Do you know why Stargate SG-1 ...
Richard Dean Anderson, Stargate SG-1
Question: Do you know why
Stargate SG-1 isn't being renewed for a new season? I was an original fan of the movie, but didn't get into the series until
Ben Browder made the leap from the still-missed
Farscape. The occasional episodes I saw before that were usually not that great, but lately, with
Claudia Black as Vala and with the new story lines, they seem pretty entertaining. I know that its ratings are supposedly down, but I was under the impression
SG-1 was still a solid performer. This move seems even more incredible given the fact that
Stargate Atlantis has been renewed. Why couldn't Sci Fi just say, "No more bugs-chasing-the-team episodes" (always the worst) instead of canning the series? Also, I know the studio that produces
Stargate SG-1 is shopping for a new home. Do you think there's a chance someone else could pick it up? Maybe G4 or Spike?
Answer: You may be relatively new to
Stargate, but that makes you the exception. From what I gather, the main contributor to
Stargate's being shut down is its age (10 seasons old), which translates directly to its cost. It's all about the numbers, and that doesn't always strictly mean ratings, which may be down a bit but not enough to diminish the show's achievement in reaching 10 seasons and 200 episodes. For the spin-off to continue while the mother ship shuts down is not unprecedented. That's pretty much how the various
Star Trek series operated (none of which went past seven seasons). Lesson to be learned here: No show is meant to last forever, and as I noted in my
Dispatch earlier this week, it's hard to think of a show that actually got better after its 10th season (and
Doctor Who doesn't really count, since it reinvents itself in each incarnation).
