S7 Less Than Heaven?

Finding Season 7 Less than Heaven?
Don't be Sad, Get Mad!

by Phoenix Emrys

Good morning, campers! Season 7 has officially ended. The last episode of what has been undeniably the most anticipated and promoted season of the entire series has finally aired. It's all over but the weeping. And I know there's been a fair amount of that, alas. Which is a damned shame, considering how euphoric and optimistic we were going in. After what for many of us was a year-long hiatus, a year's dry spell abstaining from watching Stargate because without Daniel, it just wasn't Stargate we had high hopes and expectations for the upcoming season we joyfully dubbed 'Seventh Heaven,' because it heralded the return of our beloved Daniel to his team and to us. We had much to celebrate. Daniel was back! Our Original Team was back! Stargate was back! So much was possible now!

Most of us avidly anticipated Season 7 because we could see the possibilities and we were promised much. What could have been and SHOULD have been now that Daniel had returned.

What we SHOULD have seen in Season 7, which should have been DANIEL'S year...

Daniel was back, therefore a dominant theme in this season should have been his return and how it affected both him and the friends he'd left behind. He'd been gone a whole year, existing as an energy being, and now he'd returned without any memory, not only of his past but of his entire time as a member of Oma's glowy collective, therefore what had happened to him, why he had been cast out, how he regained his memory and coped with remembering what he'd been and done and why he'd been de-glowed' - how he and his friends dealt with all of this should have been one of the major story arcs of the season. Logically, you would think. The actors and the writers waxed eloquently, and again, you would think logically, RDA's reduced availability for the season would create more story opportunities for the other main cast members to be featured front and centre and we could expect to see much more quality interaction between them in the upcoming Season 7 than was possible in the past. The actors were all happily looking forward to this. So were we. At last, the team was back! Daniel was back. Jack and Daniel would be back! And we were going to get more Daniel and Teal'c, Daniel and Sam - and gasp! Dare we even hope it - some actual SAM AND TEAL'C!!

Whee!!

Yes, if logic was indeed something which prevailed in the writer's room at Bridge Studios that is what we would have seen in Season 7. However, we all know what happened.

Daniel was returned to us in the season opener, however aside from a few poignant scenes after he returned to the SGC any further in-depth exploration of his predicament and his adjustment was tabled in favour of a Star Wars rip-off 'we must stop the Emperor - I mean the non-scary pile of animated, bad cliché-spouting Goa'uld laundry from taking over the universe' story during which much of the episode was wasted on a last ditch attempt to rehabilitate the sixth season speed-bump before he was thankfully, finally, permanently shuffled on back to Kelowna except for the blip that was Fallout..

Those promised and much anticipated 'moments' for the other three members of the cast to shine? Episodes showcasing characters equally divided between all three? Further exploration into previously neglected dynamics and relationships between certain characters? Team episodes? Jack and Daniel? Daniel and Teal'c? Sam and Teal'c?

Admittedly early on a few crumbs were tossed to the literally starving. Mighty tasty they were, and we gobbled them greedily. However, such early season gems adhering to the promised program such as Orpheus, Enemy Mine, Lifeboat, Birthright, and Fragile Balance soon gave way to the depressingly familiar formula of 'One Member of SG-1 interacting with the whizzy new OC of the week.' Or 'SG-1 plays guest star to the whizzy new OC of the week'. Been there, seen this, hated it, had really been hoping we'd left it behind with the speed-bump on Kelowna. Especially as, contrary to what we had been led to expect, the 'One Member of SG-1' front and centre doing all that interacting was not all of them, but only one of them. The same one.

Sam.

Again.

So much for the remaining three being featured equally now that RDA was stepping back and making more on screen time for everyone else. As we wearily watched the season wear on all our hopes for the wonderful and varied character interaction we'd been anticipating between all our favourites was ground into dust by the relentless rolling of 'Samgate'. Jack and Daniel? Daniel and Teal'c? Sam and Teal'c? Didn't happen, did it, campers? While that in itself wasn't enough of a bitter disappointment, it got oh, so much worse.

Season 7 did have a theme, and a major story arc, and we're not talking about the barely there, on again, off again lame-o not so big and bad Nuby nonsense/Lost City folderol. Nor was it about Daniel, or anything having to do with his return or the loss of Abydos (we still have no idea not only how he feels about it but if he even KNOWS what happened to his adopted planet and his family. We assume someone told him, but we don't know for sure). Other than his time as a card carrying Ancient (a fact that was strangely forgotten, not even mentioned in the Lost City, you would think something like that would merit some acknowledgement, even in passing) being briefly touched on in Orpheus (for which we profusely thank Mr Deluise) and a mention in Resurrection his memory had mostly returned (for which we profusely thank Mr Shanks) that was all the time the writers devoted to the ramifications of Daniel's return and his existence for a year as an Ascended Being. These important, glaringly obvious character exposition issues crying out for further exploration we were crying out to see were evidently not a part of the writers' season 7 agenda. They had bigger fish to fry.

Can you say 'ship?' Say it or we will whack you repeatedly between the eyes with it until you do!

Forget possibilities, rich and varied character interaction – ANY sort of logical and positive character development. Toss it all right down the window - the only burning issue the writers felt worthy of exploration and amplification in Season 7 was Sam's love life. And the only relationship that got the spotlight cast on it was the illicit, illogical, absurd, nauseating, dishonourable and downright degrading to both characters but especially Sam - supposed 'attraction' between the major and her commanding officer.

Sam and Jack. Ugh. Once they'd sucked us in with a few token 'team' episodes, a showcase ep for Daniel here, one for Teal'c there - (one of which Christopher Judge had to write himself!) and lulled us into a sense of false complacency with a little taste of the Jack/Daniel interaction we really wanted, the writers grabbed that ship hammer and proceeded to bang us over the head with it, mercilessly, without ceasing until most of us were not only crawling away whimpering to be put out of our misery but were also vowing, by the end of the final, dire, shippy frame of the Lost City to walk away from the show and tell them what they could do with their Season 8.

How to keep your audience begging for more, guys!

Yep, here we are at the end of the Seventh Season.

Boned again.

This shouldn't come as any great shock, actually, because if we've learned anything over the past four years we've learned we can 'trust TPTB'…to screw us over and do exactly what they please - if they think they can get away with it. If they believe they can continue to shovel an unending pile of Samage down our throats with an overflowing order of 'ship' on the side and we'll just sit there and swallow it - then that's exactly what they'll do.

However, they seem to have forgotten, or maybe they're hoping we have - they tried this once before and it didn't fly. When Michael Shanks left Stargate at the end of Season Five TPTB issued numerous proclamations from their ivory PTB towers declaring we WOULD love their 'fresh new perspective' and we WOULD embrace their raggedy stand-in. Daniel was gone. Jonas was in. Get over it. So there. Neener neener.

Well, a few of us said, 'I don't think so!' A whole bunch more joined in. Lots and lots more... And before the Boys at Bridge could say 'Oh Crap' after the airing of Meridian in the UK our complacent creators found themselves the focus of a huge, furious outpouring of extremely inconvenient displeasure with the product they were pedalling. So massive was the reaction and the protest they had to hire a special PR company to deal with it. We buried them with letters and jammed the switchboard at MGM for weeks. And that was just the first wave. Meridian aired in the US and it started all over again.

We wuz pissed. They knew it. We roared, they ran…straight to Mr Shanks. They brought Daniel back. Bye Bye Jonas. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

We made them quake in their boots, kiddies. WE made them tuck their tales between their legs and go running to Mr Shanks to ask him to return. We. Us. The fans. Their audience. The consumers of their product. The same people they want not only to keep coming back for season 8 but to keep on watching and float their new little enterprise, Atlantis for them. We did this. We did so. Oh yes, oh my. And don't you let them try and tell you any different.

They NEED us. They don't want us to know it, and they also don't want us to realise WE'RE the ones with the power, not them. Why do you suppose practically every PTB that did an interview after it was announced Michael Shanks was returning to the show followed up the admission with a curt 'but the fans had nothing to do with it'. Yeah, right. And if you just keep ignoring that elephant in the middle of your living room he won't really be there.

If we didn't have anything to do with it then why would they all have gone out of their way to deny our power and influence and to try and convince us we didn't have any?

Why indeed?

A friend who entered the fandom about the time Daniel left and observed the course of the campaign from the periphery offered me a startling perspective to that time and an important key to our success I want to share with you here, by way of encouragement. Basically, the Save Daniel Jackson campaign was hardly the first fan effort ever mounted to attempt to bring back a beloved character or get a show renewed, nor will it be the last - and good luck to Angel fans. However, what made us different, what got us so much media attention, and what scared the crap out of TPTB was that we took it that one step further.

We didn't just say we were unhappy and wanted Daniel back, we hurt them where they lived. We were 'different' and newsworthy because we dared to criticise and vehemently and vocally rejected their entire 'fresh new perspective'. We told them what they were pedalling was a PRODUCT for which we were the consumers and as such we had the right not only to not only say their 'improvements' stunk, but to demand they CHANGE it back to what we wanted if they expected us to buy it. We told them we WEREN'T going to passively sit there and take whatever they chose to give us or allow them to tell US what we would accept. We weren't just going to 'get over it' – as we were frequently, mockingly admonished, we had the right to protest and by God, did we or what! We realised we had the option of exercising that TV remote and it didn't stop there, our displeasure would and could have further, serious financial repercussions. We could and would vote not only with the TV remote, but with our pocketbooks as well. We told them we simply would NOT accept Jonas or any version of Stargate that did not include all of the members of the Original Team. They may have tried to tell us what we would buy - but we said strongly, clearly and by the thousands...

NO SALE.

We told them. We didn't back down, didn't shut up and didn't go away. And, what do you know, all of a sudden, new season on the horizon, Jonas is out and Daniel is in? And they would have us believe we had nothing to do with this? You bet they're gonna say that, and they're gonna try to convince us we were not a significant factor in bringing about Daniel's return to Stargate because they are absolutely terrified once we understand how much POWER we really have and start using it they'll be forced to produce the show WE want to see, not the half assed, self serving crap they hope to coast by with for the last 20 episodes of OUR show while they're got their eyes and their hopes pinned on their new cash cow, Atlantis. Which they're also hoping they can suck us in – I mean convince us to watch.

Yeah, right.

This is OUR show. OUR STARGATE. We're paying for it with our time and our money, we DESERVE to get our money's worth - and we have a right to demand customer satisfaction and the product please us, not them. TPTB work for US. They want us to forget that little, all-important fact, all the better to keep us passive and dis-empowered. But the truth is they wouldn't have squat if it weren't for us. They wouldn't have JOBS without us - they won't have a franchise without us, those yuztes have made a pile of money over the past seven years because of us and you know what, I think it's just about time they started earning it. They get paid to please YOU and ME and they're not doing it. I didn't sit still for their 'fresh new perspective' and you know what, I'm not going to roll over and take their 'Season Eight - Samgate/shipfest' either. That goes double for Atlantis. I'm a consumer and I'm NOT happy. I plan to let them know about it. A lot. You should too.

We have the power, people. We can make them listen to us. We did it before, we can do it again. Yes, I know we're unhappy, bitterly disappointed and depressed, but if we walk away, they've won. Don't let them! Don't be sad, get damned mad. Be heard! Fans of the Team and the Real Stargate Unite! If you're sick to death of the 'shippy new perspective', if you've had it to here with Samage and tawdry romance, if the only 'ship' on Stargate you want to see is 'FRIENDship', if you want more Daniel, more Teal'c, more Jack and Daniel then TELL them! PHONE! WRITE! Atlantis? Cha-right! Fix the show you've broken, first, and then we might consider it. Maybe…

Be loud, be proud, be persistent. It's the last thing they want, all the more reason to just do it! Be heard. It matters, you matter, every single voice is important, and we CAN make a difference. We got Daniel back. We can get OUR show back.

You deserve it, you have a RIGHT to demand it. Go for it.

We did it before, we can do it again!

Believe it!

Posted by Dana Jeanne at April 1, 2004 08:21 PM