If S6 Had Happened - Daniel as a regular? SPOILERS for all aired SGA episodes

[Thunderbird 2]

the thing is, they didn't have that many SG1 characters on SG1 when it ended.

jack was gone - written out without so much as an explanation. teal'c was silenced most of the time and when he was used he was rendered into a heartless killing machine, daniel was long gone and replaced by Action Jackson, the King of Sarcasm and cruel quips. Sam was silenced and shoved into a corner with her laptop as much as they could and the focus was on Jackson, Marty Stu Mitchell and Vala the Vamp

The original and classic characters of

jack the world weary colonel, carter, the smart officer, teal'c, the noble alien and Daniel, the inquisitive explorer were long gone and written out in favor of boobs, butts bombs and cruel sarcasm

I can see the aspects of what you mean Skydiver - to me Vala veered from infuriating to funny at times. One thing I don't follow though - whats wrong with Colonel Mitchell? I felt that he was a great addition alongside General Landry and (as a recurring guest) Dr Lam?

[Ltcolshepjumper]

the thing is, they didn't have that many SG1 characters on SG1 when it ended.

jack was gone - written out without so much as an explanation. teal'c was silenced most of the time and when he was used he was rendered into a heartless killing machine, daniel was long gone and replaced by Action Jackson, the King of Sarcasm and cruel quips. Sam was silenced and shoved into a corner with her laptop as much as they could and the focus was on Jackson, Marty Stu Mitchell and Vala the Vamp

The original and classic characters of

jack the world weary colonel, carter, the smart officer, teal'c, the noble alien and Daniel, the inquisitive explorer were long gone and written out in favor of boobs, butts bombs and cruel sarcasm

And the thing is, these are the same people who will be doing the SG-1 and Atlantis movies as well as SGU. Adding another character does nothing when the writing is horrible.

Mitchell was a good character, even through Season 10 with SG-1's downturn (that probably has more to do with the actor than anything). He's no Oneill though. RDA leaving was unavoidable but hurt the series greatly. Vala's one bright moment was Crusade.

[Wib]

If they would have just had MS guest starring in a few episodes, I wouldn't have minded, but full on regular, no, it wouldn't have worked IMO. If they would have done more Ronon/Teyla based eps and toned down the McKeller show that would have made a better season for me.

[A_PophisandhisFran]

Wow, there's a diversity of opinions here (one person saying he would START watching Atlantis if he joined, another person saying Daniel as a regular would make him QUIT watching, etc.). Kind of weird what everyone thinks is good Stargate. Personally, I like seasons 4 and 5 (as much as I've seen of 5) very much as they are, and I think the characters were treated fine. Some were used a bit sparsely, but imo it's not as bad as some have indicated. But again, that's the nice thing about people having a diversity of opinions.

I do, however, agree with the basic point everyone is making on this thread. Daniel would have been good if he had been brought in earlier, but in the 5th and 6th season? I don't think it would have worked. As a recurring character, yeah I think I would have liked that, but I don't think he would work as a regular very well. I don't think Carter worked as a regular really (something I don't like about season 4, but as I said I liked alot of other things about it). Really, if he were put in earlier Daniel is the member of SG-1 that you'd think would fit on Atlantis.

It's possible TPTB could have made it work though. I, like most, didn't think Woolsey would work, but almost everyone seems to be satisfied with his work as leader (maybe people don't love him like they did Weir, but there were very few complaints about him after people started watching the show). MAYBE they could have done the same with Daniel, although I think it would have been awkward.

[Skydiver]

I can see the aspects of what you mean Skydiver - to me Vala veered from infuriating to funny at times. One thing I don't follow though - whats wrong with Colonel Mitchell? I felt that he was a great addition alongside General Landry and (as a recurring guest) Dr Lam?

my biggest issue with mitchell - which really isn't on topic so we can't delve deeply into it - is how he was presented. Hero that was promised any job he wanted, his enthusiasm continually overrode his common sense and nearly got the team killed, but did ANYONE call him on it?

he had multiple personaity syndrome at times, he was supposed to be this crack leader and fantastic pilot, then he got special forces experience, then he got the sodan training...and he still touched stuff that the plot needed him to, still did bone head things, still seemed to be there mainly to get his butt kicked

FOR ME, he was too pushed, too pimped, too sold

he was brought in to be the new star of the show, then didn't get a real plot arc and seemed to just be there to do the stupid thing to make the plot work or to get beat up

he was far from horrible, but he had so much undelivered potential


something that doesn't give me much faith for these writers weaving Daniel into SGA with any grace or skill. Given how they intro'd mitchell, i don't think Daniel's joining the show woulda been anything but the ham fisted sledge hammer of subtlety

(along the line of 'look, he's here, all is right with the world, now all he has to do is stand there, look pretty and deliver the quota of sarcastic quips per episode and ratings will soar')

[Descent]

You know, I would've loved it if Daniel had come over. It would be a perfect fit for him. But... like Carter, he had already gotten 10 years of development. It doesn't feel right to do that and it's just not fair to the newer characters (then again, it's not like the writers really treated the characters right in the first place).

And, again like Carter, he would've just been a watered down version of his SG-1 self. So 'blah' to that.

[coldmachine]

i'm not a daniel fan, so on that front, it would have actually had me turning off the set, not turning it on (as it was, i 'watched' FC/LT with the set muted because the rod/daniel bickerfest was just more than i could deal with)

from a more withdrawn perspective, how would he have fit? he's an archaeologist and linguist so how does he fit into the show? they're in the middle of a war not an exploration. how does an archaeologist fit in? Or were they gonna ascend him again? Oma wiped his memories the first two times, so they'd have to rewrite canon to have him suddenly remember all things ancient (not that that's stopped them before)

and then the more practical standpoint, if the show was crunching the budget, how were they gonna pay him? how could they afford a 7 person cast? Especially since i doubt MS was gonna get the standard starting salary and was probably going to be receiving compensation commensurate to his length of time involved in the franchise. so they'd likely h ave to let people go to afford him, and even then face an even harsher ratings expectation to pay for the increased budget

so, i don't see how an archaeologist fits into a war zone, they'd have to totally rewrite canon to have him suddenly un-amnesia about his time as an ascended being, and i fear that at least a couple of the current actors would be written out to pay for him. And I also don't see how the mckay/daniel rivalry could play out as anything but a whinge fest between the two characters.

were they going to get rid of woolsey and make daniel the boss? since when did he EVER exhibit the administrative ability to run a city? I'd buy woolsey's rapid transition from 'high strung, slightly pissy, kinda well meaning bureaucrat than i'd buy Daniel - king of the 'focus on the immediate to heck with the long term' being qualilfied to administer a city

Nothing was ever mentioned about Daniel's memory being wiped out after Threads. And it certainly was NOT Oma that would have done it, she's locked up in a battle forever.

[kennythewraith]

you know...they probably would have dropped woolsey to make daniel leader....only move they could make...whether it would be good or not...well we wont know.i think daniels as a regualr would only work if they were to focus on the city itself and exploring it like in season one and kinda 2.

[The Dark Destroyer]

I think it would have been a really bad idea for them to bring over Daniel from SG1. Like other people said, he would have had a function during the first season when the Atlantis team was still new to the Pegasus galaxy and were just beginning to learn the ancient and the wraith language. Another reason why I wouldn't want them to bring him over is because this isn't SG1. This is a whole new series. It was bad enough when they brought Carter over to take control of Atlantis. Don't get me wrong. I really like Carter and I think she did a good job running Atlantis, but as I said this is Atlantis. There is plenty of stories to write about for the Atlantis team and to continually keep making the SG1 characters regulars just doesn't make sense. If I want to watch episodes of Danial, Carter, Tealc, and Oneill then I will put on an SG1 episode. SG1 got their ten seasons and now its someone else's turn. Any more characters from SG1 and they would have to change the name of the show from Stargate Atlantis to the continuation of the SG1 series. Like I said I really enjoy watching SG1 and I watch it all the time, but I think its a bad idea to mix apples and oranges.

[The Dark Destroyer]

I stopped watching Atlantis when they tried to make Carter fit , I came back to the show when, much to my surprise, Woolsey actually worked as leader. I think that if they had gone to season six Daniel would have been a very welcome addition to the show.

The character still has much to contribute to the overall Stargate world imo.The two parter in season five showed that. Rodney and Daniel were amazing together and I am sure Daniel/MS would have brought his multitude of fans with him giving the show a nice boost in viewing figures, not that there was much wrong with them anyway.

Of all the SG1 characters Daniel really is the one who fits best on Atlantis and I will never understand why he wasn't brought on board when Weir left. I could quite easily see him in a command position or as a member of the team.

Daniel didn't really do too much in First contact and Lost Tribe. All he did was to help find the lab. After that all he did was sit around and have conversations with the evil Asgard while McKay figured out what the device was and turned it off.

[The Dark Destroyer]

Atlantis already have lots of wonderful regular and recurring characters (John, Ronon, Rodney, Teyla, Woolsey, Radek, Lorne, Carson, Todd and several more. They also had Elizabeth and Kolya, but well...). IMO, SG-1 people don't fit in Atlantis and are not needed in the show.

I agree 100%

[The Dark Destroyer]

The original and classic characters of

jack the world weary colonel, carter, the smart officer, teal'c, the noble alien and Daniel, the inquisitive explorer were long gone and written out in favor of boobs, butts bombs and cruel sarcasm

I agree. Seasons nine and ten were like watching a totally different T.V. series.

[Southern Red]

On the commentary Gero said they had been thinking about ways to bring DJ over for a while. Then I think they were so happy with FC/TLT that they seriously considered making it permanent. Andy Mikita seemed surprised but didn't disagree.


There also was talk on the EatG commentary that the network wanted to see Keller earlier. That's why they did a scene with her and Sheppard that later got deleted. So that probably explains a lot.

I think bringing Daniel in permanently would have made this into even more SGA-1 because as a lot of you have said, something would have suffered. I'm thinking McShep. I love those guys together in a purely non-slashy way and already think S5 suffered from lack of the buddy humor at times.

If they wanted a translator, they should have kept Weir. The few times she used her language abilities she was great at it and it added to her character. But no, they chose to throw out a character they didn't feel like developing and bring in Carter. Then once they put her in charge they had her do very little or say very little in S4 that wouldn't have worked for Weir. Yeah, that made sense. And both characters suffered.

Just to play devil's advocate, I'm not sure Ronon and Teyla had to suffer if DJ was around. I can picture the 3 of them on a mission. That would lead to all sorts of complications and seeing Ronon handle Daniel would have been fun. Though the downside maybe would be that it was too reminiscent of Teal'c. The combo of Teyla/Daniel would have been a way to expand Teyla's diplomatic skills with the two of them being in situations where they had to deal with new peoples. *shrugs* Considering these writers though, they probably wouldn't have gone there.

[Skydiver]

the main way to make a lot of that interesting, teyla/daniel, ronon/daniel etc would be to write some conflict into it

and these guys seem incapable of writing true character interaction conflict. they sure didn't do it with mitchell and he gave them plenty of opportunities for other characters to conflict with him. if they were writing for a favored character of daniel, i'm afraid they'd err to the 'daniel is always right and must educate the rest of the team as to how wrong they are'

[Reci]

Daniel Jackson is the Heart of all things Stargate. Ever since the movie James Spader did Jackson. Micjael Shankc is the definitive Daniel since he has played him so long but Stargate isn't your typical show. That is the advatage of the Stargate, you can pop in and out across millions of miles in an instant. No one has to be gone or stay for long and as smart as all the characters are they ar interchangeble....like VOLTRON...or reverseble coats.