Discussing the upcoming changes (S3 and S4 Spoilers)

[Celcool]

I can understand that, but as a Torri/Elizabeth fan, I can say that given the way they treated the last SGA character to go recurring, I don't have much confidence in what they have in store for her. And saying she'll be back "for some time" is as good as saying they're getting rid of the character. I think we're within our rights to protest about that, given the fact that she is the female lead (second in credits, no denying that)

Right on!

[kohuke]

my estimates for a black scenario...

maybe they want to cancel sga, thats why they are killing or downgrading cast. see what they did with sg1: a new show(sga) was brought to public some years ago and now sg1 is canceled, so what if sga waits the same destiny with all the talk about the third series in gateworld and all that....

allthough currently i'm so angry with the producers for killing carson
but i do agree with that that teyla is a boring character and she, not weir should be made recurring...

[Night Spring]

I think we're within our rights to protest about that, given the fact that she is the female lead (second in credits, no denying that)

Talking about the credits, with Torri off the main cast, is Rachel going to be second in the credits?

Spoiler:

And with that not so-subtle push of Shep/Teyla ship in Sunday... ack!

No offense to Rachel, but I don't want TPTB to push Shep/Teyla, and you know, realizing that removing Weir pushes Teyla up to female lead makes me feel really apprehensive about that point. What if the "character arc" that's been hinted at for Teyla in S4 constitutes of romance with Shep? That's *not* the kind of development I want to see for Teyla, or for any other woman in the show!

[FoolishPleasure]

Yes, it will be easier to incorporate Carter into Atlantis, because of her various skills, but I am concerned about Carter coming over to Atlantis though. I just don't know how it's going to work. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

Carter was first a scientist - a PhD in astrophysics, so we are going to get a lot of banter between her and McKay, which will cut into Zelenka's scenes.

Second - she is a Lt. Col., but the rumor-mill has her becoming a full "Bird" by the time she crosses over, which means she will be Sheppard's boss and take command of the military in Atlantis, which could cut into Sheppard's scenes.

Whether or not the military takes over the civilian expedition remains to be seen. Weir could still be Carter's boss, or the military can take over and leave Weir without a job.

I love Carter, but she's gonna be taking away from many of our other characters, and I don't like any of it.

[prion]

I think the mods here are very good at cracking down on any personal abuse that might have been posted against TPTB. As for disagreeing with the direction TPTB are taking the show, that is not abuse, no matter how forcefully stated. TPTB are professionals writing and producing a TV show for public consumption. It's part of their job to deal with public feedback, both positive and negative. If TPTB lets the "tantrum" of fans negatively affect how they deal with their show, well frankly, that's their problem. It's not the fans' jobs to protect TPTB from "harm."

Definitely. Sorry to say this, but TPTB work in a business in which back-stabbing is quite common, office politics can get you booted out the door quicker than a bad script, etc. They're not cute little puppies that need to be protected. TPTB have been in the business at least a decade, if not more, and they've seen a lot worse stuff from fans (Daniel dying, Pete dating Sam, etc.). They're in a business in which they MUST deal with public feedback. It's the public that keeps them employed and gives them a paycheck, so they have to deal with good and bad. That's life.

[PhatChance]

My biggest gripe with SGA is they do too much filler episodes that has very little or add nothing to advance the plots. They should be taking time to develop the characters and the major villians. We don't see any Wraith or Asuran advancement to make them interesting. The writers just hop all over places. Finally when they do write a Wraith/Whatever episode, it's just thrown together like an afterthought because they don't take time to build up for the confrontation. Stargate SG-1 on its last few and going strong because they maintain the focus that the team is racing to find Merlin's weapon. I want that sort of continuity on SGA. Seems like Atlantis expidition sits on their asses all day playing poker and not working on a solution to deal with the enemies. It's just very stagnant. C'mon writers advance the damn plot. Make the characters flesh out. We still have cardboard cut outs 1-D characters.

[kris]

Same here. To say that season 4 is going to be horrible at this point is far too premature.

Not saying it'll be horrible. I have no doubt that season four will be up to the great production value it usually has and be very entertaining. I love the special effects and explosions, etc, all those little tech surprises. That's part of scifi and why I've always loved the genre.

But I think others might agree with me that it's the emotional attachment, if you will, that we have with some of the characters that is being eroded slice by slice, cast change by cast change. I'm losing interest because we've already seen cast changes and I wonder what's next. I didn't like seeing Grodin go either or Ford. Now 2 more changes? Three if you include the addition of Carter.

It's not the same show we fell in love with after too many changes have been made. And it's not about what's logical or illogical. It's about feelings (silly or having merit, take your pick) and those aren't always subject to deep, reasonable scrutiny, just understanding and patience.

I agree that fans should voice their opinions on these changes civilly. But it's all business to TPTB and I'm not holding my breath that the fate of one of my favorite characters will be reversed. One thing I do like is that Paul McGillion knows how his fans feel. That's a wonderful result of fan support.

[IcyNeko]

Not saying that it's going to suck at all, mang. Just saying that the writers need to get fired.


I'm willing to wait until the day before the first ep of season 4 to say that it'll suck.

[Madeleine]

I haven't noticed anyone freaking out.

Lots, LOTS of people have strong opinions on the matter. Not freaky opinions, just strong ones, which they choose to express.

When lots of people are expressing the same strong opinion in the same place, (and especially when the enthusiasm of a few newbies or people whose Search Facility isn't working leads to masses of threads on the same subject existing briefly before they get merged into a more sustainable number) it can appear that there is Freaking Out going on.

There isn't. There's just a lot of people who share an opinion.

[kris]

I agree with flynn1959 that it's the beginning of the end for SGA. Least it might be. It will not be a terrrible show with all the changes in season four; it will still be a good show with so much entertainment value that you could buy a castle.

But let me put it this way: when Vala and Mitchell joined SG1, I stopped watching. Too much change for me even though I gave it a chance for a few episodes. Vala made me laugh, but it wasn't enough.

As for Carter, I've been watching the character not develop or grow for 10 years and she'll bring nothing novel or interesting to SGA.

I like flynn1959's daughter's idea about not wanting to watch SGA crash and burn. I just purchased the SGA season 1 DVD's and after I buy Season 2's DVDs, that's it for my SGA purchases. The show is suddenly and steadily being drained of what I saw as its original magic.

[Skydiver]

this has been added to the first post of this newly merged thread


Mod addition

This thread has been merged from several threads. It's topic is to dicuss - meaning both pro and con - the upcoming changes in a general manner. It is NOT an off-shoot of the 'we want to keep torri' thread, nor is it an offshoot of 'we want sam' thread, nor is it an offshoot of 'we want beckett' thread, nor is it an offshoot of 'we're glad carson and weir are gone'

IT IS FOR GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE UPCOMING CHANGES

So please, keep your comments in a general manner. Welcome opinions from all sides and tolerate them. If this thread turns into a copy of an existing one, i'll just get closed or merged, so please keep it on topic and have fun discussing

[Rachel500]

Atlantis is starting to sink just as it was hitting its stride? <snipped for space>
Anyone agree? Or disagree?

I'm going to apologise up front for not reading all the views and opinions in the thread and just answering the original question.

Firstly, I agree that the show is hitting its stride in terms of the character mix. The character interactions this year have been much better and seem to recognise the fact that the core of the team has now been together for a long period of time. I definitely think that it seems like the cast have also gelled and that's coming across on screen. It also seems to me that they're finding a much better balance with the regular characters than in the second season with the stories even though it's still not perfect.

Will the upcoming cast changes mean it sinks now? I'm in the wait-and-see camp as I won't make a judgement until I see how the changes are played out on screen but as a general rule I do not believe that making so many changes to the cast is a good thing from a stability perspective. How many of the changes have been by choice and how many because of budget constraints/changes/conditions 'imposed' in regards to the network, actors' own availability/preferences is unknown.

Having said then and purely speculating here, it may signal a change in how they're going to operate the show in order to manage the budget better in future years...it's often been said that SG1 was becoming too expensive simply because of the wage bill. If they want SGA to last a number of years, they may be taking the view to make the cast of characters more like ER, with new characters coming in, some older characters being phased out on a yearly basis and a few 'core' characters remaining to provide the touch of familiarity. That works well for a military show where it is more realistic that assignments would change, people would move on rather than the SG1 model where the characters simply continue to stay in the team and at the SGC for years on end.

One thing is for certain, however the changes have come about, whether they will sink Atlantis or not will very much depend on how the changes are incorporated into the show, whether the cast chemistry works with the new mix and ultimately, whether the audience continues to find what happens to the characters interesting and continues to watch.

From a story perspective, I still think SGA could be doing better and hasn't hit its stride yet. They definitely need a more cohesive arc, one which can last over multiple seasons if necessary but is not reliant on having multiple seasons. SG1 in the early seasons lacked an arc as such but they always had the overriding mission to fall back on (searching for technology and allies to fight the Goa'uld) to shape the stories around...Atlantis had the search for the ZPMs and allies in the first season, really lacked anything like this in the second before it settled on the Wraith anti-virus arc and has 'fighting the Asurans every so often' as its arc in the third season. It really needs something more substantive and by the sound of it with talk of a new direction for the show, S4 might provide this. If they do start to tell more stories of the quality of Common Ground then this may help keep Atlantis afloat even if they struggle with the introduction of the new characters.

So while I agree with your statement in part, I don't agree with it in its entirety.

So my two cents for what its worth.

[SGFerrit]

Disagree completely.

Those are backstage stuff; we have yet to see how they will translate onscreen. I'll remain optimistic, for now, especially with the talk of a major shift in the storyarcs and stuff like that for Season 4.

Can't wait!!

Totally agree. I can't wait to see the new direction either.