Did you just put SGA and soap opera in the same phrase?
lolwut? defuq?? ... to go to soap opera is quite a long move,
I call it that because soap operas are the only type of film that I can think of where nothing happens at all other than a few characters sit or stand around a room and babble at each other. If that formula is not a soap opera, then what would the accurate description of it be?
If it bother's you that much, simply don't watch it,
I watched this show before I made this thread because I got a bargain bin deal on it and because I wanted to see what the fuss was about with it and because before I bought it I had mistakenly thought that it was the show with the Ori in it, who I saw in a few reruns many years ago and who I thought were fairly interesting based on that.
the very premise of the show is the team being stuck in a place without having a come back way ... The very first thing they say before going to the stargate to atlantis is that they may be stuck there for good and never get back to earth ever again.
Then why did they abandon that premise after a few episodes? After the first few episodes, they go back and forth to and from earth
all the time as if it's nothing, both via the gate and via the Daedalus (yes they whine about the 3 week travel time via the ship, but that's still a cakewalk compared to the original premise of "we will probably
never see or receive any help from earth again!").
They have what
should be a fascinating new galaxy to explore...and instead of exploring it, what do they waste their time doing? Sticking characters into a hole (or room, etc.) for entire episodes so they can have banal mundane conversations with each other. And Atlantis does that not just once, not just a few times --- they do stuff like that
all the time. I.e. "Grace Under Pressure" and "Trio" are two of the most plot-less, pointless, and worst of all,
mind-numbingly boring films that I've ever had the misfortune to watch. And they are essentially the same episode. And they are just two of a great many of the same episode.
They could have done those same episodes on a soap opera or on any show. They don't require a SciFi premise, or a new galaxy, or any Stargate-world-specific-element whatsoever. Absolute interchangeableness like that is always a telltalle sign of bad writing.
I haven't done a full count, but after watching the whole series, it feels as if 70% or more of it is that kind of repetitive, SciFi-irrelevant, story-less filler.
By the way, the stuff I've said in this post and OP are far from Atlantis' only fatal problems. It also has tons more too. I just don't know when to stop talking for the sake of not making these posts way too long.
Examples of other fatal writing problems: the pilot episode says the wraiths are formidable enemies who are very hard to kill, yet after the pilot, the wraiths are 100% unthreatening jokes who drop like flies with just a few bullets, just like any human would. Teyla even beats a wraith unconscious with a couple of sticks, ROFL!
Likewise, the pilot episode, and the episode where one of the wraith prisoners dies, both say that wraiths can learn whatever info they need simply by feeding on someone who has it --- yet in other episodes, the wraiths have to beg verbally and/or make threats against prisoners in hopes of getting information instead of just taking that information by feeding on them.
Also, the wraiths' healing ability is treated as irrelevant after the first couple of wraith prisoners die. From then on, legions and legions of wraith no longer ever bother to heal when shot. Their healing ability just magically no longer exists.
And I should have added to the OP that each script is full of technobabble filler,
not only at the end, but also at every point in the episode. That is another telltale sign of bad writing.
"Science creates fictions to explain facts" – Gilman
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mihaicosmin2007
8 years ago
Then why did they abandon that premise after a few episodes? After the first few episodes, they go back and forth to and from earth all the time as if it's nothing, both via the gate and via the Daedalus (yes they whine about the 3 week travel time via the ship, but that's still a cakewalk compared to the original premise of "we will probably never see or receive any help from earth again!").
This is indeed one of the weaker points of the series, it was much better when they were really cut off, but they had to establish contact to earth sooner or later because the story would not have worked otherwise. They were at war and they needed the extra man power and Earth's help. It would have made more sense if Daedalus was their own way there and gate travel too expensive.
But Earth would have made contact at some point, even if the Daedalus class BC weren't yet ready, they could use goa'uld hataks, especially after the system lords were overthrown in SG-1 S8.
So contacting earth made the series work in the larger scope of the series mythology.
Also, the wraiths' healing ability is treated as irrelevant after the first couple of wraith prisoners die. From then on, legions and legions of wraith no longer ever bother to heal when shot. Their healing ability just magically no longer exists.
It actually exists only when the plot needs it.
yes, they did downplay the wraith too much, but this is because the Earth contact brought along too many of the technologies acquired by SG-1 in latter seasons, especially when it comes to military..
For example, when the Daedalus got the Asgard beam weapons, the wraiths were pretty much done for. They needed new villains, but by the time they went for it, it was too late. So they tried to make it more personal by having characters stuck all the time.
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