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 | Thought of the Day for TPTB Good business sense: make the product the audience wants to buy. Let's take a look at a few figures. Stargate SG-1 lost 15% of its audience within the early episodes of season 4. There has to be a reason why. The fandom poll has a few suggestions: Least Favourite Episode Least Favourite Plot Development Least Favourite Scene Least Favourite Supporting Character Least Favourite Incidental Character Interestingly, all but 'Entity' occurred in the early episodes of Stargate SG-1. TPTB listen, don't they? The uproar over the Tok'ra Barbie Anise was so great she never appeared again after her initial episodes. There was great upset from fans over the death of Martouf: "The big problem, I think, was they were so intent on saying to the audience, ‘Daniel’s not dead!’ This was mainly for the benefit of the same viewers who apparently got so upset last season when Martouf [JR Bourne] was killed off in Divide and Conquer. The powers that he wanted to quell any backlash that might take place with the fans concerning Daniel’s departure. What they ended up doing lessened the impact of his leaving. They didn’t give the viewers a chance to grieve the ‘passing’ of the character." That's wonderful news. TPTB are indeed responsive to what the audience wants. 6.77% of online fans were greatly upset about Martouf dying, so TPTB were sensitive enough to make sure we all know that Daniel isn't dead. He just got written out. What does the audience say about Sam and Jack? Least Favourite Episode Least Favourite Plot Development Least Favourite Scene The ratings plummet pretty much bears this out. How did TPTB respond to these criticisms from the audience? The furore over Divide and Conquer was so great producer Brad Wright had to post to the Alt-TV Stargate SG-1 newsgroup at Usenet to reassure outraged fans that O'Neill and Carter would remain Air Force professionals and the storyline had gone as far as it could go. This plot line was an excellent choice.
Favourite Main Character Least Favourite Main Character Best Body Shot Sexiest Character Best Dressed Character Character who has been the meanest to others And Sam? Favourite Main Character Least Favourite Main Character Sexiest Character Best Dressed Character Sam's popularity pretty much plummetted. Our positive female role model wasn't too positive this season. Sam lost ground with everyone so much so she only came out third in the favourite character poll, trailing Daniel by 44.14% In the ratings for season 4 on Showtime, that coveted male demographic went up 25%; Stargate was ranked first with males 18-24. Great! Well done. What about men 25-49? And women of all ages? Stargate dropped from ranked first to sixth. Was the trade off worth it? 25% more 18-24 males watched the show. And Stargate lost 26% of its audience overall. Those women, men and households who switched off? They're the majority audience. Not the fickle young males MGM and TPTB are courting so assiduously. Showtime's own demographic breakdown shows that a whopping 60% of its audience is adult, ages 19-49. The audience is also split evenly between men and women, which is very unusual for a sci-fi show. In the May 01 season 3 syndication sweeps - shortly after 'Shades of Grey' aired and the first hints of the Sam and Jack romantic storyline were introduced - ratings were significantly down on season 2. Syndication ratings for season 4 show a further 15% drop for some episodes. Fans weren't quiet about their views. It worked wonderfully well with Martouf and Anise. TPTB listened and learned. I checked out my trusty region 2 DVDs, the Brit and European market being so beloved bt MGM we get DVDs and the US doesn't, along with nifty features and directors commentaries where they reveal all kinds of things we knew were going on the whole time. So how has MGM quietly distanced itself from a divisive plot line and a re-engineered team dynamic that cost it 26% of its audience outright after Divide and Conquer aired? Um...
Woo! Way to give the audience constant reminders of what they emphatically don't want. We have no way to know why the MGM marketing machine went this way after the previous volumes had a mix of Jack, team and Jack with different members of the team. Oh, and the cast weren't too thrilled either. Mr. Shanks is one cast member with his finger very much on the pulse of what the audience wants. He's too modest to say it's largely him, but he is very generous about the focus on the Sam and Jack relationship, the redefining of the team and his sidelining. Especially as it cost Stargate 26% of its audience. "Daniel is a bit of a loner and an outsider and to top it off, he's not a soldier. So when the fighting starts what do we do with him? We have him crouch behind a rock and leave him out of the action or we don't have him in the scene at all. I found this happened more and more this year , especially since the creation of the red herring relationship between Jack O'Neill and Sam Carter. The series has gone in a direction that I did not expect and, believe me, I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all. I'm just saying I think Daniel has been slightly limited in his actual interaction with the team. Again, stories where he has been the focus have been wonderful, but they sort of end up excluding the rest of SG-1. So if anything, my wish for next season would be for my character to be worked a little more into the group dynamic." Of course this is only the opinion of 'The Young Lord Of The Internet' (co-star Chris Judge), 'the heart and soul of your series' (Executive Producer Brad Wright). And a lot of fans. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask, does it? After all, these are the plot lines that cost Stargate SG-1 25% of its audience overall during S4. Sounds like good business sense to me. Make a product that sells. How does Daniel fare with the fans? Favourite Episode Favourite Main Character Least Favourite Main Character Favourite Scene Best Director Best Newcomer behind the cameras Best Body Shot Best Weapon Moment Best Dressed Character Sexiest Character Character who has been the nicest to others Character you would like to hug the most Character who has been the meanest to others Character you would like to sit down and have a beer with Best moment that made you go "OOOOH!" O-kaay. That's fairly emphatic. We love Daniel. We want more Daniel. He's not toopopular with the fans of Sam and Jack, but they're a tiny minority and his popularity with the majority of fans is astounding. Not surprising with this strength of feeling for the character that Michael Shanks has more fan sites dedicated to him than Brad Pitt! MGM are going to want to market their hottest property up the wazoo, right? Right? Umm... Daniel doesn't feature on the 2002 official Stargate SG-1 calendar. He doesn't feature on the sets of Trading Cards, not even for episodes which were his character showcases. We've seen how the season 4 DVDs are being marketed. 3 out of 5 covers so far feature Sam and Jack. Daniel is something of a side issue here. There are 4 characters in SG-1. Why can't they all appear on the DVD cover? We watch for the whole team, the family dynamic we're being deprived of. Farscape manages it just fine. Back to Daniel. He's not on the pretty picture the spines of the S3 videos make up. Ditto for the S4 videos. Sam and Jack feature on even more of the video covers than they do of the DVD covers. So how does Daniel fare with the MGM marketing of S4 given his overwhelming popularity? Oh, boy. I looked in vain for representation on the DVD covers of course. We've got Jack or Jack and Sam. Sooo...Daniel had some standout episodes, unarguably his showcase episodes and the DVDs have those neat little buttons for each episode on the back, so he'll be there, right? Here we go:
Hearteningly, I did find a picture of him from 'Scorched Earth' in which he featured prominently, which means he's at least as popular with TPTB as Anise. It's behind the disc in the box. That's kind of balanced out by the picture behind the disc in the case for Window of Opportunity. He's been edited out of that one and we only get the other three. It's not all doom and gloom. Daniel does get a little lozenge outside and in the DVD case for 'Upgrades'. And a little lozenge inside for 'Chain Reaction'. Jack gets 5 covers, 8 lozenges and 5 pictures behind the disc. Sam gets 3 covers, 8 lozenges and one picture behind the disc. Teal'c has a better presence than Daniel too, which is pretty good, because his popularity slumped in season 4 when he was given so little to do. Supply and demand anyone? Market forces? Make what the audience wants? Not in the case of Stargate SG-1. This is all just basic economics. Check out PhoenixE's essays if you want to know how well the episodes actually met the needs and demands of the paying customer: | go | How did we fare in season 5? This was my season 5 wishlist, which is fairly typical: · Synergy: the team once again being about four people flowing into one, that one being greater than the sum of its constituent parts. No. · Recognition from TPTB that the inclusive and catalytic nature of the Jack and Daniel friendship is the heart and soul of the show, allowing for not only character growth but conflict, as well as a focus for the whole subtly shifting and evolving team dynamic. No. · Peter De Luise, Robert C. Cooper, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie have shown a keen grasp for all these essentials and are hereby requested (begged) to collaborate on as many S5 shows as they can get away with. Mr. Mallozzi and Mr. Mullie have worked on many of the shows in S5 and the season is distinctly lacklustre so far. Mr. Mallozzi promised lots of Sam and boy, he wasn't kidding. I'm not sure of the why of that. Singling out the least popular character for pretty near the central focus of the team as well as the episodes? We had lots of Sam in season 4. We didn't like Sam as she was in season 4, though we'd loved her in seasons 1, 2 and 3. We wanted the team as equals, working together. Like in seasons 1, 2 and 3. In season 5 we got 8 out of 16 episodes showcasing Sam and only 6 out of 16 that were team episodes. We got a lot more of what we didn't want in the first place and not very much at all of what we did want. Isn't there a saying? Do whatever you're doing wrong harder? Check out the season 5 tally: | go | · Jack will once again be the Jack the Lad we learned to know and love in S1-3: complex, wilful, perceptive, heroic, endearingly warm and compassionate, funny, stubborn, downright sneaky and dangerously charming. Jack will TELL jokes, he will not BE a joke. He will be emotionally invested in all his kids. There will be BANTER. The soul destroying nature of his work in Black Ops will not be used in throwaway lines where he is the Clarice to Maybourne’s Lecter, but will be explored as powerfully as Daniel’s dark side in AP. TPTB will throw us a bone about Jack’s childhood and family, and show us this particular fruit doesn’t fall far from the family tree. Jack will continue to exercise his god-given ability to get on the nerves of absolutely everybody in the galaxy. No, not really. · The writers will not be afraid of mature and thoughtful exposition of Daniel's character: his fierce complexity, integrity, empathy (nothing so simple or cheap as sympathy from Daniel), warmth, dignity, passion and genius. Many of us recognise that Daniel is in many respects the most capable and resourceful team member, whose lateral thinking and independence have gotten him out of far worse situations alone than the team has often faced together. The writers will not use that as an excuse to make him do every mortal thing all on his own, and will in fact build upon the character traits so compellingly teased out by Robert C. Cooper in AP. It would be rather wonderful if Daniel got to have his share of the action stuff too. We don’t really want him draped decoratively in the background while everyone else does the manly shoot to kill/blow stuff up thing. He has been seen with a P-90 to great effect. Apart from that, no. No way. In fact, he's carelessly been discarded by TPTB as unimportant. Daniel featured in exactly two episodes this season, and three if look at the early part of 'The Tomb'. · Sam will once again be a fully rounded three dimensional character, a scientist, a soldier and the best of good friends and the woman we have grown to admire: warm, caring, clever, independent, resourceful, focused, brave, supportive and loyal. Jolinar’s memories will finally be addressed in a mature and meaningful way that does not depend on using Sam as the patented SGC Goa’uld detector. She will not be Jack’s girl in actuality or by inference. She will be her own woman. If at all possible, could we arrange for her to get some payback for the frock she had to wear in Emancipation and the ‘sweet little tank top’? Let her KEEP her uniform while the guys...join your own dots and supply the costume of your choice. No, not really. Sam hasn't been Jack's girl, quite the opposite. She can hardly contain her contempt some episodes. She has however been Orlin's girl, Narim's girl, Joe's girl and remembered being Martouf's girl. She's also been Super Sam saving the universe and Scully in X-Gate. Not so much as whisper of Jolinar and she was used as a sniffer dog in 'The Tomb'. · Teal’c will have all of his usual gravitas, as well as a subtle, ironic sense of humour, playful warmth, dignity, awesome determination and stoic defiance blazing off the screen, sheer heroism and a lot more screen time in which to explore, e.g. the hitherto largely ignored fact he used to be the commanding officer of a vast, sophisticated army that kicked Earth’s butt in nine out of ten alternate realities. Humour is good, but he is not the comedy Jaffa or Jack’s straight man. He will have some meaningful interaction with Sam, perhaps the two of them working hand in hand to rescue Jack and Daniel from some deadly peril or other. For one episode, 'Threshold' and almighty YES!!!!! Then nothing. Less than season 4. I said in the season 4 poll that Teal'c had a lot of potentional to be included as a main character if they would only write for him. If I was even going to make it to the end of season 5 to participate in the next poll, I'd suggest they give that Teal'c guy a speaking part. He's great. Oh, one success, we did get 'Beast of Burden' which was Sam and Teal'c rescuing Jack and Daniel from deadly peril in a series best. · None of the characters will be marginalized, and isolation of the teammates one by three or two by two will only happen when the resulting dramatic tension will have the viewers bruising their bums because they’ve just fallen off the edge of their seats for the third time. No. Rubber aliens and Starmageddon SG-1. · There will be trips through that glowing blue puddle up top of the ramp. That’s what it’s there for. We will have the team in peril off-world with strong action plots, some really kick-ass aliens and demonically evil overlords as appropriate. No for the aliens. No for the puddle. Yes for action with 'Enemies'. Yes for evil overlords. Had them up the wazooh. · George Hammond just needs to go on being the EXACT same commanding officer and man he’s always been. Yep. Score one for The texan. · Doctor Fraiser’s sterling contribution should be recognised and TR should join the regular cast credits. No. Sob. · We will have Major Davis, Martouf and Maybourne back with bang if at ALL possible. As for villains, let’s have more Osiris please. Actually yes, but I didn't expect to see quite so much of Maybourne. Osiris is pretty cool. · TPTB will not blatantly give the audience what they think we think we want, no matter how loudly we shout we want it, because what we think, say and actually want are often three different things. Pandering in fact alienates your audience. Never stoop. TPTB will instead remain true to the characters, and try for the inclusiveness that characterised S1-3, relying on subtlety and subtext to satisfy the personal agendas of the various sectors of the audience if they feel they must. TPTB can’t please all of us all of the time, but if they stay true to the team dynamic they will please most of us most of the time, and themselves all of the time. This one is both no and yes. TPTB have in fact gone all out to alienate as many members of the audience as possible. Teal'c fans can pass the time playing the count the Jaffa lines game. It's mean to keep mentioning how much Sam there has been and how strongly we said we didn't want that. We got some lovely Jack and Daniel friendship. Lovely Sam and Daniel friendship. Even Teal'c and Daniel friendship. We got hardly any team episodes. Seriously. Can't write for four characters. Can't be fair to four characters. TPTB don't want to make the show we want to pay for, We lost Daniel. · In RL, all fans will refrain from personal attacks on cast members and respect fans who’s opinions differ from their own, even if they don’t respect their opinions. We will work together to secure S6 if it’s humanly possible. Yep, we did that. Not that it matters. Not that the fandom united for very long. We lost Daniel. · We will ENJOY Stargate and talk about it endlessly and enthusiastically. We can't. We lost Daniel. I'm switching off. I'm not alone. Alison (c) Alison, 2001. All rights recognised. No copyright infringement intended. |
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