Hi, I’m considering getting into Stargate. I only know it’s based on a movie and the franchise consists of 3 tv shows. I don’t know anything about the setting / plot.
I’m a massive Star Trek and Babylon 5 geek. I don’t know if Stargate is for me, though and I don’t want to invest many hours before I might find it’s not for me.
Maybe you people here can provide some info about the plot, pros & cons of the franchise and explain to me what got you hooked.
Looking forward to your replies.
PS: I don’t live under a rock, but somehow I managed to dodge everything about the franchise.
PSS: would I start with the movie and then SG-1? Are there other critical things to know?
The movie can be a little dated, and it has a fairly different tone from the sequel series. It’s arguably not the greatest introduction to the franchise, but it does set the stage with the premise.
Once you get into the sg-1 series, it gets closer to the Deep Space 9 formula. Episodic, but there’s long running story arcs for each season.
I liked it a lot because it was a more modern setting for the sci fi, which was a fun way to tell the story. Like Star Trek, it’s very much the ensemble that makes it work well.
Some people didn’t enjoy when there were cast changes, particularly Richard Dean Anderson’s departure in season 9. He is certainly missed, but I thought they did a good job creating a similar tone without making a carbon copy of his character.
Atlantis was also quite good. Universe was a very strong tonal shift, and the transition wasn’t easy for fans at the time, but I think the show benefits from binge watching. Sadly, it feels like just as it finds it’s footing in season 2, it gets cancelled instead
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I recommend first watching the feature film, starring Kurt Russell and James Spader, then SG-1, then the two SG-1 movies, then Atlantis, then Universe.
Elevator pitch: the ancient Egyptians were enslaved by a race of alien beings who ruled by posing as gods with their advanced technology. The pyramids were their landing pads. The Egyptians eventually revolted and the aliens fled in ships, leaving the Egyptians to bury the Stargate, which is an advanced portal that lets people cross instantly between worlds through a wormhole. In modern times, a dig discovers this Stargate and the American military, with the help of an archaeologist disgraced for his theories about ancient Egypt, figure out how to use it to travel to other worlds themselves.
I’d suggest skipping the original movie entirely. Maybe watch it at the end for a laugh. It’s so utterly different to the rest of the series.
The first/pilot episode Children of the Gods is a 1 and a half hour movie of its own and serves as a better introduction to Star Gate.
As for the plot:
Stargate the movie is the start point.
Stargate SG1 is the main series with a spinoff series called Stargate Atlantis co airing from season 8 onwards and extends 2 years after SG1 ends. After the end of SG1 there are 2 films one to wrap up SG1 and the other fun wibbly wobbly time fuckery one. Then some time after (I am not sure how long) Stargate Universe takes place.
The shows premise is the US Air Force trying to not manifest destiny across the galaxy but end up pissing off the feudal snake headed “gods” of the galaxy and support an uprising of the warrior cast against the gods
The first season is a bit weird but genuinely gets better as the actors get more comfortable with their characters.
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Stargate has some really interesting plots, great characters, and some truly hilarious moments. I love the IP dearly, and Atlantis is my favorite of the bunch. It’s more light-hearted and pulpy than Star Trek, but it’s still great. I am jealous of you getting to watch it for the first time. I wish I could do that again.
I will echo what others have said. The first season is rough, especially the beginning. But it gets good towards the latter half. The following seasons have sold some stinkers, like every show, but the seasons in general get better as it goes on. I definitely recommend it if you like Star Trek.
Couldn’t sleep and kicked off my new binge project watching the original movie. I enjoyed James Spader’s performance and was very surprised to see Kurt Russel. Didn’t care for the desert setting (I’m with Anakin on this one). The concept of the Stargate is interesting and makes it easy to explore distant worlds. Now watching the first episode and the casting of Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O’Neill was a good move. I’m curious about the further development of the show.
Yeah, RDA is a treasure and he is great in the show. He and the other producers specifically wanted to change the O’Neill from the movie by giving him more humor and personality, because it made him more likeable. And it was the right call. I don’t think I would have liked the show as much with a movie-version of O’Neill leading the team.
Don’t worry about the desert. Most planets they visit look like forests in British Columbia
Oh, that’s good to hear. Maybe someday I’ll be able to watch Dune. Maybe.
SG-1 is great and I think you will be in for a good time, in my opinion though you can skip seasons 9 and 10. I think they just pushed it too far past it’s prime.
Seasons 9 and 10 were fine, but they were practically a different series. And not just because the leads from Farscape were back together.
Of the constant suggestions for how to bring the franchise back, my favorite is saying Daniel and Vala run an antiquities shop, offworld. They’re independent treasure-hunters with some intense disagreements about what constitutes treasure or hunting. Vala is constantly rankled by having to do the right thing over making the most money. Daniel is mildly upset about being known as the guy who introduced this quasi-medieval civilization to doner kebab.
Hold in there between the movie and the first season. Showtime realized it was a nerd show not softcore and sold it off to the SciFi channel when it was in it’s prime. That’s where it really blossomed.
There’s a lot to watch, rewatch and watch again in this series. Long running jokes, MacGyver references, long and short story arcs and while it does raise some morality and political issues it does it in a way that makes you think rather than beating you over the head with the writers preference.
Stargate SG-1 is the modern US Air Force exploring alien civilization by commute. It is a series where the four-man-band gets to go do crazy stuff and then come home for dinner. There is a constant looming threat of the ancient alien forces that have long ignored our planet coming to kick our asses, but most episodes are meeting the human diaspora throughout the galaxy or figuring out what happened on a planet where everyone is very dead. Occasionally there are action-heavy episodes and eventually proper space battles.
Basically it’s prototypical “humanity, fuck yeah” sci-fi, with a central cast of the guy who played MacGuyver, an engineer doing some MacGuyvering, an it-was-aliens archeologist who is totally vindicated, and Kratos.
SG-1 is a direct continuation of the original movie, but it fudges some details and has a different vibe. You should watch the movie because it’s good more than because it’s relevant.
SG-1 is fairly episodic. Watch the first three episodes for sure… and then maybe never watch episode four. Y’know the TNG episode “Code Of Honor?” The really uncomfortable one from the rough first season? Yeeeah that same writer did it twice. It’s not any better this time. Other than that, the first season’s a decent grab-bag of ideas. (“Fire And Water” is mediocre.) The final two episodes of the season are non-episodic plot stuff and a cliffhanger to the next season, which definitely becomes a pattern.
As dive-right-in examples… 2x15 “A Matter Of Time,” 3x14 “Foothold,” 4x09 “Scorched Earth,” 5x04 “The Fifth Man,” 7x05 “Revisions.”
Highlights that would benefit from familiarity: 2x14 “Touchstone,” 2x18 “Holiday,” 3x16 “Urgo” (very much guest-starring Dom Deluise), 4x02 “The Other Side,” 4x16 “2010,” 4x17 “Absolute Power,” 5x05 “Red Sun,” 7x06 “Revisions” … you may rightly infer that season four was particularly solid. The episode that absolutely everyone will namedrop is 4x06 “Window Of Opportunity,” and it’s not an ideal one to start with, but honestly it’s not awful either. It hits the right blend of serious plot stuff and fun character dynamics.
Oh. Right: SG-1’s first two-part episode was originally on Showtime, before they knew what they were gonna be about. That version has full frontal nudity. There’s a later one-part edit that’s a much closer introduction.
Stargate Atlantis is the same universe, but a different set of evil humanoid alien bad guys, and the home base itself is an uncertain environment. I for one was not a huge fan of that. Others really enjoyed it. Solid cast either way - baby Jason Momoa shows up and steals the show.
Stargate Universe really leaned into home base being mysterious and spooky, alongside character dynamics fraught with conflict. I didn’t make it three episodes in. It ended after like two seasons. Whatever its qualities as a premise, it was not the right fit for the Stargate franchise.
We don’t talk about the cartoon.
This was an amazing summary. Thank you. I think I’ll check it out tomorrow. And yeah, ‘code of honor’ was terrible. I watched it recently during another TNG binge. So, thanks for the heads up. I’ll watch that episode through a lense.
In light of the numbering weirdness for episode one and/or two, the one to avoid is called “Emancipation.” The screenwriter stuck with the show, and wrote a handful of good episodes… that just wasn’t one of them. Or two of them.
