Perhaps in an effort to focus on their next whimsical British superhero alternate reality flop, the (half) brains at the Sci Fi Channel have decided to cancel Stargate Atlantis.
The network, instead of continuing the show that gave them their highest ratings ever when it launched 2004, will finish off Stargate Atlantis with — surprise surprise — a bunch of TV and straight-to-dvd movies.
That thump you just heard was my lifeless body landing somewhere off a tall building.
This is really stupid. And, yes I’ll say it, the last straight-to-dvd Stargate movie sucked. Stargate Continuum was supposed to be this epic way to end Stargate SG-1, and instead all we got was something that was either too long for a single episode or way too short for a two-parter and DEFINITELY not something cinematic and movie-like.
Okay, maybe “sucked” is unfair, because it was still Stargate SG-1, and gets points for that. It was very poorly edited and should have had much more storyline and development. I mean, Ba’al, the main badguy, is killed halfway through, before his nefarious plan can come to fruition. Needed more drama and gloom and doom.
Insider moment that only fans will understand: What if Ba’al’s plan worked? All the system lords were defeated, the Jaffa got their freedom, earth got left alone, Jack’s kid was still alive, and everything was beautiful. Let all that happen and then something catastrophic can go wrong, like Anubis, replicators and priors come at the same time (or any combination of the three) and wrecks shit up or something? Then they have to team up with Ba’al again and defeat the much worse common enemy. NO, they ended Continuum with what? With what? An EXECUTION! Celebrating death. Ba’al may have been the least bad of all the system lords, but SG-1 made it a point to mark his death with a grand celebration. Awful.
I hope that producer Brad Wright and company will learn from this and realize that you can go over the 1:30 mark for a feature film — It’s okay, no one is going to get mad at you for it.
Finally, just to complete my bitter rampage at MGM, (owners of the Stargate franchise) I am very concerned that Stargate Universe, the planned third Stargate series, is going to be god-awful. It already sounds like “Enterprise.”
“Universe” takes place in a long-lost ancient spaceship, exploring the galaxy. It’s already been said that the new show does not contain elements or characters from SG-1 or Atlantis, so kiss Ben Browder goodbye — he seems to really want to be involved in Stargate. He was a late addition to SG-1, but a lot of fans came to like him, especially fans that joined late in the running.
Some science fiction fans remember that Fox tried to “US military explores space in the present time or not-too-distant future” in the 90s with Space: Above and Beyond, which barely made it through a single season (but I liked it just the same).
MGM, Sci Fi, Wright: you, sirs, have an extremely high bar set for yourselves. I am very concerned.
9 Responses to “Stargate Atlantis cancelled”
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Hi John:
Man, you are absolutely right on the money with all of your commentary. Continuum did suck…indeed!
I am just finishing up Atlantis Season 4 (loved the Ronan-T’elc duet…awesome action). Shepard has grown on me, and Ronan has really developed as a character. I was sorry Amanda Tapping was not staying for season 5, but hopefully her new series will do well.
Now about Universe… I share your concern there as well. Time will tell.
[...] Read his rant on PRrag.com. John Guilfoil is the editor-in-chief of Blast Magazine. He can be reached at guilfoil.j@blastmagazine.com. [...]
Sounds worrying, I was confortable knowing that even though BSG is almost gone and there is no more Trek to speak of, we could always rely upon Stargate Atlantis to be around.
Aw well, what else is on? Coronation Street?
RIP Sci Fi.
The new stargate show is just a ripoff of Star Trek:Voyager. They may as well call it “Stargate:Voyager” instead of “Stargate:Universe”. I won’t be watching it. “Lost In Space” has already been done & redone. It totally ticks me off that tptb would cancel an awesome show like Stargate Atlantis for this garbage. I don’t want a younger cast, I want an experienced cast that everyone already knows. So unless they put Joe Flanigan & Torri Higginson on as regulars(& KEEP them on as regulars until the series finale)I won’t be watching this new show. I’m done.
Its a shame to see Atlantis end. I am a loyal watcher and have been since the pilot episode. I may find it more exciting than many since i never followed SG-1 all that much.
All the Atlantis charactors fit their rolls well but killed off too many as the seasons passed in my opinion. If its ending they might as well kill them all but that would destroy any chance of feature films in the future.
The truth is that the peolpe who spend the money make the decisions. Now you will see how much they care about the fans that watch the show. All the actors and stage people lose a job and the the fans lose a show. Sounds about right to me. If something works break it so it fucks everybody.
That Sucks, BSG.SG-1 & now SGA what are they thinking!
Do they want to make more terrible movie’s like that rock creature “Movie” for the stupidest movie on television night!!!!!
Continuum wasn’t up to momentous par, that SG-1 could of been.
I think this cash cow has run it’s course.
A re-imagining (in UNIVERSE) is what is needed, but not ‘all-new cast’. Sci-Fi fans LOVE continuity. But also love new things.
we are a flick bunch.
It is a disgrace that Stargate Atlantis has been cancelled.
Would you or your readers be interested in the campaigns to try and get the cancellation of Stargate Atlantis reversed?
You can go to http://www.SOSGA.net where there is information on the different campaigns running and the forum has details of rallies currently being organised.
Just thought I would say!
[...] Detractors say it’s too much like Star Trek space exploration-in-a-ship shows. [...]