Stargate: Universe is the least popular entry in the Stargate television franchise that spun off from the movie of the same name. It was criticized at the time specifically for being too much of an imitation of the then-popular Battlestar Galactica remake spearheaded by Ron Moore; edgy violence, political storytelling, and interpersonal drama. None of these things were completely out of the blue for Stargate but they were presented with both an intensity that mismatched previous entries in the franchise and, more crucially, insincerity. Abigail Nussbaum wrote well about how S:U was actually quite late in the game in catching up with the cool kids; audiences could feel the sweaty desperation to be taken seriously and turned away.
One of my projects the last half-decade has been visiting scifi American TV of the 90’s that I either hadn’t seen since I was a kid or had never seen at all, and the most unexpected outcome was coming to appreciate how S:U happened. Stargate: SG-1 premiered in 1997, when I was six years old; I came to it knowing only really knowing Star Trek: TNG and Star Wars. In actuality, it was a blend of every popular speculative fiction show at the time. Its premise and main character dynamic lifting, obviously, from Star Trek; its cinematic style and government conspiracy subplots lifting from The X-Files; its longform intergalactic political plotting lifting from Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
(I’m also fairly certain the mythological aspect of the Goa’uld and local cultures is lifted directly from Xena: Warrior Princess, but I haven’t watched that yet)
Stargate: SG-1 shows the principle that if you steal from one person, it’s plagiarism, and if you steal from everybody, it’s research. Because no one influence beyond the film dominates the writing, a unique tone and morality emerges; because every single technique in it is a proven successful quantity, it’s a functional story. I question its lack of ambition but I don’t question the process. It actually seems quite sensible – these are a bunch of different ideas we know people respond to, so let’s put them in a blender and see what comes out.
What really struck me is how many of the shows that clearly influenced SG-1 were still on the air and, indeed, still in their prime when it premiered. The X-Files was at its absolute cultural dominance; Deep Space Nine was deep into what’s widely considered its best years, with Worf entering the cast and the Dominion Wars; Babylon 5 was finishing up the main arc, paying off years of work; Star Trek: TNG had been off the air a few years finishing an absolutely iconic, genre-defining run. In this context, Stargate is a kind of reliable workhorse; if TNG, Babylon 5 and The X-Files were pioneers, and Deep Space Nine was building a new city on that path, Stargate: SG-1 was someone taking a job in that city.
From this perspective, it completely makes sense why they’d try to rip from whatever’s popular for their new series. It’s almost like the third act decision from the tragic hero, where they do what has worked for them up until now in a completely incorrect context. Hey, using popular techniques led to us creating a widely beloved, iconic television show that lasted a decade – why not do it again? There were two problems, however. The first is that they didn’t fully understand the techniques they were using; I criticize Ron Moore’s take on Battlestar Galactica for its hypocritical commitment to a status quo, but it took a season and a half for that to become a problem, not three episodes, and whatever you say about the characters and their stolid development, all of them are immediately and vividly charming and compelling.
The second is that this one idea was dominating the whole work, making the influence blatantly obvious in a way that wasn’t quite true before. Like I said, steal from one person and it’s plagiarism. It turned all the creative decisions into artifice; purity of heart and good intentions absolutely matters for art, because audiences can pick your intentions in a heartbeat even if they can’t quite put words to that. If you’re here to put the human condition to a stunning melodrama that asks the big questions, that’s what they’ll see; if you’re here to fill time, they’ll notice that too.
This is interesting because, at time of writing, I’ve just finished my first book and it’s lifting pretty heavily from the premise of Stargate. I hope to hell it’s not actually plagiarism; I didn’t lift any of the characters, my villains are quite different from the Goa’uld, Ori, and Wraiths, and I only stole one episode’s plot. Hell, I don’t even have a Stargate – I took that out on the basis that Stargate so thoroughly owns the concept that I could never live up to it. I hope that I lift from Stargate the way Stargate lifted The X-Files and Star Trek and Babylon 5 and so on. I know my intentions are pure, and that I’m trying to put the human condition etc etc.
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
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Year of the Month
A man's attitude goes some ways to the way his [movie interpretation] will be. Is that somethin' you might agree with?
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Conversation
I have not thought about Stargate in ages. Watched a bit of it when I had Showtime for a while, was aware of the big developments on the show, rewatched the movie at some point, and kept passing on watching it when it was on a streaming service I have. It’s sort of weird to me how big it got in terms of IP, but it still barely seems worth thinking about other than “Bed Browder and Claudia Black were reunited, and made fun of Farscape once, cool.”
What did we watch?
Happy Endings, Season Two, Episode Eight, “The Code War”
“Think less morning. And less TV. And no TV.”
“I did not know I was gonna react like that.”
“Yeah, I went playground, you went hair band.” […] “You’re right, hair band was better.”
“Wow. Look at how he spelled ‘come over’.”
“I thought was he was just a bad speller.”
“Even Max is a good kisser?”
“Especially Max.”
“The guy who once found a cricket in his mouth?”
“Two of my favourite people hanging out! It’s like when Mike Meyers and Kanye West tried to raise money for Hurricane Katrina.”
“And you said, ‘I lick everything, from little envelopse to big packages.”
“In my defence, I do lick every piece of mail, it’s the only way to make sure it’s completely sealed.”
“My job is 80% busywork and 20% figuring out who keeps drawing genitals on Sharon’s lunch.”
“Honestly, I think he’s freaked out by you.”
“So he’s thinking about you.”
“Let’s draw a Hitler moustache on the Michael Jordan statue so he looks like modern day Michael Jordan.”
“I’m gonna stay here and stew in my own anger a bit.”
“Oh ho ho, if Harvey Milk could hear that!”
“No more dress code, bro. Turned all your T’s into super tight V’s.”
“That is your bra! Which is holdin’ up your breasticles!”
“Why is she rubbing her baby hand on me?”
“Just ignore her.”
“We ran out of codes, so I made up a new one.”
Max accidentally invents the broccoli haircut on Dave a decade early.
“I’m gonna go visit Accounts Receivable. That’s what us HR guys call the bathroom.”
“Aren’t you, like, forty-eight?”
“I’m twenty-nine!”
“Oh my god, your hair! You look like a Jonas Uncle!”
“You don’t gotta show off for your friend. Get over here.”
Don Giovanni
Staged by Opera Australia. I enjoyed this a lot – about as much sense of humour as I’d expect from Mozart, and it made a lot of sense that his protagonist is just a guy who indulges every single whim and destroys everyone around him to achieve that. Did not expect a classical tragedy to just end with the main guy being dragged to Hell.
Revolver
This is famous as Guy Ritchie getting goofy and pretentious, and as a goofy and pretentious guy myself, I thought it was worth checking out. The fascinating thing is that he only rarely loses his eye for cool imagery and filmmaking; the random bits of CG are dumb as fuck (though the killing of the one Chinese guy gets points) but everything else here is top-notch, right from the cool-as-hell opening where a long sequence is held together by this cool-as-hell Carpenterian soundtrack to the various one-liners and bits of violence. Even the acting is top-notch; the funny thing about Statham being an action hero is that Ritchie, who plucked him from obscurity, has never actually used him as a straight action hero, but rather as a normal guy in way over his head, and this might actually be his most interesting and even vulnerable performance. And, of course, it’s almost impossible to make Andre 3000 not cool.
The problem is that this is narratively nonsensical and clearly based on a bunch of ideas Ritchie is enthusiastic about but only really make sense to him. No problem with that – we all have weird beliefs, I think, and some of the coolest people on Earth got that way by reconciling themselves to insane beliefs – but putting them on the surface doesn’t really do anybody favours. The special problem here is that he seems convinced that it’s the symbolism that will convince people rather than explaining the ideas themselves. That said, I do enjoy the emotional climax, which simplifies itself right down to “you gotta put yourself in discomfort occasionally”.
Part of this is their similar physicality/folicularity, but Statham has a lot in common with Bruce Willis as a dude in over his head — both can really use their eyes as “oh shit” indicators, not necessarily overwhelmed but registering that things are not easily taken care of.
Hmm, did they change the joke, or did it come up again in another episode? Because I remember this exchange:
“I thought he wanted me to come over for dinner.”
“Look how late he texted!”
“I thought it was European dinner.”
“Look how he spelled ‘cum.'”
“I thought it was the European spelling.”
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – A woman is suddenly widowed and left to raise an 11 year old with no means of support, and works to rebuild her life. Watched mainly because of Blank Check, and while I am glad I watched, this isn’t entirely my sort of movie. Scorsese’s work here is the for the most part very good, and Burstyn is very good (though I don’t think she was Oscar worthy, and not as good as Faye Dunaway in Chinatown), and the relationship between mother and son is touching. But this just doesn’t really grab me. And what the heck was up with that intro, Marty? Or Ellen letting Kris Kristofferson back in her life after he spanks her son? Still, some scenes really stand out, especially Ellen and Diane Ladd talking while sunbathing in a shot that is entirely on their faces, avoiding any objectification in favor of humanization. And wow, the song playing the background when Ellen meets Harvey Keitel is “I Will Always Love You.” Dolly Parton really was the background music of our times. RIP.
Spider-Noir, “Nobody’s Hero” – The antidote in hand, Ben has some huge choices to make, and needs Robbie to be the conscience he says he doesn’t have. Two good fights, though the CGI is of course showing, and a great final scene that uses split screens really well and sets up the finale. Shoutout this time to LaMorne Morris, who has been excellent as Robbie, a character very different than the one in the comics but still a moral compass in a world that needs one.
Elementary, “The Invisible Hand”/”A Difference in Kind” – So it’s not Moriarty, but her former lover and self-proclaimed chief lieutenant, a well connected college professor, who is running Moriarty’s organization. (Obvious echo of the original Professor Moriarty.) And while Moriarty has declared Sherlock and Joan off limits, no such rules exist for Morland, who is without knowing someone other people in the group’s choice to run things since he is a master planner and clearly amoral. There are some interesting twists here, and it’s kind of fun to see Morland realize how he looks from the outside, and the notion of a secret cartel that is less interested in political power than in just getting wealthier is a more intriguing use of Moriarty than the usual mad plotter. But the ending – Morland agrees to take over the cartel to dismantle it from within – is not entirely satisfying. Overall, the fourth season has some great standalone episodes, and a decent arc, but John Noble just never clicked.
Barney Miller, ” The Arsonist”/”Grand Hotel” – In the former, the chase is on for an arsonist (familiar face Steve Franken) and Roger Bowen plays a man annoyed with a broken candy machine in a subway station shoots it up. In the latter, Wojo and Wentworth are sent undercover to investigate a series of hotel robberies, and do more than staking things out while sharing a room, even as the hotel detective (Robert Mandan) arrests a college student (Adam) for “rape” as he’s sharing a room with his 17 year old girlfriend. (How is Adam Arkin now 70?) Hard to really to have what to say sometimes. These episodes are funny, well acted, and not very profound. Barney Miller is not MASH, not even Frasier, when it comes to variety. In some ways it’s very much a typical well done 70s sitcom. PS: Linda Lavin is very good as Wentworth, and will be a huge success as Alice on the sitcom of the same name. But she is hardly anyone’s first choice to take over a role originated by Ellen Burstyn.
Last Of The Mohicans — the first action hero! Natty Bumpo, oh I’m sorry, Hawkeye, is the uber-capable guy that Tom Cruise has built a career out of, I hate him. Daniel Day-Lewis smirks a lot and fortunately Madeline Stowe is here to carry his ass, she is the heart of the movie and what turns Bumpo into a romantic lead (which Day-Lewis is admittedly good at when he gets around to it). But the soul of the movie is Wes Studi’s Magua, just a towering performance of ownage and the only person who can stop him is Russell Means, fittingly enough. This played better on rewatch but is still lesser Mann to me, although my “special edition” DVD may be partially to blame, it looks like butts. What the hell is going on here?
Coyote vs. Acme — in his opening commercial Will Forte is very clearly imitating the hucksterism of Phil Hartman, so the movie’s heart is very much in the right place. And because this is a movie, there is heart here, story arcs and character development and whatnot. Moreso than the delightfully daffy Day The Earth Stood Stupid but Wile E. is a character who can handle pathos better than any other toon, he does not speak but is as funny and expressive as ever. And of course the movie’s production history and Zaslavian fuckery gives it a specific kick, although on a certain level the film only makes sense with this extra-textural info that was not present when it was made, very odd. But! Lots of laughs, the humans acquit themselves well — Forte and Cena are good but exemplary toady PJ Byrne is a hoot and Martha Kelly is MVP, there’s a very brief flash of Droopy Dog as a gag and Kelly gives him a run for his money in terms of deadpan. And there are a ton of toons, the use of a certain skunk got a huge laugh but there are folks here as texture as much as humor and this is the most Roger Rabbit aspect of the film. But also like Rabbit, the movie looks great — Brandon Trost’s cinematography is gorgeous, actual movie shit here! The end reframes a certain relationship as more Kat than Coyote, an interesting choice. Perhaps more to come.
Martha Kelly is Droopy Dog in human form, this tracks. Me and my animation major friend are excited to see it.
A bunch of Curb Your Enthusiasm S2 because I’ve been packing so I have no energy for anything else (was even supposed to watch Nashville for a discord and couldn’t find it/didn’t have time). Larry David interacting with Black culture, as JB Smoove showed, is inherently funny because he’s the whitest man possible and has no pretensions otherwise. Weird to see Wanda Sykes dating a guy in-universe before she came out. (“She’s drunk and horned up, you dumbass!”) Martin Scorsese appears and even has some jokes, one of which must have been improv’d because it’s quite funny/nods to his coke-addled 80s: “I lived here [LA] for awhile and then was asked to leave.” “Krazy-Eyes Killa” implies that Larry David is in fact good at eating pussy. Cheryl David is hot when she’s drunk.
Virginia City – Set towards the end of the Civil War a Confederate Captain (Randolph Scott) catches a Union Captain (Errol Flynn) escaping from an Andersonville-like prison. For reasons that don’t quite make sense Scott chooses to let Flynn escape and find punishment on the outside, thinking maybe one day they’ll meet again under different circumstances. Of course that day eventually arrives. A pre-Falcon Bogart plays a Mexican bandito with a hilarious accent. Weird to think of Bogart’s trajectory from this to making Falcon the next year and Casablanca just three years later with director Michael Curtiz. Curtiz has a big budget, the plot is well written along with the dialog, and some good action with the editing keeping things moving quickly. All three stars make it interesting. But it feels too polished and studio controlled. I think I actually prefer solid B-westerns over big studio fare like this.
For the most part, I think that the post WWII Westerns are more compelling, with more psychology and personal motivation built on professionalism or revenge. The impact of violence as experienced by a large swath of the male population seeped into these films, as was the dread that the cycle of vigilance would involve aggression and trauma into the foreseeable future. Flynn’s epics were kind of romantic, and he always carried a kind of aristocratic air about him, a sort of character trope that faded out by the mid 1940s.
Coyote vs. Acme. First of all, because it’s about a court case, it should be Coyote v. Acme, not “vs.”
Second of all, I love it. Forte and Cena are great. The hybrid animation is great. It’s credited as an adaptation of a new yorker story, but lowkey it should be credited to camus.
the descendants trilogy. Are these good? No. Does the plot make any sense? No. Is there any reason for the children of all the heroes and villains to be the same age and at boarding school together? No.
But nonetheless there is this janky theater kid earnest cringe to it that makes it kinda endearing, or maybe I have stockholm syndrome.
The Straight Story
David Lynch’s heartwarming story of how fucked you are in this country if you can’t drive a car.
I’m only half joking. Besides the main plot about Richard Farnsworth driving across state lines in a riding mower, the woman who keeps running into deer outright says, “I have to drive!” One of the big themes here is how rural America brings people together but also drives them apart. Farnsworth encounters a lot of kindness from a lot of people, but he still refuses to let anyone help him get to his dying brother, even when the Good Samaritan who gives him a place to stay when his mower breaks down offers to take him the rest of the way. And tied in with that, Lynch has a lot of great insights into the “Silent Generation.” We can see Farnsworth’s so uncomfortable working through his feelings he never brings himself to reconcile with his brother until it’s almost too late (and we never do find out what they fought about). But he can talk about his feelings indirectly, and there are some beautiful scenes where he channels that into giving other people the advice he wishes he’d followed. And then there’s the scene in the bar where he tells a stranger the war story he never told anybody else. Fucking heartbreaking.
For all David Lynch is tagged as a “weird” or “stylized” filmmaker, his sense of normal can actually be truer to life than most of American media; it’s just that other entertainers have set the bounds for normalcy. This movie really made me think about how many people get left out of the bounds of telegenic appearance: the old, the poor, the disabled. Sissy Spacek as Farnsworth’s disabled daughter is the closest thing to a classic movie star, and I won’t say she’s unrecognizable, but I certainly didn’t recognize her. Her disability isn’t played for laughs, or grotesquerie, or commented on at all; no one even acknowledges it until something like the halfway point. And maybe it’s just the more realistic register Lynch is working in here, but I don’t think his “stylized” dialogue and “bad” acting is anything of the sort. This is just how real people talk when they don’t have professional screenwriters or acting coaches.
Great point about transport here as a non-driver myself! I would certainly drive a tractor around if I had one, fuck it.
What did we play?
Red Earth – Capcom Fighting Collection on Nintendo Switch
Haven’t had much luck when playing any of Capcom’s occasional arcade/RPG hybrids, but this one is very intriguing. Played a couple of fights using the swordsman barbarian with the lion head, will definitely try again.
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 – Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Classics on Nintendo Switch.
Beat an interesting pipe dungeon level, though there was one door I couldn’t get too that I’m curious to get to again. And I started an airship level but couldn’t beat it. I could have used the rewind, but I really want to do it without it.
I love that pioneers/city builders/person who takes a job in the city way of thinking about forging, establishing/refining, and occupying genres and niches.
IIRC, the SGU creative team also had a bitterly funny behind-the-scenes snafu: they gave advance interviews where they were scornful of their past shows having a lot of female fans, making it clear they wanted a predominantly male audience for this new show. Women accordingly took them at their word and did not turn up, and then when the show was cancelled, the team gave subsequent interviews bemoaning their fickle female fanbase for not watching.
Very excited to read your book!
Oh no, the consequences of our actions!
Yeah, I didn’t even like Stargate but if you were in fandom it was hard to miss how much they didn’t like that icky girls liked their show (a show built on fucking ‘aliens built the pyramids’ shit at that). I’ve always been glad that Jason Momoa escaped their crap.
That used to be a real bad thing in fandom-friendly genre stuff, right? There was always a weird attitude back then.
Year of the Month updates:
This September, you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1937.
Sept. 4th: Gillian Nelson: Moose Hunters
Sept. 6th: Tristan J. Nankervis: Lenin in October
Sept. 18th: Gillian Nelson: Pluto’s Quin-pup-lets
Sept. 20th: Tristan J. Nankervis: The Hobbit
Sept. 22nd: Lauren James: Stage Door
Sept. 25th: Gillian Nelson: Donald’s Ostrich
Here’s how we’re wrapping up August:
Aug. 28th: Gillian Nelson: Walt Disney Treasures
And here’s all the movies, albums, books from 1998 you can sign up for this October!
Oct. 3rd: Gillian Nelson: Movie Surfers
Oct. 9th: Gillian Nelson: Mighty Joe Young
Oct. 30th: Gillian Nelson: Halloweentown