Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods Rewatch
August 4, 2024 12:43 AM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Colonel Jack O'Neill is brought out of retirement to lead a new expedition back to Abydos, only to find an old friend, a new enemy and a far wider use of the Stargate.
Man I love this show. I'm due for a rewatch as well.
posted by Literaryhero at 12:54 AM on August 4
posted by Literaryhero at 12:54 AM on August 4
Yes! I realized I didn't select rewatch at first so didn't want to talk too much, but thankfully the mods helped!
Apparently Showtime made them include the full frontal nudity. Which is bonkers given the rest of the series how out of place that feels. Also, I love the stuff that doesn't extend throughout the whole series, like the selectable zatguns, or the gate sickness.
posted by Carillon at 1:04 AM on August 4 [1 favorite]
Apparently Showtime made them include the full frontal nudity. Which is bonkers given the rest of the series how out of place that feels. Also, I love the stuff that doesn't extend throughout the whole series, like the selectable zatguns, or the gate sickness.
posted by Carillon at 1:04 AM on August 4 [1 favorite]
Apparently Showtime made them include the full frontal nudity.
Really gotta wonder how much cocaine it took to come up with this one.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:49 AM on August 4 [3 favorites]
Really gotta wonder how much cocaine it took to come up with this one.
posted by Literaryhero at 3:49 AM on August 4 [3 favorites]
Gosh, my username should be StargateJunkie. I just did a ten season rewatch of SG-1 and came away loving seasons 9 and 10 a lot more, which of course led to a Farscape rewatch (If you give a moose a muffin…). Anyway, came here to say there are two versions of Children of the Gods, the original syndicated version, and a re-release on DVD which was completely recut, with scenes added and deleted, the original score by Joel Goldsmith restored, the nudity removed, and lots of other tweaks. I miss Stargate so much that I wrote a whole new season of shows with new characters and put it on AO3.
posted by jabah at 7:18 AM on August 4 [8 favorites]
posted by jabah at 7:18 AM on August 4 [8 favorites]
Man, I loved SG-1. That said, it definitely stands as a prime example of a show that went on just a few seasons too long.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:35 AM on August 4
posted by Thorzdad at 7:35 AM on August 4
We tried this recently in a hunt for some long-lasting sci-fi to watch, but couldn’t get past the “women get hypnotized into sexual servitude” aspect. It felt really gross. Does the rest of the series quickly ditch that or is it an ongoing theme?
posted by simonw at 1:23 PM on August 4
posted by simonw at 1:23 PM on August 4
I never saw this series, or the movie. I heard the series is generally a lot better than the film -- should I skip that and just dive in, or is it worth watching to set up the story?
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:12 PM on August 4
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:12 PM on August 4
You don't need the movie to watch the series. I would start with the show and then go back and watch the movie later if you are so inclined.
posted by Literaryhero at 4:29 PM on August 4 [1 favorite]
posted by Literaryhero at 4:29 PM on August 4 [1 favorite]
The rest of the series is NOT like that, simonw, it does much better. Of course it is still 2000s era TV, so there might be some stuff that wouldn't play today.
As for the nudity, they only did that once, in the pilot. I think they were trying to prove something about being a sci-fi show on cable or something. I dunno.
You don't need to see the movie. They spend a lot of time explaining things to the new viewer, and they hit all the important character beats at least once in season 1, and some of it is just different anyway.
The only thing that bugged me about the series as a whole is the general military apologia. But a MeFi user in one of these threads (can't remember who) made the point that this is a fictionalized version of the USAF that acts like the AF we deserve to have, kind and thoughtful and progressive, etc. And it might even be the kind of USAF that might eventually evolve into a Starfleet type of organization.
posted by Horkus at 4:35 PM on August 4 [4 favorites]
As for the nudity, they only did that once, in the pilot. I think they were trying to prove something about being a sci-fi show on cable or something. I dunno.
You don't need to see the movie. They spend a lot of time explaining things to the new viewer, and they hit all the important character beats at least once in season 1, and some of it is just different anyway.
The only thing that bugged me about the series as a whole is the general military apologia. But a MeFi user in one of these threads (can't remember who) made the point that this is a fictionalized version of the USAF that acts like the AF we deserve to have, kind and thoughtful and progressive, etc. And it might even be the kind of USAF that might eventually evolve into a Starfleet type of organization.
posted by Horkus at 4:35 PM on August 4 [4 favorites]
I'm somewhere in the middle of a rewatch/catch missed episodes. I don't think every episode holds up totally but it's really creative in the issues it squeezes into an hour of commercial TV.
Having skipped whole decades of television, I was astounded when I realized Colonel Jack O'Neill in an earlier incarnation was the original MacGyver. Some of the actor choices make more sense.
posted by sammyo at 7:33 PM on August 4 [1 favorite]
Having skipped whole decades of television, I was astounded when I realized Colonel Jack O'Neill in an earlier incarnation was the original MacGyver. Some of the actor choices make more sense.
posted by sammyo at 7:33 PM on August 4 [1 favorite]
Stargate is probably my personal ride or die - even SG:U. Maybe not Stargate Origins. And there was an animated series too? Huh. But Stargate, Atlantis, Universe, I've lost track of how many times I've rewatched them front to back, top to bottom.
My big complaint with OG SG is that the SG teams go from being barely able to deal with the Jaffa to basically blowing them away like chaff, with no real change in weaponry or strategy or tactics or anything. I mean, I know, I know, the good guys get more powerful, it's what happens, but it never felt like the show acknowledged it, either.
I'm always kind of curious about reports that Devlin (or Emmerich? But I think it was Devlin) didn't like the series and wanted to have done things differently, but I can't tell if that's just sour grapes because Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner got to do it instead?
posted by Kyol at 6:46 AM on August 5
My big complaint with OG SG is that the SG teams go from being barely able to deal with the Jaffa to basically blowing them away like chaff, with no real change in weaponry or strategy or tactics or anything. I mean, I know, I know, the good guys get more powerful, it's what happens, but it never felt like the show acknowledged it, either.
I'm always kind of curious about reports that Devlin (or Emmerich? But I think it was Devlin) didn't like the series and wanted to have done things differently, but I can't tell if that's just sour grapes because Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner got to do it instead?
posted by Kyol at 6:46 AM on August 5
We've watched through SG-1 many times. My wife's fave is Daniel and she dislikes his whining about Sha're for THE ENTIRE SEASON. Nonetheless, this series is ride or die with us, especially 1-5 (my wife again having issues with when Daniel ascended - I thought the Jonas era was actually pretty good).
posted by Ber at 8:37 AM on August 5 [2 favorites]
posted by Ber at 8:37 AM on August 5 [2 favorites]
well this takes me back - I did a whole bunch of vfx work on the first few seasons, and I've been looking for something fun to watch while taking treadmill walks, so I'm on board for this rewatch!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:32 PM on August 5 [11 favorites]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:32 PM on August 5 [11 favorites]
I was a big fan of the original film so I was excited when SG-1 debuted on Showtime. Later, I moved and had to catch up via DVD (still have 'em, now 24 or so years old!) and just followed the line from SG-1 to Atlantis to SGU and so on. I think the creators of SG-1 developed something that separated from and became its own thing with regard to the film. One of the best aspects is seeing the actors, especially Michael Shanks, start off somewhat close to the film's characters, and ease into making the character his own.
Children of the Gods does try a little too hard at times and that's okay. It's a pilot, it's trying to establish expectations and as a pilot, there's always room for correction, which they generally do as we go forward. It was fun seeing Skaara reappear, though, with a much worse wig mind you. It was a connective issue that made it feel like a continuation than something just on its own.
I don't know if I will rewatch, as I've rewatched several times, and will probably recall this and that, but I'll definitely follow the posts along!
posted by Atreides at 9:35 AM on August 6
Children of the Gods does try a little too hard at times and that's okay. It's a pilot, it's trying to establish expectations and as a pilot, there's always room for correction, which they generally do as we go forward. It was fun seeing Skaara reappear, though, with a much worse wig mind you. It was a connective issue that made it feel like a continuation than something just on its own.
I don't know if I will rewatch, as I've rewatched several times, and will probably recall this and that, but I'll definitely follow the posts along!
posted by Atreides at 9:35 AM on August 6
Big SG-1 fan here. I've watched the series all the way through twice now. One of my favorite things about it is that it seems to be a show written for fans of sci-fi, and of television in general, and it has a lot of fun with that, without being too goofy or ironic. Every episode the protagonists travel through the blue screen into a new world, have adventures, solve the problems with teamwork and smarts, and come back home. The show, especially once it left Showtime, became, in part, a show about being a fan of sci-fi - "Wormhole XTreme" is a great example of this tendency being taken to its logical conclusion in which the show parodies itself.
Or the fact that O'Neill is a bg Simpsons fan, and then Dan Castellaneta appears in an episode as a character who is seeing the SG-1 missions in real time and telling stories about them that bore his family and friends, and get rejected from sci-fi literary journals, etc.
SG-U is probably my second favorite, despite the vast difference in tone; the central predicament (we've gated to a ship in another galaxy with no way home and we have to figure out how to survive) was great and the writing on that promised to take the franchise in a very interesting direction, and then it got cancelled, because SyFy as a network just does that to its most interesting shows.
posted by A Most Curious Rabbit at 11:53 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
Or the fact that O'Neill is a bg Simpsons fan, and then Dan Castellaneta appears in an episode as a character who is seeing the SG-1 missions in real time and telling stories about them that bore his family and friends, and get rejected from sci-fi literary journals, etc.
SG-U is probably my second favorite, despite the vast difference in tone; the central predicament (we've gated to a ship in another galaxy with no way home and we have to figure out how to survive) was great and the writing on that promised to take the franchise in a very interesting direction, and then it got cancelled, because SyFy as a network just does that to its most interesting shows.
posted by A Most Curious Rabbit at 11:53 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
Yeah, SG-U was done kind of dirty by SyFy - if you only ever watched it during the original airing and you like SG otherwise, I recommend giving it a rewatch on streaming. Yeah yeah, no Goa'uld, not a lot of visiting the same places through the gate network, but some fun backstory and whatnot. And a lot of the marketing plot drama kind of melts away when they get through the "hey uh we're stuck here?" stuff in a week or two and move on to the actual bigger story, and all the "WILL JIMMY THE JANITOR SURVIVE NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE?!?!?" marketing shit just doesn't apply.
If nothing else, I think it does the whole intrepid team lost in space thing pretty well, too.
posted by Kyol at 2:06 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
If nothing else, I think it does the whole intrepid team lost in space thing pretty well, too.
posted by Kyol at 2:06 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
The funny thing about Stargate is that I liked the film but totally bounced off SG-1 during its original run on Showtime, but then when I went back and watched it all (along with Atlantis) after SG:U started I really enjoyed it
Weirdly, I had the same reaction to Origins. First time around I couldn't get through even two of the minisodes, but then watched it again a few years later and enjoyed it
More on the subject of the actual episode we're supposed to be talking about, it's interesting in the way that it really is a transition between the film and the rest of the series. It's so much more like the film, while the series as a whole just isn't. After the first few episodes, the tonal shift is complete and it never really goes back, even when the stakes are turned up to 11 later on.
posted by wierdo at 9:52 PM on August 7
Weirdly, I had the same reaction to Origins. First time around I couldn't get through even two of the minisodes, but then watched it again a few years later and enjoyed it
More on the subject of the actual episode we're supposed to be talking about, it's interesting in the way that it really is a transition between the film and the rest of the series. It's so much more like the film, while the series as a whole just isn't. After the first few episodes, the tonal shift is complete and it never really goes back, even when the stakes are turned up to 11 later on.
posted by wierdo at 9:52 PM on August 7
Man this was exciting when it came out. A few people in the movie thread talked about how utterly unexplored all the tantalising sci fi stuff was there, and the idea of getting a whole series of galactic travel! physics! linguistics! was so gratifying. The fact that the stargate is literally mothballed and it bursts open like "how could you ignore this potential?!"
I've been rewatching over the past year so I'm several seasons ahead, but they pulled a pretty impressive hard swerve to drag the naff tonality of the movie through these first few episodes into the comfortable run of the series. Also I hadn't encountered Twin Peaks at the time, but having watched it now people must have enjoyed seeing Don S. Davis finally reveal what he was up to.
posted by lucidium at 4:28 AM on August 8
I've been rewatching over the past year so I'm several seasons ahead, but they pulled a pretty impressive hard swerve to drag the naff tonality of the movie through these first few episodes into the comfortable run of the series. Also I hadn't encountered Twin Peaks at the time, but having watched it now people must have enjoyed seeing Don S. Davis finally reveal what he was up to.
posted by lucidium at 4:28 AM on August 8
Thank you for giving me a place to finally ask: how did Apophis and Teal’c dial out on the initial kidnapping run? Yeah yeah manually rotating the ring but all the ‘interstellar drift compensation’ retcon for no other addresses being viable except Abydos (and I guess Ernest’s planet)?
posted by janell at 7:31 PM on August 10
posted by janell at 7:31 PM on August 10
re: the nudity.
The showrunners didn't want that in there, but Showtime insisted.
There are a few recuts of the episode with the original aired version featuring full frontal nudity and later dvd releases cut a lot of it out. I think they also slightly edited the sequence with apophis (possibly showing him dialling the gate with a hand device, whereas the original didn't show the gate shutting down at all)
Oh, also the most recent cut removes Carter's infamous "just because my reproductive organs are on the inside" line. (Which the show itself mocks, many seasons later)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:59 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
The showrunners didn't want that in there, but Showtime insisted.
There are a few recuts of the episode with the original aired version featuring full frontal nudity and later dvd releases cut a lot of it out. I think they also slightly edited the sequence with apophis (possibly showing him dialling the gate with a hand device, whereas the original didn't show the gate shutting down at all)
Oh, also the most recent cut removes Carter's infamous "just because my reproductive organs are on the inside" line. (Which the show itself mocks, many seasons later)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 3:59 PM on August 31 [1 favorite]
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posted by Carillon at 12:48 AM on August 4 [1 favorite]