Biggest Night of Sci Fi Ever

Stargate SC-1
Stargate Atlantis
Battlestar Galactica

SG-1

This had to be one of the funniest episodes ever. It was about a barber who bought a strange looking rock at a garage sale six years ago and then began to have visions of the SG-1 operation. He began to tell these "stories" to his family and friends and eventually everyone thought he was nuts and his life was destroyed. But, of course, it was all true.

One clever part of the episode was that this guy had mailed these stories to hundreds of magazines and publishers but they were all rejected. However, someone stole his idea and create a sci fi show called "Worm Hole Extreme" which the writers presented as a spoof of SG-1. So in the episode there is such a show, of course they have no idea that they are based on a reality. Therein lies the joke, the current SG-1 is a stolen idea and mimicry of a real stargate situation in the United States and as we live, eat and breathe, Annubis and his Jafar and gouaould are battling stargate in Antarctica to save the planet.

It was SG-1 taking itself lightly and mocking the whole thing. The guy represented us fans who take Stargate a touch too seriously. I think I can related. I tried to explain the difference between the gouaould and the jafar to my wife and it was like pulling teeth. Who wouldn't want to know the difference between the Jafar and the gouaould?

Our first movie date experience was the original Stargate movie. I thought I was all cool and displaying my breadth of movie tastes but selecting intelligent science fiction. Oh well, it was through a friend of hers that I found out that she wasn't with it. I think it was Kurt Russell and James Spader. But she's come around and will watch SG-1 with me.

Stargate Atlantis. This show is still hit or miss with me. I think I like the basic characters now, so I'll keep watching. Last week was a good one, where they met up with one of the venerated ancients. This week they find a 10,000 year old woman frozen in a stasis chamber as they explore Atlantis. It turns out that this woman is Dr Weir, who is the leader of the expedition. Yep, you guessed it. Time travel. So she had been transported back in time, the first time around and she met up with the Ancients and was able to program things in Atlantis so that when the expedition came from earth this time, things would work out better. So of course, there were two Dr. Wiers talking to each other.

It was an okay episode. They acted like they'd never heard of time travel before. Come on people, you are in a sci fi show! I certainly got my fill of time travel loops in Star Trek Voyager and they handled them pretty well I thought. I think SG Atlantis did not quite do anything unique with the time travel thing. I understand that time travel is all played out, but there are things that can be done. I recall once that SG-1 had a time travel thing where there were two Samanthas and they had a newish spin on it, I was quite impressed. There was another pretty funny episode where Col. O'Neill and Teal'c were trapped in a time loop and it work out quite well. I appreciate the difficulty of time travel scripts because I am writing a sci fi novel with time travel and there's the exasperation of "it's-all-been-done-before!"

One thing that both SG-1 and Atlantis have succeeded in doing is to establish an enemy that strikes fear in the heart of views, much like the borg did until Janeway began to kick their butts left, right and center. Annubis, the Jafar and the Gouaould and now the replicators(?) for Sg-1 and then for Atlantis, the arch foe is a race called the Wraith. They are ugly, with sharp teeth and voracious appetite. The like to eat humans and other species.

Battlestar Gallactica. Good stuff. My only problem is that they are oversexing the show. They are going to risque and for no reason. Their audience is already hooked. Anyway, summary, the cylons are making progress, nuff said. My thing was that Dr scientist guy was accused of treason, but then exonerated, however, he is treasonous, so stay tuned. Oh, and the oriental lady may have been exposed for the cylon that she is. That's a development to watch.

Star Trek Enterprise is being or has been cancelled. Good move. The show was atrociouis. I watched two episodes, took an asprin and said, "never again." So the grade is as follows.

Star Trek Original A+ (You can't beat the original)
Star Trek Next Generation A (Performed very ably)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine C (Stupid)
Star Trek Voyager A- (Good show, good characters, captured the spirit)
Star Trek Enterprise i=square root of -1, the badness is of the charts, we have to use an imaginary number to indicate its worth

So what next in the Star Trek saga? I can't imagine

BTW, whatever happened to Earth Final Conflict? I tried to keep up with the show but they kept changing the times.