This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Silent Hunter: I think we should an important caveat to the "can get out of any situation alive". Considering that there have been some situations where members of SG-1 have ended up dead.
Kendra Kirai: That's just Daniel. He dies from time to time. It's his character quirk. ;)
Croaker: Which has resulted in the occasional fanfic mockery of said quirk. Such as the frequent Highlander crossovers wherein Moebius-Danny was Methos' mentor/father-figure.
Silent Hunter: I'm well aware of the many deaths of Daniel Jackson. I'm talking about "The Nox", where an attempted ambush on Apophis goes so wrong, 3 of SG-1 end up getting fatal injuries from staff weapons. (Having watched that scene again, Sam Carter's breaking cover when O'Neill was shot was a case of weapons-grade idiocy)
Ununnilium: I gotta note that there's one fact there that isn't quite true; Mystery Science Theater 3000 in fact had 11 seasons. (The original season, on local Minnesota station KTMA, is usually left out of the numbering.)
Silent Hunter: Hasn't SG-1 run for more episodes?
Ununnilium: Probably. I guess it depends on how you define "longest-running"; in terms of show-hours produced, or in terms of real-life years it's been around.
Gus Interesting point. Produced hours is a "harder" metric than years (seasons, series, whatever) running.
Red Shoe: Which is complicated by the fact that MST 3 K episodes are about twice as long as SG 1 episodes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lengths_of_science_fiction_series
does not list MST 3 K, but the Digital archive project masterlist tells me that they did 217 episodes, which gives me a ballpark of 325 hours, compared to Stargate's 171 hours (234 episodes). So Stargate wins on episodes, MST on hours and years. But, of course, should we count the whole length of a MST episode, when 90% of the material is recycled? (But, otoh, if you do that, you end up with Power Rangers having a total running time of about thirty-seven seconds)
Ununnilium: And then of course there's the various MST specials, like the Summer Blockbuster Reviews and suchlike. `-`
Morgan Wick: 171 hours of SG-1 equals 234 episodes? Have most of them been half-hours? Dramatic half-hours are almost unheard-of these days...
Red Shoe: When you cut out the commercials, the episodes only run about 44 minutes. (Scifi even cut a few minutes out of Doctor Who, which only ran 45 minutes to start with). Anyway, I did the math for both based on "DVD" running length.
... later...
Which makes me think. Should we note somewhere how long shows "really" are? An hour in syndication comes out to somewhere around 44 minutes, but an hour network is 52 (at least, it used to). Two hours only ends up being 1:32, and a Dramatic Half-Hour would actually have negative time these days.
Ununnilium: We should have a trope for that, yeah. Something like Commercials Not Included.
Silent Hunter: It should be noted that the second half of Season 10 has yet to air in the US, but is currently airing in the UK. Some good trope examples in it for this and Atlantis, but I won't post them until the episodes have aired in the US.
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D Durand: My tailor is rich, but my english is poor, you know.
SG 1 as also an interresting particularity. In the early show, Earth and Humans are lost in a great universe, humbled before more advanced civilizations. O'neil is a little racist, but it's presented as only HIS advice. That's coloured characters. But with time, the show is more and more xenophobic. Neil advices on non-American aliens, if i can say, are more and more backed by others and even the writers : Other earths nations are unworthy (oh my, the episode with the ambassadors and Thor...), aliens are "punisheds" by the writers for be more powerfulls than earth AND succesfull without use the American Way (suck to be a tollan after the early episodes...), etc. Damnit, in the end, even the Asgard are destroyed, but not before to have given the totality of their technology to... USA, who are more "worthy" to use it.
I was an SG 1 fans in the early time, just because it was a NO-human centered show. Because you could fear for the characters. Because you know they could be killed at each episode (theorically, at least). Even if gaulds was somewhat ridiculous, they was powerfull. But, to be honest, no one can be afraid from the oris or the wraiths. They are just here for be slapped in the face by "the greatest nation of all history" (tm Marvel).
Silent Hunter: Don S. Davis died on 1 July 2008, aged 65. RIP.
Kilyle: Indeed.
Kilyle: The list of tropes is long enough that I think it's time to split them by category: characters, plots, etc.
Haven: I don't know the show well, but "naming an FTL ship Enterprise" isn't a very good example of Genre Savvy as it's described in that paragraph, for several reasons. First, it's barely an example of Genre Savvy to begin with (it certainly doesn't help the characters); second, it happened in real life; and third, it actually began in real life, as "Enterprise" is a very traditional name for ships (that's why the Star Trek one was called Enterprise to begin with).
Kimura: Why isn't Lampshade Hanging mentioned on the page? "200" was an episode dedicated to Lampshades! The Justified Title page says that it was "an attempt to fit as many lampshades in one hour-long program as possible". Also, no mention of the "Wizard of Oz" Running Gag?
We should get rid of the Five-Man Band entry because it's completely ridiculous. Classic Square Peg Round Trope. Hammond as The Hero? Every member of SG-1 being The Lancer? Come one. If you need to stretch that far, that's a good sign that the trope doesn't fit.
Joseph Leito: I noticed that too, however I've edited it and I think it fits quite a bit better now.
