S10: Critique & Contemplation

[ReganX]

The show could have sustanined itself without Jack as long as the writing remained up to par. Season 8 I started seening the team as Sam's team. All they needed was a new CO for the base. Didn't need to hire big name actors for the position. Any no name person could have done that. Or, they could have promoted Sam to full colonel and placed her in command of the SGC.

Season Eight was their chance to wean the show away from Jack, to keep him as a presence on the base and on the show while at the same time shifting more of the focus from him to Sam, Daniel and Teal'c.

Had they done that, then Beau Bridges as the new base CO and one new actor as the new fourth member of SG-1 would have sufficed.

[Mandysg1]

Season Eight was their chance to wean the show away from Jack, to keep him as a presence on the base and on the show while at the same time shifting more of the focus from him to Sam, Daniel and Teal'c.

Had they done that, then Beau Bridges as the new base CO and one new actor as the new fourth member of SG-1 would have sufficed.

Exactly, during the times RDA had time off, they relied on Sam leading the team, and Daniel and Teal'c. They did well with those shows, why couldn't they have continued to do so. Those shows where AT (dare I say it) was the lead, did well in the ratings, and the over all ratings of the season were good. Too bad they couldn't see what they had

[ReganX]

Exactly, during the times RDA had time off, they relied on Sam leading the team, and Daniel and Teal'c. They did well with those shows, why couldn't they have continued to do so. Those shows where AT (dare I say it) was the lead, did well in the ratings, and the over all ratings of the season were good. Too bad they couldn't see what they had

If TPTB did think that their viewers would have a problem with a woman leading SG-1, I would have to say that in the vast majority of cases, they were wronging viewers with that assumption.

[the dancer of spaz]

That could've been a network thing. The fact that TPTB admit that it was such a big discussion behind closed doors says a lot imo about how divided people were when it came to how the direction of the show should've done.

And I don't think it was just Bridge vs. SciFi, either.

[ReganX]

That could've been a network thing. The fact that TPTB admit that it was such a big discussion behind closed doors says a lot imo about how divided people were when it came to how the direction of the show should've done.

And I don't think it was just Bridge vs. SciFi, either.

Network interference can be the kiss of death for a show - "Charmed" seems to have suffered from it in its final season; the budget was cut and then they were told that they had to bring in new characters.

[Skydiver]

to thier defense, i believe that AT didn't want her pregnancy to be part of the show.

years ago, fans would ask if hte actress wanted a family and her response was along the line of 'i'm too afraid of what these writers would do with sam being pregnant' mixed with 'sam's too active to be a mom'

so i think that keeping AT's pregnancy off the show was the actress' choice.

rachel is obviously ok with it being part of the show...and i personally don't think claudia had much of a choice. from what i understand, her involvement at the end of s9 was a mandate from skiffy.

now...coop and hte boys certainly could have shot around it, but i think they took the easy way out in not hiding the tummy...because, you know, super sprog of doom is such a wonder plot device

[ReganX]

now...coop and hte boys certainly could have shot around it, but i think they took the easy way out in not hiding the tummy...because, you know, super sprog of doom is such a wonder plot device

So wonderful that lots of other shows have used it too.

[AGateFan]

I am thrilled they did not include AT pregnacy on the show. I am not thrilled by their complete inability to come up with any sort of logical storyline to explain the absence. Not suprised just not thrilled.


BTW I would green a lot of you for the comments you have recently made, but I cant. I guess I need to venture out of this thread into the greater world. But then of course I risk being accused of bringing negativity into the world and how I should stay in my little place.
Of course i am not too negative on Atlantis right now, but I guess I have lsot a lot of steam for the show since its on hiatus and lots of good video games are coming out. I love my minions!!!

[astrogeologist]

Some of the TPTB have been more candid in interviews over the past several months, and a few of them mentioned how difficult it was to sustain five characters at once.

Obvious answer - don't have five characters if you can't sustain them all at once. Either Mitchell or Vala could have been dispensed with as members of SG-1 and used as recurring characters rather than regulars and let's be honest, neither was exactly believeable as a member of SG-1 in the first place.

I don't see how 5 characters is too many. Aren't there a lot of shows that have ensemble casts of more than 5 main players... Grey's Anatomy comes to mind... so does ER... and Heroes...

[ReganX]

I don't see how 5 characters is too many. Aren't there a lot of shows that have ensemble casts of more than 5 main players... Grey's Anatomy comes to mind... so does ER... and Heroes...

Five or more regulars may not be too many for other shows, but according to some of TPTB five was too many for them to be able to cope with.

[jckfan55]

TPTB could have also worked with AT and use the pregancy in the script. Sam and Jack got married and had a baby. Sam comes back to command the SGC while Mitchell takes SG-1's command. That would finally put the Sam/Jack ship to rest.

Ok as a non-shipper I wouldn't have liked that scenario--except for the part about putting ship to rest.

I see the writers could work in CB pregnancy, Teyla's pregancy but--not AT's.

I think the timing/progress of AT's pregnancy and health concerns might have made it difficult for her to appear in episodes while expecting. But they could have written *plausible* reasons for her being gone and worked them into the storyline. Personally i was hoping for a heroic wound that kept her out of action.

[Mandysg1]

I don't see how 5 characters is too many. Aren't there a lot of shows that have ensemble casts of more than 5 main players... Grey's Anatomy comes to mind... so does ER... and Heroes...

There are a lot of good shows that have more than 5 characters, but it seems the writers on SG1 have had a lot of problems writing more than 2 characters at a time for a while What would have been the problem if they had Vala as a recurring character? Janet was a recurring character and loved by many. Vala could have been a Harry Maybourne type character, which would have fit her character better, and fit the show better; instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and call it SG1

[astrogeologist]

The show could have sustanined itself without Jack as long as the writing remained up to par. Season 8 I started seening the team as Sam's team. All they needed was a new CO for the base. Didn't need to hire big name actors for the position. Any no name person could have done that. Or, they could have promoted Sam to full colonel and placed her in command of the SGC.

Season Eight was their chance to wean the show away from Jack, to keep him as a presence on the base and on the show while at the same time shifting more of the focus from him to Sam, Daniel and Teal'c.

Had they done that, then Beau Bridges as the new base CO and one new actor as the new fourth member of SG-1 would have sufficed.

If they had truly allowed RDA to play Jack O'Neill as the base commander the way that Hammond was, perhaps RDA would have been willing to continue beyond Season 8.

My personal feeling was that they crammed too much 'Rick time' into the time that he was up north in Canada. It sounded so... stressed and crowded when he was there - because they wanted to maximize the time that they had with him. Now, I do realize that I could be completely wrong... perhaps RDA had so little to do that he was bored.. but that's not what seemed to come across in the interviews of various PTB and other cast members.

I also seem to remember early interviews with Torri Higgins (during Season 1 of Atlantis), where she said that she had a fairly light load quite often... and somedays didn't even have to be on set during the week.

Why couldn't RDA have been given such a load? One where he could be relaxed and enjoy his time with the rest of the cast and crew?

If he had, perhaps he wouldn't have felt the need to leave?

...Not that I'm saying that RDA's departure sealed SG-1's (and Carter's) fate. TPTB didn't have to write Seasons 9 & 10 the way that they did. Most definitely not.

[jckfan55]

to thier defense, i believe that AT didn't want her pregnancy to be part of the show.

years ago, fans would ask if hte actress wanted a family and her response was along the line of 'i'm too afraid of what these writers would do with sam being pregnant' mixed with 'sam's too active to be a mom'

Wise woman.

[Mandysg1]

In S8 I never expected to see as much of Jack as we did, I was looking forward to the emphasis being on the 3 person team of SG1, and Jack being like Hammond.

In S9, I didn't expect (or want) AT's pregnancy to be written into the show, (look what they did when she asked to have a boyfriend that didn't die.) What I did expect, was a well written, plausible reason for Sam to be away! As Jckfan said, a heroic wound would have made more sense, oh but wait they already used that for Mitchell, to gain our sympathy