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Did TPTB focus on McKay (and McKeller) destroy Stargate Atlantis in your opinion.

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    Did TPTB focus on McKay (and McKeller) destroy Stargate Atlantis in your opinion.

    I personally feel that the focus of TPTB on the Mckay-Mckeller aspects of the show ruined SGA. We lost team moments, character developmets, and interesting storylines. When all of the eps seemed to HAVE to focus on Mckay (how many times did we see "OMG mckay is dying"?) or Mckeller, it showed a lack of desire to write for other characters. By the end of season five I stopped caring about the show, simple as that.
    Three examples of ep changes that would have been good:

    The seed would have been interesting with Teyla as the victim...after all she had wraith DNA. Would it have been easier to have her turn into a hive ship? then they let the whole "grow a hive ship" idea disappear.

    The lost tribe-- WHY was mckay there? Daniel was the "ancient" expert and he knew the asgard. If they needed an SGA character, why not Lorne or Sheppard...either one for protection; or Radek? Nope it HAD to be mckay!

    The Shrine - Ok any other member of the team could ahve filled the mckay role...after all mckay has done this show several times before!


    How would you rewrite other eps?
    251
    Yes
    38.65%
    97
    No
    50.20%
    126
    I don't know/care
    11.16%
    28

    #2
    The Seed: A fine idea, but very had to justify Teyla getting an infection as she was on the cruiser the entire time. Plus it puts Teyla in the damsel in distress role which is not exactly helpful for her character. Using Keller also allows you to shoehorn in the fan favourite Beckett as back up doctor which will score you points in some circles.

    The Lost Tribe; thinking on this, having Sheppard instead of mackay is a good idea. Daniel can do the translation; Sheppard was always supposed to be the whizz with the ATA gene. So it works. The problem with using Lorne or Zelenka though is a production one: it means you've split the episode into a storyline with all the main characters and one that purely features guest stars.

    The Shrine: Rodney is the obvious choice in this story. Rodney is character most associated with being intelligence and the parasites rob you of that intelligence. It doesn't work as well, thematically with the other characters.

    Edit: To clarify I actually agree, there was probably been an overemphasis of the character of Mackay and later Dr Keller and the two character's relationship. On the other hand your examples of specific episodes fall a little flat for me. Rewriting episodes for different characters than originally intended is very clunky and difficult. Replacing theses episodes entirely with episodes focused on other characters or on team efforts would be better.
    Last edited by Crazedwraith; 24 June 2009, 08:59 AM.
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      #3
      No, I don't think these relationships killed SGA. IMO what killed the show, if anything, was poor long-term plotting. That is, a distinct lack of planning in the overall storyline, as if TPTB didn't know what direction to take it. It could have been so much better. Compare it to Lost, whose PTB seem to know exactly where the show's going.

      My timeline of the Ancients here.

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        #4
        It didn't destroy it but it greatly dimished my enjoyment of it.
        What we do in life echoes in eternity - Gladiator vghUp the Blades!

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          #5
          Did TPTB focus on McKay (and McKeller) destroy Stargate Atlantis in your opinion?
          focus on Rodney? No.
          focus on McKeller? Hell yeah!

          Though I do agree with your story ideas:

          The seed: Would have been WAY better with Teyla in Keller's role. Would have made a hell of a lot more sense, too. But that is probably my dislike of Keller speaking.

          The lost tribe: Although I do still like Rodney, I totally agree with you there, too. I personally didn't care for the Daniel/Rodney interaction and would have found it much better, if John would have been together with Daniel in that scenario. (Though not Lorne, that would have been two "unimportant" characters - sorry to all Lorne fans, just my opinion - together in that story arc and I wouldn't have liked that, either.)

          And in regard to Shrine: It would have been nice to have someone else in the role of the "dying" character for once, sure. But that didn't ruin SGA for me. What did was simply Keller and McKeller.
          So, I think I'm a bit biased as to other examples - for me, I would have loved to simply see Keller replaced by any other character in every episode and every episode would have been a hundred times better for me.
          A typical example is Identity. Again, you could simply have rewritten the whole thing so that Teyla had been in Keller's role. I can't really argue with it, however, because I didn't watch the episode. I would have watched it, though, if it hadn't been Keller once again.

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            #6
            I loved the McKeller story line! {mod snip}
            Last edited by TameFarrar; 24 June 2009, 08:25 PM. Reason: do not speak for other members

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              #7
              I wouldn't say destroyed, but damaged yes. If a show doesn't have a title character and therefore is an ensemble, there shouldn't be a over forces on one character. That exactly what happened with SGA it was either the Stargate: Mckay, Stagate:Mckay and Sheppard or Stargate:Mckeller (in later seasons).

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                #8
                Originally posted by BIG_GATE_HEAD View Post
                I loved the McKeller story line! {mod snip}
                People aint complaining because McKeller was a character story line or a relationship (well ok there are people who hate SG ships). the complaining is that in peoples opinion, the relationship was rushed and an believable.
                Last edited by TameFarrar; 24 June 2009, 08:26 PM.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by BIG_GATE_HEAD View Post
                  I loved the McKeller story line! {mod snip}
                  Top tip: yall is not a word.

                  And people don't complain about McKeller simple because it was a character based relationship arc. Or at least not all of them but because it was quite simply very badly written.

                  There's very little build up between Keller's first proposition in Trio and the full blown declarations of love in The Shrine and Brain Storm. Plus Hewlett and Staite just really don't have that much chemistry between them.

                  Compare & Contrast McKeller with Simon & Kaylee in Firefly. Or even Mal & Inara. Then you might see what I mean.
                  Last edited by TameFarrar; 24 June 2009, 08:26 PM.
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                    #10
                    Originally posted by CazzBlade View Post
                    It didn't destroy it but it greatly dimished my enjoyment of it.
                    What she said. I still watched and enjoyed SGA but it wasn't as good as say S4. And I blame McKeller and McKay for that. I was a poorly planned and poorly executed ship. I really wanted to see more development of Teyla and Ronon. They have been here for 5 years (4 for Ronon) and it seems like we know next to nothing about them.
                    Originally posted by aretood2
                    Jelgate is right

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by jelgate View Post
                      What she said. I still watched and enjoyed SGA but it wasn't as good as say S4. And I blame McKeller and McKay for that. I was a poorly planned and poorly executed ship. I really wanted to see more development of Teyla and Ronon. They have been here for 5 years (4 for Ronon) and it seems like we know next to nothing about them.
                      Agreed on that. In the case of Teyla had her own people which would have allowed for a number of stories over the years, just like Teal'c and the Jaffa on SG1. But the athosians were just dumped on the mainland and generally forgotten, which cut out a big part of Teyla's character and potential development.

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                        #12
                        In SG-1 they focused on relationships. Romances as well as friendships. Sam/Jack early on and later Daniel/Vala. They built on the friendships between all of the characters.

                        In SGA, while I don't ship McKeller, I grit my teeth through it. It truly seemed to have lost the whole friendship half of the equation. That's what lessened SGA for me.
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                          #13
                          The y didn't destroy SGA on their own, but they were a very big contribution to the downfall of SGA.

                          The shrine should have been someone different, anyone different. Yet we get another McKay is dying....Yeah I past caring about the McKay is dying eps And quite a few of the eps in S5 had alot of focus on Keller when she was in the eps. Plus the all over the place writing, the wallpapering of Teyla (although it's been happening for a while now) which was more prominent in S5 and the screentimes there to back it up

                          The team acting like strangers to each other, not folks who have been together for 5 years, stupid love triangle (who the heck thought that one up, they should never be allowed near a TV show ever again )

                          So there was alot of thing that led to the downfall, but the oveload of McKay and McKeller was a big contributing factor in it!
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                            #14
                            No. Atlantis is a textbook case of failed potential from beginning to end, no single character or relationship is responsible for how bad it was.
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                              #15
                              Originally posted by BIG_GATE_HEAD View Post
                              And to all of yall who are complaining about that kind of story line, Yall are going to hate SGU because its main focus is going to be on the character story lines and relationships between them.
                              Yup, that's why I have no intention to watch it, a simple solution. That's what the OFF button is for, after all.

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