My only real question - where would all THESE guys have been hiding all this time?
Mark
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
"...the origin of the Ancients and the Gatebuilders."
I thought the Ancients were the gatebuilders?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Man... why'd they have to go there?
Granted, I'm not up with the most recent episodes, so I don't know what direction the show has taken in season 8... but this seems to be a vast departure. And why, with the show winding down, would they open it up to a whole new story line?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Why not? There's still no guarantee this will be the last season. Everyone said season eight would be the last. Hell, everyone was surprised there was a season eight.
They have to do something, after all, to keep the show from stagnating.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Wholesale cast changes are apparently the way to do it. Rumour has it that to replace the departing O'Neil (sitll nothing on just WHERE he's going), they're not bringing back Hammond. Instead, they're bringing in... Beau Bridges.
Really.
Mark
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
You know what - I don't find it SUCH a bad idea. It's what Stargate was always about - taking mythology of ancient cultures and meshing it with a Sci-fi twist. Could Merlin have been a rogue Ancient who interfered with corporeal matters? Sounds pretty cool. Maybe it might explain away why there is no clear evidence of Camelot's remains? Some other legends could be cool to explore to... like maybe Mu? Although it's sorta like Atlantis. As long as it stays edgy and doesn't border on camp - legging etc. - I'm fine. Oh and as long as there is enough character development, cool alien enemies and wonderful storylines, I'm cool.
Maybe we'll get to see those Furlings. They are SO not going to be cute and cuddly.
Posted by Guardian 2000 (Member # 743) on :
While I hate to see the departure/withdrawal/not-around-so-much of certain much-adored actors and their characters, the idea of cast-changes is a good one . . . especially if we don't get info leaked about their contracts. There's a little more oomph to a situation when you don't actually know whether the writers would kill Mr. Guy In Danger or not.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
O'Neil is out - promoted yet again, this time to Washington and the head of Homeworld Security in place of Hammond, who's presumably retiring due to age (limit in the military's something like 60, isn't it?).
But we've got star power coming in. As we all know, Ben Browder is retoring SG-1's four-person team as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Beau Bridges replaces departing star RDA as the head of the SGC, General Hank Landry. And in a new recurring role, Lou Gossett Jr. (!) steps in as a Jaffa leader who butts heads with Teal'c over the forming of the new Jaffa nation.
As for Atlantis, with contact restored, we'll see Landry on that show on occasion. Mitch Pileggi joins the show in a recurring role, playing the new military commander (and Sheppard's superior officer), Colonel Caldwell (final name TBA).
Mark
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
I thought Shep was also getting promoted to Lt Col...?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I just can't see Stargate without RDA... but I suppose it could work. I just hope they give sufficient explanation for the sudden absence of O'Neill and maybe even throw in something about Hammond. If we're really lucky, we'll even get the occasional guest appearance, like we got with Hammond after he left.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
RDA is allegedly signed for four episodes, so he'll be around about as much as Hammond was this year (a little moreso, really).
Sheppard is supposedly promoted, yes. But he'll still be second in command under Caldwell, who'll be in charge of military detachment overall, plus probably his own team (more or less what Colonel Sumner was supposed to do).
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
So, can teams go back and forth from Atlantis at will now? Or can they only come *to* Atlantis from Earth?
(I don't get Sci-Fi)
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
I think you can theoretically go from any stargate to any other stargate in Pegasus at will or vice versa, as long as you have enough energy, which so far only a ZPM can provide, or certain other forms of....energy. On that topic, what was the procedure for dialling the old Asgard homeworld? Was that just a 8th vs. 9th chevron thing or did that require more energy too?
(Do we have that neat black spoiler text here? Where you can just highlight it to read it?)
Also, Mitch Pileggi, really? Thats kinda neat although FBI director => military commander isn't a huge leap.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Nope.
And speaking of power, where's the SGC suddenly getting all the extra kilowatts to dial Pegasus from, anyway? Unless makeshift ZPMs like the one Jack built during his brief time as a 1st Edition Ancient Encyclopedia are now being mass-produced somewhere, they shouldn't be able to phone anyone outside our galaxy, so...
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
What I meant was, is the Atlantis team able to go home yet, or are they only able to receive wormholes from the SGC (or presumably any other Milky Way Gate with enough power). I'm asking if the Atlantis team has figured out a way to dial back to Earth yet, or if the SGC is for some reason continuing to strand officers in the Pegasus Galaxy with no way to get home.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
[Various Spoilers for SGA and SG1]
The idea is that by the end of this season, SG-1 will have retrieved a single, charged ZPM that they used to power the gate enough to unlock the eighth chevron and dial other galaxies. In the Atlantis finale they used it to dial the city from Earth so they can get Colonel Everett and his jarheads and all their big fancy railguns there. Then they immediately tanked the ZPM out of its socket, hopped over to Area 51, and plugged it into the Daedelus, a BC-303 battlecruiser and sister ship to Prometheus. The whole of the finale episode was trying to survive long enough so the Daedelus and her heavy weapons and shields could get there and save the day.
The second season sees regular contact re-established with Atlantis, in one of several ways. The new Mk II naquadah generators can power the chair and possibly the shield, so Atlantis' mission won't be as centered around finding them anymore. I'm guessing that the Daedelus might not stick around following the second season premiere, and instead will serve as the occasional two-way avenue home for the Atlantis team.
Instead, the ZPM they have might be kept on earth to power their chair platform and gate for their itnergalatic purposes. When Atlantis needs stuff, they can send it there via stargate; when people really, REALLY need to get back, it's a mere four days to get Daedelus (or possibly Prometheus, depending on whether the Asgard gave SGC enough engines to outfit both ships) to Pegasus, where in the meantime a Mk II can power the chair for defense.
Or, they can just find another ZPM. There's one fully-charged one in Pegasus that's been hidden by the Brotherhood, and another mostly-depleted unit on the planet of kids that may still be useful (though how much so now that they can power the chair on their own remains to be seen). The SGC also has a boobytrapped ZPM that's about half-charged, that they got from Camulus before sending him off. Assuming Carter or someone can UN-boobytrap the thing, they may even leave one of them on Atlantis and keep the other one on Earth. Finally, SOMETHING has to be able to power the Genesis Device they used last week... There are tons of possibilities.
Mark
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I have ALOT to catch up on.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Hehehhe - only probably end of season 7, season 8 and season 1 Atlantis.
That ZPM that Camulus took to Baal - I don't think the SGC kept it.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
Nah, Camulus took a drained one although he thought he was getting the real explosivey deal.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Oh they sabotaged it themselves? The Drained one was from Antarctica? Where was the full-but-booby-trapped one from?
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
The booby-trapped one was from a world with some kind of Ancient device that Camulus gave them the coordinates for. We never saw the planet or learned anything about the device, just that SG-3 went and got it.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
More casting news! It seems that LEXA DOIG has been cast on SG-1 in the recurring role of the SGC's latest medical officer, finally filling the shoes of the cute & spunky Dr. Frasier after her untimely fate in the seventh season. Dr. Brightman was the resident quack early in the eighth season (in what was mostly a leftover role that Frasier would have done had she been there), but now we have have a more permenant presence in the infirmary, something that's been visibly absent all year.
Lexa, of course, is the wife of Michael Shanks, having met on the set of Andromeda when Shanks was filming a guest spot during that show's first season. The studios for Andromeda and SG1/Atlantis are almost literally next door to each other, so there's been a lot of crossover in crew and cast guest spots though both shows' runs.
Lexa and Michael had a child last year, which had relegated Doig's android character mostly to be the talking head of the ship - her physical presence was replaced by another android in the form of former Baywatch bimbo Brandy Ledford. Anyway, it seems as though with the apparent cancellation of the horrible, four-year-long train wreck called "Andromeda" this year, that Doig is free and looking for work. Her first year or two on that show more than proved her acting ability, and I hope she'll find a place here. Now we put the marriage to the test, living AND working together.
And the kicker - Doig's character will be the daughter of new SGC General Landry, adding some immediate and interesting character dynamic. Now, what would they say about families serving together in a place like the SGC...
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Dr. Brightman was the resident quack early in the eighth season (in what was mostly a leftover role that Frasier would have done had she been there), but now we have have a more permenant presence in the infirmary, something that's been visibly absent all year."
Did they say why, if they're reusing the character, they aren't reusing the actress?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
The actress for Dr. Frasier was probably available... But Dr. Frasier herself was decidedly not. ;)Whoever Lexa is playing, it's not Dr. Brightman.
Mark
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Oh. I thought you were saying she was playing Brightman.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I avoided reading these until the season was over, by way of explanation of why I am just saying this now: More Ancients. Oh boy. Plus King Arthur. Swell.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
So you've sarcasitcally bagged the idea before even one frame of footage has been aired?
Looks like Stargate HAS taken over the Trek legacy!
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Uh, I got tired of the Ancients a while ago, and as far as a list of things I really like goes, Arthuriania is not on it. I mean, we could be in store for the best sf version of English myth since Christopher Lambert's Beowulf, but I'm not going to cheer if somebody makes me a coconut cake when I don't like coconut, you know?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
If handled correctly, it could be good - if not - it could be "Crusade".
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
So good, but interfered with and canceled before given a full shot?
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
A preview for the ninth season (and Atlantis' second) has been transcribed from where it was shown at a Stargate con:
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
- I'm fine. Oh and as long as there is enough character development, cool alien enemies and wonderful storylines, I'm cool.