The problem is, there's no plot-diversity anymore.

[alfakim]

Before, the threat from the Goa'uld was an ongoing background thing that, say in season 3, you didnt even consider defeating them, only maybe defending a bit. and furthermore, every episode wasnt about the goa'uld and trying to defeat/stop them. there was such a beautiful range of episodes season 1 to 8: discovering new species, learning more of the ancients, trouble with the ASCHEN, etc etc - but now it seems that most episodes involve a prior and the ori, and are in a direct linear progression towards dealing a defeat on them.

why not bring in something to diversify? bring in the furlings, bring in the 9th chevron, converge atlantis and bring in the wraith, make the nox more active, DEVELOP BA'AL, have some SECONDARY ENEMIES APART FROM JUST ONE THE ORI.
back in the good old days there was all sorts of alliances and ties and thins going on, what with the tok'ra, the fracturing system lords, the asgard (OF WHICH I HAVE SEEN TOO LITTLE!), the replicators, and then personal missions too - like saving sha're - as well as the cosmic ones.
and i want more ascension! ascension is one of the things that makes SG so good - no other sci-fi delves into spiritual, almost philosophical stuff like that. daniel's line: that the universe seems to purposely have it that good and evil must battle it out on the cosmic level: develop this! accentuate the defining aspect of what makes SG so much more than plain old scifi like startrek.

[Osiris-RA]

Preach it.

One of the things I haven't seen much of in SG1 S9 is sub plots that have to do with the story as much as the regular story.

Arcs are important too, as well as go-out-and-get-in-trouble eps, but they shouldn't just be there for the sake of being there. They should be there because even as the fate of the universe is being fought over, there should be a little simple day-by-day humanity and feeling in the story. A little acknowledgement that yes, we're still on earth, she's doing fine and so are the people in it, mostly. Which is why I was disgruntled to see an entire episode taking place on the Prometheus. You know, this isn't Star Trek, this is Star GATE. We're still on land here, even if we like to fly once in awhile.

[Wraith_Hunter]

Before, the threat from the Goa'uld was an ongoing background thing that, say in season 3, you didnt even consider defeating them, only maybe defending a bit. and furthermore, every episode wasnt about the goa'uld and trying to defeat/stop them. there was such a beautiful range of episodes season 1 to 8: discovering new species, learning more of the ancients, trouble with the ASCHEN, etc etc - but now it seems that most episodes involve a prior and the ori, and are in a direct linear progression towards dealing a defeat on them.

why not bring in something to diversify? bring in the furlings, bring in the 9th chevron, converge atlantis and bring in the wraith, make the nox more active, DEVELOP BA'AL, have some SECONDARY ENEMIES APART FROM JUST ONE THE ORI.
back in the good old days there was all sorts of alliances and ties and thins going on, what with the tok'ra, the fracturing system lords, the asgard (OF WHICH I HAVE SEEN TOO LITTLE!), the replicators, and then personal missions too - like saving sha're - as well as the cosmic ones.
and i want more ascension! ascension is one of the things that makes SG so good - no other sci-fi delves into spiritual, almost philosophical stuff like that. daniel's line: that the universe seems to purposely have it that good and evil must battle it out on the cosmic level: develop this! accentuate the defining aspect of what makes SG so much more than plain old scifi like startrek.

The Goa'uld are still around, as are the strained relations with once tighter allies, such as Jaffa & Tok'ra. They have introduced a new enemy in the Ori, as well as another secondary enemy in 'The Lucian Alliance'. Not to mention they are bringing in another powerful new enemy in S10.

[Eoin]

Before, the threat from the Goa'uld was an ongoing background thing that, say in season 3, you didnt even consider defeating them, only maybe defending a bit. and furthermore, every episode wasnt about the goa'uld and trying to defeat/stop them. there was such a beautiful range of episodes season 1 to 8: discovering new species, learning more of the ancients, trouble with the ASCHEN, etc etc - but now it seems that most episodes involve a prior and the ori, and are in a direct linear progression towards dealing a defeat on them.

why not bring in something to diversify? bring in the furlings, bring in the 9th chevron, converge atlantis and bring in the wraith, make the nox more active, DEVELOP BA'AL, have some SECONDARY ENEMIES APART FROM JUST ONE THE ORI.
back in the good old days there was all sorts of alliances and ties and thins going on, what with the tok'ra, the fracturing system lords, the asgard (OF WHICH I HAVE SEEN TOO LITTLE!), the replicators, and then personal missions too - like saving sha're - as well as the cosmic ones.
and i want more ascension! ascension is one of the things that makes SG so good - no other sci-fi delves into spiritual, almost philosophical stuff like that. daniel's line: that the universe seems to purposely have it that good and evil must battle it out on the cosmic level: develop this! accentuate the defining aspect of what makes SG so much more than plain old scifi like startrek.

I agree with what your saying, but TPTB are making most of this season Ori/Prior based, this is to make people get used to/ get to know the new enemy of the show

[Jarnin]

I agree with what your saying, but TPTB are making most of this season Ori/Prior based, this is to make people get used to/ get to know the new enemy of the show

Cramming new characters down viewers throats isn't the way to do it. Personally, I think they spent way too much time on the Ori and not enough time telling us what happened to all the old characters.

I would have preferred that they slowly introduced the Ori while they were dealing with the remains of the Goa'uld system lords and other baddies.

Hell, I would have loved it if they would have initially thought that the Ori were harmless preacher dudes for about the first half of the season. Then, the heroes realize that they're really the bad guys they should have been paying attention the entire time.

Oh well. I guess I'll see if the second half of the season is a little more expansive, because the first half has dealth with almost nothing except the Ori.

[the fifth man]

Joe already stated before that we'll be getting quite a few stand-alone eps next season. This season, especially the first part of it, has focused on the Ori so much to get us prepared for them.. I have no problem with how things have gone so far. And like Wraith_Hunter pointed out, the goa'uld are still around (forget about the Baal ep?). The Lucian Allicance has been introduced. We have encountered and made ties with some of the Sodan. There has been some diversity. And I believe more is to come.

[PG15]

and i want more ascension! ascension is one of the things that makes SG so good - no other sci-fi delves into spiritual, almost philosophical stuff like that. daniel's line: that the universe seems to purposely have it that good and evil must battle it out on the cosmic level: develop this! accentuate the defining aspect of what makes SG so much more than plain old scifi like startrek.

Isn't that EXACTLY what is happening?

[Jarnin]

Isn't that EXACTLY what is happening?

Ascension isn't science fiction, it's fantasy. Personally, I'd like to see as little fantasy in my science fiction as possible, thank you very much.

But if it has to be there, limit it as much as possible. If they try to describe Ascension with scientific means, they not only retard what science fiction is, but also what fantasy is.

Think about the response that Star Wars fans had to midiclorians: That was a huge blunder on Lucas' part. By explaining away the force with some simple technobabble, he effectively took all the greatness away from it.

[GateMan2000]

I am sorry to tell ya bud...now a days...Fantasy is part of Sci Fi.

[Jarnin]

I am sorry to tell ya bud...now a days...Fantasy is part of Sci Fi.

Only if you're ignorant. Sci-fi and fantasy are both sub-genres of Speculative Fiction.

If Stargate is labeled science fiction, it should remain science fiction. If they want to add some fantasy elements to bring a whimsical feeling to it, I don't mind, but when they blatantly continue to try and explain said fantasy with science fiction, both genres suffer for it.

[Samuel J. Tilden]

Before, the threat from the Goa'uld was an ongoing background thing that, say in season 3, you didnt even consider defeating them, only maybe defending a bit. and furthermore, every episode wasnt about the goa'uld and trying to defeat/stop them. there was such a beautiful range of episodes season 1 to 8: discovering new species, learning more of the ancients, trouble with the ASCHEN, etc etc - but now it seems that most episodes involve a prior and the ori, and are in a direct linear progression towards dealing a defeat on them.

This is an excellent point. Since Season 8's replicator storyline, Stargate SG-1 has suffered from a tendancy to overplot the season's story arcs. In Season 1, Apophis, SG-1's most dreaded enemy, only appeared in four episodes and in two of those he was essentially in the background of a totally different story. Season 9 has only had 3 or 4 episodes so far not featuring the Ori.

I understand the desire to develop and execute a story arc in one season due to the uncertainties of renewal, but TPTB seem to have forgotten the ability to make a good stand-alone episode. We haven't seen one since Season 8's Prometheus Unbound.

[doombringer333]

Ascension isn't science fiction, it's fantasy. Personally, I'd like to see as little fantasy in my science fiction as possible, thank you very much.

But if it has to be there, limit it as much as possible. If they try to describe Ascension with scientific means, they not only retard what science fiction is, but also what fantasy is.

Arthur C. Clarke, the famous sci-fi author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, said that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So while ascension appears magical to us, to ascended beings it probably appears different.

Think about it - the first life on this planet didn't have eyes or ears. However, after millions of years of evolution, we now have organisms that do have eyes and ears. We see and experience the world in a manner that's completely different from these primordial organisms, and we have an entirely different mode of existence. Therefore, while I admit that its pure speculation, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that we might develop other senses, with the right genes (the Ancient gene?) or gene combinations. If true, then humans might be "missing out" on some things simply because the physical structure of our brain and senses is incapable of operating that way. The only way to change that is to evolve in response to some selective pressure (in the case of the Ancients, they had to evolve and Ascend in order to avoid dying from the plague).

Think about the response that Star Wars fans had to midiclorians: That was a huge blunder on Lucas' part. By explaining away the force with some simple technobabble, he effectively took all the greatness away from it.

Hmmm ... earlier in the post, you detested having fantasy in scifi, but now you say that you liked the fantasy aspect of Star Wars and hated it when Lucas gave it a scientific explanation ...

I agree that Ep 1 was pretty bad, and that when I first heard midichlorians I very nearly threw my popcorn at the screen. It was a significant departure from the "mystical energy field" aspect of the Force, which is a basic foundation of Star Wars. I was actually angry - I thought that I was betrayed! However, upon reflection, I'm not sure the suckitude of the movie came from just that. It had poor character development, bad acting, no energy, poor pacing, etc.

I've read somewhere that the whole talk about the midichlorians was intended to highlight how spirit-less and dessicated the Old Republic had become, how someone's potential with something as mystical as the Force was reduced to a mere statistic. If that was the intent, then it was done very poorly, much like everything else in the movie.

[alfakim]

The Goa'uld are still around, as are the strained relations with once tighter allies, such as Jaffa & Tok'ra. They have introduced a new enemy in the Ori, as well as another secondary enemy in 'The Lucian Alliance'. Not to mention they are bringing in another powerful new enemy in S10.

sure they've MENTIONED this a bit but have i seen ANYTHING of them? nope.

[alfakim]

Cramming new characters down viewers throats isn't the way to do it. Personally, I think they spent way too much time on the Ori and not enough time telling us what happened to all the old characters.

I would have preferred that they slowly introduced the Ori while they were dealing with the remains of the Goa'uld system lords and other baddies.

Hell, I would have loved it if they would have initially thought that the Ori were harmless preacher dudes for about the first half of the season. Then, the heroes realize that they're really the bad guys they should have been paying attention the entire time.

Oh well. I guess I'll see if the second half of the season is a little more expansive, because the first half has dealth with almost nothing except the Ori.

utter agreement.

[alfakim]

no. the ori are ascended, yes. but i meant DEVELOP it.