Hey - what’s all the fuss about, anyway? The series has been going downhill for a couple of years now, so I’m switching off anyway!

(Do you think BW understands sarcasm?)

The TV in our house gets switched on at 5:30pm for Nick Junior, until 7pm when it goes off and stays off. Except for Wednesday nights at 8pm on Sky, when its the latest episode of Stargate SG1.

So, good luck Richard, Amanda, Michael, Christopher, Don and everyone else, in life after what was, at least in the beginning, the best TV show I have ever had the pleasure of watching. I’m off to watch a guy in a green striped shirt and a blue puppy!

Jo <jo.ashmore@btinternet.com>
Trowbridge, UK - Thursday, March 14, 2002, 4:37 PM

In this interview MS explains again that the reason he left was because of the way they wouldn’t listen to his concerns about the way they were sidelining the character of Daniel.

’Shanks describes how it would have made a difference if the writers had been more enthusiastic on behalf of the character. "It didn’t really seem to be important, if that character didn’t fit in [to a particular scene], to give him a reason *to* fit in, to make a point of saying that he has this conditional skill that is required, something like that. But again, the more I seemed to be vocal about it, the less I saw happening, and the more my frustration built up so that led to the eventual decision."

Then he says how close he is to all his fellow cast members and how sad it was for all of them when he decided to leave. He also says that his affection for them did make him have second thoughts about leaving but he decided to stick with his decision to go because of what the reporter describes as the ’lacksadaisical attitude of the producers’:

"From the moment I said I was going to go, there didn’t seem to be any sort of fight from the producers to try to keep me. It almost seemed as if it were something they were hoping I’d do so that they could have a fresh perspective for season six, which pissed me off. That angered me - and any second thoughts I had after that were quelled by the fact that it didn’t seem as if the door was even open for me to change my mind. If I changed my mind, that door wasn’t going to be open anyway, so it was almost as if the moment I said I was going to go, then that was the way it was going to be and live with it." As far as Michael was concerned, the producers hadn’t even considered the possibility of taking him back if he decided to stay. "It didn’t even go on in their minds."

It is pretty obvious that this is a corner BW was happy to paint himself into from the end of S3 onwards so no great surprise about his determination to screw up the existing dynamic so he could shoehorn in a new one. But I do have to seriously question MGM’s judgment on this. If ever there was a show where it was blindingly obvious the producers were making bad decision after bad decision it was Stargate from S4 onwards. They had plenty of warning. The ratings dropped sharply. There were protests from fans all over the Internet. They received letters by the score. But they chose to ignore the problem and continued to allow the people who had caused the problem in the first place to continue to exacerbate it.

Interestingly in the same issue of Xposé there is an article about the demise of "Invisible Man" which the lead actor puts down to patchy writing, the decision to downplay the friendship dynamic between the two male characters, and to introduce a female character, totally altering the dynamic in the process. With the second season of a new show I suppose those kind of decisions, however disastrous they might turn out to be, are forgivable, but with the fourth and fifth season of a show that had one of the strongest team dynamics on television I think it’s inexcusable. As is the attitude of the Stargate producers towards Daniel’s role in the team, and MGM’s total laziness and ineptitude in allowing Brad Wright to remain in charge long after the point where it became obvious that he was happier to ruin a show that costs $28,600,000 a season (of MGM’s money) to make rather than admit that his ’creative vision’ was a disaster for the show.

I would also love to know what kind of ’spin’ he put on MS’ departure to MGM. Somehow I doubt BW said: ’Well we could have got Shanks to stay but he would have just hung around being critical of our scripts and wanting us to write for the character who opened the Stargate in the first place and insisting that we wrote more of those very popular Jack-Daniel banter scenes everyone liked so we thought it made more sense to show him the door’. I’d love to know what MGM told Sci-Fi too. That it really wasn’t worth anyone’s while to keep the most popular character on the show as the actor who played him kept insisting on minimal quality control and it made the writers so darned tetchy if their plots had to make sense...?

I do wonder if the next ad should just say "SUCKERS!" and be for the exclusive attention of Hank Cohen and Bonnie Hammer because boy were those two ’had’. But I guess MGM just have a lot more money than sense if they are willing to blow that kind of cash on making episodes that fail to utilize the proven strengths of the show: the appeal of their main characters, the travelling to new worlds, the Jack-Daniel friendship, the incredible team dynamic between Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal’c, the ancient mythologies, the Egyptology, and instead put their faith in tied and tested viewer repellents such as cardboard guest characters, ripped-off story ideas, and turning previously-complex existing main characters into two-dimensional cartoons.

What a pity MGM didn’t blow up a couple less spaceships and use the money to buy one bona fide experienced scriptwriter who could write for the characters on this show. And what an even greater pity they didn’t make the very small condition before passing a script for filming of insisting that it utilized all four of the main characters, and in particular the two who originated in the movie, and bore at least a vague resemblance to the original concept of the show.

Perhaps next time MGM feel like being extravagantly generous with their money, instead of flushing millions of dollars down the nearest cistern filming scripts that would be thrown out of an evening class level creative writing workshop, they donate it to charity instead. After all, I’m sure one could bring clean water to an awful lot of villages in Developing Countries for the cost of such utter wastes of time and criminal squandering of talent as "Fail Safe", "Proving Ground", "Desperate Measures", "Summit/Last Stand" or "Wormhole X-Treme".

Lori Grey <lorigrey@aol.com>
Forest of Dean,, UK - Thursday, March 14, 2002, 11:06 AM

Name: Brad Wright Claim to Fame: I was part of the team who helped screw up one of the best most original sci-fi shows on TV...

Athene
UK - Thursday, March 14, 2002, 6:21 AM

After about a year, something wonderful happened - I got more! Okay, the cast had changed, but those two very different guys were re-united. They’d gained some new chums, and they’d found that they could continue their adventures using their big round toy.

At first, I wasn’t sure about the cast change - I liked RDA better as Jack O’Neill - he was more human and likable, but MS as Daniel? It took a few episodes, and then I began to warm to him as the character evolved.

All the characters evolved - they developed and grew, they formed a team that had heart, that had a soul. There was humour - real humour, the kind you find between people who work together in adversity, there was warmth.

The show was good, the stories were good, the quality of the acting was very very good.

And then something happened. There was a subtle change, and the change happened in Shades of Grey, when Jack deliberately hurt Daniel. After that, the relationships didn’t seem quite so relaxed, so warm and friendly. Was this just on-screen or did it happen off-screen as well?

Then another change happened - the team started doing things on their own. There was less team focus, more individually-focused stories. Daniel wasn’t even in some episodes.

Even the standard of acting declined. MS, who had given some fantastic performances in season 3 (Legacy and Forever in a Day to name but two), suddenly appeared to be going through the motions. My husband and I agreed after watching the Light - he’s lost interest in this. (Sorry Michael, but it’s true, and it was obvious watching the edited programs as they were broadcast).

Fans campaigned for a 6th season. Comments were made by TPTB that if RDA didn’t want to do Stargate, there would be no more Stargate, it was his show. The campaign continued, and the fans got what they wanted. They were ecstatic. Then came the bomb-shell - MS was leaving. He’d had enough of Daniel being sidelined.

I watched season 5, and didn’t enjoy what I saw. The team were separate entities, standing side by side, but there was little team spirit, and almost no warmth. There were cracks starting to appear.

My personal theory is that RDA got sick of the young pretender to the throne. MS is a great actor, young, handsome, and very very popular. Everything that RDA was in his heyday as McGyver. I think RDA saw that the ’First young Lord of the Internet’ (as CJ dubbed MS), and his character Daniel, was becoming a focal point for a lot of people, and believed that this was drawing the attention away from RDA and Jack.

Not true. The thing that most people loved about Stargate was the dynamic of the team’s relationship, but particularly where that dynamic applied to Jack and Daniel. The way two polar opposites could be best friends, and care so deeply about each other, even though they wound each other up was something you rarely see on television these days.

The reason that Daniel was so popular? Taking the eye-candy elements out of this (I’m talking Daniel, not MS) - he was the only non-military element in the team. He was the one that the majority of people could identify with - most of us are not trained to kill another human being, and would not want to. Okay, the guy was a genius, BUT he was also human. He showed his emotions (more than Sam, who is military, and acts accordingly). When the audience were thinking, ’you can’t do that, is that morally right?’ DANIEL was the one who said it.

Okay - you’ve replaced one civilian with another, but this civilian is an ALIEN. He doesn’t know anything about Earth, what Earth expects, what we Tau’ri consider (on the whole) to be morally right and morally wrong. He may bring the wonder and awe that Daniel did, but he wont and can’t be the voice of the audience. He isn’t qualified to do that.

We can’t identify with Sam as easily as Daniel because 1) she’s military and 2) her field of expertise is so specialised that it’s way beyond most of us. I’m in IT, and I have trouble with her technobabble. Daniel was a student of humanity. The things that he knew about are things that most of us have a rudimentary understanding of, and let’s face it, there’s nothing the human race likes examining more than itself.

I hoped that Brad Wright and TPTB might have been more accomodating - yes, we know he’s gone, but we understand you’re upset, so here’s a move back towards the extra-planetary exploration to make you feel better. But what do we get? Insults about this just being hysteria from MS fan base! YOu want good stories - here, look we’re re-writing one of the not-so good episodes from the X-files (at least that’s what the latest spoilers are implying) - the crap one where people in a small town are kidnapping people who are then implanted with snake-like aliens who take control of the host body...hang on, I thought that one was a rip-off of Stargate when I watched it, and now here’s the Stargate crew paying it homage by re-writing it.

I can only hope that TPTB are thinking that line from the Star Trek movie, ’the search for Spock’, when Kirk destroyed the Enterprise - "My God, what have I done?"

My jury is still out on watching season 6. Sci-Fi Uk are running promos for it - I just feel sad and not at all enthusiastic about it. I was an avid X-files fan, then Mulder left, and it got sillier and sillier, and eventually I couldn’t even be bothered to watch the eps when he was in it. I think I’ll feel the same way about Stargate, which is a shame, cos it was my most favourite show. (It’s the only one where I have every single episode on tape, with the tabs punched out so I can keep them).

My kids (6 and 4)love it, but when I told them Daniel was leaving, they couldn’t understand. The older one said - is it because he had an argument with the others? Cos they can say sorry and he’ll come back. Unfortunately, I think she might be right, but TPTB won’t say sorry, they’ve made that perfectly clear.

Athene <goddess.athene@ntlworld.com>
UK - Thursday, March 14, 2002, 6:13 AM

It was once a Michelangelo, a DaVinci, a Frau Filipo Lippi, a Renoir, a Georgia O’Keefe, a Degas, a Remington or a Russell -- all different, but true works of art ... with textures, taste, chemistry, perfected subtleties both black and white and gray inbetween, but most of all a beautiful, colorful endeavor by any and all who cared ... at the time.

Now it is, sadly, much like the original Rodin sculpture which one graced the Twin Towers in NYC, which was destroyed in the 9/11 disaster -- taken to a scrap heap, dissolving what’s left of it in the weather and sun, along with all those poor, innocent people. No, I’m not lightly making comparisons. I lost two friends in that disaster. I still grieve for them because they’ve not been found.

Now Stargate is lost to us, too, by people who simply do not care for what the public allows or wants. How very sad.

Stargate helped take me out of myself for an hour a week during the devastation of my father’s struggle with and eventually death by cancer, and then one year later by helping me with my Mom’s breast cancer. She, thankfully survived.

I have my own disabilities as well. Thankfully, they’re not as bad as the disabilities currently running rampant at MGM and Stargate SG-1. At least there are medications for my illnesses. I’ll never be completely well, but Stargate *could* be made well. However, no one cares.

Therefore, quoting one of my favorite, unfortunately late, authors:

"So long and thanks for all the fish."

Laura <private>
Texas, USA - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 3:11 PM

I don’t care. Flame me.

I like Daniel Jackson and Michael Shanks (even though he’s NOT my favorite character) ... but I want him back.

So there.

TexAveryFan <DontWantAnyPersonalFlames@aol.com>
Rowlett, Texas, USA - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 2:19 PM

"If you guys don’t give up and drop this stupid rebellion, we’ll never get a whole next season full of substandard episodes! And I was *promised* that Sam and Jack would hold hands in the very last episode if I was good and came over here and posted a protest. (Can you hold up the cue card a little higher, please?)"

TexAveryFan <DontWantPersonalFlames@aol.com>
Rowlett, Texas, USA - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 2:14 PM

<>

So, who cares? I don’t WANT substandard episodes with OR without Daniel Jackson. I want creativity, originality AND the spirit of the OLD, original Stargate episodes.

Fox didn’t learn from treating Duchovny so crappy that he left the show ... look at THEIR ratings last year and this year (which tanked), their final season of what once was a brilliant show. Duchovny has been open, recently, in a vein similar to Shanks, about the fact that part of the reason he left was because of the directiont the show was taking, the emasculation of Mulder, etc. Like Shanks, he didn’t like it, didn’t re-sign and left.

MGM didn’t get it back in the days of Gene Kelly -- treated him like crap, too -- and they’re not getting it now.

The spirit of that old b*st*rd Louis B. Mayer still lives, obviously, and, like a Goa’uld, he has infected the production staff, writers, directors, producers, etc.

Hmmm ... paraphrasing from my favorite Gray Hare:

"Them don’t know us very well, do them?"

As to the cue card ...

Using Olympic judging paramters (and, NO, I’m not from France OR Russia) ...

Holding up card:

0.0 for technical skill; -6.0 for originality.

TexAveryFan <DontWantAnyPersonalFlames@aol.com>
Rowlett, Texas, USA - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 2:11 PM

Shanks pinpoints his growing discontent with his role as the reason for his choice [to leave], and adds that it’s a problem that could have easily been resolved. His unhappiness stems from the writers’ treatment of the character, which to his mind had become more and more two-dimensional as the seasons progressed.

"I think me leaving is a kind of indicator of how satisfied I was [with Season Five]. I found the last two years [saw] a winding down of the character’s usefulness, and the lack of desire of the producers to incorporate that character and use him properly was at times very frustrating... It just seemed that there was a painting into a corner of Daniel which was done early in the Fourth season: there wasn’t a big effort to include him in the big scene. As an actor, that’s frustrating: when you are there all the time but not contributing in any way. I guess it’s like playing with a sports team where you are sitting on the bench..."

So what would have made him happy to continue as Daniel Jackson? Shanks says it would have made a difference if the writers had been more enthusiastic on behalf of his character. "But again, the more I seemed to be vocal about it, the less I saw happening, and the more my frustration built up. So that led to the eventual decision..."

Nevertheless, Shanks didn’t relent, a turn of events he again attributes to the lackadaisical attitude of the producers. "It almost seemed as if it were something that they were hoping I’d do," he continues frankly, "so that they could have a fresh perspective for season six..."

It is *NOT* pointless to ask MGM to make good on the *6* guest appoearanced Brad Wright promised *6* months ago. 6 months and all we have potentially is a brief appearance for Daniel in a single script.

It’s not pointless to see the show heading straight down the tubes because Brad Wright ignored every single warning sign from a discontented online audience for *2* years, since Small Victories aired. We’re dedicated fans and we’ve been driven away. Every word out of Wright’s and Mallozzi’s mouths drives away more dedicated fans.

We’re looking at an immediate fallout of 30% of dedicated fans with another 15% undecided. A show can’t survive the loss of half its audience. How many more viewers at home -whether regulars or casual viewers - are just quietly switching off because Wright, Mallozzi and MGM got it SO wrong.

To so many, many people Jack and Daniel *are* Stargate. Brad Wright wants us to forget that and accept Sam is Stargate, Sam and Jack. That isn’t the hook of the show. Sam isn’t the touchstone character though she was a much loved, liked and respected character before she became SuperSam The Black Widow.

Brad Wright got it wrong, and now we tha audience have to suffer, along with the cast and crew of what used to be and should still be and could again be a sure fire success.

I suggest demoting Wright to writer - he’s an excellent writer - and resintating both Michael Shanks and Jonathan Glassner.

As it stands we can kiss the movie, the spinoff franchise and possibly season six goodbye.

ScifFi are contracted - they’re stuck with this crap and don’t have time to do anything but put pressure on MGM to get Shanks back, dammit, whatever it takes. Pity poor FOx, stuck with a show for another two years and so many viewers finding out once Meridian airs that Daniel is gone.

The fallout will be appalling.

november <november@btopenworld.com>
Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 8:29 AM

Now, a naïve observer might think that if the writers wanted to write for a show that *wasn’t* about Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal’c going through the ’gate to visit new worlds, have adventures, explore ancient cultures, encounter ’gods’ from ancient earth mythologies they are the ones that should have packed their bags. That perhaps MGM should never have allowed them to totally change the format of the show so that it was tailored to *their* inadequacies. But, that’s a little radical, don’t you think, fellow posters? That would mean we expected the writers to actually *write for Stargate* and the *Stargate characters* instead of their own Mary Sues. Sounds a little demanding and unreasonable to me.

Sam’s hard to write for because shock! horror! She’s not a guy! (You didn’t notice this until S4?) She might react in a *different* way from Jack to a situation! Good grief no, surely not??? Could that be because she is a different person from Jack, despite being another Air Force office, rather than because she’s a woman? Do you honestly think that someone who looks like Sam Carter needs storylines where guys fall (literally) dead at her feet every week to let us know she’s a beautiful woman as well as a competent soldier and brilliant scientist? She doesn’t. What she needs are good stories where her character gets to show her strengths and weakness.

Same with Daniel. Yes, writers, I’m sure it’s a bitch having to look up those words in different languages, in having to come up ideas about exploring the universe and encountering different civilizations, but fanfic writers manage it all the time. There’s this great research tool called the In-Ter-Net; makes it very easy to look up the names of different gods, what kind of writing the Minoans had or the kind of culture you might expect to encounter on a world that evolved from Ancient Egypt. Maybe (radical idea here) if, for instance, Joseph Mallozzi had spent a little more time using the ’Net for researching decent original myth-based stories instead of trolling the fandom shit-stirring, collecting sycophants and bitching about the fans who don’t happen to think he’s god’s gift to the written word, you might have been able to come up with a story for Daniel that was just a little more original than ’let’s give him another Goa’ulded girlfriend and hope no one notices it’s the same story we already did before’. Let me think, the guy is an Egyptologist, linguist, anthropologist, archaeologist, loves to explore the unknown, to know why and how and when. I can see why you’re having so much trouble writing for *him*.

Jack’s a military, guy. Well you got that right, but that’s a fraction of what Jack used to be. He’s also this really complex interesting character who we’ve watched evolve from a suicidal screw-up into this great leader who’d always put his team first, has street smarts that can cut to the heart of a problem when geniuses falter, and never ever gives up on his people. But of course that doesn’t leave any room to maneuver does it? Who on earth could come up with a story about a guy like *that*! And then there’s Teal’c. Used to think Apophis was a god. Lost his faith. Found a cause. Still riddled with guilt over his past. Has had to turn against his own people to try to save them. Had to give up his family to do it. Had to kill Daniel’s wife to save Daniel’s life. Has alpha male conflicts with Jack but would die for him like a shot. Has so much unexplored territory with Sam it could fill volumes. Well *no wonder* you can’t think of any stories for him! I mean who the heck could???

I see what your problem is, those darned characters just don’t give you anything to write about at all, do they? All you have is the whole universe, every mythology since the dawn of time, a thousand languages, a thousand cultures and four characters richer and more complex than any that ever hit a TV screen. We of course you have to rip-off the X Files, ignore two out of the main four characters, come up with *nothing* for Daniel Jackson to do when he is the guy that started the whole thing, and deliberately drive Michael Shanks off the show so he’ll stop bitching about how bad your scripts are. What choice did you have?

And then there’s the protest. What’s that about? Well, let’s see. The guy left six months ago and you knew he was going for a while before you made the announcement. He’s said in interview after interview since that he left because he felt he had no choice, you refused to take his concerns for the way the character was being sidelined seriously, you ignored every comment he made, you continued to go down a road that meant there wouldn’t be anything left for Daniel to do. Despite all that he’s said he’d come back in the storylines were there and the scripts were there for Daniel. Your response? One lousy script in at least six months and Mallozzi telling the world you weren’t planning to even attempt to write Daniel back as a regular character because ’you respect Michael’s decision to leave’. That would be his decision to leave based on the fact you wouldn’t write for his character, would it? Well at least you’re consistent. He can’t come back unless you write for Daniel. You’re not intending to write for Daniel. Therefore he can’t come back. Therefore you never have to admit that maybe you could have avoided all of this by oh I don’t know…writing scripts for Daniel in the first place. Yep, you’ve been models of consistency from the beginning of S4 when you started trying to turn all the characters into clichés you could write for instead of the characters they used to be. Presumably if you’d hired frustrated Star Trek writers instead of frustrated X-Files writers we’d be knee-deep in aliens with a lot of face-make-up instead of conspiracy theory storylines.

So, the more I think about it the more I agree with the ones saying all these posters who have taken the time and the trouble to try to explain to you just why they used to love this show and how you are making it impossible for them to keep loving it or even watching it should stop bitching right now. You were clearly blameless and everyone here is just being *so* unreasonable.

D. Littlepage Smith <dlittlepagesmith@yahoo.co.uk>
Norwich, England - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 8:25 AM

~Scooby

scooby <scoobydue@techie.com>
canada - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 7:38 AM

To those who cannot understand why people are campaigning and insist they should stop: thank you. I had stopped sending letters. I now feel motivated to write more. When people tell me I must do something I tend to do the opposite when it feels like the right thing to do. This time I will stress how ridiculous it is that after saying he would be willing to return, the writers have only managed to produce one script for Michael Shanks to consider.

I happen to want a movie and for Stargate to be the next Star Trek, continuing in one form or another for many years. It had that potential. In its current state it does not. It does not have class or outstanding writing or anything to set it apart from the many other shows. It did have, it had a unique premise and engaging characters with a unity that rivalled that of teams like the Musketeers, its own fellowship of the ring as it were; and if the ’powers that be’ are prepared to listen it could have that again.

Mr Wright this is for you: I respectively suggest you cease the wilful destruction of this show. Your reaction to the fans complaining has been petty and childish. I am sorry if that sounds rude but that is how your behaviour comes across. Mr. Mallozzi has been no better but he is an employee and you, as his superior, should be guiding him. I have no idea how old Mr Mallozzi is but I would imagine judging from his interviews that he is in his mid-20s while I know you are at least peeking at 40. You should be the wise head, the voice of reason. If you cannot be that then you should not hold the position you do. You should not hold such a position by default, you should earn it. You once had the respect of all fans, were perceived to be a man who cared about the show and its audience, were regarded with respect and affection. That is no longer the case. Ask yourself why.

For what it is worth, I had considered watching season 6. That was before I had seen episodes from Desperate Measures onwards. It is no longer the case that I will watch unless changes are made. The reasons why are many and do not have anything to do with being a Michael Shanks fan as you implied in your chat. Before making such sweeping statements in the future, which only serve to make you look petty and unreasonable and closed to the opinions of others since you so feely dismiss them, you should know your discontented audience and listen to what they are telling you. They are spelling out the answers to a problem they have seen looming for quite some time. You refuse to see the problem, despite falling ratings. If someone were to tell you that you must not fly because your aeroplane needs wings, would you insist that an engine is enough? Would you take the chance, Mr Wright? Or would you consider the possibility that wings are a vital part of the machine? In my opinion Stargate Sg-1 cannot fly without Daniel and a return to its roots: it will crash and burn.

Linda Blakeney <blakeneylindaNOSPAM@hotmail.com>
Borehamwood, UK - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 5:04 AM

Favala Hassin <mcgrue@hotmail.com>
Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 4:53 AM

Carbon Mimic <Sockpuppet@hotmail.com>
Thataway, Albania - Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 1:02 AM

Not.

Xochiquetzl
Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 11:00 PM

And before you even try to say I’m comparing apples and oranges, while this campaign may not be about keeping a country together or saving the world, it is about commitment and dedication and it damn well is a battle of another kind.

A fight against the idiocy of a film industry that is willing to take a wonderful show and make it less than mediocre in an attempt to win a worthless demographic while throwing away loyal viewers who’ve stayed with them through thick and thin.

The only way we lose is if we give in and go away. That’s just exactly what Wright and co. want and for that reason alone, I’m not going away. Of course, I won’t be watching this mockery of a once stellar series either--so I really have nothing to lose, do I? Amazing how that gives one so much more incentive to keep fighting.

Gem <Geminia905@aol.com>
Indiana/USA - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 10:06 PM

We have lives, thank you. We don’t have to waste them trolling guestbooks because, unlike you, we have something better to offer than narrow minded prejudice.

Thanks for keeping us going and for letting us know that we’re puhsing every button you’ve got. From what I understand about campaign strategy, flaming and smear tactics are the last ditch desperate tactics of the losing side.

Why don’t you guys check a few things out: the definition of a fan (hint, it’s right here on this site) and the nature of modern participatory culture.

Get back to us. We won’t be waiting. We have lives.

november <november@btopenworld.com>
Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 5:03 AM

Siobhan G <blueribbongirlus@yahoo.com>
Baltimore, USA - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 8:25 PM

Wendy Matthews <private>
Watford, England - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 6:49 PM

It all started to go downhill from Season Four. We had the comedy episodes, which were, frankly, not in the least bit funny. The SJ relationship was brought into the spotlight, then pushed back again, and that was the last we saw of it. We didn’t need Divide & Conquer. The relationship was perfectly fine before. We had clichèd B-movie plots, a whole bunch of guest stars playing - again - ridiculous and unecessary stereotypes. I liked Cadet Haley, but Proving Ground was a waste of everyone’s time, as was The Fifth Man. Summit & Last Stand were appalling pieces of television. Did they jot the scripts down on the back of a cigarette packet or a napkin? Cause it sure as hell seemed like they did.

The show’s gone down the tubes. Whether it’s the writers or the producers or whoever’s fault I’m not qualified to say, but know that the only reason I’m watching Season Six is Jack, Sam & Teal’c. And they’ll have lost themselves another devoted fan if they screw that up.

And to whoever said Jack is too old for Sam, he’s three times my age and I’d go for him, no question...

Big Orange Frog <bigorangefrog@hotmail.com>
Lincoln, UK - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 6:24 PM

Arrogance and willful blindness. Anyone else see that iceberg off the starboard bow?

On another topic, I find it interesting that people who want to discourage the outpouring of grief, anger and surprise from fans fall back on the old standard "it’s just a TV show."

Yep, it’s just a TV show. So what? If it’s "just a TV show" why are *they* here? Isn’t it "just a TV show" for them too? Ah, that good old double standard; alive and well and dragged out whenever a rational argument cannot be brought to mind.

Kelly <kellkek@yahoo.com>
Boston, MA - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 7:49 PM

Why do so many people think Jonathan Glassner’s departure was so pivotal to the development of the show? Why was he so much better than Wright? I don’t remember a great fan outcry when he left.

Michael Shanks has moved on and this means that your good old days are not going to return. The hard cold fact is that the old Daniel Jackson is gone for good.

I agree with many of the comments posted here about the poor writing and the spoilers for season 6, if accurate, already look pretty appalling. OK so it’s a mess. Why beat yourselves up about this, after all it’s only a TV show? If season 6 is awful I’ll switch off and find something else to do.

I think we could all learn something from Michael Shanks and just walk away from it all. Stuff Brad Wright, MGM, Showtime, the SciFi channel etc. because they really don’t give a damn and you are all kidding youselves if you think you can change their self righteous attitudes.

David Lewis
Los Angeles, Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 7:21 PM

Sci Fi buys the show but instead of showing the series in order from episode one they decide to show season six before they air 1-5. Don’t want the fans getting to know and love the team or Daniel or finding out just what kind of a creep Jonas really is. M.G.M. decide it would be best if they dont announce that Daniel dies keep the fans in the dark as long as possible. You know what you’r doing right. Michael Shanks would come back if he was given the right scripts. Brad Wright tells people he will write six episodes for Daniel in season six.After six months he comes up with one really really bad script that Michael will probably turn down.

You know what you’r doing right.It’s not a conspiracy to shut out Michael or the Daniel fans or the team fans or the Jack and Daniel fans or the fans who love the team episodes but hate the Earthbound N.I.D. conspiracy crap. The super Sam episodes Sam and new man of the week episodes. The fans who know what sort of a man Jonas really is. You know what you’r doing right.THE HELL YOU DO. Unless that is what you know you are doing is ruining a once great show. If thats the case then great job guys you do know what you’r doing after all. Sounds like a conspiracy to me.

Ellen <private>
u.k., Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 4:15 PM

John <jnzin@earthlink.net>
California - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 1:09 PM

As to it being impossible to get back to the show’s roots. Of course it isn’t. Daniel could have come back in the first episode of the new season if the writers had got off their butts and written it that way *and* come back with his sense of wonder totally restored. The only thing stopping us getting the team back and the show back the way it used to be is the lack of imagination of the writers and MGM’s lack of interest in the show. Which unfortunately where this show is concerned is one heck of a big stumbling block. Nothing some judicious pruning of dead wood wouldn’t cure though. With a sci-fi show everything is fixable, the people making the show just have to have the will and the talent to fix it. With these writers/producers/executives there’s a bit of a shortfall on both the will and the talent side of things but that’s no reason not to point out to them what they need to do to fix things. The show is sunk without Shanks so instead of whining about how negative the fans are they should get him back. It’s not brain surgery and it’s not exactly unprecedented either. By TV show standards this is a pretty easy problem to fix, someone just has to make a decision to fix it. MGM could turn this show around with one phone call if they wanted to. All they have to do is tell the writers to stop ripping off the X Files and start writing scripts for Daniel and the original team. Don’t let them kid you it’s any more complicated than that. It really isn’t.

Rob Laws
Quenington, Cirencester, GLOS, UK - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 12:01 PM

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Courtesy of the internet, I’ve now seen the entirety of this season’s episodes, including "Meridian" (and "Revelations"). It seems to me that, with the production of "Meridian", Daniel Jackson is, by definition, no more.

By "no more", I mean within the context of the O’Neill/Jackson relationship as it previously existed (and was so compelling and interesting to watch). The human Daniel Jackson is gone. The character has ascended and evolved beyond that of his mortal peers. Given such, the interaction that can happen between Shanks and Anderson, Tapping, Judge, and the rest of the characters has forever changed.

Unfortunately, to remain true to the events that have transpired (and not resort to the dreaded "it was all just a dream" Dallas-esque cop-out), Daniel should probably be abandoned as a source for viewer interest and satisfaction.

I know this isn’t what people on this site want to read. I, too, grew very fond of the character and became VERY emotional while watching "Meridian". However, what is done is done, unfortunate as that might be. No amount of complaining to Wright, Glassner, or MGM as a whole is going to change things, as the character of Daniel has left this world for the next.

Yes, Shanks *could* return as a guest star in an episode here and there within a very specific dramatic context (and I understand he will in at least one episode of season 6). However, whatever character interplay to be had will be completely outside the envelope of what the "Save Daniel Jackson" petition is campaigning for - namely, a return to the show’s roots, with the characters exploring the various worlds connected by The Gate System, free from inane X-Files’ish subplots, and positively feeding off each other’s strengths and weaknesses. "Boldly going where..." - oops, sorry, wrong show.

I don’t have anything against Corin Nemec and, unlike some in here, I think his character does have some redeeming qualities (as evidenced in "Meridian"), but I DON’T see him as a replacement for Shanks. Daniel Jackson as played by Michael Shanks is irreplaceable. I, too, have grave doubts that Nemec will be able to fill the fourth SG-1 position as effectively as Shanks.

However, what’s done is done in regards to Jackson. There’s no effective and satisfying way to return things to the way they were. Shanks himself seems to’ve resigned himself to this fate, as he agreed to appear in an episode that, for the most part, killed the character off ("Meridian").

Is "Stargate SG-1" salvageable? I don’t know. The show has definitely become a lot less interesting over the years. We will see...

Fred Leggett Orlando, Florida USA

Fred Leggett <fleggett@gate.net>
Orlando, Florida - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 11:12 AM

Originally there were two characters: Daniel Jackson and Jack O’Neill, who used an ancient alien portal to travel to a different world on the other side of the galaxy where they encountered Ancient Egyptian culture in the people they befriended and the ’bad guys’ with whom they did battle. This to me is the core ’product’ which = "Stargate". I need, Jack and Daniel, preferably **together**, solving problems, helping each another, protecting each another, caring for each another, arguing from time to time if the occasion seems appropriate, and showing me they are friends as they travel through the Stargate and explore new worlds. Added to that for me to enjoy an episode of the television series I need Sam and Teal’c to be there in equal measure. They don’t have to dominate proceedings. Much as I like Sam Carter, after season5 I’d really prefer it if she *didn’t* dominate proceedings as I consider her a character on a level with Teal’c not Jack. (Much-loved but not one of the ’core couple’.) But they do have to be *there*. They have to have a function in the story and they have to be doing something which only they could do. (I hate Teal’c being scenery and Sam being The Blonde almost as much as I hate Jack and Daniel being kept separate and Daniel just background noise.) I want to hear ancient languages spoken. I want to learn about old myths. I want to be as frightened of the Anubis guards on the television series as I was of those Anubis guards I first saw on Abydos in the original film. I want to see SG1 in danger from new and unexpected enemies/perils and I want to see them overcome the danger they encounter by working together as a team of people who care for each another, all with their own unique skills.

In seasons 1-3 these elements were all ’present and correct’ – making "Stargate" the best television show out there for my money and certainly making it compulsive viewing for me. From season4 onwards these (essential) elements were absent more often than they were present. In season5 Daniel and Teal’c also seemed to be absent more often than they were present. Now Michael Shanks has gone and who can blame him after the way Daniel was pushed into the background? Can you writers really not see how incredibly insulting and hurtful to any actor it is to lessen such a key role so much? Didn’t you notice how flat and empty the episodes were where Daniel and Jack weren’t allowed to interact with one another? Didn’t you notice how boring ’Prodigy’ was without Daniel? How dull ’Desperate Measures’ was having Jack looking for Sam with a guest star instead of with Daniel and Teal’c? (Didn’t Sam deserve to have *all* her team mates caring she had been kidnapped?) What possible excuse can you make for making an episode as bad as ’Fail Safe?’ (You were busy? You had a dentist’s appointment that day?)

The people writing for the show now don’t seem to care about the characters or have any idea of the concept of ’team spirit’. In fact it seems to me that in the last two years the people who have been left in charge of making the show have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what it is about the show that made it so good in the past.

I have thought of so many other things I could say to you writers, but what really is the point? You seem to think the characters are so unimportant that you don’t even need to give three of them anything meaningful to do in the 100th episode. You ’celebrated’ the success of the show by ignoring everything that made it a success and puffing up your own egos instead, and instead of sending you back to the drawing board, MGM threw a party for you. I watched that episode in disbelief. Recently I watched another ’celebration’ of the show in disbelief on the DVD as history was rewritten to pretend Daniel had played almost no part in the success of the show. I find the way Daniel has been left off the packaging and merchandising so unbelievably petty and nasty that it makes my blood boil and also makes me wish that Michael Shanks had left at the end of season3, never returns and goes somewhere he will be appreciated instead.

There are articles all over this site which tell you what is wrong so much more clearly than I could do but you obviously aren’t listening, won’t listen, and never have listened. But if you didn’t know such a self-evident truth, obvious to anyone who has ever watched the original feature film, that Daniel is the lynchpin of the Stargate universe and that the show could never be the same without him, what really is the point in trying to talk to you about anything? It’s no wonder Michael Shanks left. He must have felt as if he was talking to a wall – which, after your Lycos talk, Mr Wright, is exactly how I am feeling right now.

Cath Oliver <isis1969@eudoramail.com>
Norton Malreward, UK - Thursday, March 7, 2002, 4:18 AM

Lisa C
Wednesday, March 6, 2002, 4:33 PM

Dee C
Wednesday, March 6, 2002, 4:05 PM

Oh, please.

The thing that I’ve always liked about this show is that the characters are ordinary people. Not Teal’c, because he’s an alien. But Jack, Daniel and Sam were.

Sam isn’t, anymore. She was always extra intelligent, but as a former host, she’s lost any "ordinariness" she ever had. And that was BEFORE she became the babe who can think rings around alien races, operate any kind of machinery, solve and scientific problem, and bend steel in her bare hands. *ahem*

Jack and Daniel are the heart of SG1. Ordinary guys, who operate under extraordinary circumstances. Now, I understand that Daniel is going to become some kind of glowing alien with superpowers, and Jack’s going to become a Tok’ra.

Yeah, right. When did this show become the SuperFriends? Should we expect two teenage trainees and their monkey mascot too?

I was a casual viewer. If you want to go on ruining the show, you can do so without my presence.

Chris <MyAnDy@yahoo.com>
Brighton, MA - Tuesday, March 5, 2002, 8:29 PM

Frank Clark <wakinyan_thunderbird@yahoo.com>
Cincinnati, OH, US of A - Monday, March 4, 2002, 9:55 PM

Sonja Michelle Thomas <sonja@sdf.lonestar.org...>
Austin, Texas - Monday, March 4, 2002, 6:55 PM

"I find him to be a very charismatic leader, someone you can’t help liking."

Let’s see. When we first met Jonas, he was colluding with an attempt to falsly accuse Daniel of sabatoge. Next we find out that this "charismatic leader . . . you can’t help liking" turns out to have acted in a cowardly fashion, leaving Daniel to sacrifice himself for JONAS’ people. As a finale, Mr. Charisma shows up at the SGC with a valuable element he traitorously stole from his own people. Oh yeah, real leadership potential here. I can feel myself liking him already. Why Jonas is already up there with Anise, Marty and Cadet Haley in my estimation.

JoJo <jfreggens@prodigy.net>
Essex, USA - Monday, March 4, 2002, 1:31 AM

PJB <fangoff@hotmail.com>
ENGLAND - Sunday, March 3, 2002, 9:33 AM

Jon Munro <iron_butterfly_ca@yahoo.ca>
Ontario, Canada - Saturday, March 2, 2002, 8:46 PM

Clare <cool_slayerchick@hotmail.com>
Liverpool, UK, Saturday, March 2, 2002, 9:38 AM

Tamsyn <kleeshay@hotmail.com>
Palma de Mallorca, Spain - Friday, March 1, 2002, 8:25 AM

Wendell Brande <wbrande@usa.com>
Scottsdale, Arizona, USA - Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 9:05 AM

Later Gater
Monday, March 11, 2002, 7:49 PM

Let me give you a metaphor: A man starts walking across a very busy freeway. A variety of cars and trucks are bearing down on him. Bystander A tells the man his clothes are very stylish and his haircut is quite flattering. Bystander B begins to jump up and down, shouting for the man to watch out for those vehicles. Bystander A tells the man that Bystander B is exhibiting childish, kooky behavior and generally acting in an embarrassing manner. The question is, which bystander has the best interest of the man at heart? Call me crazy, but I’d say Bystander B. But now it is apparent that the man standing in the middle of the freeway with hundreds of fast vehicles closing fast, is actually standing still, mesmerized by the glowing praise of Bystander A and telling Bystander B to be quiet, go away and don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-your-way-out.

You know the killing thing? Everyone who has posted here is a fan of Stargate. They CARE about the show, they want it to continue--but they want it to be good. It just infuriates me to no end that you can defend the large amount of crappy episodes you are currently pumping out as ’quality’ with a straight face. Rule number one for any creative person: You have to learn to recognize your own crap. And here’s a clue since you seem unable to buy one, your job is to create a show that will draw viewers. Fans are viewers who care enough to interact with your product. Fans are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to viewers; we are the 10% you can see. You’ve currently got a large percent of fans that are telling you you have a problem at a time where you can actually fix it. We are a ’sentinel event,’ the weather vane about what most of your viewers (ratings) will feel when they get the episode Meridian. That fact that you choose to continue to blindly stand on the freeway, makes me think you believe you are producing ’art’ and feel assured that you will get public funding for your next venture since you eschew the route of simply appealing to viewers, and in fact seemed to enjoy alienating said viewers.

And, if I may be blunt, think of how all this will look on your resume. You had thousands of fans telling you you were making a mistake. We took out ads even. You can’t use the excuse you didn’t know pushing out a popular character and making a few changes that undermined the very premise of the show would sink the ratings to a point that the whole franchise collapsed. All your peers and future employers will know that rather than take action, your professional decision was to let it all fail. Who is going to want to put you in the decision making seat again?

The stakes are very high--think carefully about the choices you still have while there is time to make a difference. And please remember the people that are saddened by the loss of Daniel care for the show, too. We are not your enemy--just people who are seeing you make a severe error in judgment and are telling you what will occur as a result of it. If you choose to ignore us, you will deserve the repercussions of your actions. But unfortunately, the fans won’t be happy either for we will have lost the chance for more good Stargate episodes and a Stargate movie.

Sue <tenayak@yahoo.com>
San Dimas, CA/USA - Monday, March 11, 2002, 7:15 AM

As soon as they started pushing the ’ship’ everything fell apart, not because the ship is the root of all evil but because it was a big fat CLICHÉ and as soon as show-makers lower their standards to the point where they’re happy to make stories that have been made a thousand times before they open the floodgates to every other kind of unimaginative mediocrity. Only people in the state of the mind where they thought it was OK to have a ten-a-penny "romance" replace a buddy-buddy and team dynamic that was UNIQUE to this show and this universe would also think it was OK to hire writers who don’t know the show or the characters and can’t come up with original ideas. This show came from a feature film about Jack and Daniel, ancient egypt and exploring a new world with people in it from Earth. That’s the audience you inherited from the film. That’s the audience you’re pissing off right now by ignoring all the elements that gave you a hit show in the first place. Instead of smugly congratulating yourselves on how well you’re doing, why don’t you do a little honest stock-taking for a change? You can’t get good writers to stay. You’re not winning awards for anything except your special effects. Michael Shanks has LEFT a show he loves and people he loves working with just to get away from what you’re doing to a character he also loves. Amanda Tapping is giving interviews where she talks about how creatively frustrated she is because of the way you’re writing her character. Richard Dean Anderson said he sees S6 as a ’life sentence’. Christopher Judge nearly left at the end of S4. Your ratings have been dropping steadily since S2 (the only ship-free season in case you can’t do the maths). Your fans are so dissatisfied at the way you’ve ignored a significant proportion of us to suck up to a few who tell you how clever you are because you’re so insecure you can’t take any criticism without throwing a temper tantrum. IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

MGM, for crying out loud, how much longer are you going to sit on your corporate asses and let Wright and Mallozzi run this show into the ground? Do you think they’re the ones who’ve given you a successful show? They’re not! You have a successful show because of the characters of Daniel Jackson and Jack O’Neill bringing people to the show in the first place and because of five years of Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Richard Dean Anderson and Christopher Judge slogging their guts out to make these characters ones your viewers love. Oh yes and because of US, the people who watch your show, buy your merchandise and without whom you are SCREWED. Now do you get it yet or do I need to use smaller words? Wright and Mallozzi are BAD for this show. Michael Shanks was GOOD for this show. Losing the good to hang onto the bad is BAD business. Why don’t you wise up and save this show before it’s too late? Get Shanks back. Get Glassner back. Get some of the good writers back you used to have who know the characters and want to write about our TEAM instead of dumb cadets and dumber system lords. Who knows you might get your audience back at the same time.

P. J. Hamilton
Birmingham, England - Monday, March 11, 2002, 6:30 AM

Brenda Hall <betterbuddy@suntimesmail.com>
U.S. - Sunday, March 10, 2002, 7:23 PM

Date: Wed Oct 20, 1999 2:17 pm

Hey guys, No, it’s not a dream and yes, I do promise extreme happiness. I don’t, however, promise it soon. That only means I don’t want you to be ready for it when it happens. This is something you have to be unprepared for to enjoy totally. And (i took the name out here), I can absolutely swear to you the writers get your shippy thoughts. Believe me, they hear them. No, I’m not a cast member. I have alittle more control than that. I love my job. Until later, Cj

Date: Wed Oct 20, 1999 2:01 pm

I can promise you Sam and Daniel will never have that kind of relationship in reality on this show. Not if I have anything to do with it, and gasp, I do. I can’t tell you much. I’ve just recently finished watching the new episodes and they are good if I do say so myself. I can tell you that, even in the worst situations, there will almost always be a shippy moment if you keep your imagination going. The problem, of course, is the operant word: almost. Don’t worry, as I said before. Things will work out in the end. Sam and Jack can’t stay apart for long. And I, in my position at SG-1, refuse to keep them apart for longer than neccessary. These events start this season but won’t be apparent until next. Cj

I think, in the end, Jolinar’s Memories will be an ep that you won’t soon forget. And yes, I will tell you, there is one really good Sam/Jack moment (I do have alittle power). Could there be more? You’ll have to watch to see. Sorry, but you’d hate me if I told you everything. The wait isn’t long now. I haven’t seen the edited version of the show yet. Who knows, they could have taken out all my favorite parts, except that one mentioned above (again with the power struggle). I’m just not much help to you am I? Sorry, but take comfort in my words. Everything will work out in the end, maybe not in the end of this ep but in the end of it all. More plans have been made for next season then they let you think. I’m very excited about it. Until next time, Cj

She posted lots more and said she was on the end credits so she must be one of tptb and she said she had power and wasnt a member of the cast whih is good news because at first i thought cj was Christopher. I use to hope Sam and Danny would get some shippy scenes like in Holiday because THEY have a proper relationship not just stupid flirting they use to put in for SJ shippers but when i read that from cj it kinda ruined it all for me. If the tptb are listening to SJ shippers and hanging out on their list then everybody else can just say "good-bye" to their hopes. One of the Horse-Women said Brad Wrght promised her the SJ shippers would get their ship in the end or something so if Daniel isn’t even in the show any more why should i watch while SJ shippers get everything they want and the characters and the team are ruined. Sam is now just there to be Jacks girl and even though I would like to see some Sam and daniel shippy moments I wouldn’t want them to get together because that would be bad for the team and I’m not that selfish and they can’t now because Micheal has left. I can read it in fanfic. Maybe cj is Brad wright even though they said they were a woman and saying they spoke to Brad could just be a way of covering up who they are. I don’t think it can be Joe Molazzi because i don’t think he was around in 1999 though he did say he wanted a shippy ending. Even though Amanda said she thought they could get together in the end i don’t think it’s her because cj didn’t sound very nice about the actors and said she had more power than that.

sdotp
Sunday, March 10, 2002, 11:59 AM

L. Gutiérrez <khekheretnebty@yahoo.com.mx>
Colonia Narvarte, Del Benito Juárez, 03020 México, D.F., México - Sunday, March 10, 2002, 6:33 AM

I blame Brad Wright for all the problems that have happened. We never got episodes of such poor quality when Jonathan Glassner was involved in making the show. As soon as he left everything started to unravel. The incompetence displayed by the producers really shocks me. They let their staff run around on the SJ list posting spoilers and promising to promote that aspect of the show and presumably grossly misleading the producers and MGM about how popular it is. (They seemed absurdly surprised by the reaction to "Divide + Conquer" when any non SJer could have told them it was going to bomb. That aspect of the show has never been popular in the general fandom, even the SJers admit that and were always saying they didn’t feel welcome on the general lists because of how unpopular it was.) They let their writers go into huddles with a faction who are vocally anti-MS and anti-Daniel and make snide comments about other fans - which was grossly unprofessional not to mention childish in the extreme. MGM keep desperately promoting Sam at the expense of Daniel even after Daniel won more than 50% of the votes and is known by everyone on the Internet to be easily the most popular character. (And in second place would be Jack anyway, not Sam.) The producers either mislead MGM on purpose or are guilty of the most inept market research ever in telling them which aspects of the show are the most popular. They downplay the *most* popular aspect - the Jack-Daniel relationship, presumably because the writers making the most noise can’t write it, and drag in lots of guest stars instead because that’s all their writers can write. Didn’t it occur to MGM even once to fire the inept writers and inept producers and bring in competent people before it was too late? I am still shaking my head in disbelief over the stupidity of losing the most popular character on the show to keep sub-standard writers and a producer who has proven himself to be either a knave or a fool over the last two years. Haven’t MGM noticed that half the fandom does not trust these people AT ALL?

I could cry at the waste of four such good characters as Daniel, Jack, Sam and Teal’c. Not to mention the criminal incompetence (and petty spite) of allowing an actor as talented as Michael Shanks to be driven off the show to pander to a tiny faction of the fandom. And if we’re talking about ’vocal minorities’ let me give you the white, male heterosexuals who have made the majority of these stupid decisions. You may make a disproportionate amount of noise but you are the ultimate minority, which probably explains why you are you so absurdly out of touch with the majority of viewers who watch your show.

Congratulations on ruining something unique and beautiful. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to go wrong with a show like Stargate. You had Jack and Daniel. You had the Stargate. You had a team of unique and loveable individuals with fantastic chemistry. How could you possibly mess up? Well it takes talent and dedication but somehow you managed it. I’m so sorry actors as talented as Richard Dean Anderson and Christopher Judge, Don S Davis and Amanda Tapping are going to be squandering their energies on more inevitably poorly-written stories. As others have said before me, good luck with season six - you’re going to need it but count me out of watching it. I don’t believe in rewarding incompetence, stupidity or downright nastiness, and that’s all I’ve seen displayed by the producers in the last few years.

Donna Cavalcanti <donnabella_tarantella@yahoo.com>
Rowdy, KY , USA - Saturday, March 9, 2002, 2:53 PM

Not included <Not included>
Someplace, USA - Friday, March 8, 2002, 12:31 PM

Linda B <private>
Notts, ENG - Friday, March 8, 2002, 4:56 AM

emma <94ec032@aldersleyhigh.biblio.net>
wolverhampton, england - Thursday, March 7, 2002, 3:36 PM

Back to Holmes - his scripts were genuinely witty, not the knockabout stuff we’ve been getting on Stargate; his supporting characters were Arris Bock level, not Marty-Sue level, and he was as imaginative as R.C. Cooper. (Must be an advantage having ’Robert’ for a first name in sci-fi writing.) Scripts like Holmes used to produce are the kind of quality of writing this show needs and except from Cooper and DeLuise it just isn’t getting it.

I don’t like romances, they’re just a lazy writer’s way of filling 40 minutes. Watch any pap show and you’ll see when the writers start running out of ideas they bring in an old girlfriend or have a new one turn up and get killed. (Last season of Starsky & Hutch anyone?) As soon as I saw ’Crossroads’ I knew this show was in trouble and then ’D&C’ confirmed it. When two characters who’ve never looked twice at each other start being sold as having Secret Yearnings you know the barrel is being scraped. I think losing Glassner, Powers, Curtis Fox and Valenza was a disaster for the show. Four key scriptwriters, two of them around since S1 all gone Pfft overnight. My theory is MGM cut the budget and the M&Ms were the only writers Wright could afford. Either they were very cheap or they had to have some Canadians on board. Not being rude but they couldn’t possibly have been picked for their writing abilities. ’Scorched Earth’ wasn’t that good (although it was a lot better than most of their S5 output) and ’Window of Opportunity’ is just a rip-off of Groundhog Day with all the good bits coming from the actors. Putting two newbies who don’t even know the characters on a seven-stories-a-season contract smacks of total desperation to me. MGM should have made Wright get off his ass and write at least four scripts himself. He’s not in Holmes’s league but he’s a damned sight better than the M&Ms are. I just don’t see a way forward for this show now. MGM and Wright seem to have painted themselves into a corner where they’re more scared of losing face than making bad episodes. It’s obvious making bad episodes doesn’t even bother them or X-Treme Tedium would never have been made and neither would Cadet Academy 2 (Cadet Academy 1 in S4 didn’t tip them off Jennifer Haley was a no-no in the charisma stakes?).

My question to TPTB is *why* should I keep watching? I suppose I’m your target audience. I’ve watched sci-fi since I was a kid. I buy merchandise. I’m male. I fancy Sam Carter. But I also appreciate quality writing and a quality product and Stargate hasn’t been a consistently quality product since the end of S3 which was the last time I saw a Sam episode I liked. I don’t just want to look at Amanda’s breasts while Sam saves the world again. I want good writing. I want good storylines. I also want Daniel Jackson in the show. Jack and Daniel doing the married act is part of what makes the show compulsive viewing. I fancied Cally in B7 but I kept watching after Jan Chappell quit because I enjoyed the premise of the show, the quality was still good, and the Avon-Vila double act was the part of the show I liked best. Stargate is the same for me. I fancy Sam but to enjoy the episodes I need Jack and Daniel to be around doing what they do. I also like Teal’c a *lot* and you’ve treated that character like crap for years now.

So tell me why I should keep watching your show? From what I’ve seen of them I like the actors but you treat them like crap. I particularly like AT who you made do a romance she didn’t want to do and ignored her when she said she thought killing Martouf was a bad idea. (She was right.) You’re still talking about doing the crappy romance even though she hates it so that shows how much respect you have for someone who I happen to really like. I also like MS and you wiped your feet on him then showed him the door. If you won’t show loyalty to the actors who’ve made your show for you why the **** should we viewers show any loyalty to you? I like the characters and you treat them like crap too. Your idea of a good time is torturing Jack and turning him into a Tok’ra - mine would be seeing him solve a problem and save his team. You think Daniel isn’t necessary - I think he’s essential and without him for balance this is just another military show. You don’t seem to think Teal’c is necessary either and I think he’s got so much unexplored potential it makes me want to reach through the screen and stick my fingers in your eyes. You want Sam to be Wonder Woman + Black Widow + Virgin Mary - I just want her to be human. You think I’m so stupid I’ll accept a character who just sold his entire world down the river as a good guy on the team and if I don’t it’s because I want to shag Shanks. (I don’t by the way although if I read one more homophobic post from a teenage shipper about how incredibly straight Jack is I may change my predilections just to piss them off.) You think quality of writing, originality of ideas and intelligence of plotting don’t matter as long as you blow up a few spaceships and bring in enough women wearing see-through clothes. I couldn’t disagree more. You clearly think your target audience are now morons who don’t care about characterisation, don’t care about quality, don’t notice every other plot is ripped off from a bad film, and don’t give a flying **** how badly you treat the actors as long as we get our ration of blowing things up every Wednesday at 8. Maybe I’m being egomaniacal but I don’t really see myself fitting that demographic.

How about when you decide to start making well-scripted, well-plotted episodes about Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal’c going through the Stargate again, you put out a press release? Then maybe I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, good luck with your spin-off but I really do think you should stop calling it ’Stargate SG-1’.

Ian C <ian_chesterton_1961@yahoo.co.uk>
London, UK - Thursday, March 7, 2002, 1:48 PM

N. Jeffries <wizard_runestone@yahoo.co.uk>
Birmingham, England - Thursday, March 7, 2002, 6:44 AM