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[Seductivpancakes]

So out of the blue, I decide to start Stargate Atlantis on Hulu. I've seen a good bit of Stargate SG1 and Stargate Universe, but never Atlantis.

I must say, I enjoy Atlantis a lot more than i do the other two. Mostly, due to the characters. I'm on season 4 but I did skip some episodes. This show has encouraged me to watch the rest of SG1 and Universe.

Mckay is my favorite character between all 3 series. Shepard feels more relatable, and more less super human than O'Neil, which is a plus in my book. Teyla is basically Teal'c, but less rigid, also a plus to me. Ford wasn't anyone special, but I liked him, but I'm glad Ronan came along.

I was

Spoiler

upset about Becket and Weir

Being a sci fi show, its always good seeing actors from other shows pop up.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Season 5 was great with Robert Picardo. Always a great actor.

I enjoyed most of the show except for the Ford/Lost Boys arc.

 

[Patryn]

It was entertaining, but they kind of cut it off at the knees when they had it reconnect to Earth so early on.

It didn't help that the Wraith were generally pretty boring as major villains. Until Michael came around the only time the Wraith worked for me was The Defiant One in season one.

I never really bought them as this threat who took down the Ancients.

The real final nail for me was when they introduced a new villain

Spoiler

who was basically just souped up Replicators. The most hilarious thing was I recall how the producers were swearing up and down that they weren't just Replicators prior to their arrival, and then that's what they ended up being.

 

[Lautaro]

Best Stargate series IMO. The ending made me upset though.

 

[Sojgat]

Season 2 through most of season 4 is the best Stargate has ever been IMO.

Sucks it got cancelled.

 

[DopeyFish]

The characters were indeed really good... it's a shame that the writers were having so much difficulty making original plots to differentiate themselves from SG-1.

They still had a tendency to make some amazing episodes though. Unlike the SG-1 base infiltration episodes, Atlantis did those ones really well.... primarily because they never really have complete control of the city.

 

[Seductivpancakes]

It was entertaining, but they kind of cut it off at the knees when they had it reconnect to Earth so early on.

It didn't help that the Wraith were generally pretty boring as major villains. Until Michael came around the only time the Wraith worked for me was The Defiant One in season one.

I never really bought them as this threat who took down the Ancients.

The real final nail for me was when they introduced a new villain

Spoiler

who was basically just souped up Replicators. The most hilarious thing was I recall how the producers were swearing up and down that they weren't just Replicators prior to their arrival, and then that's what they ended up being.

I agree that the Wraith got kind of boring. At first, them being hard to kill, made it a bit interesting, but eventually they just drop from several rounds.

At least we got some cool space battles from the Replicators.

Spoiler

Battle of Asuran was dope.

 

[Patryn]

I agree that the Wraith got kind of boring. At first, them being hard to kill, made it a bit interesting, but eventually they just drop from several rounds.

At least we got some cool space battles from the Replicators.

Spoiler

Battle of Asuran was dope.

Yeah, the Wraith went from super tough to kill to cannon fodder in like half a season.

 

[diggmcbadass]

Mckay is my favorite character between all 3 series.

I agree with this. He is also most of the reason I continued to watch the show. Ronon was maybe the least interesting character across all series though. I was really surprised how awesome Jason Momoa was in Game of Thrones, because based on this show I had zero expectations.

 

[KarmaCow]

O'Neill/Jackson is still the all time best, but I liked the dynamic between four (after they got rid of Ford) and the supporting cast like Zelenka or Todd a bit more than SG-1. McKay is by the far the best, McKay and Mrs. Miller is such a great episode. Then they started fucking with the cast,

Spoiler

getting rid of Weir because Amanda Tapping still had a year on her contract, killing off Beckett in exactly the same way as they did Fraiser in SG-1 with the shitty "who died?" teasing throughout. It also kinda annoyed me how McKay breaks up with his series long girlfriend as he's about to propose because he's not personally good enough for a relationship only to hook up with Jewel Staite shortly after.

It has the same problem as SG-1 though where the power creep ramped incredibly fast. Humans turned into near-Ancients level gods within <10 years.

I agree with this. He is also most of the reason I continued to watch the show. Ronon was maybe the least interesting character across all series though. I was really surprised how awesome Jason Momoa was in Game of Thrones, because based on this show I had zero expectations.

The writers had no idea what to do with the character beyond being a stoic warrior, just like Teal'c. At least Christopher Judge wrote himself a few episodes later so his character could have something interesting.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

By the end of Atlantis the Tau'ri were the most powerful force in two galaxies. Couple that with alliances with the Heberdians, Langarians, Travellers, and other advanced or industrious humans.

 

[Fuchsdh]

By the end of Atlantis the Tau'ri were the most powerful force in two galaxies. Couple that with alliances with the Heberdians, Langarians, Travellers, and other advanced or industrious humans.

Yeah, I'm rewatching SG1 on Hulu Plus right now (and intend to watch Stargate Atlantis through, since I've only seen scattered episodes) and I think ultimately that's one of the problems with the series as it went on. On one hand it was kind of ridiculous that they managed to survive against aliens with superior tech and interstellar spaceships... but then once they got their own ships it turned into a more generic sci-fi show and lost some of its character.

They did an excellent job writing underdogs... and then suddenly humans weren't underdogs, and the show never really recovered (also it suffered from the age-old affliction of "we've been cancelled... or not, quick write something else.")

Only a few episodes in, I do feel like part of my issue with Atlantis is that the Ancients feel less inscrutable and alien. I mean they basically are human so I guess it makes sense their design and style wouldn't be dramatically different, but it ends up feeling weirdly low-rent. Atlantis doesn't feel like some wondrous alien place.

 

[dalin80]

By the end of Atlantis the Tau'ri were the most powerful force in two galaxies. Couple that with alliances with the Heberdians, Langarians, Travellers, and other advanced or industrious humans.

Yep with complete access to all Asgard tech, most of the Ancient tech, Ori tech and a host of other races Earth was essentially the major super power. A single Ori mothership could have wiped out the Goa'uld fleet and Earth still ended up with the tech to one hit kill those.

So then Stargate Universe came around and we are supposed to believe that a few goons flying stolen old Goa'uld ships were a threat? Yeah... no.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

It's a good series but I could never shake the feeling that it was basically just a pointless copy of SG-1.

SGU at least tried to do something different.

 

[jagowar]

I thought the lead in to atlantis was amongst the best I have ever seen on TV but they really made a mistake in not using the city more as a character. To me that was its strongest theme was the wonder of atlantis and they turned it into a generic scifi/aliens show.

IMO had the city spent the first season or two underwater (ie they have enough power) and let them explore the city and the new worlds and slowly introduce the wraith would have made for a better series.

 

[Patryn]

It's a good series but I could never shake the feeling that it was basically just a pointless copy of SG-1.

SGU at least tried to do something different.

The original concept of Atlantis was different. Having them be cut off had a lot of potential.

Imagine if they did like 4-5 seasons of Atlantis on its own, having to change and adapt to survive and then they reconnected with Earth? You could have some interesting conflict between Earth and itself if the SGC tried to make changes and this tight-knit group didn't like it.

Especially if Atlantis at that point would have tech that Earth couldn't counter.

 

[Cipherr]

Season 5 was great with Robert Picardo. Always a great actor.

I enjoyed most of the show except for the Ford/Lost Boys arc.

When his casting was announced before the season I was pissed. I thought I would hate him. He was sort of written as an asshole in SG1 so I couldn't imagine him becoming a character I liked at all. I was really surprised.

The original concept of Atlantis was different. Having them be cut off had a lot of potential.

In a funny way, Universe failed at that too. The idea of this new Stargate team being "on their own" is something they weren't able to stick with in Atlantis nor Universe. They eventually just let it go and had regular and close communication with earth in both shows.

 

[sono]

Loved both this and SG1. To bits.

 

[Seductivpancakes]

Also, I liked the opening, but SG-1's opening still remains superior.

 

[Timeaisis]

I actually like SGA quite a bit more than SG-1. The characters are fun and it had a good lighthearted nature to it. Shame it was cancelled. SGU was trash.

 

[KarmaCow]

The original concept of Atlantis was different. Having them be cut off had a lot of potential.

Imagine if they did like 4-5 seasons of Atlantis on its own, having to change and adapt to survive and then they reconnected with Earth? You could have some interesting conflict between Earth and itself if the SGC tried to make changes and this tight-knit group didn't like it.

Especially if Atlantis at that point would have tech that Earth couldn't counter.

Weren't there episodes like that? I could have sworn there were conflicts about how to use the ZPMs or Wraith experiments. The overall progression from completely cut off to 3 months trips between galaxies which added the space ship captains as characters to ZPMs out the ass to eventually the Stargate bridge was a nice logical progression, it just happened way too fast. It's weird because the season 1 finale was basically removing the cut-off survivors aspect of the series and that was early on.

Also speaking of ZPMs, it was kinda dumb but I did like that McKay would say Zed P M.

 

[Ri'Orius]

Yeah, the Wraith went from super tough to kill to cannon fodder in like half a season.

Eh, the same can be said of the Jaffa in SG-1: their armor was bulletproof in the first few episodes.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Eh, the same can be said of the Jaffa in SG-1: their armor was bulletproof in the first few episodes.

Then they got P90s which melted Jaffe armor like butter. S5E18 "The Warrior" hangs a lampshade on this.

 

[diamount]

Enjoyed the heck out of this show, more than SG-1 at any rate. However... Ford and Teyla were extremely unlikable.

 

[ArmGunar]

Too bad we hadn't enough aliens, there was a great potential !
They say us there are many more advanced civilizations and we have only seen 1 or 2

Just few examples:

Spoiler

- "Dr Weir" Asurans who infiltrates the Atlantis's electrical network to have again a new body, she says that she has traveled the galaxy to find some technology and that " we have no ideas how much advanced are the civizilations she met " and there are a lot and hidden ....

- The episode where the team is stucked in a X304 which traveled across the dimensions and they fight against kind of Borg (of Star Trek) with "green laser guns"

etc...

 

[Won]

I actually dislike the show. Too obvious the endless reuse of the same sets and locations. Ruins the whole escapism part of watching a show like that.
The show as a whole felt like it wasted a lot of potential in later seasons because of this.

Also don't ever make a real-life pregnancy a major plot point in a show.

 

[DieH@rd]

Fun show.

Shame we never got to see the "fifth race".

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Fun show.

Shame we never got to see the "fifth race".

The Tau'ri were the fifth race, we never saw the Furlings.

 

[Calm Killer]

To me it was the worst of all the stargates. Never finished it. Season two and had to stop due to boredom. The characters were terrible as well imo.


I enjoyed universe a lot more. Wish it wouldn't have gotten cancelled.

 

[Fuchsdh]

When his casting was announced before the season I was pissed. I thought I would hate him. He was sort of written as an asshole in SG1 so I couldn't imagine him becoming a character I liked at all. I was really surprised.



In a funny way, Universe failed at that too. The idea of this new Stargate team being "on their own" is something they weren't able to stick with in Atlantis nor Universe. They eventually just let it go and had regular and close communication with earth in both shows.

And before them Voyager failed at the same premise, although at least they were cut off longer than in SG. I dunno what it is about that setup where the writers will undermine themselves so readily.

Then they got P90s which melted Jaffe armor like butter. S5E18 "The Warrior" hangs a lampshade on this.

They didn't get P90s until season 4. They did dramatically depower the Jaffa. Made you wonder why they bothered wearing any armor since it was not effective at stopping anything, even their own staff weapons' blasts.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Yup, just finishing up a rewatch myself and got to say I like atlantis a great deal. Some of the best Stargate made. McKay became an amazing character and the supporting cast isn't bad at all with maybe the exception of Taylor who I can never get my head round.

 

[Ri'Orius]

When his casting was announced before the season I was pissed. I thought I would hate him. He was sort of written as an asshole in SG1 so I couldn't imagine him becoming a character I liked at all. I was really surprised.

I mean, McKay was written as an asshole in SG1, and they did a great job of softening him in Atlantis.

Part of that was the fact that in SG1 he only ever showed up to argue with Carter, and Carter was always right (while McKay was, of course, his arrogant self). Once McKay got to be right, his arrogance became lovable instead of aggravating.

 

[Seductivpancakes]

And before them Voyager failed at the same premise, although at least they were cut off longer than in SG. I dunno what it is about that setup where the writers will undermine themselves so readily.



They didn't get P90s until season 4. They did dramatically depower the Jaffa. Made you wonder why they bothered wearing any armor since it was not effective at stopping anything, even their own staff weapons' blasts.

Yeah I didn't think the show's premise was focused on combat, but there is a ton of it in SG1 and Atlantis. I wish they'd put more thought into it lol

 

[funkypie]

People are talking about armour.. Maybe the sg team realised normal bullets weren't effective so starting issuing armour piecing rounds, Just a thought.

 

[Cipherr]

I mean, McKay was written as an asshole in SG1, and they did a great job of softening him in Atlantis.

Yeah definitely. They also got rid of his major infatuation with Carter a bit too once they brought her on to run Atlantis for that one season. Somehow though I didn't expect it to work for Woolsey, but it did.

 

[jerry113]

This was definitely the Mckay & Shepard show. The two had great chemistry. Shame the movie never emerged.

 

[SpoonyBard]

The fifth season was kind if rough, but at least the show had a proper ending unlike Universe. I always liked the one-off episodes better than the space vampire ones. McKay was obviously the best character, and he played well with Shepard. Didn't like Xena or Hercules all that much, Teal'c had more personality.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I love how late season SG1 and Atlantis were like refugee camps for TV SF actors of the 90's / 00's.

Human form replicators: Awful
Wraith: Mediocre
Michael: lol
Genii: Good

Honestly struggling to remember other recurring villains though. Despite the mostly mediocre foils, I found it to be a very enjoyable show.

 

[Dingens]

initially I didn't like the show very much when it first aired... It just never clicked.
But than, one day I watched the season finale (season 3) by accident and it immediately pulled me in. dat cliffhanger...

I grew really fond of Todd, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I enjoyed season 4 the most.

I just wish they could've given the last episode more space to breath... why not make it a 2 or 3 parter?
the only memorable thing from S5 was the "solitary man episode". that one was fucking ace.

 

[danm999]

Atlantis was ok.

It peaked around the Wraith-Asuran Wars in Season 3 for me when it got into some really interesting stuff about how badly the Milky Way humans fucked that galaxy up with their interventionism.

With SG-1 at least it was easy to make the argument Earth fell into a major interstellar conflict by accident, and how they had to keep fighting to protect their home. With Atlantis, the main draw for Earth was the city and the research potential, despite whatever noises some people made about helping those in Pegasus.

And (ending spoilers)

Spoiler

I suppose they never really undid the damage either since from what I remember from the ending is that the Wraith were never really defeated.

Since Atlantis was moved to Earth, I doubt the powers that be would ever be terribly motivated to move it back to Pegasus either. Self interest might dictate you make sure the Wraith never manage to get to the Milky Way again, but that fancy city probably stays in the Bay Area, huh?

the only memorable thing from S5 was the "solitary man episode". that one was fucking ace.

The one in Vegas?

Spoiler

That one sort of struck me as them realising how badly they'd fucked up by having to make parallel universe Wraith have powers more frightening than the prime universes. But by the end Atlantis had a pretty extensive wrap sheet of simply iterating on past foes rather than creating new ones.

So then Stargate Universe came around and we are supposed to believe that a few goons flying stolen old Goa'uld ships were a threat? Yeah... no.

You put your finger on what I disliked about Universe. Earth had the technology to wipe out stars and stop time, but all the major inciting incidents in that show involved Earth getting their arses handed to them by people with technology little superior to what the Goa'uld had at the start of the series.

It just felt like a contrivance, and it's not like you couldn't have written why the Expedition was stuck on Destiny differently (a more natural accident, Rush, etc).

 

[SpoonyBard]

You put your finger on what I disliked about Universe. Earth had the technology to wipe out stars and stop time, but all the major inciting incidents in that show involved Earth getting their arses handed to them by people with technology little superior to what the Goa'uld had at the start of the series.

It just felt like a contrivance, and it's not like you couldn't have written why the Expedition was stuck on Destiny differently (a more natural accident, Rush, etc).

What I disliked most about Universe was that several times they make a huge plot point about someone missing the gate back to the ship and get's stranded on a planet when Destiny jumps away. The next episode they are back like nothing happened (yeah, we just followed you, no big deal). It was very cheap way of creating extra drama without bothering to resolve it properly.

 

[hobblygobbly]

I love all of Stargate but Atlantis will always be my favourite because I loved the cast/characters more so than any other. McKay, Ronon Dex, etc. So good.

Would've really liked to have a proper ending though. :/

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

The leaked premises for the two films were amazing.

In the Atlantis one

Spoiler

Atlantis had a failsafe build in that would destroy the city if it left Pegasus for too long. So they have to take it off of the Moon and back to Pegasus with the wormhole drive. Wacky shit happens and supposedly leads to the extinction of the Wraith in their current form.

The SG-1 one

Spoiler

was going to focus on O'Neill and revolve around the final public disclosure of the Stargate. I've been waiting for that story for years.

Unfortunately now, Emmerich and Devin are making sequels to the original film which throw out the TV series. I refuse to acknowledge these new films so long as we don't get a conclusion to Universe, Atlantis, and SG-1. They could just post a big write up of the scripts for the two films and their plan for SGU and I'd be happy.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

The SG-1 one

Spoiler

was going to focus on O'Neill and revolve around the final public disclosure of the Stargate. I've been waiting for that story for years.

Spoiler

Do we know if the Stargate program would finally, actually be disclosed, or would that have been the topic of the movie but they would find a reason not to disclose it after all? Judging from SGU (which takes place after the movies) the public still doesn't seem to know about the Stargate program. There's a reference to the moon base in Stargate Continuum so I'm assuming the unproduced movies happened in canon even though we didn't see them.

Unfortunately now, Emmerich and Devin are making sequels to the original film which throw out the TV series. I refuse to acknowledge these new films so long as we don't get a conclusion to Universe, Atlantis, and SG-1. They could just post a big write up of the scripts for the two films and their plan for SGU and I'd be happy.

Emmerich and Devlin are actually going to reboot their version because they say it's been too long since the original film. There's going to be a reboot film and two sequels.

 

[Mokujin]

Started kind of meh but got quite entertaining around half 2nd-3rd season for me, quite a lot better than Universe and better than the last two Sg-1 seasons, maybe not the best but reached solid performance.

 

[gabbo]

Spoiler

Do we know if the Stargate program would finally, actually be disclosed, or would that have been the topic of the movie but they would find a reason not to disclose it after all? Judging from SGU (which takes place after the movies) the public still doesn't seem to know about the Stargate program. There's a reference to the moon base in Stargate Continuum so I'm assuming the unproduced movies happened in canon even though we didn't see them.

Emmerich and Devlin are actually going to reboot their version because they say it's been too long since the original film. There's going to be a reboot film and two sequels.

The final SG1 movie was suppose to take place/release before SGU was a thing, and yes

Spoiler

they were going to publicly disclose the program to the public. SGU would have either dealt with that differently or taken place before it.

 

[Slayven]

Wish Syfy went back to great shows like this, great character chemistry. Love how they kept it real with Mckay saying Zed PM, instead of ZPM

 

[tearsintherain]

I think a stargate reboot is inevitable, i believe the movies are being rebooted right now so hopefully that leads to a unified TV show reboot.

Its really too bad Atlantis never got a real movie, one of the creators talked about it in his blog (obviously spoilers so don't read until you finish the show!)
https://josephmallozzi.wordpress.co...ast-concludes-stargate-extinction-and-beyond/

Mallozzi now works on Dark Matters or Killjoys or Defiance, I don't remember which one has his name on it but I enjoy all 3 on SyFy on fridays. It really feels like a good time to be enjoying scifi on TV and movies, hoping for a new Star Trek show soon.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

I think a stargate reboot is inevitable, i believe the movies are being rebooted right now so hopefully that leads to a unified TV show reboot.

Its really too bad Atlantis never got a real movie, one of the creators talked about it in his blog (obviously spoilers so don't read until you finish the show!)
https://josephmallozzi.wordpress.co...ast-concludes-stargate-extinction-and-beyond/

Mallozzi now works on Dark Matters or Killjoys or Defiance, I don't remember which one has his name on it but I enjoy all 3 on SyFy on fridays. It really feels like a good time to be enjoying scifi on TV and movies, hoping for a new Star Trek show soon.

I wish we got an outline of the SG-1 film and what they planned to do with Universe...

 

[DrForester]

I liked the show, but didn't care for most the characters. Shepard was as bland as they come. McKay grew on me, and Ronan was awesome. Also was fun seeing Picardo towards the end of the series.