Stargate Rewatch!

[SaraBahama]

SG1 to me feels more like an adventure show, without a large part of secondary characters to explore they could just send them on missions and misadventures and I think a large part of what made SG1 work was they could both explore darker issues while having a ligher issue on the side (such as "Window of Oppertunity"), of course they kept going with Seasons 9-10 and went more comedic thus lessening the impact of the series but Seasons 1-8 had that perfect balance of serious and funny that they didn't need to have more than what they had, they didn't need to follow up on tons of secondary characters throughout Stargate Command, they were satisfied with what they had.

I really appreciated that about SG1.

Good points on the rest of your observation. As a viewer, I never got into Lost, either: due to a busy schedule, anything with a huge story arc that requires watching every episode to follow the story does not keep my attention -invariably I end up missing eps and consequently losing interest in the series. This happened with Revolution recently (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series)), and I had been stoked to see that series for MONTHS in advance. I think it would have made a better mini-series than series.

I think this is the same reason I never connected entirely with Star Trek DS9, as opposed to Star Trek TNG (which was more like SG1). I also enjoyed X-Files and Eureka because they were episodic (even though both had SOME over-reaching story arcs as the series progressed). This all may be a limitation with me, as a viewer, but RL is so busy I can hardly do anything else.

[bradjohnson]

I joined the thread at the end of the Rewatch, and I wish I had known about the forum a long time ago because I have been watching Stargate for a long time. I wish I would've had a chance to partake in a entire forum Rewatch! =) If they ever decide to do another I'll be in!

[RamonaThePest]

Lost had such a large cast as well but the difference was that they were able to weave a compelling story for each of the characters. Locke the loner who always wanted to be more than he was; Jack the surgeon who has always garnered his father's attentions and of course, you can't forget about Michael's attempts to be a father to Walt and Walt's general oddities.

SGU's cast wasn't developed to the point where they'd be interesting. They did try in "Life" and much of season 2 but it only led to 5 or so characters being compelling and those are Young, Rush, Chloe, Greer and Eli; all of them had flaws that grabbed you in, traits that were relatable to you and stories that really had you glancing at their characters. The others such as Scott and TJ weren't given much development and the potential threads were either not explored (such as Scott and his kid) or introduced around the tail end of the season (TJ's ALS for example.)

I don't believe the size of the cast was the problem. In SGA, I found much of the characters interesting especially those of Weir, Sheppard, Ronan, Teyla, Ford, the chezhian, Woosley, Dr. Keller, Carson and even a couple of minor characters such as that Japanese doctor and the occasional Wraith. To me it is how compelling the characters are and how they develop overtime that draw me in; size doesn't matter as long as you know how to handle your characters.

SG1 to me feels more like an adventure show, without a large part of secondary characters to explore they could just send them on missions and misadventures and I think a large part of what made SG1 work was they could both explore darker issues while having a ligher issue on the side (such as "Window of Oppertunity"), of course they kept going with Seasons 9-10 and went more comedic thus lessening the impact of the series but Seasons 1-8 had that perfect balance of serious and funny that they didn't need to have more than what they had, they didn't need to follow up on tons of secondary characters throughout Stargate Command, they were satisfied with what they had.

...and so were we.

[hedwig]

Stargate Atlantis: Season 2

They say that after every first season comes a season which finds it's footing and is more capable in it's abilities to provide quality entertainment... Well this could be considered one of those seasons which explores a bit more into the Wraith society, the characters and the ancients as a whole but there also lies something beneath the surface which counteracts that. Still, it's nice to see a show in it's second season; definitely shows that there was an audience out there that demanded more of this stuff...

Let's get the stuff out of the way, there is definitely an improvement in the variety of the stories offered and how they're told; I don't know whether or not which factors are involved but I definitely know there are more varied stories this time around. An example of this would have to be "The Intruder" which takes place almost entirely on a Daedalus-like battle cruiser and involves flashbacks and some good action; while it's not the best example, it does showcase the newfound variety of the season and it's different then what we've seen in Season 1, which is the team mainly being on Atlantis. Then there is "Grace Under Pressure" which while aping "Thirty Eight Minutes" involves one of our known in a situation where he's all alone and forced to adapt to the situation; the fact that it places one of our own in a tough situation and the fact that the situation provides an in-depth focus to that character is something that proves refreshing, in fact this allows the show to expand it's wings a bit, come up with episodes it's never made before and compared to Season 1, the ideas seem more electric and vibrant; spreading it's wings is the only thing a show can do at this point.

Actually, "Grace Under Pressure", more or less copies SG1's Season 7's "Grace" than it does "Thirty Eight Minutes".