Little did I know, this was just the beginning of something far greater and wider in scope that I could imagine, and something I wouldn't revisit until Season 7 of the TV series - and only then because I'd been convinced it really wasn't McGyver (not that I disliked McGyver, but.. well, that's not about pretty-boy alien Egyptians, is it?!).
My reason for warbling on, is that very recently I watched a very-much-put-off final episode of Stargate Universe. Since the show was cancelled, I'd avoided watching the last half of the show, mainly because it really is all over now - not just Universe, but Stargate as a whole, and that is unfortunate.
It's had me thinking about the show, and it's past. I've come to realise that without me even realising it, it's overtaken Star Trek as my favourite Sci-Fi franchise (also dead in more ways than one); I honestly wonder what could replace it - and if you'll excuse me here - it won't be a show about bloody vampires, mutants or Glee.
So I guess I should explain why I left it until 2004 to get in to SG-1. Well, as with most TV shows, it was purely by mistake. I caught an episode (it would probably be the 2-parter wherein SG-1 use the puddlejumper to go back to ancient Egypt and upset the time-line) and thought "Well, bugger me.. this is good!". It hadn't been long since I'd lost Farscape, Voyager (yeah okay, but it's still Star Trek! and was about to find and lose Farscape so I was in need of something and Stargate was whispering sweet nothings to me over a brandy. Yes, SG-1 was a hussy.
Shortly after finding it, I went back and watched it all. Every last episode. Funnily enough, I now do this with some regularity (How I met; Big Bang; Dexter to name but a few) and recently I've thought "you know, I should watch SG-1 again". Stupid hussy show.
So - SG-1 crossed over and became Atlantis; a show I found (along with half the planet) very hard to love initially but before long I couldn't get enough of Shepherd and, especially, Rodney McKay - even better, we got to see all of SG-1 at one point of another in Atlantis but as it the case these days - that was cut short to make way (which was not originally to be the case) for Universe in 2009.
Universe pissed a lot of people off. Stargate got gritty.
With a current (or at least, it was at the time) trend for handy-cam work and even CGI looking "handy-cam" - Battlestar Galactica had hit, and hit hard with a completely different look and feel to most Sci-Fi shows and, most significantly, from it's predecessor (perhaps borrowing more than a little from Space Above and Beyond). Universe came along with a familiar look to Battlestart, but it was no poorer for the effort - Stargate has always been fairly light hearted - sometimes laugh out loud funny - and Universe was nothing like that. So, love lost - but not from me.
I think I was fairly quick to pick the show up and invest in it - and I was rewarded with another cancelled show. Why? Probably because the franchise has weathered for 14 years in Television format and like Star Trek, people had gotten bored of it - turned the TV over to something about parents that can't look after their children, young girls wanting to be models, the next big singer or Glee!
A few shows have their time. Friends did; I suspect Spooks probably has - but Universe had just found it's feet (unlike Heroes that came, wow'd then died horribly) so I'm sad to see it go, and even worse, MGM has given up on the franchise completely.
Will it come back? Probably. But I suspect, rebooted with a either the same story from scratch (please, no) or something radically different (again, no) just to excite the masses.. or here's an idea, just bring Universe back in 2 years - almost mirroring the story! (I show copyright that idea).
Anyway, if you've missed any of the three series, catch them. Watch them. You'll really fall in love with it all. Trust me.. oh, and it's O'Neill with 2 'l's.
