What made a good episode of SG1/SGA for you and what made a bad one for you?

[Flyboy]

Under the impression that we all liked SG1 and SGA at least a teeny bit, there are things that some people looked for in each show.

For you what is a prequisite for a GOOD episode of either series, and what sort of stuff made it a GREAT episode?

Let's talk about SG1 and SGA seperatly.

Additionally, what automatically made an ep bad, and what made it appauling for you?


For me;

SG1 -To be good, imo, the ep had to be as down to Earth as possible, so we're talking conventional weaponry and secenarios that could very easily occur in the real world. I like early (S1-5) eps for this particularly, I enjoy seeing a small military unit on operations.

To be great however I love international relations based episodes, which included Watergate, The Tomb and Full Alert. Otherwise the ep is fantastic for me if it has a high level of mythology in it, so Full Circle was good to me, as was Children of the Gods.

SG1 annoyed me in later years when the variety of terrain began to be fully replaced with Canadian forests and fields. At least in the Showtime years, evne if they were present, there'd be some interesting architecture or geography. I despise Medieval villages.

What made me downright hate an SG1 ep is if it featured 304s as a key plot point or beaming.

In contrast, I enjoyed 304 based episodes of SGA, and wasn't so interested in seeing an SG1 clone with a small team on a planet with medieval culture.

To be fantastic, I want major scale military operations and tensions. Whilst I hate the replicators in SGA - First Strike gave me this. As did Be All my Sins Remembred.

To be an awful episode - it would simply be planet of the week on foot.

[thekillman]

SG1 like:

everyone is useful, or if 1 person is useful, then there's a good reason. Carter was smart, but could not beat Jackson on his terrain, and nobody could beat O'neill on his terrain. everyone had roles, and those roles were played well.

interesting villages with interesting problems.

no easy solutions (The Other Side, for example)

interesting cultures and mythology.

SG1 LOVE:

Team Episodes, Character Episodes(primarily O'neill era, like Window Of Opportunity), mythology episodes.

SG1 HATE.

never got far enough to "hate"

SG1 Dislike.

comedy for the sake of comedy. "200". the "young SG1" was funny, untill every SGU hater used it as "SGU add/trailer/teaser"

conviction and redemption. too predictable.

i liked the 304's, they provided new insight.


SGA LIKE:

hard to say.... late SGA was more action, and i love action. but plotwise, it was terribly shallow.

Atlantis Episodes. every episode featuring the city is awesome.

Team Episodes. not shoot 'em ups or "only mckay can do this".

304 episodes.


SGA LOVE.

hard to say. probably the same as "like". no wait.

any episode with deep plot, good characters, character episodes, good mix of action, but also a good moment to sit back and think over the actions done.

example? The Siege. the absolute masterpiece of ENTIRE SGA.

oh, and "lets do it the SG1 way" AKA "sense and simplicity" episodes. The Return is idiotic (annoying ancients) but masterful how O'neill and Woolsey interact. classic act. and the sudden flashback and final unfolding. masterful plot twist.

why sense and simplicity? ancients return, we go, replicators attack, we kick their asses. the way to defeat them is a piece of great ingenuity, but also requires EVERYONE

SGA HATE.

yes, here i have Hates.

Rule Of COOL episodes. EATG. BAMSR. great visuals, filled with awesome. wait, why didn't they blow up the sun? why didnt they develop a counter-cipher and mass-ARG them? why no THOROUGH nuking. no nanite should be able to withstand several gigatons of energy in it's face.

OUTRIGHT SILLY episodes. never watched Irresponsible and Irresistible. never gonna. seriously, a party drug and a guy with a shield posing as superhero?




SGU LIKE:

episodes that revolve around a mix of characters, humor, the stargate, the ship, a planet and a problem.

SGU LOVE:

complex episodes. sounds crazy (and in contradiction with my SGA statements).
however, Time and Justice were Masterpieces, and Time was quite complex.

SGU HATE.

characters. if all that matters is characters. never a fan of SG1's "changeling". no fan of SGU's Life. it's simply not... what we geeks want to know

[DigiFluid]

Good:
Great team dynamics are important. The shows are really at their best when every character is playing to their strengths while pursuing the same goal, like in "Lost City" or "Reckoning, Part 2".

Good focus on mythology (both real and series) also goes a long way toward making a great episode.


Bad:
Any amount of Rodney McKay.

[CazzBlade]

Good - team dynamics, usually with at least one person in peril. I like the eps that gave us something new, like Conversion - we learn't new things about the Wraith, the Iratus bug, how human's react to the retrovirus. Common Ground - we learnt lots of new things about the Wraith, we learnt about their feeding process. Both these eps had a clear purpose, a problem to solve, and even though you might not have thought John would die there was the possibility of him being changed. Another thing about eps like this is continuity, Shep and the Iratus bugs.

Bad - I don't like silly episodes - Irrisistable, 200 etc... They're supposed to be funny but mostly just make me cringe. I also don't like eps with characters missing, while some can be good, I don't tend to watch them again, and if I'm not too fussed about the character it focuses on then I can get bored. I also don't like eps that's purpose is a 'ship' (as in relationship), I like shipping, I ship John/Teyla and Sam/Jack but I'd prefer to have snippets in episodes rather than the whole ep dedicated to it, TPTB don't handle it very well.

[s09119]

Liked in SG-1:
- Exploring the universe
- Showing humanity learn more and more about alien cultures and technology
- Meeting strange alien societies
- The whole religious/mythological aspect
- The cast and characters
- Great writing
- Amazing special effects for the time and budget
- Comedy

Disliked in SG-1:
- Too many "rubberfaced" aliens
- Not enough serious story arcs
- One-dimensional people at times
- "Planet of the week" episodes
- Revolving door of minor characters (Jonas, anyone?)

Liked about Atlantis:
- Exploring the remnants of the Lanteans' empire
- Ancient technology moved to the forefront
- The Wraith (early seasons)
- The cast and characters
- Interesting alien racers (ie. Travelers)
- Amazing special effects (first and second seasons only)
- Great writing (first three seasons only)
- Darker tone than its predecessor

Disliked about Atlantis:
- Ancients were made to look stupid
- Horrible special effects in later seasons
- Blatant disregard for previously-established canon and continuity
- Simplistic plot solutions
- Fanwank level of technology
- Revolving door of major and minor characters (Ford, Beckett, Weir, Coyla...)
- Darker tone lost in later seasons

Like about Universe:
- Ancients are returned to the status of the "mysterious old race"
- The Destiny in general
- Incredible cast and characters
- Special effects on par with movies
- Complex plots
- Interesting aliens
- More focus on characters and relationships
- Inclusion of realistic intimacy
- Main cast made up of normal people versus "superheroes"
- Much darker tone
- Visiting Earth but still cut off
- IOA's expanded role as antagonist
- More modern set-building and camera style
- Subtle and witty comedy

Dislike about Universe:
- Long-range communication stones used for unimportant reasons
- Slightly too-much drama
- Still too tied to Earth
- Plot sometimes moves a bit too slowly

[thekillman]

i disagree about SGA's later season CGI being crap. BAMSR was awesome, EATG too.

however it was for the sake of cool CGI, not for the sake of plot

[s09119]

i disagree about SGA's later season CGI being crap. BAMSR was awesome, EATG too.

however it was for the sake of cool CGI, not for the sake of plot

Both of those effects were terrible. BAMSR looked like a 5 year old had colored in some shapes, and EATG was only marginally better. They were cartoony, not at all like the realistic-looking effects from "Rising."

[DigiFluid]

Yeah.... The effects company seemed to get lazier and lazier as SGA went on. Their work was stunning back in "Rising", and even for most of the first season. But as the show went on, it got increasingly cartoony and fake looking.

[Flyboy]

Yeah.... The effects company seemed to get lazier and lazier as SGA went on. Their work was stunning back in "Rising", and even for most of the first season. But as the show went on, it got increasingly cartoony and fake looking.

If you ask me, the worst of all the CGI was in Lost Tribe.

[Sealurk]

For me;

SG1 -To be good, imo, the ep had to be as down to Earth as possible, so we're talking conventional weaponry and secenarios that could very easily occur in the real world. I like early (S1-5) eps for this particularly, I enjoy seeing a small military unit on operations.

To be great however I love international relations based episodes, which included Watergate, The Tomb and Full Alert. Otherwise the ep is fantastic for me if it has a high level of mythology in it, so Full Circle was good to me, as was Children of the Gods.

SG1 annoyed me in later years when the variety of terrain began to be fully replaced with Canadian forests and fields. At least in the Showtime years, evne if they were present, there'd be some interesting architecture or geography. I despise Medieval villages.

Couldn't put it any better myself with these points.

What made me downright hate an SG1 ep is if it featured 304s as a key plot point or beaming.

Sort of agree, but less enthusiastically. More of an irritant than anything.

In contrast, I enjoyed 304 based episodes of SGA, and wasn't so interested in seeing an SG1 clone with a small team on a planet with medieval culture.

The first time I disagree outright - having a 304 on hand as often as they did in SGA completely undid any sense of distance or isolation. In SG-1 it would be understandable, but with the exception of major military operations like BAMSR or FS, 304s were overused IMO.

To be fantastic, I want major scale military operations and tensions. Whilst I hate the replicators in SGA - First Strike gave me this. As did Be All my Sins Remembred.

To be an awful episode - it would simply be planet of the week on foot.

Yes, and yes.

I also generally rate any episode of either series that heavily featured the Stargate itself (A Matter of Time, Redemption, Thirty-Eight Minutes etc) as a major plot point. SGA had very few of these, almost feeling like the gates were taken for granted by this point and therefore weakening the series in my eyes.

[thekillman]

i thought the 304's were a good idea in SGA. the frequent contact with earth however wasn't that great.


it would have been better if the ZPM, after Rising had either 1 medium or 2 short dials of power left. that way, Earth could've sent re-enforcements without the egyptian ZPM. also, the 304's should be on their way much longer.

[Pitry]

Hmmm... tough question.
I loved the laid back SG1 episodes. The small quiet ones that weren't necessarily aimed at being "WE ARE A CHARACTER X DEVELOPMENT EPISODE!! ELEVENTY !" with big flashing neon lights, but weren't all about action and explosions, either. Basically a lot of the early years, but this unique type of episode managed to survive afterwards as wll.

Like - basically just episodes I considered to be well written - not derivative,had funny dialogue, etc.

Dislike: a lot of the above neon flashed character X development episode - when they try too hard it never works.

hated - pointless derivative episodes. The kind you can predict what will happen within 3 seconds of the episode. Also, episode that traded character devleopment/ moments for explosions.

SGA - actually, quite the same. Which is why I always loved SG1 a lot more than I did SGA, as they had a lot less of episodes that were intentionally low key.

[thekillman]

so you're saying, you hate "holiday" (after 20 minutes, i had the solution), you like, for example, Fifth Race, Tornment of Tantalus, and you dislike some teal'c episodes like bloodlines.

[BoundNoMore]

I have no particular like/dislikes for what makes a good/bad episode. I can always find something I like in every episode, and something I don't like.

As a rule though, I tend to feel less impressed with overly predictable plot elements, such as 'Holiday's body switching.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I find there’s no fixed formula for a good stargate episode for me, as long as it has a good script, acting and it keeps me interested then it’s a good episode for me.