Topic: Stargate Atlantis will end this season

[jualdeaux]

Stargate Atlantis will end this season

Wednesday - August 20, 2008 | by Darren Sumner
   

   
UPDATE: MGM has advised us that an official press release will be issued Thursday, which will hopefully answer many questions. Stay tuned to GateWorld.

The SCI FI Channel is ending Stargate Atlantis after five seasons, Multichannel News reports.

The show will go on, though, with a 2-hour movie that will air on SCI FI in 2009, and be released on DVD by MGM. The film will be written by executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.

It's intended to be the first of an on-going series of Atlantis movies, according to the report. Stargate SG-1 has released two very successful movies direct-to-DVD this year (Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum), though neither has aired on U.S. television yet.

"The show will live on as a network franchise," the report also says. This could indicate that future Atlantis movies are a lock for SCI FI, or it may be a general statement about the cable network's commitment to the Stargate franchise.

Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, who created and executive produced Atlantis, pitched a third television series in the 11-year-old TV franchise to the network last year (story). While SCI FI has not yet announced a green light for that show, the end of Atlantis may clear the way -- the dollars available for original programming, that is -- for the next series.

Though Stargate Atlantis has been a solid ratings performer for SCI FI -- and was its highest-rated original program ever when it premiered in July 2004 -- in recent years series like Eureka have supplanted it in the "Live" ratings.

Atlantis remains an extremely strong performer in DVR-delayed viewing, though, often building as much as 25 to 30 percent on its premiere night audience.

Season Five will go out on a cliffhanger, with "Enemy At the Gate" expected to premiere in January. Expect the first Atlantis movie to wrap up that hanging storyline.

Stay tuned to GateWorld and the GateWorld Podcast for the latest developments and comments from the show's producers, and hopefully for some big Stargate Universe news in the weeks ahead. Discuss this story now at GateWorld Forum.

Stargate Atlantis airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. (9 Central) on SCI FI.

[Nemesis]

I'd like to see them do a new series based on Earth starting with them revealing the Stargate program and their advanced technologies. 

Concentrate on the build up of a fleet and colonies in the beginning then destroy the Stargate network by an Aschen attack.  The only fully operational gates capable of outgoing wormholes being the Earth gate and  the Aschen gates as they have different computer systems not vulnerable to the attack.  Then war between the Aschen and Earth as the Aschen try to expand and Earth attempts to emplace newly designed DHDs on crucial worlds.

To keep the Aschen from being super powered and to motivate them have it turn out that they lost their homeworld into the blackhole on the list of gate addresses they acquired from SG-1. 

[Don Karnage]

why stop sg-A since its going so well?

[Sirgod]

I would have thought they would wait until after the game comes out before shutting down both series like this. But what do I know.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

why stop sg-A since its going so well?

There are two possibilities I can think of.

1/ Its not doing as well as you think.

2/ They think they can make more money doing SG-A movies and starting another series to spin out movies in a few years.  Do so while the leads are still young enough for their roles.  SG-1 actors are getting a little old for their roles.

I've seen SG-A to season 4 and they are taking a route I'm not thrilled with. 

Firstly they are following the SG-1 path of bigger villains all the time.  The Wraith were too big of an enemy to start with, adding Michaels super bugs, his human wraith hybirds and the replicators was not needed.

Secondly they are ignoring science (I'm not talking of alien tech violating science as we know it but actual science), for example when Atlantis goes through the asteroid belt crossing the path of literally dozens of asteroids of substantial size in a VERY short time as such things go.  If there had been that many bodies so close they would have coalesced into one body long before.

Third character changes.  Who in their right mind would make Colonel Carter an administrator instead of researcher?  Why isn't she involved more with science?  Even when the problems come up she is second banana to MacKay which reverses their history.

There are other things that have bugged me about SG-A. For one when does the CO of a military base lead expeditions?  It was one thing when they were out of contact with Earth and they had more limited staff its another when they are back in contact with Earth and he is still both CO and off base half the time.  They should have sent another CO and kept Sheppard as team commander.

[jualdeaux]

Wright: Atlantis is going out on top

Friday - August 22, 2008 | by Darren Sumner
   

   
The decision to end Stargate Atlantis and jump to the movie format was made mutually by the SCI FI Channel, MGM, and Stargate Productions in Vancouver, executive producer Brad Wright told GateWorld today. Rather than canceling the show because of under-performance, the Powers That Be decided to go out on top while Atlantis is still popular enough to support the release of DVD movies.

"Once we realized that with the prospect of another series going forward ... and SG-1 movies going forward, this was the right way for the partnership between MGM and us and SCI FI to go forward," Wright said in an exclusive interview. "If they weren't in complete agreement on where to go next, if it wasn't a joint decision, there wouldn't be a movie deal already in place."

"The show was doing well. But you don't wait until the show isn't doing well before you try to launch movies. If you are going to go do movies when the show has still got life left in it, that's a good time!"

Assuming that the cable network will eventually pick up Stargate Universe as a television series, Wright said that the franchise will be stronger than ever with four "brand" legs to stand on: Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis in the movie format, Universe on television, and the upcoming video game Stargate Worlds reaching into yet another medium.


Stargate Worlds is just one of the ways the franchise will expand in the future.   
"And that's good for the franchise," he said. "Riding one horse until it's tired is not going to make it evolve into movies.

"And you know, SG-1 owes Atlantis a debt in that sense. It helped revive the franchise for SG-1. And I think that's how it's going to proceed between Atlantis, SG-1, and Universe. And the game! That's going to help, too."

But is it too soon for the third series? Could Stargate be teetering on the edge of brand exhaustion? Despite the naysayers, Wright believes that the Stargate franchise is stronger than it has ever been as it heads toward 2009.

"It will wear out when we stop making good shows that people want to see," he said. "And as long as we are putting our hearts and our effort into making the upcoming series and upcoming movie as good as they can be -- and as long as we still feel they're vital -- I think it's going to keep going strong."

[Nemesis]

But is it too soon for the third series? Could Stargate be teetering on the edge of brand exhaustion? Despite the naysayers, Wright believes that the Stargate franchise is stronger than it has ever been as it heads toward 2009.

I think what they need to do is be true to the "Stargate universe" while still finding an original path to take within it.  I'm not sure that Universe is doing that myself.  Atlantis didn't from my viewpoint.

[Lono]

T'was a good show - my wife and I shall miss it!

Rarely fell into the ludicrous new age drivel that constantly bogs down the new BSG series...

I am cautiously optimistic that the game will be decent - but you know most MMO's cater to the lowest common denomenator - so it is unlikely...

IMHO the best MMO ever created will be from a non-profit community much as SFC has evolved into here - If I had the money I would build a free persistant MMO on the Fringeworthy game system - a fictional system that the movie Stargate (and the series) most likely borrowed liberally from - although the "stargate" idea is certainly present in lots of old Sci Fi.

Fringeworthy was built to be Stargate and Slider put together - offering the DM a nearly infinite variety of situations to put the player character in.

(the creators actually sued Stargate (MGM) but it was thrown out due to examples of prior art)

I would love if a free - persistant MMO could be built in such a way that instances - and DM'd player content - could be seemlessly intgrated into on fictional narrative.

I think it can be done - but not as a for profit project - since profit motives would lead to compromises that would water down the overall experience.