Looks like Robert Patrick will get his very own spin-off series from this spin-off.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
SPOILERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
No, he doesn't. His character is killed off by the end of the premiere, apparently leaving his second-in-command Major Sheppard in charge (and the series lead). Oh, the drama!
Still, I'm looking forward to the new series. The creators have done a bang-up job with SG-1, and I hope to see more of that kind of magic in Atlantis. Snoop around the gateworld website for many more details about the new show and story. I'm hoping that now filming has begun we'll soon have set pics and previews of what the new show LOOKS like - I have high hopes. I interviewed SG-1 producer Joe Mallozzi last summer, and he have some rather interesting hints that I hope will pan out in the new show!
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
So do they have Stargates on the new show?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
More spoilers.. . . . . . . . . Yep. The show happens in a different galaxy than our own, and has its own Stargate system that seems to be rather different than our own. Aside from a different look, the gates seem to be large enough to allow small ships through: our heroes will occasionally use Trek shuttle-sized alien ships called "puddle-jumpers" to gate around (big enough for a cockpit of two plus six passengers), while the bad guys have "Wraith Darts" which can go through gates as well. At least one of the new gates is orbital, suggesting that they're getting away from the "big stone ring" motif of SG-1.
The team is based on Atlantis itself, a high-tech city of the Ancients that SG-1 has been looking for for a while now. It seems to start off on Earth, but at some point the whole thing gets transported to the other galaxy entirely. It subsequently becomes the base of operations for the new team. Other SG-1 cast members are said to be able to guest star later on, so I don't think they'll be stranded there a la Voyager. But getting to another galaxy via the Stargate is known to be somewhat more complicated, so going home is not likely to be a common occurence.
EDIT: Lookie - a picture! The non-military jumpsuits don't sit well with me, but then again neither did DS9's at first. The uniform colors are also interesting - Weir and Sheppard are American, McKay is Canadian (something that never came up in SG-1, but implies that someone has finally bothered to tell us Canucks about the Stargate), and Ford is potentially neither. They did say that the new team, and the mission overall, will be international in nature, and it seems to be panning out. Interesting!
Mark
[ March 02, 2004, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
Posted by deadcujo (Member # 13) on :
I don't care much for those jumpsuits either. I'm looking forward to the show, though. I just hope it lives up to SG-1's brilliance, unlike that horrible cartoon.
Posted by SoundEffect (Member # 926) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: But getting to another galaxy via the Stargate is known to be somewhat more complicated, so going home is not likely to be a common occurence.
I'm not up on the new show at all, this thread is the first I've heard of it, but...
That's not going to 'hold water' as they'd be violating the concepts established in the StarGate film. The gate from Earth to Abydos took the team to another galaxy and that seemed pretty routine for the StarGate to accomplish...why would it be a big deal now??
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
SG-1 lives in a slightly different continuity than the movie. Differences in actors aside, the TV universe puts all the action in our galaxy - and Abydos as one of the closest worlds in the gate network. The other gates wouldn't work at first unless the Earth network compensated for thousands of years of stellar drift - something the gate network does automatically through the DHD dialling device that the Earth gate doesn't have.
Now, one thing both universes share is a gate with nine chevrons on it, with seven being necessary to dial up a given world. In the second season, they discovered that with a couple modifications to the gate, and a LOT of extra power, an EIGHTH chevron can be dialled in. This acts effectively as an "area code" chevron allowing access to other galaxies. This is used occasionally as the method people go to the Asgard galaxy to help out Thor and his buddies.
And no, no one knows what the ninth chevron is for.
Mark
PS - As with the Highlander cartoon, Stargate: Infinity does not exist and should be shunned by the masses. Yuck.
PPS - I've just noticed that Sheppard is wearing the same jumpsuit type as Weir and McKay - and that the jumpsuit is almost the same design as the green field outfits that SG-1 wears, with pointlessly-coloured panels. With the utility mesh, it ain't so bad after all...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I'm a little worried by the fact that David Hewlett's character is going to be a regular. I mean, the guy's a good actor, but that character is just so obnoxious. I seem to recall that they toned him down a bit during "Redemption", but I still think he'll need a major overhaul to be bearable on a weekly basis.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Heh, I must the only one here that ever watched Traders. You'll see Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Hey - they have specific country flags on their shoulders... please don't spoil anything of Stargate Season 7 past... lesse - that 'space-race' episode.
I know there was the bottle episode where Major Davis divulged the existance of the Stargate to the UK, China and someone else apart from Russia. I'm SURE it wasn't Canada! Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
No, it was France. Go figure. B)
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Same thing...
You Canuks, I'm joking Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I guess I don't mind the more high tech Gate system, given this is apparently the Ancients' home galaxy, but I'm going to need a good reason why the Gates look different.
Just so I'm clear (I'm not current with SG-1), there's no Gate buried on Earth under Antarctica, right? There's just a base down there. So the Gate they use initially to get to the Pegasus Galaxy is the one from the SGC. And to get back home, they'd also have to Gate back to the SGC, yes?
It'll be a little different to have this one, lone team exploring an entirely different galaxy all by themselves with no back-up or anything. I wonder if the other Gates in the Pegasus galaxy can dial back to Earth's Gate.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Actually, season 6 and 7 have hinted that
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the Ancients evolved on Earth, millions of years before we did...
"there's no Gate buried on Earth under Antarctica, right?"
Nope, not anymore. The beta gate they found there in Solitudes was first placed in storage in, uh, Nevada (and used by Maybourne for his rogue ops) and later transported to the SGC to replace the alpha gate (which was "confiscated" by the Russians in Small Victories). Then it was destroyed in Redemption, and the Russians "loaned" their (alpha) gate back to the SGC again, in exchange for joined command of the program.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Right, I'm familiar with the Beta Gate story line. But have they since discovered that the Beta Gate was the Gate used at this base that they've apparently uncovered?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
No, because the Beta Gate is more or less identical to the Alpha gate save for a couple symbols (they used the same prop, anyway). According to Gateworld.com:
"The chevrons are blue on the Atlantis gate, and, of course, the symbols themselves are different in this galaxy. Instead of physically spinning, the inner track spins in a pattern of light. The brightly-lit symbols also rotate around much faster than Earth's gate."
The Alpha gate was supposedly brought there for Ra's personal use in Egypt. Details are sketchy, but we assume that after the ancient Egyptians revolted against Ra, he washed his hands of the planet as he had lots of humans around already. However, the other System Lords ended up using or discovering the Beta gate to bring other cultures through it until as recently as 1000 years ago before they lost THAT one too, by which time they had plenty of stock elsewhere and didn't really care anymore.
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
If the new gate is all CGI, I'm going to be highly disappointed.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Doubt it - but it seems that its operation will be partly a visual effect, which is a little disappointing. I *love* the gate spinning up and locking chevrons in place! But I can see where they're coming from, as the main prop's mechanism is notoriously complicated, loud, and tough to maintain. The stargate prop they bring out for location shooting does not have a moving inner ring.
Full CGI gates are not unheard of, though - the Tollan home-made gate was CGI and somewhat smaller.
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Cartman: Actually, season 6 and 7 have hinted that
the Ancients evolved on Earth, millions of years before we did...
Let me jsut say: Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
They were talking about "cycles" of evolution - whereby some primates would evolve into a homo sapiens lookalike first, and then after they were gone some OTHER primates would start on a parallel track. Infinitely improbable, but hey - it's science-fiction.
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's actually a horrible concept once used on Voyager of al places.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
I always figured that we were actually ancients that survived and regressed. But... *shrug*
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Writers that either think viewers are too dumb to know about the fossil record or are ignorant of it themselves.
Besides, Lovecraft did it all first-and best-50 years back.
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
Adding a Cthulhuesq history aspect would rock a whole lot!
On the other tentacle, Space A&B had the Chigs, which left Earth when Oxygen poisoned the atmosphere.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I dont think I'd really site SAAB as precedent for good storytelling...at least not towards the end.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Was it COMPLETELY established or just ASSUMED about the corporeal Ancients were originally from Earth?? Maybe Ancient woman that they rethawed was just a colonial?
PLUS - they had to get the naqada from somewhere to build the network - and Earth doesn't HAVE any Naqada as we've found out.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, they had to already have interstellar ship travel, anyway. After all, they had to be able to get to each of the other worlds to put the gates there. So, the naquada could have come from anywhere.
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
Of course they're going to have a Canadian member: -Look at where they're filming, for Ghu's sake (est. 6 km from my home)... -And look at the nationality of some of the actors... -Besides, having a Canadian on the team might ensure that they ask questions FIRST - and only maybe shoot later...
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Seems like a fair amount of scifi shows get filmed somewhere in BC around the Vancouver area... Except Starhunter, that was filmed in Minto, NB. Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
That's why they call us Hollywood North.
Governor 'I'll be Back' is trying to pass a law stating that Hollywood movies and television must stay in California - that it is unpatriotic to film up here.
Not that it stopped him from starring in '6th Day' which was filmed up here. (BTW, that cool 'coliseum-style' building the villian cloned people in is our new Vancouver library. And the view across the water from the Whisper-pad... not CGI: Vancouver in the Spring.
I just hope we get some snow for the 2010 Olympics - right now (2:49 pm PST, March 8), it's warm enough to walk in t-shirt and shorts...
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Rumour has it that Arnie only realized what we do up here WHEN he came and made "The 6th Day" in Vancouver. Had he refused to make that movie, we may not be in such a rut... As it stands, following that film he refuses to film in this country.
Mark
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Damn you, David! It's still cold and snowy here on the east coast Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
Define: "What we do up here".
Unamerican things like:
- letting directors make their own decisions regarding venue?
- allowing persons of matching gender equal rights with regards to marriage?
What is that line from one of the American Patriotic Songs...: "Let freedom reign"?
And yes, I do indeed have pity for the poor frozen ones. By the way, is it true that if a Topher sees it's frozen breath, he'll experience 8 more weeks of winter?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Unpatriotic... omg about deciding where someone wants to take their business? Oh Dear.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Let freedom ring.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Funny. I thought Republicans were all about shipping jobs out of the country...
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by TSN: Funny. I thought Republicans were all about shipping jobs out of the country...
No shit: Kinko's just sent over 3,000 typesetter's jobs to India (of all places).
Nothing so fake as "corperate loyalty" to it's employees.
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
"corperate loyalty"
Maybe that's why they're doing the typography in India?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Not that I was a typesetter, but there's FAR more errors in the typesetting service now. We have to call an office in New York to make corrections, then they call India....reverse the process for any questions on their end and you get lots o'confusion and late orders.
But hey, they work for about a buck an hour so it's all good right? Plenty of fast food jobs available right here in the States to keep the economic numbers nice and inflated.
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I should drop by the new BSG set when they start filming the series...
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
More pictures. Check out them dismembered hands!
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Now, I don't know too much about Stargate (wish I knew more), but it's my understanding that the stylised A with the circle above it is the symbol for Earth. If this show is on a different planet, why would they have Earth's symbol in the show's name?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Because they're and Earth outpost?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Because it looks like an "A" ...as in....um...Lemuria?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Well, buh. It looks cool, dammit!
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I just rewatched "Children of the Gods" and realized that they showed the point of origin symbol for Abydos rather clearly. When Frazetti types out the address that Apophys dialed in, the 7th symbol is clearly shown.
Did we ever get a close up of what the 7th symbol on the Beta Gate looked like?
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Treknophyle: "BTW, that cool 'coliseum-style' building the villian cloned people in is our new Vancouver library."
And that 27-story subterranean cube they filmed the movie "CUBE" in, is that your new Vancouver student's accomodation?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Mmmm... 27-story deathtrap....
The design of Cube2 sucked by comparison. So did the premise.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Yes. The Cube was a genial construct, the exterior shots didn't even look CGI. HyperCube was life inside a fucking Pi-sign.
It just isn't the same atmosphere when the walls are brighter than in a light therapy lounge (that shit's bogus, btw), everyone gets along fine for 70% of the movie AND get to wear their own clothes, plus nobody's named after a prison. Not to mention having to fend off moody "Star Trek" light prisms.
Too bad Cube � will feature the same director, as in "not the first one". Ah well, maybe he's learned something.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
CUBE was one of the most fricking brilliant low-budget sci-fi gems ever made. Never saw the sequel because of what everyone's saying... Is there a full synopsis available somewhere?
The Beta gate was the same prop and we never got a close look at it. The DHD probably had some different symbols on it though (they change them occasionally too when we see it closeup).
Mark
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I caught about ten minutes of cube 2 on TV before switching it off in utter boredom, trust me, it isn't worth seeing. The original was a great b-movie, as you say but I didn't think it really warranted a sequel and I can't imagine that a third outing would have anything worthwhile to add.
As for the Beta DHD, I think the point of origin looked like a solid circle with a vertical line next to it. Something like this ---> OI
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
And a first look at the Atlantis stargate. Not so different as I had epected... I casn see how the dialing sequence can be a light pattern now.
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Are you sure that's the actual new gate, and not just a backdrop for the photo-shoot?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I think it's real. THIS picture shows the gate off to the side. Lighting's all different, but it seems like the gate is in its set. Not surprisingly, the Atlantis gate is partially embedded in the ground, as most non-earth gates tend to be. However, this one's symbols may be made of... brail?
Mark
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I like the useless triangles on the chest of their uniform: something for the bad guys to aim for.
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
Then they aren't useless... Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Lighting's all different, but it seems like the gate is in its set."
Well, I'm sure it's a physical model. I didn't mean it was just a picture. But, do you think that's an actual filming set that they're all standing in? It's pretty garishly colored, and lacking in details.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I think it's the lighting again. If we judged the TNG Season 1 sets by thte promo photos, then the Enterprise-D would have been almost completely deep purple.
I think they're indeed standing on their "gate room" set. A couple pictures from stargateatlantis.com show what seems to be the other half of the set under natural light, which looks much more color-coordinated.
Mark
Posted by Wes1701J (Member # 212) on :
Blue chevrons are fucking awesome.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Yeah. It's like a TOTALLY DIFFERENT prop now!
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
It seems to be a good deal smaller than the Gates from SG-1. If I'm judging the proportions right in the first picture, and if it is in fact the actual prop, then the aperture looks to be only about 1 and a half times the height the actor. The chevrons also appear to be much closer together making it look more like the inaccurate Stargate on the DVD boxes.
I do dig the blue chevrons, though, and I like how the symbols glow. Now show me a DHD!
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Apparently, they'll have remote DHDs installed in their "puddle jumper" craft that are made to go through the stargate. They may still have the traditional DHDs we see in our galaxy, or a variation thereto.
I think the gate is about the same size as the original... It's just perspective and lighting that makes it look smaller. A recent DVD commentary told us that the original gate, at 20' diameter, still doesn't always look that big on screen. There was one episoe where they had Carter standing on TOP of the gate to try to illustrate this... Doesn't help that 1/3 of the gate is buried in the floor most of the time.
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Hmmm... that's true. Hadn't considered the buried portion.
So here's a barely related question: How are you supposed to dial in the area code for long distance gating if the eighth chevron is buried?
Makes me wonder if they'll ever be gating back to the SGC...
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The producer have said that they aren't ruling out guest appearances from the SG-1 gang, so I'm guessing that they're not going to pull a Voyager on us. They'd better not, in any case. I do hope that at the very least, they'll establish at leastvoice/video comms back home within a season.
And by "buried", I mean the gate is not necessarily BURIED. For the most part, the offworld gates are built into a stand or steps that keep it upright. We know that they often bring a naquadah generator to power the gate if they don't find a DHD; they can hook it up to the gate, unlock the inner ring and dial home that way. Supposedly, the inner ring can rotate if it's in its stand. We just never see it do so because the show's "field" prop can't rotate. I presume that the new Atlantis gates are built in the first place to "spin" in light patterns rather than physically spinning to avoid this.
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Right. I wasn't talking about the innner ring. I mean the 8th Long Distance Chevron on the lower part of the gate. It's the one they had to dial in to get to Thor's galaxy. They'll also have to use an 8th Chevron to get to the galaxy the new series takes place in.
But on the new Gate, the eighth Chevron is under ground. So, if the new cast ever goes back to Earth, they're going to have to use that Eight Chevron to dial long distance... but we can't see the eighth chevron (or the ninth). See what I mean?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
But, just because we can't see it, that doesn't mean it doesn't still function.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
True. But I think it would be hard to explain to the audience that the eighth chevron is being used when you can't see it. Not that they couldn't do it, but the bad visual story telling of trying just makes me think they haven't considered needing it. And that makes me wonder how many trips they'll be making back to earth. And my guess is not many.
But maybe they just won't deal with it at all after explaining it in the pilot. Maybe it'll just be "Dial up Earth and send the status report", without even showing the Gate.
Who knows. I'll just have to watch and see Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Aban Rune: I just rewatched "Children of the Gods" and realized that they showed the point of origin symbol for Abydos rather clearly. When Frazetti types out the address that Apophys dialed in, the 7th symbol is clearly shown.
Did we ever get a close up of what the 7th symbol on the Beta Gate looked like?
Yes, it was a line (horizon?) with a circle just above it to the left.
Presumably a spring or autumn sun in Antarctica... although I would have though when the Ancients were around Antarctica wouldn't have been where it was - or is that just too short a time in continental drift times?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I too am not too fond of the triangles. Looks like the uniforms to some other sci-fi series' all rolled into one. As long as they don't go changing it.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I'm wondering if those aren't some kind of "base uniforms" that they only wear while at their home base. I see a camo uniform on some of the team members. Perhaps those are the off-world uniforms.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I'm told Lt. Ford (the young black guy) is wearing the new camo fatigues for the USMC (and Army?). Major Sheppard seems to be wearing a flight jacket (he's USAF), too. But overall, the field uniforms seem to be the ones with the silly triangles. However, they're usually covered by the utililty webbing, so it's mostly a non-issue.
For comparison, SG-1 uses the same outfits, just without the triangles and in green. Around the base, they wear a simplified version of DBU in green and blue. Many of the "guest" SG Teams wear standard BDUs, especially the Marines of SG-3.
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