Sci-fi Friday Rivets, Annoys
The new seasons of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Gallactica started on Friday. I enjoy all three of these shows. However. I was somewhat disturbed about Friday’s SG-1.
Over the past year they’ve killed off or reassigned many of the characters, including Gen. Hammond (“Hammond of Texas”) and Carter’s dad. I also know that Richard Dean Anderson has wanted to leave the show (to make a MacGuyver (!) movie, among other things), and that they recruited the two main actors from Farscape to join the cast (I wonder if Vala is going to wear that get-up for every episode). That’s a lot of upheaval, but I was still not worried about the show.
But within the first ten minutes of the show, the plot established that all of SG-1 had been reassigned. I thought, how can this show possibly call itself SG-1? Why don’t they just end it and make another spin off? Well, over the course of the episode, Daniel and Teal’c got recruited to help out, so I guess they’re sticking around, and Carter will be around too, but jeez!
I wonder what Pierre Bernard has to say about this.
My other problem with all three shows was that they all ended with a To Be Continued! I can’t take that much pressure! (Actually, Atlantis didn’t end with the actual words “To be continued,” but it might as well have. I can’t believe they turned Ford evil!)
Speaking of new characters, the newest addition to Atlantis is Mitch Pileggi (Skinner from The X-Files). And they’re bringing in another guy, too. Pick a cast and stick with it!
This reminds me of how sci-fi actors just get traded around from show to show. Think about it. Some guest actors on SG-1 and Atlantis have been:
- Colm Meaney (O’Brien from Star Trek TNG)
- Claudia Black (of Farscape)
- John de Lancie (Q on Star Trek TNG)
- Robert Patrick (The T-1000 in Terminator 2, and Dogget in the last season of The X-Files)
- Dean Stockwell (Al on Quantum Leap)
- Bruce Harwood (Byers on The X Files)
- Roger R. Cross (of First Wave, who was also in The Chronicles of Riddick and X-Men 2)
- Sebastian Spence (also of First Wave, who’s also been on Andromeda and Mutant X)
- Oh yeah, and two, count ‘em two Goa’ulds have been characters on Andromeda
This is just a small sample. I’m constantly thinking, “that’s the guy from….”
Update: Add Lexa Doig (of Andromeda) to the list.
One exception to this was when Wayne Brady was on SG-1. I have no idea how he got on there. And Isaac Hayes plays a Jaffa on SG-1 as well. I wonder when Ryan Styles will show up as a Tok’ra.