Did Conservatives Kill Stargate: Universe?
Brad Wright has been frequently been associated with the comment that "Conservatives killed Stargate." In fact, I think this is a misquote. I can't find anywhere that he specifically said this, but I have found plenty of comments with resentment that people didn't come over to the new show, and some of 'em are of the sort that could be interpreted to mean that, whether he did or not.
SO whether he meant it or not (I personally don't think he did) it's become a matter of fannon that we pulled the plug on MY favorite franchise.
So did we? Maybe.
SG1, and to a lesser extent, SGA, were very popular with my crowd, but they never really migrated to SGU. I'd guess that's what he's talking about.
My own take on it is that we *did* have a say in its failure, but not in the way he thinks. Basically, SG1 was very gung-ho oooh-rah American USAF in space, covert war, America saving humanity, defeating false gods, and coming home in time to watch "Old School" on DVD. We LOVE that kind of stuff. I mean, we love it. You couldn't have stumbled on a better formula for 'our' type.
SGA lacked the 'right here, right now' aspect that really sold it to conservatives. Yeah, it took place in the here and now, but given the location and infrequent interactions, it may as well have taken place 300 years in the future. Thus you lost a lot of people who don't really like SF, but *do* like the USAF right there. (Didn't help any that the first season was pretty lame) Putting SGU on a starship a berjillion light years away isolated it further from 'right here, right now' which further alienated the audience
(Ironic, since SGU made a MUCH greater attempt to involve present-day earth than SGA ever did)
The reason Lost was so popular was that it basically didn't out itself as an SF show until the fourth season. By then, people were very invested, and many people I know who DO NOT like SF at all, continued to sit through it. If they'd thrown in time travel and hyperspheres in season 1, no one would have followed it.
So: Reason 1: Conservative people identified with the real world slice-of-life stuff, which was increasingly absent in subsequent Gate shows
Reason 2: The Ori arc really pissed off a lot of our people, who felt that it was a direct slam at Christianity. Personally, I liked it, but I, too, took it as a swipe at my faith. I'm a big boy, I can take it, but a lot of people didn't feel the need to, so they wandered off. As many of these people had never cottoned to SGA, they just drifted off.
(In fact, I know a couple people who *didn't know* there'd been another 'Gate show between SG1 and SGU, which shows how far they'd drifted)
Again, this is ironic: SGU did more positive stuff with religion (And very well, I might add) than the other two shows combined, but Conservatives never came back for that, so most of us never noticed.
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Thu, 11/24/2011 - 16:11
#2
Yep
The Stargate project got its line item axed during yet another round of budget cuts.
No, seriously, I think that's a cop out if anyone seriously advances it. First, Stargate was fighting the inevitable attrition that accompanies a long-running series. Secondly, that was exacerbated by some poor story-telling decisions others have noted. And third, they went for broke completely revamping the series' tone and style. Unfortunately, they chose to mimic Battlestar Galactica, which the data clearly says had a smaller audience than more traditional storytelling styles. Not to mention having worn out its welcome with a stunningly lame flame out down the stretch, just it time for Stargate Universe to roll out to alienated fans of both styles (original and new).
If anything, it's a tribute to the residual momentum Stargate had that SGU got as high a ratings as it did when it first came out. Look at the truly ugly numbers for Caprica by comparison. It wasn't BSG fans carrying SGU that first year. It was old SGU fans.
Thu, 11/24/2011 - 13:56
#3
Generally they don't say
>>I can only assume that when Democrats felt that Powers was a Democrat, not a Republican, they made sure the show got buried fast.<<
Generally they just avoid the issue. Benson lasted seven seasons without ever saying if the Governor was a Democrat or a Republican. (Eventually, when this got tedious, they had him get shafted by his unnamed party, and ended up running for re-election as an independent. He won. They also never mentioned the name of the state he was governor of, though we do know it was one of the big square ones. And it had beavers. David Hedison mentioned in the pilot that there were beavers)
"This is Benson from your cousin Jessica's family"
"Oh, does that mean we're related?"
(One of the rare spinoffs that was WILDLY more successful than the parent series, BTW)
Thu, 11/24/2011 - 13:52
#4
Too many transitions all at once
>>The Ori did hit to close to home and so they are also a suspect in the who killed the Star Gate franchise mystery. I know that when they appeared I stopped watching the show.<<
A lot of people did. Given the introduction of Cam and Vala and the Ori, the absence of Hammond and Jack, and the near-total-absence of Carter for the first year, it really did feel like a completely different show. It got much better in the second "Fargate" season, but that was one heck of a speedbump.
Thu, 11/24/2011 - 11:27
#5
A Random Comment
On the topic of shows getting axed because they suddenly hit ytoo close to home...
Years ago there was a TV show about a doofusy US Senator played by John Forsythe. He had a shrewish wife, and EVERYBODY assumed he was supposed to be a parody of Ronald Reagan. The title was "The Powers That Be."
The show was pretty funny.
When Bill Clinton won the election in the show's second season, Senator Powers was shown telephoning his congratulations to the President-elect, and saying, "It's good to have a Democrat in the White House again!"
Now, the story went that the show had recorded two different versions of the telephone call, and had George Bush won, Powers would have congratulated him just as warmly.
The show disappeared a few weeks later, without explanation or a single trace.
I can only assume that when Democrats felt that Powers was a Democrat, not a Republican, they made sure the show got buried fast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Powers_That_Be_(TV_series) Here it says Powers was a Liberal Democrat.
(Further note: David Hyde-Pierce, who went on to bigger and better things as Niles Crane on Frasier, played Senator Powers' timid and manically-depressed son-in-law, who also had a thing for the housemaid.)
Thu, 11/24/2011 - 11:02
#6
It was stupidity that killed the beast
It was not conservatives that killed SGU it was MGM not knowing the core SG1 audience that should have made up the core for the new show.
The Ori did hit to close to home and so they are also a suspect in the who killed the Star Gate franchise mystery. I know that when they appeared I stopped watching the show.
Thu, 11/24/2011 - 09:42
#7
Replicators
The plan originally, apparently, was to have the human-form Replicators become the new major villains, since the Goauld were clearly played out. Alas, the Replicators were just inherently unpopular for all sorts of reasons. (They did human-form replicators much better in SGA, curiously)
Between seasons 7 and 8, MGM realized SG1 had the potential to go for another 7 or 8 years, and invensted utterly *crazy* amounts of money in re-vamping the show (just LOOK at those Ori ship interiors, or the armor!) and AFAICT, the Ori were intended to be the primary adversary. Yet another example of MGM's poor business decisions.
Makes a degree of sense: the show did best when fighting false gods. It makes it a bit more challenging false gods who are not quite so obviously false. Ratchets things up again. I honestly don't think the producers realized why that was a bad idea for their target audience, though, and Morena Baccarin's parthinogetic birth (Vala definitely wasn't a virgin!) as the Ori anti-Christ was the final nail in the coffin.
Still, I like the idea, and I think they would have settled on the right balance. I feel way more cheated that SG1 didn't get the longer run it had earned than I do about the other shows dying.
Thu, 11/24/2011 - 05:38
#8
too realistic
To me, the problem the Ori arc had may have been that it was *too* "slice of life." It was too easy for people to see their own religion in the Ori--Christians, obviously, but also others I think. The Goa'uld were over-the-top fun and there was no way for anyone to be offended, whereas with the Ori it seemed like nearly anyone religious could. I realize that it was probably about time to upgrade the villains, but I think they would have done better with ones that were less close to home and that could continue to provide pure escapism.
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>>And third, they went for broke completely revamping the series' tone and style. Unfortunately, they chose to mimic Battlestar Galactica, which the data clearly says had a smaller audience than more traditional storytelling styles. Not to mention having worn out its welcome with a stunningly lame flame out down the stretch, just it time for Stargate Universe to roll out to alienated fans of both styles (original and new).<<
I've heard it said that Syfy knew BSG was ending, and requested MGM/Gate give 'em a ship-based show since, traditionally, that's the iconic SF thing after all, and they didn't have one of those in the pipeline. I believe that. I've also heard that Syfy requested that the show be all dark and dysfunctional like BSG. It's plausible, but I'm not sure I believe it. I could see them coming up with that on their own.
If those (or either of those) are true then it really was a sucker bet for MGM to take. Firstly, it's not playing to their strengths. Gate has always *avoided* being a Naval show, and the came up with their own ingenious way to do planet-of-the-week. Secondly: they're playing someone else's game. Copying Trek? Copying BSG? It's always bad to start off derivative.
Gutsy moves all, but perhaps not as gutsy as they'd have done if Syfy wasn't bugging 'em.