Did TPTB focus on McKay (and McKeller) destroy Stargate Atlantis in your opinion.

[Inquisitor]

The seed: I don't see what wraith dna has to do with this, why would they need wraith DNA when before that experiment they had cruisers and hives? I'd say Keller was chosen because she's seen as weak and needed to be protected, which gets the viewer involved more than any other character.

The lost tribe-- Anyone else wasn't smart enough or didn't have the ancient gene. I'd like to see sheppard configure the aterro device - it wouldn't make sense how he had all this knowledge on Janus when it was never mentioned he researched him, nor is it believable he would.

The Shrine - I think Hewlett acted that perfectly, I don't see any problem with that episode, it was one of my favourite, (and tearful ), episodes of the season.

I would have rathered McKay and what's-her-face, the one he nearly proposed to.. sigh i can't believe I forgot her name.

Is it just me, or are people looking at things they hate, then blaming it for the cancellation? Let me do this now, I think it was cancelled because the canon was 'out of whack', Earth became too powerful, and there wasn't much story left to tell. To avoid spending more money on SGA, they wanted a complete new story (SGU).

[misskitten]

I honestly don't give a rat's ass about SGA being cancelled. I stopped watching it halfway through season five. I just couldn't take it anymore. And I know now that I stopped in the nick of time.

I don't blame McKeller for the cancellation, but I do blame it for ruining my enjoyment of a show I once loved. If TPTB wanted a ship so badly, then they had several options with a lot more buildup to them (not to mention a lot more chemistry), but they *had* to go with Gero's wet dream.

There were already several things that irked me, like how Teyla and Ronon (IMO the best characters of the show) ended up holding up the scenery whenever we saw them. But it was McKeller that really made the difference. It came from nowhere, the writing jumped all over the place, and BS, if joining the Mile High club on your first "date" is TPTB's idea of romance, then I should probably be thankful they didn't follow through on any of my ships... that was beyond disturbing for me.

[Alicia]

They knew they had these last few episodes to wrap all the (important) loose ends and have a fantastic build-up to the series finale, and they waste it away. And do Brain Storm? O_o

Talk about 45 minutes of missing the point of the show completely.

ITA. For me, that wasn't SGA, that was a show I would never watch because I would turn the TV off the first few minutes in.



What I don't understand is why some people in here complain about the show always having been about John and Rodney. So? That was what made me enjoy it and what had been taken away in Season five.
You knew what the deal was going in. When it had always been like that, then there's no reason to complain, because no one led you on by making it about, I don't know, Radek for example in the beginning and then all of a sudden only focusing on John and Rodney.

Because that's what happened with McKeller - THAT is what came out of nowhere and the show had never been about things like that before and then - Boom. Focus solely on Keller and a relationship that made me wanna gag. And I feel justified in being furious about that because SGA had been a really great show for me prior to McKeller and that destroyed it for me.

So, I don't really get, why people complain about it only being about John or only being about Rodney, because it's always been like that. There has always been a focus on Rodney, so that didn't DESTROY the show, that was what the show was about and I'm baffled that if you didn't like John and Rodney that you could start watching and liking the show in the first place, because for TPTB, Rodney and John have (luckily for me) always been the focus of the show.
(And I'm not saying here that they should neglect Teyla and Ronon. I'm just saying that the focus on Rodney didn't come out of the blue.)

I agree, Rodney suddenly having more screen time in Season 5 than the lead of the show - that was a bit over the top. But that was a symptom of John being thoroughly neglected in Season five, which again was most probably due to TPTB pushing Keller in our faces and that thing they called a relationship.

[bluealien]

ITA. For me, that wasn't SGA, that was a show I would never watch because I would turn the TV off the first few minutes in.



What I don't understand is why some people in here complain about the show always having been about John and Rodney. So? That was what made me enjoy it and what had been taken away in Season five.

Beacause it was meant to be an ensemble show and as much as many fans were quite happy with the McKay/Sheppard show there were also those that were not and most of those have moved on. There wasnt really a lot to enjoy about the show if you werent into the Rodney/John show. I liked their banter in season one but I didnt tune into SGA just to watch the McShep show and I found it boring and tiresome by season three. The banter that I once enjoyed became annoying and childish..

You knew what the deal was going in. When it had always been like that, then there's no reason to complain, because no one led you on by making it about, I don't know, Radek for example in the beginning and then all of a sudden only focusing on John and Rodney.

What about fans who werent only interested in John and Rodney but wanted to see the show focused on the entire team... it was meant to be a ensemble cast but it was always McKay focused and it became too much over the years... I guess I hung in there because mistakingly I thought the writers cared about Sheppard as well... but he got tossed aside just as much as Teyla and Ronon... The McKay/Shepard show was fine for those who were only interested in those characters but what about the fans who liked the whole team.. and who would have liked to have see Ronon get to save the day once in a blue moon... who would have liked to have seen a bit about his culture or Teyla's and not about Rodney coming up with a genius plan while insisting he couldnt.. and Shep telling him he could .. and the usual predictable back and forth between them..

Because that's what happened with McKeller - THAT is what came out of nowhere and the show had never been about things like that before and then - Boom. Focus solely on Keller and a relationship that made me wanna gag. And I feel justified in being furious about that because SGA had been a really great show for me prior to McKeller and that destroyed it for me.

Well McKeller just shifted the focus off McKay/Sheppard to McKay/Keller... and for me taking the focus of McKay/Sheppard wasnt a bad thing.. but instead of then focusing on some of the other totally unused characters it was just another way to focus on McKay...

So, I don't really get, why people complain about it only being about John or only being about Rodney, because it's always been like that.

It didn't start out like that and I got pulled in before I knew they were going to turn it into the McKay/Sheppard show....or Stargate McKay.. but I kept hoping it would change..

There has always been a focus on Rodney, so that didn't DESTROY the show, that was what the show was about and I'm baffled that if you didn't like John and Rodney that you could start watching and liking the show in the first place, because for TPTB, Rodney and John have (luckily for me) always been the focus of the show.

As I said it wasn't always about Rodney and John... and for those who were only interested in these characters then I'm sure they enjoyed it because they were getting what they wanted out of the show.. their fav 2 fav characters got the most screentime. though eventhough Sheppard got a fair amount of screentime he rarely got anything meaty to do at all.. again all those stories went to McKay.. I hung in there thinking hoping it would change and that all the characters would eventually get equal screentime..but it never happened and by season 5 it became just a joke with the McKay overload and they were some of the worst episodes of the entire series... and yet the writers had still neglected every other member of the team.. including the lead of the show...

(And I'm not saying here that they should neglect Teyla and Ronon. I'm just saying that the focus on Rodney didn't come out of the blue.)

No it didnt... it has alway been about Rodney and there in lies my problem with the show... the show was not distroyed by McKeller.. but by the overuse of McKay... I remember JF saying at the very first convention I attended that he had to go to the writers and tell them that there were other characters besides McKay to write for.... he had to go and bat for Rachel and Jason.... little did he know that he would soon have to do this for his own character as well... that was the problem with the show.. the obsession with McKay.. and over the years it totally ruined my enjoyment of the show and if SGA had continued the way it did in season five I would never have tuned into a season 6.... McKeller was just an extention of the McKay obsession... of course there are many fans who are not bothered at all by the overuse of McKay because he was their fav character or who loved the McShep show.. but there were also many fans who left the show because of both these issues ..

I agree, Rodney suddenly having more screen time in Season 5 than the lead of the show - that was a bit over the top. But that was a symptom of John being thoroughly neglected in Season five, which again was most probably due to TPTB pushing Keller in our faces and that thing they called a relationship.

Rodney always had more screentime... when it was with Sheppard it was a lot more tolerable because Sheppard was a great character but it was still overdone. So for fans of Sheppard and McKay yes I'm sure most wouldnt complain that they were lucky enough that their fav characters got a good deal of screentime, but what about the fans of Teyla and Ronon who had to accept any crumbs that were thrown their way over the years...and it was this imbalance and lack of imagination and creative writing for all the cast that killed the show IMO...

[MickyD]

Personally i didn't mind Mckeller too much, it did however annoy me that it took screen time away from John and McKay or Teyla and Ronon, who in my opinion have wonderful on screen chemistry.

SGA isn't about 'love' and i don't see why the writers decided to attempt this, they should have left it alone in 'The Last Man' because if i wanted to watch a sci fi about inter character relations i would watch BSG again. Stargate should be about the team getting into ludicrous situations and miraculously escaping in entertaining ways, not ambiguous notions of the mile high club after a first date.

Mckeller did not 'ruin' SGA any more than the lack of John/Teyla/Ronon did, that being said. McKay is probably my favourite character and i do not think that The Shrine or The Lost Tribe would have been half as good if he hadn't played the role he did.

So what if S5 was worse than S4, You are all acting as though this has ruined the prior seasons for you when in truth they are the same.

If we're lucky SGA writers might take a leaf from the BSG writers book and kill off bucket loads of the characters in quick succession. Then Keller could die at the start of the movie, giving us a Mckeller free, John, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon episode.
Even possibly showing us a new side to Rodney or something... so long as it doesn't get mentioned that Keller's dead every 5 seconds for the whole movie

[Inquisitor]

Rodney suddenly having more screen time in Season 5 than the lead of the show

I don't see how a weak character (john sheppard) could be considered the lead of the show. Tbh, i don't think SGA had a lead character,per se, similar to sg1 9/10.

[slurredspeech]

I liked their banter in season one but I didnt tune into SGA just to watch the McShep show and I found it boring and tiresome by season three. The banter that I once enjoyed became annoying and childish...

I think it was the case of too much of a good thing. While amusing and a fantastic addition to the show, it shouldn't have been the show.
Perhaps if they spun-off the characters, set them in an apartment overlooking Central Park and give them two wacky neighbors across the hall... ? Hmmm.

In all seriousness, I actually enjoyed them two, up until the point when it started feeling forced. 'Must produce twenty condescending yet witty lines of conversation between Shep and McKay' kind of feel. It inevitably became repetitive.

I'll take them two over McKeller any time though. That was just... bizzare.

[Linda06]

Personally i didn't mind Mckeller too much, it did however annoy me that it took screen time away from John and McKay or Teyla and Ronon, who in my opinion have wonderful on screen chemistry.

SGA isn't about 'love' and i don't see why the writers decided to attempt this, they should have left it alone in 'The Last Man' because if i wanted to watch a sci fi about inter character relations i would watch BSG again. Stargate should be about the team getting into ludicrous situations and miraculously escaping in entertaining ways, not ambiguous notions of the mile high club after a first date.

Mckeller did not 'ruin' SGA any more than the lack of John/Teyla/Ronon did, that being said. McKay is probably my favourite character and i do not think that The Shrine or The Lost Tribe would have been half as good if he hadn't played the role he did.

So what if S5 was worse than S4, You are all acting as though this has ruined the prior seasons for you when in truth they are the same.

If we're lucky SGA writers might take a leaf from the BSG writers book and kill off bucket loads of the characters in quick succession. Then Keller could die at the start of the movie, giving us a Mckeller free, John, Rodney, Teyla, Ronon episode.
Even possibly showing us a new side to Rodney or something... so long as it doesn't get mentioned that Keller's dead every 5 seconds for the whole movie

I see it differently, I can't stand Rodney and I thought The Shrine was cringeworthy at best with his OTTness I was sick of another Rodney dying ep

[maxbo]

Destroyed is maybe too strong a word, but it was lessened. IMO of course.

I agree with this - the fact that I'm still here means that SGA hasn't been totally destroyed for me yet, however the McKeller focus almost did me in.

Beacause it was meant to be an ensemble show and as much as many fans were quite happy with the McKay/Sheppard show there were also those that were not and most of those have moved on. There wasnt really a lot to enjoy about the show if you werent into the Rodney/John show. I liked their banter in season one but I didnt tune into SGA just to watch the McShep show and I found it boring and tiresome by season three. The banter that I once enjoyed became annoying and childish.

I really loved the Rodney/John banter in the beginning too, but like you I also found it "boring and tiresome" by season 3 because it was overused.

It didn't start out like that and I got pulled in before I knew they were going to turn it into the McKay/Sheppard show....or Stargate McKay.. but I kept hoping it would change..

Same here. If I had known that SGA's writers would be so unimaginative, so lazy as to want to focus on the same 1-2 characters over and over again, then I would never have started watching SGA - until after it had already been cancelled perhaps.

No it didnt... it has alway been about Rodney and there in lies my problem with the show... the show was not distroyed by McKeller.. but by the overuse of McKay... I remember JF saying at the very first convention I attended that he had to go to the writers and tell them that there were other characters besides McKay to write for.... he had to go and bat for Rachel and Jason.... little did he know that he would soon have to do this for his own character as well... that was the problem with the show.. the obsession with McKay.. and over the years it totally ruined my enjoyment of the show and if SGA had continued the way it did in season five I would never have tuned into a season 6.... McKeller was just an extention of the McKay obsession... of course there are many fans who are not bothered at all by the overuse of McKay because he was their fav character or who loved the McShep show.. but there were also many fans who left the show because of both these issues.

I agree that McKeller wasn't the problem because McKeller only existed because of the writers' obsession with McKay. And, I also remember those con reports of how JF had to remind the writers that McKay wasn't the only character on the show and that they should give Rachel and Jason more to do. Unfortunately, that didn't do much good because the writers continued to treat Teyla and Ronon like supporting characters, as was proven by their reason for bringing Keller on board.

Gero and Mallozzi said they needed a character like Keller to open up new storylines because, according to Gero, they couldn't keep writing Sheppard/McKay storylines - conveniently overlooking the fact that they had two other remaining main characters that had received very little attention. Not the mention the fact that they had gotten rid of two other main characters that had also been neglected - Carson and Elizabeth.

And, what did they do with this new character they said they needed to open up new storylines? Not much because they merely used her to take Sheppard's place as Rodney's sidekick. They put as little thought into her character development as they did with the "invisible babysitter (Mallozzi's words), Kanaan. Because it was all about Rodney for these writers, Keller didn't need to be believable, she just needed to be cute and be interested in Rodney.

Rodney always had more screentime... when it was with Sheppard it was a lot more tolerable because Sheppard was a great character but it was still overdone. So for fans of Sheppard and McKay yes I'm sure most wouldnt complain that they were lucky enough that their fav characters got a good deal of screentime, but what about the fans of Teyla and Ronon who had to accept any crumbs that were thrown their way over the years...and it was this imbalance and lack of imagination and creative writing for all the cast that killed the show IMO...

Yes, in the end, it all comes down to the writing and, unfortunately, SGA's writers just weren't creative enough or diverse enough to craft storylines that didn't revolve around Rodney and a sidekick. The only difference between the McKay/Sheppard show and the McKeller show is that initially the McKay/Sheppard show was better received. However, even by Season 2, I noticed a lot of complaints about how there was too much McKay/Sheppard and not enough of the other characters and I'm sure most of those fans are long gone.

[Stormtrooper]

I voted yes, but McKay, Keller and their weird relationship were, in fact, symptoms of a larger problem: TPTW's inability to deliver creative storylines, consistent with SGA and its mythology, that brought the show to the next level. From a fan perspective, producers and writers clearly didn't know what to do with the show by the time of McKeller, thus the exaggerated focus on that relationship and other trivialities.

[Arica15]

I voted yes but I think it's a bit more complicated.

Yes the focus on McKay definitely hurt the show, the show was Stargate Atlantis, not Rodney McKay and friends, the more time spent doing the same things with McKay ad nauseum was less time developing the other characters, however I think the whole Rodney is the only character was the default setting, I think they were so out of ideas by Season 5 that they tried a bit of an illusion, write about Rodney in the hopes that it will shield all the other problems, trouble was it didn't.

Now McKeller was just plain sad, it did nothing for the Rodney character and even less for Keller, and considering how awful she was to begin with that's saying something, and I don't think it's unfair to say that it just isn't what people wanted to see. And that leads onto the second point, the problem with McKeller was that it was like transplanting the head of a squid onto the body of a lion. Keller was not popular to begin with, I think part of McKeller was the producers tying to justify her character by making her so important to the most popular character, but regardless of that I think it was doomed from the start. The best way I can think of to describe it was Sam and Jack on SG-1, now while the producers and writers that introduced hints of it in Season 1, beyond that it grew organically, the fans liked it so they wanted more (though note when they tried to go to far with it it usually ended up a disaster) and the writers responded. McKeller just appeared, there was no call for it, as a what the heck story point in The Last Man it had a certain charm, the future that will never be, the changing paths that events cause in life etc etc, but that's all it should ever have been.

To sum up, perhaps destroying Stargate Atlantis is a little strong, however I think overuse of Rodney - married to underuse of the other characters - and McKeller certainly helped to carry the coffin.

[jyh]

I don't see how a weak character (john sheppard) could be considered the lead of the show. Tbh, i don't think SGA had a lead character,per se, similar to sg1 9/10.

I have to strongly (but respectfully) disagree w/ your assertion that Sheppard was a weak character. When SGA first started, he was the lynchpin, along with Dr. Weir. Mckay was a major character as well, but I never thought he was originally the "lead" of this show. (Sort of how Steve Urkel was never supposed to be the 'star' of Family Matters, and Alex P Keaton wasn't supposed to be the 'star' of Family Ties, the Fonz in Happy Days, etc.)

I do agree with your last statement that (to paraphrase) SGA wasn't supposed to have a single lead character, but instead be an ensemble cast. Too bad that fell by the wayside, especially in the latter seasons.

[MickyD]

I see it differently, I can't stand Rodney and I thought The Shrine was cringeworthy at best with his OTTness I was sick of another Rodney dying ep

I do admit Rodney does seem to die more often than other characters... but I'm sure if we tallied it out him and some other characters (Shep especially) would be more or less even.

But i really do think the character is an integral part of the team as he was originally introduced to us as where science goes without morals and he's developed into a whole person.

[Cautious Explorer]

I have to strongly (but respectfully) disagree w/ your assertion that Sheppard was a weak character. When SGA first started, he was the lynchpin, along with Dr. Weir. Mckay was a major character as well, but I never thought he was originally the "lead" of this show. (Sort of how Steve Urkel was never supposed to be the 'star' of Family Matters, and Alex P Keaton wasn't supposed to be the 'star' of Family Ties, the Fonz in Happy Days, etc.)

I do agree with your last statement that (to paraphrase) SGA wasn't supposed to have a single lead character, but instead be an ensemble cast. Too bad that fell by the wayside, especially in the latter seasons.

I completely agree with the bolded portion. Sheppard was the character new to the SG program. It was through his eyes we first approached the expedition. We followed him as he discovered Atlantis and went on that first mission to Athos. It was Sheppard's story, with an ensemble around him.

That all became distorted when they decided to focus on the wacky scientist.

You're so right about the Urkel factor. That's exactly what happened with McKay

I do admit Rodney does seem to die more often than other characters... but I'm sure if we tallied it out him and some other characters (Shep especially) would be more or less even.

But i really do think the character is an integral part of the team as he was originally introduced to us as where science goes without morals and he's developed into a whole person.

He was an important part of the team. That's the key. He was only part of the team in the beginning. It was when everything started to center around McKay that the show lost its way.

[Angela V]

I voted for "No". For me SGA was never destroyed. I watched it as a fun adventure sci-fi show, just like SG1. Just like all the Star Trek shows. They all had certain characters that got more screen time than others.

And for me the love story between Rodney and Jennifer was sweet because it reminded me of my husband and I. My husband who also happens to be a snarky, know it all Canadian though with better social skills.