if you could rewrite sg1-sga-sgu what would you do?

[carmencatalina]

So just because he's physically in shape he is eye candy? Considering you see more of his face than his naked torso throughout the show, I would think the entire package should be pleasing to the eye. I'm not saying he's ugly, but he just isn't that attractive and he's definitely not hot.

No,no, I'm simply stating that he is attractive by the most boring of common standards (young, even-featured, physically in shape, etc.).

Personally? I find Robert Carlyle extremely attractive (and much more appropriately aged for me!), but I know that he is rather outside the common definition of handsome. Although, given by the length of the character thread for Dr. Rush over in the SGU board, I'm not alone!

[And I think Jamil Walker Smith has a lovely face - very pretty eyes - but again, too young for me!]

[You know who is really pretty? The young man who plays Airman Becker (the cook on Destiny). I'm sure I'm old enough to be his mother.]

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[carmencatalina]

Cradle snatcher

I know!
At least Robert Carlyle is older than me, that makes me feel a bit better.

[stargaterevision]

Don't know whether you visited my blog before so that you have this thread, LOL. Though i don't think so.
I made a blog like what you said 10 month ago. Maybe one day i will update it more again.
Feel free to visit my blog.
stargaterevision.blogspot.com

[juggernaut975]

Ok, saw this thread and I had some thoughts but before I posted I went for a run. I take my dog so it's about a half hour out, half hour back and during that time what was once a few changes became, well, this lol.


So this is my thought process, we'll make it easy by going step by step.

First thought: Is it even a good idea to continue the franchise?

A) Nope.

B) Yes.

So if we choose A) we look at the fact that we've already had 17 great seasons of television, three shows, two direct to dvd movies and a lot of wonderful memories. Not every franchise is guaranteed to last indefinitely and if Stargate never comes back to our tv screens we still had a great time with what we did get. The only regret that I have about the franchise closing would be that we never got a satisfactory ending, whether it was a proper series ending episode for SGU or a direct to DVD movie that tied up all the loose threads.

Or B), there's still a lot of potential there. I tend to lean towards B (I think most of us do.)

So let's move forward, we've decided to continue the franchise. There's a number of things that we could do, but let's narrow it down to two options.

A) Pick up right where we left off

B) Start anew with a kind of 're-set' or re-imagining of the franchise.

A) would be tricky. While SG1/SGA/SGU is what we know and love we have to take into account that there's going to be a bit of time between the cancellation and any new project. They could move forward with SG1 season 11 or SGA season 6 or SGU season 3 but, at that point, would the general audience have any interest at all?

We're big fans of the original programs but we make up a very tiny segment of the viewing audience. Which is why I'd vote for....

Option B), start anew. The goal is to reach as many viewers as possible and with that in mind we have to give newer viewers the chance to start at square one and you can't do that with years and years and years of backstory and characters that they're not familiar with.

So we have to start over. There's a ton of ways to do this, we'll focus on the two most practical (I'm sensing a trend here, lol...)

A) Set the story in a different era (past or future) or

B) Reboot the franchise completely

This one is tricky. With A) we have a lot of story options. We could have a show focusing on the Ancients and their rise to power, maybe unveil even more about the creation of the Stargate by showing it actually being done. We could fast forward a hundred years into the future and see where Earth is in 2097, have we grown as a species, how much progress have we made? We could set it on ancient Earth and have a program revolve around Ra's reign and his eventual banishment, just how did they pull that trick off? Did we have help from the Asgard? Did we do it ourselves?

Like I said, a lot of possibilities. But, ultimately, even though this would be new ground to cover it's still within the framework of the established SG Universe. There's going to be two types of audience members, one group who are enjoying the show but will be missing clues and references throughout and another group (us) who already know pretty much how everything is going to turn out. There's also the danger in falling back on the original series for odd guest stars and familiar twists and turns that would gum up the works. Example: Next time....a crazy energy pulse from Ra's fortress causes members from the Atlantis team to time-travel back to Ancient Egypt to.....whatever.

Which leads us to my choice, B) reboot the franchise. There's more than a couple of reasons for this but here are the most pertinent ones.

When starting the Rewatch, we had a pre-watch of the original film and then moved on to COTG and The Enemy Within. Great stuff, all around. But it reminded me of what made those early days so much fun and it's something that the series lost in later seasons. That's not to say that the later seasons were poor quality, far from it, but to restart the franchise we have to focus on the earlier concept.

We would have to focus on what was lost in subsequent seasons, which would be the History and the Mystery.

We'll start with Mystery since it's so darn mysterious.....

What lies beyond that puddle? That's the question that moviegoers asked themselves back in 1994 when Col. O'Neil and his men went through the gate and when Dr. Jackson, eventually, went through himself.

There was something magical behind that Unknown that laid beyond the Stargate....when the series started with COTG we suddenly found that the gate could go to other places and that we had an entire universe to explore.

By the time season 10 rolled around we had already figured out what lie beyond the gate and we were well established players in the universe having allied ourselves with the Asgard and Tok'ra and finding ourselves in conflict with the System Lords, the Ori, the Wraith and many, many others.

In fact, the Stargate at that point became obsolete. Who needs a Stargate when you can fly around the galaxy in the Daedalus or the Hammond? What was the point of having a Stargate when you could motor everywhere in a Puddle Jumper?


Near the end of their runs we could have eliminated Stargate from both titles and called the SG1 'Fifth Race' and SGA 'Atlantis'. To make the franchise live and breathe again we would need to re-establish the notion that we simply do not know what is on the other side.

But where does that leave the established history? The characters and concepts that we loved so much? There's so much to mine from, do we get rid of it all?

I don't think so. Looking at franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars, we see that they, from time to time, shake things up (to varied successes) without straying too far from what they've always established.

In Star Trek you'll always have Klingons and Romulans to combat and you'll always have Vulcans, in Star Wars, no matter what era you're in, you're always going to have the Jedi locked in combat with the Sith......and, for whatever reason, the Sith will always have a terribly deformed individual at the helm.....probably a deterrent to recruiting new members lol.

So what do WE have that sticks out like that? Who are our Klingon, our Sith?

We really don't have anyone like that now. As horrible as the Ori were and as brutal as the Wraith are Stargate doesn't have that standout villain that every franchise needs to keep it going.

But we did. This leads us to the History.

One of the more compelling elements of those early years was the fact that you put modern aged men and women of our Armed Forces into conflict with ancient Egyptian warriors.....but warriors gifted with fantastic technology that easily dwarfed our own.

Seeing O'Neill and Jackson dragged before Ra's throne and seeing his offspring surround him as the mask is retracted, having SG1 being captured by Apophis on Chulak at that opulent dinner, SG1 arriving on Cimmeria and being mocked by the locals who know that Thor's going to just wipe the floor with them....

One of the strongest themes in Stargate is the concept of Old vs. New and Old holding their own. Mortal men and women standing up to Gods and defying them.

Now what SG1 did throughout the years was to build on that concept and grow from it, taking it in some fantastic directions.....but the concept, I believe, is strong enough that it deserves a chance to be revisited.

So new actors? A younger Col. O'Neill?

This leads us to the next question, this one about just what kind of a re-boot are we planning:

A) A re-imagining of the original story? (similar to the most recent Star Trek film)

or

B) something completely fresh?


So with A) there are some dangers because, really, who else is going to portray O'Neill?
But is RDA so closely identified with the role that NO ONE else could play it?

A decade ago I would have told you that the idea of re-casting Kirk and Spock would be insane but, lo and behold, they did it. And I didn't hate it.

O'Neill? I'm not sure. There's certain roles that simply, imho, cannot be reassigned. You can't re-cast Han Solo or Indiana Jones for instance.....but is Jack O'Neill on that level?

I believe he is. Part of that 'magic' from the early years was the cast chemistry. You simply cannot recreate SG1. O'Neill, Jackson, Carter, Teal'c, Gen. Hammond, Dr. Frasier, Walter....it just can't be re-created.

So that leads us to B), something completely fresh.



So after that LOOOOONG set up, we have, finally, what I would do.

No SG1, no SGA, no SGU or any other variation....the show would be titled Stargate.

The franchise needs it's own Darth Vader, it's own Klingons and we have a candidate in the form of Ba'al.

Cliff Simon's portrayal is charismatic, powerful and, at times, completely badass. He has the potential to be the antagonist that Stargate needs. Star Wars wouldn't be a success without Darth Vader, Dr. Who wouldn't be as significant without the Daleks or the Master, Star Trek wouldn't be as Trekky without the Klingons or the Borg....we need that level of villain and I can't think of a better candidate than Ba'al.

So to begin the story we go back to the start of the last DVD release.....

Ba'al's contingent plan from Continuum came to fruition and, thanks to time-traveling shenanigans he alone rules the Goa'uld Empire.

We never had to overthrow Ra because Ba'al eliminated him himself. Realizing how valuable a resource the Earth could be but understanding the threat that we could pose were we to become aware of the rest of the galaxy, Ba'al keeps the Stargate on Earth but keeps it hidden, leaving a number of Jaffa and human servants to defend it from ever being discovered by humans.

Fast forward to present day. For thousands of years the Jaffa have kept their post and Ba'al's servants have been busy, integrating themselves into human society as watchers and sleeper agents. Ba'al communicates, on occasion with his Earth outpost and is pleased to learn that, even after all this time, no one has discovered the Stargate or the fact that his influence is slowly being spread across the planet. Soon, he feels, in a century, maybe more, he will be ready to strike.

At this point you have the set up for the new show. You'd introduce a new archeologist(s) who would work alongside the US military as they discover the threat of Ba'al and find the second Stargate, the one thing that Ba'al overlooked and the catalyst for his eventual defeat.

This is what Stargate needs. A return to the core concept and a renewal of a classic foe that will lead the franchise into the future.


That was MUCH longer than what I had intended, but like I said....when you're on the trails running with just the dog for company, your mind tends to wander