* This message forwarded from area 'STARGATE' (STARGATE)
 * Original message dated 17 May 03, from Gizmo-Goddard

"Willy Ou'Just"  wrote in message
news:8d05a063.0305151907.5105658b{at}posting.google.com...> I thought of three,
lets see those creative juices flowing...
>
> Top 10 Reasons Stargate SG1 is Better Than Star Trek

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I don't know if I can simplify the reasons that I find "Stargate
SG-1" to be a
much better show than most iterations of the "Star Trek" story
into a top-ten
list.  But I can try to list some of the reasons that I like it that set it
apart.

1. - The basic story of "Stargate SG-1" is set in the current day, not some
idealized utopian future where the Earth has magically solved all of its own
internal problems. Our protagonists have to deal with each new story with all of
the advantages and shortcomings that regular people have. These folks don't have
some mystical set of directives for dealing with alien civilizations, they have
to make it up as they go and sometimes the results are far from perfect. There's
very real danger and drama in most of the stories, but there's also a sense of
wonder and humor in a lot of the stories.

2. - The principal adversaries of our story are couched in the mythology of our
own ancient civilizations and many of the people that we encounter are in fact
descendents of those same ancient cultures. This provides for a much more
consistent and reasonable explanation for the existence of these human societies
all over the galaxy than the story that Trek tries to use. It also means that
TPTB can save a great deal on prosthetics and make-up since most of the folks
our teams encounter off world are in fact humans.

3. - The discovery that the stargate can go to thousands of different
destinations gave TPTB a virtually limitless canvas on which to paint stories,
and all of these destinations are literally a step away, which means that TPTB
can focus on telling the main story rather than have to spend a lot of air time
on travelling from point A to point B.

4. - When Glassner and Wright got the go-ahead to adapt the Movie into a series,
they wisely decided to build on the existing structure of a secret project under
military command as the starting point for the story. This has a number of
advantages, the first being the retention of several of the principle characters
from the Movie, most importantly O'Neill and Jackson. It also allowed for a
logical but quick progression from first attack through initial reconnaissance
to second recon/rescue mission. If this had been some international scientific
program ala the ISS or CERN, the response would have been much slower, with a
great deal of very public wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the end result
would have probably been completely different from the one that happened in the
series. An added benefit of using the USAF as the custodian of the program is
that it gives TPTB a consistent look-and-feel to the dress, equipment and
employment of SGC personnel in the conduct of its mission. While there were some
glaring OBTWs in this regard early on in the first season, those were cleared up
for the most part and what we have been shown since is a reasonably accurate
portrayal of US military personnel using real weapons and sorta-realistic
equipment as it would be under the fictional circumstances of the story. It also
provides most of the characters with a set of core values and rules of conduct
that they have to live by.

5. - While each of the episodes is usually fairly independent of each other,
they don't ignore past events. The hard lessons learned by earlier events are
adapted and used by the SGC. The continuity of events in the story line is
fairly consistent, although some of the story canon that was established fairly
early on has been "rethought" by TPTB in order to allow certain
stories to be
made. Unlike some stories that are based on a very strong and complicated arc
(ala "Babylon 5" or a "ST:DS9"), one doesn't have to
have seen every single
previous episode prior to the current one in order to get what's going on and
enjoy it.

6. - While the writing of recent episodes has been somewhat, er, spotty, overall
the stories presented in this series are generally good and a number of them
have been exceptional. One of the strong suits of this series has been its
willingness to address a number of ethical and moral questions and the answers
that the show comes up with are sometimes quite surprising. While these stories
don't shrink back from looking at these issues, they don't usually get overtly
heavy-handed or too "preachy" in getting their point across.

7. - The stories may sometimes be on an epic scale, but the core of the show is
in the interactions between the characters. TPTB did a great job casting most of
the roles in this show and the actors have done consistently great work
throughout. Of particular note have been the uniformly excellent performances
given throughout the series in it's dealing with younger characters. A lot of
science fiction shows don't really deal with children all that well, but for a
show that's targeted at an adult audience; "Stargate SG-1" really excels at
these stories. Sure, there have been some characters and actors that haven't
really lived up to their potential, but to their credit TPTB responded fairly
quickly to mistakes and such problems are usually dealt with.

8. - This may be an addendum to the previous two points, but the show has had
some remarkably good female roles, most of which are presented as strong,
independent professional people, many of them in leadership positions. For a
show that targets an adult audience, TPTB have for the most part resisted the
urge to bring a lot of overt romance or blatant sexuality into the show. While
it was used to good effect in a couple of early episodes, there were a few times
when TPTB tried this and they understood almost immediately that it was a
mistake. I refer of course to Anise/Freya and the "Jack & Sam
feelings" thing.

While Vanessa Angel was clearly cast because she had a great body, the writers
and Vanessa actually did make the best out of a bad situation by creating a
couple of very interesting characters in Anise and Freya. Had the Suits at the
studio not insisted on Max Cleavage Skimpy outfits, Anise/Freya would have been
worth bringing back. As it was, I couldn't get her offscreen fast enough.

Although a lot of long-term fans were really taken by surprise by the "Sam &
Jack" thing, it had been building slowly over a long time and there were a
number of obvious and clear-cut hints in the third season that it was coming.
Unfortunately, it led the O'Neill character into some behaviors that would have
been questionable even before the fateful "admission" that
happened in "Divide
and Conquer". The result of this seriously wrong left-turn in the story line
took the better part of the fourth season to correct and it left a bad
aftertaste in the mouth of a lot of fans. Now I'm not saying that Sam & Jack
don't look good together but even under the best of circumstances it ain't
exactly a match made in heaven. Of course, every time that we think that Carter
has found Mr. Right; he suddenly gets shot/ascended/blown up/stranded or
otherwise horribly killed. One can only hope that Dr. McKay suffers a similar
fate and that we can all watch.

"Shotgun!" :-)

__!_!__
Gizmo
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