Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Wrightwood, California, Earth
Posts: 14

SG-1 and the Zeitgeist

Is there anything particular about SG-1 that reflects the culture of its time, and thus accounts in part for its success?

For example, the original incarnation of Star Trek reflected the technological and social optimism of American culture in the 1960's (Kirk's resemblance to JFK was probably intentional); while I've heard it argued that the current Trek "prequel," Enterprise, reflects the fact that we've come to realize that a lot of our technology just doesn't work all that well, as happens a lot on the new series. Alias had the good luck to come along just after 9-11, when American anxieties about terrorism were at their height. (Some series have the bad luck to come out "ahead of their time," however, like the short-lived Max Headroom in the 1980's. Today such a series might find an audience among people more familiar with the idea of virtual personalities and environments.)

As for SG-1, one recurring theme I've noticed about it involves how the protagonists, who live in our time and society, have struggled to understand and learn how to use advanced technologies that just don't work in familiar or obvious ways, beginning with the Stargate network itself, which could be viewed as a metaphor for Cyberspace. I am willing to conjecture that SG-1's adventures reflect how mostly non-geek society has had to confront personal computers, the Web and other new technologies in the last 10 years or so.

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: England Elvenname: Ainari?l Telr?nya
Posts: 6157

I um, disagree, but you're gonna have to give me more stuff to go on. Of course the tech is gonna be futuristic, otherwise there would be no challenge. Not quite sure what your point is. It's also not entirely true that the only "baddies" SG1 face are technologically advanced (agreed, most of them are, but if they weren't, where's thre challenge, it would be less 'educational' then, and more like an action movie), cos there's eps like Demons and Red Sky, in which the people are just set in their beliefs.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Wrightwood, California, Earth
Posts: 14

Well, why do some television series and other entertainment fads take off, while others languish and quickly disappear?

Why, for example, have we seen the proliferation of ass-kicking heroines in pop culture since the mid-1990's, especially after Xena: Warrior Princess? Xena wasn't the first woman warrior in pop culture -- we had a smattering of them in the 1960's and 1970's -- but she was kind of the tipping point that made the idea both socially acceptable and financially lucrative for Hollywood. Why has this happened? What does it say about the culture?

As for SG-1, what about it makes the series successful now when the movie it's based on was only medium-successful and not liked by the critics? It seems to go against the grain in that two of the main characters, Daniel and Sam (I haven't seen the episodes with Jonas yet), are Alpha-Plus intellectuals, not to mention often acting as the conscience of the SGC.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Cassiopeia
Posts: 131

Geat posts AdvancedA..... While what becomes popular is often due to quirky reasons no one can fathom, I believe there is also a "resonance" that can happen if one's work, be it TV, literature, comic, music, etc. happens to tie into a cultural desire/change/spirit.

One of Stargate's connections to this idea, I think, is that it's a response to all of the science fiction on TV, in film, and in literature for the last 75 years that looked far ahead. The majority of that SF was set in the future, or was made to feel unobtainable or restricted to a few chosen ones.

Stargate is a show that is clearly set in the present--meaning that we ourselves, as viewers, could conceivably step right through that event horizon. The episode where Sam brings a cadet along for an adventure fits that pattern. We hunger for something to help us escape the mundane world. For all its technological marvels, our world is lacking in spirited adventure. Today's technology is all about "better business" and "practical apps" and we seek something visionary instead.

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Registered: Jan 2002
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Posts: 737

I think the reason that it's popular is that while we, as humans, want to look forward into technology, we also want to cling the the past which is "safe" and a "known" factor. The marriage of these two divergent styles is what makes the show popular. You have comfort and question in the same package.

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