Alleged Stargate Cancellation: Six Reasons To Cry A Bit Less

The links have been all over my flist (here and here, for example), and it hit me harder than I thought it would.

I'm happy for the SGA fans that it wasn't Atlantis that got cancelled, but I don't know if I'll continue watching the show. To be honest, my heart was never in it, and season 3 was more than boring so far (to me). But it's the thought of seeing the Stargate, knowing that SG-1 isn't going through it anymore, that I can't stand. I'm not suer if I'll be able to take that, at least not right now.

Stargate wasn't my first fandom, but it was the first fandom I stayed in longer then a few months. And it was my "livejournal" fandom, the first fandom that I was/am active in, connected to other fans. More than half the people on my flist I found through Stargate, and from the 20 or more fandoms that I have read fic in, Stargate takes by far the most of my time. I love the show, I love Jack and Daniel and Sam and Teal'c and every other character that ever appeared in it. 200 episodes, and there are maybe, what, 4, that I found boring, and none that I honestly didn't like.

Season 9 didn't feel like the old show anymore, but even though that is something I have to get used to, I think they are on the right way. You can't run a show for ten years without change. So I was just beginning to love it again, and now I worry that they won't even give it the ending it deserves.

But let's try to be optimistic:

Six Reason To Cry A Bit Less

1) Stargate has lived on year-to-year basis since season 4 or 5. Granted, then they just didn't say if they would renew it, now they say they cancel it, but it's not such a big difference, right? They can still change their mind.

2) Since MGM holds the merchandising rights, they will probably want to continue making money out of us. So there could be movies. And if they are smart, it would be movies with "our" actors, writers and directors.

3) Even if this is the end, maybe it's not. Think about Farscape, which was continued in the mini-series thanks to the fans. Think about Firefly, which got Serenity. Even if the last episode of season 10 is the last one that airs as a regular episode, there's still a future.

4) There could be crossovers with SGA. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

5) And then there is fandom. Stargate is the most wonderful fandom I know, with an amazing creative potential. And even after ten years it is far from being dead or boring. When in other fandoms I sooner or later had the feeling that I read every story there is to tell about the characters, Stargate still surprises me. There is always something new, some angle about the characters that hasn't been explored before, some planet that hasn't been visited before. There's still love for the show and the characters that is kept alive in fandom, no matter if the show is cancelled or not.

6) Last, but not least: you will finally have the time to watch all 200+ episodes again. And I bet there will be a shiny, new, all ten seasons in one DVD box set, too.

*hugs you all*

SGA Wank

SGA, the surviving show (Bitter? Who? Me?) is tearing each other apart over a flashfic challenge. I find this highly amusing, because the whole debate is essentially one we just had - plagiarism.

If you "remix" a story without giving the original author credit, it's plagiarism. And don't come with the all fanfic is plagiarism argument, because it's not, at least not in the real legal systems in this world. (and I'm not going to debate this, unless you pay me 600$/hour or have studied law in the same legal system that I did). When you give credit, it could be anything. Asking, which - believe it or not - can sometimes be required BY LAW - is common courtesy. But the throwing around of legal terms and definitions by what cannot possibly be all lawyers, is something I find highly annoying anyway, so let's stop it. It's not like we are going to sue each other over a remixed fanfic, so who cares if it's allowed or not.

What I do care about is courtesy. And since common courtesy is so rare these days, it is my personal opinion that it should have been made mandatory in a flashfic challenge in such a large fandom. Not doing so it just asking for the wank (which could have been the whole point, for all I know).

But not only out of common courtesy was the opt-out option clearly the wrong solution. The reactions to the people who complain about having to opt out, show, that opting out for many people is equal with not being a team player. If you are a good fan and want others to have fun, you don't opt out from the remix. At least that's how I understood most of what was being written in the (now closed) comments.

Clearly, these people would think differently if they weren't writing SGA fic, but, say, NCIS fic. Because just the thought of one of the crazy NCIS writers* laying their dirty little fingers on the precious few stories I wrote in that fandom and turning my Tony and Gibbs, that I carefully, and I hope with success, kept male and mostly sane, into the "MINE! MINE!" screaming, bondage wearing, crying, at-best androgyn idiots with cats that this fandom seems to be so find of, makes me want to scream.

Maybe remixes in SGA fandom are fun. In NCIS, they'd definitely end in tears. Though, at least we wouldn't wank before that, because we are a nice, wank-free, if totally insane, fandom.


*except exceptions, and you know who you are.

Disclaimer: I would be less bitchy if my favourite show hadn't been cancelled just a few minutes ago. Sue me.