Feelings about the cancellation of Atlantis

[Teal'c_PI]

I'm going to miss the show, but honestly I'm not that upset about it. Every time I began watching a new season, I was worried. "What good character are they going to kill off this time?" "What foolishness will Michael be up to now?" "Oh, I hope they won't kill Dr. Zelenka today..." And on it went.

With the show ended, I can take the characters and write stories about them myself--stories in which people I like survive, and Rodney gets one-upped once in a great while. Even though I'll never be able to see new episodes again, I'll look back on my favorites and smile, just as I do when I watch my favorite episodes of SG-1.

In truth, I think that Atlantis' time was coming to an end anyway. The Replicators are gone already, and if Michael is going to be finally killed in this season, then the only villains remaining are the Replicator-Weir and the Borg-like aliens introducted in "The Daedalus Variations". I'm not sure how the writers could've ever resolved the Replicator-Weir situation, unless they resolve it in an upcoming episode; and the entire Borg-alien thing would have most likely been unpopular. So what sort of villains would have been left? They would have continued with the Borg-aliens and even resorted to making unsatisfying stories.

In season 1, the stories were amazing--almost every one of them was well-written. In season 2, they started to go down. In season 3, they hit their all-time low with such horror shows as "Irresistible", "Irresponsible", and "The Game". In season 4, they've moved up slightly--about on par with season 2. I haven't seen anything of season 5 yet, but it seems to me as though it's staying at the level of season 4.

Basically, my point is that Atlantis' overall stories were not as good as SG-1's. I've been watching earlier SG-1 episodes, and I have to say that in all the seasons from 4 onwards, each episode would get at least a 8 out of 10. The average rating that I give Atlantis is 6 or 5 out of 10. So even though Atlantis was canceled to make room for Universe, I think that it was the perfect time--it kept us from receiving more sadly mediocre stories.

In the end, I wish that Atlantis would have been as much of a success as SG-1 was. But unfortunately, even with the good setup, they have sunk slowly to the bottom of the ocean again.

[niel0248]

I am very disappointed that Atlantis has been canceled. Season 5 thus far has been really good. The Daedalus Variation was suspenseful and well written. The Shrine had terrific character moments. The Ghost in the Machine had the moral dilemmas we all love. I hate to see Atlantis go.

[YutheGreat]

I am going to miss Todd and Michael.

[Nusku]

Sadly I simply don't don't care about the cancellation. Had this been a year ago I'd have been gutted. As it stands the lameness of Season 5 has killed SGA off for me. This cancellation is no surprise whatsoever. I saw it coming from a mile off -- well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out a rubbish sci-fi show aint gonna last. Sadly SGA has jumped the shark. I think Teyla's pregnancy heralded the beginning of the end. Although, ultimately I blame the writers who have nothing new to bring to the table and the producers for not firing the writers and bringing in some fresh blood. Keller and Woolsey have obviously contributed to killing the show too.

McKay is the only character I'll miss. Hopefully the guy who plays him will get a gig on a decent show that entertains me in the future.

[pjt]

Keller and Woolsey have obviously contributed to killing the show too.

I think Teyla's pregnancy heralded the beginning of the end.

How exactly?

[Nusku]

How exactly?

Do you watch the show?

[pjt]

Do you watch the show?

Yes I did, that's why I'm asking this (and I had a bet, that you won't really answer it ).

Anyhoo you don't can a show if a star gets pregnant, and you don't can a show if a leading actress chooses another show to make. So they'll hardly heed your warnings, and "learn" from these mistakes.

[Nusku]

Yes I did, that's why I'm asking this (and I had a bet, that you won't really answer it ).

Anyhoo you don't can a show if a star gets pregnant, and you don't can a show if a leading actress chooses another show to make. So they'll hardly heed your warnings, and "learn" from these mistakes.

?

The carbon footprint incurred by your post greatly exceeds its relevancy. Please try to be more aware of how much your witterings needlessly cost the environment in future.

kthxbai

[pjt]

The carbon footprint incurred by your post greatly exceeds its relevancy. Please try to be more aware of how much your witterings needlessly cost the environment in future.

Ouch!

But let's have your rant here again to finish off our hapless little planet:

Sadly I simply don't don't care about the cancellation. Had this been a year ago I'd have been gutted. As it stands the lameness of Season 5 has killed SGA off for me. This cancellation is no surprise whatsoever. I saw it coming from a mile off -- well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out a rubbish sci-fi show aint gonna last. Sadly SGA has jumped the shark. I think Teyla's pregnancy heralded the beginning of the end. Although, ultimately I blame the writers who have nothing new to bring to the table and the producers for not firing the writers and bringing in some fresh blood. Keller and Woolsey have obviously contributed to killing the show too.

So I still feel you don't really understand things around TV shows, so let me help again:
1. The actress Rachel Luttrell was pregnant.
2. Amanda Tapping left for her own show, called "Sanctuary", soon to be seen on Sci-Fi.

You're welcome!

[borgprincess]

For what it's worth, just because the actor is pregnant, the character doesn't have to be- I've seen shows where they 'covered up' the pregnancy because it didn't make sense to add that element to the show. [How I wish they'd done that with Xena]

I agree with Nusku that had this happened a year ago, I'd've been shattered by the news but now? I'm not too upset about the cancellation. A few friends found out and teased me about it, but my love was for the first three seasons, not the last two, so I wasn't disappointed. It just seemed to get worse and worse and the plots more silly and boring, in my opinion. Cancelling it now seems to be a mercy. I only wish they'd cancelled SGA after the fourth season and gone on with SG-1 because *that* show had a lot of promise and potential, even after ten seasons, I thought it deserved to continue more than SGA did.

[pjt]

For what it's worth, just because the actor is pregnant, the character doesn't have to be- I've seen shows where they 'covered up' the pregnancy because it didn't make sense to add that element to the show. [How I wish they'd done that with Xena]

They tried it with Carter, didn't work out much. She was visibly pregnant, and then next season "got transferred". The problem is, that writing around the actress' pregnancy depends how far she is, unless you want to get it just too obvious. In Teyla's case there was no way they could have kept her in the second half of the season, in case they wanted to hide it.
Also they wanted an arc for her, because she wasn't really around in season 3.

I only wish they'd cancelled SGA after the fourth season and gone on with SG-1 because *that* show had a lot of promise and potential, even after ten seasons, I thought it deserved to continue more than SGA did.

You mean the third, don't you? The fourth season of SGA was the first being the only SG show.

[freyr's mother]

At first i was pretty pissed about the cancellation but since then i've come to realize that the movies will have bigger budgets and that if some of the writing staff continued it would have just run the show into the ground. A lot of it was becoming predictable. I am looking foward to the movies though.

[Ikaros]

Supposing that they're not going to make a movie every 2 years.
And they're not like the sg1 ones.
If theymake 2-3 Atlantis movies per year i might calmdown......

[borgprincess]

They tried it with Carter, didn't work out much. She was visibly pregnant, and then next season "got transferred". The problem is, that writing around the actress' pregnancy depends how far she is, unless you want to get it just too obvious. In Teyla's case there was no way they could have kept her in the second half of the season, in case they wanted to hide it.
Also they wanted an arc for her, because she wasn't really around in season 3.



You mean the third, don't you? The fourth season of SGA was the first being the only SG show.

Seriously? Amanda was pregnant during the show? Um...well, I wasn't as involved online as I have been recently, so THAT news totally slipped by me. My eyes, how did they miss this? Wow. I wanna go back and try to find out where she looks pregnant now... But it shows that their 'cover-up' worked on me, at the very least, lol. *facepalm*

As for Teyla's arc...I don't know that it was very well handled, the whole sudden romance thing just blindsided everyone, this random boyfriend came out of nowhere to account for her sudden pregnancy bomb. It seemed a little clumsy and ill-thought-out, and although I know there were many pros all for it, there were also many fans who joined the anti group because they loathed the idea and thought it was the beginning of some rubbish scripting in SGA. I think TPTB did it much better on Criminal Minds, where the writers also had to insert an actress's pregnancy into the script.

I don't really care about season 4 or 5, I just couldn't remember when SG-1 was cancelled [they air so much later in Australia, my sense of time is all mixed up]. Yeah, I wouldn't have minded it being cancelled after season 3, then. I lost interest after that.

[nowvoyager908]

As a viewer who was gutted when they killed Beckett and sidelined Weir back in season 3, I've already gone through the mourning process associated with the cancellation of a favorite show.

I've only seen three episodes in seasons 4 and 5 combined. I watched mostly to see what new and amazing ways TPTB would find to further screw the character of Elizabeth Weir.

What amazed me while watching Gitmo was how cold and hollow the show has become. I used to really enjoy the team connection; the undertone of respect and caring. In Gitmo, I felt like I watching a bunch of disconnected people who just happened to find themselves in the same place at the same time. It was sad.

I'm not jumping for joy that Atlantis is ending. But it does bother me still that the show had so much early potential that IMHO was willfully tossed away. Oh well.