I’m all caught up on Stargate: Origins and I’m still not quite sure what I think about it. I’ve been sitting here trying to come up with a decent summary of what’s going on and it’s a lot harder than it sounds like. Partially because so much is going on, but nothing really happens.
The Professor is kidnapped by Nazis who want to go through the Stargate for Nazi reasons leaving Catharine behind on Earth to grab her friend Beal (who I cannot stress enough is NOT ERNEST) and his sidekick Wasif to go through the Stargate to rescue him.
On Abydos, we are introduced to a new Goa’uld, Aset. She has a harsesis which up through episode 7 serves no purpose other than to have a nice little call back to SG-1 and give Aset something to do with her hands. Aset easily captures the Nazis and the Professor. The head Nazi in a power move shows Aset some Nazi propaganda movies (which, it’s cool they used actual footage) and Aset falls for it. She decides that clearly the Tau’ri are ready to be slaves again and strikes a deal with the Nazi to exchange Naqada for slaves. (It’s a little weird to see a Nazi decide to send Jews to be slaves in what is essentially ancient Egypt. *shudder*)
Meanwhile, Catharine and company get captured by some Abydonians including Kasuf (shout out to Good Father!). There’s a struggle, Wasif is stabbed, and then healed though Goa’uld magic. And then the Abydonians see Catharine’s Eye of Ra medallion and start worshiping a la the original Stargate movie. This leads to a feast which is a rehash of Stargate with Catharine as the game to try anything Dr. Jackson and Not Ernest as a less grumpy O’Neil (with only one L).
At the feast, one of the Abydonian warrior/guard/random guys starts making eyes at Wasif for a shoehorned in gay subtext plot.
Also shoehorned in is a romance between Catharine and Not Ernest.
There’s some Abydonian pot smoking as Catharine comes to the horribly written and filmed realization that she’s not just going to save her dad, but the world. She comes to this conclusion with no real evidence or prompting. She knows nothing of the Goa’uld, yet other than as a story told by Kasuf, she hasn’t seen the naqada or what it can do. She still doesn’t know that the Nazis are after… but she knows she must save the world somehow.
And that’s where we are. Seven 10-minute episodes in and we’ve barely started the movie. I wish preproduction had treated this like a full movie and then figured in some natural breaks to make it a serial feature. The formatting makes the story telling very disjointed. There’s no real time for character development. We don’t feel for Catharine, we don’t fear for the fate of the Earth and we don’t even hate the Nazis…. I mean, c’mon it’s not hard to make me at least dislike a Nazi? All this is making me feel is annoyed.
They have 30 minutes left to complete their story and maybe they’ll be able to salvage what they’ve done so far. I don’t hate what I’ve seen of Origins, but I’m not loving it either. Right now, I’d take re-runs for SG-1 and Atlantis over the new material. I’ll still watch the rest of Origins. I’ll still watch a new show if we ever get one.
I’m trying to keep in mind that a TV show usually takes a half season or so to really get on its feet and we’re not going to get to that point with Origins. This is nothing but a test to see if the fan base is still there and if we’re still interested.
We’re still here.
We’re still interested.
The Professor is kidnapped by Nazis who want to go through the Stargate for Nazi reasons leaving Catharine behind on Earth to grab her friend Beal (who I cannot stress enough is NOT ERNEST) and his sidekick Wasif to go through the Stargate to rescue him.
On Abydos, we are introduced to a new Goa’uld, Aset. She has a harsesis which up through episode 7 serves no purpose other than to have a nice little call back to SG-1 and give Aset something to do with her hands. Aset easily captures the Nazis and the Professor. The head Nazi in a power move shows Aset some Nazi propaganda movies (which, it’s cool they used actual footage) and Aset falls for it. She decides that clearly the Tau’ri are ready to be slaves again and strikes a deal with the Nazi to exchange Naqada for slaves. (It’s a little weird to see a Nazi decide to send Jews to be slaves in what is essentially ancient Egypt. *shudder*)
Meanwhile, Catharine and company get captured by some Abydonians including Kasuf (shout out to Good Father!). There’s a struggle, Wasif is stabbed, and then healed though Goa’uld magic. And then the Abydonians see Catharine’s Eye of Ra medallion and start worshiping a la the original Stargate movie. This leads to a feast which is a rehash of Stargate with Catharine as the game to try anything Dr. Jackson and Not Ernest as a less grumpy O’Neil (with only one L).
At the feast, one of the Abydonian warrior/guard/random guys starts making eyes at Wasif for a shoehorned in gay subtext plot.
Also shoehorned in is a romance between Catharine and Not Ernest.
There’s some Abydonian pot smoking as Catharine comes to the horribly written and filmed realization that she’s not just going to save her dad, but the world. She comes to this conclusion with no real evidence or prompting. She knows nothing of the Goa’uld, yet other than as a story told by Kasuf, she hasn’t seen the naqada or what it can do. She still doesn’t know that the Nazis are after… but she knows she must save the world somehow.
And that’s where we are. Seven 10-minute episodes in and we’ve barely started the movie. I wish preproduction had treated this like a full movie and then figured in some natural breaks to make it a serial feature. The formatting makes the story telling very disjointed. There’s no real time for character development. We don’t feel for Catharine, we don’t fear for the fate of the Earth and we don’t even hate the Nazis…. I mean, c’mon it’s not hard to make me at least dislike a Nazi? All this is making me feel is annoyed.
They have 30 minutes left to complete their story and maybe they’ll be able to salvage what they’ve done so far. I don’t hate what I’ve seen of Origins, but I’m not loving it either. Right now, I’d take re-runs for SG-1 and Atlantis over the new material. I’ll still watch the rest of Origins. I’ll still watch a new show if we ever get one.
I’m trying to keep in mind that a TV show usually takes a half season or so to really get on its feet and we’re not going to get to that point with Origins. This is nothing but a test to see if the fan base is still there and if we’re still interested.
We’re still here.
We’re still interested.
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