Stargate Travels a MESS - in a fun way
345810
I really enjoyed this book, the story line was a lot of fun, and I would have loved to see this book as an actual Stargate Atlantis episode.  The characters were great and true to the TV show.  My only complaint would be the editing of the book.  I found so many typos and grammar mistakes! Whoever the editor was better find another profession, usually I can keep on reading the book and not care, but this book is full of them, to the point where it became distracting.  Other than the typos, the story line was great, very detailed and the characters well described.
4741534
The discs came in a decent box type inclosure with picutres of duct tape.  Very "MacGyverish."  Having seen most of the series when it first aired, I was quite surprised, and amused, at what I had forgotten.  Richard Dean certainly is MacGyver.  Even more so than his part on Stargate.
I believe anyone over the age of 15 would enjoy watching this series.  It is most intreguing since just about every one of Mac's ways of getting out of the difficult situations has an air of authenticity.
4167361
I used to love Stargate.  But maybe it was the departure of Richard Dean Anderson, I don't know.  But the last few seasons have been extremely repetitive and tiresome.  Random Ancient artifact saves the day.  The Ark of Truth is no exception.  The only character that gets any decent character development is Tomin when he has a change of heart.  Otherwise it's the same ole tired formula.  1) Find Ancient artifact.  2) magically decipher it despite how ridiculously old and advanced it is. 3) Save the day.  4) Lather rinse repeat.  It was bad enough that the first seasons of Stargate dealt with Humans miraculously defeating an enemy that was vastly more advanced and had been in power for thousands of years.  But my suspension of disbelief simply cannot tolerate simple humans fighting virtual deities and somehow winning.  It is extremely disappointing to see Stargate fall so far.
4477585
Think Stargate meets Interstellar meets the Dirty Dozen and get ready to go.  I bought this on simply because I was between series. I read Transport in one sitting and went directly to Transport 2. Would have rolled right on to 3 but alas it hasn't been translated yet. Can't wait!
4420680
This is officially called The Primate Directive, which got a surprised snort out of me; nice play on words. The original Enterprise crew finds out the Klingonsoriginal Klingons too, not Worf-likeare conquering another dimension and go there, which turns out to be the Planet of the Apes, of course, Earth in the future. Even Spock is surprised by the talking simians. Of course they run into Colonel Taylor, who still wants to wipe out all those damned dirty apes, but Kirks applying the Prime Directive, so he gets mad and beams up to the Enterprise, running amok on the ship. For the Klingons we get that brilliant bastard Kor as the puppetmaster.
 As I prefer it, the faces are faithfully drawn, even the simians. Theres a lot of backgrounds with gorgeously drawn crew women in miniskirt uniform, which I have no doubt Kirk appreciates, and Cornelius and Scotty get along famously.
 A pleasant enough diversion, especially if you're a fan of both, or even one.
1328246
So far Universe has been a big disappointment, but I am hopeful they can turn it around.  I have watched every episode of SG1 and Atlantis and love the concept and intrigue of "Gate Travel" that both are built upon, and therefore looked forward to Universe.  Sadly, this installment seems to focus more on human drama and less on Sci-fiction.

The concept of Destiny is most intriguing.  A ship that has been traveling for hundreds of thousands of years, to a region in space that could never otherwise be explored, offers all kinds of appealing possibilities for excellent sci-fiction.  Sadly, the storyline thus far has had very little to do with Sci-fi and seems to go in an endless loop of boring character development. Sadly, there have only been a couple of episodes where any exploration of space is accomplished.

I would get rid of about every character except Dr Rush, who by the way is outstanding, and assemble a crew who unites together for the simple fact that in order to survive they have too.  Give us episodes that have more alien involvement so that crew does not have time to waste on petty differences.  Get rid of the cheating husbands and wives and lesbian themes and give us real sci-fi.  Otherwise, move the show to ABC and have it follow General Hospital.
203435
Another pairing of great if mismatched episodes.  I guess the idea was to pool dissimilar episodes rather than the episodes which seem like slight variations on a single idea (like sending the crew to planets ruled by modern day versions of Nazi Germany or Imperial Rome).
In "A Piece of the Action", the crew journeys to Iotia, a planet whose inhabitants prove incredibly resourceful and adaptive.  Based upon a single book on 1920's Gangsters left behind by a previous starship, the Iotians have modeled their entire culture to resemble Jazz-era Chicago - Tommyguns, mob-molls, hits and all.  Landing on Iotia to open contact, Kirk and crew find themselves in the middle of a gang war.  The episode is funny without being too campy (forgetting that this is the story requiring the heroes to sneak around a Paramount backlot in period costume).  Kirk struggles to unite the warring gangs for the good of the planet without taking sides and without becoming another hit.  The last shot is classic - leaving open the possibility that the Iotians may one day demand a piece of the Starfleet's action.
In "By any other name", the Enterprise is hijacked by the Kelvan - an advanced race of beings from the Andromeda galaxy.  Having been marooned when their ship was crippled by the energy barrier at the rim of our galaxy (the same barrier that has made appearances in "Where no man has gone before", "Is there no truth in Beauty" and the fifth Trek film), the Kelvan took on the shape of human beings.  Their actual forms - immense being with many tentacles and huge brains - would have trouble managing turbolifts.  Once past the barrier, the Kelvan use their advance technology to reduce much of the crew into small styrofoam boxes, and otherwise keep the remaining crew in submission.  Their mission is to reach their home galaxy and return to ours with a massive invasion force.  This is a great episode, combining some subtle wit and quick thinking with some matchless direction.  In one excellent cut, Scott, Spock and Kirk weigh their options enroute to the bridge.  With the Kelvan homecoming a possible harbinger of invasion, the crew realizes that more than their own lives are stake.  Yet, against the Kelvan technology, only a single plan is available and suicidal at that.  "The Kelvan will be stopped here", Spock intones gravely "and so will we."  Kirk is about to respond in fury - there's got to be something else we can do - when the door opens.  None of the nex-gen episodes can touch that moment.  Get this DVD.
1123904
Universe had become my favorite new show when it originally aired as I have been a big Stargate fan since the very beginning. When SyFy decided to cancel it, I decided to stop watching SyFy and eventually stopped watching TV all together. This show had so much potential and it got flushed down the toilet. Just another amazing series added to the long list of great shows canceled by morons.
2796167
I'm really a big fan of Stargate SG-1 and pretty much enjoy all of the seasons of it. Definitely worth getting!
3822128
I have stumbled across "Stargate SG-1" on cable television from time to time and so it was a real treat to go back to the beginning and see how Showtime was able to turn a moderately successful science fiction film into a very good science fiction television series.  There is a special edition version of the 1995 theatrical film starring Kurt Russell and James Spader so even if you have seen it before you can refresh your memory as to what happened and get some added scenes as well.
The pilot movie, "Children of the Gods" (Written by Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, Aired July 1997) has General Hammond (Don S. Davis from "Twin Peaks") dragging Colonel Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson in the Russell role) back for one "last" mission through the Stargate.  Since the huge, shimmering ring of glowing matter that allows instant transportation between different worlds could be used by the evil Egyptian-like aliens to use to Earth, it was supposedly destroyed.  But there is now evidence that Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks in the Spader role) might still be alive (a great use of Kleenex by the way).  The pilot takes O'Neill and his team back to Abydos, where they have a confrontation with the Goa'ulds, who are now led by Apophis (Peter Williams), a Ra-wannabee.  What makes this a good pilot is that not only does it assemble what will be the SG-1 team, adding Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), a theoretical astrophysicist, and Teal'c (Christopher Judge), a high-ranking Jaffa for Apophis who defects to the humans, but it establishes several elements for the series that can be exploited down the line.  5 Stargates.
Consequently, the first season of "Stargate SG-1" offers a blend of episodes that have the quartet visiting new worlds through the Stargate and those that deal with the continuing evil efforts of Apophis and the Goa'ulds.  Many times, even if the Jaffa are not running around, the have had an impact on the planet being visited.
Episode 1, "The Enemy Within" (Written by Brad Wright, Aired August 1, 1997) is basically a continuation of the pilot with one of O'Neill's officers and friends, Major Charles Kawalksy (Jay Acavone), the host of one of the Goa'uld larvae.  The contrast here is between a friend being turned into a traitor against his will by one parasite while Teal'c has to prove his loyalty.  The attempt to get the larvae out of Kawalsky continues the theme in the pilot of making the conflict with the Goa'uld extremely personal for O'Neill.  5 Stargates.
Episode 2, "Emancipation" (Written by Kathryn Powers, Aired August 8, 1997) sends the SG-1 crew back out through the Stargate and makes it clear that each trip to a new planet is usually going to confront them with a people who are not as technologically advanced (there are a couple of key exceptions in season one).  This episode also establishes that most of the people they are going to encounter come form Earth stock, such as the Shavadai, a tribe related to the Mongols, on the planet Simarka.  The Shavadai consider women to be inferior, which means Carter is in for a series of rude shocks.  The plot is rather predictable, but the episode does have its comic aspects and shows that Carter can hold her own with the boys both in terms of cracking jokes and fighting her way out of duel to the death.  4 Stargates.
Even if you never saw or were not overly enamored of the original "Stargate" film, if you make it through these first three episodes (keeping in mind the pilot is basically a movie) you will be impressed enough to move on to the next volume.  I would encourage you to keep going because you should get seriously hooked on this series by the time you get to the fourth volume, let along the season-ending cliffhanger in volume five.
Let me put it to you this way.  The first season of "Stargate SG-1" is a lot better than the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and you know how good that series got.  It is also helping me avoiding suffering serious withdrawl from the end of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
1180056
Thanks for reminding me that I bought the Stargate Atlantis series! However I will not be buying Stargate Universe series! SG1, and Stargate Atlantis was fun, entertaining, and the characters, for the most part likable and watchable. Stargate Universe has a cast of characters that are vulgar, boring, and not likable. The story line has no point, it meanders to the point of frustration. Where is Colonel O'Neil, McKay, and those that make this series fun and interesting.
With a bit of luck, this series will be cancelled soon and the creators of this genre will get back to their "roots" of making an enjoyable series.
3501116
Series three started off with the same pace and narrative drive as series two but somehow seemed to run out of steam in the middle before getting back on track for an excellent finale.

It could be argued that the mid-series doldrums were for a bit of light relief from the break-neck pace and allowed for episodes which provided much needed depth to the main characters and, in this respect, they succeeded. There was, however, far too much reliance on flash-backs and irritating conversations with people who were not there (not just between Baltar and the skinny blonde for a change).

Every sci-fi series seems to suffer from the occasional duff episode (even Babylon 5 had a few) so it isn't fair to be over critical; it is probably because the remaining episodes are so good that you notice the sporadic poor ones
2458117
I love the Stargate series, they are a great mix of long term plot and character driven stories. I can watch a whole season in a week or a episode every other day while I fold laundry. My favorite charater is Ronin played by Jason Mamoa (conan).
1585564
I love Stargate and was thrilled to have closure to the whole Ori issue. But for how much trouble the Ori were to handle this solution was just too easy. I still love SG-1, but was a little disappointed.
3754394
From the Star Trek and Star Gate style of Sci-Fi series, this is one my top favorites.  Too bad it fizzed out. I suppose the writers developed hand cramps?
28118
I spent the weekend listening to the commentaries on all 20 (!) of the episodes and even watching the featurettes (well, most of them) all the way through. There are, alas, no bloopers no deleted scenes, but, as with the first season, the Atlantis audio extras belong to that rare category of commentaries that actually tell you interesting things.

For those who don't have the episodes memorized, we start with the third episode in "The Siege" trilogy, when Ford has fallen into the water with a Wraith drone attached to his chest, Sheppard flying into a Wraith hive with a nuke in his puddlejumper, and all of Atlantis about to fall into enemy hands.

During the season, we get to meet (and grow to like) the new member of SA-1, Specialist Ronon Dex, who's spent the last seven years running as a sort of sport-prey from the Wraith. Poor Rodney gets stuck in the back of a sinking puddlejumper and hallucinates Samantha Carter. Tayla sings over the body of her grandmother. Elizabeth gets another consciousness in her head and almost kills everyone, and Carson Beckett comes up with a Wraith nano-virus that creates Michael the Wraith and almost turns Sheppard into a bug.

Pretty cool.

The season ends with the cliffhanger "Allies," where Michael brings a Wraith Queen to Atlantis to fight against another hive. Despite the ever-present threat of the Wraith, Atlantis has managed to remake the Stargate magic in its own cauldron precisely by not having too much reliance on the Big Bad Plot Arc. While SG-1 has unfortunately been mired down through seasons nine and ten with the Ori, Atlantis has gone back to the fun of SG-1's first seasons, which the teams went through the gate to adventure and romance.

So we also get to hang out with foppish "nobles" who use an Ancient tower to lord over the peasants, criminals who are sent to "Wraith Island" instead of prison, Ancients in a VR who don't know they've been in stasis 10,000 years, and nice guys who don't realize that when your Ancient shield is powered by a volcano, you really shouldn't leave it set to "high."

As I said, all the episodes have commentary, the best coming from Martins Wood and Gero, David Hewlett, and Peter DeLuise (though it's all fun, really, and they bring in Amanda Tapping for "Grace Under Pressure"). We get a great featurette on James "Bam-Bam" Bamford, the stunt coordinator, and we spend a loooooottt of time on the kiss in McKay and Beckett character profiles.

What's really great about Wood and Gero is that their commentaries are 40-minute lessons in filmmaking. We get to hear about the DoP's lighting choices, 100 ways to make the same corridor look like different corridors, how blocking works, how the actors contribute to their characters, and how the whole thing really works.

My only complaint, and I have to reach for it, is the sucky cover art. Get someone better with Photoshop next time, guys!
3289163
Most fans of DS9 are familiar with the characters of Lucsly and Dulmer (anagrams of Scully and Mulder--get it?), stalwart agents of the Department of Temporal Investigations, valiantly defending the timeline against temporal incursions and anomalies, and plaguing Starfleet captains and crews who venture recklessly through time to "fix" things. I enjoyed this ambitious attempt to coherently unify all the twisted, convoluted, often contradictory takes on time travel throughout the decades long history of Trek continuity. The author is very talented, and touches on practically every instance. But it doesn't always work, and more than once seems more like shoehorning in of time travel theories and expository dialogue about things just to explain it to a reader the characters don't know exists. But just the same, an entertaining ride (for an ubergeek like me at least) and a great job of characterization and expansion of the Trekverse. Probably have to be pretty diehard to grok all the references, but if you ever wanted to know just what was up with the "Temporal Cold War," or why the Borg only tried time traveled to Earth once, or what the heck was up with that early Next Gen epi "Time Squared" then this book is essential reading. Just make sure your original memories are phase shielded.