Stargate Atlantis Tomorrow 422
BadDream writes "I read an old slashdot article about Stargate Atlantis comming this summer. Well its summer, and guess what starts this friday." You can also enter to win a walk-on role on SG1, but I call first dibs, no cuts.
SG-1 Continuity? (Score:3, Interesting)
This looks like a great place to pick up the series, but i have to ask all you SG-1 fans... how friendly do you think Atlantis will be towards new viewers?
First post?
Re:Win a chance to be on an episode (Score:4, Interesting)
It had me thinking of an Ask Slashdot question: what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part, but is there something you could do to make the director's job easier? Keep your mouth shut, or be knowledgable about the show and its premise? Walk on, walk off, say goodbye... or be noticable in the scene? What could a fan of the show, given the opportunity to be ON the show, do to make the show better?
Re:SG-1 Continuity? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think that's right. I've seen previews where Doctor Weir is telling the troops that they're not sure if they can get back, but they're going to find new technologies to defend Earth. I think the idea is that SGC will occasionally open a wormhole and they'll exchange data via radio.
Re:SG-1 Continuity? (Score:3, Interesting)
I must say that I MUCH prefer this method of watching/paying for TV. Screw commercials and schedules-- I want everything on my own terms, in high quality, from now on. Now if only they'd start doing releases on the same day as the show first runs or the movie opens, I'd be very happy.
But I digress. Netflix, for $20/month, will get you through the first six seasons (they don't have the seventh yet, but i assume they will) pretty quick.
Re:Stargate rules (Score:5, Interesting)
Do not hit golf balls through the Stargate.
Ah, one of my favorite episodes ever. I'm a little disappointed that they never used Jack O'Neill's and Teal'c knowledge of the ancient language again. They reached the point that they knew it better than Danny boy, after all, since they were effectively the ones who translated the inscriptions.
I've been patiently waiting for Mr. Jackson to start struggling with a translation and Jack walk up and say "No, that's 'keep your arms and legs inside the tram car while gating'" then look over to Teal'c for his confirmation, where he'd get the little head nod and "indeed."
But thats just me :^D
Re:SG-1 Continuity? (Score:2, Interesting)
Someone else made the comment that you can figure out 90% of what's going on just by watching one show. I disagree. I got into SG-1 in about the 4th season, and if I didn't know someone who had been watching it all along, it would have taken me significantly more time to get up to speed. That's another thing that I find compelling about the show - there *is* a lot of 'backstory' that drives each episode. They are all part of a much larger story arc. Think Bablyon 5.
Unless I got it mixed up, I think they may have goofed already: Why is Dr Weir involved with the Atlantis program when she said in this season's 1st episode of SG-1 that she was going to be an ambassador of sorts among all the nations that now know about the Stargate and the various aliens?
Other than that, I'm really looking forward to this new show. Hopefully, double the workload for this group of writers/producers/etc. won't result in half the quality that has been present in SG-1 so far.
Re:SG-1 Continuity? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm worried that I'm not going to like Atlantis, though. One of the things I liked about SG-1 was the characters seemed much more "real." Take a look at the Atlantis cast and they all look like Hollywood pretty boys (and girls). On SG-1, well, there's Richard Dean Anderson, who looks pretty much like a normal guy. His character jokes around too much for a Colonel in the Air Force (B. General, now, actually). Before they made him start working out and cut his hair, Michael Shanks did look like a befuddled scientist. Amanda Tapping is cute, but not exactly a starlet. Chris Judge looks big and mean, and has a misshapen head (Don't tell him I said that!). The dude who plays General Hammond is probably one of the best charicatures of career military on TV.
Now flash foward to Atlantis. The leader is a slender civilian woman with high cheekbones. The military commander has spiked hair, and looks like he's just about old enough to have finished basic. Then there's the Atlantean chick who looks like a bit character from Xena: Warrior Princess. It just seems fake... It reminds of one of the best episodes of SG-1, in which Jack (Anderson's character) served "undercover" as a technical adviser on a TV show that seemed too similar to the real Stargate project so he could find out what was going on. They called the fake show "Wormhole Xtreme!" and it was loaded with bad acting, casting, cheap sets, and cliches. I'm afraid Atlantis is going to be the real Wormhole Xtreme!
Re:Love the commercials (Score:3, Interesting)
I also liked the people who do the flips across the stage and carter and teal'c flip the pads over to show 10's.
On a side note, did anybody else notice that in the "pumper" for "New Order" they stated that "Finally the replicators will be destroyed". Needless to say, not only did the replicators get away, but it looks as though they've become even more distructive since it looks as though they've become self aware. However, one thing that I've really liked is that SG-1 never fully puts a plot string to rest so they've got enough material for easily 10 spin offs.
Re:SG-1 Continuity? (Score:4, Interesting)
--To me, what makes SG1 work:
Richard Anderson (O'Neill)
Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter)
(To a lesser extent)
The hot doctor - Teryl Rothery (Doc Frasier is now dead, unforch)
Teal'c
Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks)
General Hammond (Don S. Davis)
--Without *any* of the "original crew" (Hey, how about bringing Kurt Russell or French Stewart into Atlantis?) signing on, it's a 50/50 chance the show will struggle. IIRC, they had to bring Michael Dorn (Worf) onto DS9 before the ratings started to climb back up.
Re:SG-1 Continuity? (Score:2, Interesting)
IIRC, they had to bring Michael Dorn (Worf) onto DS9 before the ratings started to climb back up.
Nope: the authors of DS9 had to write the whole super-plot of the Dominion Wars, to which Worf was a nice (and logical) addendum, before the ratings started to climb back up.
You might go as far as saying that they had to actually write good stories, in order to get good ratings, but that would be hardly a news (even though having good stories does not mean having the show renewd for another year - see Futurama and Firefly).
Re:Stargate rules (Score:3, Interesting)
SG-1 does a pretty good job of this overall. It's not perfect (most recent pet peeve: A planet rich in neutronium... yeah, sure!), but only a masochist still expects perfection from a TV series. It does as well as or better than can be expected.
Evidence: I frequently disagree with people's nitpicks, even the "scientific" ones. The Stargate writers actually know more science (even the real stuff!) than many of their fans! This is in stark contrast to Star Trek, the Golden Standard of Shittiness, which actually and literally destroys and inhibits scientific understanding. (If you think Star Trek is at all realistic, you don't know anything about science.)
Quick question.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Was anybody else bothered by the fact that Dr. Elizabeth Weir was played at the end of the 7th season by a different actress? All the character development was done by Jessica Steen, who did a bang up job with a hard role to play, so much so that a lot of us were really looking forward to seeing her in SG:A. Now they bring in a replacement, Torri Higginson, who looks and acts nothing like Jessica Steen. I don't know the reasons behind it, but they should have cast somebody in the first place they were happy with and wanted the role. Having the actress swap created major cognitive dissonance for me watching the 8th season opener - from a purely aesthetic perspective, I could barely stand to watch Higginson, she didn't play the same character at all that Steen played.
Anyway, I don't mean to sound like a fanboy bitch, I'm not a nutcase zealot about this stuff. I just think this issue was not handled well by the show producers. Maybe I am noticing it in particular because they usually handle these kinds of things so well on SG1 that it's one of the few sci-fi shows that I find easy to achieve suspension of disbelief with. Please, SG1 production team, don't do this to us again. I just hope going into SG:A that Higginson does a better job developing this character, or I don't know how I'll be able to watch the show.
As it is, I'm desperately afraid that Teal'c with a fuzzy head and O'Neill in charge of SGC is going to fundamentally change the 8th season for the worse. Come on guys, remember what happened when you tried to kill off Michael Shanks? Did anybody like that season?
Alright, now I've gotten this off my chest. I hope Season 8 is as good as SG1 has generally been and I hope that SG:A doesn't sully the name with a crappy spinoff.
Re:Quick question.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Basically, language is always a problem in science fiction - no way to totally eliminate it, and I think they've dealt reasonably well with it in SG-1. Of course, it's not realistic that the many humans taken from Earth several thousand years ago would speak English - they'd speak something derived from whatever the source language of the human stock they came from. Many of the other alien races are much more advanced anyway, and presumably either learn our language easily (like the Gou'ould) or use their own translation devices.
But then, if they dealt with this issue realistically, the whole show would be about learning the aliens' languages before interacting with them. Shows like Star Trek dealt with this explicitly by having "universal translator" devices. *shrug*, it's hard to tell a good story in one hour episodes involving space/planetary exploration without giving this issue short shrift.
Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)
Jesus would be an interesting character to do. Look at the old testament, lots to pick from there... fall from Paradise (forbidden knowledge about the Gau'ould), destroying whole cities (Sodoma and Gomorra), tower of Babel (slaves uniting and revolting?). Sounds like the work of a Gau'ould to me. From afar, he played with them like toys. Oh and don't forget the chosen people with Abraham. Particular breed of human hosts?
Then something big happened. Make up a good story. Senile like Lord Hu, had a "religious experience", touched by the Ancients, take your pick. Or better yet, Jesus is the human host after the parasite died. He still commands the Gau'ould devices to perform "miracles", but is the good guy. He regrets all that has been done in the past, and tries to take on all human sin as absolution.
Of course, you're about to screw up the whole trinity thing (with the Holy Ghost being some Gau'ould magic), rewrite the Bible since Creation, claim that neither "God" nor Jesus is of the divine, that Christianity is worshipping an evil alien and a plain human and that the Jews are equally wrong too. Oh, and the muslims will be pissed already, since they claim to decend from Abraham too. Any more we could piss off?
[Keeping asbestous suit on]
Re:I'm bummed dudes (Score:2, Interesting)
While your wife is in labour, go to amazon and order "Immaculate Deception", read it while she is recovering from her cesarean (up to 40% rate in some hospitals) and wonder why you ever went to the hospital in the first place.
That book changed my whole outlook on pregnancy and birth in America, and opened my eyes to just how backwards this country is in that respect.
Sorry to sound preachy.. my wife has had all 3 of our children at home with a midwife and I just cannot see any other way to do it.
Re:I feel your pain (Score:3, Interesting)
Hehe. Okay, you got me. I can't help but reply to this. I've been an avid science fiction reader for over 15 years. In my opinion, Firefly is easily the best science fiction that's ever been on tv, and it rivals anything that's ever been in cinema.
The "western in space" thing is an unfortunate quote from Joss Whedon, the creator, that people like you have been taking him to task for ever since. Here's the thing: every science fiction show you can name is a western in space. The difference is, Firefly was more honest about it. They all have gunslinging, kidnapping, gang leaders, etc. Joss was smart enough to realize that and built a really original show.
In terms of SF literature, there's not a whole lot I would call original in the show. In terms of tv SF, it breaks all kinds of new ground, for example in its depiction of the space scenes. There's no sound in space, objects have inertia. The science is nearly perfect, every time, and Joss doesn't assume you're dumb and need to have everything spelled out for you..
For instance (SPOILER), the captain defeats a certain villian by standing on the hull of his ship and pushing him off course, so the villian can't spacewalk to his ship. No guns, no knife battle. And the great thing is, Joss didn't feel the need to explain the physics of the thing to us like we were idiots. He just assumes that we're smart.
If you are an SF fan (especially SF lit), forget about the "western in space" canard, and watch it for yourself. There are only about 13 episodes, it won't kill you. You might just find that it's the show you've been looking for all these years.