worked the cast into the original episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." Someone asks Worf why the original series Klingons look so different, and he says "We don't like to talk about it."

There've been many Slashdot threads trying to explain this, but the answer is really quite simple: it's an in-joke, a nod to all the fans who've been worrying about this for years. Think of it as a shout-out to all the Comic Book Guys of the world. SG1 had another of these in the pilot where they use "MacGyver" as a verb.

They're just TV shows, there's nothing that dictates that they have to be absolutely 100% consistent over the years, and little throw-aways like this are the writers' way of acknowledging that yes, their internal consistency is sometimes not perfect.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[embsysdev]

So many people think they're actually funny rehashing a joke that wasn't funny to begin with.

"You ended that sentence with a preposition. You bastard!"

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[mwheeler01]

It's similar to the episode where there's a series called Team Wormhole or something. In the episode one of the actors asks a question about a script that is like the episode in which Daniel's out of phase with the rest of the world but yet he doesn't fall through the floor. They give a nod to the fact that sometimes not all the facts line up but sometimes you've just got to go with it.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[denlin]

So many people think they're actually funny rehashing a joke that wasn't funny to begin with.

what's unfortunate is that so many moderators agree w/ them.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Blakey Rat]

Yeah, and I thought it was amazing that NASA would send up Forrest Gump in Apollo 13... no wonder that mission had so many problems!

Or, wait, maybe I can actually seperate the characters from the actors...

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Reziac]

DS9 writers used to use random stuff off a mailing list I was on back-when (the listmom was in thick with some of the DS9 cast and crew). Frex, the name of the writing academy in NZ that Jake went off to, was from the surname of the listmom -- who lived in New Zealand. There were other examples, but that's the one I remember.

TV is full of in-jokes like this.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[Reziac]

I didn't particularly like MacGyver (the series or the character) and hadn't cared for RDA at *all* -- until Stargate. I didn't even *recognise* him at first, he was SOOOO much better -- really inside the character, instead of just wearing it, as I always felt was the case with MacGyver.

But MacGyver was mostly just a trick-of-the-week series. Conversely, Stargate's people have ongoing lives, and are handled as real people. When the series does stutter, it's usually because of either a filler episode, or the dreaded "planet of the week" syndrome (which has plagued all the Treks, other than DS9).

It's the difference between event-driven and character-driven, and the actors benefit from it too. SG is essentially character-driven.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[BoneFlower]

The last couple scenes of the movie also pointed to a big change in the character, especially when he said he'd be ok... The movie wrapped up in a way to make a major personality shift in the subsequent series plausible. It may not have been intended that way, but the way the Abydos mission restored O'Neil's will to live made it believable for the series version to be quite a bit different. Abydos was a life changing mission on the level of the mission where he got stuck in an Iraqi prison for four months.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[pvt_medic]

but thats the beauty of SG1 it really is a comedy. the more i watch the shows the more i find myself laughing at the show, not because of things being wrong (they pay attention to many details and make the show so believable) but because of the comments uttered by Jack. If he is going to scale back his roll, i only hope we get someone else as whitty as him.

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[obeythefist]

Actually I would suggest the opposite - Anderson converted the stoic portrayal of Russells grief-stricken parent (who was willing to die detonating the nuclear weapon in the Stargate film) into a character who is, for all intents and purposes, Angus McGuyver but without the mullet, swiss army knife, and ability to jury-rig anything.

Russells character was professional and militaristic. Andersons character is rogue and devil-may-care. Perhaps this is more appropriate for a TV series needing a strong male lead character, every sci-fi needs it's Kirk (well perhaps not, but in this case...)

Re:Slashdot ruined this for me

[paRcat]

I had totally forgotten this quote. Last night I started watching the episode (Tivo!) and when I heard O'Neill say that I just about coughed up a lung. :)

Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Richard_at_work]

From the past few series 8 episodes of SG-1, its really past its prime and struggling to find a decent storyline. The last episode made it painfully obvious what the entire episode was going to be about in the first 5 minutes, and sure enough it was - talk about a filler episode (Teal'c stuck in that gaming chair). I really wish they didnt make another season of it :(

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[underpar]

Don't worry. Maybe they'll have something more interesting like: Carter has an alien baby. No one was watching x-files anymore when they tried that so it's like a new idea.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Lord Haha]

Never know, If they know its the last season often you will get a decent way to go out on top not just a well we need an ending so lets just kill everybody now situation.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[canwaf]

I actually complained about SG1 being renewed too, I think Stargate SG1 needs to be retired. Not much you can really do about it though, they can milk out money for that extra season.

But onto the subject of 'Avatar' (The episode where Teal'c is stuck in that gaming chair), this episode was created as advertisment for Stargate's new video game. Which made the episode feel cheaper than it was originally. I'm not certain, but the game footage in the episode could possibly have been done through the game engine used in the to be released video game.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Tony Hoyle]

That episode was the worst ever.... it was obviously an advert for a game (although I didn't know they had one already...), was a rerun of a story from a previous series, and had zero actual new content.

I've got a horrible feeling if SG1 isn't finished it's going to die a death due to overused storylines and bad scripts (aka. Voyager, Enterprise).

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[MindStalker]

The good thing about StarGate is that there are practicle infinate possible good plots. They really can continue to make good episodes, though I fear they might have lost some writers or something. The lost of Dean Anderson (Jack) as a major role definatly hurt the series, but its not something that can't be overcome.
Maybe its about time they start wrapping up the war with the Guhl, make it a season, then start the next season with a new enemy once the Guhl are gone. Or something along those lines.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[lightspawn]

The last episode made it painfully obvious what the entire episode was going to be about in the first 5 minutes, and sure enough it was - talk about a filler episode (Teal'c stuck in that gaming chair).

But did you catch the "I play Def Jam Vendetta" reference?

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[leuk_he]

what happend to SG-2 SG-3 SG-4 ... 12

the name SG-1 implied there could be spinnoff's from different teams.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[sammy baby]

It was definitely a pretty bad episode in its own right, regardless of video game tie-ins.

On the other hand, it did contain a cute in-joke. While explaining how the game works to Teal'c, Carter says, "You've played Doom before, right?" He replies, "I have played Def Jam Vendetta." Chris Judge, the actor who plays Teal'c, also provided voice work for DJV.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Anonymous Coward]

I love SG-1 but, unfortunately, I have to agree that it's getting a little old. I think they ought to take the last two seasons and start wrapping everything up.

In this next season, they should finally get rid of the Goaul'd, including Anubis, and the replicators. The replicators are going to be tough: the writers really painted themselves into a hole, there. Maybe they could realize there's more to life than conquest? All that computer power (completely covering the Asgard home world) ought to be good for something...

In the last season, they should finally disclose the existence of the stargate to the general public. The social ramifications of that alone should give them more than enough material for another season.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Anonymous Coward]

They had one as far back as the Megadrive.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't new in X-Files either. Remember "V"? (And it has probably been done on TV before that...)

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Drachemorder]

" what happend to SG-2 SG-3 SG-4 ... 12"

The other SG teams are the Stargate equivalent of the red-shirt crew members in Star Trek. If you see an SG team other than SG-1 in an episode, you can be pretty sure there are going to be fatalities before the show's over.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[kieran]

No kidding. Can we say "The holodeck is malfunctioning!"?

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Anonymous Coward]

That episode was only there to showcase the engine for the new SG1 FPS.

Yes, I actually sat through the bloody thing.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[isorox]

Yeah, that was bad (a 45 minute advert for "SG1: The Game!"), but the later episodes are better

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[the morgawr]

Actually that was the original idea behind atlantis. They were going to find the lost city under antartica and use the tech to win the war and then go on with a newer enemy (I think Fifth, the humaniod replicator would make the perfect bad guy). However the execs at Sci-fi wanted to keep both going in parallel so they invented the whole other galaxy thing etc.

I think the real problem with the series is that the quality of the bad guys had dropped off recently. Some of the temporary bad guys they've had have been great, but instead of keeping them on, they quickly kill them off in a couple of episodes and get back to fighting the "major" bad guy, who's mostly just melodramatic and scripted.

One of the things I've wanted to do is go and compare the really good episodes with the cruddy ones and see what the differences in staff (esp the writters) were. Anyone done this?

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Woah.. wait.. you're telling me that Mulder got pregnant *and* had an alien baby?

I can't believe I missed that.

Re:Nooo not SG-1 :(

[DavidTC]

The great think about the SG1 premise is that you can have crazy maniacal over-the-top bad guys who've never read the Evil Overlord's list. They've been posing as Gods.

What's funny is that the show recognizes this. SG1 just make relentlessly makes fun of the bad guys insane drama-queenness.

Mixed reactions to this

[ravenspear]

I love SG-1 (Atlantis is good too) and I'm glad it's coming back, but I hope it doesn't end up going way too long like the X-Files. I've noticed that the production quality has declined somewhat this season. It just feels too routine, there's not much spontaneity in the show anymore. And I don't think it will do better if RDA's role is reduced even further. If they can keep a good show going then it could work, but I'm a bit skeptical at this point.

Re:Mixed reactions to this

[The Angry Mick]

While I love SG-1, I also feel that the show is slipping noticeably now that Anderson's role has been reduced. He presence is what really made the team feel like a "team". When he's not around, you kinda get the feeling that the others are just out on a beer run for the boss - the missions don't feel as satisfying, and the drama drops somehow.

What I'd like to see them do, from a plot perspective, is to begin wrapping up the series by tying up all of the loose Goa'uld storylines into a single, massively long story arc that airs over several episodes. Instead of a two-part season finale, how about a seven or ten parter? It'll guarantee ratings as the viewers couldn't afford to miss one episode of the arc (even with Sci-Fi's neverending repeats), and you'd wrap up the series with a bangup sense of accomplishment.

Re:Mixed reactions to this

[dotwaffle]

No, that would just suck. Big league. One thing I hate about most other Sci-Fi is that you can't drop in and out. Farscape was all right until I skipped a season, then it took me four or five episodes to get back on track - and then I didn't like it. Same with ST:DS9 - that sucked donkey cock. If only Sci-Fi would stick to the format, and change plotlines every 1-2-3 episodes, that'd be great. I don't want to see some major battle every episode, I don't want fillers all the season, I want variety, ie/ A purely comedy episode (a la Window Of Opporunity), A purely story driven episode (a la The Amazonian Hot Women with the chick from Enterprise One), A crossover episode (like Atlantis recently did with SG-1). That's how it should be. I hate 7-8-9-whole season story lines - that turns me away. And that's why I was skeptical about Atlantis - the Wraith could turn out to be a really crapy adversary, but if done right, it could be an excellent foe, just like the Goa-uld.

Re:Mixed reactions to this

[Anonymous Coward]

in other words, you are a dumb fuck with the attention span of a goldfish.

Re:Mixed reactions to this

[Suidae]

+1 Sarcasm

On the chance that you are being serious, please don't tell the writers. At least get a Tivo-like device so you don't miss anything.

Re:Hooray!!!

[kodai6]

It's the most popular Sci-Fi series on the planet right now. I think more than 3 people might be involved.

More Atlantis?

[AbsurdProverb]

I'm still waiting for MacGyver renewed. That Camelot tv special left a bad taste in my mouth.

Re:Woopty Freakin' Doo!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called SCIENCE FICTION. This may surprise some, but a lot of geeks enjoy science fiction.

Smart decision

[YetAnotherName]

I only watch either show occasionally (my wife's quite the fanatic), but what I've seen is pretty good, as far as science fiction goes. Acting is definitely above average, Richard Dean Anderson's portrayals as an everyman facing aliens brings a wry grin now and then. Oh, and Amanda Tapping is quite cute, no doubt about that. It's nice that SciFi can make the right decision sometimes. (And sad that they can make the horribly wrong decision other times, c.f. canceling Farscape not so long ago.)

Re:Smart decision

[underpar]

You know she just watches the show for Daniel Jackson. He's geeky and cute and you can hardly notice the episodes where they try to cover up his rather large belly by making him hold a sweater or wear a huge belt. He's dreamy.

My husband has accepted my crushes on fictional characters.

Re:Smart decision

[Anonymous Coward]

Excuse me? Last I remember Michael Shanks is quite fit...

Re:Smart decision

[underpar]

Who is this? Is that you Michael? He is fit, but note the belly in the Teal'c is a fireman episode as well as the one where he went undercover to the meeting of the system lords. There are others I can't think of, but he is quite the cutie anyway.

I have a thing for geeks. Note the choice of a geek husband.

Re:Smart decision

[NDPTAL85]

Michael Shanks's wife, is Rommy on Andromeda. She is hawt hawt hawt hawt. Her name is Lexa Doig.

Their children will grow up to seduce the world.

Re:Smart decision

[The Angry Mick]

It's nice that SciFi can make the right decision sometimes

Kudos to Sci-Fi. We should also remember to throw a little credit to Showtime for getting the show started in the first place.

Re:Smart decision

[mforbes]

I realize this is going OT, but wth, I've got karma to burn.

I simply don't understand the attraction so many /.ers have to Farscape. The plots are overly simplistic (although at least they're better than Hercules in Space, aka Andromeda), and frankly-- I got tired of watching Jim Hensen's muppets years ago. The acting is flat, the directing is stale, the special effects are standard industry fare (by which I mean that they don't suck, but they're not about to win any awards either), and the premise is just looney.

Each time I've tried to watch that show I've wasted a good fifteen minutes (as much as I could stand before I started throwing bricks at the TV) of my life that I can never get back.

Re:Smart decision

[TheRaven64]

I think the best thing about SG-1 is their attitude to technobabble. It seems quite common for writers of similar series' to fill in gaps with long strings of technobabble which anyone with even a moderately scientific background can tell are just nonsense, and try to base the plot on these. Most of the time in SG-1 when this happens, Jack's blank stare or interruption stops them before they get started. One of my favourite lines was from (I think) the first episode of Atlantis, where someone tries to explain something about the stargate and Jack replies with `Well, that was a waste of a perfectly good explanation'.

Re:Smart decision

[lowmagnet]

Daughter, Mia Tabitha Shanks, with Lexa Doig, born 13 September 2004.

And so it begins. This also explains why Brandy Ledford has been on Andromeda, and Lexa is limited to head shots.

Re:Smart decision

[modecx]

Not only that, but when they do use technobabble, it at least seems plausible. StarTrek, for one completely screws that up.

Re:Smart decision

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, thanks for stopping by, imbecile. If it helps you sleep at night, you can labor under the illusion that someone gives a tin shit what you think about anything.

Re:Smart decision

[Suidae]

It seems that their technobabble is just as crappy as ST's to me, but I'm more willing to give them a break for some reason. I guess because the writing is less centered around technology. For some reason its just easier to suspend disbelief with SG1.

Re:Smart decision

[bar-agent]

I was quite impressed with the episode where the Stargate opened onto a planet being sucked into a black hole.

There was time dilation and everything!

Re:Smart decision

[Phleg]

My personal favorite was when Jack was trying to fill out a crossword puzzle; I believe it was in the most recent season. He's talking to Daniel and asks for help.

Jack: I need a seven letter word. Up, Down, Charm...

Daniel: 'Strange'.

Jack: Yeah. Well, thanks anyway.

Daniel: No, Jack, the word you're looking for is

(Jack hangs up the phone)

It's a pretty damn creative joke, you have to admit; took some thought to come up with that one, and it was hilarious to anyone who caught it.

Re:Smart decision

[modecx]

Well, my felling is that it's just not that bad. When something just dosen't make sense, either Jack or Daniel make light of it Most of the time, anyway..

The episode where Teal'C was trapped in the memory buffer of the stargate, they said that stuff entering the gate is more or less digitized, stored into the gate via a quantum buffer, and transmitted through the wormhole. It's far out there, but it's plausible--the gate works like a giant computer. It was supposed to be built by a race that were almost godly, millions of years ago, why not, eh! I mean, I'm a computer geek, and as you say, they did a good job at suspending disbelief, for me at least. In other episodes (the one with the super-strength-speed armband comes to mind,) they didn't do so good, and it was too ST like...

In ST (not so much in the original series, or DS9, mind you), nearly every problem technical problem is solved by a tachyon beam, or some other generic plot tool that. For me, it's glaringly obvious when they're trying to prop up a suffering plot with technobable--it might as well jump out and hit me in the face!

At least SG1's writers use the technology to advance the story arc, and the technology dosen't become a focus of the episode, in general.

Re:Smart decision

[Snaller]

My problem is that Jack is too much an idiot, even when its a quit simple explanation he doesn't understand anything.

Re:Smart decision

[BoneFlower]

He's not so much an idiot, as simply not interested in how some things work until he absolutely needs to know it. When it comes to combat tactics, he's absolutely brilliant- Even Bra'tac listens to O'Neills tactical decisions, and he's been a warrior since before O'Neills father was even born.

He's quite an intelligent person, he's just focused his brainpower in non-scientific areas, leaving him ill-prepared to understand advanced physics and the like.

Re:Smart decision

[Snaller]

Well, you (and others) can sing his praises. I just don't see it - i see an idiot. Someone is so old so he has learned all the things in the army apparently - but brilliant at combact tactics? Yeah right - i doubt they have ever even once done what a reall military team would have done.

Jumping the Shark?

[Rosyna]

I'm worried that prolonged existence of SG-1 might make it jump the shark. AFAIK, it was never supposed to exist past its 7th season but the ratings that year were so good they scrapped the plans for the movie and made it into that year's season finale (which also explains its awesomeness and why the good Doctor had to die).

SG-1 and SG:A were never meant to coexist, also why Atlantis was moved to another galaxy. The creators/writers never meant for them to show at the same time and they didn't want the easy way out whenever SG:A had a problem and just get SG-1 to fix it. I think this simultaneous rushing for two shows is also why the first half of each of the most recent seasons sucked compared to season 7.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, they originally had plans to end it at season 6, but the ratings were so good they couldn't stop. Daniel's return would've been part of a movie rather than a season ending episode. Regardless, I've read about some of their plans for the next seasons of both. There will be more crossovers, and they're going to tie up a lot of loose storyline threads from the previous eight season. Those include the Crystal Skull, the Furlings, the aliens from 2001/2010, etc.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[pete-classic]

good Doctor had to die

Well, I'm just about to undertake watching all this on DVD.

Thanks for the spoiler warning, you lone gunman fuck.

-Peter

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[LordNimon]

If you're watching older episodes on DVD, then you're a moron for reading a discussion on a future season. What did you expect?

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Rosyna]

Thanks for the spoiler warning, you lone gunman fuck.

It's been over a year... and I didn't say which good Doctor, now did I? They have like 3.

A wise man without a shift key once said:

"hi, i have not yet seen something that was on TV like [twelve] months ago, so i will read a ton of comments about it, in the vain hope that no one will reveal anything"

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[squiggleslash]

I think SG-1 is going to get better and better myself. The new series adds Ted McGinley as slick, cool, Doctor Wozniak, who accompanies the team on each of their missions.

They're also adding a dog, Rover, who'll play a kind of "Lassie" character, alerting the team to danger and fetching help when they're in trouble.

They've got some excellent guest stars lined up for the next season, including N-Sync and J-Lo, Al Gore, Alec Baldwin, Wierd Al, and William Shatner.

Finally, they've actually worked Tapping's pregnancy into the script. I may be saying too much, but expect a baby to be part of the plotline mid season - with surprising results!

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Drachemorder]

"They've got some excellent guest stars lined up for the next season, including ... Alec Baldwin"

Is Adam Baldwin close enough? They already had him on the show...

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[dotwaffle]

I thought you were joking until you said William Shatner. He's in everything these days from adverts to daytime tv to covers of Pulp - so it must be true.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[AKAImBatman]

Actually, the show was supposed to stop at Season 5. Then it was supposed to stop at Season 6. And on, and on, and on. Basically they go through this loop of "the show has been on the air long enough", then get overridden by their outstanding ratings.

Personally, I'm happy they didn't stop at Season 5. But Season 9?! That's getting a bit ridiculous.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[AKAImBatman]

A wise man without a shift key once said:

"hi, i have not yet seen something that was on TV like [twelve] months ago, so i will read a ton of comments about it, in the vain hope that no one will reveal anything"

How did he type "TV"? (*scratches head*)

Must of used The Force(TM) or something.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[AyeRoxor!]

How did he type "TV"? (*scratches head*)

Never heard of Caps Lock? Seriously, I run IT at my office and there's this gorgeous, nubile, complete fucking retard girl who hits caps lock, presses a letter, and hits caps lock again. I've shown her shift, but her pretty head can't handle it.

Must of used The Force(TM) or something.

If you can point out the verb in that sentence, I will give you five dollars.

Fine Print: If you realize that "must've" and "must of" somehow don't mean the same thing even though they sound alike, you will be disqualified. Not valid in Tennessee. Sorry, Tennessee!

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Eccles]

Don't worry, the Doctor still has some regenerations left.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[AKAImBatman]

If you can point out the verb in that sentence, I will give you five dollars.

"used"

It's actually the noun that's missing. i.e Who or what used The Force(TM)?

Proper use of "have", modifies the tense of the verb to be present perfect tense. "Have" was missing, because I was trying to be mildly funny. (which obviously didn't work)

The "correct" way to utter the sentence is:

"He must have used The Force(TM) or something similar in nature."

There. The joke is dead. Are you happy now? (*sob*)

And where's my five buck?! ;-)

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[AKAImBatman]

Err... five bucks. [I] Can't seem to type today. :-)

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Neil]

Never heard of Caps Lock?

[fx: Neil looks puzzled ...]

What would that have to do with producing upper-case text?

[fx: light slowly starts to dawn ...]

Ohh! You mean there are really people that don't have:

# The following prevents me from going *insane* if have to
# type on a PC, SGI or Sun type-6 keyboard ...
xmodmap -e 'remove Lock = Caps_Lock'
xmodmap -e 'keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L'
xmodmap -e 'add Control = Control_L'

in their .xinitrc file?

:-)

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[twiddlingbits]

SG is copying Dr Who now with the dog. K9 was the good Doctors dog when he was played by Tom Baker (ya know the guy with the fuzzy hair and long scarf).

You DO remember Dr Who don't you?

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[AyeRoxor!]

Close. The verb should have been "must have used" - while 'used' is the root verb, 'must have used' is the complete, conjugated verb.

But the five bucks is still yours. Just find me and claim it :)

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about they get Jolene Blalock as a permanent cast member in her role as Ishta, sort of like Teal'c.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The creators/writers never meant for them to show at the same time and they didn't want the easy way out whenever SG:A had a problem and just get SG-1 to fix it."

Well, it depends on how they work it, but they can build in some limitations.

For example, the reason Atlantis cannot get back to Earth is because they don't have a ZPM. If they get one, they can go back to Earth. But that doesn't mean folks from Earth can get to Atlantis (if I remember correctly, wormhole travel is one way).

So they may be kept separate but allowed to interact. Bad example, which is why I'm not a writer: Bad guys attack Earth. SG-1 tries to figure out a way to fight them. Discovers they need something from Atlantis. Atlantis has to jump through hoops to get it and send it to Earth.

Another possibility: They get two ZPMs. But, if I remember correctly, establishing the wormhole to Atlantis ate most of the ZPM on Earth, effectively ending the Antarctica research. Getting another ZPM on Earth would reopen Antarctica research and could limit travel between Earth and Atlantis. The various political battles required to get the ZPM back, the drain on the ZPM, etc., would keep Daniel from just stopping by to say "Hello."

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Anonymous Coward]

"I may be saying too much, but expect a baby to be part of the plotline mid season - with surprising results!"

She discovers she's pregnant and runs away to Chicago. The father is either her boyfriend or Jack.

Hey, it worked for Moonlighting...

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, it's Stargate, all the characters die four times apiece by the third season.

Don't get your panties in a twist about it.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[BoneFlower]

It was facing cancellation after seasons 5, 6, and 7. I don't think there was any original plan to end it at 7, just to keep doing it as long as they could come up with stories and get someone to run it.

Actually, as for Dr Frasiers death, that wasn't the original plan. THat was supposed to be a light hearted somewhat humorous episode, but the writing ended up going off in its own direction. Personally I think it was a brilliant decision, it brought the series back to earth(figuratively). Sure, random noname good guys had died, and even a few that were important to that specific episode, but to show that it really is a war you have to eventually kill off someone the fans care about. Dr Frasier was a good choice... major enough the fans would care, but minor enough the show wouldn't be irreperably harmed by her absence.

Sure, they did kill off Dr Jackson, but he wasn't actually killed, and it wasn't in the heat of battle that he went down either, so while it certainly provoked a strong fan reaction, it wasnt' as significant in terms of showing that humanity really is fighting for its very existence.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Xenophon Fenderson,]

I don't need that xmodmap crap. I swapped the clock and lctrl lines in /usr/local/share/syscons/keymaps/us.kbd, and I set

Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"

in /etc/X11/XF86Config. Yay open sores!!!

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[Snaller]

AFAIK, it was never supposed to exist past its 7th season

It was supposed to end after the 6th season - but the ratings were so god the decided to continue. THen it was season seven which was supposed to be the last, then season 8 - now season 9...

SG-1 and SG:A were never meant to coexist, also why Atlantis was moved to another galaxy. The creators/writers never meant for them to show at the same time and they didn't want the easy way out whenever SG:A had a problem and just get SG-1 to fix it.

That's just an admission of incompetence. There should be no problem with a bit of creativity. Stargate should be an easy show to write for. Now Firefly - that would be hard, i don't know that i could do that - but Stargate - easily, half asleep.

Re:Jumping the Shark?

[mdrn28]

Nah, Adam Baldwin is cool. He played a character on Firefly, after all...

Re:Hooray!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife and I are excited, who's the other guy?

And now...

[Atmchicago]

Let a million references to the recent potential discovery of Atlantis ensue.

Re:And now...

[davidescott]

This is slashdot. Here when a real world discovery is made there are a million references to fantasy not the other way around.

Re:And now...

[caseydk]

I did the reverse on yesterday's Atlantis posting:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=129720&cid=1 08 19929

Re:Hooray!!!

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

My wife and I are excited, who's the other guy?

I don't know, but he might be the reason your wife's so excited

---WARNING-- Fanboy alert... I LOVE THIS SHOW!

[LaPistola]

I love this show!! And I have a netflix account basically so I can rent all the SG1 DVD's! ;)

Atlantis is terrible

[visionsofmcskill]

Atlantis is the Voyager/Enterprise of Stargate, The show is really terrible. And this isnt even the fourth iteratin of the stargate universe (if you disclude the cartoon and movie).

Dont get me wrong, i dont expect stars and accolades out of a series which barely discerns itself from the likes of zena/hurcules/Beastmaster in some of its episodes (did these guys share their prop guys/ set designers or what?)

But for me, the most endearing part of the Stargate series has for themost part been McGyv..Richard's humorfull character. Without Dean, the show just becomes just another crappy lets fight aliens in fantasy planets with cool ancient civilizations based on old earth.

And Atlantis is pure poo, the characters are all cookie cutter type-casts to the point of stereotyping your viewer audience fan-service, maybe this is what happens when sci-fi channel does..... well just about anything.... but that show is terrible.

Stargate itself has been pretty damn good (with some notable exceptions ... ergo anyone?) and im glad to see it continue on, but atlantis is in dire need of a total abortion or a complete re-write with some more serious characters who actualy act like a military operation.

Anyone remember space above and beyond?

This is why im really happy about the Battlestar galactica series comming this new year... Gritty, realistic, and hopefully... above all else... not more episodal space opera campy bullsh*t.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[underpar]

How can you say that when the main male character was as carefully crafted as Poochy the dog? You can't go wrong with marketing.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[BorgDrone]

the characters are all cookie cutter type-casts
Go watch season 1 of SG-1 again, you'll see the same thing.

New series need time to deepen the characters, that's why every season has at least a few 'character building' episodes.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Tony Hoyle]

This is why im really happy about the Battlestar galactica series comming this new year... Gritty, realistic, and hopefully... above all else... not more episodal space opera campy bullsh*t.

Don't get too happy... we already have it here.

Badly acted (where do that *find* these people!), badly scripted (at times it seems like they're trying to ad-lib and failing), and worst of all the camera work was done by a trainee they grabbed off the street - half the time the camera is looking at the roof or floor not at the actors!

Also the sound treatment is horrible - going from so quiet you can't hear them to blasting your ears out within the same scene.

I watched 3 episodes and canned it. Couldn't stand any more. Nice try, but next time try to film with an actual budget, and real actors.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[metlin]

Actually, SG-1 started off like that but picked up real quick. For instance, they introduced the Nox, the Tollans, the Azhard all in the first season -- _and_ they did it really really well.

Season 2 was good too, especially some episodes such as the Fifth Race and Tok'Ra -- it wasn't just about fighting aliens, it was being out there and there was something special about humanity's deepest aspirations to be out there, and do cool stuff.

I somehow find that missing in SG Atlantis.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[YetAnotherAnonymousC]

Sadly I must agree with this. I always thought the strength of SG-1 was the characters. Not just O'Neil, but many regular and recurring. Even the scenery-chewing goauld had some individual personality to them. I can't say the same for Atlantis. Those few characters that are even distinguishable tend to be stock types lifted from other sci-fi (genre-not-network) shows.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[CoolCash]

Go back and dust off your season one DVD set of Stargate SG-1. Compare those characters to the characters of today's episodes, completely different. Back then they were the stereotypical, cookie cutter, typecasts. It took a couple of seasons before the actors found their nitch. Also, if you looked back when The Next Generation aired, many of the same people said the same things about that show.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Viol8]

"when The Next Generation aired, many of the same people said the same things about that show."

Yeah , and they were right. Stock stereotypes right up to and including the last episode. But then you can say that for every star trek series including the original with its Dashing Captain, Logical 1st Officer, Comic Relief Scotsman, Irascable Doctor and Token Black Woman.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Richard_at_work]

I dont think they are badly acted, I think they come across as 'real'. None of this acted emotion crap. And the camera work is meant to be like that, its shot in a documentary way, which I kind of like.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[FortranDragon]

[...] worst of all the camera work was done by a trainee they grabbed off the street - half the time the camera is looking at the roof or floor not at the actors!

That's deliberate. They are using the documentary-ish technique that Firefly had. Kind of a 'what happened? where?' attempt for TV.

I would say give them more time, but you've indicated that you aren't. YMDV (Your Mileage Did Vary) I try to give a new show a season to work itself out. It takes time for the people involved to see what works and what doesn't. The lead time for production means corrections aren't going to happen in just a few episodes.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[TheRaven64]

I really have trouble taking the Wraiths seriously in Atlantis (and not just from the fact that both they and the Ancient weapon in Antarctica make me feel that one of the writers has been playing Escape Velocity: Nova too much). They supposedly defeated the Ancients 10,000 years ago. Since then, they have had 10,000 years to develop their technology. Let's assume that they sleep for 90% of the time, and that's still 1,000 years. And yet, their ships can still be shot down with a bazooka (even the Gou'ould have better shields than that, although only on slightly larger ships), and they can't get past the Ancients' iris-shield (which I'm fairly sure the less advanced Tollan could do).

I'm really hoping that these people are going to be revealed to be minions of the `ancient enemy' (Babylon 5, anyone?), because at the moment they seem a lot less impressive than anything in our galaxy. Next to the replicators, they are positively laughable.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, but where's the Token Black Woman in Enterprise?

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Viol8]

The have a Token Asian Woman instead.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[spike1]

And let's not forget, there are more than the goa'ould, ancients, asgard, nox, giant misty type aliens and tollan out there.

The 4th race mentioned by the asgard were called the furlings... And we've only so far had hints about them.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[CoffeeJedi]

Dont get me wrong, i dont expect stars and accolades out of a series which barely discerns itself from the likes of zena/hurcules/Beastmaster in some of its episodes (did these guys share their prop guys/ set designers or what?

i'm relatively new to Stargate, my girlfriend got me into it, its a fun show, but i don't take it as seriously as her
last night i pointed out that there were lit TORCHES on the G'ould ship, and started mocking them, it really gave it that Xena feel, and this was SG-1! needless to say, she wasn't too happy that i was making fun of one of her favorite shows
(she also didn't like that i also called the Zat's 'snake guns' and the staff's 'fuel rods', and the J'far, yeah... they were 'storm troopers')

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[aziraphale]

Your timing is terrible...

Episodes four and five, the last two to show in the UK, really have Battlestar getting into its stride. You should have given it a week longer. Edward James Olmos is shaping up like one of the finest actors to turn up in a sci fi show since Patrick Stewart...

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[mr_snarf]

Badly acted (where do that *find* these people!), badly scripted (at times it seems like they're trying to ad-lib and failing), and worst of all the camera work was done by a trainee they grabbed off the street - half the time the camera is looking at the roof or floor not at the actors! Also the sound treatment is horrible - going from so quiet you can't hear them to blasting your ears out within the same scene.

Badly acted: Well, maybe. Then again, at least they seem sort of 'real'.

Camera work: Well, I think the 'camera' work for the CGI is brilliant, very 'documentary style' (like the creators said they wanted to aim for). Have to agree the 'shaky camera' for filming everything else can get a bit annoying at times. However, overall I think it gives a nice feel to it (yeah, other shows/movies have tried, but I think they got it right). Not everyone likes it though. For example, can be taken to the extreme, remember the Bourne Supremacy? Ugh. (good movie but overdone shaky camera)

As for the sound, I havne't noticed anything weird when the characters are talking, sounds normal. The space-battles however are probably what you are talking about. I was confused by it at first, but I think I realise what its supposed to be like. They are trying to go with the 'no sound in space' idea, but to make it interesting, they play the sounds as heard from within the ships. At least, thats what it seems like based on an interview I read. Once you watch it thinking that, it makes sense, but thats bad - You shouldn't have to think about the sound, it should just make sense.

Hope it doesn't go for more than one season though, I heard its only going to have 13 episodes, which would be good, but unlikely

-- Holy shit, Jesus forgot to flush!

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

"This is why im really happy about the Battlestar galactica series comming this new year... Gritty, realistic, and hopefully... above all else... not more episodal space opera campy bullsh*t."

You haven't actually watched/read original BG, have you? :P Maybe there's hope for the latest iteration.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Cpt_Kirks]

The Tollan are dead. Annubis nuked 'em.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Oddly_Drac]

"Let's assume that they sleep for 90% of the time, and that's still 1,000 years."

Empires fall, people lose interest. Greece was once the center of civilisation. Don't apply your little window of history across the whole universe and enjoy the show.

"their ships can still be shot down with a bazooka"

Stinger SAM, but we'll let that one pass for the moment. Have you considered that a significantly more advanced race might not actually use it's shields out of contempt for a preagrarian race?

"they can't get past the Ancients' iris-shield (which I'm fairly sure the less advanced Tollan could do)."

With a titanium iris, not a forcefield, and the inference was that the Tolan were a lot more advanced than the Gou'ould, and roughly on a par with the Nox, which is why the Tolan were wiped out after the contratemps over the warheads. Certainly nobody else apart from the Asgard could create the ground based cannons.

"because at the moment they seem a lot less impressive than anything in our galaxy."

Well, you wouldn't want them to go and 'pussify the borg' like Star Trek did, would you?

Personally I think a race that views humans as animals is a tad more realistic than having aliens that simply mimic human nature with cartoon inflated attributes. Certainly the introduction of the Tokrah made the snakeheads slightly more fluffy than they needed to be.

"Next to the replicators, they are positively laughable."

You didn't like the replicators, then? Lack of enormous guns?

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Oddly_Drac]

"there were lit TORCHES on the G'ould ship"

I know, that's so whack. We were down the store the other day, and like someone pointed out that they sell candles. WTF is that about, don't people know about electricity?

Oh, and there were vegetables, too. Like stuff pulled out of the ground. It's so gross. I mean, the ground, FFS. Worms f*** in that. And we bury dead people.

And there's like these ceramic statues, that people buy, then put on flat surfaces to look at. It's not like they light up or anything...et cetera, et cetera

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

Hang a lot of torches on your wall, do you?

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

It is spelt 'niche', not nitch, your spelling wouldn't even give the correct pronounciation, which suggests that there is another spelling you should familiarise yourself with 'moron', since I have no doubt it is a word you hear often enough.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[the_2nd_coming]

they have a token black man.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[the_2nd_coming]

did you ever consider that perhaps they do not have much more room to increase their technical abilities?

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[DavidTC]

No, Anubis attacked them by coming up with a new shield against their defense system when they failed to nuke us. (Using their patented 'walk through walls' technology to get the nuke through our iris.)

Anubis, at that point, didn't want to violate the protected planet treaty with the Asgard. Apparently, extorting other people into attacking people you are not allowed to attack is legal under the treaty.

He attacked them, as far as we know, with traditional bombardment and ground troups. Probably hoping to get their technology.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Cpt_Kirks]

When I say "nuke" I mean obliterated, destroyed, reduced survivors to slavery, etc.

And what represents "traditional bombardment" anyway? Are those energy blasts nuclear in nature?

Knowing the Tollan and the way they feel about their technology, they probably set off any bombs remaining after the warehouse blew up to keep Anubis from getting them and any other remaning technology. We never saw any evidence of Tollan tech used by Anubis.

Anubis is freezing his vapor off on P3X9203919238293839030 anyway...

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[BlacKat]

I think the main problem with TORCHES on a spaceship is that in space you are somewhat limited in oxygen.

And oxygen is something that fire consumes in great quantities... so it would be sort of stupid for a spacefaring race to use torches on their ships.

Well, unless they have some nifty device that can create oxygen out of thin air. :)

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[BlacKat]

Except when Star Trek first aired there was no such thing as a "token minority". It may have helped spawn such a thing, however. :)

Trek is famous for many things, including non-American lead characters as well as the first inter-racial "kiss" on television. :)

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

>>Well, unless they have some nifty device that can create oxygen out of thin air. :)

we got them nifty devices here...i think they usually call them plants

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[TheRaven64]

"Let's assume that they sleep for 90% of the time, and that's still 1,000 years."

Empires fall, people lose interest. Greece was once the center of civilisation. Don't apply your little window of history across the whole universe and enjoy the show.

Umm, not really sure what you're trying to say here. My point was that even counting their long hibernation cycles they should have had 1,000 years of awake-time to improve their technology. Even if they had done nothing other than sleep, then their tech level should be higher than the Ancients (hence their victory). If they spent any time awake, it should be an even bigger gap.

"their ships can still be shot down with a bazooka"

Stinger SAM, but we'll let that one pass for the moment. Have you considered that a significantly more advanced race might not actually use it's shields out of contempt for a preagrarian race?

Okay, I was using Bazooka in the common usage as shoulder launched rocket projectile. Perhaps I should have been more precise. Yes, they might not be running their shields out of contempt, but this is unlikely, since (if it were the case) they would have activated them when they were fighting the puddle jumper (which had Ancients weapons). Note also the ease with which the puddle jumper destroyed them, in spite of the fact that it was technology made 10,000 years ago by people defeated by (presumably) the wraiths.

"they can't get past the Ancients' iris-shield (which I'm fairly sure the less advanced Tollan could do)."

With a titanium iris, not a forcefield, and the inference was that the Tolan were a lot more advanced than the Gou'ould, and roughly on a par with the Nox, which is why the Tolan were wiped out after the contratemps over the warheads. Certainly nobody else apart from the Asgard could create the ground based cannons.

While the Tolan were highly advanced, they were less advanced than the Ancients in at least one area (contrast their cannons with the system used at Antarctica - one stopped by Anubis' shields, the other goes through them as if they were vacuum). On the other hand, the difference in complexity of travelling through a force field and a lump of titanium is something I have no direct experience with, so I'm willing to concede this point.

"because at the moment they seem a lot less impressive than anything in our galaxy."

Well, you wouldn't want them to go and 'pussify the borg' like Star Trek did, would you?

Personally I think a race that views humans as animals is a tad more realistic than having aliens that simply mimic human nature with cartoon inflated attributes. Certainly the introduction of the Tokrah made the snakeheads slightly more fluffy than they needed to be.

Don't get me started on the Borg (perfect communist society for frightening capitalists transformed into yet another hierarchical group with slightly more advanced technology). The Gua'ould (sp?) were somewhat too human, but they made a fairly respectable enemy. I'm not sure there is much difference between a race that views humans as hosts and one that views them as food (and personally I'd consider the possibility of having to live for hundreds of years watching someone commit atrocities in my body to be more frightening than someone killing me). Food is also not an entirely compelling motive, since any race with technology that rivals the Ancients must also have the ability to synthesise food indistinguishable from the real thing on a molecular level at a negligible cost. The only reason they would have for hunting humans is that they enjoy hunting. This hardly seems likely - the humans are so far behind them technologically that it's not exactly a challenge - similar to fishing with drift nets in terms of difficulty. This would be more credible if they had teleported to surface and hunted on foot, rather than using semi-random tractor beams.

A more likely

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[metlin]

Actually, we do not yet know if there are any Tollans left.

After Tanith wiped out Tollana's capital city, they showed the Tollan evacuating their planet in ships. They showed many being shot down, but several could have been shot down.

Besides, do remember that if it is only people who are "dead" or "enslaved" they can always be brought back/resurrected/saved in the SG world. So, you never know. And it's not like SG to kill off an entire race of "good guys" in one go -- after all, the reason they were wiped out is because they helped us.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[metlin]

> They showed many being shot down,
> but several could have been shot down.

I meant that several could have escaped. God I'm sleepy and it's not even 6 PM yet.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

"giant misty type aliens"

Aren't the giant misty type aliens the ancients?

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[mdfst13]

"Have you considered that a significantly more advanced race might not actually use it's shields out of contempt for a preagrarian race?"

I would say that a better argument is that an advanced race might not actually have shields that are effective against physical weapons. If no one uses physical weapons against them, why would they shield against physical attacks? All their weapons were designed to work against the Ancients, who were presumably well past the need to use physical weapons.

Notice how the humans are more effective against the replicators than are the Asgard. This is despite the fact that the replicators have incorporated all the tech that the Asgard have. The replicators are still damaged by the guns of the humans while they simply absorb the energy of the personal weapons used by the Asgard and the Goa'uld.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[niktesla]

Actually, this is a pretty good history of buring "oxygen candles" on submarines and even spacecraft. These are chemical blocks which give off oxygen when ignited. Of course, the Go'auld should probably be more advanced than that, but maybe they just like the style - they are rather heavy on theatrics at times.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Cpt_Kirks]

They didn't show ships being shot down, Carter's Tollan boyfriend described it via a through-gate radio link.

He said all the ships were being shot down.

Of course, there could be some Tollan off world, but the Tollan as a race are pretty much toast.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Snaller]

This is why im really happy about the Battlestar galactica series comming this new year... Gritty, realistic, and hopefully... above all else... not more episodal space opera campy bullsh*t.

It will be, Moore has said that it is essentially one 13 story arch (the season only has 13 episodes, because they are expensive and they aren't taking any more chances until they know it has large following)

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Snaller]

stereotypical, cookie cutter, typecasts

Yes, but they didn't say it for Firefly. Because what you set out to do from day one is what you get from day one. It seems most american programming starts by making something as bland as possible and then try and measure what the audience (if any) will like and change it towards that.

As opposed to Joss Whedon who's motto not give people what they want, but what they need.

(Don't forget his first feature movie, april 22 2005)

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[lsmeg]

I believe there's a word for all this: overthinking. ;)

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Oddly_Drac]

" I think the main problem with TORCHES on a spaceship is that in space you are somewhat limited in oxygen."

As someone pointed out, it's even conceivable that the torches are along the lines of oxygen candles; but we don't get the complaints about the technology, or the ease of which Samantha Carter has figured out which crystal to place in which spot to achieve certain results...we get complaints about the fricking decor. May as well point out that drapes aren't much use in a spaceship.

"Well, unless they have some nifty device that can create oxygen out of thin air."

The horrible pun aside, they seem to manage quite well producing 1G 'down'. And Oxygen/Nitrogen mix at STP with a slight lemony fragrance wouldn't be rocket science.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Oddly_Drac]

"they are rather heavy on theatrics at times."

An almost British level of understatement. It's meant as a compliment.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Oddly_Drac]

"All their weapons were designed to work against the Ancients, who were presumably well past the need to use physical weapons."

I'm being forced into the sci-fi geek corner. Bugger.

Okay, but bear in mind that the Ancient weapon used by the puddlejumper is a 'drone'. Essentially a guided missile, which I have some problems with, but it's a physical weapon. So far the only energy weapon we've seen is the mother of all laser pointers in Antartica and the Wraith stunner; certainly there is the inference that there are two distinct technological strands at work. Without speculating too far ahead (we never found out about the city in episode 1), the wraith appear to be _massively_ nomadic, which matches a pattern of early human hunter/gatherers rather than the later agrarian and communal humans.

In fact, they look like they're degenerating rapidly due to a decadance in having destroyed resistance and 'farming' the human worlds for the last few millenia; decadent societies don't have the same drive towards achievement as other societies.

"The replicators are still damaged by the guns of the humans"

Got to love kinetic energy, although you'll notice that the replicator++ (human form) isn't phased by bullets, and that the relicators are roughly aligned with the technology that they absorb, which made the ones on the Russian sub _extremely_ pants.

"all the tech that the Asgard have."

The consistent thread throughout the entire series is that the Asgard are dying off because of extensive reliance on technology, and the Goa'uld have stolen all of theirs. Similar to the way that flint napping is practised by few people on a hobby basis today, it's conceivable that the disconnect between old and new might be one of the root causes of their problems. (despite the deus ex machina produced by O'neill in episode 1).

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Oddly_Drac]

"My point was that even counting their long hibernation cycles they should have had 1,000 years of awake-time to improve their technology."

Given the desire to do so, and given that they actually invented it in the first place. They appear to be a degenerating society with ultimate longevity that might not have the same imperatives. What I was suggesting was that their empire fell due to a lack of resistence; when you're top of the food chain you don't have to strive too hard.

Given that they may not have a social imperative to 'become better', then it does seem conceivable that their technology would have moved forward that much. Ancient technology certainly didn't move that far forward in the time it took to traverse to Pegasus.

"Perhaps I should have been more precise."

Nah, I would've been a pedantic sh** if you had.

"made 10,000 years ago by people defeated by (presumably) the wraiths."

Defeated is such a definate word. Driven to a stalemate? Bear in mind that we still don't know why they abandoned the city in the first place.

"On the other hand, the difference in complexity of travelling through a force field and a lump of titanium is something I have no direct experience with, so I'm willing to concede this point."

Titanium is a collection of empty space sparsely populated with nuclei and electrons, whereas a forcefield seems to have no problem stopping anything. It's like a sci-fi law or something.

Regarding the Tolan advance vs the Ancient advance; there does appear to be parallel development along certain lines. But I don't think that any of the races encountered really had the same blend of technology. Consider aboriginal hunters from Australia, South America and Africa and their different approaches, environments and basic technology of wood and stone.

"since any race with technology that rivals the Ancients must also have the ability to synthesise food indistinguishable from the real thing on a molecular level at a negligible cost."

True enough, but bear in mind that there may be objections about doing that. They do seem particularly arrogant, but we haven't yet established that their technology was on a par with the ancients. All we know is that the Ancients 'lost', which could come from superior tactics or the ability to take a beating and still keep coming.

"Relegating them to the rôle of subject-race"

I can see that coming, but I don't think it would be the end of series one; for one thing that would echo the mistake they made with SG-1. They just destroyed a fricking unkillable nasty and may have just made the first entrances to systemlordhood. That's impressive.

"The Atlantis crew would then be caught in the crossfire between two ascended races at war"

I like your idea with a couple of caveats; the ascended stuff was more of a plot device to keep Jackson's job alive and appears to be a more personal affair than sublimation (Iain M Banks, esentially sublimed races just get out of the business of mucking about with spacetime.) I never liked the idea of ascension.

The other one is that I don't know how the jiminy you'd express a space opera with the 'squad-based' stuff that the series revolves around. If you've never read any Iain M Banks, you should take a look. Right up your cul de sac.

"Remaining more amorphous, perhaps with a caricature human shape for communication, would have reduced the amount of anthropomorphism."

Yeah, I can't understand the consistent pinocchio desire for artificial organisms to become human.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[DavidTC]

Nitpit: I don't think it's accurate to called the Tollan people a 'race'. They're humans. They're just one of the few human populations more advanced than us instead of the other way around, way up at the Nox and Asgard level of technology.

But, yeah, they're pretty much toast. They relied too much on a few automated, 'unbeatable' weapons, and it turns out that no weapon is unbeatable forever. It's too bad, I liked the Tollan...I was laughing when they explained that altering government records was a worse crime than murder. ;)

You know, it's funny. Of the System Lords, the Asgard, the Nox, and Tollan, only the Nox haven't come up against a stronger enemy and been seriously crippled, if not entirely defeated. The Tollan and the System Lords came up against Anubis, and the Asgard came up against the replicators.

The Nox have managed to escape all this, mainly because no one can figure out a useful reason to attack them.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[metlin]

I kinda like the Nox a real lot. I remember in one of the earlier episode when the Tollan first come and Lya takes them through the Stargate against Mayborn's orders, when O'Neil remarks, "God I love those people".

And I really like their policies - I think they're the most enlightened and most powerful of the lot (okay, maybe excluding the Ancients). I think people are *afraid* to attack them because they are afraid that the Nox would simply beat them.

I'd also like to see the Ancients do some cool stuff, I think they're really the invincible lot. Well, atleast after they ascended - the Wraiths could never get through to Atlantis per se, they only sucked out the humans the Ancients had seeded in Pesagus.

It would be really great if they could show the Nox or Ancients kick some Gou'uld or any other ass.

Re:Atlantis is terrible

[Perky_Goth]

hey, i loved space above and beyond!
shame i wasn't at home when it aired the last episode, and the VCR was ruined. how was the last episode?
the series was cut short, like firescape (have to see that one), right?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

She's pretty hot on SG1

[Anonymous Coward]

She played Ishta in a couple episodes.

Re:She's pretty hot on SG1

[JPelorat]

Yeah, she was an ugly no-talent lump in those eps too. That particular ep was just painful to watch. None of those women could act worth a damn.

Where's My Farscape?

[Anonymous Coward]

It never fails to amaze me. I don't understand how mediocre science fiction shows like Stargate can continue for a decade's worth of seasons when unique and interesting fantasy/sci-fi shows like Farscape can be left to suck cancellation.

Stargate is run of the mill and has been done before. Farscape offered something original for once. Though I do have some hope that it might return sometime in the future considering the stellar ratings that the miniseries got.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

L.C.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ive watched a lot of both Farscape and Stargate but I never even liked Farscape. It always felt like some fruity puppet show. People do not casually watch farscape because of this. Stargate on the other hand is just a corny show than anyone can watch whether they have seen every episode or none. Stargate funny and sarcastic. The funny part about Farscape is the ridiculous character designs. When someone turns on farscape it almost looks like the show is a spoof or something.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[Anonymous Coward]

I always found the production quality of Farscape to be quite high. But I can understand the reaction to the puppetry. It is rather difficult to make puppets as animated and believable as actors in makeup. However, I do not think that they are any worse than the puppets seen on Babylon 5 and it is regarded as a deep and entertaining sci-fi show.

The one point that I think has merit is the one regarding the use of continuity by Farscape. Many of the episodes in a season build off of one another. It is quite likely that people might be turned off when missing a few episodes that were necessary to move the story forward or by those who jumped in halfway into the story.

L.C.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[stry_cat]

Sorry but I can't stand Farscape. IMHO SG-1 has been since it first aired and still is the best TV SciFi show in production. The only exception was when Firefly was on TV.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[Anonymous Coward]

I gave SG-1 a whirl back when it was in its original series run of 50 episodes on HBO, Cinemax, or whatever. Without a engaging season spanning story-arcs and characters that develop and grow, I just don't see the point in the series.

I am with the grandfather post. Farscape consistently attempted to redraw typical Science Fiction lines by attempting to bring some new ideas to the plate. SG-1 succeeds in only promoting the tried, true, and tired monster of the week Science Fiction that drove the X-Files into oblivion.

Battlestar Galactica, Space Above and Beyond, and Babylon 5 have been the series that have kept my attention because things matter between episodes. It is one huge novel story brought to the small screen with a decent budget and relatively unknown actors that transformed their roles. To a lesser extant even Star Trek did this with DS-9 toward the unspectacular end.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[corsican]

Once you bring even a hint of romance in between two main characters it is all over. I thought Farscape was just silly. I couldn't watch the toadstool guy (gal?) without snickering, and the guy with the head made of tongues was pretty hard to take seriously as well. And the British chick didn't seem nearly as tough as she was supposed to be (actually, none of them did, although they were all supposed to be extremely tough). Seems like the dang ship was always on the verge of death too. Most of the stuff over there on Sci-Fi is formulaic and cornball (I liked The Invisible Man; even though it was also formulaic and cornball, at least it knew it was formulaic and cornball).

Take Atlantis. It's like SG1 as produced on Bizarro World. There's nothing new here. They don't even attempt to mix up the formula that much. They've got the same characters with the same personalities and other attributes, just shuffled around a little. You've got your O'Neil character; the wiseacre that bucks authority but is not as funny or genuine. You've got the Daniel guy; a geeky scientist dude that talks fast but is more abrasive and stupid. And your Corin Nemic; the young, inexperienced but gung-ho sidekick. I feel confident that we will have a Teal'c analog before too long (if we haven't already; I have to catch the series via bitorrent and am consequently a bit behind).

It's like they made a bunch of color-coded cards of things like: job on the team, role in the show, personality, gender, etc and just tossed them in the air. Now Corin Nemic's tendency to do stupid things due to thoughtlessness can be found in the Daniel character. General Hammond is now female but pretty much unchanged otherwise. Etcetera.

Yet another reason to turn off the tv occasionally and get a bit of sun on my pasty white geek skin.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[Ayaress]

How if Farscape not funny? Between Rygel constantly commenting on how he'd take good care of everybody's stuff when they died and D'argo and John's constant Odd Couple style bickering (not to mention Scorpius and his S&M suit), it was funnier than any of the bland humor in SG1. I laughed my ass off three times when John and Aeryn were arguing. Aeryn called John a Dranit, and he asked, "What the hell's a Dranit?" "You really don't know what a Dranit is?" when she refused to explain the insult, he said "Fine, screw the Dranit!" She laughed at him and said, "You REALLY don't know what a Dranit is." Unfortunately, the show was cancelled before anybody offered a satisfactory explanation of exactly what a Dranit is. Most of "t3h funneh" on SG1 is too forced. They constantly detour away from the plot just to make a joke that doesn't fit with the flow, and isn't really that funny. Most of it doesn't fit the context, either.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[Tony Hoyle]

I though I was the only one (on slashdot, anyway...)

OTOH I couldn't stand Firefly either... got 15 minutes into the first episode on that one (and I have to *really* hate something to not at least give it an episode).

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[fireboy1919]

I liked Farscape, but I'm afraid I couldn't get over all the puppets. Oh, and it always felt like there were four states a character could be in on that show:
1) Insane and about to do something/doing something absolutely fiendish
2) Insane, angry and doing something reckless
3) Sad
4) Puppet

I just put the fourth one in there 'cause I couldn't really tell that well with all the puppets. Farscape was a bit too much of a space opera for me.

I liked Harvey, though. Excellent character.

Re:Where's My Farscape?

[Anonymous Coward]

What British chick? Claudia Black is Australian.

Re:Hooray!!!

[Mysticalfruit]

Don't make me come over that and shoot you with a zat gun!

Re:Hooray!!!

[dave420]

"It's the most popular Sci-Fi series on the planet right now"

That's not exactly saying a lot ;) They did cancel futurama after all...

I like to drive my wife nuts

[Anonymous Coward]

MacGyver makes the show. My wife likes SG-1. I like to look for the "MacGyver moments" and point them out to her.

It drives her nuts when I say something like "The stargate's broken? Why doesn't MacGyver make a new one with a paper towel tube?"

Re:Woopty Freakin' Doo!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Action/adventure" might be more accurate. Not cerebral enough to be called science fiction. Not much science fiction on the sci-fi channel. Just a lot of Xena-class crap that was formerly relegated to WB on Saturday afternoon.

Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[scorp1us]

I was on vacation last week and saw an episode of MacGuyver (Richard Dean Anderson) and Teal'c (Christopher Judge) were in the same MacGyuver episode.

RDA was playing some special program school teacher, backed by the Peonix foundation and CJ was a football playing student in the class.

On the episode before this, Kera (from Deep Space 9) was a oil-driller's girl friend.

On another episode Cuba Gooding Jr. played a ranh hand.

That same night I saw Joey (Tribilni from friends, or the guy that plays hom at least) on Married with Children.

Do they keep passing these people around and sharing sloppt seconds?

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[Anonymous Coward]

There's an episode with General Hammond as a truck driver, too. I think all these shows that shoot in the Vancouver/Seattle area tend to trade talent. That's the reason you see the same 3 asian people on all the series.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Joey also had a Fox show named "Joey". Was a spinoff from Married with Children. It was pretty bad, as I remember.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[peragrin]

You want cross over switch to Andromeda. Not only have/are the actors crossing back and forth,

Daniel Jackson Married Rommie. The reason why Rommie isn't in much of this new season is because their child was born recently.

I am to busy(lazy) to look up the actual actors names at the moment.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[YetAnotherAnonymousC]

Also, the actor who portrays Gen. Hammond was a stunt man and occasional character actor on MacGuyver. He plays a poacher in one episode, for instance.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[sjaskow]

That'd be Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) and Lexa Doig (Rommie).

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[Cpt_Kirks]

Yeah Don Davis (Hammond) was on Adromeda a couple of weeks ago too (if anyone actually watches Andromeda but me).

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[Cylix]

Yeah, I kept waiting from SG-1 to rescue him!

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[questor]

Actually, Don Davis (George Hammond) was working on McGyver quite a bit, but while cameras rolled: he was Dana Elcar (Pete Thorton)'s stand in.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[questor]

Oops; s/but while/but not while/.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[raju1kabir]

I was on vacation last week and saw an episode of MacGuyver (Richard Dean Anderson) and Teal'c (Christopher Judge) were in the same MacGyuver episode. RDA was playing some special program school teacher, backed by the Peonix foundation and CJ was a football playing student in the class. On the episode before this, Kera (from Deep Space 9) was a oil-driller's girl friend. On another episode Cuba Gooding Jr. played a ranh hand. That same night I saw Joey (Tribilni from friends, or the guy that plays hom at least) on Married with Children.

I think the main conclusion we can draw from this is that you watch way too much TV.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[mdfst13]

Amanda Tapping was the only one of the main cast members who had not worked with Richard Dean Anderson previously.

Yes, shows tend to all share the same sets of background character. For example, Kevin Durand was Joshua (the dog boy) on Dark Angel, Zipacna on Stargate SG-1, and a really minor character on Dead Like Me. A.J. Cook was in Dead Like Me, then Tru Calling, and is now back to movies. Jewel Staite was in both Wonderfalls and Firefly (and Dead Like Me for that matter).

What would you expect actors to do when they aren't in a show? Of course they look for other work, full time or part time.

Re:Teal'c and O'Neal were in cahoots in the 80s

[obeythefist]

He also played Dana Scully's father in the TV series "The X Files".

Danger - fanboys with points

[Stone316]

Looks like some fanboys have mod points.... I'm serious tho, I do enjoy the show and am glad it was renewed but McKay and the 'Scottish' Doctors performances are annoying and over-exaggerated at times.

Re:Danger - fanboys with points

[Dachannien]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0569295/

Re:Woopty Freakin' Doo!

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you watched the series? Depending on the episode, there is a good bit of science fiction, as well as ancient mythology. If it were just action adventure, would they have dealt with the time dilation effects of a wormhole connection to a planet on the edge of a blackhole?

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[account_deleted]

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My gf will be happy

[Jucius Maximus]

She loves Daniel Jackson.

Wait a minute...

Re:My gf will be happy

[mmkkbb]

I hear you man.

My girlfriend fawns over James Spader. She wants to be his secretary :(

Re:My gf will be happy

[Khaotix]

I want my girlfriend to be James Spader's ex-secretary.

Well.
To a degree.

P.S.
Yay!
Stargate is the only sci-fi show I watch now that Star Trek junk.

Listen Richard, you gotta give it a break

[Chairboy]

Richard,

You can't just get back at me by trying to get the show cancelled. Like I said at the office yesterday, I'm flattered, but you're really not my type.

Coming online and talking smack about the show I love just isn't the right way to handle this.

Can't we be friends again?

Love,

CB

Sweet Amanda

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmmm... I always had a crush on her.

Then again, I've always loved short-haired women dressed in military uniforms.

Thats good

[HyperVerbal]

That great that there still going but i still wish there was more Firefly not just the movie coming out. :(

Re:Thats good

[MrPrefect]

damn right, firefly was a great show, but I would rather see a great show cut short, then a great show transformed into a flaming pile of poo..

Fixing SG-1

[Erasmus Darwin]

What they really need to do is get the SG-1 team back on track in the show. To do this, they need to replace the opening left by Jack and start doing off-world missions again. Too many of the current shows have had them futzing around Earth, giving a "filler episode" feel to almost the entire season.

As for filling Jack's shoes, a suggestion I liked from another forum was to let Adam Baldwin reprise his role from "Heroes". He'd be good at providing the aggressive, militaristic mentality that'd help keep the same brain vs. brawn balance that the team had before.

Time for a Farscape/SG-1 crossover

[FerretFrottage]

Title: Johnny and Jack Premise: The stargate and farscape worm hole cross and the SG-1 team ends up on Moya...only to find Anubus and Scorpius working together to control the stargate wormhole technology. Too bad they killed off D'Argo because I think Teal'C would have found him interesting. And to start the whole thing off, O'Neal makes some off-color remark about Chiana. Glad to see both series back, but getting another season of farscape would have been a real treat.

Re:Stupid Moderators

[Anonymous Coward]

The links are all stale. A freshly used Gmail invite details who the invite was claimed by, and none of them are for a 'redw'.

So all the evidence points to the 'redw' poster being a liar, presumably the troller himself.

Excellent!

[NoelWeb]

This show has been my favorite for about a year now. Before I started really watching it, I would be switching through the channels when all of a sudden I would see Teal'c with Apophis's emblem blazened upon his head and say to myself "how ridiculous is that?" Then I started watching it just to see what that emblem was all about. The next thing I knew, I was a regular.

There is nothing quite like "Stargate Mondays!"

Re:---WARNING-- Fanboy alert... I LOVE THIS SHOW!

[LaPistola]

Hehe... yeah yea.. but I am a married fanboy.. so my $$ are spend a little different now ;)

WTF u talkin' about, Willis?

[Thud457]

Lister has an "H" on his head, not a "K".

Do you even watch the show?!!!

Re:WTF u talkin' about, Willis?

[Rand Race]

That would be Rimmer.

Re:WTF u talkin' about, Willis?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless he was thinking of the episode Body Swap. While it was still Rimmers hologram it was Lister..

O.K it's a stretch. I just wanted to flex some Red Dwarf trivia muscles.

Out of nowhere?

[Anonymous Coward]

A. They'd been working on ship designs for most of the previous episodes.

B. The Prometheus was built with a LOT of help from the Asgard as a reward for saving them so many times.

C. The ship still isn't perfect. It's not like they built an Asgard mothership and cruise it around each week.

Re:gmail invites

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that you can't have a 4 letter gmail name you fucking stupid fuck.

6 letters or more.

Re:Great -- Richard Dean Anderson looks bored alre

[Anonymous Coward]

Cut her some slack.. shes tried for years and kept having miscarriages

MacGyver

[slapout]

I'm still waiting for MacGyver to do a guest appearance. :-)

Amanda Tappings pregnant?????

[unenviabletask]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! All my dreams are utterly utterly destroyed.

Re:Amanda Tappings pregnant?????

[Ignignot]

You fool! What if she has a daughter??? Your dreams are utterly reborn!

Atlantis is what it is.

[Damek]

This is why im really happy about the Battlestar galactica series comming this new year... Gritty, realistic, and hopefully... above all else... not more episodal space opera campy bullsh*t.

A series, huh? Unless it's been entirely pre-plotted like Babylon 5, it's highly likely that it, too, will be episodal. And just because something is "gritty" and "realistic" (the realism of "gritty" sci-fi is highly debatable) doesn't proclude it from being "campy" "space opera". In fact, I would say at this point in time even the grittiest, most realistic sci-fi is bound to be campy and space-opera-ish if done as a television series, especially if done on the sci-fi channel. Gritty and realistic is now a cliche, too. It's all the same dreck.

Sci-fi belongs in books, and possibly movies or miniseries. Television demands characters that don't change, in a universe not too unrecognizable, and with the same old storylines about human interaction and peace/war. That said, I can enjoy a good cliche'd sci-fi TV series (gritty or not) since I expect little more than that.

Re:Atlantis is what it is.

[JohnHegarty]

"campy" "space opera"

bad news people , we are 5 eposides in (over this side of the pond) and its pure campy space opera...

Re:Atlantis is what it is.

[Oddly_Drac]

"Unless it's been entirely pre-plotted like Babylon 5, it's highly likely that it, too, will be episodal."

Oh, it's preplotted. Strangely enough we're on Episode 4 in the UK, and I can tell you that it's extremely good. Not only do the cylons have a plan, but they've infiltrated and they appear to be winning, but holding off over something to do with Gaius Baltar.

Suspend your disbelief and watch this one, it's going to be special. Episode 2 is especially interesting, simply for the level of tension.

Re:Atlantis is what it is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I come round your house? You seem to be getting a totally different version to me :) I didn't even bother watching episode 2 the first was so shite.

Re:Atlantis is what it is.

[Oddly_Drac]

"Can I come round your house?"

You're going to need a lot of come, it's fairly large.

Tying up Simpsons and SG-1

[forgotten_my_nick]

Daniel Jackson: Thank Heavens the knowledge of the ancients allowed you to rebuild that stargate and get us back safely.

Jack O'Neill: Don't thank me, thank the Moon's gravitational pull!

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[account_deleted]

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Not only Firefly..

[Anonymous Coward]

But Farscape too. Sure piss me off they keep shows like SG-1 (running out of ideas) and Atlantis (gosh, it is boring). At least Farscape had good stories and nice humor and I was sadden how quick they ended it all in the "Mini-series" (At least SciFi gave in to get it done). But the money spend on SG-Atlantis could just as well has been used on Farscape :(

How many episodes?

[KilobyteKnight]

Are these going to be more 4 episode seasons? I really like these shows. I'd really like to see them give us more shows.

And they need to demote the O'Neil character or something to get him back in the field. His attitude is what made the old episodes.

Re:How many episodes?

[ChrisJones]

more?

Both SG-1 and Atlantis are doing seasons of about 20 episodes. They do split it into two half seasons of 10 or 11 though.
That's still not 4 though. Where does 4 come from? ;)

Re:How many episodes?

[bpdski]

I'm glad someone else noticed this. How can they claim that both SG and Atlantis went through a full season with so few episodes? I generally consider a season to have at least 20 episodes in it. Also, there was no season finale or anything, the new episodes just stopped. I kept thinking they were just taking a break and I'd see an announcement for new episodes soon, not a new season. Also, while I like Atlantis a lot, the new SG season has been really lame. It build up to such a great finale last season finding ancient technology on earth, and they really haven't done anything with it. I also get sick of them killing a system lord and then another one stepping in and grabbing all his stuff. When the heck is SGC going to start winning this war? Hopefully soon if the episodes don't get any better....

Re:How many episodes?

[Arcady13]

Season 8 of SG-1 and Season 1 of Atlantis are only halfway finished. The other 10 episodes will run in January-March. It has been this way since 1997, back when SG-1 ran on Showtime. They are afraid to compete with the networks and their new Fall shows, so they go into reruns for 3-4 months.

You can see a schedule of upcoming episodes on this calendar. New episodes start up on January 21st.

Season 9 of SG-1 and Season 2 of Atlantis don't begin until next Summer.

Re:How many episodes?

[bpdski]

Ok, that's what I was expecting. Title of this thread just threw me. Thanks.

Did anybody doubt they wouldn't?

[flynniec6]

I mean, yesterday Slashdot announces that Atlantis has been found again. What else were they going to do? Pretend it wasn't? http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/15/125722 9/

Re:Did anybody doubt they wouldn't?

[Hobadee]

Nonono! They found where Atlantis had LANDED!!! Not the actual city!!

Mighty glad to hear it

[macdaddy]

I just have one problem. Could they possibly not run a full evening of Stargate SG-1 on the same evening as a a full run of West Wing? On Monday nights both series run a full evening of their respective shows and I end up flipping back and forth between them and tend to get really confused. Not that I mind seeing Amanda Tapping and Janel Moloney on the same nights. I just want to see both shows. Dammit. I need a Tivo.

Re:Mighty glad to hear it

[handorf]

SG1 Mondays wer what forced me to buy an ATI All In Wonder

Get one, they're cheap... I'm sure you've got a spare 80 gig hard drive lying around somewhere. :)

Re:Mighty glad to hear it

[macdaddy]

That's tempting. Unfortunately I've got 480GB in my desktop and it's full to the brim. I need to work on that a bit. I'd like to build a Myth or Freevo box but don't have the $$ to build a really good one.

Re:Mighty glad to hear it

[Neil]

I just have one problem. Could they possibly not run a full evening of Stargate SG-1 on the same evening as a a full run of West Wing? ... Dammit. I need a Tivo.

Nope. Sounds to me like you need two TiVos. Otherwise you'd have to watch a full evening of live broadcast TV! No pausing, no rewinding, no commercial skipping. Barbaric! :-)

Re:Mighty glad to hear it

[macdaddy]

LOL. Quite possibly. Or at least a dual-head Tivo-like box. I wish those cards had an internal splitter so I wouldn't have to spring for another TV-in card.

MacGuyver this....

[Vague but True]

I believe it was in the pilot of stargate, that Capt Carter actually said "we will have to MacGuyverize this control panel" which the camera immediately switch to Richard. He had his classic "whatever" expression.

Re:Where's My Farscape? - my 2 cents

[dreadlocks]

I loved Farscape, but Farscape's problem was that is was too original. IMHO, your average sci-fi Joe wants something simple yet familiar - something he can relate to or understand. Stargate is basically going to a new "earth world" every episode, while Farscape's folks are trapped in space somewhere or are up to their elbow dealing with funky aliens that we cannot relate to. Well, that is why they are Alien, we aren't always supposed to relate to them or understand their motivations.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the Stargates also; they appeal to a broader audience, rather than the more "hard core" sci fi audience which Farscape probably appeals to.

Re:gmail invites

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks! That explains why it wasn't working. Next time I'll test stuff first.

Renewed!!

[waxxie]

About time, I've been waiting to see the conclusion to the last episode "The Storm". They decided to hold it back for some reason or other. Now hopefully, we can see the conclusion to that episode. Silly to keep viewers waiting like that. And for those who don't know "to be continued..." at the end of an episode usually means theres a concluding epsiode to the current one coming along shortly... hehe

Re:Renewed!!

[B5_geek]

I've been waiting to see the conclusion to the last episode "The Storm".

I do not get SG:A so I have to d'load the episodes via bittorrent.

"The Eye" has already aired, and is available from several BT sites. Decent episode.

Re:Renewed!!

[BoneFlower]

Sci Fi airs each season of Stargate in two chunks, one over the summer and the next several months later when they are done rerunning all the first chunk episodes. So the renewal has nothing to do with whether or not you will see the sequel episode to The Storm.

Re:Renewed!!

[raju1kabir]

Now hopefully, we can see the conclusion to that episode.

I can't imagine why you couldn't, as the conclusion episode has been on BitTorrent for about 5 days.

Comedy is intentional

[nurb432]

I to belive that part of the comedy is intentional, to liven the place up a bit..

But they try not to make it too obvious..

It's not a star gate

[seann]

It's a far gate.

It has nothing to do with that syndicated television show, or that really good movie.

That I haven't seen.

But it's a good movie.

Re:It's not a star gate

[Anonymous Coward]

Ow! Why'd you hit me with that lamp?

--I thought you were a goa'uld!

I'm not a goa'uld, man

--You were making goa'uld noises

No, I wasn't. There are no goa'uld here, ok?

Re:It's not a star gate

[Mercano]

Its a reference to the Aqua Teen reference to Stargate. Circular references are circular, are they not?

Re:It's not a star gate

[anakin876]

We're not using the Fargate to steal cable.... We so not getting sued

Atlantis low points

[po8]

Atlantis summary: The writing sucks. Every episode is transparent and stupid. The "humor" is unfunny, the "drama" boring, the "adventure" tame. The casting sucks. A pack of identical-looking 20-somethings led by a (gasp) 30-something boss: all with an "ideal" ethnic and gender mix inspired in no way by their time, place, or roles. The acting sucks. The actors have an emotional range somewhere between Pia Zadora and Keanu Reeves. The bad guys suck. The authors have talked explicitly about how they came up with the Wraith: a villain that has and uses a brain in interesting ways would have been much more fun. Having the Wraith star in pretty much every episode is also a big mistake IMHO.

Of course, all of this is based on the roughly four episodes I could stand to watch. I'll stick with my beloved SG-1, even as it jumps the shark.

Re:Atlantis low points

[Oddly_Drac]

"Of course, all of this is based on the roughly four episodes I could stand to watch."

"Having the Wraith star in pretty much every episode is also a big mistake IMHO."

And therefore we can conclude that this poster is a 'twat', having formed an opinion on the basis of less than 40% of the output and deigning to actually post it.

"Every episode is transparent and stupid."

All four you actually saw, yeah?

"all with an "ideal" ethnic and gender mix inspired in no way by their time, place, or roles."

It's those lefty liberals in entertainment, I tell you. Stick the women in skirts and assume everyone is from Montana.

"I'll stick with my beloved SG-1"

Even series one?

Re:Atlantis low points

[DavidTC]

The Wraiths are in most of the episodes? Are you even watching the show? We just had the two part mid-season arc about a hurricane that almost destroyed Atlantis, and, in the middle for the evacuation, the Jenii took over. It wasn't about the Wraith at all.

No Wraith in '38 minutes', no Wraith in 'Hide and Seek', no Wraith in 'Home'...

That means slightly less than half the episodes could have taken place without the Wraith at all.

Of the other six, half those just had the Wraith as a long term enemy that had effected society: the Jenii, the 'Don't trust anyone over 25' world, and the world that was poisoning itself and thus the Wraith. It was 'How would the Wraith affect society', not 'Let's go and fight us some Wraith'. You know...the kind of questions science fiction asks?

One remaining was about a spy, and would have literally worked in a non-scifi enviroment.

And the other two were the opening of the series, where, duh, they needed to explain the Wraith.

I have no idea how someone could watch that series and think it was all about the Wraith.

One word response

[lowmagnet]

Muppets.

Noooooo!

[Anonymous Coward]

Aaaaaah McGyveeeeeeeeer! NOOOOOOOOOOO...

The original movie was ok..

[SlashDread]

somewhat, the series I have found horrible.

SG series plot(all of them): "Close the gate, its dangerous!" "No! We need the satisafaction of our curiosity and the progressions of science to erm, satisfy and progress us!" -scene develops where the gate rescues Earth/The universe- The End.

Atlantis? Whuh? If its WORSE the the series, well sjees.

Not to piss on the fanboy's parade, but Star Trek (ALL series) r00lz, and Star Gate dr00lzzzZ!

"/Dread"

Re:The original movie was ok..

[Anonymous Coward]

You've really not paid attention to the series. Closing the gate is a temporary fix. There are aliens out there, with ships, that can still come to Earth and destroy them. It just takes longer. So, they must use the gate to find allies and ways of defending themselves.

Re:The original movie was ok..

[DavidTC]

In fact, in 'There but the Grace of God', a season two episode, we learned destroying Ra, which happened in the movie, causes a retalitory strike on earth. It caused it in an alternate universe, it almost happened here but was prevented via the fact we used the stargate

If we hadn't had allies, or hadn't been out in the universe poking around, we would have been toast. With no warning. Huge ships would have appeared in orbit and destroyed us.

FRESH NEW IDEAS???!!??

[Xuther]

Granted I don't hate the show, but when I first started watching Atlantis it seems more like "Star Trek Deep Space Voyager the Vampire Slayer".

Seriously, it's all been done.

Space Station (check)
Stranded far away from home with no way back (check)
Alien enemy (check)
Vampires (check)

Even the episodes seem to be recycled concepts, one of the last ones where they thought they had gotten home but hadn't was basically the same as the gamemaster's VR SG1 encountered.

Just like to say...

[Anonymous Coward]

..this is great news! SG-1 is the only really intelligent Sci-fi show on TV right now. Atlantis is starting to get there but will take a couple of seasons to get up to speed.

Here's to hoping we see season 10 with SG-1 crew.

Below follows my favorite scenario with what should happen with the SG-1 storyline...

Daniel and Teal'c come back as normal. Something bad happens to Pete, he dies, horribly. Somehow Jack and Sam get stranded on a planet for 3-6 months.. long enuf for them to believe it's forever.. Sam gets preggo, they get rescued. Sam has baby, it's a boy.. after a couple of months she decides she still wants to go wormhole-jumping, comes back to SG-1. Jack decides to retire from military and be a stay-at-home dad with his son, he and Sam get married. We see Jack in a couple of episodes a year.. or in the background. Everyone's happy.. most importantly, me :).

Is it cheesy? maybe.. but it's also *right*.

--iamnotayam

Download Every Stargate Episode

[bigtallmofo]

I hesitate a bit to divulege this on Slashdot... but here goes.

Fans of Stargate-SG1 and Stargate Atlantis can download every episode ever made via IRC on irc.rizon.net in the channel #stargate-atlantis

There are at present over 500 users in the channel along with dozens of XDCC and other bots there waiting to serve the files to you.

Eh, I'm sure this isn't the first time an IRC channel has been /.'d.

I'd like to see SG-1 go out on a high note

[davidwr]

Rather than retool the show so it's no longer recognizable, I'd like to see SG-1 go out on a high note, with movies to follow.

Let spinoff series keep the story alive.

I'd love to see a spinoff series about OTHER Stargate-aware secret-government agencies during the early Stargate program. Can you say "NID" or "Russina Stargate Program?" I knew you could.

things that annoy me about SG1

[Anonymous Coward]

I basically like the show, but I get annoyed by the fact that every body they encounter speaks English. On Star Trek they explain this through their universal translator comm badges or something, but I've never heard of the explanation for SG1. It's like every mission they have to painfully explain that they come from "Earth", but otherwise they have the same names for everything. it's stupid.

I also wish they'd do more with the idea that they don't know what's on a planet that they're going to. SGA premier was exciting b/c it seemed a dangerous mission. SG1 now gates to new worlds without seeming the least bit concerned. Shouldn't there be a sense of going into the unknown?

Also, if the gate is there and they've made all sorts of contact with other worlds, why aren't there more aliens wandering around the SGC? and why arent there more earth people permanently relocating to other worlds like Daniel tried to do when he fell in love in the original movie? Wouldn't it be a better show if there was regular travel between different people in different places? How about establishing regular trade between worlds? Stuff like that.

and I think they should resolve and kill off the ancient egyptian stuff once and for all. it's a crutch for the series, it's boring and lame at this point. the threat of the goauld should be reduced in importance and they should do more exploring. the way the series looks, it's like the goauld has a big presence in almost every other planet than earth.

atlantis is pretty fun tho.

Re:things that annoy me about SG1

[BoneFlower]

"I basically like the show, but I get annoyed by the fact that every body they encounter speaks English. On Star Trek they explain this through their universal translator comm badges or something, but I've never heard of the explanation for SG1. It's like every mission they have to painfully explain that they come from "Earth", but otherwise they have the same names for everything. it's stupid."

The MGM FAQ explains this. They don't want to spend 15 minutes every episode working through the language barrier, so they ignore it unless its particularly important to that episodes plot. Personally, I'd rather it be ignored than have some sort of universal translator that never has its basis of operation explained.

"Also, if the gate is there and they've made all sorts of contact with other worlds, why aren't there more aliens wandering around the SGC? and why arent there more earth people permanently relocating to other worlds like Daniel tried to do when he fell in love in the original movie? Wouldn't it be a better show if there was regular travel between different people in different places? How about establishing regular trade between worlds? Stuff like that."

Most "aliens" are aliens in the earth legal sense- they are human, just born somewhere else. Several have taken up residence on Earth. There have been very few species encountered that are obviously different, and most of them simply have no interest in simply hanging out on Earth. Others, such as the Enkarans, would suffer serious medical problems if they stay on earth more than a few days. Just because humans can survive in their environment doesn't mean they can survive in humans environment- look at Earth species for instance. Humans can survive in the tundra and in the desert. But take a tiger from the deserts of africa and throw him in northern canada, he won't last long. By the same token, a polar bear won't last terribly long in the desert. The main biological advantage of humans is adaptability... we have a body design and mental capacity that allow us to function in a much wider variety of environments than most other species. It is quite possible that this advantage would hold over other sentient species on other planets.

As for earth people staying offworld, there aren't many earth people who even know of the Stargate, much less have an opportunity to go through it and find a place they want to move to. Col Maybourne an exception...

"and I think they should resolve and kill off the ancient egyptian stuff once and for all. it's a crutch for the series, it's boring and lame at this point. the threat of the goauld should be reduced in importance and they should do more exploring. the way the series looks, it's like the goauld has a big presence in almost every other planet than earth."

The reason the Goa'uld are on almost every human planet is referenced constantly... It was the Goa'uld who transported humans to other worlds as slaves in the first place.

Good.

[BoneFlower]

Things are going to heat up in the latter half of this season, but there are still some threads that need tying up. Klorel for one, he needs to be dealt with to fully resolve the Apophis storyline. The Aschen arc was supposed to be three episodes. I also don't see the Replicators being finished up this season. And... Think back to "The Fifth Race". I think it would be a great final episode for O'Neill, Thor, the Nox chick, some Furling, and Oma Desala to meet at Ernests planet, or perhaps the place where O'Neill first downloaded the ancient library, to restore the old alliance and admit humanity.

Re:Good.

[SirTalon42]

first SG-1 has to find the Furlings, theres a whole season right there!

Re:Good.

[Anonymous Coward]

Klorel is dead, err, well, ascended. His story is pretty much wrapped up.

Re:Good.

[BoneFlower]

No, he isn't.

Way back in the pilot, the Goa'uld Klorel took the Abydonian boy Skaara as a host. In the episode Pretense, Skaara briefly was able to take control of his body again, after a crash landing on the Tollan/Nox world, and pleaded with the Tollan to give him full control and remove Klorel. At the end of the Triad, Skaara was given the body, and Klorel was removed and sent to a Goa'uld world of his choice. Skaara returned to Abydos and eventually ascended in the aftermath of Anubis' assault on that world.

Skaara is ascended. Klorel's fate is unspecified, and if alive he probably holds a very serious grudge against SG-1.

I hope they keep SG-1 the same...

[t_allardyce]

Does anyone remember when Stargate basically consisted of going to a new planet, meeting the locals, discovering something, getting in trouble, getting out of trouble, going home? This is basically the formula for most almost every Star Trek, X-Files, Farscape, Red Dwarf, (WTF is Atlantis?), Quantum Leap episode and anything else out there. Its a great formula and has worked for 50 years! I wish they wouldnt fuck with it because no-one wants to see some stretched-out mushy finding-myself in my muse narrative to-be-continued series of crap where half the characters get so bored they leave and are replaced by people who just cant live up to the memory of the original cast. Writers: if your actors leave because they hate the direction the show is going in, then its probably a good sign that the viewers will be hating it too. I loved all these series because they had a predictable but rich formula and a set of characters that everyone grew up with, every week it was nice to sit down and know that whatever else was happening in the world, Mulder and Scully would be on to some strange new case and would do exactly the same things they always did, it never got old.
Although at some point you are going to run out of stuff, its better to just cut the production in half and keep turning out good stuff than to just force it and piss the cast off with poor plots.

Pffft.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad news. Stargate sucks, always HAS sucked, and always WILL suck. ESPECIALLY fucking Teal'C.

Battlestar

[ericdano]

It will be interesting to see how Stargate fares against Battlestar Galactica. StarOne has been airing episodes, and I must say this is the best SciFi ever. I think it will slam-dunk Stargate.

And what happened to Farscape? The Peace Keeper Wars was awesome. What about more Farscape????

Re:Battlestar

[Anonymous Coward]

SG1 well this season is indeed verry boring
i was kinda hoping it would end i thought the main reason SG-A wasnt all that good becauze most writers were still working on sg1 and a lot of funds were split in 2 over both shows.

BSG i watched part one of the tv movie and enjoyed it part 2 was boring. the series so far has been boring aswel i find my self scaning through the episodes hoping for some action or atleast abit more charakter development in the badguy section.

farscape, i loved the first 3 season
such a relief from the faul crap that was airing at the time i think it was called voy,voy something
i lost all intrest after seeing the first episodes of season 4. the realy had nothing more to tell. and i'm glad it ended well not the way it did but it ended and thats good.

that leaves only 1 more excisting scifi universe
babylon 5. there are still so many stories that need an end

Re:Battlestar

[MrBandersnatch]

The new series of BSG is an incredible piece of sci-fi, best thing since farscape...and look how farscape faired!!

Whenever I watch BSG I keep thinking of Space: Above and Beyond, another EXCELLENT sci-fi series with well above average effects, characterisation, plot etc. etc....it got cancelled in its first series.

It seems to me if sci-fi is too heavy in the drama department we geeks just cant "get-it" - hardly surprising given just how bad the majority of us are at social comprehension(!!).

Anyways at least SG-1 isnt bad *yet* but ill be happier hearing of BSG or Farscape getting a new series run.

Re:Battlestar

[ericdano]

Technically, Battlestar hasn't aired on Scifi yet. When it does, it will be a hit. It has all the elements there to knock everything else out.

Mod me pedantic

[flosofl]

I think the word you are serching for is niche

From WordNet 2.0:

niche- a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it; "he found his niche in the academic world"

"nitch" = Sorry, word not found

Re:---WARNING-- Fanboy alert... I LOVE THIS SHOW!

[shotfeel]

Wait until you have kids. They'll own the netflix account too.

Yayy....

[Dozix007]

I definetly have to say I am happy to see a return for both series. Many have argued that there are very few things left to do with Stargate, but there are still TONS of unfinished storylines, and villans which have yet to reappear. Especially those crazy Furrlings (anyone thinking Alf Crossed with Chewbacca ?).

P.S.: #1 Stargate Geek Here, I listen to "obtained" Stargate episodes for probably about three hours a day as I code away.

Yeah, that'd work

[robotoverflow]

Considering the backstories of the shows are totally incompatible I'm pretty sure that an idea like that would translate very, very poorly to anything but a fanfic.

In regards to Farscape being cut short, IIRC it was only meant to go for five seasons anyway, but with the way the storyline was progressing it seems like an entire fifth season would have been a few episodes too many. PKWars was a good finish to the cliffhanger at the end of season four, and the writers did a magnificent job of cramming everything into those three hours while still managing to end the show on a high note; something that we rarely get a chance to see.

Re:Yawn

[DavidTC]

I think you missed the fact that one of the mandates of the SGC is to bring back alien technology, and they, being a combat team, don't sit around building stuff.

They capture alien tech, and then, amazingly, don't sit around going 'Well, is that ship finished yet? Nope? Ah well.' every week. They hand it off to Area 51 and those guys build it. Then we, the audience, are told about it. And we aren't told about it as a deus ex machina either.

But...

[leftie]

The villian in that episode was Robert Davi. Now there's an actor with range. From Bond villian to Ally Walker's boss in the series Profiler.

But... could that mean the secret power behind Colm Meaney and the Jenni is really "the Jack of all Trades" hunting a whole new Sam?

Ancient technology was OK by me...

[nigelc]

[on topic bit] I have to say that the DVD of the fourth(?) season was worth it for the commentary track for "Prodigy" (about the really fscking smart USAF cadet), just to hear them sing the lyrics to the opening theme. And you thought "Faith of the Heart" rocked???

The one thing that Stargate and Atlantis (and the Tomb Raider movies) have that drives me batshit crazy is that they come across this ancient technology, in a pyramid somewhere that's been untouched since Avogadro could only count to 15. Someone presses a button/turns a knob/passes in front of it... and the damned thing springs into life and starts doing whatever the smeg it was doing the last time it was used.
I compare this with how much time I spent on Saturday trying to get the damned snow-blower to start (and I last ran it a month ago to make sure that all the bits went round-and-round -- apparently it's allergic to cold weather)...

Argh.

ever notice the Go'a'uld can't hit anything

[dmh20002]

The uncoolest thing about SG-1 is that the super-advanced goauld (sic whatever) have weapons that can't hit anything. The 'death' gliders shoot wimpy little firebombs that always miss and the staffs can't hit. They never heard of guided weapons. Its pathetic. Like on Star Trek where the Klingons are supposed to be mighty warriors but in any hand to hand fight they always get their butts kicked even by the Federation women, like skinny little major Kira.

give me an F-4 Phantom with a load of napalm over a death glider any day.

contrast that to the cool weapons effects on B-5 and the ultra-cool massive guided missle firing scene on Battlestar G.

I like the humorous episodes on SG-1 (wormhole extreme) but the serious ones are laughable.

An act

[Mateorabi]

I believe they've said several times on the show that he is much smarter than he puts on. He gets it, he just doesn't care. It's just his schtic. I mean the Asgard see something in him.

That, and I think that Anderson wanted to play a pollar opposite of his previous roll as he had been a bit type-cast.

Lucy Lawless to join cast as yet another amazon

[infonography]

Is this a spoiler or a rumor?

It's because...

[Anonymous Coward]

In the earlier shows, you were always waiting for Jack to make some dumb decision, that would have serious consequences for Earth relations throughout the universe. Now, it's like having a president who knows what he's doing; no one looking for entertainment would vote for such a thing ;)