Confessions of a Gater

okay, so i let this one sit in our ask box quite a while, not sure how to respond to this. but in light of stargate origins premiering in less than 2 weeks, i figured i had to do something with this. so i will try to explain this one last time.

you are more than welcome to dislike stargate origins. you are more than welcome to say this isn’t what you wanted or what you were hoping for. most of us weren’t. we’d all like our beloved shows to get one more episode, or one more movie. especially since we were robbed of it. and therein lies the exact problem. we’ve been through this 7 years ago, when people were so angry about the cancellation of atlantis that they refused to give universe a chance. and yes, universe was different and no, it didn’t have any of the characters we already knew and loved. but in the end, the entire franchise was cancelled and abandoned.

truth be told, even with all the reboots and revivals, i never thought stargate would be among them. i figured, since we were never syfy’s favorite, we wouldn’t get our revival. but we did! and it won’t be the same, it doesn’t have the same budget and it doesn’t air on the same network to the same audience. but this our chance. writers and directors from the franchise have said that this our opportunity, our chance to get more beyond stargate origins. they have confirmed that if origins does well, MGM is willing to produce more stargate. think about it; we might even get sg1, sga and/or sgu back in some form! but that will only happen if we respond with positivity. we’ve seen what all the bitching did 7 years ago. so maybe this time, we try something different? let’s all not make the same mistake we did back then. you can criticize origins, but be respectful, and let MGM and syfy know how much we loved this franchise, and how grateful we are they are willing to bring it back to life.

this is our only chance folks, let’s make it work! ;)

Hi anon!

apologies for the late reply. there’s no definitive airdate yet. first they said it would air in the fall, but, well… we all know that didn’t happen. last i heard, it’s scheduled to air in late january/early februari, so let’s hope that’s the case! they did wrap filming, i think, so it shouldn’t be too long.

also remember folks; the way the fans respond to origins will decide whether or not there will be more future stargate projects. so even if this is not the stargate show you want the most, try to be positive and let the people at MGM know!

sorry anon, but you seem to be contradicting yourself here. first, you ask us if we’re not taking this too far because it’s a show about aliens, thereby suggesting that the rules are not the same as in the real world. then, you talk about how the show tried to stay historically correct. whose history? ours, the real people in the world? because you yourself just said it’s a show about aliens, so it’s not the same.so the history of the fictional characters then? the people who were once taken by the goa'uld, and placed all over the galaxy? that would make sense if you look at biology. after all; the people of earth back then were mostly poc, so it would make sense that their descendants would also be poc, and therefore explain why the Jaffa are poc. except that a lot of other non-jaffa people, born or living on a world once occupied by the goa'uld but have since been freed, all coincidentally were white, yet the enslaved jaffa were not. that only places more emphasis on the problem; that the enslaved people on the show were all poc, while the free, powerful and allied characters were not. we’re not talking about a storyline that lasted for a season or two, this storyline remained present throughout its entire run, and then continued on stargate atlantis in the same way.again; the show first aired 20 years ago and times were different, so you can’t compare to what shows are like today, and what they have to live up to. but i do believe they could’ve done better, especially when atlantis and universe came to be. with those two shows, they had an opportunity to do things differently, and they didn’t. the poc were still the outsiders, the savages and the problem soldiers, and the white people were the ones in charge, playing hero and whatnot.it may not be inherently racist like some other shows or movies, but it’s problematic to say the least.

Hey anon! no worries, i’m always happy to talk about stargate, even its flaws.

i think at its core, the problem is very simple; the majority of the Jaffa (or just simply put the slaves of the goa’uld) are all people of color, teal’c of course being the primary example here. i’ve always felt that stargate addressing slavery was a good and important part of the show. it was teal’cs major storyline and it went on for the entirety of its 10 year run. however, the fact that the producers chose to have POC to play these slaves is curious and uncomfortable. it wasn’t until much later on that some caucasian actors were cast as well, but by that time the damage was already done. why do this? why cast only POC as the Jaffa? why have this play out the same way it has in real life? it’s disgusting and they should’ve thought this more through. i know the show first started 20 years ago and back then, awareness for these matters were different. there was hardly any social media and the pressure from fans and critics was not as high as it is today. so they got away with it. back then.

imo, it also didn’t help that the main villain for the first five seasons was also played by a POC, while our heroes were essentially all white. the tok’ra (or the ‘good’ goa’uld) were also primarily played by caucasian actors, as were almost any allies of earth.

on atlantis, is was very coincidental that once again, the people they encountered on other planets and became part of their teams (teyla and ronon) were also POC. it started out smart when they had ford on the team, but he was quickly replaced with ronon, and that was it. they’d met their quota, it seemed.

on both shows, even in its later years, there were hardly any POC. in fact, i can’t even name one POC on atlantis, other than the aforementioned.