deird_lj: (Default)
[personal profile] deird_lj

Okay. It's official. Stargate makes no sense, whatsoever.

The lovely [personal profile] immer_am_lesen has lent me the first season of Stargate, and tonight I reached episode three: Emancipation.
Now, as I understand it, the premise behind Stargate goes something like this:
- Thousands of years ago, weird snake aliens came to Earth, and conquered us fairly quickly. Mostly because they were aliens, spaceships and all, and we'd only just discovered fire.
- The aliens crawled inside some humans, and used their bodies as protection for the snakey variety of bodies.
- They then kidnapped a whole lot more humans, and took them off into space to be slaves.
- They kept doing this for quite a while.
- After several centuries of this sort of thing, the humans left on Earth got sick of continuously being kidnapped, so they buried the Stargate (which was the way the snake aliens kept travelling to Earth) and the aliens couldn't figure out where we were any more, so they stopped coming and just made do with the humans they'd already taken.
- Now that our Stargate is active again, modern humans can travel through it to all the different planets, and meet all of the humans living on those.

So far, it kinda makes sense. Vaguely.

Then we reach Emancipation. And our intrepid team of Stargaters travel to a new planet, where the people live in tribes, and wear animal skins. Or at least, the men wear animal skins. The women seem to have discovered how to make royal-blue coloured fabric.
As the show begins, the Stargate team meet up with one of these tribal guys, rescue him from some fierce dogs, and introduce themselves by saying (and I quote) "Hi! Are you okay?" To which he replies "Yes! I am."
They then do some more detailed introductions, and start walking off to tribal guy's village. As they're walking there, Daniel (scientist and anthropologist) realises that they must be Mongols. He's very excited about that.
When they reach the village, Daniel enthuses about this culture some more. He's always wanted to get a glimpse into ancient Mongol life. "Just imagine!" he exclaims. "A culture that has been untouched by time for the last 900 years!"

Right.
So. Somehow, more than 5000 years ago, the snake aliens managed to kidnap a race from the 8th century AD, and abandon them on a distant planet, where their culture did not evolve or change at all. And their entire civilisation managed to become fluent in English, despite never journeying more than a couple of days travel around their own planet, let alone anyone else's.

I love sci-fi, but sometimes... it baffles me. It really does.

Date: 2008-06-02 11:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ib-stormcaller.livejournal.com
not going to touch the "they all speak english"
but... as you get a bit further into it, some of the other issues you raised will get explained.

Date: 2008-06-03 02:58 am (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
I hope so. Currently, I'm spending the first few minutes of each episode staring baffled at the television, going "But... but... WHY?"

Date: 2008-06-02 11:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marshall-1977.livejournal.com
It may make more sense later in the series. They do kind of explain that one.

Date: 2008-06-03 02:58 am (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
I do hope so.

Date: 2008-06-02 11:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] immer-am-lesen.livejournal.com
Hang in there dude....it does get better. And very addictive. :-)

It's a well-known fact that civilizations can stay the same for thousands of years...just look at the 'untouched' tribe they've found in the Amazon recently! Amazing stuff.

English is *the* universal language...yes, I struggle with that a bit too...just forget that, and it's far more enjoyable.
Farscape had it right with translator microbes...

Date: 2008-06-03 03:00 am (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
This is the problem with watching really good sci-fi. You start expecting sci-fi to be brilliant, so "pretty good" just doesn't cut it anymore. Farscape has spoiled so much of my tv watching...

Despite my bafflement, it is fun to watch. So I'll give it the full season to suck me in.

Date: 2008-06-03 12:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] immer-am-lesen.livejournal.com
Ah yes, spoilt by 'scape... :-)
Tragic. I hope you feel deprived now!

It is rather good fun. Not much thinking required, and the occasional laugh-out-loud moment, as well as some really good eps, and some sad ones...they changed over the years, certainly.
Ah, it's all there. Only 8.something seasons to get through, hurry up....

Date: 2008-06-03 07:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mabus101.livejournal.com
The writers eventually figured this one out, but explaining it would be a spoiler--so I will say nothing about how the Mongols got there unless you ask.

As for cultural change--I dunno. Seems to depend on the planet you're on. Some of them have, some of them haven't. Don't ask about the English.

Date: 2008-06-03 08:29 pm (UTC)
deird1: Fred looking pretty and thoughful (Default)
From: [personal profile] deird1
I'm glad there's some sort of explanation coming... but it still seems weird.

The English thing is just SO annoying, though. Especially after seeing sci-fi shows that do a good job of it.
Oh well. Guess I can live with it...

Profile

deird_lj: (Default)
deird_lj

October 2010

S M T W T F S
      12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 24th, 2025 12:43 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios