Stargate Atlantis on Prime Video - worth watching?

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

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I've just noticed that Stargate Atlantis is available on Amazon Prime Video.

The question is, is it worth watching now or has it likely dated a little too badly?
 
Well, you have to remember that I'm a Stargate SG-1 nut and I have all of SG series on DVD....but assuming that you know that:

Stargate Atlantis is fantastic - think of it like a more streamlined and finer worked SG-1. The team behind it had a lot of practice with SG-1 by that time! I love the characters and you get some cameos (both big and little) from the old team too.

Now in the timelines of the series, the humans in SG-1 in our galaxy are getting a bit too powerful, so the premise of SG Atlantis is really to reset that dynamic with a new enemy, being cut off from earth - so the Atlantis colony are on their own - and a whole lot of mystery. There's some great set piece story arcs, which I won't spoil, and some wonderful episodes. 'Sunday' always makes me cry - goddamn you SG.

I can't say if you might find it dated, I don't know. If you can watch some series 4-7 SG-1 and you still like that, this'll be your cup of tea too.

I will say that series 5 of Stargate: Atlantis is a bit flabby and tired and they try and tie everything up, and so I find it a bit hurried, but that's the problem with a lot of TV shows, that are going from series to series not knowing if they will get funded. I'll let them get away with that for the four series before.


Have to say though, my favourite is Stargate: Universe. So annoyed they could only get two series of that :mad:
 
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I enjoyed it a lot. Give it time to develop and I'm sure you will too.
 
Oh - perhaps I should have mentioned that I've never watched the Stargate TV series.

So will I be lost without the previous references, or is it likely to be fine for standalone viewing? :)
 
Thank you for asking this, Brian. I have recently got Amazon Prime (for the Expanse, Mrs. Maisel, American Gods, and the upcoming Middle Earth series). I was wondering the same thing myself about SG, never having seen it. Usual questions of where to begin, comparisons with other SFF shows.
 
There will be references to SG 1 in Atlantis but nothing to stop you enjoying it. That being said, SG 1 is also a great show.
 
Brian G Turner said:
Oh - perhaps I should have mentioned that I've never watched the Stargate TV series.

So will I be lost without the previous references, or is it likely to be fine for standalone viewing? :)
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Interesting! Possibly yes. In fact probably.

So without trying to give you spoilers....

The end of Series 7 of SG-1 reveals the location of 'Atlantis' And then series 1 of SG-Atlantis starts from that point. (BTW I think Series 8 of SG-1 that ends the Anubis arc has the best story arc ending of the whole of SG-1 and if you've got to series 7 you should go the end of the next series. The final two series, you could possibly not need to watch - they change the team and introduce a new enemy that doesn't really impact Atlantis).

So yeah, SG-Atlantis then has cross-connections with SG-1's galaxy and they bring in old favourites and enemies, as well as capabilities (in SG-Atlantis, Earth has spaceships, spaceships that you see being build during the older seasons of SG-1 for example. You might say, "where on earth did these things come from", if you didn't know that!) There's a fair bit of fan service bringing in old favs, and I'd suggest that it might confuse if you did it in the wrong order. I mean if you watched Doctor Who for the first time and knew nothing at all about it, you might not realise the importance of that odd tinpot robot-thing called a Dalek!

So if you have the time I'd suggest you go through SG-1 first :giggle:. To the end of series 8!

I do think, even a megafan like me, that the first series of SG-1 is pretty ropey - they were finding their feet - and it was really near the end of the first season and then the second series where they started getting the hang of story-arcs, politics and really populating the galaxy with loads of threats. And many great standalone episodes.

Ahh, many fond memories!

EDIT: Of course to make total sense, you should start by watching the original Stargate film, before all this. The TV show changes a lot of the lore from the movie, but it also takes it as more-or-less cannon.
 
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I'm a big Stargate fan in general. I think the basic Stargate premise is a good one. Atlantis had the advantage of knowing some of things that SG1 got right or wrong. Atlantis has a better overall plot structure. It has a little less whimsy but can still be lighthearted from time to time.

I think you can watch it without watching SG1. By the time they start interacting with earth much you'll know what's what.
 
I never saw the SG-1 series, Brian (maybe two odd episodes which I didn't enjoy much because I hadn't its own internal references) and I didn't find either Atlantis or Universe were difficult because of that.
Of course I can't be certain that there wasn't a whole second level to it that just went over my head, but I think not.

Anyway I enjoyed them both without SG-1 history.
 
I suppose it depends what sort of person you are with such matters Brian.

Like others have said you can probably jump in and enjoy it. But then there'll be moments - I'm thinking of the episode where Rodney and Sam share the centre stage, where you might lose a bit. (Rodney is first introduced in and Sam is one of the main characters of SG-1). You'll get it and it won't really effect your viewing, but frankly it added another level to the whole thing. (Sorry farntfar :))

I'm trying to think of a literary equivalent and the best I can come up with is:

I read the Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series. Well I read: Revelation Space, Redemption Ark then Absolution Gap. I didn't know at the time that there was another novel, Chasm City that I could have read between RS and RA. However it isn't strictly necessary for the main plotline, and despite two glaring issues, I really enjoyed Redemption Ark. There's a bit in the middle of RA where it's clear Reynolds is essentially recapping some of the stuff in CS and re-introducing characters I was 'supposed to know'. But fundamentally Chasm City wasn't necessary.

However, it still irks me a bit that I didn't read it in the right order :)
 
Anthoney said:
It's on Prime in the States. They're cheating you guys.
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I don't know if it's related but Sky - a satellite network here in the UK, seem to broadcast SG-1 all the time - so perhaps they bought it on an exclusivity deal that stops Amazon from taking it. Sky have definitely done it on the past with other TV shows. The bastards.
 
I think Rodney's development as a character meant more after seeing him in SG1. That said Atlantis is watchable without having watched SG1.
 
Venusian Broon said:
Well, you have to remember that I'm a Stargate SG-1 nut and I have all of SG series on DVD....but assuming that you know that:

Stargate Atlantis is fantastic - think of it like a more streamlined and finer worked SG-1. The team behind it had a lot of practice with SG-1 by that time! I love the characters and you get some cameos (both big and little) from the old team too.

Now in the timelines of the series, the humans in SG-1 in our galaxy are getting a bit too powerful, so the premise of SG Atlantis is really to reset that dynamic with a new enemy, being cut off from earth - so the Atlantis colony are on their own - and a whole lot of mystery. There's some great set piece story arcs, which I won't spoil, and some wonderful episodes. 'Sunday' always makes me cry - goddamn you SG.

I can't say if you might find it dated, I don't know. If you can watch some series 4-7 SG-1 and you still like that, this'll be your cup of tea too.

I will say that series 5 of Stargate: Atlantis is a bit flabby and tired and they try and tie everything up, and so I find it a bit hurried, but that's the problem with a lot of TV shows, that are going from series to series not knowing if they will get funded. I'll let them get away with that for the four series before.


Have to say though, my favourite is Stargate: Universe. So annoyed they could only get two series of that :mad:
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I loved all 3 Stargate seres.

Im very ticked off what they did to Stargate Universe. That series had the potential to best of all the series. They didn't this series enough of a chance. . And whats worse is they didn't give the series closure . :mad:
 
BAYLOR said:
I loved all 3 Stargate seres.

Im very ticked off what they did to Stargate Universe. That series had the potential to best of all the series. They didn't this series enough of a chance. . And whats worse is they didn't give the series closure . :mad:
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I know, but it was fan reaction that closed it down, apparently. There was a number of fans that were expecting something similar to SG-1/Atlantis and they just didn't support it enough. Loads of people eventually came round to it...but it was too late when the networks pulled it.

The people making it obviously had a way to go to finish the story.
 
I think they would have been fine making a more serious Stargate but they went full BattleStar Galactica on it. Every episode was a dark and deary, soul crushing event. Those people never caught a break. If they had something good happen to the characters even every 5 or 6 episodes that show might have lasted.
 
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