Topic: Stargate: SG-1 - Season 2.

[8ullfrog]

The Gamekeeper played a character on TNG that used the Holodeck in an unhealthy manner.

That being said, I'm sure everyone with access to a holodeck would use it to beat up their superior officer at least once. Be a great way to use up shower comebacks too. Recreate the argument, and then "OH yeah, well your FACE is falling behind on projects!"

The Gamekeeper DOES predate THE MATRIX.  The twist that it's supposed to be a paradise but instead takes you to your worst memories is interesting, and the designated driver being a complete jerk was a little fun.

You didn't like Teal'c with hair?  They do make occasional Star Trek references, and occasionally got yelled at by MGM - they keep slipping Oz lines in.

I do wonder why they didn't lease the evil chairs, they'd be great for training incoming troops how to deal with the weird that is Stargate Command.

Also, it is a bit like the original Star Trek in that they don't sit on the ship and ponder as much as the TNG cast did. Those people were nerds. Even Worf the Bully drank prune juice!

[6pairsofshoes]

This is useful back story.  I didn't recognize Teal'c, and the hair did make him vaguely familiar.

I started watching Mayan MC as a corrective.  Lots of gore, death and destruction.  Kind of like it picks up where Sons of Anarchy left off.  Katy Segal has a cameo in the first episode.  It has Edward James Olmos (of BSG fame) as a butcher who reads poetry.  Sons of Anarchy had Jimmy Smit as this virtuous man who escaped the corruption of the whole business.

I don't know the overall topography/geography of S. CA very well so this is an opportunity to learn about that.  Maybe the guys in SG1 can find a cure for heroin addiction and put these guys out of business.

[8ullfrog]

This is two series in the future, but an alien mafia mixes corn up with narcotics that cause extremely painful withdrawal. Using gate travel as a distribution path, they spread the drug corn to the middle age grade planets, where the people don't even know what narcotics are. All they know is Stop eating the drug corn = feel really bad.

I can't remember if they created a space DEA, that series looked so shitty I never bothered with it. Stargate Universe.

I think the city in SOA is fictional though. Like it was a speed trap that ballooned into an actual town.

[6pairsofshoes]

It was a made up city.  I used to scour the map looking at the purported location of  "Paradise" and its location with respect to Fresno/Stockton and Oakland.  They moved between the areas near the San Joaquin delta and the Bay, so that was interesting.

One of the Mayan MC clubs is in Oakland.  I note that the locations of scrap metal dealers are entirely fictional as I love to drive all over Oakland, especially the older industrial bits.  The locations/sets on SG1 seem like they are mostly pure inventions in a Hollywood lot.  The last episode with the goofy iron maiden/enforced virtual reality capsules appeared to be set in something like the botanical gardens in Milwaukee or St. Louis.  The building had that 1960's/70's space frame structure.

[8ullfrog]

Vancouver & Britannia Beach in Canada.

Sometimes they went to US locations, but most of the time it was Canada, USA.

https://moviemaps.org/locations/10g - A very nice lake stands in for the planet where Carter got snaked.

https://moviemaps.org/locations/4g  Huh, I figured the dome was painted in. Nope, that place is REEEEEAAAAALLLLL. P7J-989

I wouldn't link the total stargate entries, there are some MASSIVE spoilers in that site.

[6pairsofshoes]

This is a campy show, but even within those lax standards, Michael Shanks isn't much of an actor.  He's the pretty boy on the show who supposedly has some kind of advanced knowledge, but he lacks wisdom and often jeopardizes the safety of the group through careless, impulsive behaviors.

He gets addicted to the sarcophagus that the gou'ald developed as a healing technology.  And from that point on, it was "Overactors Theatre."  An episode of that and I'm back to the biker soap opera.

[8ullfrog]

That the Goauld stole.  One thing that really bugged me about the Goauld tech is that we rarely see the version of the technology before the goauld either dipped it in gold, or set it to "evil".

One theory is overuse of the sarcophagus was the original cause for Goauld megalomania. I mean they were never good people, but that made them worse.

At the same time, the SGC should totally have let the regime fail and stole the thing. Even if exposure is harmful, being able to revive frontline soldiers who were supposedly stationed underground in the continental US should have been a priority. This isn't the last time Daniel acts like a jackass.

He was initially hired because he could do a spot on imitation of the James Spader take of the character.

RDA, in one of those behind the scenes features, says he flat out refused to do the Kurt Russel. He said he couldn't pull off the haircut. So Jack retires for a year and seemingly mellows out quite a bit. General Hammond was supposed to be on his way to retirement, but those damn snakes reactivated the stargate program.

I've started to use the Don S. Davis General Hammond voice in phone dealings, people seem both more friendly, AND more respectful. I've managed to make two of them laugh!

[6pairsofshoes]

The sarcophagus looks like somebody went to Home Depot and bought some molding that they slapped together and put some stick on fake hieroglyphs down a couple bands just to make it vaguely Egyptian.  Incidentally, "sarcophagus" is a compound noun based on two Greek words, sarco (flesh) and phagein a verb meaning "to eat."  The idea was that the stone consumed the flesh off of the bones.  No such luck with this device.

It would be pretty entertaining to have the General on one's answering machine.

[6pairsofshoes]

Wow.  I didn't really watch Miami Vice.  I probably should have.  Don Johnson was on it.  And a pop star Pat Benatar?  And Philip Michael Thomas who went to school with one of my FB friends.

Thors' Hammer seemed like it would be dull, but it has to have been the most eclectic episode yet and shoving the alien from Area 51 in there was a stroke of genius.  Of course, the Aliens have been watching over us all this time.  I loved the hygienic measures taken by Thor's mother ship.  Good job that.  And, lucky for us, they speak English.  I expect that Carter will keep her alien tech and learn how to use it?  Or did that intriguing thread just go nowhere.

[8ullfrog]

The Asgard do not speak English, but they do have very nice translation software. They probably did learn English, they trade favors with SG-1 over the seasons.

In the Stargate movie, Nobody spoke English, aside from the gate team. This was both problematic AND useful, as figuring out how to communicate created a bond with the Abydonians. Daniel is recognized for his imitation of a chicken. Specifically, the snake lizards they eat with the Abydonians taste like chicken. When Daniel tries to convey this, he does the whole "Bawk Bawk" thing and looks like an idiot. This endears him to the locals.
The gate travelers also "frost over" when they go through the gate.

I believed two things, one of which turned out to be true. 1) The cobbled together computers, machines, and super conductors (The red thingies on the gate) were a fairly dangerous, haphazard replacement for the DHD, and multiple times, bit the stargate program in the ass.

2) A properly configured gate acts as a babelfish, in that, everyone speaks their own language, and you "hear" in yours. I believe I later discovered this is something from fanfiction to explain why everyone speaks English. In reality, it's because a lot of people don't like to read subtitles.

One fun closed captioning fact - I was REALLY MAD when there was a scene on a Russian Submarine where the CC was "Speaking Russian". I hate when CC is lazy.

Turns out, one Russian is asking the other "What the hell is that noise" and the other responds "Probably the monster from the last episode". They kept that in as a joke for people who speak Ruski. (I do not speak Ruski)

One time, the GOT CC'ers had some fun, and captioned a horse. "neighs horsily"

[6pairsofshoes]

That's interesting and funny since the amazon prime version has subtitles, despite the fact that I understand spoken English quite well.  It lets me be lazy as I can read if I feel like taking the headphones off.  (I watch this late at night and don't want the volume up to disturb my husband who is usually asleep.)

I once was in a little cafe in Brasilia -- this was before I'd taken Portuguese.  I spoke some Spanish and had a Berlitz phrasebook.  The menu had a bunch of meat dishes and one I didn't recognize, Peito de Frango.  I had no idea what that was as it wasn't in the phrasebook and, in Spanish, chicken is "pollo."  I don't eat red meat.  So I was trying to figure out if it was something I could order, so I started acting like a chicken, the whole arms flapping thing with clucking etc.  They were vastly entertained by this and confirmed that it was chicken.  It was a delicious chicken breast.  I had it with a salad and an ice cold Antartica beer.  And turkey is "Peru."  Go figure.  It was one of the better meals I had while I was in the country with the exception of the churrascaria in Rio (Majorica).  It's a good experience to be somewhere where you have to struggle to communicate.  It forces you to think differently.

[8ullfrog]

I think I'm starting to get your tolerance level thing, I hit "red sky" and it looks like a goofy one, and I don't want to watch it right now.

[6pairsofshoes]

It's easier to have the double feature of bikers and murderous drug cartel employees as a balance to the goofy upbeat sci fi stuff of SG1.  I'm just biding my time until The Expanse comes back.

[6pairsofshoes]

The pilot was seminal TV. After that it went downhill quickly.

I did watch a few early episodes.  Everyone was gorgeous.  The Miami that they filmed was also beautiful.  A good deal of it has subsequently become covered with strip malls, high rise condos, etc. so not quite as charming.

[8ullfrog]

On the blooper reel for BSG, they use a cheesecake shot from Miami vice of Eddy (That's what he likes to be called) coming out of the ocean.
For Mary McDonnell they use a clip from dances.

The people who make the obscenely detailed viper models had Katee Sackhoff do a kind of retrospective/sales pitch on the MK II Viper, and it was directed by him. shortly before the credits they have him coach her on how to demo the thing and it's adorable.

I read the summary for Red Sky. I'll talk more about it if we ever get to the S5 thread, but it's not a goofy episode, the people just have goofy hats.

One thing you might find amusing, they launched ANOTHER stargate show post BSG, and tried to ape all the grim darkness. It resulted in audiences hating all the characters and not watching the show. They took the wrong lessons.