What's with the rampant loss of characters? ~spoilers up to Doppelganger~

[FallenAngelII]

What's with the loss of characters lately?

First, Carson dies. And we all know he died because there were remains. No Ascension there. There's some fuzzy talk about Paul returning, but not as Carson or whatever, but that doesn't count.

Then, Elizabeth goes RepliWeir. Then, apparently, Kate Heightmeyer is going to bite the dust in "Doppelganger" and Zelenka is only going to be in 7 episodes out of 20 (and did anyone notice how long it took for him to appear on screen (or even speak through an intercom) in "Adrift" despite Rodney referencing him repeatedly?).

Was there a huge budget cut I didn't hear about? Or are they deliberately trying to piss the fans off? Or is Amanda Tapping's salary so huge they're now getting rid of secondary and tertiary characters to accomodate her?

No really, I just want to know the reasons and reasoning behind this spectacular failure in writing.

[Gregorius]

The character loss is because they want to shake things up. Sadly they aren't good enough writers to pull it off.

[ToasterOnFire]

It's to promote cast "gelling".

[Daniel Jackson]

Carson Beckett: Dr. Beckett was killed off for dramatic reasons. The character was not killed off to piss off the fans. To think so is quite paranoid. If you're running a TV show, why would you intentionally want to turn away your audience? Think about it.

Elizabeth Weir: They wanted to replace Weir with a military leader in Season 4, and Carter is who they went with. Personally, I would have prefered Caldwell or Sheppard, but I guess they wanted to use Carter to bring in some of the SG-1 audience. Carter joining the cast has nothing to do with the departure of Weir. I've read that the decission to write out Weir had been made before they decided who her successor would be.

Kate Heightmeyer: "Doppelganger" hasn't aired yet, no comment.

Zelenka: Why are you worrying about episodes you haven't seen yet? He was alive and well when "Adrift" ended, so just enjoy his character for now.

[FallenAngelII]

Carson Beckett: Dr. Beckett was killed off for dramatic reasons. The character was not killed off to piss off the fans. To think so is quite paranoid. If you're running a TV show, why would you intentionally want to turn away your audience? Think about it.

Elizabeth Weir: They wanted to replace Weir with a military leader in Season 4, and Carter is who they went with. Personally, I would have prefered Caldwell or Sheppard, but I guess they wanted to use Carter to bring in some of the SG-1 audience. Carter joining the cast has nothing to do with the departure of Weir. I've read that the decission to write out Weir had been made before they decided who her successor would be.

Kate Heightmeyer: "Doppelganger" hasn't aired yet, no comment.

Zelenka: Why are you worrying about episodes you haven't seen yet? He was alive and well when "Adrift" ended, so just enjoy his character for now.

You're missing the point of the thread. The point of discussion is not why every single character was killed off or removed or the specific reasons behind them being killed off from a writer's point of view.

It's about the reasons and reasoning behind removing so many veteran (not to mention beloved) characters from a show, all at once! In the span of 6 episodes, 3 characters die.

Radek is in 14 or so episodes of season 3, yet only in 7 of season 4. Which means his character has been shrunk down considerably.

Why? Elizabeth, Carson and Radek are all beloved characters and two of them were starring characters. Kate was a recurring character that's been with them since the start.

And all of them either die or have their appearances halved. Why is this? Why did they feel the need to do this?

[Gregorius]

Carson Beckett: Dr. Beckett was killed off for dramatic reasons. The character was not killed off to piss off the fans. To think so is quite paranoid. If you're running a TV show, why would you intentionally want to turn away your audience? Think about it.

Carson Beckett was killed off because SG-1 was canned and they wanted to shake things up. And it's not about if it was their intention to piss off their fanbase, the fact remains that they did. If they had killed him in a good episode and if his dead had any impact on the characters people might have accepted it. Fact remains that it didn't and that is what pissed the fans off. Also the fact that Beckett wasn't a wallpaper character like Teyla or Ronon but that he gets killed off pissed people off.

Elizabeth Weir: They wanted to replace Weir with a military leader in Season 4, and Carter is who they went with. Personally, I would have prefered Caldwell or Sheppard, but I guess they wanted to use Carter to bring in some of the SG-1 audience. Carter joining the cast has nothing to do with the departure of Weir. I've read that the decission to write out Weir had been made before they decided who her successor would be.

Here it's the "writing out" part that pissed people off because they know with the PTB it basically means: "Never to be seen again". Add to that that the introduction as Carter, just after SG-1 has been canned, as regular character and you can understand that people feel like Weir has been replaced with Saint Carter.

Kate Heightmeyer: "Doppelganger" hasn't aired yet, no comment.

Dramatic effect, just to show they can kill off a character. Again from what I can gather from spoiler her death was as lame as Carson's.

Zelenka: Why are you worrying about episodes you haven't seen yet? He was alive and well when "Adrift" ended, so just enjoy his character for now.

Here the problem is that people feel he's going to be replaced by Saint Carter as well since Carter is also a scientist and that McKay/Carter will be flown over from SG-1.

[talyn2k1]

You're missing the point of the thread. The point of discussion is not why every single character was killed off or removed or the specific reasons behind them being killed off from a writer's point of view.

It's about the reasons and reasoning behind removing so many veteran (not to mention beloved) characters from a show, all at once! In the span of 6 episodes, 3 characters die.

Radek is in 14 or so episodes of season 3, yet only in 7 of season 4. Which means his character has been shrunk down considerably.

Why? Elizabeth, Carson and Radek are all beloved characters and two of them were starring characters. Kate was a recurring character that's been with them since the start.

And all of them either die or have their appearances halved. Why is this? Why did they feel the need to do this?

I think what Daniel Jackson was trying to point out is that there is no one reason why characters are being killed.

Carson, Grodin, (and probably Kate) were killed for dramatic reasons.
Weir was killed because they didn't know what to do with the character/ wanted a military leader.
Zelenka isn't dead. The reason his appearances have been scaled back is probably because they want to spend more of this season working on the main characters. imho Zelenka is a better established character than Teyla plus Keller and new-Carter still need some development too.

There is no single reason for all the character deaths that have been occurring later. Lets just hope they STOP IT ALREADY!!!! (hopefully before Zelenka or Chuck get hurt!!)

[g.o.d]

I see that TPTB think they will somehow improve SGA by killing off as many characters as they can. I'm sure Zelenka will be reduced because of all-knowing Carter

[ToasterOnFire]

Maybe they'll kill off everyone and just have 43 minutes panning around the interior and exterior of Atlantis? It would make script writing much easier.

[Gregorius]

Nah, reduce the number of main characters to 3: McKay, Carter and Sheppard. Then place them on this huge Starship with a 5 year mission of exploration. Now that would make writing the script much easier because I heard it already has been done before...

[g.o.d]

have you seen B5:Lost Tales? It was really "amazing" to have only six characters on the show. It's possible TPTB want to have a same number of characters

[The Lonely Huntress]

I really don't know what has gotten into Stargate's TPTB. They started this trend in the last seasons of SG1 to extend it to Atlantis.

And after this turn of events they really expect the fans to watch another Stargate series. Why bother? Once we love the characters they're going to start killing them off. If I have a little hope that things weren't going to be this bad, this surely let me know better.

But there's a bright side. Less money spent in DVDs!!!

[Ltcolshepjumper]

the problem is, SG-1 went 5 years without any cast shakeups. Ever since they went to Scifi, however, there's been a cast change every year. SG1 Seasons 6,7,8,9, and 10. SGA seasons 1,2, 4. Maybe its a Scifi problem, but it seems like the writing can't hold the audience's attention.

[Gregorius]

Yet the same problems doesn't exist on BSG which is also airing on SciFi or Eureka, which is also airing on SciFi so I doubt it's a SciFi problem but more of a PTB problem. A PTB that wants to turn Atlantis into a high cast-turnover show but lacks the skills to do so, that's the problem.

[Klenotka]

Zelenka will be in 15 episodes of S4. David Nykl said it by himself. But it´s not a reason to stop worrying about him