How would you re-cast Stargate SG-1?

[Crazedwraith]

O'Neill had the deep space telemetry cover same as Sam. When Jack first met her father in season 2 Jacob Carter comments how unlikely a cover it is for O'Neill.

[Lord Revan]

O'Neill had the deep space telemetry cover same as Sam. When Jack first met her father in season 2 Jacob Carter comments how unlikely a cover it is for O'Neill.

That said something that was at least in the orginal seasons pretty consistent was that O'Neill was a lot smarter then he appeared to be.

[Gaidin]

That said something that was at least in the orginal seasons pretty consistent was that O'Neill was a lot smarter then he appeared to be.

He can be a lot smarter than he appears to be all day long but if he doesn't at least have the training to pretend to talk shop of his cover there's going to be problems when he has to make appearences. Like, you know, that time they got awards for saving the world's ass, but it was under their deep space telemetry cover? The cover he can't really talk shop over(or at least they don't ever bother showing him do such), much less work, for all that he's a lot smarter than he appears to be?

[Simon_Jester]

Well, if it's highly classified of course he can't talk shop over it.

But yeah, that still doesn't make him credible if, as a matter of public record, he's spent his entire career in Special Tactics or other ground combat units, and suddenly he's being sent to work with deep space tracking radars.

[Gaidin]

Well, if it's highly classified of course he can't talk shop over it.

But yeah, that still doesn't make him credible if, as a matter of public record, he's spent his entire career in Special Tactics or other ground combat units, and suddenly he's being sent to work with deep space tracking radars.

What I mean is that if they're going to give him that cover they can at least give him the grounding necessary in that area to talk shop in deep space tracking radars but they never seemed to put the effort forth to do that.

[Elheru Aran]

Part of the reason RDA went dumb in later seasons was personal-- he had less time to devote to acting starting approximately season 7 or so, so he convinced the producers and writers to give him fewer lines. Artistically this choice could be criticized until the cows came home, but the fact is it can be interpreted as simply another approach to the O'Neill character that recalls the original film version in some ways.

In-universe he does display flashes of genius-- in Window of Opportunity he and Teal'c learn a decent amount of Ancient and help Carter figure out the time-looping machine, for example. There are a few other situations as well. It's always clear though that he's a soldier first and foremost. His job isn't necessarily to be smart, it's to decide whether or not to shoot stuff and tell other people what to do.

[Darth Nostril]

Bit annoying that dumbing down, in Children of the Gods it shows Jack has developed an interest in astronomy following the events of the movie and is indeed quite knowledgeable on the subject.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Bit annoying that dumbing down, in Children of the Gods it shows Jack has developed an interest in astronomy following the events of the movie and is indeed quite knowledgeable on the subject.

Having astronomy as a hobby doesn't necessarily mean you know a huge amount of science.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, if it's highly classified of course he can't talk shop over it.

But yeah, that still doesn't make him credible if, as a matter of public record, he's spent his entire career in Special Tactics or other ground combat units, and suddenly he's being sent to work with deep space tracking radars.

What I mean is that if they're going to give him that cover they can at least give him the grounding necessary in that area to talk shop in deep space tracking radars but they never seemed to put the effort forth to do that.

They still can't cover for the fact that he has no background in radar operation and lots of background in commando-ing. Plus, they probably needed to spend a lot of time and energy on other things he needed to train and prepare for, such as SG-1's actual duties. It's not like they got a lot of downtime.

[Gaidin]

They still can't cover for the fact that he has no background in radar operation and lots of background in commando-ing. Plus, they probably needed to spend a lot of time and energy on other things he needed to train and prepare for, such as SG-1's actual duties. It's not like they got a lot of downtime.

I still can't cover for the fact that I can't do work in any field but EE, but I can talk shop with others. If they wanted to they could have him be able to talk shop for a few hours when they're forced to have him show up for half a day to a day to recieve an award. Instead of have anybody that has no clue what he actually does know within three sentences the cover's pure bs.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. I think we're operating on different definitions of "to talk shop."

[Gaidin]

Hm. I think we're operating on different definitions of "to talk shop."

Be able to play your cover up at the ceremony and get together for the days you have to. Not necessarily actually be able to talk down into the dirty details of it, much less work it. It is a cover after all. Or at least, they could do something competent and give you a cover more in line with what your training or education is.

[Iroscato]

What was SGC's cover story for personnel killed/missing in action? I can't remember if they covered it or even had one in place. Deep space telemetry is hardly the most hazardous of jobs, after all...

[Gaidin]

What was SGC's cover story for personnel killed/missing in action? I can't remember if they covered it or even had one in place. Deep space telemetry is hardly the most hazardous of jobs, after all...

If you manage to return with the body I imagine you do a proper autopsy and repair the body as much as you can. If not, then closed casket. Both ways, accidents happen on base, I imagine. That's what most other shows do.

[Simon_Jester]

Plus, some of the SG teams are already known to be special forces or other combat arms, and even given that this is the '90s, it's still credible that a Recon Marine or Navy SEAL or whatever would be killed in action.

[Elheru Aran]

I imagine the line they give the families was something like "he/she was killed on an extremely classified mission in an extremely classified location serving bravely, we can't say any more" or something like that. I'm surprised they didn't have grieving family members demanding investigations and such at some point, though... would've been nicely dramatic. But then they never did put that much thought into their plots for the most part...

[Tychu]

I imagine the line they give the families was something like "he/she was killed on an extremely classified mission in an extremely classified location serving bravely, we can't say any more" or something like that. I'm surprised they didn't have grieving family members demanding investigations and such at some point, though... would've been nicely dramatic. But then they never did put that much thought into their plots for the most part...

They had a 10 season long story arc with I think the ISA. Problems ranging from proper funding to civilian oversight to international responsibility. The main guy Halsey was always bothering them, there was apprehension when he was appointed the Atlantis commander as well. Another guy became Vice President so he can try to manipulate the SGC more. SG-1/Atlantis had a lot of political maneuvering that played off the spacey planet hoping very well in my opinion. I think it was on the last season or Arc Of Truth DVD that had them saying Season 10 was the first season in 4 years that they didn't think the show would be cancelled.

I miss StarGate, don't really know what they can do for a new series. Maybe "find" Destiny again in 10 years and see how the crew grew up without the whine ing

[PREDATOR490]

If you are going to do a reboot, the series would benefit from a more modern perspective on their premise.

The premise of the show was to bring back technology to defend and benefit Earth. Thus it would be sensible for the program to become PUBLIC so the full weight of Earth can be put behind it AND remove one of the biggest annoyances of the show. How many episodes are spent trying to keep the program secret or actively covering things up ?
You can keep the program secret but you do not keep the program secret after the world was moments away from destruction. The escalation only gets worse by the time Anubis starts obliterating carrier groups from space or the gigantic battles. Not only does it break suspension of belief that these events went largely unnoticed, what we do see in a few of the details is a rather disturbing situation of how the backend of the Stargate program is playing out.

All these people are dying and somehow... noone is asking questions about why ?
That just paints a world that is completely unrealistic or indicates a horrific amount of shady dealings are going on to maintain the secrecy of the Stargate program.
SGU kinda hammered that point when they literally abduct Eli from his home and Rush implies he will have his memory wiped if he does not cooperate.

Thus, if a new series is going to be made. It would be nice if they actually acknowledge how the premise would actually work and be consistent. Some of the darker episodes like Shepard feeding someone to a Wraith should have some lingering fallout. Instead the next episode forgets about it and we are onto a lame space battle.

[Crazedwraith]

I fail to see how that's a modern perspective and not you just bitching about petty annoyances.

[Knife]

Hmm, General Hammond. Quiet, father like, tough as nails, principled leader...

Corbin Bernsen might be a good choice. His work in psch (While I don't like the show) could be seen as similar to the traits you want for Hammond. Hell, he's even bald.

Tom Selleck might be another good choice. Not bald but his work in Blue Bloods is right up Hammond's bunker.

Terry O'Quinn is not a bad idea either.

O'Neill? Rugged military guy? Alpha male and hero?

Josh Duhamel seems to fit the bill for me.

Daniel Jackson, smart but geeky, loyal and faithful but not necessarily socially competent...

Zachary Levi would be my choice. Not sure he needs the glasses though.

Carter? Well with Levi I'm tempted to put in Yvonne Strahovshi due to their onscreen chemistry, but lets not do bundle packs...

Olivia Munn has both the acting chops and charisma to do the role, though not a blonde. She came off as very intelligent and principled in The News Room, and could make a good go at it.

Teal'c? Short of going with Dwayne Johnson, you could add all sorts of muscled men in here. While I enjoyed the character, not sure it's 'needed' in a reboot, or if the character exists in a reboot, not necessarily as originally portrayed.

[Elheru Aran]

It strikes me that Stargate is a property which, if you're going to reboot it, you might want to go whole hog and start by remaking the original film, then incorporating it into a new series. While the original film was decent enough, it certainly suffers by comparison to the series. Michael Shanks managed to bring a lot of depth to Daniel Jackson, more so than James Spader, and Ra... was frankly embarrassing compared to, say, Ba'al or Anubis, or even Apophis (OK, original Apophis was silly enough, but resurrected Apophis was pretty cool).

Film Ra was a preening, prancing dandy who had to be retconned into a slightly nutty older Goa'uld by the series' background material. He was *not* a good example of a powerful, galaxy-spanning warlord. Looking back at it you can rationalize it by the notion that Goa'uld culture has stagnated and that he's wallowing in the decadence his position affords him, but Jaye Davidson just didn't really give you the presence of power and authority that later characters did once you looked past the gold spray paint. Of course, it *is* a fresher take upon the notion of alien overlords than your typical conqueror sort...

Add in the strange incongruity between Russel-O'Neil and RDA-O'Neill, various oddities such as Ra's guards not being Jaffa, and even minor details such as the funnel-like wormhole of the Stargate, and you have a hell of a lot of variation between the film and the show that were never really reconciled within the show itself because of legal issues.

Essentially, to me, the film has become somewhat dated, as have the initial seasons of the show (later seasons hold up fairly well). It would be better to leave both film and original shows behind and reboot with a new canon, so to speak. Keep the notion of a galaxy-spanning race of oppressive overlords, a slave-soldier race, and humans in subjugation.

Keep the central notion of connecting from Earth to whatever single planet, and then expand from there. The plot of the film, when pared down to essentials, holds up well enough-- team of humans goes exploring through the Stargate and fights alien overlord. Hell, even the alien being Ra works-- just make him a little more overlord-ish, less perfumed-harem-eunuch. The defeat of Ra gave SG-1 a major plot point in early seasons, with the System Lords maneuvering for control of his past domain. Or you could substitute another high System Lord such as, say, Heru'ur or Sokar, leaving Ra to be a major antagonist in the series. Imagine the difficulty to Earth of going up against a unified Goa'uld alliance.

The big problem with SG-1's early seasons at least was a bit of a lack of vision and continuity. They didn't really have an overarching idea of plot besides "offplanet hijinks, fight Goa'ulds, survive". Hence all the one-episode wonders and various alien races and human civilizations that never really get seen again after they appear. Plotting a series out with a little more forethought, starting with the basis a reboot film would supply, would give the series a lot more oomph if events at point A in the timeline can be assumed will have consequences at point B.

Anyway. On subject.

I wouldn't re-cast Hammond. Just put another general in Cheyenne Mountain. Don Davis is basically irreplaceable and if you tried to name someone else Hammond, the fans would be pretty pissed off.

O'Neill-- Channing Tatum No, you need someone a little older, middle-aged I think. You don't really make colonel till your 40s at least for the most part. David Borenaz, maybe?

Carter-- early 30s is plausible enough. Honestly not very familiar with the various actresses out there.

Daniel-- Charlie Day? You need a nerdy type who can man up as the series goes on, if you're going to have similar development to Shanks-Daniel. It would be a bit of a departure for Day, but I think he could do it.

Teal'c-- I question the necessity of repeating this specific character. Like Hammond, the role was very much Christopher Judge's. Better, I think, to have another Jaffa First Prime join SG-1 in a similar situation (realizes the fraud of his 'gods', sees opportunity to defect, takes it).

Additional:
Bra'tac-- Older Jaffa mentor type. Perhaps bring Tony Amendola back. The show didn't shy at having a few characters reprise their roles from the movie; why not do the same with a new show. The fans would be all over it, and unlike Don Davis, Amendola is still alive.

Jacob Carter/Selmak: For some reason I'm seeing Clark Gregg...

If Ricardo Montalban was still alive, he'd make a spectacular older Goa'uld, perhaps a Tok'ra. Alas.

Simon Baker would be pretty fun as a neo-Tollan. He does arrogant prick pretty well in Mentalist.

For more cross-series hijinks, throw in Nathan Fillion at some point. Perhaps have him be someone similar to Alec Colson-- rich businessman who figures out some of the details of the Stargate program, threatens to expose it, and is brought into their confidence.

[PREDATOR490]

I fail to see how that's a modern perspective and not you just bitching about petty annoyances.

The world has changed rather considerably in the last twenty years to such a point that if a new show is to be made it would be drastically different in tone. I fully expect a new show to end up with morally dubious characters like nBSG or completely depressing chaos like Game of Thrones. Maintaining a secret like the Stargate program in the modern world would be considerably harder and I find it likely an episode like Full Disclosure would end in a catastrophic disaster.

So... if a new series is to be made, the program should either be public in short order or acknowledge the dubious nature of how and why it is being kept secret.

[Crazedwraith]

We had Stargate trying to BSG before it was called SGU and failed horribly.

Modern times do not have a monopoly on shitty grimdark tales and nor do modern times require grimdark story telling. If SG-1 were to rebooted, I hope it would try and remember what made it decent in the first place, not try to echo past program's shittiness.

eta: And even if for some reason it did have to grimdark that doesn't necessitate the secret comes out. It just means the government kills anyone who finds out. Like... oh wait, they do did in the canon anyway. Only more so.

[Batman]

In defense of Pred, he didn't come out and say he 'wanted' them to go grimdark, just that he 'expected' them to.
And when has the SG universe US government killed anybody for finding out about the Stargate program? Rogue organizations outside the government have, yes.

[Knife]

Been thinking about this on and off all day. I agree you'd have to 'reboot' the movie as well, call it the pilot of the show.

With a decade of US intervention in the middle east now, it would be an idea to tweak the concept a bit and have the US discover the Star Gate in Iraq during the early Iraqi war. Say, special ops went in to secure the Iraq National Museum after it got looted really bad and discovered the Gate in a secured warehouse in the basement of the museum. It attracts the attention of some people and gets transported back to the US for study. If you want to stick it back under NORAD, fine, but would probably keep the JSOC nature current spec ops or even better put in under Homeland Security. A pithy line somewhere in the dialog about where all that money really went to.