Was Stargate Atlantis a good show?
- Thread starter Dream
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Season 1 of Atlantis was its best by far; it went downhill in varying degrees from there.
It was very effective at establishing setting and characters, and using those to tell an overarching story within the confines of an episodic, adventure-at-a-time format. Later seasons tried the same kind of pattern but didn't pull it off nearly as well.
Later on, the show seemed to suffer from the belief that rotating out cast members was the best way to keep things feeling 'fresh,' but all that did was fall into the same old formulas with new faces. It's a fun watch, if you're looking for something frothy and fun, but much of SG-1 does that better.
It was very effective at establishing setting and characters, and using those to tell an overarching story within the confines of an episodic, adventure-at-a-time format. Later seasons tried the same kind of pattern but didn't pull it off nearly as well.
Later on, the show seemed to suffer from the belief that rotating out cast members was the best way to keep things feeling 'fresh,' but all that did was fall into the same old formulas with new faces. It's a fun watch, if you're looking for something frothy and fun, but much of SG-1 does that better.
Though to be fair depending on who you ask not all the cast changes were bad. At the fan reaction did vary depedning on the change, perhpas only one of them was a mis-step on the part of the producers who underestimated the fan reaction. i.e. Don't get rid of one of the fan-favourites.
It was decent enough. It has its moments, but it certainly could have been much better.
Season 1 is the best part of the show, but you can tell that in their zeal to avoid a middling first season like SG-1's, they rush things a bit and don't take their time to explore the city as much as they should. They honestly could've made The Eye S1's finale and pushed The Siege to S2 by making up the gap with city, planet of the week, and Genii episodes.
I think where it starts to lose its luster is in S3, when they make the Asurans (aka Replicators Redux) the main baddies and then contrive reasons for the humans to not use anti-Replicator guns on their planet, because they couldn't think of plausible reasons for Earth not to wind up curbstomping the Wraith (such as personnel shortages keeping them from fully exploiting an entire planet covered in Ancient tech). Michael was also a bit of dud villain, although Todd and the Genii (pre-coup) were pretty good and could've been long term villains if there had been a bit more thought put into their stories.
I think where it starts to lose its luster is in S3, when they make the Asurans (aka Replicators Redux) the main baddies and then contrive reasons for the humans to not use anti-Replicator guns on their planet, because they couldn't think of plausible reasons for Earth not to wind up curbstomping the Wraith (such as personnel shortages keeping them from fully exploiting an entire planet covered in Ancient tech). Michael was also a bit of dud villain, although Todd and the Genii (pre-coup) were pretty good and could've been long term villains if there had been a bit more thought put into their stories.
SG:Atlantis was a fun, "popcorn" show. It had humor, action, big explosions and cool tech. I enjoyed it.
I preferred SG-1, but Atlantis was very enjoyable in its own right. I didn't care for the Replicator storyline they ran with; they should have stuck the Wraith as their main baddies.
The episode Midway is one of my favorites of Atlantis, along with Be All My Sins Remember'd, which has some pretty epic space battles.
Sean
The episode Midway is one of my favorites of Atlantis, along with Be All My Sins Remember'd, which has some pretty epic space battles.
Sean
Originally the plan was that the Replicators would be the main antagonist and the series would be set in the Milky Way, but when SG-1 was renewed again they had to come up with the Pegasus and Wraith storylines somewhat last minute. The vampire craze probably helped the latter come to fruition, and I suspect the reason that SGA did so much better in the female demo.
I thought it started off well, but became worse as it went along. The stories were too repetitive and cheesy and the characters actually became less interesting as time wore on. It's my least favorite of the Stargate series, simply because it became very tedious and the choices the writers made were generally cowardly and cheap.
I think it pales in comparison to SG-1, although it, too, did drag quite a bit towards the end.
Your mileage may vary.
I think it pales in comparison to SG-1, although it, too, did drag quite a bit towards the end.
Your mileage may vary.
I prefer Atlantis to SG-1. It did get a bit repetitive and there was an episode in season 5 where half way through I knew exactly what was going to happen, including all the "twists". But for the most part the series was fun and exciting.
I didn't laugh nearly as much at Joe Flanagan's one liners as I did Richard Dean Anderson's.
It aimed at being a serious action show, with a comic relief reluctant hero (McKay.) But basically everyone spoke English, so that couldn't work right.
They also had villain trouble. The go'a'uld weren't hard SF plausible but they were still far more believable than the wraiths. The producers had convinced themselves that the foreign culture costuming of the wraith was stupid and contemptible (like all foreign cultures apparently.) They thought the new villains would be cooler. They were just generic instead. So none of them really had an undercurrent of genuine menace to sustain them as convincing threats, unlike the go'a'uld.
It aimed at being a serious action show, with a comic relief reluctant hero (McKay.) But basically everyone spoke English, so that couldn't work right.
They also had villain trouble. The go'a'uld weren't hard SF plausible but they were still far more believable than the wraiths. The producers had convinced themselves that the foreign culture costuming of the wraith was stupid and contemptible (like all foreign cultures apparently.) They thought the new villains would be cooler. They were just generic instead. So none of them really had an undercurrent of genuine menace to sustain them as convincing threats, unlike the go'a'uld.
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