brad wright says SGA fans hurt SGU

[archersangel]

as seen on many a LJ & DW journal; the article is here

Perhaps a more seedy, and disappointing aspect of the hits to Universe’s popularity, though, is the fanbase itself. “I don’t think if we for any reason go away, it is an issue necessarily of the quality of the product that we’ve been making,” said executive producer and co-creator Brad Wright. “I think getting moved on the schedule has hurt us. And the fact that some of the fans that liked SG-1 and Atlantis were so angry that they have deliberately hurt us, which is unfortunate.”

Indeed, log on to any message board, and the vociferous level of criticism directed towards Universe for its supposed role in the demise of Stargate Atlantis is obvious, as is the recent, unpleasant schadenfreude in its ratings descent. Websites have even been set up purely for opposition to the show, which seems like a curious move for people who are supposedly avowed fans of the franchise. Simplistic descriptors such as Stargate In Name Only abound, and the feeling of engendered ill wishes can be nauseating.

Comments

[juliet316]

This reminds me of when Farscape was initally cancelled with the announcement close behind of the neo!BSG mini - series and the regular series airing in it's time slot. A lot of Scapers vowed to both not watch BSG and try to make sure the show got cancelled. Eventually the vitrole simmered down (Probably helped that the Peacekeeper Wars got green - lit to be made) and obviously we know what how things with BSG went.

However it seems that SGA fans may very well succeed in their venture to get SGU canned.

[sid]

Schadenfreude! \o/

I was only a tangential fan of SGA. I read a lot of McShep at one point and wrote various slash pairings. (Maybe about ten fics that weren't from prompts or fulfilling ficathon assignments.) The final season of SGA disappointed me, and the final scene appalled me. Maybe the writing would have been better if they weren't already working on their new shiny. Then again, maybe not.

SGA never got a nickel of my money, but SG-1 did, of course. So it was pretty nasty to hear that I was too old and too female, and that the show I loved was as worthless as I was, and the World had been Waiting for the Breathtaking New Show that was all Adult and Dark and Stuff.

:-p~~~~~~~

(But my sentiments have nothing to do with the cancellation of SGA, because what they'd reduced it to deserved cancellation.)

[phosfate]

We'd better pretend to like Enterprise, or there won't be any more Star Trek EVER!

[sid]

But I did like Enterprise!

Until they ruined it all with the last episode. Wish there was a reboot for that. *pouts*

[donutsweeper]

I refuse to acknowledge the last episode of Enterprise actually happened. In my mind the series ends with "Terra Prime" (Although it would be even better if it ended with "In a mirror, darkly" but either way there is no holodeck random recreation of a bogus, made up Enterprise future)

*ahem* I just may have strong opinions on the matter. Just a little...

[sid]

It was clearly a bad dream.

That final season had some really excellent episodes and arcs. So much goodness.

Anything else is a bad dream.

(we don't need any crappily written "Valentines", thank you.)

[donutsweeper]

The fact he had the gall to call it a "Valentine" just proved he had NO IDEA what fans really wanted out of the show in the first place.

[sid]

It was more of a slap in the face! CLUELESS.

[archersangel]

It was clearly a bad dream.

if a whole season of dallas can be a bad dream, so can TATV

[sid]

*G* I like the way you think!

[juliet316]

To be honest, the basic episode itself was fine, but (and this pains me to say because I'm such an Imzadi shipper) Riker and Troi were unnecessary to the story. Cut the holodeck aspect of it out (or have them watching Archer's speech at the very end as away to remind fans of how everything turns out for the Federation in the end), and maybe expand the episode into the two - hour send off all Trek series finales should get, and I think the basic storyline of that ep works fine. I think having the final episode be about the signing of the Federation Charter was a good idea in concept. I also think Trip's death could have worked on an emotional level. May not have been popular but the scene itself was good and heartbreaking.

Having it as a Holodeck recreation, having Troi outright state Trip's death, and having Riker insert himself as Cook, really did mar the story to such a rediculous degree. Having it set during the two's time on the Enterprise D (as much as I loved seeing those TNG exteriors again), instead of their post - married life on the Titan also didn't do neither the now older Marina Sirtis or Jonathan Frakes any favors. It almost as if Berman knew he would never work on the franchise again and decided to do as much as he could to shit all over it in that finale.

[donutsweeper]

The episode wasn't a bad one, but it didn't make much sense. 6 years later and everyone is still on the same ship in the same positions? And the reason Riker was supposedly watching the recreation made no sense to me either- it didn't tie into their episode in any way that I could really see.

And Troi outright spoiling Trip's death like that bugged the hell out of me. Without that it would have been so much more powerful.

You may be onto something as to why it was written the way it was.

[sid]

That spoiler. Geez Louise. That is shitty writing. And then we never actually saw Trip die, just get shoved into a tube.

The final scene with Archer's speech could have been great! I loved the birth of the classic opening lines. :-)

[donutsweeper]

The idea behind the speech was brilliant- it would have been the perfect send off- if the writers hadn't completely ruined everything else

[archersangel]

That spoiler. Geez Louise. That is shitty writing. And then we never actually saw Trip die, just get shoved into a tube.


there's a novel that's suppose to explain that.

[sid]

Is there? It would've been nice to have it better dealt with on the show, though. But I'm glad someone made the effort to write an explanation!

[juliet316]

It is but it's a DS9 Holodeck recreation from Jake and Nog's perspective. (I don't know if it's apart of DS9's Virtual Book Season or not). It's supposed to be good, but after being burned by the finalie I'm not touching any Enterprise novel that says "Holodeck recreation" in it.

[juliet316]

Yep. It was Berman's way of making sure the fans hated it so much that neither Paraborg nor anybody else would ever want to touch the franchise again.

At least until Abrams and the reboot came along.

[juliet316]

This. The final season showed finally started showing all of the promise that the series was supposed to deliver in the first three, especially once the temporal cold war was eliminated from the show and they actually focused on the beginnings of the Federation. And a bitter Berman shit on all of that in the final episode because of the cancellation. If A) that final episode hadn't happened (or at least certain parts of it) and B) if it hadn't been cancelled and had at least one or two more seasons, then Enterprise wouldn't leave such a bad taste in many fans mouths and drive a lot of use to deny it ever existed.

*Edit because apparently I can't spell tonight

[sid]

Lots of ST fans hated the entire series and claimed that it messed with canon. They hated it, period. The show had some problems, sure, but it never contradicted canon that I saw.

The final show was just stupidly written, and then they made me barf in my mouth by claiming that even if the show hadn't been cancelled, they still would have shown that episode. Because it was In The Future! And then they could just go Back and show Other Stuff!

Please. You don't build up a 'ship and then jump to the future and show that nothing ever came of it. You don't give a popular character a stupid death and then go back in time and expect the viewers to forget what's coming.

That last season was excellent otherwise. I was already enjoying the show, but that final season rocked!

[juliet316]

There were some fans, (including myself) who started to come around to Enterprise during that last season as the writing and storytelling definitely started to get better by that point. The Cold War was jettisoned (Though I wouldn't have minded maybe if that had come back a season or two down the line if Enterprise had lived to maybe have Archer and crew having to have to set the timeline right in order for the Federation to exist), and there was definitely an arc towards, more than likely the Romulan War rather than the signing of the Federation Charter. Then came the Crap finale Berman gave us and drove a lot of the fans who had started to come around into the "Enterprise does not and ever will exist" camp.