Spacehamster’s Blog

It seems only a few short years ago that Stargate was first televised on our screens. I remember watching the first few episodes and not being at all impressed with what I saw. The acting was B-Grade, and it seemed flat and unexciting, even compared to the movie on which it was based. I lost interest after the end of the first season.

And now I wished I hadn’t.

Flash forward ten years later, and Stargate has matured into a surprisingly entertaining series. The mythology has expanded considerably since that tentative first season. Goauld. Naquadaa. Asgard. F302’s. Stargate seems to have built a universe that is every bit as fascinating as Star Trek once was. It seems to have built a niche for itself as “the” Space Fantasy franchise for the 21st Century.

And the series got a real shot in the arm with the welcome addition of Ben Browder and Claudia Black (of the late and greatly missed Farscape). Both add a real zing and vitality to a series at a time when it was dangerously close to repeating itself. And the new enemies (the Orori) are an interesting but relevant opponent for modern times - fundamentalist religious fanatics with mystical powers.

So just how are they going to overcome this latest threat? And can they do it before the end of the tenth season? Sci-Fi, in their limited wisdom, has decided to cancel Stargate SG-1. I suspect this is based on the same reasoning they used for cancelling Farscape. Because they don’t like Science Fiction series. Which is an odd and stupid attitude for a network named Sci-Fi to take. They have transmitted some of the best SF shows on US and UK TV - Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Eureka, the now legendary and unsurpassed high-quality Battlestar Galactica, and the classic Doctor Who.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the new plot threads will ever be resolved. I’d love to see Stargate SG-1 continue for a few more years, and then end in its own sweet time. There’s still plenty of life left in this old dog.