[Nerd Rant] The Great ‘Star’ Battle — Another Contender
It’s the eternal debate which flares up with every re-release and every new installment – Star Trek vs Star Wars. I like both to an extent, but I want to throw in the hat of another ‘Star’ I think is better than both: Stargate.
Yes, it’s much younger that the others, but its pedigree holds up. It’s done well in both film and TV with many arms to its franchising and, like is elders, the later installments weren’t as good as the originals.
Starting in 1994 with a film starring Kurt Russel and James Spader, we were first introduced to the concept of a Stargate – a stabilised wormhole that transported you in an instant to another world. The film had some of the same ingredients as the original Star Wars. Sandy planets, plucky sarcastic heroes and faceless bad guys with phaser-type weapons. It was a fun family film, and the ending left so much possibility that a series was (thankfully) inevitable.
In 1997 Richard Dean ‘McGuyver’ Anderson took the role of Jack O’Neill and Michael Shanks became Dr Daniel Jackson. He got the part because he lookede a lot like James Spader, but as far as I’m concerned he played Dr Jackson far better than Spader. Plus he’s more attractive.
What I like most about the pilot episode is that it doesn’t try to retell the story. It picks up after the film and assumes the audience knows the story so far. It’s gratifying to be treated like semi-intelligent humans by TV. This incarnation gave us Captain Samantha Carter, played by Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge’s defecting Jaffa Teal’c. Each episode sees the SG1 team travel to a far off planet with a civilisation that is different from our own but also very similar – a lot like the crew of the Starship Enterprise.
Stargate SG1 ran for 10 seasons – the length of ToS and TNG‘s runs combined. It also spawned two tv movies; Ark of Truth and Continuum, as well as its two spin-off series’ Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe. Further was the little known animated series Stargate: Infinity and the game Stargate: Resistance.
I love Star Trek: The Next Generation but the other offshoots of the series weren’t as enchanting. Similarly I’m not a fan of the Star Wars prequels, cartoons or expanded universe in general. Atlantis and Universe fall into this category for me. From what I saw, Stargate: Universe didn’t even have Stargates. One thing I will say for Stargate: Atlantis; it gave the world the utterly gorgeous Jason Momoa, for which we are very grateful.
Much like the original Star Wars trilogy, the sub-par extensions do nothing to detract from the brilliance of the original.
I could go on all day about my love for Stargate: SG1 - I even liked the later seasons when half the human cast of Farscape showed up, albeit not as much as the rest, except maybe the short period around Season 6 where Daniel Jackson went AWOL. I will save you the love letter to MGM and just leave it with a question: Do you agree? and What other ‘Star’ would you argue deserves to be there?
Ok, that was two questions. Answer them anyways.
