Like pretty much the rest of the posters at Gateworld, I've been extremely torn as to the whole ship-based thing. On one hand, I think that's completely the problem with the franchise in recent years. The last 3 years or so of SG-1 were really dragged down by a lack of actual gating, and Atlantis has suffered from the same thing right from the get-go. For a show called STARGATE, that really shouldn't be the case, should it? Should not the premise of a show called STARGATE be to use said device to explore new places?
So let's try and take a positive spin to this, and think up reasons how a ship-based series might actually be pretty cool after all. I'll start off with some things I've been brainstorming while laying in bed unsuccessfully attempting to sleep:
Presumably the mission of the ship means that it periodically stops at places where gates have been seeded--so that its intended crew could have a look around the new digs and gather some data about the planets in question, indigenous life forms, that sort of thing. Now that would allow for a whole lot of on-location shooting wouldn't it? It would also allow for all sorts of interaction with new and exciting races we've never met before. It means that there could be small or large arcs involving alien races if it takes the ship a while to traverse some spacefaring empire's territory.
Think about it: the reason they're stuck is because the ship is on an unalterable course, right? Say it's dropped 20 gates in one galaxy, and most of them are in the territory of some aggressive race that doesn't much like its turf trespassed on. If our guys can't alter the ship's course, that means they've got a long bloody time to try to survive a region of space or make friends with the people in it.
Suppose one of our crew gets left behind on a planet, and has to do their best to chase after the ship via a freshly planted gate network, hoping against all odds to catch up before being left behind in an alien galaxy--permanently.
By the same token, long travel times between destinations is an idea that lends itself to plots about terrible isolation. We could have a lot of character development stories, while they're stuck on the (presumably vast) ship with no-one to interact with but each other. I'm picturing ill-thought-out relationships, intense arguments brought on by being stuck together for long periods of time, comedy episodes about them being hopelessly bored and attempting to pass the time.
The nature of the ship also allows for easy transition of guests a la Farscape or Lexx. Someone comes on board with them, gets cold feet about being stuck there forever, goes home a few episodes later. Or someone comes on board at the wrong time and is stuck with them forever. Maybe someone sneaks aboard and isn't really disruptive, just enigmatic and has to be figured out over the course of a few eps or even a few years.
Limitless possibilities people, let's try to put a good spin on things!
So let's try and take a positive spin to this, and think up reasons how a ship-based series might actually be pretty cool after all. I'll start off with some things I've been brainstorming while laying in bed unsuccessfully attempting to sleep:
Presumably the mission of the ship means that it periodically stops at places where gates have been seeded--so that its intended crew could have a look around the new digs and gather some data about the planets in question, indigenous life forms, that sort of thing. Now that would allow for a whole lot of on-location shooting wouldn't it? It would also allow for all sorts of interaction with new and exciting races we've never met before. It means that there could be small or large arcs involving alien races if it takes the ship a while to traverse some spacefaring empire's territory.
Think about it: the reason they're stuck is because the ship is on an unalterable course, right? Say it's dropped 20 gates in one galaxy, and most of them are in the territory of some aggressive race that doesn't much like its turf trespassed on. If our guys can't alter the ship's course, that means they've got a long bloody time to try to survive a region of space or make friends with the people in it.
Suppose one of our crew gets left behind on a planet, and has to do their best to chase after the ship via a freshly planted gate network, hoping against all odds to catch up before being left behind in an alien galaxy--permanently.
By the same token, long travel times between destinations is an idea that lends itself to plots about terrible isolation. We could have a lot of character development stories, while they're stuck on the (presumably vast) ship with no-one to interact with but each other. I'm picturing ill-thought-out relationships, intense arguments brought on by being stuck together for long periods of time, comedy episodes about them being hopelessly bored and attempting to pass the time.
The nature of the ship also allows for easy transition of guests a la Farscape or Lexx. Someone comes on board with them, gets cold feet about being stuck there forever, goes home a few episodes later. Or someone comes on board at the wrong time and is stuck with them forever. Maybe someone sneaks aboard and isn't really disruptive, just enigmatic and has to be figured out over the course of a few eps or even a few years.
Limitless possibilities people, let's try to put a good spin on things!
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