Stargate bad at Neutering its Villains?

[waywardsage]

I love Stargate Atlantis. But I gotta say that there aren't that many good villains left. The Wraith have been pretty much neutered, the Asurans are destroyed. And the Travelers..uhg....they're not really a challenge, and not really pure villains.

So who's left? I've noticed, beginning with SG-1 that Stargate likes to defeat they're villains early on and let the shows drag out with weak mopping up eps. for seasons afterward.

Why is it so hard for them to create really menacing villains that last thru the whole show? The Goual'd and Wraith were decent, but they became campy mid way thru SG-1 when they took away most of their menace. And now, Atlantis are like, been there done that with the wraith.

I know they could always pull something out of their back pocket and say its the new big bad guy. But I really think there needs to be a strong bad guy presence in the show again to help drum up the tension.

I really liked the Ori storyline. But, they sorta wrapped up a whole season in the last movie Ark of Truth. I have a hard time imagining bigger villains than the Ori.

Any thoughts on this?

[jenks]

Neutering villains? That's not an episode I want to see.

[Actionhank]

Real bad villains will not come into the show because we don't like our main characters killed.
So it will always be like "Ooohh, that looks bad!!!" in the beginning but eventually they will save the day because this is not a dark show. This is "Americans never give up and always win". And I guess thats exactly what people want to see.

[Xaeden]

I don't know, I think it's more of a highs and lows thing. Sg-1 started off with Earth in a really bad position. Then they started getting the upper hand. They killed a number of minior baddies and three big ones right near each other...Sokar, Aphopis, and Cronus. The balance of power had decayed, the system lords were fighting amongst each other, and Earth had some decent allies. Then, Anubis shows up in season 5 and all hell begins to break loose.

If Atlantis is following a similar pattern, they are certainly right on track. The Wraith are at their weakest right now and it may seem like they're on their way out. However, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they got a power upgrade that allowed them to come back fighting at previously unseen levels. In fact, I think they've been laying the ground work for possible ways that can happen based on the season 5 spoilers and things that have happened before.

[padr49904]

It is not really the villains are getting weaker, the expedition is getting stronger. They have more knowledge of the stuff they have and have gotten better weapons/shield from earth. It is only a matter of time until the wraith find a way to make better weapons, hopefully they get ahold of the Daedalus or Apollo and get some of the info. It would make the show a lot better.

[UNRE4L]

The storyline is effective about Humans vs Wraith. Yet no episode deals with that anymore. We get dead end episodes and lots of character building. I dont think any of the writers care about the storyline for now, they will probably drag it out until some important character wants to leave, and end the series in half a season.

[ToasterOnFire]

I don't understand this trend either, outside of TPTB maybe wanting a revolving door of baddies to keep the show "fresh". Enemies that were once formidable and menacing have quickly been toned down so the team could win and move on to the next one like some video game. Koyla kicked butt in Storm/Eye and got progressively less menacing until his comical death. The wraith were scary in s1 but became weaker, even absurd, in later seasons. The Asurans were utterly defeated, save Weir's rebel team, in one measly season.

[-PITBULL-]

Well at this point its going to be hard of the WRITERS to come out with a Villain that could last ... Look at the past things that SciFi has done ( Meaning SG-1's Ori story ark ) . The writers don't want to create a new BIG enemy , then half way throw that ark they have to think of something fast for a Direct to DVD solution for getting ride of them .

Now i do think SG-A does need a real Enemy , Something that has cool technology as well as being over powering for Atlantis . But at this time i also feel that Atlantis needs to become BIGGER , let them start rebuilding . Then introduce a HUGE new enemy for them to battle .

[DARSFOG]

Well aren't we getting a NEW baddie at the mid-season cliff hanger?

[Saif Blade]

Well aren't we getting a NEW baddie at the mid-season cliff hanger?

That's what they said before we got the replicators again. Lol I bet they are gonna have like a new version of the goa'old and say teh ancients created them (like they did with wraith and asurans) so they can put them into wraith and control them, but SOMETHING WENT HORRIBLY WRONG AND THEY BECAME ENEMIES OF THE ANCIENTS!!!

I miss those glowing eyes...

[Zamboni]

So who's left? I've noticed, beginning with SG-1 that Stargate likes to defeat they're villains early on and

And I stopped reading there...

[metabog]

Hopefully the LED-heads will be powerful.

I still can't believe Atlantis managed to actually destroy the entire planet of the replicators. WE ARE SO DAMNED POWERFUL NOW.

Nothing can stand in our way. I mean those beam weapons are pretty much unbeatable (they take out pretty much any ship in one or two shots). And still, even with all this, all the people of earth have no idea .

[GhostPoet]

The next villain will be an army of angry (very angry) fanboys out to take over Atlantis and make everyone kiss each other. Ohh...the horrors Atlantis will face as they try to defend against the gigantic onslaught of the Floating Basement of DOOM ship.

[Ouroboros]

The problem is that they don't really invest any time in creating long time enjoyable villain characters for most of these races. The best one they've done so far was Baal and he managed to still be interesting even years after the Goa'uld were played out as a threat.

That's the problem right there. It's always "The Goa'uld" or "The Wraith" or "The replicators" or "The Ori". These faceless disposable factions that serve no purpose except to provide targets for Asgard beams and P90s.

Baal was interesting because he had personality. Personality is what lets you actually get attached to a character(s) and care about what they do next. At this stage no one's going to care about Wraith queen color swap #7 because everyone knows that she's going to die by the end of the episode so investing any sort of attachment to her character is a recipie for disappointment. The Wraith almost had a good bad guy with personality in Michael but for some reason they decided to turn him into a cartoon instead. Todd right now is probably the most promising current prospect for a decent recurring villain but I've got to say that I'd hate to see him turned into one as he's not really "villainous" at all. If anything it seems more natural for him to grow into an increasingly closer ally than become a main adversary.

They need some sort of recurring Wraith queen with an actual name and personality who'll be allowed to live longer than a Junebug. I've only been saying it for 5 years. If it costs more money that's fine, delete a space battle or a few FX glamor shots of Atlantis and give that money to the actress. I won't notice or care, I promise. Decent recurring characters are more important than any of that stuff. I'd watch a show where they used model spaceships on strings if the characters and story were good enough.

[GoSpikey]

Todd's the future of his people. I don't think they'll let him turn 'evil'. He's a master at making the best out of every situation, but he's not evil. Just smart.

I personally want the redhead from The Last Man back. I liked her.

She would be neat next to Todd, maybe, depending on her character, but Todd looks better without a Queen, probably...