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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 2853680" data-attributes="member: 8863">Like Ranger I'm a season behind, and unfortunately I skip most of the discussions around here because of it.  But I agree with much of what's stated here:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The show's not geeky.  The premises of both series are both simple.  In SG-1 you got alien parasites that are bad guys responsible for much of ancient human cultre.  In Atlantis you got space vampires (not groundbreaking or terribly original, but easy enough for anyone to grasp).  Sure there are shows out there like Babylon 5, Farscape, and Firefly, but those tend to appeal to hardcore fans only, and what happens is that they have a hard time attracting viewers.  And in the cases of stuff like B5 and Farscape, there's long running deep plotlines that make the show harder to understand if missed. The people in the Stargate universe tend to be pretty normal and easy for the average viewer to understand, and so easier for more people to follow, probably much in the same way Quantum Leap was.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The show isn't too serious or pretentious.  Ok, Star Trek: The Next Generation was the most successful in the franshise, but boy did it take itself far too seriously.  Stargate pokes fun at itself, the biggest example from season 8 being "Citizen Joe".  It also pokes fun at other popular Sci-Fi franchises, Star Trek being a frequent target, and Star Wars to a lesser extent.  The producers definitely seem to be having lots of fun with the show.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The good guys win.  Yeah, some Sci-Fi series like to make things bleak and gritty for realism.  But the producers understand something important: many viewers don't want this, they want to see the good guys win.  Stargate generally delievers this without giving the good guys easy victories or by making the bad guys incompetant bunglers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Smart episodic setup.  As mentioned above, Star Trek often ignores itself.  THere's not technological advancement, and the episodes, particularly in TOS and early TNG aren't connected in any meaningful way.   In Stargate, there's long-running plotlines that are continually being advanced with stand alone episodes interspersed within.  There's noticable technological advancements as well, like naqida generators, the Prometheus and Daedalus, etc.  And the writers and producers have a pretty good handle on Sci-Fi audiences; they know the hardcore fans tend to remember lots of picky details, and they keep things more or less consistant.  Compare that to Star Trek which has continuity holes you can fly an armada of Borg Cubes through, or something like B5 or Farscape which has lots of really obscure details which make the show unfriendly to anyone not taping and watching the episodes like 5 or 6 times each.</li> </ul>Now I'm not knocking or putting down any of the shows I mentioned above, nor to I think Stargate is entirely perfect.  But I can see why it's probably the most successful Sci-Fi franchise (in America anyway) atm.</blockquote>

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