First Three Episodes Reaction Thread (SPOILERS)

[knowles2]

This is a general problem with prequels. You either are handcuffed by established continuity and therefore can't do anything new, or you just say heck with it and do whatever you want with no regard for what came before/comes next. Or some combination thereof. The only prequel I've ever seen that manages to avoid this is Better Call Saul. Everything else, from Star Wars to Star Trek, to whatever else falls into that trap.

As for this series ending with mind wipes or time travel shenanigans, that's a cop out of all cop outs. And there's an awful lot of people on two planets that would need to be mind wiped. So that seems super contrived, imo.

Not that many, most of the Germans back in Germany who knows about the stargate will be disposed of by WW2 with the gate out of their reach in the US. The Germans will probably be kill by the Goa'uld. Leaving only Langford, that Egyptian fella and her boyfriend needing their minds wiped.

[Jedi_Master_Bra'tac]

Eh... It was kinda fun I guess - though the dialogue felt a bit wooden. I am glad they are going back to lighthearteness, though maybe taking it too far and not striking the nice balance SG1 had

Everyone's losing their minds about the gate activating... chill guys, the writers have said they weren't going to break established canon, and I think they would have noticed something like this. Let's see what they do to explain this, I'm personally expecting Mitchell from the end of Continuum to be somehow in involved.

[Supergater]

Definitely a level lower than the serialized Stargate series but I get it that its because of lower budget. As of 3 episodes the storylines interesting and still attention grabbing albeit a little slow. I guess that why everyone should wait until ALL episodes are out first to get the actual feel of the whole movie (10 episode, 10 minutes = 1hour 40 min movie). Try watching an Indiana Jones movie for 30 minute then come back the next day for the rest and see if you feel if the story loses momentum.

As for lack of continuity, I feel I must point that these 3 episode ONLY establishes that Catherine and dad know it is a STAR-GATE - gateway to another place. And that it needs 7 symbols to open the gate. It is NEVER indicated that Catherine already has the Point Of Origin symbol. She only know THESE 7 symbol opens A(one) gate activation. She DOESN'T know that last symbol WAS the point of origin until Dr Jackson said it was. All she did was read the nazi Dr Brucke's notebook....she doesn't know ANYTHING yet. Therefore one (rather important) continuity point that should be establish on the last episode is the lost of said notebook, then we are back to the Stargate movie continuity. This also fits into Torment of Tantalus that they were trying to replicate what happen here in SGO and when they say they didn't know what the Stargate is for, (speculation here) Catherine and dad chose to keep quiet certain (not all) details of what they truly know. (The why would be established in the next 7 episode, dependent on what's the story that occur offworld).

[h4mx0r]

Oof... This... was not that good.

Some of the scenes felt like I was watching a high school theater production. Low budget, I get it, but man...

Why would the Nazi's chief occultist only bring like 3 soldiers and a camerawoman to such an important find?

I assume that the notebook or this gate will be destroyed at some point, otherwise I don't see why Catherine wouldn't have just dialed this address again 60 years later. There are still seven episodes, so we'll just see what they do for continuity.

I don't mind trying to be lighthearted, but the characters were acting really over-the-top comical, which didn't really seem to fit the seriousness of the situation.

I hope for the best, because I want the Stargate franchise to gain traction again... but I don't know if this is gonna do it.

[thekillman]

Why would the Nazi's chief occultist only bring like 3 soldiers and a camerawoman to such an important find?

The Nazi's were fairly obsessed with getting relics and such. But they are at war or about to start one, so it's not like they'd send 500 soldiers to the middle of nowhere to get a metal ring.

I assume that the notebook or this gate will be destroyed at some point, otherwise I don't see why Catherine wouldn't have just dialed this address again 60 years later. There are still seven episodes, so we'll just see what they do for continuity.

If they bury the gate, then it won't work again. Meaning they'd have no addresses. Langford seems to think it's a time machine, whereas the Occultist seems to think he's in heaven or some place. The idea that the symbols are an actual address seems unknown at this point.

[dosed150]

Oof... This... was not that good.

Some of the scenes felt like I was watching a high school theater production. Low budget, I get it, but man...

Why would the Nazi's chief occultist only bring like 3 soldiers and a camerawoman to such an important find?

I assume that the notebook or this gate will be destroyed at some point, otherwise I don't see why Catherine wouldn't have just dialed this address again 60 years later. There are still seven episodes, so we'll just see what they do for continuity.

I don't mind trying to be lighthearted, but the characters were acting really over-the-top comical, which didn't really seem to fit the seriousness of the situation.

I hope for the best, because I want the Stargate franchise to gain traction again... but I don't know if this is gonna do it.

I'm thinking hes a bit like a nazi daniel jackson in that everyone just thinks hes a crackpot with mad ideas, his first line when they get to adydos does imply Hitler didnt believe him so makes sense they wouldnt give him many people, also you can sneak a few people into egypt, I think the british would notice a larger force

Im not sure what to think, but i came in with very low expectations and it at least exceeds those

[sci-fi fanatic]

My expectations were pretty low, and Origins mostly fit with what I was anticipating. It definitely has a smaller budget, which is tricky on a Stargate series. There were a few good scenes, particularly Catherine's trip through the gate. I like the old-school adventure vibe of Origins, which does feel closer to the movie and early SG-1. However, I don't want to over sell it either. It's a very light show, and the stakes feel low. This isn't a good sign given that we're talking about such a cool discovery (in theory).

I wrote a long blog post about the first three episodes if you're interested:

http://www.ptsnob.com/2018/02/reopen...e-origins.html

If you check it out, I'd love to hear what you think!

[Vyse]

Wow, that was really bad. I can overlook the budget issues if there is a good story, dialogue, and characters. However, I also can't overlook the blatant canon violations, and silly stuff like a car battery powering the Stargate. Also, I understand there is a small budget. but they could have done some detailing on the Stargate to make it appear as it did on the show.

2/10

[SamJackShipper93]

Wow, that was really bad. I can overlook the budget issues if there is a good story, dialogue, and characters. However, I also can't overlook the blatant canon violations, and silly stuff like a car battery powering the Stargate. Also, I understand there is a small budget. but they could have done some detailing on the Stargate to make it appear as it did on the show.

2/10

SG-1 literally powered the gate with a car battery in 1969. It's been done before, it can be done again.

[NickEast]

SG-1 literally powered the gate with a car battery in 1969. It's been done before, it can be done again.

You mean it's been done again so it can be done before? Since SG-1 did that after the Nazi's did ?

Still, there's too much going on for me to be happy about this. The more I see, the more I'm concerned. With all that's happening, how then do neither Catherine nor her father act on it after the gate is brought to America? Some elements, like the Nazi Occultists with the DHD research and everything, still work and I'm fine with that, but how can they instantly figure out how to dial the gate without having access to it, and then when they do they immediately succeed without failing at all?

Catherine also has the notebook. While she doesn't know what the symbols mean (though it's strange the Nazis already knew they were constellations), she does know the combination to Abydos, including that you need 7 symbols with the "pyramid and circle" as the final symbol. Then why did she need Jackson to figure out they need seven symbols, with the pyramid as the last symbol? She clearly says in the film when the sixth symbol is locked that that is as far as they've ever been able to get.

It's also pretty clear they're traveling to Abydos. The design of the gate room is understandable because of budget, but why did no-one ever find references to Aset (the Goa'uld they encounter) and why didn't the Goa'uld ever find out that humans visited Abydos before? Aset is supposedly the "manager" of Abydos while Ra is out there ruling the System Lords. But if anything happened there (either Aset is killed, or she kills the Nazis, followed by Catherine and her father safely returning to Earth), then it's hard to cover it up without anyone ever finding out about it (Goa'uld or SGC alike).

If the Langfords and the others deliberately lied or covered up the truth, then it seems highly irresponsible to let Ernest go through in a diving suit in 1945, followed by the whole Giza Project in the early 90s and Catherine letting Daniel go to Abydos without any kind of knowledge of what to expect. Even then, it's even more implausible that after being reunited with Ernest, she still doesn't tell the truth. Why would she allow dozens of soldiers and civilians, and the entire Earth for that matter, be threatened by the Goa'uld just because she somehow couldn't tell anyone about the threat that she saw herself?

The only explanations I can see is either memory loss, time travel (as in Atlantis "Before I Sleep"), or a dream ending. None of those I feel would justify the whole effort of developing this project or the existing history of Stargate (both in real-life and the fictional universe). While the shows frequently touched upon time travel, it was just part of the conflict in the episodes. Now it just feels like a gimmick and poor excuse to rationalize their decision to write an Indiana Jones-like story and throw in their personal opinions even if they upset canon under the cover of "for the fans" when they clearly enforce their own vision on us.

[thekillman]

It's also pretty clear they're traveling to Abydos.

It doesn't seem like Abydos to me.

[Major_Griff]

It doesn't seem like Abydos to me.

People have said that the address in the Nazi's notebook matches the address for Abydos. My thought when watching was that it must have been another planet that was in range, but no, it's Abydos. Which creates even more continuity issues.

[dixon hill]

I was really, really disappointed and angry with This .armature 3x 10 minute hatchet job.

It totally ignores the well established SG universe, MGM have blown a real opportunity Hear.

"Stargate origins"?.
Well no, not really. If they had put any thought in to this, it should have been set in Egypt 5000 years ago ,they could have kicked it of with a reference to the SG1 episode Moebius when the team where trapped in the past looking for a ZPM. That is the real SG origin. The story of Ra and how he was kicked off earth. they had thousands of years of possible story lines from the Egypt rebellions that kicked Ra off earth and the burial of the gate to the ancients and king Arthur and Merlin. But instead we are given this ....drivel.

Poorly acted, worse sets (obviously a painting in the window of the ...temple? off world) forced Humour of a child (why did the German soldier put on her underwear what was the point of that ?)

One 1940s generator and a car battery to power the gate Oh really!! and a working stargate address ? No just NO ffs
If MGM wanted to kill the franchise, this is the way to do it. what is worse they charged $20 to see it i have every DVD of the whole universe and lots of memorabilia i will not sully my collection with this Rubbish. SG means to much to me to allow it to contaminate such a brilliant series of well acted, high production values, and intelligent storys ....
As i sat through what was a torturous 3 episodes ,this quote popped in to my head
"Never in the history of boredom has anyone been more bored than I am right now".
Jack O'Neill



OH!!! the Humanity

[h4mx0r]

The Nazi's were fairly obsessed with getting relics and such. But they are at war or about to start one, so it's not like they'd send 500 soldiers to the middle of nowhere to get a metal ring.


If they bury the gate, then it won't work again. Meaning they'd have no addresses. Langford seems to think it's a time machine, whereas the Occultist seems to think he's in heaven or some place. The idea that the symbols are an actual address seems unknown at this point.

Fair point, though still, the Chief Occultist only brings 3 guys? Not fifty? Maybe at least ten? You'd think that a guy with an important sounding title would get a little bit more.

Also true, they are still speculating what it is, and the gate could get buried. Like I said, we have 7 more episodes to find out how this supposedly does not disrupt the canon. At this current rate, if she keeps the address now, it seems reasonable they would have tried to factor this address in while trying to decipher the Abydos address in the 90s. (They would have thought "hey maybe there should be a 7th symbol. Hey maybe it's this pyramid with a circle on top? Can't hurt to try it.")

[thekillman]

One 1940s generator and a car battery to power the gate Oh really!! and a working stargate address ? No just NO ffs

Yes, it's been done before. The gate only needs the brief initial pulse of power to make a connection. It only needs a few microseconds of connection before the DHD on the other end can power it. It also has internal capacitors that store a lot of power, so even a lightning strike (while several gigawatts worth, it's only a few miliseconds long. In other words, a couple of million joules. Run a car engine for a few minutes and you have the same amount of energy)


I've been watching the movie (thanks, mgm!), and it's clear that Catherine knew the principle of the gate dialling. She even comments that they've gotten to the 6th symbol, implying she understood the dialling process and what to do. The part the military didn't understand, was it's exact purpose ( gateway to heaven vs stargate) and the nature of the symbols (constellations, ie spatial coordinates).

It seems the military believed they could even force a solution (it would only need 39 attempts to find the 7th symbol and dial by accident), since O'neill was brought in 2 years into the mission in case they succeeded.

[VampyreWraith]

I'm really not sure what to think of it at this point. The tone was ok. I don't mind that it's low budget, but the dialogue is pretty horrible, most of it feels really unnatural. Catherine seems like she's trying too hard to be a badass, its just irritating to watch (or rather the show it trying too hard to make her a badass, it just comes off as unnatural and silly). Since this is supposed to fit into canon somehow, and even though I really hope it does, I'm really not looking forward to seeing how they're going to try to shoehorn this into established continuity because as it is right now it doesn't seem to fit at all.

[thekillman]

Fair point, though still, the Chief Occultist only brings 3 guys? Not fifty? Maybe at least ten? You'd think that a guy with an important sounding title would get a little bit more.

Also true, they are still speculating what it is, and the gate could get buried. Like I said, we have 7 more episodes to find out how this supposedly does not disrupt the canon. At this current rate, if she keeps the address now, it seems reasonable they would have tried to factor this address in while trying to decipher the Abydos address in the 90s. (They would have thought "hey maybe there should be a 7th symbol. Hey maybe it's this pyramid with a circle on top? Can't hurt to try it.")

Considering a major war is about to start, i seriously doubt that the Nazi high command would give him anything, really. The implications are that this occultist guy isn't even believed in the first place, and he's basically tasked to steal an artifact from the middle of nowhere that nobody cares about. While he does have an important sounding title, it doesn't really mean anything.

I checked the Stargate Movie, and the adress is indeed abydos. Also note that the book shows the names of the constellations. This practically guarantees that the booklet will be lost. Considering she's running towards Abydos, i wouldn't be surprised at all if it gets lost. Catherine is too busy with the dialling since she doesn't seem to realize they are, in fact, constellations (she does say "the one that looks like a Y" and not "Taurus"). Though to be fair, the handwriting is hard to read.

Keep in mind that the symbols on the Gate were known, and that they related to the cartouche was known. The 7th symbol was unknown, because it was depicted rather differently and it was below the address in a way that didn't look like it belonged to it. Like i said, they could've brute forced it but it seems the military didn't want to move forward until they knew what they were dealing with. By linking them to constellations, and by proper translation, Daniel provided essential context.

Abydos Adress in the movie: https://youtu.be/TF3zUOvXUYQ?t=22m17s
Origins: (s01E03 7 minutes in)

In case you want to see the cartouche, it's at 18:17. "At" looks nothing like the proper "At", so it's not terribly surprising that they didn't instantly see the connection.

Since this is supposed to fit into canon somehow, and even though I really hope it does, I'm really not looking forward to seeing how they're going to try to shoehorn this into established continuity because as it is right now it doesn't seem to fit at all.

It's far more canonically fitting than many make it out to be. They didn't forget the icing effect, the gate effects, the constellations and their proper order, the manual dialling. Hell, they even included the little extra burst of electricity that makes the chevrons lock! The only thing standing in the way of canon so far, is that booklet.

[deathil93]

Oh dang, haven't been on these forums in years

Would like to share my honest opinion:

Continuity issues aside (a few crazy twists can fix anything in any plot) and the fact that this was done as a low-budget "feel the reaction" type of project - I'd say it was rather okay.

The devoted fan base (me included) was used to high-quality and (somewhat) big budget productions - but for MGM it was too much of a risk, since Stargate isn't on par with Star Trek and Star Wars in popularity. I totally get the business perspective and I think the production stretched their budget as much as they could. You can only do so much with a shoestring budget (mainly getting writers and actors with barely little experience - hence the final result).

All in all, when one judges a production like this, you need to take into account that this isn't really what Stargate is (per-say) - but it does embody the values and lightheartedness the TV series writers and producers had. It's a decent attempt at replicating what SG1 was in spirit.

All the positivity aside -
MGM could and should have done better. Bringing new fans and re-establishing the Stargate franchise is a big task - but this is far from the path. They should have done better market research and studied the audience better.

They should have taken an example from what CBS did with Star Trek Discovery. They went all in (to not lose their rights for the TV series) and made a very high quality, though abit controversial, show. It got good ratings, both in live views and in general reception - but only because they knew their direction.

MGM sadly doesn't understand the fact that Sci-fi shows, especially ones like Stargate that have a relatively large cult following, need to be invested in properly - both financially and production values wise.

Making an origins story is a great idea to reboot a franchise, but not in this way. What they SHOULD have done was give it the budget it deserves - with a decent runtime of around one hour per episode. A decently budgeted mini-series to re-ignite interest in the franchise would have done WAY better than this attempt.

[thekillman]

MGM could and should have done better. Bringing new fans and re-establishing the Stargate franchise is a big task - but this is far from the path. They should have done better market research and studied the audience better.

MGM went bankrupt not long ago, with a multi-billion dollar debt. I'm not surprised their finance department is tight on the budget. Considering how Stargate fizzled out, it's not surprising they want some proof of concept. Judging by Cristopher Judge's reaction, the will is there, but marketing/finance at MGM needs to be convinced.

MGM could and should have done better.

To be clear, i do agree on this account. But as with the Emmerich movie plans, it shows that Stargate is alive at MGM. But they can't shelve out ~50 million dollars on a TV show that got cancelled 7 years ago. ST comes hot off the heels of a multi-million dollar movie franchise that despite some controversy, made money.
You can't compare that.

[NickEast]

It doesn't seem like Abydos to me.

The "Mission Files" indicate it's Abydos, also because the Goa'uld they encounter is overseeing Abydos on behalf of Ra. And indeed the address is also Abydos.