Stargate: Origins

[Dave]

There is a little more trickling out about this. But two things I've read still underwhelm me:

1."premieres a 10 episode (each 10 minutes) season." Er... so, that is 100 minutes in total? Why not just make a film?
2. "Stargate: Origins was scheduled to premiere in 2017 on MGM’s streaming platform Stargate Command, but no firm date has been given at this time and 2018 is looking more likely." As was seen with Star Trek: Discovery, this messing about with the schedule does not necessary mean a problem, but it usually does not bode well.

SNAPSHOT
Origins will actually be a prequel to the original film, focusing on a younger version of the character Catherine Langford (first played by Viveca Lindfors). In the franchise’s mythology, Langford’s father initially discovered the Stargate, with Origins following the adventures that lead her to becoming the Stargate expert that appears in Emmerich’s movie. (synopsis (c) The Verge)

More on this at: Fire it up! Go behind the scenes of Stargate: Origins – SparklyPrettyBriiiight

 

[Dave]

Just to alert you that 3 episodes of this have now been released, each approximately 10 minutes long.

It is very Indiana Jones-like, being set in Egypt in 1939; the film is shot with a sepia hue; and with stereo-typically nasty Nazis searching for pieces of occult hardware, while pointing guns at people and clicking their heels. Catherine Langford's father just needs a whip and it would be complete.

The Nazi have instructions written on a cloth, bought from a trader in Thailand, which explain how to operate the Gate. It is interesting, but I thought no one could get the Stargate to work until Daniel had deciphered it, and if Catherine was present when the Nazis opened it then wouldn't she remember? Also I thought it needed a high power consumption that was unavailable until then (and more than a car battery.) Maybe my memory of the original film isn't too good. It probably needs another watch as it is an excellent film that would have had several sequels if not for the TV series.

 

[ctg]

I was less than impressed. Quite the opposite as I couldn't understand 10 minute episodes and the content was so thin.

 

[Dave]

I meant the original film needed another watch, in case that wasn't clear. I was also less than impressed with this.

 

[Vladd67]

Have yet to see it, but I have seen comments along the lines that people have seen porn films with better acting, dialogue, and plot.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Vladd, "Good evening, aliens. I have come to fix your weather system."

 

[REBerg]

Watched the first three "free" episodes. As much as I am a fan of the franchise, I wouldn't subscribe to continue.

 

[ctg]

To be honest they could had done this in one stage and not even needing to rent the Old Vic to do it. In places this could had done much better if they'd actually used a teather as a background setting. It might have improved this series, which is sad because they could have done so much other stuff.

 

[Droflet]

Yeah, it's pretty slack isn't it.

 

[ctg]

I feel slightly sick after reading this I would not pay 20 dollars for this

The web series "Stargate Origins" will release its final three episodes tonight (March 8) at 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST).

The series episodes, each one about 10 minutes long, are available to paid subscribers on the streaming site Stargate Command. A one-time payment of $20 allows access to all of the new episodes, as well as all previous "Stargate" TV seasons and movies until May 15, representatives have said.

The site also has commentary on each episode and videos with the cast and crew, including a new one (above) showing actor Daniel Rashid getting into character as Kasuf, who played an essential role in the first "Stargate" film.

In the final three episodes, according to a statement, Catherine Langford (Ellie Gall) and her allies come together to stop the Nazi occultist Wilhelm Brücke (Aylam Orian), but a new presence brings danger to everyone on Abydos, the planet reached by passing through the Stargate.

'Stargate Origins' Returns Tonight with 3 Final Episodes

 

[thaddeus6th]

*sighs*

It's the TV franchise equivalent of lootboxes and micro-transactions.

 

[Dave]

I would not pay 20 dollars for this

I'm not sure who would? What I mean is, purely as a business model, have they actually researched their potential audience, never even mind the quality of what they have produced?

When I joined this here website in early 2001 (a website called ASciFi which was amalgamated with Chronicles in the late noughties) it had just changed its name from TalkStargate and was comprised of almost all fanatical Stargate fans of mostly a certain age. Skip forward now 18 years later and only one or two of those people even still post on Chronicles. There has been no new TV series or films in 7 years. As a franchise it has lost any traction it had. Those fans are 18 years older. They may be wealthier, but I very much doubt they will be so fanatical about the show. So, who do they expect to pay $20? Do they think they can catch the people who watch TV and films on there smartphones on the on the underground train every morning on their way to work? Because they are much to young to have ever heard of Stargate?

 

[scarpelius]

...It is interesting, but I thought no one could get the Stargate to work until Daniel had deciphered it, and if Catherine was present when the Nazis opened it then wouldn't she remember? Also I thought it needed a high power consumption that was unavailable until then (and more than a car battery.) Maybe my memory of the original film isn't too good. It probably needs another watch as it is an excellent film that would have had several sequels if not for the TV series.

stargate.wikia.com/wiki/The_Torment_of_Tantalus

That's in the first series where they found out about the MIA Ernest Littlefield, Catherine fiance and the time when they manage to activate the gate by themselves.
Also, Daniel deciphered the dialing system and the symbols, he didn't actually found gate addresses he just crack the algorithm, matching the symbols on the gate to known constellations. Later on, Samantha Carter and her team of geeks brute force calculated gate addresses and they tried one by one their validity. That on top of the Abydos cartouche of gate addresses.

 

[Dave]

That's in the first series where they found out about the MIA Ernest Littlefield, Catherine fiance and the time when they manage to activate the gate by themselves.

So, the army officer here is a younger version of Ernest Littlefield?

 

[scarpelius]

Probably not. Not the same name.
Anyway, the plot is not ruined by the fact the nazi manage to open the gate. SG1 during 10 series opened the gate numerous times with the help of car batteries or other devices. There is an explanation for that, but I've never been interested in gate physics. In my opinion this fact is of little consequence.
Also, one might ask why Catherine didn't said anything about previous adventures through the gate. First of all, I think the original screen writers didn't get worried about the sequels. And if they did, they probably had another plans, not Origins plot. Then, the whole Stargate business is very hush-hush. If you got to know something, you are compelled by law to keep it to yourself. This runs deep into the series. Tealc'c have secrets which constantly come back and haunt him, O'Neill like to keep secrets (remember the famous barber personality share episode), we don't know much about Carter life, Daniel ascended and that period of his life is hidden from him.
What I am trying to say is that Stargate universe is rich and full of opportunities. It might not look like this for a casual viewer but for someone who watched the SG-1 ten times, it is.

 

[Dave]

Okay, okay, I will accept that the gate can be opened by car batteries, that Catherine has had a string of army admirers, that she forgot all about her experiences through the Gate, and that the knowledge learned by the Germans was unfortunately lost.

I'm afraid I'm still underwhelmed by this, given that although the "Stargate universe is rich and full of opportunities," as you say, they chose this for a spin-off. I only watched the three free episodes, but the Nazis were far too stereotypical for me to pay to watch anymore.

If some people do like this, then I think that's great. More Stargate is definitely better than none.

I've liked all the Stargate series, I particularly liked Stargate Universe, but even now, my first preference would be a complete reboot, with a sequel film to the original film that focused purely on Ra's - Sun God - Egypt planet, and it's Earth connections, rather than the pantheon of Gods that SG-1 created (just as if SG-1 never happened.) As you rightly say, and especially in that first season, SG-1 writers had no concern about the future canon of the franchise, and they made many decisions that were very restricting and difficult to continue for later writers. It took me quite a while to like SG-1 for what it did to the original film story.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Dave, ages ago I wrote a guest blog for Mouse about why I preferred Farscape to New Who. Essentially, it was because weight of lore makes it more difficult for a series to keep going. I think that's a problem Stargate faces now. Keeping everything consistent whilst writing new stuff (and having to deal with the threat inflation from the Ori) is very difficult. I liked the premise of Universe a lot, although I felt the tone jarred with the previous series. A reboot may be the best option for the franchise (though I'm generally not a fan of that). An alternative might be a cast-adrift Alpha site type story, where a new colony is established on another world.

 

[scarpelius]

I am not looking for a reboot, i just want the gang back: O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c and Daniel. And their humor. And their camaraderie. Sadly that's not possible. Not with the same actors. But the spirit of SG-1 can be resurrected.
Maybe Origins is on this track, I wouldn't know I will buy all the webisodes when they are done.
As for the shallowness of the Origins, cheesy characters, well is just 10 minutes, no one is expecting complex plot and characters in that time frame. Is like 75 words challenge here, no room to portray Dorian Grey.

 

[Overread]

I think weight of lore is not a bad thing honestly, but that it is often handled very poorly.

I think the issues stem from multiple sources
1) Multiple writers. When you've got more than one writer each writer will have their own style, their own focus and their own continuity of what they remember and focus upon. What one might consider a minor event another might consider a key focal point of the previous story; and vis versa. They might well interpret events, conclusions, characters or situations differently. Ergo you lose a sense of continuity of interpretation and presentation; which can reuslt in oddities in the story.
This isn't saying a single writer is always superior in all respects; indeed a single writer can get stuck in a trap of repeating very similar stories/themes week to week.

2) Duration of series. When you've got a series years to decades old it becomes hard to remember it all. Even if you keep really good writing notes its still possible for little things to slip through the net.
As said above this can also impact the way choices are made; early seasons might well lock a story into choices that seriously limit some areas of creative freedom. This either requires a huge veto of some earlier parts or the writers simply ignore them.

3) Series structure. A lot of earlier series where made to be a weekly adventure. Indeed it was one of the big things that Babalon 5 did where the writer was aiming for an overarching story linked through multiple episodes and even through the whole series of the show. Others of that age were only just experimenting with some longer s tory arcs. You can see this when you compare Star Trek Original Series to Next Generation adn then again to DS9. DS9 has story arcs that run through the whole series; whilst if you go back to the Original series they focus on characters and on adventure each week, with little concern if what happened in previous weeks (for the most part).
Dr Who is very much of the latter in its early days and even had several Dr films that didn't even really tie into the main series all that well.

Of course when the structure changes it can lead to oddities; eg most Star Trek fans don't consider the Original Series to be strictly Cannon whilst everything post TNG is.



Personally I think the issue with Stargate is that the original team formula was getting old. It also started to not make sense; eg aliens speaking alien was slowly being dropped (by the end most aliens were speaking American); the team being only 4 people still; the fact that it was Still hidden even though most world powers now knew of the StarGate and they were trying to hold huge battles in the space over Earth etc...
It's more that the series outgrew its original formula and needed a revamp into something new. Atlantis was to be that, but I feel that they never recaptured the magic of the original team dynamic. That's a super hard thing to achieve and sometimes I think you have to rebuild a whole new dynamic to get it to work (otherwise everyone can see how you're copy-catting your own formula)

 

[thaddeus6th]

Overread, I agree with much of that. I think Atlantis' problem (the premise being fine) is that, for me, the team felt lopsided. Teyla[sp] and Ford/Ronan never felt developed enough as characters, whereas McKay was the scientist, the historian, the everyman, the comic relief. Don't get me wrong, I like McKay but it felt more like him plus Shepherd[sp] and the others were secondary. SG-1 managed to get an almost perfect balance between the four man team, which is pretty impressive.

Of course, if they went with my idea of an off-world colony that would resolve the repetition of the team you mention. But, seeing as Star Trek didn't go for my brilliant* idea of a post-DS9 Alpha Quadrant riddled with internal dissent and even war within the Federation and Klingon Empire, this seems unlikely.

*/modesty