Oh well i guess NASA would never like to be a token front for the public,,, or are they?? lol
actually, NASA named the space shuttle Enterprise as it did after a massive public campaing. the even invited the original cast of Star Trek plut Roddenbury to the christening. if you've never seen this photo, check it out:
[link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Space_shuttle_enterprise_star_trek.jpg]WWW Link[/link]
i can't help but love seeing Mr. Spock in bell bottoms and a flared collar.
Atlantis is a go, and as i understand it, there is a contract in place for at least up to and including a season 6, but we all know how good a contract is.
SG-1 in television form at least, is stopping with season 10. There are two straight to DVD movies that are to tie up the series though. The first of which is to end the story arc of the Ori, and the second is to establish a possible 3rd spinoff where a 9th chevron is located that dials another universe. Apparently Daniel Jackson is to continue through to this new series.
fair enough. can't say i'm surprised that one of the movies will tie up the Ori plot. i haven't seen all of season 10 yet, but the eps (or all the eps in the Ori arc) i have seen have been pretty good.
but i am surprised that Daniel Jackson would stay on. i was under the impression he had a tenuous relationship to the show, but that was only based on the fact that he spent a season or so off it.
i can't say i like Atlantis nearly as much, but it's pretty good. Rodney turned into a pretty likable character, but I was really sad to see Carson go. from what i've seen of Atlantis's third season, i think the show needs to be shaken up a bit more. the Wraith seem like stale bread, and the Pegagsus replicators aren't really all that spectacular.
i think that since the sci fi channel took over production from Showtime, the show's big focus has been on 'bad*ss factor'. to be honest, the 9th Chevron/parallel universe thing doesn't sound like it'd do all that much more to shake up the show. i mean, as soon as they could step through the gate to different worlds, the show had a huge well of possibilities to draw on for plots. and the gate is a bit of a dues ex machina, since it's already variously been used as a weapon, a time machine, and a portal to alternate realities.
i don't want the show to lose its bad*ss factor, either. i love the battles. i love the humor. but i don't think it can carry a show forever. the Star Trek franchise, on the other hand, made a point of exploring moral dilemmas, and i think the optimism and hope it inspires is what made it so popular for so long. Stargate is in a position to do something in a SciFi franchise that hasn't been done before - make knowledge of the gate public.
stargate is unique compared to other SciFi franchises. humans don't develop space-faring technology, inter-species diplomacy and future society in slow incremental steps. in the show, we don't have a 'future society' at all, our diplomacy seems to be based on luck more than skill, and our technology isn't a gradually developed product of our own genius so much as things we've stolen, borrowed and negotiated for from others.
the general theme has been touched on in SciFi before, a the sudden revelation of a species that there are life forms out there with very advanced technology. but it's never been narrated from an inside perspective. sure, the Enterprise had the running gag of how infantile the human species was on the interstellar scene, but it just felt odd. it constantly felt like the Vulcans had taken upon themselves to shepard us, vaguley similar to the Asgard in Stargate. but Enterprise began with a fully formed Earth government, and the technology was all human and had been developing since the events in First Contact.
i think Stargate would get new life by making the gate known to the public and world. i think there are so many interesting plot arcs that could come out of that. i mean, just look at Earth. do the nations unite under a single banner, or does hyperdrive become the means for a renewed age of imperialism? or is it more likely that most governments would work together, but many would have 'side projects', so to speak? and what about colonies? how do we found them? what is our relationship to them? and what about the new technologies we've aquired? yes, they've given us great power and ability, what what else will these technologies do to humans? technology introduces new problems just as often as it solves old ones.
but then, maybe this is just my point of view on the subject.
