Episode 10 (110)

[jerem]

I think we were all hoping for something better than a mind wipe....

Also, given how light heated and comedic this show was in tone - most of the characters ended up with pretty dark fates.

Very true, the contrast is pretty shocking actually. It's like everything was wrapped-up in a hurry after slowing down the narrative in episodes 3-7.

An one wonder why RA, knowing the earth is out there, heavily populated with billions of people and have clearly advance technology would just leave it alone to further advance.

The mission files have something to say about Ra not ever returning to Earth. Essentially he had a fear about returning to the place of his greatest defeat/embarrassment. Though "publicly" the reason was that it wasn't worth the man power for a planet with no naquadah

Yeah, although a big "shaky" for an explanation, I believe everything resides on the fact he doesn't know Earth's population. Had he known we were 2 billions, I'm sure he would have shifted his priorities a little bit. We would have turned out to be worthy of his interest.

[sci-fi fanatic]

I'll agree with the group that the brainwashing was predictable and the easiest way out of the corner to save continuity. I also was stunned at how dark the finale was for everyone, including the Langfords. I still feel like the show would have been better without the Nazis at all; I was relieved when all were finally dead. Origins was an interesting experiment and had its moments, but I'm hoping for a lot more if we get another series at some point in the future. Still, it did get us all talking about Stargate again!

I also wrote a review of the last three episodes on my blog (plus a little bit on #StargateRising) in case you're interested:

http://www.ptsnob.com/2018/03/starga...odes-8-10.html

[Ian-S]

Well slightly predictable, but I'm still glad to watch new Stargate even if it did feel like watching fan fiction.

Is that the first f bomb in Stargate history too? Seems to be the in thing nowadays, take these family type shows, turn them really dark and throw in an f bomb or two to keep in with the kool kids. Maybe the baby is for a future storyline should the show be renewed, but continuous mind wipes to keep continuity is going to get old pretty quick.

What happened to the Nazi women film maker, did she cop it too off screen?

[lightsyder]

Aset’s Bodyguard shot her before Ra showed up I think.

Pretty sure the baby was in the temple with Aset with Ra nuked it too

[Ian-S]

Yeah I thought that too, doesn't mean the baby didn't survive though.

[Major_Griff]

1. Why wouldn't Ra - with the knowledge that the Tau'ri have reopened their stargate - send an army though the gate to retake Earth? Or why wouldn't he send a couple of mother ships to Earth to wipe them out? Opening the gate shows humanity is becoming a threat. Why wouldn't Ra do something about it?

2. This episode is the prime example of why prequels aren't good. It spends most of its run time lazily and sloppily trying to justify everything with continuity and connect things to the movie and it feels so completely forced. Also Catherine having her mind wiped during the climax is bad writing straight up. Making your main character completely passive during the climax is not something you want to do.

3. Are we to believe that Wasif and the other guy become Anubis and whatshisname from the movie? Lol, okay.

4. What a waste of time. I hate to be so negative here, but there's nothing really for me to like about this. It's poorly written, poorly made, and it was made with little regard to established continuity. The mind wipe doesn't even solve the continuity issues completely as I pointed with Ra knowing Earth's gate is open but does nothing about it.

[lightsyder]

Ra was supposed to be busy keeping the other System Lords in line and fighting with the Asgard.

I think Wasif and the other guy are the first of his human guards, not necessarily the ones from the movie though

The mission files cover some of this

[Major_Griff]

Ra was supposed to be busy keeping the other System Lords in line and fighting with the Asgard.

I think Wasif and the other guy are the first of his human guards, not necessarily the ones from the movie though

The mission files cover some of this

I admit I haven't been reading the mission files, but their existence and the fact that they seem to 'explain' a lot of the inconsistencies and whatnot tells me that the PTB were aware of some of the more problematic elements and chose not to care. They could explain it away in supplemental material so why bother doing it right?

As for Ra being too busy with the Asgard and the other System Lords, he could have sent a naquadah bomb through and took care of any potential threat from Earth forever. No muss no fuss. So I don't buy that at all.

[jerem]

As for Ra being too busy with the Asgard and the other System Lords, he could have sent a naquadah bomb through and took care of any potential threat from Earth forever. No muss no fuss. So I don't buy that at all.

Why would he want to do that?
He's just postponing for later... He doesn't want to destroy, he want to take advantage of. More slaves!

[Major_Griff]

Why would he want to do that?
He's just postponing for later... He doesn't want to destroy, he want to take advantage of. More slaves!

For the same reason he plans on doing that in the original movie…

[Major_Griff]

Which, yes in the movie Earth possessing the power of nuclear weapons makes it more urgent for Ra to wipe us out, but still I think having guns and opening the gate show that Earth has become a threat. Also, even if he wanted to use Earth for more slaves/hosts, in the 50 something years betwixt the events of Origins and the movie you're telling me he couldn't do something about this? He just let it go until it came back to bite him? Also you can lob a bomb through the gate to burry or possibly destroy it to keep Earth from causing any trouble until you can get to it.

It's ridiculous that Ra wouldn't do anything about this.

[jerem]

Perhaps 50 years is a short time for somebody who lives thousands of years.

I agree it doesn't seem likely nothing would happen over the 50 years now that we've revealed ourselves, but not strictly impossible either.

I mean, you could make the same argument as to why we've been left alone since 3000 B.C. Hasn't anyone taken the time to check upon us during ALL that time?

At this point, perhaps it's better to continue the same plothole

[Major_Griff]

It's weaksauce. They should have kept Ra out of this completely. I could almost swallow the memory wipe filth if they didn't create such a glaring issue.

As for why Earth was left alone since 3000 BC, Ra didn't see us as being worth the trouble once the rebellion happened. With the gate out of action, there was no way for Earth to cause any problems, and I think at least in the Stargate universe, it's not a given that humans will advance as far as Earth did when left alone. We see plenty of planets in SG-1 who have been left alone by the Goa'uld but that don't advance to Earth level or beyond.

But once you're confronted with the fact that Earth has figured out the gate and has advanced beyond bows and arrows for weapons, I think they'd have your attention.

I mean we can go back and forth on this all we want, at the end of the day they should have never brought Ra into this, or at least kept him in the dark about the visitors from Earth.

[WraithTech]

Everything after Ra’s arrival happened waaaaaay too quickly. Blink and you might miss something—not that you will be missing much of anything pleasant to what happened to the majority of characters.

On another note, here is a wiki photo name and caption which made me chuckle: http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/File:...iacal_look.png
"Serqet's crazy maniacal look before murdering Beal" A bit editorial and spoilery for those looking at the wiki, but true. I liked the costumes of the Goa’uld, but am glad I made sure to make the costume thread I made about them be about their costumes and not them.

Serqet was no friend to Aset and Aset should have seen that coming (but didn't seem to think twice with Brucke either).
EDIT: Also, now we know what the hook was for at the end of Serqet's staff-- to keep Beal from going through the gate.

What happened to the Nazi women film maker, did she cop it too off screen?

I interpreted the camera coming to a stop as symbolic of the story of her life being over. It was one of the eerier moments I will remember about the movie.

Yeah I thought that too, doesn't mean the baby didn't survive though.

That would be pretty bad to not have had some sort of plan to get her baby to safety. I kept waiting for her to send her baby through the gate with her quiet human attendant. She had so many plans for everyone else.

I think Wasif and the other guy are the first of his human guards, not necessarily the ones from the movie though

The ones from the movie had different ethnic looks, didn’t they? If they were not Jaffa, I figured he must just churn through the guards.

EDIT: One more thing: I sure hope Professor Langford's memory wipe didn't take away too much of his knowledge of the old language. He kind of needs some of that for his job.

[Voxyn]

I really disliked the series as a whole.

Being a prequel it was obvious that everything would have to be reset to the movie starting point.
Which started me off with nice negative feelings.

I really disliked Catherine. She was so antagonistic towards everyone, even the man she is romantically involved in. They're trying to get her to slow down and come up with a plan but she bites their heads off.
I suppose it's normal to want to get your father back but somehow threatening the people with guns to your head doesn't seem like the way to go.

As others have said the fight choreography was a joke.
The bad humour was wrong.
It made me feel like it was a Dr Who episode.
Nobody seemed the take their situation seriously.

Why was the baby in so many scenes?
Is it normal to take your baby to a negotiation with a man who is clearly nuts?

The shots from Ra's ship at the end made me laugh.
His guns are THAT weak?
He made two tiny holes in the roof and blew up a tent.
He should be leaving two smoking craters like a meteorite hit.

Eight out of ten if it was a fanfilm.
One out of ten for a studio production.

[TheVoidDragon]

1. Why wouldn't Ra - with the knowledge that the Tau'ri have reopened their stargate - send an army though the gate to retake Earth? Or why wouldn't he send a couple of mother ships to Earth to wipe them out? Opening the gate shows humanity is becoming a threat. Why wouldn't Ra do something about it?

I don't see the issue with Ra not considering Earth a threat. It's the same thing Apophis does despite Apophis going there himself and seeing the level of technology the Tau'ri have. In the pilot episode for the series Ra goes to Earth himself, gets a look around the gateroom and encounters several SGC guards - and he actually looses one of his personal guard to them - but he doesn't at any point show any actual interest in Earth from what i remember. Even after capturing SG1 he shows absolutely no interest in them, it isn't until they directly interrupt him as he's leaving (and with Teal'c betraying him) that he finally decides to send some Jaffa and then eventually just gives up after a few days. It isn't until after SG1 captures him on the Nox planet and they go on to do all sorts of other things that he finally decides to send 2 ships to Earth.

If Apophis, who was a quite powerful system lord, wouldn't consider them a threat after encountering the more advanced (than 1930s Earth) military personnel and seeing their level of technology himself, then i don't see why Ra would consider them a threat before the movie. Ra was the most powerful system lord, he probably had more important things to do than rush off and deal with them when they weren't a problem right away, and 70 years probably isn't a huge amount of time for a creature who's thousands of years old.

The Goa'uld are arrogant, self-centred and pretty much always underestimate their enemies. I don't think there's much chance he considered them worth any significant attention at the time.

[Falcon Horus]

Since there doesn't seem to be a feature cut thread, I'll just leave this lengthy review of my viewing of it in here ... in the thread of the last episode.

I watched it friday and with the lowest expectations I could muster, .... I kinda like it....

...and by "kinda liked it", I mean that I didn't think it was all crappy as hell... cause damn... the story, no -- no. Nope, definitely no. I've seen fanfiction that is far better than this story.

They ruined the Goa'uld. They obviously never saw a ring transporter up close. It's like those rings never stopped coming. There are FIVE rings, no more, no less. I mean, they even use rings in the 1994 film so if this story was really written by Stargate fans, they should have known this.

Also, Au Set or Aset, who was indeed an Egyptian Goddess, could never have been on Abydos at the time of this happening for it is established in SG-1's canon that Isis (as the Greeks called Aset) was stuck in a jar, at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (as told in season 4 -- The Curse).

Do your damn homework!

However, they do get points for, more or less, doing their homework on Serqet. In the myths she protected Isis/Aset and Osiris from Setesh, and saved Horus when he was poisoned by his uncle. Obviously as a Goa'uld she's not above betrayal as she clearly demonstrates when she calls in Ra.

The gate looked like ... well, we build a gate with our prop group and honestly that looks ten times better. It at least feels halfway real, and looks halfway real. Even our DHD looks more real -- at least the big red button in the middle does. And it's made out of styrofoam (the DHD, not our gate).

Ra looked like he had shrunk in the wash. Or like a bobblehead... not entirely sure which. Nevertheless, if Funko Pop needs inspiration for their next Pop, I say Ra should be a contender.

Mohawk and Wasif -- <3
Such a beautiful story those two were given. That budding relationship. Such a beautiful story as it meanders through the rest of it, little touches here and there. But then of course, they are dealt the tragic ending. (%$&^!) you too!
The masks were wicked thought -- my inner propbuilder was squeeing with delight!

They use a sequence from Stargate (1994) in the beginning which I think set the story on track, but when they "land Ra's ship" they use a crappy 3D shot that made me cringe. Seriously, if they ran out of money, they should have used more footage from 1994. At least, that would have made it look epic. The crappy 3D, however, gave it a ridiculous look and gone was the tension. Just facepalming...

Talking about cringeworthy backdrops -- that window view in the temple/gateroom/throneroom (jail must have been next door, just around the corner from the cave where Catherine smashes the 7th glyph much to Kasuf's horror). If it looked even more fake than it did, it would have literally looked like actual wallpaper. It looked like a bloody painting -- something painted by René Magritte perhaps.
Don't make backdrops look like static paintings that lack any depth... *cringe* -- the low budget was felt. It hurt.

The story leaves much to be desired, like a lot... like a lot lot lot. It's not complete. Whole chunks of it are clearly missing and it's annoying to say the least. Come on, it's a disjointed piece of work, that jumps from one chapter into the next. Maybe it's because it's just an edited version of sticking 10 episodes together but by the goddesses, if they had put in a little more effort, spend just a little more time on the galore of the franchise with more attention to detail, we could have had a miniseries of 4 episodes with a runtime of 180 minutes. They should have taken Tutankhamon as example -- that could have worked perfectly.

The miniseries is about how Howard Carter finds the boy king's tomb. It has 4 episodes and runs 180 minutes. I'm sure the production costs were much higher, considering who's in the cast and where it was filmed (entirely on location in South Africa) but if that had been the template on which Stargate Origins: Catherine had been built. By the gods, MGM would have set the franchise up for a revival that could have opened a whole new set of stories, and would have definitely brought in a whole bunch of new fans to the franchise.

Individually, I liked most of the dialogue that took place. Liked Catherine -- Ellie Gall does a very good job. Daniel Rashid as Kasuf -- he was phenomenal. I really liked Kasuf and Catherine's scenes together. Wasif and Beal -- British finest -- sort of. Wasif, I like. Beal, I'm not sure about.

I also really liked the effort to speak Egyptian, even though we still have no idea what the correct pronunciation is really.
And whenever the Goa'uld opened their mouths, I half expected Imhotep from The Mummy to make a guest appearance. I mean, what was up with those voices. Wha...?!?

And then ... that Deus Ex Machina at the end, to set the record straight again so that it would at least fit in with established Stargate 1994 canon... ... fail!

*sigh*

To summarize, if MGM actually had some believe in their own franchise, and given this the proper attention it so very much deserved, perhaps this could have been a major success and could have opened a whole new set of incredible stories. But alas, it shows their budget was limited and they had to make do with what they were given. They tried to make the best of it, and well... I hate to say it but... this was sad. MGM clearly doesn't believe in Stargate, and it shows. It's absolutely and truly sad.

My sister made the comment that if this is the only thing they were willing to put forth, than they should have left well enough alone. And I agree.

There is also no chance in hell, or anywhere else, that I'm going to pay the equivalent of 20 dollars for this as a digital download. That is literally seriously overpriced. I don't want to give MGM the impression that this is the kind of stargate I'm okay with paying for. After the way they have treated the fanbase -- no (%$&^!)ing way!

For reference, the digital download available from iTunes, the Microsoft Store, the Playstation Store and Google Play, would cost me 16,99 euro (which is approx. 19,99 US dollar). Allow me to give you a comparison as to why I will not spend that kind of money on ONE digital download of 104' of stargate:

(missing from my collection at this point)
Stargate Atlantis season 4 -- 14,99 €
Stargate Atlantis season 5 -- 12,26 £
Stargate Universe season 1 & 2 -- 36,99 €
Stargate SG-1: Ark of Truth & Stargate Continuum -- 5,99 £

Stargate Infinity season 1 -- 16,85 €

I can buy quality for the same amount as I would have to pay for a poor quality digital download (story-wise, not HD-wise).
Infinity aside, perhaps (as far as story-quality goes, I don't know).

I'm also not paying the same amount of money for the feature cut, which only gives me access to the Origins when every premium member gets every mission file and behind the scenes and dial home interviews for the same amount of money. All the series for streaming (which I care less about) and a free download code (even if most are disappointed it's for iTunes only).

[lightsyder]

The whole Aset jar situation is covered in one of the mission files on the Stargate command website

[Platschu]

The whole Aset jar situation is covered in one of the mission files on the Stargate command website

It was unnecessary to use that Egyptian Goa'uld as the story hasn't given any other details why they needed so desperately Isis/Aset. They could have chosen any other one for the nursing purpose. Even the cloning was not introduced until Anubis downloaded informations from Thor's brain at the end of season 5. So the Goa'uld was not aware of this technology before...

Even the whole Harsiesis subplot was unnecessary as well, because we don't know anything about the baby. I can only assume that the "caring" nature of Isis saved the Langfords at the end, because she knew that Earth will revenge her later. So I am guessing that was the only reason why have they chosen a mother type Goa'uld.

So anyway I have to treat this Origins story like an Alternative Universe story what could have happened.

[lightsyder]

I'm not disagreeing that the choices could have been much better. Just pointing out that they tried to explain the Aset/Isis plot hole.