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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2008-03-09, 23:40

There's a new straight-to-video release of a Stargate SG-1 "movie" coming up in a few days. I'm sure a lot of you guys are waiting to buy it, and I would too but.... I have no idea what the FUCK is happening on Stargate now.

None whatsoever.

Truth is, once MacGuyver left his fulltime gig on the show the writing became extremely indulgent and self-referential. It moved from a standalone format to a long story arc format. Can you guys give me an (entertaining) catch-up explanation of what's been happening on that show since RDA's departure?

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
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Kickaha
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2008-03-10, 00:05

Big bad: Ori. Think Ascended Ancients, but pushing themselves as gods. They're basically a placeholder for your average "if you don't believe, you will be slaughtered" zealots. Thankfully, nothing like that in the real world. *cough*

ANYwho... the Priors are humans who have embraced the Book of Origin (Ori? Origin? Get it? hahahaha*sigh*) and have been given some powers, as physical emmisaries. They are *nasty* sumbitches. They make the Go'a'uld look like schoolboys. Oh, and the Ori have these insanely powerful ships that come through megagates in space.

Yeah, big bad.

Vala is the new character played by Claudia Black - a con artist who tried to steal Pegasus, and ended up joining the team. Oh, and she gave birth to the Ori Messiah (immaculate conception, natch), who aged rapidly and is played by Morena Baccarin (Inara from Firefly/Serenity.) She and Daniel seem to have a thing going on, as they fight like an old married couple.

Ba'al has joined up with SG-1 on more than one occasion to knock back the Ori, he seems to be mellowing in his old age.

SG-1 ran around two galaxies looking for Atlantis, which led to SG-A getting spawned off, but the key ended up being back on Earth, naturally.

Series finale had them living out the rest of their lives on a derelict ship, and only T'ealc lived long enough to get rescued, and bounced back in time. That's why he has the white stripe in his hair - he's aged.

Lots of details in there, but that's the broad strokes you'd need for the new movie, I believe.
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Naderfan
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ohio
 
2008-03-10, 00:05

Well, basically, they got a new enemy, the Ori (don't really know the spelling - pronounced like "Or-eye"), who are the opposite of the Ancients - energy beings that gain their power from people worshiping them.

They have these priests known as Pryors who have super powers and go from planet to planet trying to convert the populations - if they don't convert, the pryors strike them with plagues or ships and kills them all.

Vallah (or whatever her name is - the alien chick who comes back and joins SG-1) ends up getting pregnant (somehow - kind of an immaculate conception type story) by the Ori and gives birth to a girl who ages quickly to young adulthood within a few weeks (of course she stops aging then) and basically is Ori personified and is going to lead the invasion to earth.

In the end, SG-1 manages to send a weapon into the Ori's realm (forget how that worked) and supposedly killed them all. I think this is where the movie picks back up - it didn't completely work.

Anyway, that's a very brief overview, since it's been awhile since I watched the last couple seasons, but hopefully it helps a bit!

Edit: oops, too slow!
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alcimedes
I shot the sherrif.
 
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2008-03-10, 00:12

They've started showing episodes again late late at night and my Tivo has been recording them.

Both Valah and Mitchell are from Farscape, another show that I got sucked into one day after downloading a Season 1 torrent of it.

I still have the "200" episode saved on my Tivo. So many jokes in that one I had to laugh.

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drewprops
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2008-03-10, 06:01

Thanks guys, this helps a lot.
I've been really, really fuzzy on how the SG-A series was connected to SG-1 and it's a bit clearer now... though I suppose it would be best to see the arc that led to the spinoff.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
Series finale had them living out the rest of their lives on a derelict ship, and only T'ealc lived long enough to get rescued, and bounced back in time. That's why he has the white stripe in his hair - he's aged.
Who were the people who were on that derelict ship?


.

Steve Jobs ate my cat's watermelon.
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 09:56

SG-1, and General Not-Hammond.
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709
¡Damned!
 
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2008-03-10, 10:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by alcimedes View Post
I still have the "200" episode saved on my Tivo. So many jokes in that one I had to laugh.
Best scene ever.
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 10:38

I like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xunk0hAEgt8
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 10:40

Quote:
Originally Posted by drewprops View Post
It moved from a standalone format to a long story arc format.
Forgot to respond to this first off...

Hell *YES* they did, and thank freaking god. If I want self-contained, 42-min and everything is hunky dory back to status quo, I'll watch Star Trek. :P (DS9 was the only series that even got it half-right.)

Gimme long story arcs any day. B5, BSG, etc, etc.
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Moogs
Hates the Infotainment
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2008-03-10, 10:59

McGuyver's tears can cure cancer....

...uh, no. Wait a minute...
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Naderfan
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2008-03-10, 11:22

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moogs View Post
McGuyver's tears can cure cancer....

...uh, no. Wait a minute...
No, it's his tears PLUS a paperclip.
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 11:44

Macgyver's tears are nature's duct tape.
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Xaqtly
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2008-03-10, 11:51

Quote:
Originally Posted by 709 View Post
Oh god yes. As a Farscape fan, that made me laugh so hard. That whole 200 episode was absolutely brilliant and hysterical. Although I think my favorite part in the whole episode was this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GMwZ_nfqsUY

And I love SG-1, and my best friend loves it too so we're always talking about it and we're both annoyed as hell that it got cancelled. That being said, the show did start going downhill once Richard Dean Anderson left and they replaced him with Ben Browder. Anderson is a good actor, and the chemistry with the other three in SG-1 was staggeringly good. It's always been my opinion that Browder is not a very good actor, but that he was excellent in Farscape... maybe the character was written for him. Whatever the reason, the SG-1 dynamic was different and he really didn't fit in, IMO.

Claudia Black on the other hand is a superb actress. She can do deadpan like nobody's business, and she can do straight very convincingly. She was excellent in both Farscape and SG-1, and frankly I think she was one of the best things about the last couple seasons of SG-1, along with Daniel, Teal'c and Carter.

The new movie (Ark of Truth) wraps up the Ori (short for Origin) storyline, as they didn't really get a chance to finish it in the series.

Oh, and regarding the short story to long arc transition, I'm with Kick - that was a good move. Some of those arcs represent some of the best sci-fi TV ever made. The last arc before Anderson's transition off the show was absolutely epic, and it shows that at least some people in the industry still understand what makes good TV. Unfortunately those people usually aren't in charge.

I could go on for a few more pages but I'll spare you. Suffice to say that I really love SG-1.

edit: oh man this killed me too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwyIMzfzz8o&NR=1
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Capella
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2008-03-10, 14:03

Claudia Black is an excellent actress and very very hot. I don't much like Ben Browder or the entire Ori plotline, but looking at Vala and being amused by the way she and Daniel interact is good enough to keep watching.

I definitely recommend you watch the eps leading up to Atlantis, it's a wonderful story and Atlantis itself is quite good. Wasn't really a fan season 1, but I warmed to it and think season 4 (especially the ending cliffhanger ep omg) was fantastic.

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 14:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
Claudia Black is an excellent actress and very very hot.
I think they need to put her back in her original outfit.
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Capella
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2008-03-10, 14:10

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
I think they need to put her back in her original outfit.
You mean the gorgeous black one instead of SG-1 uniform? Because I totally support that move.
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Naderfan
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2008-03-10, 14:12

yeah, I've really gotten into Atlantis as well.
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 14:15

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
You mean the gorgeous black one instead of SG-1 uniform? Because I totally support that move.
Yup, the black strappy one.

It seemed to support her moves as well.
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Xaqtly
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2008-03-10, 15:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
I definitely recommend you watch the eps leading up to Atlantis, it's a wonderful story and Atlantis itself is quite good. Wasn't really a fan season 1, but I warmed to it and think season 4 (especially the ending cliffhanger ep omg) was fantastic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naderfan View Post
yeah, I've really gotten into Atlantis as well.
Me too. I've been liking it more over the last 1-2 years, but I thought maybe I was just getting used to it. But objectively I think it really has been getting better. Better writing, better stories, and Ronon was a great addition. And they've gone so far in depth with the wraith now, they're not just the generic bad guys that we thought they were. And the Michael arcs have been really good. I liked him as Trip on ST:Enterprise anyway, and as Michael he's really proven to be a solid actor.

McKay has really come into his own, and like with the main crew of SG-1, there some good solid chemistry between McKay, Sheppard, Tayla and Ronon. I love good chemistry. And even a lot of the one shot stories have been really good over the last season or two. It'll never be SG-1, but I think it has definitely gotten better since it started. The only thing I really didn't like is when they got rid of Carson Beckett. Since they replaced him with a cute female doctor, I can only assume that's the main reason why. And I actually like her (Jewel Staite, she played Kaylee on Firefly), but Carson was a great character.

But yeah that SG-1 story arc leading up to Atlantis was just brilliant TV.
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Kickaha
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2008-03-10, 15:16

I think of the entire crew, I'm most cool towards Teyla - they just haven't done much interesting with her character, and I haven't really missed her the last few weeks. *shrug*

Dr. Kaylee (sorry ) was a good addition, I though, although I did like Carson.
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Capella
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2008-03-10, 17:20

Oh yes. Adding Jewel Staite as Doctor Keller was one of the niftiest moves they made, I think; even though she was only slated to be recurring, it's pretty obvious she has good chemistry with the rest of the cast, which is why she's a full regular next season. That ep with her and Carter and McKay was priceless, for example, and I liked the bit with her and Ronon too.

Weirdly enough, Kaylee's character was my favorite in Firefly (Simon and Mal close behind), but I wasn't attracted to her then. Now, in Atlantis, I'm suddenly really noticing her. Has anyone else done that? Found someone attractive in one role, but not felt the same way when they're a different character?

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2008-03-10, 17:38

It took me the first season to get into SG-A, but now I really like it. Initially I didn't like Sheppard's character at all...I felt like the writers were trying to create an O'Neill 2.0 with his one-liners and somewhat detached attitude...and McKay bugged the living shit out of me. Now I like Mitchell and McKay only bugs me a bit less.

I liked Carson a bunch too, and Grodin was a favorite of mine until he got blown up inside the Ancient satellite. Didn't see that coming at all.

Speaking of uniforms...I'm very happy with Elizabeth's choice of a tight red top. 'Scates would certainly approve. Apparently she's not coming back for Season 5, though.

So it goes.
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drewprops
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Join Date: May 2004
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2008-03-10, 22:36

What season should I rent to begin watching it all the way into Atlantis and beyond?
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Dave
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
 
2008-03-11, 04:02

Eh, SG-A always had a "Me too!!!" feel to it. IMHO, anyway. Which isn't to say that I haven't gotten drawn into it from time to time, just that I don't see the need to make it a separate show. Towards the end of SG-1 they seemed to be cross-pollinating quite a bit anyway.
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Moogs
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Join Date: May 2004
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2008-03-11, 09:49

Quote:
Originally Posted by Naderfan View Post
No, it's his tears PLUS a paperclip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
Macgyver's tears are nature's duct tape.




Touche.

It's a little known fact that placing a few drops of McGuyver's sweat onto a chewing gum wrapper, will create a substance that can be used much like plastic explosive... only you don't have to put a charge in it. You can just throw it and asplode stuff. Cool huh?

IN FACT, the first real star-gate was created when McGuyver threw a sweat-laden towel into an aluminum laundry bin, thus starting a chain reaction of events that changed the television landscape. Star-gates are real, dude.

...into the light of a dark black night.
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Xaqtly
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2008-03-11, 11:07

Another fun fact about SG-A; Rodney McKay's sister shows up in a couple episodes. She's as brilliant a scientist as he is, and there's the sibling rivalry and all that. The fun part is that the woman that plays his sister is his actual sister in real life. (David and Kate Hewlett.) So no doubt some of the inflections, annoyances etc. are probably very real.
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Kickaha
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2008-03-11, 12:50

Funniest, IMO, is that when they interact, his Canadian accent slips out a lot more. Given that the character is Canadian, and I know that when I get around family I slip back into old speech patterns, it makes sense, but conscious or not, it's cute.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
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2008-03-11, 18:35

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
I know that when I get around family I slip back into old speech patterns...
Like how? Could you give a couple of examples, please?
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Capella
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2008-03-12, 17:03

Quote:
Originally Posted by drewprops View Post
What season should I rent to begin watching it all the way into Atlantis and beyond?
In season 7 is when the Atlantis-discovery happens, though it's the VERY END of season 7. I also highly recommend the Heroes 2-parter, same season, in which a cast member dies and it's 2 of the finest SG-1 eps EVER.

Also, the movie is out now. Anyone seen it yet?

"A blind, deaf, comatose, lobotomy patient could feel my anger!" - Darth Baras
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rampancy
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2008-03-12, 18:07

Quote:
Originally Posted by 709 View Post
I just can't get enough of that. I too was a Farscape fan and it was awesome seeing John Crighton and Aeryn Sun back in action. I remember reading about how some wags took to calling the show "FarGate" because of that.

And then when they got Beau Bridges to play Gen. Landry, they also had Rommie/Andromeda play one of the doctors who was his former love interest. Man, that was something, especially since in one episode of Andromeda, Michael Shanks plays a mad Commonweath shipboard AI who used to be Rommie's love interest (who Andromeda has to save), which was funny when I read that Michael Shanks and Lexa Doig are married. And then there were episodes where Gen. Hammond and Teal'c both guest starred...(Christopher Judge also played a ship AI)

I guess I now have to endure a public flogging since I've outed myself as a (former!) fan of Andromeda.

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