Stargate SG-1 Or Battlestar Galactica? (1 Viewer)

[RogerH]

Thanks for all the replies. I've pretty much made up my mind at this point. I'll be going with Battlestar Galactica. It is a serious drama but its just so damn good

 

[MarkHarrison]

My wife and I had the same decision this week. We're big Babylon 5 fans, Deep Space Nine Fans, and we recently finished Firefly. So she was looking for a new sci-fi show. We ended up going with SG-1. I don't recall why we didn't go with Farscape. I'm dying to see it myself. But I went with her choice since that means she'll be more likely to watch with me. Maybe we'll do Farscape when we're done with SG-1.

 

[John*D]

Watching season 10 is almost like watching Farscape...ha!

It's excellent. SG-1 all the way!

 

[Jeff#]

I hated Farscape, which is why I wasn't too thrilled when Ben Browder joined the cast of Stargate SG:1. He's just not much of an perfomer who's gotten by on his looks rather than acting ability. Also, Farscape's credibility as a sci-fi show was hurt by having a muppet character in the cast with the humans and aliens.

But Claudia Black was a fine addition to Stargate last year, although I think having her and Browder working together again is more a coincidence than intentional.

 

[david_hu]

Alot of us initially dismissed Farscape as Muppets in space, but after I finally bit the bullet and got the sets, Farscape became one of my top two SCifi shows ever. Browder & Black were superb imo.
As far as Gate V Galactica. I'd go for Gate for sheer variety. Seasons 1-5 on showtime were the best. It's gone downhill since it moved to the Scifi channel.
Galactica can be rather dour and get a bit one note after awhile.
Go for Gate and get Galactica down the line when a few more seasons have been out.

 

[david_hu]

If your wife's a romantic, she'll treasure Farscape.
I usually hate romance in my shows but I found the Aeryn/John relationship in Scape captivating.
I think the best scifi-romance ever done. With Gate, the Jack/Sam relationship was ridiculously forced imo. It was if they decided one day to pair them-sort of-in an ep from season 4, I think. It just was never believable IMO and in the end went nowhere.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

 

[Arild]

Well, I don't care about romance on SG-1 myself, but that's not entirely true. It had been hinted at and suggested many times before the episode in season 4 when they came right out and said it. And at the time, I don't think it was too forced. It does start feeling like that later on, though, when they drag it out for season after season. Thankfully, though, it was never really a major part of the show.

 

[Katherine_K]

Just because it was hinted at doesn't mean it isn't forced. I can admit that it's canon and still think it was forced and didn't have sufficient foundation. But this is one of those issues that violently splits the SG1 fandom, so it's probably not relevent to this thread.

 

[Arild]

Well, what I was referring to when I said "that's not entirely true" was the idea that the relationship was "suddenly" introduced in season four when it had in fact been around for a while before that. I'm just mentioning it, I don't neccesarily support the idea of "ship" between the characters - I really don't care either way, and fandom politics make me want to throw up (especially when it's taken to the absurd levels it has reached among certain SG-1 fans).

 

[Katherine_K]

On that I totelly agree!

 

[Bill>Moore]

I'll agree with the whole "ship" business thing. Ugghh!! I'm glad they never made any more of the Jack/Sam relationship than what we saw. A little hint was all we needed. I really love BSG a lot, but SG-1 is really a lot of fun to watch. I like watching those as much as just about any show I own on DVD.

 

[Katherine_K]

I think they are both two of my favorite DVD purchases and shows I come back to over and over. They are just very different IMO. Stargate (SG1 and Atlantis) are action adventures. BSG is a military drama. Which I watch entirely depends on my mood.

People who say you have to like one or the other (and let's toss Farscape into that too because there are Farscape fans who seem to think liking SG1 is an insult to Farscape for... whatever bizarre reason) is a false choice. It reminds me of a day a decade ago when I was told at a convention that I wasn't allowed to like both Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5.

 

[Simon Massey]

Im sorry but I couldn't let this one go. Why is it's credibility damaged ? If you didn't like the stories, fine, but this kind of criticism is no different than people dismissing Babylon 5 because its effects are too cartoony or dismissing a lot of SF shows because they aren't "real". The muppet(s) is/are a means to an end of producing an alien choaracter and one that wouldn't simply be a bloke wearing prosthetics. And IMO if you allowed yourself to get past the "muppet" tag in the same way you can get past the "man with prosthetics" tag, were also great characters.

 

[Katherine_K]

Hehe. You know when I read that this morning I was thinking about prosthetics too and didn't see why that was any different than muppet characters.

 

[Arild]

I think (some... or even many) Farscape fans blame its cancellation on SG-1. When SG-1 first moved to Sci Fi and was paired with Farscape, SG-1's ratings immediately went through the roof and Farscape's didn't. Then by the end of the season, Sci Fi cancelled the show. I guess fans feel Stargate stole its thunder. IMO, to hate the show because of this (and I have no doubts that this is the case with some folks) is not just petty and childish; it's also extremely unreasonable. What was Stargate supposed to do, intentionally suck to make Farscape look better??

Besides, it's not like Sci Fi all of a sudden decided "there can be only one". Neither Stargate show was cancelled when BSG came on and beat them ratings-wise. In all likelyhood, Farscape was cancelled because of the most obvious of reasons; it wasn't profitable any more.

 

[Simon Massey]

Farscape's cancellation had nothing to do with SG-1, and I am not sure why fans would blame it. In fact pairing it with SG-1 should have helped the show.

The biggest problem with Farscape is the continuity of the show - by the fourth season, despite the recap at the start, it was impossible for the show to gain new viewers as so much was dependent on your knowledge of what went before. This was a huge plus point in the show's favour for the fans but ultimately it was also the show's downfall.

SG-1 continues to thrive because although there is continuity the show isn't really dependent on it from week to week in the same way as Farscape was and Battlestar Galactica currently is. The basic concept of 4 people travelling through a gate to a distant world pretty much allows many stories to stand on their own individually, and the show is good at making sure the continuity they throw in there doesn't overwhelm viewers who dont watch it religiously - Farscape was never good at this.

For the record, I like both Farscape and SG1 though I prefer Farscape as a whole. SG1 is enjoyable but I never get the feeling that I would want to watch a particular episode again, barring the odd one. And to be honest, the characters of Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill in Season 1 don't seem that different from those in Season 8 - only Tealc seems to have gone through any sort of character progression. The continuity of a show like Farscape, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactice really encourage you to watch the show again from the beginning and watch how the characters develop. In any case it's great seeing Claudia Black and Ben Browder in SG-1.

And whilst I love it, I remain surprised by BSG's huge success which has been achieved in spite of the continuity it thrives on. It may be the one show to buck the trend, especially with the announcement of the new series, and long may it continue.

 

[Katherine_K]

I've heard the reason why some Farscape fans blame SG1 for the cancelation, I've just always found it bizarre. Ron Moore talks about Farscape's continuity problems at some point in one of the BSG commentaries. He called it... "Too inside baseball." I'm not convinced that BSG doesn't also have this fundamental flaw, and it makes me think that the series isn't facing the kind of long run SG1 has...

... but I love BSG and I hope I'm wrong on that. I have honestly never seen Farscape. I've ordered the Starburst DVDs and have all of them now except ironically 1.1. That's in the mail now and hopefully next week I start a Farscape marathon.

I think fans are fundamentally unreasonable. That's why they're called fans. It's short for fanatics. I'm a fan of many series, and I know my hopes for a show are often divorced from reality. Take say, Conviction, the Dick Wolf property from NBC last spring, I liked it a fair bit. Okay, I like Alex Cabot and I would have watched that character in anything, but it was fairly obvious that the show was tanking a few episodes in ratings wise. That reality which i kept in one part of my mind didn't change my completely irrational hope that it would get a fall pick up.

When fans see something they consider brilliant canceled they need to look for the villian to make them feel better. It's usually the network, and certainly never silly things like ratings and the nature of the series. I called the SG1 killed Farscape theory bizarre in my first post because I meant it. I think it's silly, childish, and bizarre. Doesn't mean that in every forum where Stargate comes up I don't see at least one bitter Farscape fan who will be perfectly willing to trash the series. If they have seen it or not.

To be honest, that kind of irrational fan behavior is one reason why it's been so far down on my list of shows I've never seen to pickup.

 

[Simon Massey]

Hope you enjoy Farscape - despite its cancellation, I remain grateful the show was given an opportunity to wrap up the storylines and bring the show to a conclusion with a miniseries (they should do this more often with cancelled shows!!!).

Had the series ended at the end of Season 4, it would have been infuriating. This show demanded a proper ending and fortunately it got one.

Lets hope BSG doesn't suffer a similar fate. I think the show is plagued by exactly the same continuity issue that Farscape had, which, whilst making the show much better IMO, unfortunately leaves it struggling to attract new viewers and prevent cancellation down the line. Hopefully the success it has achieved that Farscape never did will prevent this.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

What kind of fool made that statement? I enjoyed both. I love SG1, Atlantis & BSG. I like everything Star Trek, (although some things were weaker than others, still better than most of what's on TV. Farscape doesn't seem to interesting to me, so I have never watched it. But then I always felt that way about Andromeda, and my son bugged me to watch it. Earlier this year I rented most of the disks and did enjoy that. However, Andromeda still falls below Babylon 5, Stargate and Star Trek on my scale.

My favorite of all is B5. I think the effects are fine. What I really love is all the character development and how so many things tie in together. Years after getting all the DVD's, I have been watching B5 episode after episode, these past few weeks, and this is making it even more enjoyable.