Size of the cast

[Dave C]

now that most people have had the chance to praise or vent the S5 decisions i can raise this point

is the cast(+ recurring) now to big

we have the 4 team members, Woolsey(personally i would have preferred Ellis but i can see the storyline point of Woolsey), Lorne, Zelenka, this new Captain Allison Porter, Keller, with Beckett, Daniel, Carter all recurring

is this too many ?

[Pharaoh Atem]

variety is the spice of life.

bsg pulls off having a huge cast and may be having more people around will be good thing for sga

[ykickamoocow]

now that most people have had the chance to praise or vent the S5 decisions i can raise this point

is the cast(+ recurring) now to big

we have the 4 team members, Woolsey(personally i would have preferred Ellis but i can see the storyline point of Woolsey), Lorne, Zelenka, this new Captain Allison Porter, Keller, with Beckett, Daniel, Carter all recurring

is this too many ?

No but i wouldnt want any more.

[ToasterOnFire]

It depends on whether you think TPTB can write meaningful dialog and development for all those characters, or whether they'll stick with their favorites and minimize others.

[Amalthea]

I think its getting dangerously large. Characters are definitely going to suffer if they try to stick them all in an episode together.

[jenks]

now that most people have had the chance to praise or vent the S5 decisions i can raise this point

is the cast(+ recurring) now to big

we have the 4 team members, Woolsey(personally i would have preferred Ellis but i can see the storyline point of Woolsey), Lorne, Zelenka, this new Captain Allison Porter, Keller, with Beckett, Daniel, Carter all recurring

is this too many ?

I've always though Atlantis needed an ensemble cast, so no.

[Falcon Horus]

What Toaster said and characters have suffered since season 1. TPTB don't have it in them to write for an ensemble cast, that's nothing new.

[vaberella]

variety is the spice of life.

bsg pulls off having a huge cast and may be having more people around will be good thing for sga

I agree with the statement in bold, unless of course your allergic and then it could be the death of your life.

In any event, I don't have a problem as long as the writers can hold it together. Unfortunately a bit of my pessism will arise here. In the past I felt the cast was too large and as such the writers sacrificed many character (regulars) moments and characters in whole...for example Teyla. She's only given a strong presence, even though many settings I found pointless, in S4. But then again Weir, unfortunately was another horrible disaster, from my perspective, until of course she's recurring. Which leads to something else.

As far as regulars go, I except a lot of problems. Probably cut back in storylines, probably more "undevelopment" and the like. As for the recurring characters and definitely with their writing in the past for recurring characters, excluding Larrin and Lucius, have been successful ventures and very well thought out. Basically characters I want again. People like Ford, post-addiction; people like Jeannie (not necessarily recurring), and of course Zelenka, Lorne, Bates (when he was there), Heightmeyer (when she was alive) are great examples of strong recurring characters. While again, the regulars suffered.


I've excluded the excellent writing for Ronon in the estimation since he is one regular in the line of several.

So there's a toss up. Of course in S4, there has been a slight improvement in writing for regulars which I can't deny, but still they're recurring characers are pretty strong and possibly stronger than their regs, excluding Ronon.

[reddevil18]

What Toaster said and characters have suffered since season 1. TPTB don't have it in them to write for an ensemble cast, that's nothing new.

But it's NOT an ensemble cast. It's always been the 4 main characters(and the focus on 2 of them - Rodney and John) plus the leader. All other charcters have been recurring or guests and the writers have never even attempted to make them more than that. Lorne and Zelenka grew a bit with time, because, even if they're background characters, they've been in numerous episodes. The same will happen with new recurring characters, like this Porter chick. I imagine her role will be the same siez and importance as Grodin in season 1...

[Major_Griff]

But it's NOT an ensemble cast. It's always been the 4 main characters(and the focus on 2 of them - Rodney and John) plus the leader. All other charcters have been recurring or guests and the writers have never even attempted to make them more than that. Lorne and Zelenka grew a bit with time, because, even if they're background characters, they've been in numerous episodes. The same will happen with new recurring characters, like this Porter chick. I imagine her role will be the same siez and importance as Grodin in season 1...

I disagree. Weir was much more than a Hammond type, and they tired to make Beckett a main character as well. That said I don't think the cast is getting too big. Recurring characters don't have to be in every ep or even have big parts when the do appear. As long as there are no more than 5 or 6 regulars, every thing is fine.

[Falcon Horus]

But it's NOT an ensemble cast. It's always been the 4 main characters(and the focus on 2 of them - Rodney and John) plus the leader. All other charcters have been recurring or guests and the writers have never even attempted to make them more than that. Lorne and Zelenka grew a bit with time, because, even if they're background characters, they've been in numerous episodes. The same will happen with new recurring characters, like this Porter chick. I imagine her role will be the same siez and importance as Grodin in season 1...

Well, you may see it like TPTB see it... But I don't see it that way... If it's just about the team, then you don't need an equal amount of others running around in the background as recurring characters, or guest characters. Than it's the team and Hammond/Landry/O'Neill... that's it...

SGA is different... or should I say, it was different.

[vaberella]

But it's NOT an ensemble cast. It's always been the 4 main characters(and the focus on 2 of them - Rodney and John) plus the leader. All other charcters have been recurring or guests and the writers have never even attempted to make them more than that. Lorne and Zelenka grew a bit with time, because, even if they're background characters, they've been in numerous episodes. The same will happen with new recurring characters, like this Porter chick. I imagine her role will be the same siez and importance as Grodin in season 1...

"Porter chick"... I don't know what to say.

In any event, I agree with the 4 main, I never saw an ensemble cast either, however in the case of SGA they tried to handle more than the main four several times in utter failure. Weir was a regular making it 5 people in the cast, and then you had Beckett later becoming a regular---this is fairly large group of 6 main characters. I'd count that as an ensemble and basically was a horrible fairly, demoting both Weir and Beckett, the latter back to recurring.

So in a sense FH is correct. But as I stated in my last post, I feel the recurring characters will get the better writing and unfortunately the regulars a decrease in quality and probably more background noise for some of the regulars. That being said handling so many characters may not be a good idea.

It would have been cool based on the success of their recurring characters (from what I've seen of their last 4 seasons) to just have everyone recurring and just divide up the stories as misadventures of military/civilian and alien teams. I see Lorne's team, bring back Stackhouse and we see his team, and I see John's team....and so on and so forth. Everyone gets balanced out better that way.

But hey, the writers might be uber succesful this season in handling such a huge cast, of paticular recurrings. I'm not too hopeful on the regs though.

[reddevil18]

"Porter chick"... I don't know what to say.

In any event, I agree with the 4 main, I never saw an ensemble cast either, however in the case of SGA they tried to handle more than the main four several times in utter failure. Weir was a regular making it 5 people in the cast, and then you had Beckett later becoming a regular---this is fairly large group of 6 main characters. I'd count that as an ensemble and basically was a horrible fairly, demoting both Weir and Beckett, the latter back to recurring.

So in a sense FH is correct. But as I stated in my last post, I feel the recurring characters will get the better writing and unfortunately the regulars a decrease in quality and probably more background noise for some of the regulars. That being said handling so many characters may not be a good idea.

It would have been cool based on the success of their recurring characters (from what I've seen of their last 4 seasons) to just have everyone recurring and just divide up the stories as misadventures of military/civilian and alien teams. I see Lorne's team, bring back Stackhouse and we see his team, and I see John's team....and so on and so forth. Everyone gets balanced out better that way.

But hey, the writers might be uber succesful this season in handling such a huge cast, of paticular recurrings. I'm not too hopeful on the regs though.

Oh, God! Seriously, give it a rest. "Porter chick", that's right. I don't remember her name. It's not some horrible insult, it's just a way of making people understand who I'm talking about.
And, whether it's 4 or 6 that were counted as "regulars", it's never been an ensemble cast. They were all regulars, but only John and Rodney were "main" characters. The rest have always been supporting characters. That's how it is.

[vaberella]

Oh, God! Seriously, give it a rest. "Porter chick", that's right. I don't remember her name. It's not some horrible insult, it's just a way of making people understand who I'm talking about.
And, whether it's 4 or 6 that were counted as "regulars", it's never been an ensemble cast. They were all regulars, but only John and Rodney were "main" characters. The rest have always been supporting characters. That's how it is.

Woah, woah, no need to get yourself in a tizzy, I was just kidding.

Ah, so that's how you were defining it. Well then that takes the argument in a whole other direction.

[Falcon Horus]

They were all regulars, but only John and Rodney were "main" characters. The rest have always been supporting characters. That's how it is.

Ha, now we see the true you...