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Premature Rumors about Stargate Season 7? 231

Posted by CmdrTaco from the curse-the-internet dept.
An anonymous reader writes "While some were excited about the news of Stargate's renewal, others remained cautiously skeptical. Those is who did might be interested in reading this story posted on Zap2it." I for one hope the show keeps going. With the loss of Farscape, SG1 is possibly the best straight up sci-fi on TV- and the last show on the SciFi channel I watch.
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Premature Rumors about Stargate Season 7? More

Premature Rumors about Stargate Season 7?

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  • Stargate (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SargeZT ( 609463 ) <pshanahan@mn.rr.com> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:37PM (#4561142) Homepage
    Was an excellent series until Daniele Jackson died, then it just went downhill. I wouldn't be suprised it it was continued, because of the trend that SciFi seems to be taking. But, if they do continue it, I will continue to watch it. KREE!

    • Re:Stargate (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Goalie_Ca ( 584234 )
      I dissagree. I liked seeing Daniel Jackson go. I would like to see that prodigy air force university student, she's blonde i think, take his position. I think stargate is nearing its end. No good thing can last forever but there were too many weird changes in an attempt to keep things new and fresh. I liked things they way they were, minus Daniel Jackson :P. I like him better than Sam Carter though.

    • Daniele Jackson? (Score:4, Funny)

      by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @11:20PM (#4561668) Journal
      Was an excellent series until Daniele Jackson died, then it just went downhill. I wouldn't be suprised it it was continued, because of the trend that SciFi seems to be taking. But, if they do continue it, I will continue to watch it. KREE!

      Daniele Jackson? Have you been watching SG-1 in a parallel universe where all the cast members are of the opposite gender?
    • The actor that plays Daniel Jackson, I heard he wanted to leave the show to start his own career. As a result, the writers wrote him out (death but with the possiblty of coming back as a guest). Anyone else heard the same? Let me know.

  • Robots (Score:5, Funny)

    by Trusty Penfold ( 615679 ) <jon_edwards@spanners4us.com> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:38PM (#4561146) Journal

    Are there any robots in Stargate? SciFi is only good when there's robots.
    • Actually, one of the episodes this week deals with the SG1 team being transformed into robots. It'll play either tomorrow or Thursday at 1am [well, I guess that makes it Thursday or Friday morning].

      I shit you not.

    • Re:Robots (Score:5, Funny)

      by runlvl0 ( 198575 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:08PM (#4561296) Homepage Journal

      [Nerd alert]

      Episode 18, Season 1, Tin Man. [sg1archive.com]
      Original Air Date: February 13, 1998
      O'Neill and the SG-1 team arrive on P3X-989, only to be zapped by an electrical trap that renders them unconscious. When they awake, they find themselves in an underground lab with Harlan, a strange but apparently peaceful native of P3X-989 who claims to be 11,000 years old. Harlan, the planet's last survivor, who has lived for 11,000 years in a synthetic (that is, "robot") body, has also created robot duplicates of SG-1. Hilarity ensues.

      "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your colonel speaking. Welcome to P3X-niner-eight-niner where it's a balmy... room temperature." - Col. Jack O'Neill

      How embarrassing for me.
    • Spoiler. :)

      robots...

      There is a race of insect robots that where built as toys for a Special android chick. When the creators decided to turn her off, the little robots tried to protect her, killing the entire planet.

      And of course the little Grey dudes (Thor and company) are fighting the little robots that took over the entire galaxy.

      Nice subplot, why are there hardly any alien vistors? They are off fighting wars.
    • Does the tracked vehicle they send thru first count? There must be dozens of those guys abandoned near various gates...
  • The last show I watched regularly on the SciFi channel was Mystery Science Theater 3000, which I can never find on anymore. By the way, what happened to anime week during the summer? Or saturday morning anime? My SciFi channel viewing has gone down a lot over the past few years and no SG1 (which I only watch every now and then) would shoot it down to zero.
  • I feel that they should have honestly stopped after the making of the movie. Trying to milk the success of the movie with a sub-par space drama/action really hasn't been of too much artistic merit, in my opinion. The dialogue is weak and the plots are generically cheesy. I'm surprised it is still hanging on to this possible 7th season.

    Don't consider this a flame... I'm definitely open to suggestions as to why this show is worth the time to watch...
    • Funny how perception varies. I thought the movie had a hokey plot and poor dialog, and that the TV series excelled in both categories.

      Aside from purely subjective impressions, consider this... SG-1 consistently maintains full continuity with every previous episode, so that the entire series is, in a sense, one giant story. Although it's not as carefully pre-plotted as Babylon 5, that feature makes things a lot more interesting... it's much more difficult to recycle an old plot. On the other hand, that may render the show more difficult for a newcomer to understand (you could always buy the 1st and 2nd season DVDs...).

      The writers are also very, very good about keeping the science real and the technobabble to a minimum, while still keeping things entertaining. I've seen them carefully avoid just about every silly movie and TV cliche you can think of (OK, they still make things go whoosh in the vacuum of space... the only people who get that right are the guys who produce Firefly).

      • I thought the movie had a hokey plot and poor dialog, and that the TV series excelled in both categories.

        Excelled in hokey plot and poor dialog? :-)

  • How about a movie? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by phorm ( 591458 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:40PM (#4561159) Journal
    I'd very much like to see another Stargate movie. While the TV-series was cool, it didn't have quite the impact of the precluding movie. We've had enough same-ol-same-ol trek movies, perhaps Stargate could throw a new spin into things (hopefully without making it just a long episode).

  • Mr Anderson (Score:5, Informative)

    by T-Kir ( 597145 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:46PM (#4561192) Homepage

    Apparently, it is in part due to Richard Dean Anderson... he is relocating to LA to be back with his family (a bit like Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy) returning to England for over a year. But he might rough it and do a hotel stint for the 7th season (if it does go ahead).

    A great Stargate site to go to is Gateworld [gateworld.net], not only for nes and tidbits, but is great for episode info... etc.

    I sincerely hope that Stargate does get renewed for a seventh season, and that the possible post series feature film (that might deal with finishing off the Goa'uld) as well as Stargate: Atlantis, we are certainly getting a great amount of Science Fiction viewing.

    The Enterprise production team seriously ought to look at Farscape and SG1, because they are way superior to what recycled crap they are coming out with... the only good new thing going for Trek is the soon to be released Nemesis.

    • There are two general streams of SF, both in media and in the printed word:

      The Perfect World: Every ethical issue is black or white; every setting is pristine or at least clearly defined; every plotline ties up all its loose ends (or at least tries to); endings are typically "happy" (or at least positive); storylines are typically event-driven (that is, plot dictates how the characters behave). Star Trek is a prime example of this type.

      The Imperfect World: ethics come in shades of grey, orange, green, paisley, striped, and plaid; the setting is to various degrees lived-in or even downright worn; plotlines frequently leave loose ends wherever they may lie, to be picked up again whenever they happen to trip someone; endings can be ugly or frustrating for all involved; storylines are typically character-driven (that is, events derive from how people behave, not the reverse). Stargate is a prime example of this type.

      Personally, I've reached the point where I find the Perfect World type of SF all but unwatchable and unreadable. And Stargate is presently the only show I set time aside to watch.

  • I hope it goes off the air (Score:4, Interesting)

    by nukem1999 ( 142700 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:46PM (#4561193)
    Not for the show's content itself, but so SciFi will lose such a large portion of their viewer base that they will realize (shortly before going under, should all go well) that canning good shows is not a good idea.
  • Without any new farscape episodes after the wrap up of this season, and if there were no more episodes of stargate sg1 after this series, would there really be anything worth watching anymore on scifi? (besides of course the good episodes of both when they are in reruns, but even that gets boring after repeated viewing)

    • Crossing Over? (Score:5, Funny)

      by victim ( 30647 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:01PM (#4561258)
      I just checked their web site. Looks like their only original series left will be Crossing Over. Sort of a misplaced show. High marks for fiction but no a zero for science.

      They should change their name to the fi channel

    • Without any new farscape episodes after the wrap up of this season, and if there were no more episodes of stargate sg1 after this series, would there really be anything worth watching anymore on scifi? (besides of course the good episodes of both when they are in reruns, but even that gets boring after repeated viewing)

      No. In fact, I wouldn't include SG-1 in that list, which is at best a guilty pleasure. I'm just going to buy the Farscape DVDs and stop watching SciFi altogether.

  • Stargate SG-1 has been good, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by anzha ( 138288 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @09:57PM (#4561238) Homepage Journal

    They have had a few stories this season that have been a bit more fast and loose than the equivalents were on Showtime. Admittedly, the USAF has been working on alien tech for a while now, and they have been very good about making it obvious that while we can replicate and understand how to make some of the technology, once they moved over to the Scifi channel, tech starts popping out all the place. The fighter with the hyper drive, the warship (which cost a bit too little for it being made of such rare materials under such secrecy and with such one-off parts...and in a ridiculous shape for the task at hand too...sheesh), and so on.

    Well, a good way of putting it is that there has been a lot of ideas thrown around without thought of what the consequences might be unlike before.

    Don't get me wrong, it's still orders of magnitude better than Trek, but...the flavour change isn't quite as tasty as before. Think New Coke.

    • IIRC, the fighters were built from recovered death glider parts (the first one almost exclusively, the second with much more Tor'ii parts), and the cruiser was mostly built from the baby Go'ulds in Oregon. Or wherever "Nightwalkers" was set.

      As for the "rare mineral," haven't you noticed that about every third episode involved trade negotiations, especially for Naquadaa? Some of these planets may have been "mined out" for the amounts required by the Go'uld, yet still worth operating for the quantity earth needs at this time.
    • That ship was so ugly I'll be surprised if Thor let's them park it anywhere around the Asgard home planet. There goes the property value.

      It would be like parking an old trashed Corvair in a Ferrari neighborhood. Did you see the shot with Thor's ship and that thing together? Ugh!
  • It had a good run and was at least given a chance... more than one promising sci-fi series have been cancelled prematurely IMHO. "Earth 2" and "Nowhere Man" come to mind.

    In the case of Earth 2, they just pre-empted too many shows due to football on Sunday nights and kept moving around the timeslot. I was an avid viewer and couldn't find the show half the time. No wonder the ratings weren't what they wanted. As far as SG-1 goes, I kept Showtime for two years just for that show... and dropped it as soon as it moved over to sci-fi.

    • Earth 2 was amazing, Sci-Fi also showed it sindicated. VR5 also wasn't bad, I would have liked to see where it was going. But it started on USA (Sci-Fi's mother station), so it stood no chance. Oh, The Burning Zone was great too, not sure where it started life, but sindicated on Sci-Fi.

      But it seems that Sci-Fi picks up shows just to kill them. Sliders and MST3K come to mind.
    • In the case of Earth 2, they just pre-empted too many shows due to football on Sunday nights and kept moving around the timeslot. I was an avid viewer and couldn't find the show half the time. No wonder the ratings weren't what they wanted. As far as SG-1 goes, I kept Showtime for two years just for that show... and dropped it as soon as it moved over to sci-fi.

      Kindof like what Fox did to Dark Angel. Also I only subscribed to Showtime for Stargate...I mean, I *tried* to find other stuff on Showtime worth watching...but there wasn't any

    • You thought "Earth 2" was promising? That was one of the worst tv sci-fi efforts _ever_. Yikes. Scary-bad.
    • As far as SG-1 goes, I kept Showtime for two years just for that show... and dropped it as soon as it moved over to sci-fi.

      That's too bad, because you've missed out on what is looking to be the best new sci-fi show of the year; Jeremiah.

      Some of the episodes have been fairly cheezy, but the "plot" episodes have been excellent. It is reminding me alot of Bablyon 5 - slow beginning with some weak episodes. In fact, Straczynski (of Bab5) is doing this series, too, and I think it's going to turn out to be one heck of a show.

      --The Rizz

      "Comedians and politicians each tell the audience what it wants to hear. The difference is that the audience laughs at the comedian and the politician laughs at the audience." --Alexis A. Gilliland

    • American Gothic - rocked
      Brimstone - rocked
      Dark Skies - eh, it was watchable

  • I have problems watching SG1 (Score:5, Funny)

    by pixel_bc ( 265009 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:00PM (#4561252)
    I'm a Vancouver person -- I find it odd that every single planet they visit happens to look just like Squamish, BC. :)
    • Yes, I imagine being so close to where it's shot would ruin the illusion quite a bit! ...well, I guess you'll just have to figure out how to enjoy watching it from the viewpoint of it being a show about a secret team exploring the outer reaches of Canada...it's almost just as alien, you know!
    • Count your blessings. To us SoCal residents, everything else on TV looks just like Los Angeles! :)

  • Lexx had it all. What more could a sci-fi nut want? Great tits, erotic undertones, a dead assasin and a live ship. Only thing it was missing was full frontal nudity.
    Oh God, I hope I didn't miss the full frontal nudity.
    Anyone know which episode it was in if I did miss it?
    • as much as i liked lexx, i realized that is was just MTVs Undressed in space
    • Only thing it was missing was full frontal nudity.

      I don't know about that. I've got the upcut episodes on DVD and I've certainly seen something Zev's mother wouldn't like me looking at.

    • Actually seeing nudity would have spoiled the fun :-)

      I liked lexx series 1+2 (some of series 2 was seriously strange!). Series 3 was in danger of becoming what it was trying to parody - staying on the same planet was a mistake IMHO. Haven't seen series 4 yet.

      The biggest problem with Lexx over here is they show it at 4am or something so it gets almost no viewers. Tivos aren't that common (actually, most people don't even know what they are, since you can't actually buy them in shops any more).

      It's also a very individual taste... the humour is unique, being originally german. It's not surprising US types don't always get it (don't worry, most of us europeans don't get your style of humour either - is frazier actually supposed to be funny?).

      OTOH I've never been able to sit through an episode of Farscape without switching off in boredom (Tried series 1 - muppet show.. Tried a later one (series 3?) - still muppet show. In fact my wife started singing the muppets theme tune about halfway through...)

  • Check out Starhunter (Score:5, Informative)

    by benh57 ( 525452 ) <bhines@NOSpAm.alumni.ucsd.edu> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @10:11PM (#4561318) Homepage
    I don't think many US folks have heard of this one yet since its on so late. (sunday 11:30 PM UPN here..) Currently in US syndication is this british show starhunter. [starhuntertv.com]

    One of the cool things i noticed in the last ep is that they take relativity into account - the bounty hunter captain talking to his supplier mentioned that what was 3 weeks to them on the ship was 4 years to the folks back home.

  • ...I'm, I'm sorry, really this has never happened to me before...


    Aw, sorry, I just couldn't resist it. Personally, I've not really watched it much recently (on plain UK tv that is), but I did like it (and the film of course) when I watched it in the past. Wonder which series it is they're showing over here, I expect we should get a fair few more before the end.

  • They have jumped the shark, but... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @11:13PM (#4561626) Homepage
    i think sci fi could redeem istelf from its lack of orginal programming by maybe showing reruns of good sci fi shows that got canned, i'm thinking earth 2, space above and beyond, sliders, hell, even seaquest(please reply with other good suggestion). they could show like 2 episodes of a series at 7, an episode of their defunct original programming at 9, farscape, sg-1, lexx, MST3K, then maybe give john a spot after prime time. theres so much more they could show besides crossing over and horror movies, which IMO are not SCI-fi at all, they could show old eps of unsolved mysteries and stuff like that, any other ideas about what they could do for non original programming thats good and actually is sci-fi?

  • Current Information about Farscape (Score:5, Informative)

    by antis0c ( 133550 ) on Tuesday October 29, 2002 @11:31PM (#4561721)
    Currently, there is a massive online campaign going on to save Farscape. You can view it here at Save Farscape [savefarscape.com] and sometimes here due to DNS problems, Save Farscape [watchfarscape.com].

    Essentially the current working theory on why Farscape was canceled boils down to this. In Part, Michael Jackson (not the singer obviously) and the head of USA Networks don't like Space shows. The other part, Stargate SG1 only costs around $500,000 per episode to make, where-as Farscape costs around $1,200,000 to make (yes, 1.2 million) per episode. This is why they moved Farscape to 10pm on Friday nights from their original 9pm slot, and put Farscape into the 9pm slot. They ended up losing a good part of their younger audience due to bedtimes. Why? They wanted to get the Farscape fanbase interested in Stargate while intentionally dropping ratings for Farscape. This way they could issue a statement that they are cancelling Farscape due to a slip in ratings, and actually keep the overall ratings with Stargate, all while saving $700,000.

    From a business standpoint sure it looks good. But people watch the network, not robots. They get upset and angry when favorite shows of theirs are canceled, especially when there was an announcement they were picking up season 5 and it was in a contract, little be knowns to the public there was a huge out loophole in the contract. So anyhow, if you are a fan of Farscape, head over to those links and see what you can do.
    • There's one thing about the cost of making Farscape that you forgot. It may cost $1.5 million per episode, but Sci-Fi only pays half of that. The downside for Sci-Fi is that they're only licensing Farscape for a limited time and number of airings and can't make money on DVDs, videos, toys, etc.

      Sci-Fi owns SG1 and can offset the show's cost with merchandising and endless reruns, plus they already have the audience SG1 established on Showtime and in syndication.

      I do agree that SciFi engineered the circumstances needed to cancel Farscape. The 10 PM timeslot, delaying season 3's final four until April, and underpromoting the show in general gave Sci-Fi the perfect excuse to cancel the show; though, they hadn't planned on people finding out while there was still a chance to save it (a press release from the previous week even mentioned Farsape as a contributing factor to the network's ratings increase). Sci-Fi's assumption that science fiction fans are undiscriminating idiots who will watch whatever gets thrown at them didn't help matters either.

      The network execs don't understand their audience or the genre.

  • What? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by xagon7 ( 530399 )
    "With the loss of Farscape, SG1 is possibly the best straight up sci-fi on TV- and the last show on the SciFi channel I watch. "

    What the frell are you smoking?
  • OK, so Farscape is great, and I deeply mourn its passing. However, Stargate is far from the only other straight-up sf show out there. My current favorite is a series, now filming its third season (and whose first season is being shown in the USA now, tho at horrible times) called "Starhunter"


    The setting is not too distant. Mankind has moved from just the Earth, colonizing asteroids, moons and other planets in the system. Along with this spread, mankind is discovering that there are a few genes on the human genome that are of, well, alien origin.


    Things get interesting. The ship's captain, Dante Montana, is searching for his child, abducted years ago by raiders. His neice, Percy, is the engineer, such as it is, on the ship. Luc is the other human crew member, and the computer rounds off the complement.


    I've seen three and a half episodes thus far, and it looks rather good. Check them out [starhuntertv.com], but beware, the listed "start time" is usually wrong (here in Seattle, it starts at 11:05 Saturday night).

  • Look, I'm sad about Farscape and SG, but there is one huge consolation in all of this: FOX's show Firefly. I must say that the worst Firefly episode so far has been better than the best episode in any other SciFi show ever. And I'm including Dr Who, all the Star Treks, B5 ...

    I know this reads like a troll, and I'm shocked I feel this way, because I really loved so many Sci-Fi shows in my life. Still, I think Firefly just has the best writers, hands down. I guess it's not the show for people who like plots about time travel, holograms and other mishandled philosophical issues. Firefly is more like the chronicles of a D&D adventure group. Whatever. It really kicks ass. ... Well, that's enough of my gushing; I'm glad I got that off my chest.

  • Stargate is a syndicated piece of crap on par with Andromeda/Relic Hunter/Tracker with $50 (Canadian) production budgets.

    Sure you might watch it once in a while but you would never admit it. What's wrong with you guys?

    b.

  • "With the loss of Farscape, SG1 is possibly the best straight up sci-fi on TV"

    Ahh!

    Ah ha ha ha!

    Oh....

    Mercy!

  • Wait a minute, it's called... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by praedor ( 218403 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2002 @06:14AM (#4563075) Homepage

    the SciFi Channel? I thought it was the Stargate Channel as that is the only show on that channel. Open up the TV guide and all I see is SG-1, SG-1, SG-1, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Kinda like the misnamed History Channel. It is actually the WWII Channel as that is the only stuff they show.


    I have been steadily widdling down the number of channels I actually watch since getting my satellite dish. Hundreds of channels but nothing of note to watch. I USED to watch the SG-1 Channel when it had B5 and Farscape running. Now, it's just crap (X-Files reruns don't cut it...I've seen 'em all already several times over).


    It is almost to the point that it makes just as much sense to ditch the satellite and go back to my aerial with its 3 or 4 available channels. It has about as much variety as the Satellite at no cost. SciFi Channel indeed! My @ss!

  • Odyssey 5 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by samdu ( 114873 )
    The best SF on TV right now is over on Showtime. It's called Odyssey 5 and stars Peter Weller [imdb.com]. It's about a Shuttle crew that is in orbit when the Earth is destroyed. They encounter a strange alien, who's homeworld was also destroyed in the same manner, that sends them back in time five years to attempt to discover what happened and prevent it. It is very reminiscent of Babylon 5 in tone and the overriding arc. Great writing and really interesting characters.

  • I wonder why this crops up again and again. Brad Wright has previously said that he quite expected season 6 to be the last season, it was building towards something which would be continued in a SG1 movie. Then if there was interest he has an idea for a spin of series, based on a seed he claims to have planted back in season 1.
  • .
    .
    Amanda Tapping, do you have any sisters?

    .

    .

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