Say farewell to SGU.

IMNSHO, mid-season breaks hurt even established shows for the same reason. Especially with cliffhanger endings. They set up this big "ooh, must watch the next episode" mentality. However, that only really works short term. That sort of interest fades in a couple weeks and is completely gone after a multi-month break unless you're just some ravenous fanboy.


Agreed.

You forgot the big one. "Rocks fall, everyone dies." Or the Quantum Leap equivalent.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

You forgot another one. They all wake up on Earth and find out it was all a dream they shared while testing cryogenic sleep chambers that the SGC reverse engineered for deep space exploration.

Well I already established my "un-fan" status with this franchise, but when has that ever stopped me from having an opinion on something? It's notable you mentioned Star Trek in relation to these shows, because I actually use that franchise to classify the Stargate shows. To me:

• SG:SG-1 was Stargate's ST-TNG. It followed the "source" movie and became fairly popular in its own right.
• SG:Atlantis was Stargate's ST-DS9. A new crew based on an "alien station" in a weird new part of space.
• And apparently SG:U was Stargate's ST-Enterprise. Had a few fans but was probably doomed from the beginning.

At least that's how I see it. Like you I was always surprised they managed to get one TV series out of Stargate much less several. I consider the franchise very lucky overall regardless of SG:U's downfall.

Except SGU actually had a consistent continuity with itself and other shows of the franchise, didn't recycle plots from its older siblings, knows when to play up the suspense, and actually had consistent characterization. None of that can be said about the trainwreck that was Enterprise.

But SG:U and ST:E do seem to be similar from the point of view that they were both the relatively short-lived and inglorious ends of their respective TV franchises. I'm sure you could find people who thought BOTH shows should have had more episodes. Likewise I'm sure you can find people who thought BOTH shows were horrible and doomed from day one. Or anything in-between...

I don't really care about their relative qualities and I'm not really trying to directly compare them against each other. I'm just pointing out a similarity based on the facts of the way both franchises basically "sputtered out" ratings-wise, not on any of the vague nerdrage involved.

Well for what's it worth there are lots of shows that "never get a chance" because the network involved seems to try to kill it before it even gets going. SG:U was certainly not the only victim of that.

I kind of wish everyone used DVRs to watch TV. We've had a TiVo for years and we never worry about schedule changes or split seasons on any shows we watch. Maybe they'll eventually base ratings systems on what people have set up for their season passes as opposed to who actually watches what at what time of the week. *shrugs*

SG: Atlantis - First episode - We're stranded in another galaxy and if we stay in the city we are all going to die because the power is failing.

SGU - First episode - We're stranded on a ship in another part of the universe and if we stay we are all going to die from lack of air.

SGU - Second episode - Still dying from lack of air.

SGU - Third Episode - Still dying from lack of air.

SGU - Fourth episode - Fixed the air but now we're gonna die because we're out of power and crashing into a star.

SGU - Fifth episode - Still dying when we crash into a star.

SGU - Sixth episode - We missed the star and now we are going to die of thirst.

SGU - Seventh Episode - We almost all died again when the SGC tried a half baked idea that almost blew up the ship.

SGU - Eighth episode - EVERYONE DIES!!! There is much rejoicing until the viewers realize it's one of those hated and reviled "time paradox" episodes that never really happens because they figure out how to prevent everyone from dying.

SGU - Tenth episode - Someone is wrongfully accused of MURDER. Yeah like that never happened in SG1 or Atlantis.

SGU - Eleventh Episode - Hostile aliens kidnap a crewman. Yeah that never happened in SG1 or Atlantis.

SGU - Twelfth episode - Mutiny! Yeah that never happened in SG1 or Atlantis.



Yeah as everyone can plainly see SGU never recycled plots. All their ideas were fresh and never seen before anywhere in the franchise or anywhere on television.

Wait they never even encountered hostile aliens or had the ship taken over by hostile forces . . . uhm nevermind.

Sadly I don't see that happening until networks stop basing programming on the amount of money they make selling advertising slots on their programs.

out of curiosity, how else would they make money off of the shows beyond directly charging viewers?

In the US PBS stations. That's where I got all my Sci-Fi entertainment growing up as a kid. Didn't have cable for years as an adult either until the local cable company started offering phone/cable/internet packages.

I don't know how the BBC works in England or how they do things in other countries.

Really? You left out the space vampires out of all of that? That was the best part.

You might have had a point if there were space vampires here too.

You realize Atlantis was fine by its third, right? You also forgot the desert planet with the weird bugs.

Huh, I don't seem to recall this in SG-1 or Atlantis as a plot focus.

And a stupid mistake that almost leaves several people behind.

Oh yeah, I remember that nonexistent Atlantis/SG1 episode too.

Um? When do we get to the recycled Stargate plots? Neither Atlantis or SG-1 had this many survival plots.

And it highlighted the risks of drinking water from an alien planet, which, y'know, COULD actually happen to future astronauts when we start exploring other worlds.

What? No mention of the alien ship?

By the way, most murder episodes have convincing evidence pointing to the accused character or kangaroo courts of which this episode had neither. It was mostly setup for getting Colonel Young pissed off enough to strand Nicholas Rush and drive a wedge of distrust between the civilians and military.

Hostile aliens also try to take Destiny and fail. Seriously, Chloe's abduction wasn't even the central focus of this episode. You're really grasping there.

Um... when?

Seriously, WHEN? I've seen just about every damn episode in every damn Stargate series and not once do I recall a plot that centered on a mass mutiny.

You're just trolling.

the problem being PBS is funded by a combo of government financing and fund raising drives. the BBC has a somewhat similar deal IIRC. So i dont know if id really want to trade corporate sponsorship for government sponsorship in entertainment programming.

It was the same "OMG! We're all gonna die!" plot over and over for weeks, and as a result the ratings continuously dropped because the audience was sick of it.

I know you remember them. Both SG1 and Atlantis had the time travel episodes that never happened at the end of the show. They even went and made a movie "Stargate: Continuum" that never happened.

Which one? The alien ships that attacked the base in the very first episode? The Alien ship that they went thru the stargate to get stranded on? The alien ship that was seen leaving the Destiny during the end credits of one of the first episodes? The crashed alien ship? or the alien ships that attacked them?

Col Oneal was accused of murdering Senator Kinsey.
Teal'c was put on trial for murder.
The Atlantis people were put on trial for murder by that council for waking up the Wraith.
Capt Kirk was put on trial for murdering a crewman in the original series.
Voyager had a crewman put on trial for murdering an alien.
Babylon 5 had Sinclair put on trial for the attempted murder of the Vorlon ambassador.

Several foothold situations that failed during SGI, Atlantis, Star Trek TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, & Enterprise.


SG1 and Atlantis mutinied several times against direct orders from superiors on many occasions. It's also a recycled plot from Star Trek.


You're just mad I'm right.

I wasn't saying they were better systems just pointing out that those systems would put more focus on the shows popularity than how much money they can make.

The shows that got the most public support were the ones that got aired on our PBS station. We kept shows like Dr Who on the air not some advertising exec.

No it wasn't. The first three episodes dealt with the air problem, period.

The next was "We're going to die! But wait, we're wrong? Holy ****, literal solar power! THIS IS AWESOME! Wait, did Rush already know this?" It was all suspense. They never were actually in danger like they were in the first three episodes.

The next one was just needing to find a resource, water, which they found quickly enough by the way. The actual concern here was Lieutenant Scott getting stuck in a crevasse and the sand bugs drinking all of the water.

After that it was the SGC trying to do something stupid (which in itself was refreshing as otherwise their plans almost always work) which Rush knew was going to NOT work and he staged an explosion to get rid of them. Once again, just suspense, no danger.

After that, not only was there a disease but actually trying to solve the riddle of the time traveling Kino. I actually found that time traveling Kino to be the interesting part of the episode

Is that your only point on this stretch, is the time travel episode? Dear god... One episode! Nevermind that they threw in a riddle to make it more interesting than other time travel episodes. Nor did I deny the existance of time travel episodes.

You can't follow an argument can you? Look at which episode "summary" I was replying to. The crashed ship that Young and Rush had their fist fight under. Do you have ADD or something?

Oh, I'm not denying murder trial episodes exist, but I was pointing out the BIG difference here. Most murder trial episodes (please READ and not skim) entail good evidence implicating the accused or feature a kangaroo court. Concerning O'Niell (with two Ls, and no As), they had footage of him as the gunman. Turns out NID was using hologram technology to frame him.

And he actually committed it.

Kangaroo court.

Finney, it turns out, faked his death to frame Kirk.

I really don't give a ****, as like its even crappier sibling, Enterprise, it was a breeding ground for reused plots.

Impersonator, like O'Niell above.

This murder plot; however, for once had extremely shaky evidence. A gun that anyone could have put in the grill and that everyone touched. The "trial" didn't even last the episode like other murder plots. Like I said, it was set up for Young getting pissed enough to maroon Rush.

Great, you just declared invasions in general as unoriginal plots. Good work.

Oh you cannot be this stupid.

I don't recall SG1 ever tying up General Hammond and taking control of the SGC for themselves. That is a mutiny.

What you're thinking of is insubordination.

SG1 was on numerous occasions insubordinate, but not once did they ever mutiny. Neither did Sheppard's team.

Typical troll response is "U mad." Thus my point stands.

And no, you're not right.

Yes I am. You said


And I gave examples of the many, many times they recycled plots from other shows.

On a side note it's funny how you always resort to name calling when you can't refute the other persons statements.

No I'm not, I'm going by the definition in the UCMJ. The Uniform Code of Military Justice

SG1 mutinied against their superiors when they used the stargate to go to Apophis's ship after the SGC and all gate travel had been shut down.

They mutinied another time when they assisted the Tollan to escape the SGC who were being detained by the government.

They mutinied another time when they had the Atanik wristbands given to them by the Tokra and once again used the gate to attack a gouald mothership after recieving orders to stand down.

Aiden Ford mutinied when he forcibly recruited fellow Atlantis members by drugging them with the Wraith Enzyme .