Sci-Fi Ghetto

And the new Stargate seasons kicked off with a bang! Indeed, several monumental deep space giant starship explosion bangs. At least one of these explosions was run three or maybe four times over the SG1 premiere what with flashbacks and all. BOOM! BAM! KABLOOIE!!!

(There's an old film critic's rule that if you see footage of the characters driving somewhere, it's just filler - the filmmaker ran out of things to do. Considering that a lot of this SG1 intergalactic battle damage happened at the end of last season and was basically being recycled here over and over and over again, what does that tell you?)

So the basic premise is this. The new ultimate enemy - The Ori - are forbidden from entering our galactic quadrant by some Ancient curse technology. So last season, they impregnated Vala...



...with a human/Ori hybrid baby who will be able to enter our galaxy. Now the Ori will be able to convert or kill us. (Hmmmm, sounds like a new Christian videogame that comes out this fall...)

Meanwhile, on Stargate Atlantis, we got to see a couple replays of the explosive space battle that ended their previous season - you know - the disaster that followed when the good humans inexplicably trusted their ultimate enemy - The Wraith - and got totally betrayed - not to mention giving the Wraith the locations of all the human populated planets in the universe. The Wraith are some sort of space vampires who "feed" on human life force through a mouth on their hand, or something...



But wait, what's up with all these space battles? Where did these 21st Century humans get light-speed spaceships? This is a fair question - because the thing that made the Stargate series different from the standard Sci-Fi show or movie, was the whole notion of current era folks dealing with the equivalent of 24th century beings and technology. So I'll tell you where they got these spaceships - from the Sci-Fi Ghetto...



Back in late 2003, SciFi Channel launched a new version of the silly old "Ponderosa in Space" series: Battlestar Galactica. Instead of just following the original approach, they ramped up the realism, the violence, the characterization, the sexuality, the works - and ended up with an extremely popular new series that many would say is the best science fiction on television...



This being Battlestar Galactica, then you know you're talking spaceships and space battles. So as the new BG caught on, Stargate began to develope 24th century spaceship technology for their people. (Basically, friendly aliens helped us build the ships...) And while this helped the popularity of the programs, it crippled certain basic dilemmas built into the original concepts.

On SG1, it was that previously mentioned dilemma of being so severely out-gunned by the baddies. On Atlantis, it was the dilemma of being so far away, basically on their own, dealing with all new civilations and technologies without assistance from earth. Wait a minute...



So anyway, for better or worse, the Stargates now have powerful spaceships - though they don't use them very well.

This double-premiere saw two noted double-shots...

SciFi Ghetto refugee Robert Picardo nails face-time and dialog in both Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis this week. Picardo, of course, got his sci-fi cred as the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Voyager...



And Gary Jones, beloved Sgt. Walter Harriman - who it is said has uttered the phrase "Chevron 1 encoded" 137 times over his years on Stargate: SG1, also got a double-shot of face time by appearing in each episode this week. Alas, no dialog, no "Chevron six encoded" no "Unscheduled off-world activation..." Still it's all about the face-time...