Meh, imo compared to most of Star Trek or Babylon 5 it was kinda mid (even Star Wars - The Clone War was better). Just basically American mil-prop but in space.
Let me remind you of the original premise: A conspiracy theorist nutjobeccentric professor (thinks aliens build the pyramids, but is somehow still allowed to lecture at an university) is hired by the military to help them explore an unknown world where they have to save uncivilised savageshelpless slaves (using, you’ve guessed it: guns) from an evil dictatorall powerfull god (who still needs slaves tho).
The more I think about it, it’s not even mid, it’s crap. It has no wonder for what’s beyond the stars, just a constant psychotic fear of anything that could even remotely be considered a danger to AmericaEarth. And the only solution to it is shoot at it.
They’re not all that afraid of what’s out there. They spend most of their time trying to make friends and messing things up by acting like American tourists.
In fact, most of the reason for why humanity is so powerful towards the end of the show is that several of the powerful species have befriended humanity and have given their tech to them.
It’s still milprop but milprop that places a surprisingly large emphasis on diplomacy and dealing with people in good faith. You know, what the USA typically don’t do.
That’s why they are always sending armed soliders first?
Milprop is often like that: Oh no we’re the diplomatic good guys forced to fight. Why are they making us do this? We could’ve been friends, if you just allowed us to install our puppetsigned our trade agreement. Now we unfortunately have to raze your cities and salt your fields. I hope you’re sorry :'(
it also, uh, kinda repeatedly pointed out how the military kinda sucks as a structure and how a lot of the time individuals have to ignore orders and rules in order to do do the humane thing.
SGC was good because it was filled with good people, hammond had a powerful conscience which motivated him to let things slide and to do what he could to prevent other parts of the military and government from ruining the good work people were doing.
The big sci fi win in stargate is how highly they rated internal consistency and having a scientific basis where possible. Apparently that was mostly because the actress playing Carter absolutely refused to tell bullshit gobbledegook and forced the writers to do it properly.
It’s subtle, and not always perfectly followed, but if you take the episode where they gate to the black hole, they have significant screen time justifying why the time dilation is so strong when the gravitational effects are so weak. It shouldn’t work that way and they acknowledge that explicitly, but obviously they wanted a fun time dilation story so they call it out and explain it as an unexpected side effect of the gate wormhole. So sure, they sometimes make science do what they need it to do for the story, but they try hard to justify it.
Star Trek meanwhile barely follows its own rules most of the time, let alone actually acknowledging real physics
pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org 2 months ago
Meh, imo compared to most of Star Trek or Babylon 5 it was kinda mid (even Star Wars - The Clone War was better). Just basically American mil-prop but in space.
Let me remind you of the original premise: A
conspiracy theorist nutjobeccentric professor (thinks aliens build the pyramids, but is somehow still allowed to lecture at an university) is hired by the military to help them explore an unknown world where they have to saveuncivilised savageshelpless slaves (using, you’ve guessed it: guns) from anevil dictatorall powerfull god (who still needs slaves tho).The more I think about it, it’s not even mid, it’s crap. It has no wonder for what’s beyond the stars, just a constant psychotic fear of anything that could even remotely be considered a danger to
AmericaEarth. And the only solution to it is shoot at it.Jesus_666@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They’re not all that afraid of what’s out there. They spend most of their time trying to make friends and messing things up by acting like American tourists.
In fact, most of the reason for why humanity is so powerful towards the end of the show is that several of the powerful species have befriended humanity and have given their tech to them.
It’s still milprop but milprop that places a surprisingly large emphasis on diplomacy and dealing with people in good faith. You know, what the USA typically don’t do.
pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org 2 months ago
That’s why they are always sending armed soliders first?
Milprop is often like that: Oh no we’re the diplomatic good guys forced to fight. Why are they making us do this? We could’ve been friends, if you just
allowed us to install our puppetsigned our trade agreement. Now we unfortunately have to raze your cities and salt your fields. I hope you’re sorry :'(lath@piefed.social 2 months ago
They’re sending a robot with a camera first.
Then it’s two soldiers + two scientists.
FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I mean, that argument can be applied against Star Trek too, they always send an armed warship to make first contact.
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Instructions unclear: Revolt, enjoy your new dictator, and ignore the CIA agents out back unloading cocaine.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
it also, uh, kinda repeatedly pointed out how the military kinda sucks as a structure and how a lot of the time individuals have to ignore orders and rules in order to do do the humane thing.
SGC was good because it was filled with good people, hammond had a powerful conscience which motivated him to let things slide and to do what he could to prevent other parts of the military and government from ruining the good work people were doing.
missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
the SG teams embody American ideals, while the NID embodies American history. specifically, the NID acts like '60s CIA.
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
It’s okay to be wrong =p
pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org 2 months ago
I know, I don’t hold it against you :D
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Daniel Jackson was lecturing to like five people in a hotel lobby at the start of the movie. He was a known crank. He just happened to be right.
pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org 2 months ago
Ah, okay my bad. Whatched that movie 10+ years ago and that’s how I’ve remembered it.
pwalker@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
you certainly have very strong opinions about something you can’t exactly remember. It’s ok to be wrong though we won’t hold it against you :-)
cybervseas@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If you watch too many episodes at once you realize they all end in shootouts, and then you feel sad.
lath@piefed.social 2 months ago
That was because we like shootouts. It’s sad yes, but also fun.
TurtleTourParty@midwest.social 2 months ago
“I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode”
scratchee@feddit.uk 2 months ago
The big sci fi win in stargate is how highly they rated internal consistency and having a scientific basis where possible. Apparently that was mostly because the actress playing Carter absolutely refused to tell bullshit gobbledegook and forced the writers to do it properly.
It’s subtle, and not always perfectly followed, but if you take the episode where they gate to the black hole, they have significant screen time justifying why the time dilation is so strong when the gravitational effects are so weak. It shouldn’t work that way and they acknowledge that explicitly, but obviously they wanted a fun time dilation story so they call it out and explain it as an unexpected side effect of the gate wormhole. So sure, they sometimes make science do what they need it to do for the story, but they try hard to justify it.
Star Trek meanwhile barely follows its own rules most of the time, let alone actually acknowledging real physics
missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
it pleases me that the actress who played Carter cared about science like the character.
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Boo.
Haters gonna hate Gaters gonna gate