Why Stargate: Atlantis is cooler than Battlestar Galactica...

[PG15]

And how realistic would it be for hand-picked Expedition members to behave like that? How realistic would it be for a member of the military to break down everytime one of their men die and start drinking?

We already have fans complaining that, say, Keller is too whiny and fidgetty while scared. Well, that's freaking human, isn't it? Oh, but she can't behave like that because this is the Expedition and she should be prepared to face these things, just like everyone else.

But anyway, it's all moot since it IS a different situation anyway. The characters in BSG aren't "the best of the best"; they were just random people lucky enough to not get nuked.

[P-90_177]

And how realistic would it be for hand-picked Expedition members to behave like that? How realistic would it be for a member of the military to break down everytime one of their men die and start drinking?

We already have fans complaining that, say, Keller is too whiny and fidgetty while scared. Well, that's freaking human, isn't it? Oh, but she can't behave like that because this is the Expedition and she should be prepared to face these things, just like everyone else.

But anyway, it's all moot since it IS a different situation anyway. The characters in BSG aren't "the best of the best"; they were just random people lucky enough to not get nuked.

Ah yes but even when they are the best of the best like they're meant to be in SGA stress is meant to get to you. Take the first season where they were completely cut off from earth. You'd expect a bit of stress to start showing really. But it didn't. They just got on with everything like it was normal. And they did that quite quickly. Occasionally I concede we get some real gems of a character. Like Kavanaugh for example. We need more characters in SGA like Kavanaugh in fact I think cos he is very flawed individual who just happens to be a genius. So why is he there? Cos he is a genius and one of the best in his field.

SGA was heading in the right direction in season 3 I think. Remember how Weir was having to take sleeping pills to help her sleep and the stress was really starting to show with her? That's what we need more of, but with all the characters.

[MerryK]

Ah yes but even when they are the best of the best like they're meant to be in SGA stress is meant to get to you. Take the first season where they were completely cut off from earth. You'd expect a bit of stress to start showing really. But it didn't. They just got on with everything like it was normal. And they did that quite quickly. Occasionally I concede we get some real gems of a character. Like Kavanaugh for example. We need more characters in SGA like Kavanaugh in fact I think cos he is very flawed individual who just happens to be a genius. So why is he there? Cos he is a genius and one of the best in his field.

How is the Atlantis situation just as extreme as the BSG one? In BSG, they're on the run, barely even finding food and water, trapped on tiny ships, and any moment a mutiny might kill hundreds or thousands. SGA: they have a city that is usually hidden from all outsiders, they have plenty of food and water, it's a friendly and familial atmosphere, and the only extreme issue is that it's difficult to get to their home planet and they are at war. War doesn't cause everyone to behave like BSG, and all SGA is facing is war. Sure, alien war, but how often do they have to face that? It makes sense, especially since they get downtime and pseudo-vacations, that they aren't overreacting. People die, and you don't have to spend days or weeks in a total mess—yes, sometimes some people do, but not always, especially during war and among soldiers.

[Yeade]

Regarding why BSG and SGA characters handle stress differently, I find it helps to keep the following points in mind:

1) BSG and SGA characters work in very different timeframes and circumstances.

With the exception of the year-long skip at the end of S2, I never really got the impression that much time passed during or between BSG episodes. In contrast, the Atlantis expedition may very well have spent a full four years in Pegasus. Sometimes months slipped by between episodes and, what's more, this time's generally lost to the audience without so much as a throwaway line.

Though Beckett's death was still fresh in our minds because "Submersion" aired only a week after "Sunday," who knows how long the characters had to deal with their grief. McKay went to Scotland to see Beckett's family and attend the funeral; I figure that's already about a week's lag between the ceremony in Atlantis and Rodney's goodbye to Carson at the end of the episode. From "The Kindred," it's been six months or so since Beckett died. With "First Strike," "Adrift," and "Lifeline" occurring one after another in the span of a few days, I think there could've been an additional week, perhaps even two, between "Sunday" and "Submersion." Given nearly a month to accept Beckett's death, I don't think it's terribly unrealistic that everybody moved on.

edit: Watched "The Kindred" again. McKay actually says "Sunday" was six months after "Misbegotten." Which kind of throws off all my calculations, lol. However, assuming S3 was at least nine months or three-quarters of a year, there are only three episodes to fill the remaining time. With even spacing, that's a solid month between "Sunday" and "Submersion." Could easily be two months or more.

Atlantis and Earth provide the expedition with stable and relatively safe environments to relax in the likes of which the BSG characters don't truly have. Besides having plenty of food, water, good company, entertainment, many other necessities and frivolities in the city and on Earth, I doubt every off-world mission becomes a matter of life or death. Just the ones filmed for TV.

...which is exactly MerryK's point. I'm a slow writer today. Yet too lazy to delete.

It's interesting you mention stress beginning to show as SGA S1 draws to a close, P-90_177. I actually feel Sheppard went a little crazy killing Bob at the end of Siege I and stayed rather high-strung until "The Intruder," which was more than a month after Siege III. By my reckoning, there's a two-week build from "The Brotherhood" to "The Siege." A rather shaken Sheppard comes to the realization that there's no way Atlantis can stand against the Wraith in "Letters From Pegasus." He has about two days to wind himself up in Siege I and over 15 hours to decompress before the second act opens. Everett ratchets up the tension again over the next two or so days between Wraith attacks. This leads into him flying off on his suicide mission. Another two or three days for Siege III. He gets the Deddy trashed and loses Ford.

At the end of that episode, I got the distinct impression Sheppard left to return his weapons to the armory, curl up somewhere dark and quiet to contemplate all he's done wrong and how he's going to be summarily fired upon returning to Earth, then die.

Everyone gets noticeably tenser from Siege II to III, really. McKay and Zelenka in particular, I think, because they're running on stims from the time they connect the Mark II to the chair until the ZPM's installed and the first wave of Wraith has been beaten off. I tend to take McKay's especially grating attitude and his gun fumbling at the start of Siege III as symptomatic of his extreme exhaustion. In fact, he outright says he's going to snap when given 40 seconds to plug in the ZPM, and his plans after the city's (temporarily) saved, told to Teyla from his position stretched out on the floor, is to lie in bed and eat a really big sandwich.

Long story short (ha!), I don't think SGA entirely skimps on characters cracking under stress but, due to a vague timeframe much longer than BSG's and a more relaxed overall atmosphere with lots of opportunity to calm down, you're not going to see people losing it except in big, closely related arcs like "The Brotherhood" through "The Siege" or the "First Strike"/"Adrift"/"Lifeline" trio. Even then, it depends on the total time and how much passed between scenes, IMO.

2) BSG and SGA characters cope with strong emotion in very different ways.

Perhaps I've gotten the wrong impression, but most people on BSG seem to release emotion by crying, screaming, drinking, fighting, killing, dying, or frakking. SALAD comes to mind. The emotional responses of choice on SGA, OTOH, appear to be denial, avoidance, sublimation, repression, and denial again, with a side of sarcasm. Sheppard and McKay, for instance, absolutely suck at acknowledging relationships. While I find both equally plausible, the former probably films more dramatically than the latter, which is characterized more by a lack of reaction.

3) TPTB portray their respective characters very differently.

I've theorized before that SGA largely presents a third-person limited POV. One side effect of this, IMO, is that characters aren't often caught in private or unawares and personal information they don't care to share usually isn't revealed to the audience.

For example, IIRC, in the DVD commentary for "The Eye," it's mentioned that the writers considered showing how bothered by his killing all those Genii Sheppard was but decided against it because Sheppard isn't the type to have an open breakdown if he can help it. Now, I agree with that interpretation, but I wondered why we, the viewers, couldn't see Sheppard's reaction. There's even something of a trend in Sheppard characterization by hallucinations, twisted doubles, and dreams. Otherwise, I suspect we'd never learn anything about him, lol.

BSG hangs all the dirty laundry out for the world to see, so to speak.

Well. This is just my opinion, of course. Feel free to disagree. I love to argue!

[Exiled Master]

Man, as I watch this season, I find that Stargate Atlantis to be just as crappy as Season 10 of SG1.

I watched all of Season 1, 2, 3 of BSG, and find myself enjoying every episode. Not one episode made me lose attention from the episode. Plot lines are fluid and theres no plot holes in the storylines.

What about Stargate series?
- Plot holes
- No fluditiy between episodes
- Storyline blows

Even the good storylines like "The Travellers" could have been done much better.

What about Adrift and Lifeline? Good ops episodes, but could have used more action and plot.

It seems to be the same stuff over and over again.

1) Bad problem
2) We're screwed
3) Op mission, or fight
4) Get objective completed
5) Friend or someone gets left behind, or something screws up a bit
6) The end, problem solved.

I love Stargate. I watched Stargate since Season 2 of SG1, and Season 1 of SGA.

But this is just putrid.

If I had the power, I would definitely give up both stargate series (if SG1 was still airing) for Battlestar Galactica.

I am just vexxed that SGA continues to go, and BSG is gone by 2009.

BSG is fundamentally limited in duration: the writers wanted it that way. Keeping a goal-oriented show like BSG running for 6+ seasons is, at best, a bad idea. Basically, audiences would say 'How long does it take to find a frakking habitable planet?' and stop watching.

[jenks]

Of course there aren't many plot holes in BSG, because there's hardly any plot.

[GusF]

Atlantis doesn't take itself too seriously and, unlike BSG, doesn't leave me depressed or doubting my faith in humanity in general.

[g.o.d]

atlantis Doesn't Take Itself Too Seriously And, Unlike Bsg, Doesn't Leave Me Depressed Or Doubting My Faith In Humanity In General.

Ita

[GusF]

Ita

Hmm?

[g.o.d]

Hmm?

I totally agree

[GusF]

I totally agree

Oh, I see. Thanks.

[BumFluff]

I lost interest in the new BSG the first time I watched it. I remember watching the old BSG made in the 70's and loving it. In this one Starbuck is a woman!!!

[kymeric]

Of course there aren't many plot holes in BSG, because there's hardly any plot.

You mean guessing whos gonna have sex with whom else isnt a plot? XD

[kymeric]

Stargate is better than BSG because sg is full of ppl you can relate to that you could bump into at the mall. BSG is full of people who in real life OD right out of highschool or die in a DUI or are crushed while improperly operating heavy machinery.

Seriously everyone i knew from college that reminds me of bsg characters is sleeping under a bridge or has a head stone. Basically you clean up and turn into a normal person like sg characters or u self destruct.

[MerryK]

I know I haven't been the greatest supporter of BSG, simply because I like SGA better, but I do enjoy BSG sometimes. Basically, watching BSG feels like reading a book...it's a long story, and I've really hated some chapters/parts of the story, but I can't make a good judgment until it gets to the end. So far it looks pretty good, but who knows. SGA, though, is like a series of books.

Or, to use a totally different analogy, BSG reminds me of Charles Dickens while SGA is more like Anthony Trollope. Trollope's books are a bit lighter in content and plot, but the characters feel real and the humor is good, and overall it feels well done. Dickens is usually acknowledged to be a better writer because his plots are more elaborate (and his characters are well-crafted), but they are usually lacking humor, full of overdramatic scenes and characters, and feel way overexaggerated in general.