I started watching SG1 again (I saw it incomplete as a kid). It’s incredibly good. It pushes rationalism and feminism in a sane way that I’m not sure would happen in today’s environment. It’s incredibly rich in historical references and concepts. It’s rarely dumb and often preempts cliches. It’s still worth watching imho (and is much less known that Star Trek in US).
I consider it hands down better than any Star Trek except possibly TNG. And that's giving TNG some grace due to being a bit older; take that away and I'll give SG-1 the prize. I will agree that people can reasonably disagree about Deep Space Nine vs SG-1. But that's the level of quality we're talking about, in my opinion. It's top tier, and much less well known.
Also strongly recommend binging the first season in particular; they did a very good job of conveying the feeling of humans blundering about not really knowing what they are doing in the big new universe, and it really comes across when watched relatively quickly on top of each other. It is reasonable that as the seasons rolled on and they got their bearings this toned down in favor of other plot lines, but I think this is one of the more unusual tones in sci fi that a show managed to successfully convey. Enterprise really whiffed on this, in my opinion. (They should have had a first season more like SG-1's first season and saved the "temporal cold war" plot arc for later. Or perhaps even not at all. That would have been OK too. There are a couple of episodes that convey this sense but not enough to hold the tone IMHO.)
Also, if you are starting out, I kinda recommend the Stargate movie first... it isn't strictly speaking necessary but it will contextualize some things, even though it's only sorta half in the continuity with SG-1. But I will say that if you kinda dislike it, continue on to SG-1 anyhow. In my opinion it's a big step up in a lot of ways.
I had only seen TNG until two years ago. I knew almost every episode past season 2, and really loved it. Still do.
But then I watched Deep Space Nine, and wow. I got hooked. I "only" watched about 80 episodes that are the plot arc + a few outstanding solos, but still. The quality of the acting, the more "on the nose" social messaging, the darker side of the Federation, the racial struggles between the crew - if I hear anyone make fun of DS9, I send them on their way (which doesn't happen much like it did in the 00's).
I have some friends who liked SG-1 as kids, maybe I should take the time to watch it. But it can't be better than Battlestar Galactica :)
I have watched Stargate Atlantis but not SG-1 or SGU. I loved Atlantis and thought it was a very fun show. Looking forward to starting SG-1 when there is time...
I did a full rewatch of SG1 a few years ago, and what surprised me is how instantly the show found its footing. If you watch the first and last season of any Trek show, you can see how the writing and characterization takes a while to settle into place. Character development is part of that, but it goes beyond that.
If you watch the first and last season of SG1, the writing has its footing nailed down immediately. Not many shows find their footing so effortlessly.
That may have been helped by the fact that SG-1 got the green light for 4 full seasons right off the bat, so it gave showrunners the opportunity to write a cohesive and comprehensive story which really laid the foundation for the franchise after the original movie.
I don't have a source handy, but I recall reading about that many years ago.
Wikipedia says they were picked up for 2 seasons, totaling 44 episodes. So while it's not 4 seasons, that's still a lot of stability for a show to start with. That would explain how they felt comfortable enough to plan ahead.
I agree with all of this, but especially the last bit.
It sets up the stories to come, even if some of it borderline contradicts SG-1. The characters that go from the movie to the TV show are much more likable in the TV show.
>Also strongly recommend binging the first season in particular; they did a very good job of conveying the feeling of humans blundering about not really knowing what they are doing in the big new universe, and it really comes across when watched relatively quickly on top of each other.
One thing I've never enjoyed about Star Trek is how the Enterprise/DS9/Voyager and its crew are the ones that always save the day/week/universe.
I've never watched Stargate, but I do know that occasionally the show shows other exploration teams enter/exit the gate. Does the franchise go further than that, and implicitly/explicitly state that the Stargate team that the show focuses on is just one of many doing comparably cool things?
Stargate: SG-1 series takes its name from SG-1 - the first of many teams USAF sends through the gate on a regular basis. The show focuses on that team, and in this way, it's similar to how Star Trek shows tend to focus on its eponymous ship/station. They somehow end up with most of the cool adventures and do most of the world-saving.
Where it feels more believable/acceptable than Star Trek is:
- SG-1 being special is at least somewhat justified. It's the first team Stargate Command sent through the gate (after the events of the original movie), so they got to be the first to make new friends and enemies.
- The show constantly reminds you about existence of increasing amount of other teams, through namedropping, discussing them, showing them, or showing multi-team missions. While SG-1 may be the tip of the spear, you know that SG-2 through SG-whocankeeptrack are following close behind.
- Unlike in Star Trek, in Stargate, humans start having no idea what they're doing. Quite often, it's them who need to be saved by more powerful forces, whether aliens or institutions.
Stargate: Atlantis starts with a focus on wider cast - so the gate missions are more fluid, you don't care much about who's assigned to which gate team on any given day. The whole ensemble of characters work similarly to a Star Trek series crew. But it makes sense for the same reason most of ST:Voyager made sense: Atlantis expedition is very far away from Earth, alone and with (at least initially) no backup.
I'd go with, yes and no, probably mostly no the way you mean it. They are always the elite team. It's clear others are functioning, yeah, but while I haven't watched this in a while I don't recall SG-4 ever saving the galaxy as we know it.
Then I'd also add that while SG-1 does improve in my opinion as it finds its own footing as most shows do, if you don't at least somewhat enjoy the first episode of SG-1 you can walk away with your head held high. I don't think you have to give it half-a-season like many shows (or 2 seasons like TNG...), they came out very strong at the beginning. It's not the best episode by any means, but it's a fair representative.
(Also as mentioned elsewhere in the thread the third episode is pretty weak.)
(Some versions may have a quite literally gratuitous nudity scene in the first episode. Apparently Showtime demanded one, but a bit bizarrely, left them alone after that and that's the last such thing in the series. I suppose in this era of Game of Thrones this will seem less bizarre than it may have at the time, but it is worth pointing out this is a one-off. So if that happens to be the only reason you like SG-1's first episode, you can stop. :) )
Like you I also recently restarted watching SG-1 for the first time since I was a kid. It holds up a lot better than I expected it to. There's the occasional eyerolling cliche (and Carter's dialog about internal vs external gonads is kinda ridiculous) but like you said the cliches are also lampshaded pretty often. I just watched an episode where the Stargate broke and there was an exchange that went something like this—
General Hammond: How long will it take to fix the Stargate?
Technician: It'll be about 24 hours sir
Hammond: You have 12 hours
Technician. Sir, that's not how this works... it'll take about 24 hours
SG-1 was my therapy during my worst years. I don't think I'd have gone through that period as well as I did, if it weren't for the mix of laughter and seriousness every episode of this show offered.
And what I love about it, SG-1 pulls it off. It's a serious show that's also very genre-savvy and full of quality gags. I haven't seen any other media product, sci-fi or otherwise, that managed to get this mix of opposites to work.
(It's all nicely balanced, except that one time in Season 7 where you thought you're watching a joke episode, until the sudden change of tone punches you in the head, and you're left emotionally spinning and wondering what the hell did just happen. The two-parter I'm referring to, "Heroes", is a masterpiece. This kind of thing works only once - and fortunately, the producers were smart enough to not try it again.)
The characters are so good. The plot lines are great. The enemies are actually bad.
While TNG is idealistic and more or less wholesome, SG1 definitely lines up with DS9 in that it's more real/gritty yet still has all the hope, fun, morals, ethics, etc.
With the possible exception of the Ori, the villains in SG-1 weren't usually the "like the last one, but MORE POWERFUL" villain trope we see in most series.
And the evolution of the replicants... that was a complicated adversary.
My parents watched a lot of sci fi TV when I was kid, SG-1 is the only show that I ever actually sat down and watched more than the occasional episode of.
I remember being struck by a scene that was (I believe?) pretty early in the series where Sam's about to fight some guy hand to hand; Jack protests this (but not in a way that makes it clear whether he thinks a woman shouldn't do it or if he's just unsure of her fighting skill), but once getting told what level she had trained to he immediately backs off.
It gave me (who was at most 13 years old I think) the impression of what good respect between the sexes should look like.
I could also be mis-remembering this because it's been a really long time though.
S1E3 Emancipation... one of the most disliked episodes by most fans but I agree that the scene was handled well... but the rest of the episode is not good. The writer of the episode (Katharyn Powers, who only worked on SG1 in season 1) was also the writer of the Star Trek TNG first season episode "Code Of Honor", which is frequently considered in the bottom 3 episodes of any Star Trek series, and many find very racist.
I just started doing the same last week (weird to suddenly see this thread after not much mention of SG1 for a long time...) and agree it is great. It is nice to watch as a series instead of the random odd episode I saw as a kid watching cable TV in the 90s. There is so much more of it than I remembered. I've almost finished season 1, so it's going to tide me over for a good long while!
I envy you, I wish I could forget everything about the show, so that I could experience it fresh again. Having watched it end-to-end 3+ times over the past decade, it's burned hard into my brain.
I recently finished a rewatch of it. It has held up far better than it has any right to. One thing that’s really stood out to me is the insane amount of technology change that happened over SG-1 — the show ran from 1996 to 2004. It went from laughable 3D CG on a Showtime budget, CRTs and landlines to heavy CG on a SciFi Channel budget, flatscreens and tiny cell phones.
It does have its dumb moments though. Basically anything involving real-world weapons or explosives. There were also a few weak seasons in the middle, and it’s pretty obvious the main cast started phoning it in around season 5. But on the whole I agree, it’s one of the best Sci Fi shows ever made and absolutely belongs with the best of Trek.
That one surprised me (positively) when I noticed it. Particularly when I binge-watched it end-to-end and saw how the cellphones evolve across the show.
> Basically anything involving real-world weapons or explosives
You're telling me that P90 is not the weapon to save the galaxy?
