Well. For the men anyway!
Justin Louis – Colonel Everett Young ““ The Leader”¦ maybe”¦
David Blue – Eli Wallace ““ The Geek”¦
Jamil Walker Smith ““ Sgt. Ronald Greer ““ The Tough Guy”¦
Brian J. Smith ““ Lt. Matthew Scott ““ The Young One”¦
I know it’s a little bit late compared to rest of the “˜Net, but I thought it was about time I threw something up since I’m the Resident Stargate Expert around here.
Chris made that title up. Not me.
Take a good long look at these guys people. These will be the new team to embrace the ever evolving Stargate mythology. Unsurprisingly, they mostly look like the touted “young and edgy” vibe the series producers are touting for the new series.
Personally I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that it needs to be advertised like that. If this series is done right, and please let it be, this has the potential to combine the original premise of Voyager and Atlantis’ first season, lost and alone, with Deep Space Nine’s darker undertones.
Perhaps what worries me is that the first series so far appears to be being written by established stargate writers. I think the biggest complaint I can make about stargate of recent years is that it has come quite formulaic and there has been no attempt to shake up the concept.
The bravest thing Atlantis attempted was to set up the gang on their own for the first series. Actually, that’s a lie. The bravest concept they attempted was the introduction of the villain Michael but that’s a whole other article for discussion. What I hope is that this series really examines what it means to be on your own and that it builds up a strong recurring cast that DS9 was ruddy well known for amongst others.
The fine tuning for this series is still very much in affect. Eli Wallace for example. was originally named Eli Hitchcock, Matthew Scott was Jared Nash. I will only presume that these names were changed so they are a little bit easier to slip off the tongue. That said, I will always miss the name Hitchcock”¦
Not having had much exposure to these actors’ work, the only one I can comment on even slightly will be David Blue. Having recently appeared on “˜Ugly Betty’ as the boyfriend of a main character, a series I will watch but make no effort to find it I admit, I have seen some of his work and I’ve enjoyed it.
Most interestingly, he doesn’t fit the character mould that I had in my mind for Eli Hitchcock ““ specifically long locks and dashingly good looking but ultimately socially awkward. I’m taking that as a good sign that the actor took the audition material he was presented with and made it shine.
Now all we need are the girls”¦
Oh. And the sets.
Perhaps an opening theme.
Ok. So there’s a lot more to go.
Fingers crossed.
Well now some of your gripes, are just what I liked about the whole series SG1, and Atlantis. To me the shows were scientific, sounding with just the right amount of “FACT” behind the expanding theory used to pull off all other stuff I.E. operating the GATE etc. The story line would start generally with some mundane routine happening, in the first 3 minutes, followed by Oh Crape, something is wrong. That followed by 20 minutes or so Oh crape somthing not only wrong, but something is badly wrong. Then somewhere around the 30 minute mark the fix was in. The fix stayed in until all the mess was fixed or cleared up, usually by some Heroic action by the cast leads, then about 30seconds to about 1 minute of ending and curtain calls. A very safe, light hearted, entertaining SciFi, with lots of quips and subtle jokes in the story telling, with me at least feeling good about the whole thing, and I didn’t have to loose sleep wondering about how all of this fun stuff affected the future of Mankind!
Which would have been absolutely fine… if that’s how the series had begun. The biggest problem I think Atlantis had was that it started off with its own identity, then it shifted into becoming a more SG1-like personality. And I’ve always seen SG1 as ‘lightning in a bottle.’ Rather than trying to recapture the flavour of SG1, I just wish they had strived to create a unique identity for Atlantis, which, admittedly, they got back to in the final few years.
And your comments are very much appreciated, thanks. :)
I agree with you that they’d look a little more in place in LOST rather than Stargate, but it’s nice to see a new series on the horizon!