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This makes it very likely that the beloved Stargate franchise will return as an Amazon Prime exclusive franchise, which will be great news for those of us like

• xixixao 5y ago
  I started watching SG1 again (I saw it incomplete as a kid). It’s incredibly good. It pushes rationalism and feminism in a sane way that I’m not sure would happen in today’s environment. It’s incredibly rich in historical references and concepts. It’s rarely dumb and often preempts cliches. It’s still worth watching imho (and is much less known that Star Trek in US).
  • Kye 5y ago
    Stargate did so well with so many topics. Hammond: "Colonel, the United States is not in the business of interfering in other people's affairs." O'Neill: (incredulous pause) "Since when?" And who can forget Carter beating the crap out of a Mongol warlord to prove women are equals?
  • psalminen 5y ago
    Just finished doing that myself and wholeheartedly agree. I came here to say SG-A does a great job as well.
  • jerf 5y ago
    I consider it hands down better than any Star Trek except possibly TNG. And that's giving TNG some grace due to being a bit older; take that away and I'll give SG-1 the prize. I will agree that people can reasonably disagree about Deep Space Nine vs SG-1. But that's the level of quality we're talking about, in my opinion. It's top tier, and much less well known. Also strongly recommend binging the first season in particular; they did a very good job of conveying the feeling of humans blundering about not really knowing what they are doing in the big new universe, and it really comes across when watched relatively quickly on top of each other. It is reasonable that as the seasons rolled on and they got their bearings this toned down in favor of other plot lines, but I think this is one of the more unusual tones in sci fi that a show managed to successfully convey. Enterprise really whiffed on this, in my opinion. (They should have had a first season more like SG-1's first season and saved the "temporal cold war" plot arc for later. Or perhaps even not at all. That would have been OK too. There are a couple of episodes that convey this sense but not enough to hold the tone IMHO.) Also, if you are starting out, I kinda recommend the Stargate movie first... it isn't strictly speaking necessary but it will contextualize some things, even though it's only sorta half in the continuity with SG-1. But I will say that if you kinda dislike it, continue on to SG-1 anyhow. In my opinion it's a big step up in a lot of ways.
    • delecti 5y ago
      I did a full rewatch of SG1 a few years ago, and what surprised me is how instantly the show found its footing. If you watch the first and last season of any Trek show, you can see how the writing and characterization takes a while to settle into place. Character development is part of that, but it goes beyond that. If you watch the first and last season of SG1, the writing has its footing nailed down immediately. Not many shows find their footing so effortlessly.
      • airstrike 5y ago
        That may have been helped by the fact that SG-1 got the green light for 4 full seasons right off the bat, so it gave showrunners the opportunity to write a cohesive and comprehensive story which really laid the foundation for the franchise after the original movie. I don't have a source handy, but I recall reading about that many years ago.
        • delecti 5y ago
          Wikipedia says they were picked up for 2 seasons, totaling 44 episodes. So while it's not 4 seasons, that's still a lot of stability for a show to start with. That would explain how they felt comfortable enough to plan ahead.
    • CubsFan1060 5y ago
      I agree with all of this, but especially the last bit. It sets up the stories to come, even if some of it borderline contradicts SG-1. The characters that go from the movie to the TV show are much more likable in the TV show.
    • qilo 5y ago
      > I kinda recommend the Stargate movie first... [...] But I will say that if you kinda dislike it, continue on to SG-1 anyhow. Thanks for pointing this out. Watched the movie as a kid, didn’t like it, and thus never even bothered to check out the tv series.
  • halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
    The characters are so good. The plot lines are great. The enemies are actually bad. While TNG is idealistic and more or less wholesome, SG1 definitely lines up with DS9 in that it's more real/gritty yet still has all the hope, fun, morals, ethics, etc.
    • bovermyer 5y ago
      With the possible exception of the Ori, the villains in SG-1 weren't usually the "like the last one, but MORE POWERFUL" villain trope we see in most series. And the evolution of the replicants... that was a complicated adversary. Also, golfing through the Stargate.
      • c9fc42ad 5y ago
        In the _middle_ of my backswing, sir?
  • refracture 5y ago
    My parents watched a lot of sci fi TV when I was kid, SG-1 is the only show that I ever actually sat down and watched more than the occasional episode of. I remember being struck by a scene that was (I believe?) pretty early in the series where Sam's about to fight some guy hand to hand; Jack protests this (but not in a way that makes it clear whether he thinks a woman shouldn't do it or if he's just unsure of her fighting skill), but once getting told what level she had trained to he immediately backs off. It gave me (who was at most 13 years old I think) the impression of what good respect between the sexes should look like. I could also be mis-remembering this because it's been a really long time though. Good show.
    • trsohmers 5y ago
      S1E3 Emancipation... one of the most disliked episodes by most fans but I agree that the scene was handled well... but the rest of the episode is not good. The writer of the episode (Katharyn Powers, who only worked on SG1 in season 1) was also the writer of the Star Trek TNG first season episode "Code Of Honor", which is frequently considered in the bottom 3 episodes of any Star Trek series, and many find very racist.
      • refracture 5y ago
        I now regret having read the plot summary to refresh my memory. It's terrible!
  • dkarp 5y ago
    I just started doing the same last week (weird to suddenly see this thread after not much mention of SG1 for a long time...) and agree it is great. It is nice to watch as a series instead of the random odd episode I saw as a kid watching cable TV in the 90s. There is so much more of it than I remembered. I've almost finished season 1, so it's going to tide me over for a good long while!
    • TeMPOraL 5y ago
      It only gets better! I envy you, I wish I could forget everything about the show, so that I could experience it fresh again. Having watched it end-to-end 3+ times over the past decade, it's burned hard into my brain.
  • wayoutthere 5y ago
    I recently finished a rewatch of it. It has held up far better than it has any right to. One thing that’s really stood out to me is the insane amount of technology change that happened over SG-1 — the show ran from 1996 to 2004. It went from laughable 3D CG on a Showtime budget, CRTs and landlines to heavy CG on a SciFi Channel budget, flatscreens and tiny cell phones. It does have its dumb moments though. Basically anything involving real-world weapons or explosives. There were also a few weak seasons in the middle, and it’s pretty obvious the main cast started phoning it in around season 5. But on the whole I agree, it’s one of the best Sci Fi shows ever made and absolutely belongs with the best of Trek.
    • TeMPOraL 5y ago
      > flatscreens and tiny cell phones That one surprised me (positively) when I noticed it. Particularly when I binge-watched it end-to-end and saw how the cellphones evolve across the show. > Basically anything involving real-world weapons or explosives You're telling me that P90 is not the weapon to save the galaxy?
      • wayoutthere 5y ago
        > You’re telling me that P90 is not the weapon to save the galaxy? Except for that season where the prop shop couldn’t find P90 ammo, so they switched to an AR pistol.
  • Rebelgecko 5y ago
    Like you I also recently restarted watching SG-1 for the first time since I was a kid. It holds up a lot better than I expected it to. There's the occasional eyerolling cliche (and Carter's dialog about internal vs external gonads is kinda ridiculous) but like you said the cliches are also lampshaded pretty often. I just watched an episode where the Stargate broke and there was an exchange that went something like this— General Hammond: How long will it take to fix the Stargate? Technician: It'll be about 24 hours sir Hammond: You have 12 hours Technician. Sir, that's not how this works... it'll take about 24 hours Hammond: Oh, okay then
    • figgis 5y ago
      Just finished rewatching sg1 as well and in a later episode Carter even makes fun of herself for the absurdity of that first episode gonads comment.
    • avaldes 5y ago
      SG1 was a gold mine of genre savvy moments >Carter: We just passed -40 degrees > >Jackson: Farenheit or Celsius? > >Mitchell: At that temperature they're the same
      • TeMPOraL 5y ago
        Indeed. SG-1 was my therapy during my worst years. I don't think I'd have gone through that period as well as I did, if it weren't for the mix of laughter and seriousness every episode of this show offered. And what I love about it, SG-1 pulls it off. It's a serious show that's also very genre-savvy and full of quality gags. I haven't seen any other media product, sci-fi or otherwise, that managed to get this mix of opposites to work. (It's all nicely balanced, except that one time in Season 7 where you thought you're watching a joke episode, until the sudden change of tone punches you in the head, and you're left emotionally spinning and wondering what the hell did just happen. The two-parter I'm referring to, "Heroes", is a masterpiece. This kind of thing works only once - and fortunately, the producers were smart enough to not try it again.)
• enragedcacti 5y ago
  If it makes you feel better the fourth book of The Expanse is the most boring in my opinion and the show stuck to the plot for the most part throughout. I still enjoyed both the book and the fourth season but the action and production really picks back up in the fifth season. EDIT: VAGUE REFERENCES TO SPOILERS BELOW
  • rapsey 5y ago
    The expanse has a lot of problems. Mainly the fact that the creators dislike "disaster porn". Thus making the show completely devoid of any emotional impact. Like the rocks falling was filmed in such a way as to be the least emotionally impactful to the viewer. I don't think they could have done anything more than they did to make it un-emotional. It is incredibly bizarre.
    • enragedcacti 5y ago
      I agree with that, I think the way the rocks were handled in the books was much more impactful. It all felt a bit analytical and detached in the show which I didn't like. It still had an emotional impact for me but that may be because I was relating it to how I felt while reading it.
  • ngngngng 5y ago
    I'm chugging through book 2 at the moment, I hate reading books right after I watched a show since I'm already aware of most of the events and the plot direction, but I want to see where the show diverged in the later seasons and of course get to the books after that.
  • colinplamondon 5y ago
    Seeing Laconia with serious CGI budget is going to be amazing.
    • edgyquant 5y ago
      The budget hasn’t changed, and it’s ending at book 6 we aren’t going to get to see Laconia in all its glory on screen.
• hrgiger 5y ago
  totally agree and I hope we can see en of this year https://www.gateworld.net/news/2021/05/amanda-tapping-has-been-approached-about-a-new-stargate-series/ https://www.gateworld.net/news/2021/05/amanda-tapping-has-be...
• loceng 5y ago
  I'm hoping they'd drop $1+ billion into making a SG game.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• throw0101a 5y ago
  > Season 4 (the one made by Amazon Prime Video) felt like it had a tenth of the budget compared to season 1 and 2. A completely different show that I found very boring and unwatchable. Season 4 follows book 4, whereas previous seasons split the books in a non-typical fashion: e.g., S02E05 ("Home") was the end of book 1. Book 4 is also part of the second kind-of-trilogy and so is a bit slower paced, because it set ups the next two books. This isn't really Amazon's fault: it's from the original content.
  • ascagnel_ 5y ago
    The show was weird from the start -- the first season was the first half of the first book, then they adapted the second half of the first book and the first half of the second book for season two (and likewise for S3 and books 2 & 3). Season 4 largely resolved that by wrapping up book 3 and adapting all of book 4 in one go, since book 4 is kinda slow on its own.
    • wayoutthere 5y ago
      The show is weird because the source material is kind of schlocky and the show improves it significantly. I think season 4 is so hard to watch because book 4 is a self-contained story so they couldn’t blend characters and scenarios like in the previous book. The book characters are all a little too one-dimensional and the show does an excellent job condensing them into well-rounded characters. I had to stop reading halfway through book 5 because I couldn’t take the heavy use of cliched language and tropes. The books are a great story at the macro level, but the writing is pretty terrible, especially as the series goes on.
      • extr 5y ago
        Jesus, if the show significantly improves on the books in that regard then I can't imagine what the books are like. I'm mid-way through S2 of the show right now. I like the realistic portrayal of what space travel/interplanetary colonies might look like. All the political stuff. But some of the dialogue and characterization is still embarrassingly cliched.
• mrfusion 5y ago
  Wow I thought it was just me who didn’t like season 4 of the expanse. At some point they made a turn to focusing on the flaws of all the main characters to an obnoxious degree.
• ACS_Solver 5y ago
  SG-1 is a great show. It holds up surprisingly well for its age. Strikes a great balance between serious and light-hearted, and the self-contained episodes often have interesting ethical or social issues. I'm also fond on how the early episodes emphasize that humans are new to interplanetary travel and are still figuring things out. There are several episodes where SG-1 travels to another planet and actually messes things up, making life worse for the natives. And the show did a great job with having things change in-universe. There are some cliches and flaws, of course. My least favorite part is probably how non-permanent deaths were, they really overdid the whole thing with characters dying and coming back to life, or being cloned. I'm surprised that Stargate has had some sort of franchise curse where other media never succeed. They had two more shows in the franchise (I'm in the minority that loved Universe, and I think Atlantis was for the most part bad), but never a movie aside from the one that started the franchise, never a game that succeeded (most attempts failed to even ship).
  • ctrlc-root 5y ago
    Well, I don't know about succeeded, but they did have two more movies that take place after SG1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929629/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929629/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942903/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942903/
    • bovermyer 5y ago
      Those movies just wrap up plot lines left over from the show. They're basically extended episodes.
  • bovermyer 5y ago
    I haven't finished Atlantis or Universe yet. They're on my to-watch list. As for franchising into other media... there's a brand new tabletop role-playing game that'll be launching later this year. I wonder how the Amazon deal will affect it.
    • bigwavedave 5y ago
      > I haven't finished Atlantis or Universe yet. They're on my to-watch list. Ooh, I _really_ enjoyed SGU. Granted, it was the kind of show that I had to try watching once, give up on, then rewatch years later during to really appreciate. It's fairly different from SG1 and SGA, but in my (humble) opinion, it's really good and I'm sad that it ended so quickly. It reminds me a bit of Lost In Space (the movie, not the relatively new tv series- I've only seen half the pilot so I can't make a comparison) but in the Stargate universe.
• texaswhizzle 5y ago
  Season 4 is bad because the book is bad. Unfortunately, the source material doesn’t get any better after this.
  • edgyquant 5y ago
    It does at book 8
    • texaswhizzle 5y ago
      Ah, interesting. I stopped after book 6. Can I jump straight to 8 or do I need to slog my way through 7?
      • edgyquant 5y ago
        You definitely need to read 7 as there’s a big change in that book that sets up 8. I will say that 7 is a lot better than 6 but, again, there’s very little proto-builder stuff. The whole series builds up to 8 in a slow drag (it sucks) but book 8 is pretty good as a high fantasy/sci-fi book. I really think these books should have just been a trilogy
• Mindwipe 5y ago
  > I watched the sci-fi show "The Expanse" on Amazon Prime Video. Season 4 (the one made by Amazon Prime Video) felt like it had a tenth of the budget compared to season 1 and 2. A completely different show that I found very boring and unwatchable. Ultimately that's one show though. Amazon have spent BIG on some of their series. The Grand Tour had an enormous, enormous budget compared to Top Gear. They are spending Game of Thrones money on Wheel of Time.
• forgingahead 5y ago
  SG1 is indeed an amazing series, the showrunners did a great job blending action, mythology, and light-hearted sci-fi into a very watchable show. I was less thrilled with Atlantis, and thought Universe was completely horrible. Let's not even acknowledge the existence of "Origins". I do hope Amazon will be good stewards of the franchise going forward. I don't want them to make new content only for it to be dark, gritty, drama-heavy, and politicised the way much of modern "entertainment" has become. Maybe we'll even get a few good Stargate video games out of this! So many lost opportunities on the gaming front - an MMO was in the works, but never got released.
• jccalhoun 5y ago
  Stargate revival is my main hope about all this. I don't know that they could do a continuation/sequel because the world of Stargate at this point is pretty complex and far from our universe. So they would probably do a reboot which is risky because the actors had such great chemistry together.