I am wondering how many here watch the show. I hung around after Farscape last week. It was a clip show, which worked well for me, as I hadn't watched a entire episode of SG before this one. We got to see: $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ The government telling china, England and France about the stargate, and their reactions. The General and Senator struggle for control, and just when it looked like the rep from China would tell the world, and the Senators covert group would take controll, the General played his ace, and Thor, The Supreme Leader of the Asgard, transported into the room and was introduced. All agreed with Thor and the General that the gate should remain in the control of the SG1 team for now.
I had someone at another forum tell me that Thor's animatronics were costly, but he looked pretty cheap to me. He was refering to the mouth and the way it was syncronized with the sound track, but I guess I'm a little jaded when it comes to F/X. The only impressive clips I saw was the new ship the SG1 team built.
Anyway, I think the episode has pulled me in, I saw an older ep later in the weekend, Staring Marina Sertis. I enjoyed that one as well. I'll have to think about the DVD's.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
I just wish the DVDs would come out in America. Only season 1 and 2 are out, but Region 2 has like every season.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
I'll take that as if you watch and like the show.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Like the show, yes. Watch the show, no. I haven't been able to watch TV really since I joined the Navy.
Which really sucked, when I joined it was still on Showtime, a channel I didn't have, so I had to catch the irregularly aired syndicated episodes. When it finally goes to Sci-Fi Channel and aired from the beginning I'm in the Navy and still can't watch new episodes.
Overseas they call seasons series, and Region 2 has up to series 5 episode 22 on DVD. I don't get why they can't release seasons that quickly here. TNG and DS9 seasons came out pretty fast.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
Probably has more to do with who is releaseing them. They know it wont air in some places, so they put it out a little at a time, and make more money.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I love the show, but don't have showtime. So I've only been able to see the eps I was able to download, which is most of them through seson 4. I think "Wormhole X-treme" was around the last one I saw.
I'll have to wait until I can catch some reruns.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
It is no longer on Showtime. Plus, syndication.
I caught the last 15 minutes or so, and thought the French guy was German. Huh. But: was he there strictly as a representative for France, or for the European Union?
I thought it was interesting and kind of risky that the gate is now under U.S. jurisdiction thanks almost entirely to alien intervention. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, the Asgard seem justified in wanting to deal with who they're comfortable with, but I would think, in the long run, the sense that the Asgard were making all the decisions might engender more conflict on Earth than if they had stayed out of it.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Well, possibly, but you have to take into account the alternative, i.e. the NID having control of the gate.
As for France, I think the idea was that the five countries were the permanant members of the security council, and also five of the seven declared nuclear powers.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Stargate SG-1 rocks.
Thor's animatronics are fairly simplistic, but I'm far more impressed with the CGI Asgard (Thor's race) they periodically use. Funky note: Thor is voiced by Daniel Jackson actor Michael Shanks, and did so even during his abscence in the current season.
"Disclosure" is part of the SG-1 continuing storyline, which in general has been very well preserved. The Russians found out about the Stargate after Thor's ship crashed into the ocean with the primary Stargate aboard it (long story). They found it and were using it while SG1 was using the gate they found in the antarctic (longer story) with the help of a rogue NID agent (an even longer story!). China and the other countries started asking questions when a Goa'uld ship crashed in the ocean at the top of this season, and this episode is the result.
S3 Mark Nguyen SG-12 Ass-Kicking
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
And to lengthen the story, the Beta gate found in Antarctica was destroyed during a thwarted attempt by Anubis to destroy the planet. We are currently renting the Alpha gate from Russia.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Shanks only did Thor's voice for season six. I miss the original Thor's voice, myself.
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
I watched lst nights episode. Not bad, but predictable. It was pretty easy to tell who the bad guys really were, after the first attack. Got to see Parker Lewis as an adult, which was a little strange.
I hope Shanks is better on this show then he was on Andromeda. He did one episode, and both he and it were pretty bad.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Shanks was okay on Andromeda - he was saddled witha crappy plot on a mediocre show which at the time held much promise. And AFAIK, he was Thor for ALL of his appearances.
Today I DLed the last two eps of season six... Wow. Lots of stuff explodes but good! And it's interesting how the season finale was originally meant to be the SERIES finale, and they finished it the way they did to supposedly lead to the spinoff show.
Mark
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
Hi, my name is Ed, and i'm addicted to DVD. I keep walking into fye and buying seasons of TV shows. It started with Buffy, then went to Babylon-5, then I,Clavdivs, and yesterday it was not one but two seasons of Stargate.
I've watched the first twelve episodes already and I forsee a weekend of little or nothing but Stargate. Maybe some food, now and then, and the occational restroom break.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Hehe... Season 2 is when the show really starts to take off. However, the premiere is what really set it off for me. The sight of those snakeheads blasting through the gate the first time still gives me chills when I watch it.
To think, that evening in 1997 I was getting ready to tape a rerun of VOY "Nemesis" and I get SG-1 instead. Didn't really look back after that.
Mark
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
I have now seen all of seasons one and two. My head is still spinning a bit, from watching all of it, including the pilot. I wish season three was out, and I could watch it the same way, but I will have to settle for season four episodes tonight on Sci-Fi.
I skipped Friday nights new episode, I may be able to see it later, but after Farscape, I started watching the Stargates, and kept going till about 4am. I finished them about 7pm on Sunday night. Just enough time to get something to eat, and watch Six Feet Under.
Have to agree about Shanks. He is far better in Stargate then he was on Andromeda. I haven't seen the Stargate movie in years, and had forgotten that he was in it.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Hmmm, I don't think he was. Were there any major returning characters between the movie and the TV series?
*back after checking imdb*
About the only match I can see between the two lists is the actor that plays Skaara. Not even Kawalski, surprisingly enough. Must have been one big blood-letting, I could have sworn that the actress that played Catherine (the lady that first recruits Daniel in the movie) came back, but that doesn't seem to show up either. Interestingly enough John Rhys-Davies was in the original movie Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Erick Avari reprises his role as Kassuf, Sha're and Skaara's dad. That's about it, though.
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I think the actress who played Catherine died, actually, shortly after the movie was filmed. But then, that character only appeared on the show once anyway. I'd be rather interested to hear more detailed comments by the movie producers on the show. They apparently weren't too happy with it...
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
"Torment of Tantalus" I think, I only know that because I have the soundtrack from the first season handy In any case, I don't really know where to begin to look, aside from a general google search...but that seems to agree with my hazy memories from that time.
I think that the people who created the movie, planned for sequels. However, the studio either cut them out of the loop intentionally, or just got tired of waiting for them to finish making other movies, whatever the reason...they went ahead with the TV show. As the rumour went, the story from the TV show had nothing to do with what the original creators had planned. They were angry that the studio had "intentionally" killed off all the characters that they would have used (Skaara, Sha'uri (sp.), Kawalski...). Interestingly enough, this makes three different post-movie timelines since the novels (which are decidedly average, but probably more realistic) describe something completely different from either the show or what was originally planned (presumeably).
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Three? I only know of the novels and the show.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Ack, sure...post before I get a useful link Might be useful Not as good as I had hoped, but its all I could find quickly.
Yes three, the novels, the show, and what was originally intended by Dean Devlin and his partner. Its a bit confusing because SG-1 has its own novels as well, which have nothing to do with the previous (2?) novels. Considering that they went onto ID4, Godzilla, and The Patriot, we're probably better off with the show.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The Stargate film was originally meant to be the first in a series, possibly a trilogy. In it, Ra (being the ONLY alien, and not a Goa'uld) is succeeded by a human Hathor and a series of non-alien folks who were living the way of the Egyptian gods.
I've read two of the novels, and in all honesty they're not that good. Most of the action is only between Earth and Abydos, and eventually a third planet once they realize the Stargate does go other places (though they never do explain how the gate works or is dialed without a DHD or big mechanical spinning things). Interesting, though, since the Stargate in the film is suddenly big enough to fit whole trucks... Anyway, between the two I *much* prefer the TV series.
Mark
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
quote: But then, that character only appeared on the show once anyway.
I've seen her twice now. Once in the episode where they find her old boyfriend, who had gone through the gate in the 40's, before they knew what it was, or how to get back. The control on the other end was broken, and he couldn't fix it, so he spent 50 years studying the place.
She was also in an alternate universe story and was still running the Stargate program.
I may get the movie. I don't remember all that much about it. Somone had told me that Shanks was in it, along with the kid that played Skaara. I guess the kid is the only one then. I hadn't looked myself.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Shanks wasn't in it, but it's very impressive how well he managed to imitate James Spader's portrayal of the character. They don't even look too incredibly different.
As for Catherine, I think she also showed up when SG-1 went back to the '60s, but, being thirty years younger, she was played by a third actress.
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
quote:Originally posted by TSN: Shanks wasn't in it, but it's very impressive how well he managed to imitate James Spader's portrayal of the character.
For about five minutes, before losing the need to werar glasses ever again apart from the "I'm being really intelligent" scenes. And as for the sneezing. . .
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
They establish that he takes anti-histimines to control the allergies. The glasses dissapear mostly because... Shanks doesn't like 'em.
However, both could be eventually explained away by any number of exposures to sarcophagi, laser-eye surgeons, ascensions to higher planes...
Mark
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
I got the movie yesterday. I can see where my friend could have been confused. They look enough alike.
I remember renting the movie when it came out. I don't think I paid enough attention to it. I remember getting lost somewhere along the line, and didn't understand how they managed to get the bomb on the ship. I see now it was the rings, using the controll of the guy who's hand had been cut off by the ring transporter. They never used the word Gua'uld, but it looks like they just didn't know who they were, or what Ra's race was. It had all of the technology that we see in the series.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Yeah, but it was also rather obvious that we were dealing with a Roswell Grey, not a small snake. Which makes little sense, mind you. If he was the last of his race, and hadn't visited earth since 10,000 years ago, then where would our reports of seeing them have originated? Unless, of course, you want to say the Goa'ould had possessed the last of a dying race... which is possible... wouldn't explain why we saw the grey at the end of the movie when Ra got fried, but we could pass that off as simple imagry used in filmmaking.
Of course, none of this explains one of the major inconsistancies we see between the movie and the show. Taking the whole "how do they dial the dumb thing?" question further, how the frell are these addresses supposed to work? Looking at the movie, every gate has its own set of symbols based on the constellations seen from that planet, plus one symbol for the planet itself. But constellations don't exist in three-space. They're just images we see, not actual places that can be used as points of reference. Nor do you need six predefined points to plot a single other point. Three will do nicely in cubical coordinates, or four if you think the intersecting line dealie would work out. Six would define some sort of unbounded region, if not. Further, what a dumb idea, to have a gate that's address symbols for another planet are based on the planet you're on. If that was the case, you'd have to not only memorize the unique address of a given planet, but the address of that planet from every other planet. Makes so much more sense to have a single, unique address for each planet. But then you have the question of why every gate throughout the universe should have ourconstellations printed all over them. Perhaps all the gates we've seen were actually put there by the Goa'ould, and they based the gates on our constellations because Earth was where Ra found their oh-so-useful new hosts? Good thing that the Abydos gate mysteriously matches our own as of "Children of the Gods", otherwise we'd be screwed.
Moreover, what kind of idiots were the original runners of the gate program? They knew the first six symbols, and knew they were right. They didn't need Jackson or two years of translation efforts, they should have just tried the other thirty-three symbols in sequence! DUH!
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
UNtil Jackson came along, they didn't KNOW that they had to put seven symbols in. The cartouche was misleading them to believe there neeeded to be six.
As for the addresses, that's one thing they never really tried to rationalize. Fans speculate tah the constellations' CENTRE is what you're vaguely aiming for. In the series, the symbols don't always change (and on the prop they cart around to the location shoots, they certainly don't). What many people think is that the symbols may change, but their corresponding location on the gate does not. That way, you can dial earth from anywhere by hitting the right buttons on the DHD. Also, when they send the MALP ahead of an SG team, they should typically confirm the address needed to dial home BEFORE anyone leaves. See "Prisoners" in the second season for clues to this.
One should note that the constellation theory was only quoted twice, once in the movie and once in the pilot. Both times, it was our resident anthropoarchaeologist nutcase speaking, not an astronomer.
After the pilot, the theory dies, as far as dialogue is concerned. In fact, SGC seems to lose the ability to predict where given coordinates will take the victims. And the one prediction we heard, "Abydos is on the other edge of the universe", was proven false in the pilot already - Abydos is in fact one of Earth's closest neighbor gates, and well within our galaxy.
So it should be safe to assume that the symbols never stood for constellations, and that SGC now realizes that as well. Instead, the primitive Earthlings CREATED Earth's constellations out of RESPECT to the sacred symbols of the stargate. And perhaps a friendly Jaffa actually pointed to the sky and said "Yes, these six Sacred Symbols will take you to serve your Lord THERE, while these six will take your sister THERE". So the people who overheard suddenly began seeing these very symbols at those very parts of the sky.
That way, what originally were just letters in the Ancient alphabet would be constellations to Earthlings and perhaps to their offworld descendants as well, but would not really correlate to gate destination 3D whereabouts except when viewed from Earth, and even then only very roughly.
This still leaves wide open how the USAF got any meaningful input from Jackson's rantings in the movie. But perhaps they didn't? After the briefing, it's "Thunderbirds are go!" almost immediately - everything is ready, including the tracker that follows the probe through wormholespace, supposedly according the Jackson's just-voiced theory!.
So perhaps the USAF already knew how to work the gate (like "Torments of Tantalus" actually confirms!) but the generals just wanted to have an idea of where it would take the victims. And Jackson's idea was good enough for them, as no others were forthcoming. They just took the excuse to back down from their "we want to know where our men go" position without looking like they were backing down.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Following the 1945 events in "Torment", they closed off the project, sealed the documents and essentially forgot about the whole thing. When Catherine started her research in 1969, she started on a near-blank slate.
Mind you, they knew a little of what it was *supposed* to do, as a transportation device of some sort. How else would they know to stand it upright and such? The cover stones that came with the gate gave them a lot, but just how much?
Alas, with the series being so long after the fact, such questions will likely never be answered...
Mark <---Furlings are furry!
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Umm, it seems that I wasn't sufficiently up to date on the episodes: at least "Memento" and probably others as well confirm that SGC can get proper 3d coordinates out of the cartouche symbols, and can use them as navaids when piloting their fancy-schmancy new starship.
But the symbols could still be Ancient alphabet, and a string of six letters, digits, pictograms or whatever is the way Ancients (or whoever really built the gates) wrote down 3D coordinates. The added seventh and eighth letters have separate functions, no more tied to "constellations" than the coordinate function is.
And SGC has simply learned how to decipher the Ancient coordinate code, but not necessarily during the first two-three seasons yet. The knowledge could have come much later on, perhaps simply through sending MALPs and SG teams to as many addresses as possible, taking pics of the stars on the sky, and finding the correlations.
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