Farewell to Stargate

Good science fiction is actually not all that hard to come by. Good science fiction that doesn’t get cancelled before its time? That’s more difficult. Even from the SciFi channel, recently redubbed SyFy (which sounds like “siffy” in my mind, or maybe the beginning of “syphilis”), which isn’t really doing a good job with its scripted shows that much anymore, since, you know, wrestling has to be on Fridays. (Really? Wrestling?!?) At least the SyFy channel had the guts to respond to their bad decision making. This, of course, different than Fox, which is still getting reamed by nerds almost 10 years later, like in this hilarious scene from The Big Bang Theory.

I wish Stargate: Universe hadn’t been cancelled, signaling the end of the Stargate franchise, for now. Universe was a good show, and calling it Stargate Voyager or BattleStargate Galactica was unfair. Yes, it’s about a group of people stuck on a spaceship far from home with no way back. But that’s a pretty standard SciFi plot device that’s been used many times. Besides, Voyager was terrible from the get-go, Captain Janeway making a really stupid decision in the very first episode that forced them to spend however many years headed home. Now Doctor Nicholas Rush? That is a guy who’s megalomaniacal enough and Machiavellian enough to make their being stranded believable. Played by the marvelous Robert Carlyle, Doctor Rush is the one who simply must try to dial the ninth chevron one more time before evacuating their under-attack base. It works, and now they must either jump through the stargate, or die. Rush is exactly the kind of character who would do that. He’s like Gaius Baltar, the weasely scientist from BattleStar Galactica, but much more consistently written and acted. Rush is the Captain Picard of the Stargate franchise—a real character from the get go that just works, marvelously, mostly because of the fabulous acting. Robert Carlyle is also now one of my favorite actors. I mean, just check him out in this brilliant commercial!


In many respects, cancelling Stargate: Universe was like cancelling Star Trek: The Next Generation after two seasons. The franchise had done very well, and was taking off in new and, in my opinion, very interesting directions. But, also, in many respects, I can’t complain. I’m only in Season 2 of Stargate: Atlantis, and never did watch Seasons 9 and 10 of the original SG-1, but Stargate is one of the most successful science fiction franchises ever. I did a quick count; in order of number of episodes produced, there’s:

1. Doctor Who, with 774 episodes of this writing, which includes 1 TV movie. This show is still going on, and I doubt that anything is really ever going to catch this one. It’s technically just one show, but with 11 different people playing the Doctor and the near 50 year stretch since it began, I think we can call this a franchise.
2. Star Trek, with 703 episodes across 5 different TV shows, 11 movies, and certainly at least more movies to come.
3. Stargate, with 354 episodes, and two direct-to-DVD movies.
4. I have no idea what number 4 is. It likely is Babylon 5, with all its movies, 110 episodes in the original series, and at least the 13 episodes of the spinoff Crusade.

But whatever number 4 is, it’s a pretty significant drop off from the amount of production that Stargate got. I’m deliberately not including the Buffyverse or Smallville, because I don’t consider them science fiction. (Buffy and Angel together had 254 episodes, and comic books that extended their canon beyond just the TV shows, and Smallville ended with 218 episodes.)

Stargate was one of those movies that just makes a better TV show. SG-1 was a fantastic show. The spinoff, Atlantis, is getting into some very interesting moral dilemmas, which I appreciate, and the characters and overall plot that grew on me faster than even the SG-1 characters. Universe was indeed a much darker series, but a more than worthy addition to the franchise. Initially many were worried about this new tone, and also the idea of the producers that they would try to make it “younger” and “sexier.” That did not happen. There were younger characters, but, you know what, this series was supposed to have started 10 years after the initial series. The Stargate program had grown, and would include young military personnel. I didn’t find them overwhelming, or that it was clearly a show meant for a younger audience. And as far as the “people stuck on a spaceship” theme, it was far and above a better treatment of that than I’d ever seen. Certainly better than either Voyager or BSG.

I also like that the producers were able to end the franchise on a “nice” cliffhanger note. Not everything has been wrapped up. Not everything is resolved. But good science fiction franchises don’t have to end. There doesn’t have to be, really, a point where everything is tied up in a nice little bow. The ending for me was extremely emotionally satisfying in a way that only one other “this-show-was-cancelled-too-early” series was, and that was the brilliant early ending to Joss Whedon’s Angel. The ending of this series has a character staring off into space as the Ancient's ship Destiny continues onward, unsure if he will even survive (the rest of the crew is in some kind of cryogenic stasis for three years, but there wasn’t enough pods for him). He’s wearing his goofy “You are Here” t-shirt, and as he looks out at the stars flying by he smiles, a look of wonder lighting up his face. It’s perfect.

So, I do hope that someone, somewhere manages to pull MGM back to financial solvency enough that MGM can revisit the Stargate franchise, possibly wrap up some loose ends from all the TV shows with a mini-series or something, like what happened to Farscape or Firefly. But you know what, if that doesn’t happen, that’s okay too. It’s been a great ride, and if this ends up being all there is, I’ll be very satisfied with it.

To any Sci-Fi aficionado out there that hasn’t yet gotten into Stargate, I highly recommend the entire franchise. Thanks to Mike Barnhill for introducing me to it all those years ago.

Farewell, Stargate. (I hope just for now.)