Is 20 episodes too long?

[AvatarIII]

i was thinking, about the fact that SGU is supposedly going to be very arc based with little or none filler episodes, then i was thinking about the length of the season and about how I couldn't really think of any arc based show with seasons that long that doesn't drag on too much,

Shows like; the 4400, T:TSCC, BSG season 1, Heroes Volume 2 and 3, and Sanctuary all manages to have fullfilling arc's in only 13 or less episodes, whereas Heroes Volume 1 and Lost season 1 both, in my opinion dragged on quite a bit, especially in the earlier setting up episodes (which BSG, and the 4400 didn't need due to miniseries prior to main seasons, and T:TSCC didn't need due to the movies)

Does anybody else think 20 episodes may be too long, especially considering most people already know of the universe that the series is set? and other viewers may be put off if the show has a slow start. especially considering the show will apparently have a small main cast, perhaps even smaller than that of Lost

or would people prefer a few filler episodes just to prevent the kind of boring scene setting episodes that make heroes season 1 and lost season 1, a bore to re-watch.

edit: also 13 episodes would have a better budget per episode, which on a series like SGU will be important imho. not sure how much the 7 episodes less of ad revenue would change that figure however.

[Inquisitor]

20 episodes are never too long!

They should go back to 22.

The more the [more you will be] merrier

I get annoyed when TV shows only have a few episodes per season. It just feels like a cop-out, to me, so they can go "Oh we lasted 10 seasons" when they only had 100 episodes.

[Mclean]

I thought the average season length for Stargate was about 20 odd episodes anyway!

[frostwolf]

20 episodes are never too long!

They should go back to 22.

The more the [more you will be] merrier

I get annoyed when TV shows only have a few episodes per season. It just feels like a cop-out, to me, so they can go "Oh we lasted 10 seasons" when they only had 100 episodes.

I wish they would go back to the 22 to 24 episodes a year series used to have. That way they won't just get to the magic 100 epidoes for the season 5 finale and decide that that's good enough they don't need more seasons.

[AvatarIII]

I thought the average season length for Stargate was about 20 odd episodes anyway!

i think the average was 21.4, 20.93 if you include atlantis, but my point is SGU is going to be a very different type of show, that perhaps would benefit from shorter seasons.

[BeardedKirk]

Personally i need a regular SG fix, so if i only had 13 episodes instead of the usual 20-odd & then had to wait a year before the next season? That would drive me nuttier than i all ready am!

Seriously i would prefer 20 eps per season but if they decide 13 makes the season arc more exciting and they are not having to fill gaps with random crap, then who am i to argue? I just want more Stargate. Period.

[gange57]

I've been wanting a thirteen episode season for awhile. I'm not convinced the current writers can pull off an arc driven show for thirteen episodes let alone twenty. A shorter season will keep the storytelling concise and filler to a minimum. Plus, more doesn't neccesarily mean better.

[Empress Vajnraa]

If the writers didn't have to come up with 20 "new" stories every year, maybe the quality of the writing and the stories would be better.

Less people comin' online and complaining about re-used plots and such.

Somewhere between 13 and 16 is fine with me. The less filler, the better.

[BeardedKirk]

Somewhere between 13 and 16 is fine with me. The less filler, the better.

Depends on the filler. 'Window of Opportunity' was awesome.

[Rise Of The Phoenix]

Personally I'm fine with getting a 20 episode ark for seasons, provided it's done well and doesn't feel like it's all forced.
Perhaps the producers will just add parts of the ark of the story into the overall season.
We'll probably still get filler episodes, but with some details of the ark being mentioned by the characters.
However if the actual ark of the show is interesting, fresh and new then I don't have a problem if that's all we get.
It could make the show feel like it's actually going somewhere which to me at least has felt a bit lacking in certain parts of recent episodes of Atlantis at least.

[AvatarIII]

Depends on the filler. 'Window of Opportunity' was awesome.

true, but season 4 was quite arc-light anyway, so they had more time to come up with good filler eps.
and you can only think of 1 good filler episode in 15 seasons? pshaw!

i'd rather have 13 great episodes than 6 great and 14 average episodes,
the way i see it, the less eps, the more original the stories can be, and the higher quality the stories are, and the sooner you get to some sort of conclusion within the story.

[BeardedKirk]

true, but season 4 was quite arc-light anyway, so they had more time to come up with good filler eps.
and you can only think of 1 good filler episode in 15 seasons? pshaw!

i'd rather have 13 great episodes than 6 great and 14 average episodes,
the way i see it, the less eps, the more original the stories can be, and the higher quality the stories are, and the sooner you get to some sort of conclusion within the story.

Hey, hey, hey... I'm at work so it's not that easy to do detailed lists of episodes i liked that are fillers...

Let me ask you a question... Are there really that many episodes from SG1 & SGA that you would rather that they had never done? I can't think of one myself...

[AvatarIII]

lol me too, don't tell the boss!
well, there are a lot, especially in SGA and later SG1, where i feel i would have rather have got rid of an episode if it meant another episode was improved. especially episodes that just repeat old ideas.

and we're not talking about old stargate, SGU aims to be a very different type of show right from the start!

[BeardedKirk]

lol me too, don't tell the boss!
well, there are a lot, especially in SGA and later SG1, where i feel i would have rather have got rid of an episode if it meant another episode was improved. especially episodes that just repeat old ideas.

and we're not talking about old stargate, SGU aims to be a very different type of show right from the start!

Fair enough, there are parts of seasons 9 & 10 that i would have liked to have seen played out differently but my philosophy is 'you can't change the past but can shape the future' so i'm happy to let them be & watch them again.

And again your point about it being SGU being conceptually different is correct i just want them to get the right balance of 'New, different & improved' with 'This is Stargate baby!'. plus i already have loads of questions about the previous series that i want answers for and expansions, i don't want that to become even more of an issue for SGU!!! I need to sleep sometime!!

[AvatarIII]

well you won't get any SG1 or SGA answers in the SGU filler episodes and if anything it's the filler episodes that RAISE the questions because they aren't thought out as deeply within canon and the story arc.

and i'd sure they'll hit the balance perfectly, the writers are mostly the same and it's the same universe. this is stargate baby!, but it's stargate's baby with the mother of arc driven shows (wordplay is fun )

i'm not saying i dislike filler episodes, in fact most of my favourite eps are fillers, but mostly because the writers spend too long writing good fillers they end up with poor/unfulfilling/unexplained story arcs, which is what i don't want to see in SGU