Back around 1997, just before Stargate SG-1 reached the airwaves, I dropped an email to Centropolis Entertainment (Roland Emmerich’s production company) to ask if David Arnold was likely to return to score the music for the TV series. I had not realised that Emmerich and Devlin had absolutely no involvement in the TV series.
That they had not been involved became clear when I got an email from Devlin himself telling me that I shouldn’t watch the show as they had nothing to do with it at all. It’s since been public knowledge that Emmerich and Devlin were quite hacked off by being shut out by MGM. The TV show was to go ahead with an entirely new crew, new writers, new actors and there was to be no input from the original creators of the 1994 film at all.
But I did watch Stargate SG-1, and I loved it. Richard Dean Anderson as Colonel O’Neill was superb. He brought a level of humour to the show that was quite different to any other sci-fi series out there. There was banter. There was proper camaraderie between the characters. There was action. There were aliens – even if they tended to have silly booming electronic voices. For many a year I thought Cher was a Goa’uld and that the System Lords would all suddenly break into song. But at least the silly electronic voice was an improvement on the 1994 film’s Ra, who appeared to have a terrible speech impediment after the sound designer cranked up the distortion to levels that, if they went any lower, would have caused the audience to defecate in their seats as it was approaching “brown noise” level – how Daniel Jackson could understand him was a miracle.
Then Stargate spawned Stargate Atlantis. A spin-off, yes, but no less equally as exciting and as entertaining as the original. Indeed, one would say that it was more ambitious in terms of plot and visual effects than its parent. It didn’t last as long as the ten season SG-1, but five seasons is perfectly respectable. Atlantis did very well in Europe – more so than in the US, but it was quite disappointing that no EU broadcasting consortium was interested in picking it up – like they did for Due South.
I’m currently enjoying watching all ten seasons of Stargate SG-1 on LOVEFiLM Instant via the PS3, and all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis on Netflix. Even after all this time, the shows still ooze quality and the visual effects more or less (less so for earlier seasons of SG-1) stand up to scrutiny (except for some dodgy shots in Atlantis where they don’t seem to have factored in texture sizes during a zoom in of the city, but this is a moot point).
As a birthday treat to myself, I am attending my very first convention – Chevron 8.1 – which is being hosted at the Radisson Blu Edwardian at Heathrow. While I could go during the day and come back home, I’ve decided to stay at the hotel for four nights during the convention so I don’t have to rush about and join in all the activities. It’s expensive, but I don’t do these things often.
I don’t know what to expect at these events, so it’ll all be quite new and exciting. At the very least I’ll hopefully be able to connect with other people who have enjoyed these shows as much as I have. Maybe I’ll even get a chance to discuss the VFX logistics with Martin Wood, a veteran producer/director on both series. I don’t know. Just have to wait and see.
No, I’m not dressing up as a Wraith.
