Stargate support
26d 10h ago by quokk.au/u/SatyrSack in chevron7 from quokk.au
Syfy cancelled Stargate SG-1 because the network was pivoting to putting more effort into their other shows like Eureka which had a more general appeal. The writers snuck this cryptically meta exchange into S10E18 "Family Ties" poking at the network for how they felt the series was being mistreated.
In my opinion, it was a mistake to make seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate SG-1 instead of their original plan of making it a spinoff called Stargate Command. If they would have started fresh as (technically) a new series, I think it would have been overall better for the long term health of the franchise.
Hard disagree on the quality, I loved it even if the first episode of s9 had me a little upset at, first. Much like Mitchell was.
The show 100% improved in their last two seasons, and nobody can convince me otherwise. It was great when it aired, it's held up well since then.
They had been operating for many years under the "gotta make a cliffhanger that can pivot to a movie in case we get canceled" and then a surprise pickup for another season, when they finally thought they were getting another season the network just decided "nah we want new flashy tech heavy shows more in the next 5 minutes" and they got the surprise too late in the season to flesh out an ending without movies.
While I did enjoy the movies, I feel like they would have worked better as 3-4 episodes each in their own season.
Hell, half a normal season would have probably cost less and did more for the story.
I always loved the minor shade the writers tossed around, and the jokes about various governments always made me chuckle.
Honestly the one bit in the clipisode where they inform other governments of the program where the Chinese ambassador says "the government of China doesn't hide thing from it people" was hilarious then and it's double hilarious now, just for different reasons. I'd love to know how writers of the show might have dealt with the last few year. Some may have refused to write for a show glamorizing the US military anymore. I know I would have by now. Or put in so many negative things the producers would fire me.
But yeah, I love all 10 seasons, and if every copy in the world were destroyed, I have 5 different backups of the Blu ray and DVD sets. In fairness those backups also contain the rest of my movies and shows, it's not just contained to sg1...
Hard disagree on the quality
I didn't say anything about quality. I just mentioned that they made a mistake in considering those seasons part of Stargate SG-1 instead of calling them a new show called Stargate Command. They wanted to keep capitalizing on the existing title that had become a household name. But that ended up being a poor decision that did not work their way in the long run. Stargate SG-1 was still prematurely canceled, whereas if it were called Stargate Command, it would have likely continued on for several more seasons.
I don't think it would have. It's not like they suddenly switched focus to the planetside operations instead of the teams, or brought an entirely new cast in to be the focus (like with Scrubs). They basically switched two actors out, but otherwise the show was roughly the same as it always was. Airing it under a different name would have hurt more than helped, as it would drive away die hard fans of the show and wouldn't really bring in new ones as it still heavily relied on previous knowledge of the series.
10 seasons is enough.
I like when a show has the grace to end when it's still good. Too many (mainly US) shows just keep going and going until no-one cares when they are cancelled.
I think 11 or 12 would have been perfect to wrap up all the story bits. I loved every bit of the show.
The problem was the network dropped them the ONE FUCKING TIME they thought they were getting another season, so they assumed they had more time to flesh out the end.
My dad and I were balling on that final episode of Eureka.
I remember reading somewhere that the only reason big T went to the woman's show was that no one said no when it was proposed.
I find it really hard to care a lot about season 9 and 10. I much rather had seen a good and round ending after maybe even season 7 and a spinoff with a new team.
I don't mind the quality neccessarily, there are some very good bits everywhere, it just doesn't feel quite well connected IMHO. I love Vala as a character for example, but I found it quite hamfisted for Mitchel to basically replace O'Neill and "getting the gang back together". Carter had seniority and should have gotten her commando before she served under someone else again. Teal'c should have become a recurring character as an allied leader of the Free Jaffa. Daniel staying was fine though and I love his chemistry with Vala.
Also, while the Ori are an interesting antagonist faction, their introduction felt a bit like a rehash of what has already been done. The Goa'uld became the antagonists, because the Tauri blindly stumbled into them, inexperienced as they were, and made the Goa'uld aware of their existence, and then the Ori became aware of the Milky Way because Vala and Daniel blindly stumbled into them.
The Lucian Alliance would have been an interesting player, because their rise was a direct consequence of SGC's actions eliminating the Goa'uld and leaving a power vacuum. And there could have been more at play with politics, loyalties, grey areas etc. It's a shame the Alliance was explored only so little.
Last but not least, I find Mitchell just boring. A blander rerun of O'Neill for the most part.
Well put, no notes.
Hard disagree on season 9 & 10. SG1 got better season after season for me and I loved the evolution of the tech and enemies. The Ori were so dope.
Sure, but imagine if we got basically those exact same seasons, just instead of being called "Stargate SG-1 seasons 9/10", they were called "Stargate Command seasons 1/2". In that situation, Stargate Command may have continued on for additional seasons. And if that happened, maybe that success would have encouraged the network not to prematurely cancel Stargate Atlantis. Imagine if we got:
- 8 seasons of Stargate SG-1 (1997-2005) instead of 10
- 7 seasons of Stargate Atlantis (2004-2011) instead of 5
- 7 seasons of Stargate Command (2005-2012) instead of 0
- 5 seasons of Stargate Universe (2012-2017) instead of 2
I mean, depends on the format of Command. I liked the format of SG-1. And Atlantis. Universe doesn't exist to me lol.
I watched Stargate Universe again recently, and it did not get any better. That show did try some neat things and had some good things going for it, but at the end if the day, the main focus of basically every episode was interpersonal conflict drama, and that just does not interest me.
The writers were on point with the meta references when they wanted to.
The 200th episode special was hilarious.