My credentials for commenting on the show Stargate SG-1?  I'm British.  I'm from a green and pleasant land filled with savvy sci-fi freaks.  I don't need to tell you this.  MGM sell a *lot* of videos and DVDs here.  This little country has a huge and dedicated potential market for MGMs product.  That's why they spend so much on those region 2 DVDs with their exclusive interviews and directors commentaries.  Those DVDs and videos aren't doing so well now they're selling season 4.  One video and DVD after another, high street top ten, guaranteed.  One came out, another took its place.  The ring of the cash registers was like clockwork.  Not any more. 

Season 4, you have to look for Stargate SG-1 in WHSmith.  It's no longer top ten: try 33rd out of 40 in HMV.  The show still gets good press though, in all those sci-fi magazines we have and sell around the world.  Far more than in the States.  Ever noticed how much of that press is dedicated to Michael Shanks and how much the reporters and editors like him?  That's because they are savvy British sci-fi freaks too.  What sells their magazines is what sells your show.  Michael Shanks sells.  Daniel Jackson sells. 

This I know.  I've spent $1000 on episodes alone on video and DVD.  In fact, I bought my DVD player purely to play my Stargate DVDs.  Isn't that the kind of spending power you're delighted to harness for your series and for the movie?  The kind of audience you want to appeal to?  The kind with money and commitment to your product?  The kind who want to buy your merchandise, though you don't feature our favourite character, Daniel on the little merchandise you make. 

I'm only buying season 4 myself because the good episodes, where Daniel is part of the team or gets more than a few lines, are eked out so I have to pay for the whole season to get maybe five episodes I actually want to see again.  I don't care about the rest, and some I hate.  For seasons 2 and 3, I used to take a day off work to enjoy my new DVD on the day it came out, proud to have contributed to helping it ride high in those high street ratings.  I buy it when I remember now.  I haven't had the heart to watch one of those episodes since the news about Michael Shanks' departure broke.  I haven't changed.  My passion and commitment to the show haven't diminished. 

I am not alone in being angry at the way MGM has marketed and merchandised Stargate SG-1. 

Those who came into the show from the movie were shocked to hear Daniel billed as 'the man who gets them home' in the series trailers. 

I had no idea who Sam was, and at the time, didn't care, but I was annoyed to hear her described as a 'visionary genius' when in fact her atrophyicist character had accomplished zip on the Stargate programme and hadn't even grasped a theory as simple as stellar drift. 

I grew to love Sam as one of the strongest female roles in sci-fi until the disastrously ill-judged romance red herring, but I have never understood MGM's fixation with her in marketing terms. 

The Stargate trading cards didn't feature images of Daniel even in episodes which were 'his'. 

He did not appear on the spines of the Season 3 videos at all, though the others did. 

His profile was last, behind General Hammond's, on the DVDs. 

He does not feature in the Stargate official calendar, which has bitterly disappointed many who bought it. 

The covers of the Season 4 DVDs seem to feature Sam and Jack against the universe. 

Again, Daniel does not feature on the spines of the videos for season 4.

This baffles us, as the majority of active, purchasing fans are not the mythic (and fickle) 18-25 year-old males MGM is so relentlessly focused on, but women from age 18 upwards.  Many of us are in our 30s at least, passionate about the quality of the show and very loyal to it.  We love Daniel and do not understand why our voice is not heard.  How many 18 year-old males do you know with the purchasing power to go out and buy a DVD player solely to watch Stargate DVDs?  I know none.

This is exactly why the popularity of Stargate SG-1 plunged among women from the top-rated show to sixth during Season 4, and still, MGM do not see this.  We do not know why.

Perhaps this will assist you to understand why MGM's marketing strategy baffles us so:

Season 4 fandom poll:

Favourite Main Character
 1st   Daniel  -  51.72%
eq 3rd   Sam  -  7.58% 

Least Favourite Main Character
eq 1st  Sam  -  30.15%
           Daniel - 30.15%

Least Favourite Plot Development
 1st  Sam and Jack   -  62.71%

Favourite Scene
 1st  The Balcony  in The Light  -  44.33%

Least Favourite Scene
 1st  Jack and Sam feelings in DaC  -  79.54%

All four characters should be marketed equally.  This is so very simple.  There are four members of SG-1, all of them unique and irreplaceable.  We want to see merchandise and marketingthat is fair to all of them.  It is unfair to Michael Shanks as it is, unfair to Daniel and to Daniel's many fans.  The 'success' of pushing Sam and Jack as the core relationship in season 4 was one of the key features of dissatisfaction with the season since it attacked the 'buddy' chemistry of Jack and Daniel which has always been so crucial to the show's success. 

Apart from a small vocal minority of shipper fans, the audience overwhelmingly rejected the Sam and Jack romance/ team focus.  I am still angry and upset at the way the fandom was set at odds over this and how dislike of this attack on the family feel of the team was so easily interpreted as an attack on those fans who enjoyed projecting their romance on the relationship.  They have been deprived of this most emphatically as the actors have gone to the opposite extreme, and the majority of the audience found it more difficult to like both Sam and Jack. 

All the more extraordinary that MGM would persist in marketing it now.

It makes no sense from a business point of view to ignore the demands of a large part of your audience, a demand you are easily able to supply.  You have bought Stargate SG-1 without its star attraction, the one character beloved of the majority of fans, the man with more websites dedicated to him than Brad Pitt, all the more remarkable for how little he is marketed and how little he had to do in season 4 and 5.  The loyalty of his fans is enduring and passionate.  Don't exclude us.  Michael Shanks has made clear his hope of returning to the show, with Daniel once more in his rightful place at the core of the dynamic.  It is within the power of The Sci-Fi Channel to push for this.  Your audience for the show depends on it.

Though all the characters bring something unique and special to the show, none have the appeal or inspire the love and loyalty of the fans as Daniel does.  His complexity draws us in, his innocence, fierce intelligence, moral courage, strength, gentleness and kind nature compel us.  We judge the show by him, and in his absence find it wanting.

Alison

(c) Alison, 2001.  All rights recognised.  No copyright infringement intended.