Why isn't Stargate as popular as LotR/Star Wars/Star Trek?

[Lord Shiva]

I love Stargate... to me the show is just as good as Star Trek, and has a hell of a lot more story behind it then Star Wars (unless you count the comics and the books, and a lot of fans don't count the comics). It has 9 - going on 10 - years of storyline behind it and a sequel show... a total of 11 years so far and going on 13.

I'm on another board discussing sci fi shows, and I'm utterly disgusted with the lack of respect Stargate receives. Someone was even trying to go on about how Firefly was an awesome show and how he was proud that he couldn't even name one character in Stargate and then how he was a "sci fi geek."

Why does Stargate get the shaft from such a large # of people who happen to know and like Star Wars or Star Trek? Or get treated like the red-headed stepchild of those two sci fi movies/shows?

[DigiFluid]

LOTR: A legend which is in every conceivable way deeper, richer, and better than SG. It also has the benefit of having about 40 years in which to gather fame before SG even started. The mythologies of SG can't even come close to what's portrayed in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Hobbit, and the LOTR trilogy itself.

Star Trek: Was revolutionary for its time, became a legend post-abortive cancellation, and has spawned 5 spin-off series and 10 major motion pictures.

Star Wars: Was a major film revolution for its time. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. It's storytelling was grandiose and epic, and it spawned an entire universe of spinoff novels and other fiction, not to mention it's big-screen return in a new, highly-anticipated trilogy of films. Let's not also forget the massive merchandising campaign which accompanied the first movies--another first of its kind.


Stargate: Was a decent scifi/action movie that did moderately well at the box-office, was picked up by the cable network ShowTime as a movie-spinoff for 5 years. Then the show moved to Sci-Fi, where it has avoided cancellation probably because it is one of their very few original series.



Do you see the difference now? As much as I love my SG-1....it really can't touch the others you've mentioned.

[Peoples_General]

Which is why we must keep fanning the flames to keep StarGate alive, and of course to help it GROW.

[Lord Shiva]

LOTR: A legend which is in every conceivable way deeper, richer, and better than SG. It also has the benefit of having about 40 years in which to gather fame before SG even started. The mythologies of SG can't even come close to what's portrayed in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Hobbit, and the LOTR trilogy itself.

Star Trek: Was revolutionary for its time, became a legend post-abortive cancellation, and has spawned 5 spin-off series and 10 major motion pictures.

Star Wars: Was a major film revolution for its time. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. It's storytelling was grandiose and epic, and it spawned an entire universe of spinoff novels and other fiction, not to mention it's big-screen return in a new, highly-anticipated trilogy of films. Let's not also forget the massive merchandising campaign which accompanied the first movies--another first of its kind.


Stargate: Was a decent scifi/action movie that did moderately well at the box-office, was picked up by the cable network ShowTime as a movie-spinoff for 5 years. Then the show moved to Sci-Fi, where it has avoided cancellation probably because it is one of their very few original series.



Do you see the difference now? As much as I love my SG-1....it really can't touch the others you've mentioned.

Don't worry, I can touch them all for you - I prefer Stargate to LotR and Star Wars. Rich as Star Wars or LotR is, Stargate has 11 years and with next season 13 years of storyline. To me that's better then a handful of books slash 3 great movies.

[Lady Snow]

I find Stargate to be almost a comic interpretation of mythology. I'm not saying that the show itself is comical, just its treatment of mythology.

Two of the other franchises you mentioned - LotR and SW - are attempts to make mythology resonate with a modern audience. The hero quest, the donor-guides, even the locations - in LotR and SW, they are deliberately chosen and created to give the audience a deeper connection to them. I don't so much see that in Stargate.

Star Trek, on the other hand, was an early sci-fi show that dealt with boundaries - very contemporary and real issues, no matter which of the series you mean (more or less). While Stargate deals with this, I don't see it as a major premise of the show.

All of this is not to say that I in any way dislike Stargate (with the exception of individual episodes, of course ). I'm just trying to say that maybe the social commentary isn't there that is there in three examples you mentioned as landmark sci-fi/fantasy franchises.

[atlantisrocks]

Like DigiFluid mentioned about LOTR, the others are older, and have had more time for the fanbase to grow (especially Star Trek, and LOTR). What bothers me is how popular BSG is, and how Rolling Stone raves on and on about it (like how they always put a quote of Rolling Stones in the previews for BSG like "Best show on television!" etc.) But maybe that mostly has to do with BSG being newer.

[FallenAngelII]

Probably because Stargate doesn't use as many special effects. There areno frequent grand space battles. There are no frequent hypercool aliens, etc.

So Stargate lacks mainstream random fans who don't really care that much about the story.

[ideadman]

Just gonna quickly post about this before I head out.

Stargate is a fantastic show thats got tons of history allowing fans to see things in episodes others may not understand.

As far as LOTR is concerned there is far more detail and history than stargate. There are the main 3 books that are extremely well detailed along w/ the hobbit and 4-6 background books(lost tales1/2, unfinished tales, silmarillion) that go so far into detail it is nearly impossible to remember everything Tolkien teaches you about the creation of earth and the gods but thats another story.

I LOVE stargate, have every season on dvd and watch a few eps every day but it's a tv show not a movie with one huge budget. Movies are something that everyone can go see and enjoy for a few hours, not necessarily watch for seasons to understand and see a finale, theres always a finale in a movie.

[the fifth man]

Personally, out of all of those options, I'd choose to watch SG-1 first. For me, it is way more enjoyable than the LOTR movies or Star Wars, and is right up there with Star Trek : TNG.

I just love the way TPTB blend action with drama and comedy so effectively. They have really gotten it down to a science after nine seasons. I hope to be watching this show years from now, and hopefully it will gain even more respect from others in that time.

[kmiller1610]

Timing is everything.

Stargate has better actors, better drama, a much more consistent plot and continuity, better humour than nearly all of Trek and Star Wars, but it is derivative. It borrows heavily from previous series and although it uses a gate, it really is another Trek series, going where no man, etc. has gone before....

If Stargate had come first, our story might have been different. For pure enjoyment, SG-1 is the best. Because of timing, it is a me-too series that gets no respect. I felt the same way until my son dragged me into watching a few shows. I'm sure a lot of detractors have never seen the show.

LOTR is in a different category altogether... It's popular because it's great and it's over in 10 hours.

[Darkstar]

In all respects Stargate is new when compared to Startrek and starwars, now that Startrek has tonned down in light of ENT premature cancellation starwars has stepped up to the challenge of creating a new series based upon the films, the films although bad acting and plot holes apleanty aside was revolutionary for its time stargate has come from an idea that did't really push the boundaries of sci fi in the 90's, What it lacks in respects to originality it makes up for it with its ongoing story arcs that most other sci fi shows can't claim to beat, SG has great character interactions and its constant reaching back in time so to speak to play on the ideas of the huam nevolution on earth and how it came to spread into the stars with Egypt and ancient ideas based in mythology is probably one of SG's best attributes.

[Gregorius]

Probably because Stargate doesn't use as many special effects. There areno frequent grand space battles. There are no frequent hypercool aliens, etc.

That has nothing to do with it. I don't see large spacebattles in Firefly or in the majority of episodes of Farscape. Yet both shows are considerably more populair than SG-1/Atlantis.

So Stargate lacks mainstream random fans who don't really care that much about the story.

I though Stargate already lost it sense of story, due to the fact that the last season, imo, that truely cared about the story was season 3. The seasons after that 4,5,6 were good, but the 7,8 are just bad (With the exception of a few eps) and season 9 is mediocre. And this all happened because....the show went more mainstream...Don't blame special effects for Stargate's low populairity.

Like DigiFluid mentioned about LOTR, the others are older, and have had more time for the fanbase to grow (especially Star Trek, and LOTR). What bothers me is how popular BSG is, and how Rolling Stone raves on and on about it (like how they always put a quote of Rolling Stones in the previews for BSG like "Best show on television!" etc.) But maybe that mostly has to do with BSG being newer.

BSG is a remake, but has a storyline of it's own and it has something most shows seem to lack since in the SciFi world Farscape/Firefly were canceled: continuity and Character development.

Stargate is a fantastic show thats got tons of history allowing fans to see things in episodes others may not understand.

Stargate has history prior to the last 3 seasons?! So where are the references to Jonas Quin, Charlie, Aschen, etc...? The episodes of Stargate have become more and more like Star Trek with the main difference being either the "Ancient weapon of the Season/Week" instead of the "Particle of the Season/Week". The show lacks character development and continuity, it simply has become a "happy-go-lucky" show.

As far as LOTR is concerned there is far more detail and history than stargate. There are the main 3 books that are extremely well detailed along w/ the hobbit and 4-6 background books(lost tales1/2, unfinished tales, silmarillion) that go so far into detail it is nearly impossible to remember everything Tolkien teaches you about the creation of earth and the gods but thats another story.

*Nods* See, that proves my point: Character development and continuity. When something bad happens to the characters in LotR they actually are affected by it. Frightning idea isn't it?

The main problem is that Stargate's lost touch with it's basis, Mythology and the actual Stargate. It's trying to become everything and failing in it.

[Darkstar]

i do have to admit that season 9 has not excited me than past seasons of SG1, i'm actually more in favour of atlantis, i am sorry to say that but i do like season 9, it just seems to be trying to become something different and failing to do that, the result a less than solid feel to the show

[Willow'sCat]

Just my 2 cents:

Because unlike StarWars/Star Trek and why we are including fantasy LotR anyway... Stargate is screened on and off in most countries out side Canada/US/UK...and it is not a movie franchise like the others, so they do not have as much money to throw at it and believe me that does make a difference when it comes to promotion. I cannot stand Star Wars but I also am very aware of what it is about because it has a huge promotional juggernaut behind it.

Time as someone mentioned is also another reason it will probably never be as big or well known, it is living in the shadow of the other scifi shows that came before it. Even BSG can cash in on their history to the 35-45 year old age groups the ones that like me that grew up watching the original series.

As for LotR, well it was a book read by many people before the movie, so again it had a built in audience anyway of course the films were also high quality and enjoyable, but even if they had of been rubbish fans of the book would have guaranteed it made money and again it had a huge promotional campaign.

Stargate also has the big reset button to bugger it's self up with, and if you want dark and gritty, which a lot of people do now, you won't find it in Stargate. Stargate is really one of the few 'family' shows left to watch but that makes it sometimes irrelevant to adults who have the buying power, so again they make less money off the show and so have less to plough back in and less to spend on promotion, especially outside the US.

It also doesn't have the cool aspect of Firefly or the X-Files, I have no idea why it doesn't (military aspect maybe?) but there it is; it is not cool to watch SG. Well I hardly ever admit to watching it!

[Darkstar]

in the UK there has been more of a promotion of atlantis than SG1, mainly because the show is newer than SG1 and fresh, i still think SG1 is still worth watching but i guess my preference is in atlantis at the moment at least untill SG1 picks up to my favour