I will never not giggle at the “here, take these guns” meme
I really love the episode where they go “this is a weapon meant to intimidate” * blasts * “this is a weapon meant to kill” fire p90
Such an iconic scene, but I never would have thought that when I first watched it for some reason.
It more or less was the thesis statement of the show up until The Battle of the Antarctic.
The Tau’ri are, technologically, bass ackwards. But whereas the rest of the galaxy has been afraid of space snakes for millennia (? I never actually thought about the timeline and doubt the writers did either, we’ve been doing our own thing… which often involves killing ourselves in ever more efficient ways.
So here we have a bunch of former slaves “waking up” (and let’s not think too much about how many of them were big black actors…), but are still beholden to tradition and fear. And then we have SG-1 basically walk up, get their physically least imposing team member (which actually would be Daniel, but Amanda Tapping is awesome and deserves every scene she got… except maybe the weird boyfriend arc that was just bad), and say “Your gods ain’t shit. Side with us and we’ll fuck them up”.
And that continues through the series. Straight up gods are staring them down and SG-1 just flip them off and unload. Even stuff like Jack and Bra’tac (I think it was those two?) getting ready for a long journey through a mothership that Jack just solves by chucking two grenades in a hole.
The show lost the plot around the time the battleship (Prometheus?) became something that could fight Anubis to a standstill and Atlantis/The Ori had lots of “Those god-like beings ain’t shit. So rather than side with their incredibly powerful alliance you should side with our incredibly powerful alliance”… and I don’t think ANYONE knows what the hell the point of SGU was.
But up until then, it really was about fighting gods and entrenched and toxic traditions with nothing but pluck and 5.7 NATO rounds.
And just for the record, I think I actually like Atlantis more, even for its flaws. Somehow, by setting things in a floating city in a different galaxy, it ends up being a much more grounded and “real” story. The Wraith know about Atlantis and attacks are fairly regular (at least one big one per season?) rather than Earth being some forgotten world that is off limits even though Goa’uld are there every other week. And while Flannigan’s Not-Jack is often “okay”, pretty much the entire rest of the cast and crew were spectacular. Also, it is what prevented Jason Momoa from just being the muscular native american who hit on Cedric the Entertainer’s underage daughter in that god awful movie.
I actually liked the premise of the Ori because basically up to that point they were fighting people who claimed to be gods but were really just aliens with advanced technology, whereas with the Ori they were fighting beings that basically were gods so it was a whole lot harder to convince anyone to side with them. The biggest problem I had with it was that the show seemed to run out of money before they could properly tie everything up, a bit reminiscent of the final season of the Expanse (over which I am still very bitter, though at least it motivated me to read the books, which do satisfyingly tie everything up). In particular, in the episode
spoiler
where they kill all of the Ori by sending the bomb thing through the portal
they have basically a huge dramatic victory that merited some kind of visually impressive spectacle and instead all that happened was basically that they just turned to each other and said, “Well, so I guess that means we succeeded. Yay.”
I didn’t like the Ori arc at first and found those seasons hard to watch. On my rewatch though I found 9 and 10 much better than I remembered.
HALLOWED ARE THE ORI
They are much better than they should be. Black and Browder are good and the writers seem to have had done very excellence job basically writing a spin off.
Hey I liked Pete he seemed nice!
He had good taste in boxed wine
My favourite detail in that is when —i think it’s Jack— gets a bit lax with gun safety and waves his rifle at Sam, and she visibly flinches.
That was richard dean anderson who was lax gun safety, and a very real reaction from amanda tapping if anyone cares
My favorite detail, though I will admit that type of detail (and I think I’ve seen it a couple times) is fun: when people express hatred for Daniel.
Fuck Daniel.
It’s the one Teal’c kills Imhotep?
spoiler alert, dude ;)
Every one of Jack’s comments following a complicated explanation from somebody. “So… we’re gonna blow it up?”
Fun fact: the 5.7mm round the P90 uses was not being produced as a blank. So the armorers bought TONS of live 5.7mm and made those into blanks.
This actually caused a supply bottleneck for none other than the US Secret Service, who were also using P90s at the time. They actually had to ask, or buy, not sure which, several thousand rounds from the show armorers for training until ammo production could ramp up stateside IIRC.
Secret service: “hello, bullet store? Yes, why are our bullets on back order?”
Bullet store: “oh, sorry, the space people bought most of our stock.”
SS: “The… what?”
BS: “The space marine people. They travel in portals, fight aliens. Yeah they bought like 80% of our ammo”
SS, voice shaking: “Sir please hold for a moment, Im going to have to fetch my supervisor…”
Imagine if somebody fucked one of those up like they did with the set of Rust…
The fact that they didn’t makes one wonder how much one would have to fuck up to actually end up firing live rounds on set.
I read it they had trouble getting ammunition for the P90 because of the Iraq war so they switched to different weapons towards the end of the show. I’m not totally sure though I’m too lazy to look it up.
That is a very fun fact!
Yes! “This is a weapon of terror. And THIS is a weapon of WAR.” Love me some SG-1 maybe I’ll fire it up later tonight hmm.
It’s ridiculous and over the top but I love every second of it.
“The United States is not in the business of interfering in other people’s affairs”
“Since when Sir?”
got a chuckle out of me
NGL, Sam carter was probably my celebrity crush in middle school
She’s one of my go-to examples of a “strong female character” that Hollywood has completely fucked up in the last ten years or so. Carter is smart, resourceful, quick on her feet, and more than capable on the battlefield.
But not a superhero who can beat up, say, Teal’c or other Jaffa 3x her size. She’s also very much a woman and exhibits feminine traits accordingly. You know, like how real normal people behave.
Also on the list: Sarah Connor, Dana scully, Laura Roslin, Captain Janeway despite her flaws, a few others…
The doctor was also one of the crushes for me. She had that friends hot mom feeling in the show.
I think we may have a type.
She was definitely hot. I get what you’re saying.
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Indeed.
You are not alone
I love me some warrior scientists.
This.
I agree with this so much that even undomesticated equines could not remove me.
Teal’c or Data?
That sounds like a fun game
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Picked up the blu ray set a while back (which weirdly has the gratuitous nudity series premier but none of the finale movies but… okay) and went a bit down memory lane while identifying which episode was which for plex purposes. It really is wild what a massive range the show had. One highlight was the 70s episode where, in a show that was HEAVILY backed by the US military, they basically made it clear that draft dodgers fleeing Vietnam had to do what they felt was right.
Tangential, but I will always say the best Stargate SG-1 game is UFO Aftermath (or Aftershock. One of those). Old school xcom-like with a strong emphasis on a JA2 style selection of guns to greatly increase the time you spend using human guns. But it basically makes every mission feel like a gate that went REALLY bad and you very much get that feeling of “This is a weapon of terror. This is a weapon of war” as energy bolts are exploding all around your soldier who just takes a knee with a rifle.
The show took a lot of shots at the military, but it never dwelled on it. I feel like it took just the right amount.
The uniforms did add a USAF patch on the sleeve in season 5, which is often called the “Area 51 Apology Patch”. Might be seen as cheap brownie points with the military, but it also makes sense within the show, so not immersion breaking.
Been a minute since I did a proper rewatch (hmmm. I DO have all the stuff worth watching on my plex…), but mostly it was just Jack (and later Daniel when Michael Shanks wanted to look like a badass) being flippant and mocking protocol because he believes in what is important and not doing what pencil pushers want him to do.
Which is pretty normal for US military backed productions and is pretty much exactly what they want propaganda wise. Gibbs on NCIS, Bradley Cooper in the (shockingly okay) A-Team movie, etc.
I don’t think the show suffered for it at all, but there were definitely a few moments over the years of “Okay, if Teal’c starts saying ‘Ecrof ria eht nioj’ I am turning it off”.
There’s another Colonel O’Neil with only one L, and he has no sense of humor at all
The perfect blend of action and comedy
Im watching Stargate for the first time at the moment and im really surprised by how good it is. on season 7 at the minute and cant wait to see whats coming.
Are Atlantis and SGU just as good or is there a dip in quality?
If you like SG1, you will like Atlantis. They’re both the same level of fun sci-fi.
I personally loved SGU. It was spiritual kin to the first two shows with the same thoughtful sci-fi world building, but it dialed the whimsy down to 1 and the drama up to 7. But it was still a Stargate show in every way. It respected established canon while building it’s own lore independent of the other shows. I was legit mad when it was canceled.
Man you were not kidding about them dialling the whimsy down to 1.
Yeah, it’s a definite departure in tone. But stick with it. It becomes a more serious rendition of the franchise, but it’s just as engaging.
It not only keeps the overall spirit of the franchise going, it revitalizes it because of the set and setting. Where SG1 and Atlantis have humanity becoming virtually indestructible gods through their new technology, EVERYONE in SGU is vulnerable.
It’s really unfortunate because the show was canceled right when it was finding it’s feet.
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SGU is a BSG knockoff wearing Stargate lore like a skin-suit. Even if you forget about that, I personally found it boring af.
SG-1 is one of my all time favorite shows! It changes so much over the years but everything works IMO, even 9 and 10 which are typically lower rated than the rest.
Atlantis is watchable but nowhere near as good IMO. Characters aren’t nearly as memorable, there’s a lot of plot threads that go nowhere, the cast turnover is quick, things like that. To be fair I heard there were a lot of production issues and unexpected issues, and it’s a miracle SG-1 was as good as it was given all of their numerous issues.
Fuck everything about Universe, I couldn’t stand that show. YMMV
I liked each series in a different way. Universe felt to me like the first few episodes of Atlantis but an ongoing damage control situation. SG1 is definitely the best out of the three.
Whilst I respect the entire show and all the work it did as far as I’m concerned season 8 episode 20 I think ith the fishing pond is the place you should genuinely end. The follow up series are ok but don’t add anything,
SGU is very different but I enjoyed it for that, some interesting home/away comparisons andmore in the SG universe (pun not intended) is welcome.
Atlantis is great, Christopher Heyerdahl in multiple roles too.
Depends on your expectations… I personally liked Atlantis but SGU somehow failed to captivate me. Both shows somehow fizzled out without really leading anywhere (you could say the same about SG1 but at least they closed up the main plot lines before opening a bunch of new ones which didn’t really have clear purpose).
I’ll provide a counterpoint. I never loved Atlantis but I really liked SGU. especially the second season when it really hit its stride. I don’t think either of them were nearly as memorable as SG1 though.
SGU had a shakey first season and was hitting its stride in the second when they cancelled it. apparently there is an official comic that wraps the story up, but tbh where they left it… it kinda works…
How does this show compare to Babylon 5 or BSG?
It’s really an entirely different animal than either of them, but ranks right up there with them in terms of quality.
SG1 is a 50/50 serious/fun ratio, with long running plot threads mixed in with adventure- of-the-week episodes. It’s a bunch of friends saving the galaxy and having fun doing it. It’s got a real sense of Earth’s slow progression from the mostly forgotten backwater homeworld of humanity all the way to being a major power in two galaxies.
B5 is like a 90% serious novel about war and politics.
BSG is 100% grim, and it becomes really obvious in later seasons that while the Cylons might’ve had a plan, the writers sure as shit didn’t know what it was supposed to be. This unfortunately makes it overall the weakest of the three IMHO.
I thought the Cylons’ plan was to eliminate humanity and replace it with a “better” version, which was the human cylons? It was interesting that their religion ended up getting in the way of that. But I didn’t hate BSG’s ending, which I realize puts me in the minority.
Anyway, thanks for sharing the detailed opinion, I appreciate it. I think I’ll give SG a shot later tonight. Other than the Expanse, high quality sci-fi has been hard to come by for a while now, so it’ll be cool to try something new.
If you missed SG1, I am guessing you missed Farscape too. It really makes aliens actually Alien, it’s universe is so weird and fantastic. And the characters and their interactions are great.
Definitely worth adding to the list.
BSG is a lot lower than the other two.
Sg1 will probably be one of my favourite series ever. But from my perspective it really didn’t age that well. Not talking about graphics or CGI here, but more on a action POV. A few jokes I probably wouldn’t bring today anymore, a few weird decisions regarding the plot and the cast and, because of the episodic character of the show quite a few plot holes. SGA on the other hand is a great show, which aged just as well and is the one I actually recommend people nowadays if they want to take a look at the franchise.
There’s definitely a lot of 90s jankiness / awkward moments through a more modern lense, but I do think it trails off as the show goes on.
And then there’s the abomination known as Stargate: Universe.
Sgu was great once it found its footing. I’ll die on this hill.
I suppose it could have. My problem is that when I watch a show, it’s mostly for the competence porn. SG1 and SGA were that, in spades. SGU wasn’t that, at least in the beginning, and I don’t typically last beyond three episodes when it’s clear that the genre isn’t even what I’m looking for.
Stargate: Battlestar Galactica. It was so, so apparent at the time that they saw the success of BSG and wanted in on it. It’s honestly hilarious because Trek tried to pull the same shit with Discovery, and then with Picard s1-2 before they reversed course and were like “what if we just made the type of Trek that Trekkies like?” and then comes Picard S3 and Strange New Worlds.
You’re saying Picard became good? Because that would be very nice to hear.
The last season is more or less TNG fan service. I enjoyed it but take it for what it is.
I will always remember that one day I
skipped schoolwas home sick from school and just happened to catch my first episode of SG1.Me too!! It was around season 1 or 2 and I remember seeing a few in a row: the episodes stranded in Antarctica, the girl Cassandra with the bomb inside her, maybe the prison escape one idk. I loved it and was instantly hooked.
Next week on Showtime Sci Friday: Richard Dean Anderson stars in an all new Stargate SG-1! Happiest words of my childhood lol
SG1 is a show that I feel never made a mistep to the point where I can call out a bad episode. Unlike various star trek series that had their WTF episodes that are generally disliked.
I always hoped for one more piece of the story with the original team, details were floating around of the final movie and I think covid killed that off.
“Emancipation” is pretty fucking cringe.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0709075/
Fun note, same writer as that terrible TNG episode with the same plot.
This is hilariously topical.
I am just getting into the series after having watch the film various times over the years. It really feels a bit, “religion of the week” right now and I am struggling with some of these episodes. I really like the characters but my goodness was that Emancipation episode awful. Would you encourage me to press through?
Absolutely keep going. The first season has a couple stinkers. The show finds its groove soon.
Cringe but watchable is still good lol
Disagree.
I guess I’m the only one who actively hated ‘200’ when it aired.
The show was great, I’ve watched every episode multiple times (except ‘200’).
But there was a very clear quality decrease as time went on, I mean they even started letting Teal’c write a handful of 'em.
Man, this show was three fries short of a Happy Meal.
In the middle of my backswing, General?!
WACKO!!
I actually just recently re-watched SG1 for the first time in probably a decade or more now. I was half expecting to have my fond memories ruined, but that wasn’t even remotely the case. I still love it, and probably always will.
I just introduced my girlfriend to stargate, and she’s never liked any sci fi, but she loved it so much. It’s such a great show. Funny and lighthearted and usually easy to watch, but still touches on really deep subjects and has incredible storylines and what ifs. Looking back on it too, I realized how many sci fi tropes seemed to start there, or how many episodes of other sci fi shows clearly took inspiration from them.
I feel like campiness has become a lost art form. Stuff these days generally tends to take itself very seriously while Stargate was self aware and knew how to lean into it. At the same time—as you mentioned—it wasn’t afraid to do more tonally serious episodes from time to time. I think that mix is what allowed it to have such a long run.
There was a puppet episode? Team America Space Police?
Not the whole episode, but yes. The puppets were made by the same people who made the Team America ones.
The episode is wild, the puppet sequence isn’t even the most over the top part.
That whole episode was gold.
Your post has me wanting to do a rewatch of the series. I should see if any of the streaming services I’m on has that series on there.
Shit maybe I need to finally do my SG1 rewatch
