MovieChat Forums > Stargate Universe (2009) Discussion > Favourite SG + why

Favourite SG + why

posted 12 years ago by Film_guy1986
36 replies | jump to latest

I'm wondering what everybody's favourite incarnation of Stargate is.

Stargate - Motion Picture
SG1
SGA
SGU
SGinfinity

I'd also like to hear opinions on why.

Personally, I got hooked from the start and saw the original film in the cinema and loved it. When I heard that they were bringing out a tv-series, I instantly became hooked. As I got older though, I lost touch with SG1 and found I grew tired of it; maybe I wasn't looking at the mythology of it as much as I was the individual stories. Then came SGA. I watched the first few episodes but found it was too similar for my liking and for a while, I dismissed Stargate altogether. I remember reading a few years later that Robert Carlyle was going to be in an SG series so I thought, for nostalgia's sake and really liking the actor, I would watch. From then, I got straight back in to the series and fell in love with Stargate all over again. I re-watched the movie, started SG1 again and tried SGA for a second time. I found that I had a deeper respect for SG1 but SGA still didn't sit right with me - I respected the program and liked some of the characters but, for me, I didn't find it that exciting. I've tried it a few times since and although I love certain aspects of it, I don't think it's for me.

My favourite overall is SGU - I love that they tried something new and I really enjoyed it, it's just a shame that they cancelled it too early.

What about everybody else? I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories!

Please, no trolls and respect other people's opinions!

[–] xxhelterskelterxx 11 years ago

SG-1 is my favourite at the moment, but I feel as if SGU could have usurped it had it finished it's planned five-year run.

[–] thelostmachine 11 years ago

SGU hands down

and I am new to all the series since viewing the original movie. I am in the above 30 age group.

all I want to know is who and the hell is responsible for ruining my vibe in the show with the Senators Daughter character?

Kes didn't work for Star Trek Voyager either btw, Kes just didn't do it for me (and many others) in the Star Trek environment. Introducing the mystical is called "fantasy" not science fiction.

please reboot SGU, same cast and theme sans Chloe character.

thanks

"the media sells it, and you live the role" -Ozzy Osbourne

[–] xystophoros 11 years ago

all I want to know is who and the hell is responsible for ruining my vibe in the show with the Senators Daughter character?

Kes didn't work for Star Trek Voyager either btw, Kes just didn't do it for me (and many others) in the Star Trek environment. Introducing the mystical is called "fantasy" not science fiction.

please reboot SGU, same cast and theme sans Chloe character.

Chloe is in the cast because, to quote one reviewer, she is "the object of nerd lust."

That sounds a little unfair, to her and to the audience, but no one wants a crew that's a sausage party, especially for a serial drama. It's not like the early Star Treks where you had one or two prominent female crew members -- TV dramas nowadays are more egalitarian, science fiction especially so. You need multiple female leads, just like there are multiple male leads.

SGU's primary female leads were Camile Wray, T.J., and Chloe. Ming Na was about 46 when SGU began filming, Alaina Huffman was 29 or 30, and Elyse Levesque was 24. It wasn't until later that the show added Julie McNiven (Ginn) and Kathleen Munroe (Dr. Perry). IIRC they were about around 30 years old.

So, short version: They wanted a young hot chick in the crew, so they cast Chloe.

SGU on the other hand could have lasted for five years and it would have clearly be the weakest of it all because, let's face it, is simply a copy of Battlestar Galactica in every way. Be it style, cinematography, character conflicts or whatever.

They're not very similar at all, except superficially. I think that hurt SGU as much as the Stargate fans who decided to boycott SGU because they blamed it for the cancellation of Atlantis.

BSG was much, much darker than SGU, and that's just a fact. BSG was primarily driven by anguish and rage in its early days, and for good reason. It worked for that show and its premise. In SGU, the situation was dire, but it wasn't a matter of genocide. SGU had room for wit and a wry sense of humor beneath the anxieties of the crew. SGU had a light at the end of the tunnel. BSG didn't.

Visually? Yeah, they're similar in more than a few ways, but that's because the same graphics company provided the CGI and FX for BSG and SGU.

[–] xxhelterskelterxx 11 years ago

Chloe wasn't cast, Chloe is a fictional character. I think you and these like-minded reviewers are just projecting. You only see Chloe as a sexual object, so you assume that's all she's there for. If you actually analyse the second season in particular, her role was pivotal to numerous arcs.

[–] xystophoros 11 years ago

I was quoting a reviewer, and I even said that viewing her that way was unfair to her and the fans. And, for what it's worth, I'm more of an Alaina Huffman and Julie McNiven guy than an Elyse Levesque guy.

Chloe has a greater role in season two, sure, but any character could have been in her place. She's the only character in the show who has no real function as a crew member -- she's not military, she's not a scientist, and she's not an engineer.

I'm not saying Chloe is a bad character, and I'm not saying Elyse Levesque didn't do a nice job on the show. But it is clear that Chloe was added out of a need for a younger female lead, and it took the writers a while to figure out what to do with her.

[–] Mart-13 11 years ago

It's not like the crew of Destiny were the perfect prefabricated selection of military types gung-ho and ready to go on a mission.

[–] Mart-13 11 years ago

Kes actually worked really nicely, and were Jennifer Lien not fired from "Voyager" by TPTB, she would have been given good enough material to shine with. I think by the time Jennifer Lien was fired, Ronald D. Moore also had left the show, and some of Voyager's storytelling quality not involving The Doctor or 7 of 9 diminished.

Lien was rumoured to have had issues of equal scale as Garrett Wang, and she should have been given a chance to properly make amends and return, whereas Garrett Wang should have been fired instead (in most interviews post-Voyager he's been whining alot because unresolved personal issues), and Lien had already proven herself to be a very capable actor in "Warlord".

I now keep wondering what the storylines involving Kes and Seven of Nine would have been like.

[–] hUMbLEhObO 11 years ago

In order:
SG1
SGA
SG94
SGU
For me, the character development and story arcs in SG1 are superior in their originality. By the time SGA started the format and configuration of the arcs had been tried and tested and proven to work.

Stargate Universe, to me, was a joke that someone took seriously and tried to run with it.
The 200th episode of SG1 has the team spit-balling ideas for a parody of SG1 called Wormhole X-treme! In which there is a suggestion of making all the characters younger and more edgy therefor more relevant to a younger demographic. The scene is comedic. However, their attempt to actually try this, at least in part, in SGU was a mistake. I felt the show, on the whole, was repeatedly asking me to lower my expectations and standards for the characters who, for the most part, had little or no redeeming qualities.

The ability of both SG1 and SGA to be lighthearted while being dramatic is an endearing quality. If they ever attempt another SG series, I hope they take that into account.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] TheIrishAvenger 11 years ago

SG-1 is my fave. I just love the characters too much. Atlantis is pretty close behind it, especially due to Shep and Rodney. Universe is watchable but I wasn't mad about it. I recently wrote an article in which I picked 10 episodes from across the 3 series and explained my reasons for liking each one here: http://davecsimpson.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/the-10-best-episodes-of-t he-stargate-franchise/

http://davecsimpson.wordpress.com/ for reviews and articles on music, movies & TV.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] bobhund82 10 years ago

Exactly my opinion.. Overall less cheesy then the others. I liked them too, don't misunderstand, but come on.. Seen alot of talk about characters, I'm just wondering what "characters"? There's absolutely none of interest in the first two series.

[–] She-Ra42 11 years ago

Very minor spoilers*

Interesting. You're about the only person whose had a very similar experience to my own. The only difference being that I actually sucked it up and watched all of the Stargate franchises after SGU because I thought it was so good. Sadly I was disappointed somewhat, although each had some stengths and good episodes enough that if I didn't take them too seriously they were worth watching. I just had to really sorta give up my attachment to the more serious versions of the franchise.

I loved the original and SGU very much. SG-1 has a few really standout episodes that I love; interestingly, though, for the most part the episodes that I love the most are the ones that others rate lower -- for instance, I LOVED Revisions, but that is one of the lower rated of the series, which I honestly cannot understand. I thought everything about it was perfect. I also was mesmerized by the first contact with the human replicators in S8, and that was one of my favorites as well. Maybe I'm just a darker person? Don't get me wrong, I can do with a little cheese. I'm a fan of Who and Trek. But I love a really good dark episode, and I felt that most of SG1 and especially SGA were really cheesy, and too tongue in cheek most of the time, but they didn't have enough great comedy or irony ... it wasn't clever enough maybe? And the wraith... they were extremely difficult with the CG to take seriously as antagonists -- and that's odd because I had no problem with even the most rendered versions of aliens on SG1... there was just something about the wraith that seemed "evil cartoon" to me most of the time. Eventually I was able to let it go and watch the series, but I didn't enjoy them nearly as much.

On the other hand, I was infatuated with the first Stargate. It was meticulously put together. I love James Spader in pretty much everything he does, and their actor choice for Ra was mesmerizing as an actor and as a really lovely "alien". I don't think they ever had a better goa'uld than Ra in terms of how he was depicted.

And SGU -- well, similarly I love Robert Carlyle in everything as well. He's one of my favorite actors. And I thought they balanced the cast out nicely, from the misfits and lovable to the obsessed arrogant douchebag that Carlyle was playing (and that I also loved) - the characters were a lot more 3 dimensional in this series than they were in the others (especially considering how much shorter time they had to develop them). I was truly sad that it got canceled. While the other two series I was like "meh, they were long enough".

I've not bothered with the cartoon, and I don't intend on acknowledging it.

But anyway, it's just nice to find out that there's someone else out there who shares my opinion of the series. Maybe the difference is that I, like you, didn't watch any of them when they were on, or in order... and I guess I understand people getting attached to their shows... but seriously... SG-1 went on for TEN seasons and concluded with films, and SGA was long enough and meh, so I think it's ridiculous that fans "turned" on stargate for SGU being "different" from the others. For me it was the opposite... SGU was the only thing that made me even give SG1 and SGA a chance, or I probably would never have watched them.

"Jack go to the liquor store and findeth the Jack of Daniels so that ye may be sh*tfaced!"

[–] narnia4 11 years ago

I enjoy SG1 and SGA much, much more than the rest of Stargate (SGU was ok, I liked the movie but it wasn't particularly memorable by itself).

I have a really hard time picking between the SG1 and SGA though. With SG-1 having over twice as many episodes, it has more highs and more lows than SGA.

I'd say Atlantis was more consistently entertaining and had a tone that I ultimately prefer, and season one of Atlantis was the best overarching story the franchise ever had imo. Later on, unfortunately, they hit the reset button too often, tried to backtrack too often, and ended up ignoring lots of potentially interesting characters and stories. And yet the show still felt like it had a lot of life left in it.

SG-1 hit the ball out of the park more often and in its prime it did a better job sustaining storylines in an interesting way. The show really started to feel old and tired the last few years (particularly the last couple of seasons), and honestly I started to really dislike the stories they were telling (something that never happened with Atlantis) and the way they told them. But in its prime, SG-1 managed to keep the same stories fresh and interesting for years.

I can't decide, I'm rewatching both series, maybe when I'm done I'll have an answer.

"Don't move! Or I'll fill you full of . . . little yellow bolts of light!"

[–] 11 years ago

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